ance and full power as monarch must be subject to ratification by another vote. If he had endeared himself to the tribe during that time sufficiently to be confirmed, then he would be entitled to lay aside the inferior crown of gold, and to receive upon his head the higher crown made of the golden locks of the great Queen. He was also entitled to be no longer addressed as a mere man or king, but to bear the holiest title known to our tribe-QUEEN. The ideal of Croatoan is a woman's heart, and the happy day has but just come to me when, after three years of devotion to our tribe, I earned this glory for my head, and the proud title of Queen!

"You smile," continued the man-queen, "but perhaps you do not know how hard it is. We have had king after king who utterly failed to get beyond that bauble, the crown of gold. They either demanded taxes and contributions from the tribe, or put on airs of grandeur, or were impatient of advice, or rude to the stupid, or had some other

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fault which our tribe labels with its one fatal word -unqueenly. Every one of the kings has tried his best to obtain this prize, which I am the first to wear. Could it only have been gained by courage, by warlike skill, by strong intellect, or by learning all that the tribe knows, by sentimentality or by effeminacy, this aureole would not now for the first time have been brought out from its hiding-place. I say hiding-place, for since one of the kings tried to seize the crown by violence, it has been placed in the hands of the women of our tribe for concealment until one should be voted worthy to wear it. One king tried to gain it by holding the tribe in awe of his majesty, and the men all voted against him; another aimed at the same end with frequent tears and occasional hysterics, and the women all voted against him.

"How did I gain it? It is almost a mystery to myself. As a boy I was very active; my chief ambition was to outrun and outleap other boys, to stand on my head longest, or to walk on my hands.

My mother told me, as every mother in Croatoan tells her children, the legend of our tribe, and every week, on the day when its curtain is regularly withdrawn, I came to gaze on the picture of our first Queen. Once, when the first shade of twilight was falling, and others had gone away, I remained alone in this room gazing up to the blue eyes; when lo, they appeared to beam with life, the lips parted, and a gentle voice came to my ear--' Thou hast succeeded in contending with others; contend now with thyself!' As these words were uttered, a hand shook me; it was that of the doorkeeper, who said, 'This is not the place to sleep; you came near being locked up here for the night!' It had been a dream; but it remained with me.

"How to contend with myself! As years came on it became plain enough what self it was with which I had to contend; but, alas! this self outleaped and outran me. On one occasion I succeeded. Our tribe had annual games on the