selected a fine big bedroom on the second floor of the
palace, in which he ordered two golden beds placed and
prepared for King Rinkitink and himself. Bilbil was
given a suite of rooms on the other side of the palace,
where servants brought the goat fresh-cut grass to eat
and made him a soft bed to lie upon.

That evening the boy Prince and the fat King dined in
great state in the lofty-domed dining hall of the
palace, where forty servants waited upon them. The
royal chef, anxious to win the favor of the conquerors
of Regos, prepared his finest and most savory dishes
for them, which Rinkitink ate with much appetite and
found so delicious that he ordered the royal chef
brought into the banquet hall and presented him with a
gilt button which the King cut from his own jacket.

"You are welcome to it," said he to the chef,
"because I have eaten so much that I cannot use that
lower button at all."

Rinkitink was mightily pleased to live in a
comfortable palace again and to dine at a well spread
table. His joy grew every moment, so that he came in
time to be as merry and cheery as before Pingaree was
despoiled. And, although he had been much frightened
during Inga's defiance of the army of King Gos, he now
began to turn the matter into a joke.

"Why, my boy," said he, "you whipped the big black-