The Floating Prince Author:Frank Richard Stockton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: much that she smiled a great deal, and yet scarcely felt tired at all. But, in the course of a day or two, the king happened to see these bag-headed slaves si... more »tting in an ante-chamber. He was THE KING S CONSTERNATION. struck with consternation, and instantly called a council of his chief ministers. "We are threatened with a terrible danger," he said to them, when all the doors were shut. "We have among us a body of Bagists! Little' did we think, in our gratitude, that we were wound up merely that we might go through life with our heads j bagged ! Better far that we should stay stopped forever! How can we know but that the ship which brought them here may soon return, with a cargo of bag-stuffs, needles, thread, and thimbles, and that every head in our city may be bagged in a few days? Already, signs of this approaching evil have shown themselves. Notwithstanding the fact that these dangerous characters have been closely confined, no less than two of the inmates of my palace have already had their heads bagged!" At these words, a thrill of horror pervaded the ministers, and they discussed the matter for a long time. It was finally decided that a Jookout should be constantly kept on the top of a high tower, to give notice of the approach of the ship, should she return; additional guards were posted at the door of the aristocrats' apartment, and it was ordered that the city be searched every day, to see if any new cases of bagism could be discovered. The aristocrats now began to be very discontented. Although they had everything they could possibly want to eat and drink, and were even furnished with toys and other sources of amusement, they did not like to be shut up. "I 'll tell you what it is," said the Tail-boy. "I can't stand this; any longer. Let 's get...« less