his command, but it was seldom, indeed, that he would take the
trouble to cross the saddle, although walking was distasteful to
him. Even when speaking of his hopes of ascending the throne of
England, he spoke without enthusiasm, and said one day:

"It is a pity that it cannot be managed without fuss and trouble.
I hate trouble."

"Nothing can be done worth doing, without trouble, Your Majesty,"
Desmond said sturdily. "It almost seems to me that, if everything
could be had without trouble, it would not be worth having."

"How do you mean, Mr. Kennedy?"

"I may illustrate it by saying, Sire, that no true fisherman would
care about angling in a pond, close to his house, and so full of
fish, that he had but to drop a baited hook into the water to
bring up one immediately. The pleasure of fishing consists largely
in the hard work that it demands. It is, perhaps, miles to a
stream across the hills, and a long day's work may produce but a
half dozen fish; but these the angler prizes in proportion to the
trouble he has had to get them. I think that, were I born heir to
a throne, I would rather that it should cost me hardship, toil,
and danger to obtain it, than walk into a cathedral, a few days
after my father's death, and there be crowned."

"I do not agree with you, at all," James said, shortly. "If
anything could not be had without toil, hardship, and danger, as
you say, I would willingly go without it."