Those Fragments of Truth

662 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

entered, the king arose and the courtiers bowed their heads. The air was fragrant from the flowers in the adjoining garden. The queen now lifts her veil, and her features glow with in- telligence and resolution. Stepping back a few paces, she thus addressed Solomon: "Great King, the story of thy wisdom and thy goodness are heralded far and wide. The waves that wash the shores of Palestine have borne to distant lands tokens of thy splendor. The winds that blow amid the cedars of Lebanon waft the story of thy deeds from nation to nation." Solomon, entranced, listened to the honeyed flattery of the queen, while a blush suffused his royal cheek. The queen paused, and, beckoning to an attendant to advance, she took from his hand two wreaths which she held before the gaze of the now deeply interested king and his courtiers. "Wherefore all this ceremony? What is the meaning of all this play?" asked Solomon. ' 'Great King!" calmly replied the queen, "I have come to test your wisdom. Tell me which is the natural, and which the ar- tificial wreath?"

There she stood with the two wreaths; the one the product of nature, the other the highest effort of imitative art; and at the distance she stood from the king, it was impossible to distinguish one from the other. Solomon, too sagacious to venture a guess, remained silent. He seemed annoyed at the idea of being outwitted by a woman, and in such a trivial manner. He, the son of a royal bard; he, who had written whole poems on the produc- tions of nature, from the grew on Lebanon to cedar that the hyssop that clung to the wall; he whose reputation had gone to far off lands, now to find himself outwitted and confused by a few bits of painted paper! It was too much for his vanity. His courtiers, overwhelmed at the hesitation of the monarch, and fear- ing that his reputation for wisdom would be lost forever, looked the picture of astonishment. "Our queen has outwitted Solomon!" exclaimed her courtiers proudly; and the murmur of their voices seemed to awaken Solo- mon from his lethargy. He looked up and saw a number of bees humming around the flowers near his window. His eyes followed