This Dr. Seuss classic children’s picture book was first published in 1939, and is one of the few Dr. Seuss books to be written without rhyme and featuring human characters rather than creatures of his own imagining. That’s okay – it’s still good.
King Birtram was a good king who took his job very seriously. Although he loved to walk on his stilts, he always tucked them carefully away in their closet when it was time to attend to his kingly duties – he tried not to mix business with pleasure.
And there was a great deal of business to attend to. He rose every morning at five and his work began right away – he even had to sign important documents while taking his bath. He always kept one hand dry so he could sign without making the paper all drippy. He worked hard to get all his work done before seven – because then he really had to get down to work, the most important work he could do. And that was the work of cultivating the Dike Trees that separated the kingdom from the sea.
You see, the Kingdom of Binn sat very close to the ocean, touching it on three sides. The Dike Trees grew right along the coast, their roots tangled and intertwined, forming the perfect barrier. But the Nizzard birds found those roots very tasty, and they liked to swoop down and nip here and there. The good people of Binn couldn’t let those Nizzards come close, or the integrity of their dike would be compromised.
The king established a group of cats, known as Patrol Cats, whose mission it was to protect those trees. Five hundred cats watched the trees by day, and another five hundred took the night shift. They scared off any Nizzards who thought they were brave enough to try. And the king was so proud of his cats that he spent the large majority of his day seeing to their every need.
But at five o’clock, the king really lived. That’s when his stilts would come out of the closet. Round the kingdom he would go, his robes flapping in the breeze. Lord Droon, the prime minister, hated to see the king looking so happy, and devised an evil plan. He stole the stilts and commanded the page boy to bury them, then he had the page banished so he could never tell.
Without his stilts, the king grew more and more sad. He neglected the patrol cats, who in turn, neglected their jobs, until the Nizzards came in and started attacking the roots of those trees. The page boy, using his brains, found a way to escape and returned the stilts to the king, who was able to bring everything back under control.
You know, reading this story puts me in mind of how important it is to have a little fun in our lives. I think the mental relaxation helps us to do better in all of our pursuits. It’s too bad Lord Droon didn’t realize that – he’s in jail now, eating a diet almost entirely comprised of Nizzards.
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