The Dog Army

At last, the sumptuous wedding celebrations came to an end, and the king was enraptured that he had married this fair princess. The new queen was certainly very beautiful, and to the king, her slightest wish was a command. As time went by, the king would take all his state problems to the queen, and whether her suggestions were good or bad, the king thought they were all wonderful.

One morning, three robbers were dragged before the king, caught red-handed robbing the house of the court jeweler. When the king asked who had been clever enough to catch these miscreants, the captain of the guard, with a smile, replied, “Actually, Your Majesty, the suspicions of a patrolling guard were aroused when a street dog attacked these men as they were creeping out of the jeweler’s house.”

When the king mentioned the capture of these robbers to the queen, she promptly told him that it proved that dogs were far more capable than his guards.

The following month, the chief minister, greatly perturbed, told the king that the treasury was in a bad way and there was insufficient money to pay the army.

“Good heavens,” said the king, looking aghast. “This is indeed serious. I must go and ask the queen what should be done.”

With that, the king hurried to the queen’s chambers and told her the bad news. “Poof,” said the queen, with a shake of her head. “You forget about the dog who caught those robbers. It is all so simple. Disband your silly army and employ dogs to guard the kingdom.”

The king thought this was great wisdom, as he rushed back to tell the chief minister the answer to their problems. The chief minister threw up his hands in horror at such an absurdity, and when the army commander was summoned and told to disband the army, he turned on his heels and strode out of the audience chamber without uttering a word.

Collecting a pack of dogs was an easy matter, for the streets were full of homeless mongrels. But training and keeping them in order was a far different matter. They would fight each other at the drop of a bone, and their idea of guarding the kingdom seemed to be raiding the many garbage heaps and scattering the rubbish anywhere and everywhere. The king turned a deaf ear to any complaints about his canine army and was quickly enraged if anyone dared to suggest that the queen’s ideas were ever at fault.

Still, everything went along alright until the morning when an excited minister burst into the king’s presence and excitedly shouted that an invading army was marching on the city.

At first, the king didn’t know what to do or say, then he suddenly remembered the dogs and gave orders for the dogs to be driven out to frighten the invaders away.

Certainly, the dogs ran towards the invaders, barking and snarling, but as soon as the soldiers threw them pieces of meat, the dogs were wagging their tails and greeting the invaders as long-lost friends.

When the king heard of this, his face fell a foot, and then, to crown the agony, the chief minister walked in and calmly announced that an army was at that moment entering the city gates.

“This is the end,” wailed the king as he slowly walked to the balcony to gaze upon these invaders who had conquered his kingdom. Company after company of foot soldiers, headed by troops of cavalry, came marching through the city gates, their armor and weapons glistening in the light of the sun.

The king could only stand and stare at this formidable array, and then he frowned, and turning to his chief minister, said, “Surely that is my army commander leading the invaders.”

“Of course it is,” replied the chief minister dryly. “And it happens to be your army. You see, Your Majesty, the army was never disbanded but kept in the hills, well knowing that plenty would try to invade our kingdom if we only possessed an army of dogs.”

After that, the king always listened to the queen, but he was now wise enough to take the advice of his ministers before he made a decision.