Chapter 22
Jack the Dullard: An Old Story Told AnewFAR in the interior of the country lay an old baronial
hall, and in it lived an old proprietor, who had two sons, which
two young men thought themselves too clever by half. They wanted to
go out and woo the King's daughter; for the maiden in question had
publicly announced that she would choose for her husband that youth
who could arrange his words best.
So these two geniuses prepared themselves a full week for
the wooing—this was the longest time that could be granted them;
but it was enough, for they had had much preparatory information,
and everybody knows how useful that is. One of them knew the whole
Latin dictionary by heart, and three whole years of the daily paper
of the little town into the bargain, and so well, indeed
