King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak

Author:Janusz Korczak [Janusz Korczak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2005-08-04T04:00:00+00:00

POOR MATT. HE wanted to be a real king, to rule the country, to understand everything. And now his wish had come true. But Matt had never imagined how much work, trouble, and worry would come down on his head.

Everything was going well throughout the land. Construction of the children’s camps was under way, and so the architects, bricklayers, carpenters, tilesetters, plumbers, locksmiths, and glaziers were satisfied because they were earning a lot of money. The brickyards, the sawmills, and the glass factories had orders to fill; a special ice-skate factory was being built, and four large candy and chocolate factories were under construction. Special railroad cars were being manufactured to cage and transport the wild animals; the cars for the elephants and camels were difficult and very expensive to produce, and a special car had to be designed for the giraffes because of their long necks. The zoo was nearing completion, not to mention the two large buildings where delegates from the entire country would gather to deliberate, govern, and make laws.

One of the parliament buildings was for the grownups, and one for the children. The children’s parliament was just like the grownups’, except that the door handles were lower, so that even the littlest delegates could open the doors themselves; the chairs were low, so their legs wouldn’t dangle in the air, and the windows were lower, too, so the children could look outside if a meeting wasn’t too interesting.

The craftsmen and workers were happy to have work, the manufacturers were happy to be making profits, and the children were happy that their king cared about them. The children liked having their own newspaper in which anybody could say what he wanted to. Now the children who didn’t know how to read and write were in a rush to learn, because they wanted to know what was going on and to write to their newspaper about what they thought should be done.

Parents and teachers were happy that the children were studying so hard. And now there were fewer fights in school, because everyone wanted to be liked and be elected a delegate.

Now practically everyone loved Matt, not just the soldiers. People marveled that so young a king had learned so quickly and ruled so well.

But people didn’t know what troubles Matt had. And the worst thing of all was that the foreign kings were growing more and more envious of Matt.

“What’s Matt up to?” they asked. “We’ve already been ruling for a long time. Does he want to surpass us all in a day? It’s no big deal to do good deeds with somebody else’s money. Bum Drum gave him gold, and now Matt orders people around. And is it proper for a civilized king to make friends with cannibals?”

Matt had learned of all this from his spies. The Minister of Foreign Affairs warned him that there might be another war.

Matt did not want another war. He did not want to tear himself away from his work. War

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