'The King's Stilts' is Published
King Birtram’s order of business every day was to keep a watchful eye over the Kingdom of Binn.
The kingdom was protected by the giant, knotted roots of trees which kept the people safe from the sea water which would otherwise rush in and drown them. Unfortunately, the tree roots proved to be a tasty treat for black birds who made a habit of eating them and jeopradizing the kingdom. Ingeniously, the king hires a team of patrol cats to protect the trees. In his spare time, the king enjoyed sporting a pair of stilts and clamoring around the castle until one day his stilts…disappeared.
The King's Stilts is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, published in 1939 by Random House. Unlike many of Dr. Seuss's books, it is narrated in prose rather than verse.
The King's Stilts tells the story of King Birtram of Binn, who dedicates himself to safeguarding his kingdom, which lives in a precarious existence. It is surrounded by water, which is held back from flooding the land by a ring of dike trees, which are in turn subject to attack from flocks of nizzards. To protect the kingdom, a legion of Patrol Cats is organized to keep the nizzards at bay, and King Bertram sees to their care personally.
When not attending to his royal duties, the King enjoys himself with a rigorous cavorting on his personal red stilts, which distresses his minister Lord Droon. When Droon manipulates the King's page boy Eric to steal and hide the stilts, the King grows more depressed and begins to neglect his duties. This leads to the Patrol Cats becoming less vigilant, and soon the nizzards make headway in eating away the dike trees.
Seeing the results of his actions, Eric resolves to return the stilts to the King, and succeeds in doing so despite the efforts of Lord Droon to stop him. King Birtram then summons the courage to mobilize the Patrol Cats to fight off the nizzards and save the kingdom. Lord Droon is imprisoned (and forced to eat nizzard every day) while Eric is rewarded with his own pair of red stilts, joining the King on his outings.
