THE YANKEE IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURES There never was such a country for wandering liars; and they were of both sexes.

Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; and generally loaded with a tale about some princess or other wanting help to get her out of some far-away castle where she was held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel, usually a giant.
Now you would think that the first thing the king would do after listening to such a novelette from an entire stranger, would be to ask for credentials--yes, and a pointer or two as to locality of castle, best route to it, and so on.

But nobody ever thought of so simple and common-sense a thing at that.

No, everybody swallowed these people's lies whole, and never asked a question of any sort or about anything.

Well, one day when I was not around, one of these people came along--it was a she one, this time--and told a tale of the usual pattern.