“Hear!  Hear!” cried all the courtiers.

“Most liege Majesty,” began King, bowing so low that his shoulder cape fell off.  But he hastily swung it back into place and went on.  “Also, most liege lady-in-waiting, our noble Sand Witch, we greet thee.  And we greet our Grand Sandjandrum, and our noble Sandow, and our beloved Sand Crab.  We greet all, and everybody.  Did I leave anybody out of this greeting?”

“No!  No!”

“All right; then I’ll fire away.  The first article in this paper is an editorial,—­I wrote it myself because I am editor-in-chief.  You’re all editors, you know, but I’m the head editor.”

“Why not say headitor?” suggested Tom.

“Good idea, friend Courtier!  I’m the headitor, then.  And this is my headitorial.  Here goes!  ’Courtiers and Citizens:  This journal, called The Jolly Sandboy, shall relate from time to time the doings of our noble court.  It shall tell of the doughty deeds of our brave knights, and relate the gay doings of our fair ladies.  It shall mention news of interest, if any, concerning the inhabitants of Seacote in general, and the families of this court in particular.  Our politics are not confined to any especial party, but our platform is to grow up to be presidents ourselves.’  This ends my headitorial.”

Great applause followed this masterpiece of journalistic literature, and the Sand Piper proceeded: 

“I will next read the column of news, notes, and social events, as collected by our energetic and capable young reporter, the Sand Crab: 

* * * * *

“’The Queen and her lady-in-waiting went bathing in the ocean this morning.  Our noble Queen was costumed in white, trimmed with blue, and the Sand Witch in dark blue trimmed with red.  Both noble ladies squealed when a large breaker knocked them over.  The whole court rushed to their rescue, and no permanent damage resulted.

“Three gentlemen courtiers of this court, who reside in the same castle, had ice-cream for dinner last night.  The colors were pink and white.  It was exceeding good.

“A very young princess, a sister of our beloved Queen, went walking yesterday afternoon with her maid of honor.  The princess wore a big white hat with funny ribbon bunches on it.  Also white shoes.

“Mr. Sears has had his back fence painted. (We don’t know any Mr. Sears, and he hasn’t any back fence, but we are making up now, as our real news has given out and our column isn’t full.)

“Mrs. Black spent Sunday with her mother-in-law, Mrs. Green. (See above.)

“Mr. Van Winkle is building a gray stone mansion of forty rooms on Seashore Drive.  We think it is quite a pretty house.

“This is all the news I can find for this time.  Yours truly.—­THE SAND CRAB.’”

* * * * *

“Noble Sand Crab, we thank you for your fine contribution to our midst,” announced the Queen, and the Sand Crab burrowed in the sand and kicked in sheer delight at such praise.