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 Dennis Reidsma
Haruhiro Katayose
Anton Nijholt (Eds.)
LNCS 8253

Advances in
Computer Entertainment
10th International Conference, ACE 2013
Boekelo, The Netherlands, November 2013
Proceedings

123
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8253
Commenced Publication in 1973
Founding and Former Series Editors:
Gerhard Goos, Juris Hartmanis, and Jan van Leeuwen

Editorial Board
David Hutchison
Lancaster University, UK
Takeo Kanade
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Josef Kittler
University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Jon M. Kleinberg
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Alfred Kobsa
University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Friedemann Mattern
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
John C. Mitchell
Stanford University, CA, USA
Moni Naor
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Oscar Nierstrasz
University of Bern, Switzerland
C. Pandu Rangan
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
Bernhard Steffen
TU Dortmund University, Germany
Madhu Sudan
Microsoft Research, Cambridge, MA, USA
Demetri Terzopoulos
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Doug Tygar
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Gerhard Weikum
Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbruecken, Germany
Dennis Reidsma Haruhiro Katayose
Anton Nijholt (Eds.)

Advances in
Computer Entertainment
10th International Conference, ACE 2013
Boekelo, The Netherlands, November 12-15, 2013
Proceedings

13
Volume Editors
Dennis Reidsma
University of Twente, Human Media Interaction/Creative Technology
Drienerlolaan 5, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]
Haruhiro Katayose
Kwansei Gakuin University, School of Science and Technology
Department of Human System Interaction
Gakuen Sanda 2-1, Sanda 669-1337, Japan
E-mail: [email protected]
Anton Nijholt
University of Twente, Human Media Interaction
Drienerlolaan 5, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]

ISSN 0302-9743 e-ISSN 1611-3349

ISBN 978-3-319-03160-6 e-ISBN 978-3-319-03161-3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-03161-3
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: Applied for

CR Subject Classification (1998): I.2.1, H.5, H.3-4, I.4, F.1, I.5

LNCS Sublibrary: SL 3 – Information Systems and Application,

incl. Internet/Web and HCI
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
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 Preface

These are the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Advances in

Computer Entertainment (ACE 2013), hosted by the Human Media Interaction
research group of the Centre for Telematics and Information Technology at the
University of Twente, The Netherlands.
The ACE series of conferences, held yearly since 2004, has always been lively
and interactive events. There are not just mainly paper presentations, but also
many creative showcases, demonstrations, workshops, and often a game com-
petition as well. For ten years now, ACE has shown itself to be a strong and
vibrant community. Throughout the years, there has been a common element
that ties together many of the different types of work presented at ACE. In their
contributions, authors not only present solutions to known problems, or observe
and describe aspects of the technological reality that is out there, but also ac-
tively explore what new things they can make, and why these new things might
be important or interestingly different.
During ACE 2011, held in Lisbon (Portugal), Hiroshi Ishii challenged the
ACE community by asking for the real value of entertainment computing, and
especially the relevance of research in this field. At ACE 2012, held in Kathmandu
(Nepal), this question was raised again during the panel session. We can try to
address this question through some viewpoints on entertainment technologies.
Clearly, entertainment can be a valuable goal in itself. People need to experience
fun, engagement, social connectedness, and many other things achieved through
entertainment. Entertainment can also be used as a powerful means for chang-
ing people’s perceptions, ideas, and behavior. Entertainment with and through
computers is a fact of daily life. It is there, and it has a huge economic impact
that is not likely to decrease.
At ACE, we look at entertainment computing as the subject of our research.
We look at changing perceptions and behaviors using serious games and other
persuasive technologies. We try to analyze and understand various aspects of
computer entertainment: besides “making new things”, we “analyze the things
that we find in the world of computer entertainment”, how people use technol-
ogy or play games. We explore the creative design space to find new forms of
beauty, experience, and fun. Also, we attempt to re-create existing human expe-
riences in an interestingly new way. New developments in multimodal interactive
technology are used to re-create certain experiences as faithfully as possible; sub-
sequently, we attempt to find out whether we can fundamentally enhance the
experience, due to the technological innovation. What can we do better, differ-
ently, in a more interesting way, because we implemented technology for this
particular experience?
The latter is also reflected in the theme of this anniversary edition, which
was “Making New Knowledge”. As already noted in last year’s introduction to
VI Preface

the proceedings of ACE 2012, creating has always been an important form of
entertainment. People paint for a hobby, play music, build model airplanes, or
write amateur poetry in their free time. Just for the fun of designing and creating
their own entertainment; the final result may be less important than the process.
Tinkering can also be a strong source of learning, something that has been known
at least since the seminal work of Seymour Papert. In a video lecture on Carnegie
Commons, John Seely Brown suggests that the role of a teacher partly shifts
from imparting knowledge to building a learning community. Clearly, tools for
programming and physical computing can serve as tinkering materials in such
a community, and maybe there are further roles that computer entertainment
technology can play in building and facilitating such a learning community.
These thoughts are not only reflected in a number of papers and extended
abstracts in these proceedings, but also in several of the additional activities
that were organized during this year’s conference. There were panels, workshops
in which the participants sit down together to actively make things or to discuss
the role (and challenges!) of tinkering in scientific education, the Kids’ Workshop
Track featuring activities for children making stories, animations, and elements
for games, and there were special efforts to include more students at various
levels in their education in the conference. All this took place at the beautiful
resort Bad Boekelo, situated in the pastoral countryside of Twente.
Of course, there cannot be a conference without the submission of many good
papers. This year, 133 papers were submitted to the various tracks. With an ac-
ceptance rate of 22% for long regular presentations, and 54% for all contributions
including extended abstracts for the poster presentations, these proceedings rep-
resent the very interesting and relevant work currently carried out by the ACE
community.
Like every year, many people worked hard to make this 10th edition of ACE a
success. To the Program Committee, reviewers, authors, track chairs, workshop
organizers, delegates visiting the conference, and the sponsors supporting the
conference in various ways: Thank you! We are proud to have served as this
year’s general and program chairs to bring everything together in the lovely
countryside of Boekelo, The Netherlands!

November 2013 Dennis Reidsma

Haruhiro Katayose
Anton Nijholt
 Organization

Steering Committee
Adrian David Cheok Keio University, Japan and NUS, Singapore
Masahiko Inami Keio University, Japan
Teresa Romão CITI, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
Portugal

General Chair
Anton Nijholt University of Twente, The Netherlands

Program Chairs
Haruhiro Katayose Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Dennis Reidsma University of Twente, The Netherlands

Creative Showcases and Interactive Art Chair

Itaru Kuramoto Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan
Edwin Dertien University of Twente, The Netherlands

Children’s Workshops Chairs

Yoram Chisik University of Madeira, Portugal
Nanako Ishido President of NPO Canvas in Japan
Betsy van Dijk University of Twente, The Netherlands

Poster Chair
Günter Wallner University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria

Game Competition Chair

Thomas de Groot T-Xchange Serious Games, The Netherlands
Paul Coulton Lancaster University, UK
VIII Organization

Workshop Chair
Randy Klaassen University of Twente, The Netherlands

Local Chair
Gijs Huisman University of Twente, The Netherlands

Business Track Chair

Theo Huibers University of Twente, The Netherlands
Iddo Bante University of Twente, The Netherlands

Senior Program Committee

Elisabeth André Augsburg University, Germany
Tetsuaki Baba Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan
Regina Bernhaupt ICS-IRIT, Toulouse, France
Marc Cavazza University of Teesside, UK
Luca Chittaro HCI Lab, University of Udine, Italy
Nuno Correia FCT, New University of Lisbon, Portugal
Chris Geiger University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf,
Germany
Shoichi Hasegawa Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Itaru Kuramoto Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan
Angelika Mader University of Twente, The Netherlands
Florian (Floyd) Mueller RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Rui Prada Instituto Superior Técnico-UTL and
INESC-ID, Portugal
Beatriz Sousa-Santos Universidade de Aveiro/IEETA, Portugal
Günter Wallner University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
Annika Waern Mobile Life Center, Interactive Institute,
Stockholm University, Sweden

Program Committee
A. Augusto Sousa Angelika Mader
Aderito Marcos Ann Morrison
Adrian Cheok Annika Waern
Adrian Clark Anton Nijholt
Akihiko Shirai Antonio Coelho
Alan Chatham Arjan Egges
Ana Veloso Athanasios Vasilakos
Andrei Sherstyuk Atsushi Hiyama
 Organization IX

Beatriz Sousa-Santos Igor Mayer

Ben Kirman Iolanda Leite
Betsy van Dijk Ionut Damian
Cagdas Toprak Itaru Kuramoto
Carlos Duarte James Young
Carlos Martinho Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge
Cathy Ennis Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh
Chek Yang Foo Joaquim Madeira
Chris Geiger Jongwon Kim
Christian Sandor José Danado
Christina Hochleitner Julian Togelius
Christopher Lindinger Jussi Holopainen
Christos Gatzidis Kai-Yin Cheng
Clemens Arth Kaoru Sumi
Cristina Sylla Kaska Porayska-Pomsta
Daisuke Sakamoto Kentaro Fukuchi
Daniel Rea Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen
Dennis Reidsma Kohei Matsumura
Dhaval Vyas Kuramoto Itaru
Eduardo Calvillo Gamez Leonel Morgado
Eduardo Dias Licinio Roque
Edwin Dertien Lindsay Grace
Elisabeth Andre Liselott Stenfeldt
Fernando Birra Luca Chittaro
Florian Floyd Mueller Luis Carriço
Francesco Bellotti Luı́s Duarte
Frank Dignum M. Carmen Juan
Frank Nack Mads Haahr
Fred Charles Maic Masuch
Frutuoso Silva Maki Sugimoto
Fusako Kusunoki Manuel J. Fonseca
Guenter Wallner Marc Cavazza
Haakon Faste Marco van Leeuwen
Hartmut Seichter Mariet Theune
Haruhiro Katayose Mark Gajewski
Hayrettin Gürkök Masahiko Inami
Helmut Munz Masanori Sugimoto
Henry Been-Lirn Duh Masataka Imura
Hirokazu Kato Michael Lankes
Hiroyuki Mitsuhara Michiya Yamanoto
Hitoshi Matsubara Mituru Minakuchi
Holger Reckter Mónica Mendes
Hongying Meng Nadia Berthouze
Ichiroh Kanaya Nanako Ishido
Ido Aharon Iurgel Narisa Chu
X Organization

Nicolas Gold Rui José

Nicolas Sabouret Rui Prada
Norbert Kikuchi Sandy Louchart
Nuno Correia Sheng Liu
Óscar Mealha Shigeyuki Hirai
Owen Noel Newton Fernando Shoichi Hasegawa
Paul Coulton Simone Kriglstein
Paulo Dias Sofia Tsekeridou
Pedro A. Santos Staffan Björk
Pedro Branco Stefan Bruckner
Petri Lankoski Sylvester Arnab
Philippe Palanque Takao Watanabe
Ramon Molla Teresa Chambel
Randy Klaassen Teresa Romão
Regina Bernhaupt Tetsuaki Baba
Riccardo Berta Thomas de Groot
Robert Cercos Veikko Ikonen
Rogério Bandeira Wolfgang Huerst
Roland Geraerts Yoram Chisik
Rui Jesus Yoshinari Takegawa

Additional Reviewers
Ana Tajadura Philip Voglreiter
André Pereira Philipp Grasmug
Andreas Hartl Raphael Grasset
Anton Eliens Rui Craveirinha
Christian Pirchheim Samuel Silva
Daniel Rea Simon Hoermann
Doros Polydorou Stefan Hauswiesner
Jens Grubert Stefan Liszio
Katharina Emmerich Takao Watanabe
Kening Zhu Tom Penney
Marielle Stoelinga Viridiana Silva-Rodriguez
Markus Steinberger Zsófia Ruttkay
Visit https://textbookfull.com
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 Organization XI

Collaboration
ACE 2013 at the University of Twente, The Netherlands, was organized in part-
nership with the Centre for Telematics and Information Technology, The Nether-
lands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the SIKS Graduate School,
and Springer Publishing.
Keynote Talks
 “Mindful or Mindless Entertainment?”

Yvonne Rogers

University College London

Abstract. We are increasingly living in our digital bubbles. Even when

physically together – as families and friends in our living rooms, outdoors
and public places – we have our eyes glued to our own phones, tablets and
laptops. The new generation of ‘all about me’ health and fitness gadgets,
wallpapered in gamification, is making it worse. Do we really need smart
shoes that tell us when we are being lazy and glasses that tell us what
we can and cannot eat? Is this what we want from technology – ever
more forms of digital narcissism, virtual nagging and data addiction?
In contrast, I argue for a radical rethink of our relationship with future
digital technologies. One that inspires us, through shared devices, tools
and data, to be more creative, playful and thoughtful of each other and
our surrounding environments.
Yvonne Rogers is the director of the Interaction Centre at UCL and
a professor of Interaction Design. She is internationally renowned for
her work in HCI and ubiquitous computing. She has been awarded a
prestigious EPSRC dream fellowship to rethink the relationship between
ageing, computing and creativity. She is known for her visionary research
agenda of user engagement in ubiquitous computing and has pioneered
an approach to innovation and ubiquitous learning. She is a co-author
of the definitive textbook on Interaction Design and HCI now in its 3rd
edition that has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.
Disney Research – “Haptics for Entertainment:
Context without Content”

Ali Israr

Disney Research

Abstract. Haptics is an emerging field for enhancing interactivity and

immersion. As a result, many new haptic technologies are developed and
introduced in recent years for entertainment, education, communication,
surgical, therapeutic and sensory substitution. In the last decade, there
exists a buzz for haptics to be a ‘game-changer’ for gaming, mobile and
VE applications, however, the main-stream consumers have yet to see
compelling and popular haptic products. We have identified two main
factors which must be addressed for success of haptics in gaming and
entertainment markets. These are (1) novel haptic technologies and (2)
new tools to create haptic content.
In this talk, I will present the background and vision for recent hap-
tic technologies developed in the Disney Research labs (such as Tesla
Touch, Surround Haptics, Aireal haptics devices) and our on-going ef-
forts towards producing haptic products and content. I will highlight
the challenges for us to generate interests and strategies for successful
transfer of technology from research to product.
Ali Israr is a Haptic Researcher and Engineer working in Disney Re-
search, The Walt Disney Company. He holds a doctoral degree in Me-
chanical Engineering and has been working in haptics research for the
last 12 years. His research has been published in premium conferences
and journals, presented in elite forums and has been successfully trans-
ferred in to consumer and amusement park product lines. Dr. Ali Israr
obtained his Bachelors of Science from University of Engineering and
Technology, Lahore Pakistan.
 Introduction to the Special Session on Serious
Game Technology


Arjan Egges and Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta 

1 Session Overview
Over the last decade serious gaming has become a prominent and important
field of research. Serious games are increasingly used to support learning of and
training in diverse and traditionally unrelated domains. These domains range
from formal learning of traditional subjects such as mathematics, vocational
training for professions such as air pilots or dentists, coaching individuals in
acquiring better job interview skills, to therapeutic applications which aim to
support the development of skills associated with socio-emotional coping, e.g. in
schizophrenia or autism. Serious games leverage both the intrinsic motivation
associated with playing computer games as well as a serious intent to furnish
their players with skills that are useful in the real world. As such, these games
present their own set of challenges to game designers and developers. First, as
most serious games will have some sort of educational goal, the design of a game
should ensure that these educational goals are reached when someone plays the
game. Second, a serious game should be able to measure the success of the player
within the game itself. Although tracking a player’s progress is something that
any game should do, for serious games this is even more important to get right,
since the quality of the training in part determines the performance of the trainee
in the real world.
Serious games are also challenging from the technological and engineering
point of view. In many cases, serious games use specific hardware such as 3D
screens, plates that can measure exerted forces, motion trackers, or 3D sound
generators. Incorporating all of these modalities into a coherent and seamless
game environment is complex. Designing and developing serious games becomes
even more challenging when one wants to incorporate capabilities such as track-
ing of individual players over different sessions, allowing for simultaneous par-
ticipation of multiple players over a network connection. Furthermore, games
often need to be adapted to different languages and cultures—this process is


Virtual Human Technology Lab, Dept. of Information and Computing Sci-
ences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Website: http://vhtlab.nl. Email:
[email protected]

London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, United Kingdom. Website:
http://http://www.lkl.ac.uk/. Email: [email protected]
XVIII A. Egges and K. Porayska-Pomsta

commonly referred to as localization. Finally, serious games increasingly require

the availability of authoring tools for creating scenarios by users who are not
game designers, which imposes the demand on the serious games technology to
be robust and transparent in its design.
Much research is presently done on serious game technology in Europe. This
special session will focus on a variety of current work related to serious game tech-
nologies, showcasing examples of research concerned with the challenges that are
unique to serious games. The goal of the session is to bring serious gaming profes-
sionals together in an informal way, and to promote collaboration and exchange
of experiences and future directions in this rapidly emerging field. Specifically,
the session presents the ongoing work conducted within three European projects
concerned with the development of serious games: TARDIS (EU-FP7), SHARE-
IT (UK-EPSRC), and MASELTOV (EU-FP7). Each project has contributed a
paper to the session.
The first paper is titled ‘The TARDIS framework: intelligent virtual agents
for social coaching in job interviews’ and it describes the TARDIS serious game
framework for building an intelligent training and coaching environment for
young adults at risk of social exclusion from unemployment through which they
can practice and improve their social interaction skills needed for conducting
successful job interviews.
The second paper: ‘Building Intelligent, Authorable Serious Game for Autis-
tic Children and Their Carers’ introduces the SHARE-IT project, which creates
a serious game for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders through which they
can learn and explore skills which are important to engaging in social commu-
nication with others. The paper focuses on the SHARE-IT game’s architecture
which enables the engineering of an intelligent game (in the AI sense) that is
also authorable by parents and teachers.
The third paper is entitled: ‘Advances in MASELTOV Serious Games in a
Mobile Ecology of Services for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Recent
Immigrants’. As part of a comprehensive suite of services for immigrants, the
MASELTOV game seeks to develop both practical tools and innovative learning
services via mobile devices, providing recent immigrants across Europe with
readily usable resource that would help in their integration within their adopted
cultures and countries.

2 Program Committee
– Sylvester Arnab, Serious Games Institute, UK
– Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, BIBA - Bremer Institut für Produktion und Lo-
gistik GmbH, Germany
– Francesco Bellotti, University of Genoa, Italy
– Ionut Damian, Augsburg University, Germany
– Cathy Ennis, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
– Igor Mayer, TU Delft, the Netherlands
– Nicolas Sabouret, LIMSI-CNRS, France
 Table of Contents

Long Presentations
Web Analytics: The New Purpose towards Predictive Mobile Games . . . . 1
Mathew Burns and Martin Colbert
An Author-Centric Approach to Procedural Content Generation . . . . . . . 14
Rui Craveirinha, Lucas Santos, and Licı́nio Roque
Providing Adaptive Visual Interface Feedback in Massively Multiplayer
Online Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chris Deaker, Masood Masoodian, and Bill Rogers
Persuasive Elements in Videogames: Effects on Player Performance and
Physiological State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Luı́s Duarte and Luı́s Carriço
Evaluating Human-like Behaviors of Video-Game Agents Autonomously
Acquired with Biological Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Nobuto Fujii, Yuichi Sato, Hironori Wakama, Koji Kazai, and
Haruhiro Katayose
Comparing Game User Research Methodologies for the Improvement of
Level Design in a 2-D Platformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Marcello Andres Gómez Maureira, Dirk P. Janssen,
Stefano Gualeni, Michelle Westerlaken, and Licia Calvi
Touch Me, Tilt Me – Comparing Interaction Modalities for Navigation
in 2D and 3D Worlds on Mobiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Wolfgang Hürst and Hector Cunat Nunez
Virtual Robotization of the Human Body via Data-Driven Vibrotactile
Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Yosuke Kurihara, Taku Hachisu, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, and
Hiroyuki Kajimoto
BOLLOCKS!! Designing Pervasive Games That Play with the Social
Rules of Built Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Conor Linehan, Nick Bull, and Ben Kirman
Cuddly: Enchant Your Soft Objects with a Mobile Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Suzanne Low, Yuta Sugiura, Kevin Fan, and Masahiko Inami
GuideMe: A Mobile Augmented Reality System to Display User
Manuals for Home Appliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Lars Müller, Ilhan Aslan, and Lucas Krüßen
XX Table of Contents

Petanko Roller: A VR System with a Rolling-Pin Haptic Interface for

Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Ken Nakagaki, Keina Konno, Shuntaro Tashiro, Ayaka Ikezawa,
Yusaku Kimura, Masaru Jingi, and Yasuaki Kakehi

Emoballoon: A Balloon-Shaped Interface Recognizing Social Touch

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Kosuke Nakajima, Yuichi Itoh, Yusuke Hayashi, Kazuaki Ikeda,
Kazuyuki Fujita, and Takao Onoye

Theory and Application of the Colloidal Display: Programmable Bubble

Screen for Computer Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Yoichi Ochiai, Alexis Oyama, Takayuki Hoshi, and Jun Rekimoto

Return of the Man-Machine Interface: Violent Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Duncan Rowland, Conor Linehan, Kwamena Appiah-Kubi, and
Maureen Schoonheyt

Non-branching Interactive Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Edirlei Soares de Lima, Bruno Feijó, Antonio L. Furtado,
Simone Diniz Junqueira Barbosa, Cesar T. Pozzer, and
Angelo E.M. Ciarlini

Short Presentations
The Art of Tug of War: Investigating the Influence of Remote Touch
on Social Presence in a Distributed Rope Pulling Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Thomas Beelen, Robert Blaauboer, Noraly Bovenmars, Bob Loos,
Lukas Zielonka, Robby van Delden, Gijs Huisman, and
Dennis Reidsma

Singing Like a Tenor without a Real Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Jochen Feitsch, Marco Strobel, and Christian Geiger

An Experimental Approach to Identifying Prominent Factors in Video

Game Difficulty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
James Fraser, Michael Katchabaw, and Robert E. Mercer

Goin’ Goblins - Iterative Design of an Entertaining Archery

Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Christian Geiger, Simon Thiele, Laurid Meyer, Stefan Meyer,
Lutz Hören, and Daniel Drochtert

Engaging Users in Audio Labelling as a Movie Browsing Game with a

Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Jorge M.A. Gomes, Teresa Chambel, and Thibault Langlois
 Table of Contents XXI

Creating Immersive Audio and Lighting Based Physical Exercise

Games for Schoolchildren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Jaakko Hakulinen, Markku Turunen, Tomi Heimonen,
Tuuli Keskinen, Antti Sand, Janne Paavilainen, Jaana Parviainen,
Sari Yrjänäinen, Frans Mäyrä, Jussi Okkonen, and Roope Raisamo

Game Flux Analysis with Provenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Troy C. Kohwalter, Esteban G.W. Clua, and Leonardo G.P. Murta

The Challenge of Automatic Level Generation for Platform Videogames

Based on Stories and Quests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Fausto Mourato, Fernando Birra, and Manuel Próspero dos Santos

Six Enablers of Instant Photo Sharing Experiences in Small Groups

Based on the Field Trial of Social Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Jarno Ojala, Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, and Arto Lehtiniemi

Attack on the Clones: Managing Player Perceptions of Visual Variety

and Believability in Video Game Crowds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Sean Oxspring, Ben Kirman, and Oliver Szymanezyk

A Framework for Evaluating Behavior Change Interventions through

Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Valentina Rao

eVision: A Mobile Game to Improve Environmental Awareness . . . . . . . . 380

Bruno Santos, Teresa Romão, A. Eduardo Dias, and Pedro Centieiro

Why Does It Always Rain on Me? Influence of Gender and

Environmental Factors on Usability, Technology Related Anxiety and
Immersion in Virtual Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Mareike Schmidt, Johanna Xenia Kafka, Oswald D. Kothgassner,
Helmut Hlavacs, Leon Beutl, and Anna Felnhofer

Meaning in Life as a Source of Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Robby van Delden and Dennis Reidsma

D-FLIP: Dynamic and Flexible Interactive PhotoShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Chi Thanh Vi, Kazuki Takashima, Hitomi Yokoyama, Gengdai Liu,
Yuichi Itoh, Sriram Subramanian, and Yoshifumi Kitamura

PukaPuCam: Enhance Travel Logging Experience through Third-Person

View Camera Attached to Balloons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Tsubasa Yamamoto, Yuta Sugiura, Suzanne Low, Koki Toda,
Kouta Minamizawa, Maki Sugimoto, and Masahiko Inami
XXII Table of Contents

Special Session on Serious Game Technology

Advances in MASELTOV – Serious Games in a Mobile Ecology
of Services for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Recent
Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Lucas Paletta, Ian Dunwell, Mark Gaved, Jan Bobeth,
Sofoklis Efremidis, Patrick Luley, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme,
Sara de Freitas, Petros Lameras, and Stephanie Deutsch

Building an Intelligent, Authorable Serious Game for Autistic Children

and Their Carers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta, Keith Anderson, Sara Bernardini,
Karen Guldberg, Tim Smith, Lila Kossivaki, Scott Hodgins, and
Ian Lowe

The TARDIS Framework: Intelligent Virtual Agents for Social Coaching

in Job Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Keith Anderson, Elisabeth André, T. Baur, Sara Bernardini,
M. Chollet, E. Chryssafidou, I. Damian, C. Ennis, A. Egges,
P. Gebhard, H. Jones, M. Ochs, C. Pelachaud,
Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta, P. Rizzo, and Nicolas Sabouret

Extended Abstracts
Development of a Full-Body Interaction Digital Game for Children to
Learn Vegetation Succession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Takayuki Adachi, Hiroshi Mizoguchi, Miki Namatame,
Fusako Kusunoki, Masanori Sugimoto, Keita Muratsu,
Etsuji Yamaguchi, Shigenori Inagaki, and Yoshiaki Takeda

Assessing Player Motivations and Expectations within a Gameplay

Experience Model Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Samuel Almeida, Ana Veloso, Licı́nio Roque, and Óscar Mealha

OUTLIVE – An Augmented Reality Multi-user Board Game Played

with a Mobile Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Edward Andrukaniec, Carmen Franken, Daniel Kirchhof,
Tobias Kraus, Fabian Schöndorff, and Christian Geiger

Onomatrack: Quick Recording of User’s Rhythmic Ideas Using

Onomatopoeia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Jo Arima, Keiko Yamamoto, Itaru Kuramoto, and Yoshihiro Tsujino

Musical Interaction Design for Real-Time Score Recognition towards

Applications for Musical Learning and Interactive Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Tetsuaki Baba, Yuya Kikukawa, Toshiki Yoshiike, and
Kumiko Kushiyama
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 Table of Contents XXIII

How to Make Tangible Games and Not Die in the Attempt . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Eva Cerezo, Javier Marco, and Sandra Baldassarri

Touch, Taste, and Smell: Multi-sensory Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Adrian D. Cheok, Jordan Tewell, Gilang A. Pradana, and
Koki Tsubouchi

Between Music and Games: Interactive Sonic Engagement with

Emergent Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Insook Choi and Robin Bargar

Linear Logic Validation and Hierarchical Modeling for Interactive

Storytelling Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Kim Dung Dang, Phuong Thao Pham, Ronan Champagnat, and
Mourad Rabah

GlowSteps – A Decentralized Interactive Play Environment for

Open-Ended Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Linda de Valk, Pepijn Rijnbout, Mark de Graaf, Tilde Bekker,
Ben Schouten, and Berry Eggen

Eat&Travel: A New Immersive Dining Experience for Restaurants . . . . . . 532

Mara Dionı́sio, Duarte Teixeira, Poan Shen, Mario Dinis,
Monchu Chen, Nuno Nunes, Valentina Nisi, and José Paiva

Evaluation of the Dialogue Information Function of Interactive Puppet

Theater: A Puppet-Show System for Deaf Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Ryohei Egusa, Kumiko Wada, Takayuki Adachi, Masafumi Goseki,
Miki Namatame, Fusako Kusunoki, Hiroshi Mizoguchi, and
Shigenori Inagaki

Music Puzzle: An Audio-Based Computer Game That Inspires to Train

Listening Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Rumi Hiraga, Zheng Li, and Hua Wang

Enabling Interactive Bathroom Entertainment Using Embedded Touch

Sensors in the Bathtub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
Shigeyuki Hirai, Yoshinobu Sakakibara, and Hironori Hayashi

Audio-Haptic Rendering of Water Being Poured from Sake Bottle . . . . . . 548

Sakiko Ikeno, Ryuta Okazaki, Taku Hachisu, Michi Sato, and
Hiroyuki Kajimoto

Living Chernoff Faces: Bringing Drama and Infotainment to Public

Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Ido Aharon Iurgel, Andreas Petker, Björn Herrmann,
Christina Martens, and Pedro Ribeiro
XXIV Table of Contents

Character Visualization in Miniature Environments with an Optical

See-through Head-Mounted Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Dongsik Jo, Daehwan Kim, Yongwan Kim, Ki-Hong Kim, and
Gil-Haeng Lee

MARIO: Mid-Air Augmented Reality Interaction with Objects . . . . . . . . 560

Hanyuool Kim, Issei Takahashi, Hiroki Yamamoto, Takayuki Kai,
Satoshi Maekawa, and Takeshi Naemura

A Face-Like Structure Detection on Planet and Satellite Surfaces Using

Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Kazutaka Kurihara, Masakazu Takasu, Kazuhiro Sasao, Hal Seki,
Takayuki Narabu, Mitsuo Yamamoto, Satoshi Iida, and
Hiroyuki Yamamoto

Tinkering in Scientific Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Maarten H. Lamers, Fons J. Verbeek, and Peter W.H. van der Putten

Modeling Player-Character Engagement in Single-Player Character-

Driven Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Petri Lankoski

Paintrix: Color Up Your Life! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Dimitri Slappendel, Fanny Lie, Martijn de Vos, Alex Kopla, and
Rafael Bidarra

The ToyVision Toolkit for Tangible Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Javier Marco, Eva Cerezo, and Sandra Baldassarri

Ball of Secrets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Ben Margines, Raunaq Gupta, and Yoram Chisik

‘P.S.(Postscript)’ : Hearing of Your Heartstring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Myongjin Moon and Yeseul Kim

Children Ideation Workshop: Creative Low-Fidelity Prototyping of

Game Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Christiane Moser

Dosukoi-Tap: The Virtual Paper Sumo Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Yuta Nakagawa, Kota Tsukamoto, and Yasuyuki Kono

DropNotes: A Music Composition Interface Utilizing the Combination

of Affordances of Tangible Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Musashi Nakajima, Hidekazu Saegusa, Yuto Ozaki, and
Yoshihiro Kanno
 Table of Contents XXV

Could the Player’s Engagement in a Video Game Increase His/Her

Interest in Science? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Stéphane Natkin, Delphine Soriano, Grozdana Erjavec, and
Marie Durand

Block Device System with Pattern Definition Capability by Visible

Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Huu Nguyen Nguyen Tran and Junichi Akita

Multi-sensor Interactive Systems for Embodied Learning Games . . . . . . . 616

Nikolaos Poulios and Anton Eliens

Photochromic Carpet: Playful Floor Canvas with Color-Changing

Footprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Daniel Saakes, Takahiro Tsujii, Kohei Nishimura,
Tomoko Hashida, and Takeshi Naemura

Mood Dependent Music Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

Marco Scirea

A Tangible Platform for Mixing and Remixing Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Cristina Sylla, Sérgio Gonçalves, Paulo Brito, Pedro Branco, and
Clara Coutinho

Network Shogi Environment with Discussion Support after Games . . . . . 634

Yoshikazu Tagashira, Hiroyuki Tarumi, and Toshihiro Hayashi

Hospital Hero: A Game for Reducing Stress and Anxiety of Hospitalized

Children in Emergency Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Sara Tranquada, Monchu Chen, and Yoram Chisik

Toinggg: How Changes in Children’s Activity Level Influence Creativity

in Open-Ended Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Bas van Hoeve, Linda de Valk, and Tilde Bekker

ZooMor: Three Stages of Play for a Sleeping Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

Daniël van Paesschen, Mark de Graaf, and Tilde Bekker

Social Believability in Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649

Harko Verhagen, Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari,
Magnus Johansson, and Joshua McCoy

Computer Entertainment in Cars and Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

David Wilfinger, Alexander Meschtscherjakov, Christiane Moser,
Manfred Tscheligi, Petra Sunström, Dalila Szostak, and
Roderick McCall
XXVI Table of Contents

Possibility of Analysis of ”Big Data” of Kabuki Play in 19th Century

Using the Mathematical Model of Hit Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Yasuko Kawahata, Etsuo Genda, and Akira Ishii

Ouch! How Embodied Damage Indicators in First-Person Shooting

Games Impact Gaming Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660
James E. Young, Ibrahim Shahin, and Masayuki Nakane

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

 Web Analytics: The New Purpose
towards Predictive Mobile Games

Mathew Burns and Martin Colbert

Kingston University, London, United Kingdom

[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Web Analytics have been confined to an iterative process of collect-

ing online traffic data for the purpose of drawing conclusions. This research
presents a concept where internet usage traffic can be predicted against through
the means of a mobile game. Through investigating certain industries use and
perceptions of playfulness certain aspects are identified for the design and de-
velopment of the game. Using a usability based methodology for evaluative
testing these features are questioned amongst two distinctive versions. From
these, the feasibility of a mobile game and its playfulness for users is gauged.
The research leaves the concept considering what other contexts web analytics
can be used within.

Keywords: Web Analytics, mobile games, serious games, prediction, usability,

prediction markets, spread betting, playfulness.

1 Introduction

Prediction is the simple designation to a possible outcome which can lead to one of
two eventualities, right or wrong, win or lose [1]. Many businesses and theories ex-
ploit either possibility. In the instance of economics or gambling a prediction is sup-
ported on the supposed understanding of risk [2]. Placing a prediction in conjunction
with a commodity is nothing new. However this concept has previously not been
applied to the usage of internet traffic known as web analytics. Web analytics has
remained confined to the repetitive accumulation and conclusion of online activity
[3], where its predefined purpose has not yet been explored beyond.
The current wide acceptance and ever growing popularity of mobile technology
over many cultural and social boundaries has witnessed a level of unity with a user’s
life [4]. Mobile technologies ability to allow access to games and applications beyond
the geographical limitations of desktop computers presents a unique conduit to assess
the effective entertainment of an analytic based prediction game. The domestication
of users towards the technology has caused an “industrial revolution of data” [5]. The
scale of this data explosion can be observed in a singular instance such as social me-
dia. Facebook in a single day alone generates sixty terabytes of data [6]. Potentially
harnessing these scales of data in the form of a game presents an intriguing pursuit of
research.

D. Reidsma, H. Katayose, and A. Nijholt (Eds.): ACE 2013, LNCS 8253, pp. 1–13, 2013.
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
“Then farewell, madmen!” cried the Fool, and he jerked the monkey
from his shoulder and descended from the platform.
The people, still rubbing their hands together and dancing, but
laughing withal, rapidly left the square, and my sister and myself
started to go; and as we started, the dwarf appeared before us with
his monkey, and cocked his eye up at us waggishly.
“What, ho!” said the Fool. “Strangers, by the ears of a donkey!
Greeting, strangers, what do you among my mad subjects?”
“To tell you the truth, my lord,” said I, making up my mind on the
spur of the moment, “I have come here with my sister from a distant
land, to cure the people and their King of the itching palm.”
“How so?” said the hunchback, sharply.
“With a little remedy of my own,” said I, tapping my pouch.
“Bah!” said the Fool, jerking the monkey’s cord. “Go home, madman,
you are wasting your time.”
“One moment!” I said. “Conduct me to the King, I beg you. You shall
see me prove my boast.”
He looked up at me sidewise. “Pouf!” said he, snapping his fingers.
“Old Fatchaps is as big a fool as you are. Here; I’ll give you a
chance; there’s nobody here to help me. I ask you, will you help me?
I have a plan to gather the leaves together and burn them. With
your help I can do it, and we will save the people together. Will you
help?”
“Not I,” said I, laughing again. “The people would tear us both to
pieces.”
“What does that matter?” said the Fool.
“It matters to me,” said I.
“Is that your choice?” said the Fool. “You have made your choice?
Done, then. Come with me. I will take you to the King; and you will
wish that I hadn’t. Oh, these fools! The time is coming when I must
take the case in hand myself, all alone; for I will tell you a secret;
lend me your ear.” He pulled my head down, and whispered fiercely
in my ear. “I love this people, and I will save them; whether they will
or no. D’ye hear? They are my people, and they must be saved!
Whether they will or no! And then what a bonfire! What a bonfire!”
He jerked the monkey’s cord again, and made off swiftly. We
followed him, and my sister said to me, in a low voice, “Do you think
he is mad?”
“That,” said I, “is precisely what I do not know.”

Buffo the Fool Leads Them to the Palace

In a few moments we entered and crossed the grounds of an
immense palace, and Buffo the Fool opened the palace door without
ceremony and preceded us into a great hall, where he stopped and
said:
“I must have a good look at you first. Buffino, my mirror!”
The monkey darted off down the hall and up the staircase. While he
was gone the Fool said to me:
“You have seen the orange tree and the panther?”
“Yes,” said I.
“Do they worship the orange tree in your country?”
“No, no,” said I. “Orange trees are the commonest of our
possessions. We have them by thousands. Their leaves are of no
account.”
“So?” said he, with a look which said that he did not believe it. “We
have no tree in all this city, nor anywhere in all this land, but a single
orange tree. No one knows how the seed came here. We worship
that tree; nothing else.”
“A very pretty sentiment,” said I. “Nothing could be prettier.”
“Hideous!” said he. “The leaves that drop from that tree and die are
the cause of all our evil. We fight over them, we steal them, we
waste our lives in getting them, and we suffer the agony of the
itching palm when they are ours. Will you help me destroy the
panther that guards the tree?”
“Certainly not,” said I with a shiver.
“You have made your choice,” said the Fool. “Buffino, give me the
mirror.”
The monkey, who had now returned, handed to the dwarf a large
mirror, and the Fool held it up before my sister.
Instead of the beautiful person of my sister appeared in the glass
the face and figure of an old woman, bent, ugly, and wrinkled. My
sister started back in dismay, and the dwarf held up the mirror
before myself. It showed me a gross, puffy face with three chins and
pig’s eyes, horribly repulsive. I shuddered.
“Just as I thought,” said the Fool. “Tell me now, have you seen the
King’s brother?”
“Yes,” said I.
“Will you marry him?” said he to my sister.
“Oh!” said she. “How could I? I can’t say. I’m—”
“Just as I thought,” said the dwarf. “And you won’t help me cure my
people. What is it you came here to seek?”
“We are seeking the best thing in the world,” said I.
“And what is that?”
“I don’t know; but we’ll certainly recognize it when we find it.”
“Not you,” said the dwarf; “not until my mirror shows you fair and
comely; then you’ll know it.”
“How are we to get it to show us fair and comely?” said I.
“One of you by saving a miserable outcast, and the other by saving
a whole people; then you’ll be fair and comely, inside and out, but
not until then.”
“You talk in riddles, master Buffo,” said I. “Let us go to the King.”
“Madman!” said the dwarf, and gave the mirror back to the monkey,
who scampered off with it and disappeared.
We followed the Fool up the great staircase and into a distant wing
of the palace, and stopped at a door, on which the hunchback
knocked. Receiving no answer, he opened the door and led us in.
“Your majesty!” he cried.

They Find the King in a Terrible State

The King was pacing the floor, grinding and scratching his palms
together, and muttering angrily to himself. He was an enormous man
with a puffy, red face, a snub nose, and three chins, and he
wheezed as he walked. His hair stood up on end all over his head as
if it was trying to fly off. His fat legs went back and forth in a kind of
tripping run, and his fat hands rubbed and scratched and slapped
each other in a perfect frenzy.
“What, what!” he cried, never halting for an instant. “What’s the
matter, what’s the matter?”
“Stop a minute, King Fatchaps!” said the Fool. “Here’s a madman
come to cure your itching palms! Ha, ha!”
“What do you say? What do you say?” said the King, dancing along,
back and forth.
“It is true, your majesty,” said I.
“You can cure me? What do you say? You’re an impostor! They’re all
impostors! Can you cure me? Why don’t you do it then?”
“I understand,” said I, “that a reward is offered—”
“Well, well? What of it?” said the King, wheezing and puffing. “Half
of my dead leaves! What of it?”
“The fact is,” said I, “we should prefer gold or silver.”
“Impudence!” cried the King. “Gold? Silver? What do you mean? I
never heard of them.”
“He’ll take the leaves, never fear,” said the dwarf. “Oh, yes.”
“Take ’em!” cried the King. “Who is the beautiful lady? Take ’em?
Dead leaves or nothing! Take ’em or leave ’em!”
It was plain that a fortune of dead leaves was as good as any other,
if you only thought it so, and if these people thought it so, as they
evidently did, I might as well take it.
“I am satisfied, your majesty,” said I, “and if you will hold out your
palm, I will work the cure.”

The Perfection Cream Is Rubbed into the Itching

Palm
The King held out his left hand as he passed, and I trotted along
beside him, and drawing from my pouch one of my little jars, I
applied to the King’s palm, with my fingers, a small portion of my
salve, rubbing it in as well as I could; and then I ran around to his
other side, and did the same for his other hand. It was rather
difficult, considering that I had to trot along beside him as he tripped
back and forth across the carpet.
“What, what, what! Bless my soul!” cried the King, stopping
suddenly. “It feels better!”
I bowed and smiled, and Buffo the Fool said, “Mad, old Fatchaps!
Both of you mad!”
“Speak when you’re spoken to!” said the King. “Who asked your
opinion? Pfoo! pfoo! I haven’t any breath left! Not another word out
of you, sir! I know when I’m cured! I’m no fool, I’m no fool!”
“Oh, no, not at all!” said the Fool.
“Here, you!” said the King. “Take this young man and his wife and
feed ’em, and let ’em sleep in the palace. I’ll settle with ’em in the
morning, if the itching’s gone. I’m no fool.”
“Not my wife,—my sister,” said I, bowing.
“What do you say?” cried the King. “Oh, that’s different!”
He bowed before my sister, and kissed her hand very respectfully.
“Bless my soul! Beautiful as a moonbeam! What do you say? Where
do you come from, eh? The itching’s gone. But I’ll wait till morning.
I’m no fool. Be off with you, clown, and let ’em eat and sleep in the
palace. What do you say? He shall cure the whole city, and I’ll make
’em give up half of all their dead leaves to him! In the morning, in
the morning! What do you say? Be off with you!”
We hastily left him, and as we passed down the hall we saw him
poke his head out of the door and heard him call:
“Ho! I’m cured! Where’s that confounded chamberlain? Send me the
chamberlain! What do you say? I’m cured!” And he banged the door
shut again.
That night we dined sumptuously and slept in gorgeous apartments
in the palace. In the morning, being once more conducted by Buffo
to the King, we found him in a transport of happiness. The cure was
perfect. He kissed my sister’s hand, and threw his arms about me,
and cried:
“It’s yours! Half of my dead leaves, and I’ll make a Prince out of you!
Not a word! What do you say? Never woke up once last night! Get to
work and cure all my people. Where’s that confounded chamberlain?
Get to work, get to work!”

Tush the Apothecary Takes the People in Hand

The arrangements were soon made. I took my stand on the palace
steps, and all day long the people filed before me, and into each
palm I rubbed a little of my salve. It was a work of days, and all
business stopped until my task was done. At the end, the city was
cured; never were there in this world a people so beside themselves
with joy.
In the square where I had first met the King’s Fool the King caused
to be thrown up, with five hundred pairs of willing hands, a vat of
hardened mud in blocks, and into this vat his servants poured for me
a good full half of all the dead orange leaves in his treasury, and on
top of these, from each of those whom I had cured, one-half of his
store of leaves; so that when all was done the vat was just half full.
I was rich; richer than the King himself; and my Perfection Cream
was all gone.
I hinted to the King that some kind of covering should be provided
for the vat, to protect my riches from the weather.
“What, what?” said he, his face growing a trifle purple. “There’s no
rain at this time of year! What do you say? All in good time! I can’t
do everything in a minute!”
Now it came to pass, as you may guess, that the King grew daily
more smitten with my sister’s beauty. Scarcely a day passed on
which he did not visit us in the splendid apartments in his palace
which he had given us for our own. His favors became more lavish
as time went on; they could have only one meaning. “You shall be
Queen!” said I to my sister, and she smiled knowingly.
We were expecting, one evening, a visit from the King, when the
Fool entered our apartment, and behind him came, instead of the
King, the King’s ugly brother. I was startled, for I had forgotten him
completely.
He knelt beside my sister, and took her hand tenderly in his.
“Dear lady,” he said, “I do not blame you that you have neglected
your promise. I have stolen here at great risk to lay myself again at
your feet. Surely a loyal heart must weigh with you more than rank
or riches. Ah, dear lady, say that you will be mine!”
I confess that there was something about this young man which
made me like him better than before; but of course a match such as
he proposed was out of the question.
My sister shook her head and drew away her hand. “I cannot, I
cannot,” she said.
“Tell me,” he said, “do you think well of me—do you care for me a
little—do you think you can say you love me, ever so little?”
“I do! I do!” cried my sister, to my amazement, hiding her face in her
hands. “I loved you on the first day I saw you! I can’t help it! I do!”
“Ah, then,” said the young man, rising, while I on my part remained
speechless with astonishment, “what’s to hinder? You are mine!”
“No, no,” said my sister, weeping, “it can never be.”
“Is it because I am poor and friendless?”
My sister said never a word.
“Is it because you prize rank and wealth more than love?”
Still my sister said nothing.
The young man hesitated, and stooping to kiss her hand, he said, “I
have received my answer;” and with these words he strode
mournfully to the door. But she did not look up at him, and with a
sigh of deep grief he left us.

Paravaine Has Made Her Choice

“The wrong choice once more,” said the Fool, and he, too, went his
way.
My sister had hardly dried her eyes when there came a knock upon
the door behind her, and the King entered. She did not turn round,
and the King tripped in silently on his toes, putting a finger roguishly
to his lips and shaking all over with mirth; and coming up behind her
he placed his two fat hands over her eyes, wagging his eyebrows up
and down at me.
“Guess who it is!” he cried, wheezing. “What do you say? It’s
somebody come a-wooing! Never mind who! Ha, ha, ha! Guess who
it is, and to-morrow you’ll be Queen! What do you say? Pouf! Pah!
I’m all out of breath. It’s somebody that wants you to be his Queen.
Guess! The most beautiful Queen in the whole—”
He stopped suddenly. The King’s Fool and his monkey had slipped
into the room behind him and were standing before my sister, and
the dwarf was holding up his mirror before my sister’s face.
“What, what, what!” cried the King in a rage, taking away his hands
from my sister’s eyes. “What do you mean? Out of my sight, Fool!
Away! Begone!”
The dwarf held the mirror higher, shaking with laughter the while,
and my sister gazed into it. I saw her shudder and turn pale, and
then she screamed and buried her face in her hands.
The King, staring likewise into the mirror, turned purple and
remained as if frozen with horror. He shook himself, and gave a
choking gasp.
“What’s this?” he cried. “It’s the—what a— Take it away. She’s an old
woman! She’s a witch! What a— I’m no fool, it’s a trick, I knew it all
the time! Take her away! She’s an old woman. You can’t play tricks
on me, I won’t have it, I won’t stand it. She’s a witch! I’m going. I
won’t stay. It’s a trick. I’m no fool!”
With these words, puffing and wheezing, he trotted on his fat legs
out of the room.
“No marriage yet,” said the Fool, looking at me queerly, and he ran
after the King, pulling his monkey along with him.

He Finds Himself Rubbing His Palms Together

That night, as I stood before my mirror, undressing, and comforting
myself with the thought of all the magnificence I had acquired and
would acquire with my dead orange leaves, I found myself rubbing
the palm of my right hand with the fingers of my left. I was aware of
a slight itching in the palm.
At breakfast in the morning, I noticed that my sister, who was very
sober, would now and then scratch the palm of her right hand; but I
said nothing, and in the afternoon, without questioning her on the
subject of her love for the King’s brother, I prepared to visit the King,
to try if I could not bring him back to reason. I was ready to leave,
when my sister broke into my room, crying out frantically:
“I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it! The itching in my palms! It won’t
stop for a moment! I can’t sit still! It’s growing worse and worse!
Oh, brother, cure it, cure it, or I shall go mad!”
She walked up and down the room in a frenzy, rubbing her palms
together. I tried in vain to pacify her, and at length I left her and
betook myself to the King.
On my way the itching of the night before returned, and this time I
felt it in both my hands. I knew that my sister and myself, in
common with the King and all his subjects, had been handling the
dead leaves freely since I had worked the cure, and I began to be
uneasy.
When I knocked at the King’s door the voice of the Fool said “Come
in,” and I found the King running with his tripping step up and down
the room, rubbing his hands, and beside him trotted the Fool and
the monkey.
“Imbecile!” cried the King, without stopping for an instant. “You shall
die the death! A trick, a trick! And half of my dead leaves gone for
nothing! A death in boiling oil! What do you say? Don’t answer me!
My hands, my hands! Worse than before! You shall suffer, you shall
suffer! A slow death! Why don’t you speak? What are you going to
do?”
“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed the Fool. “He’s been handling the dead leaves
again, and so have you all. It’ll be my turn soon! My turn soon!”
“Patience, your majesty,” said I, rubbing my hands. “I will go to work
at once and prepare more of my salve. Have no fear. I will cure you
instantly. I am off to my work.”

He Cannot Find the Ingredients for Making the Salve

“Pouf! Pah!” said the King, angrily, and I ran from the room, to find
the ingredients necessary for my salve. But alas, they were not to be
found. I sent everywhere; the city was scoured; but it was no use; I
was in despair. Such simples as could be found I gathered together,
and of these I made a new remedy,—far different from my old, but it
was the best I could do. I tried it on myself, and felt an almost
instant relief. I shouted with joy.
I returned to the King, and as I passed an open window in the great
hall I heard the muttering of many voices outside, and I saw a great
concourse of people in the palace grounds, all talking angrily, and all
rubbing their hands and dancing on their toes in anguish. They
began to shout my name, and I knew that if I should fall among
them in their present temper I should be lost.
The King was trotting up and down as before, and the dwarf and the
monkey were running along beside him.
“What, what?” he cried. “What now? No tricks! I’m no fool. What’s
the matter?”
“If I cure you,” said I, holding up my box of ointment, “I must have
the rest of your leaves; and from every one I cure I must have the
rest of his; it is only just.”
“Anything!” cried the King. “You can’t do it! It’s another trick! I’ll give
all the dead leaves in the city to anyone who can save me and my
people! It’s a trick! You can’t do it. What are you waiting for? Try it!
Oh, these hands! It’s no use! Hurry up!”
I seized his hand, and running beside him I rubbed into his palm a
little of my new ointment; and running around to his other side I did
the same for his other hand.
“See the madmen!” cried the Fool, clapping his hands in glee.
“By the beard of my uncle!” cried the King. “I feel better! It’s going!
It’s gone! It’s all over! I’m cured! Oh, wonderful young man, come to
my arms! What do you say? I knew you could do it all the time. I’m
cured!”
He grasped my arm and pulled me from the room, and down the
stairway to the front door. A great throng filled the grounds, from
the door to the gate; and commanding silence, the King announced
in a loud voice that I was ready with my cure, and that whoever
wished to be cured should give up the remainder of his dead leaves.
There was a moment’s hesitation, but the anguish of their affliction
was too great; the people whispered together, doubtless remarking
that they would soon get back their leaves in trade; and at any rate
they began to file before me, and my healing work commenced; but
not before I had applied my salve, in sight of all, to my sister’s
palms, and given her immediate relief.
All that day and the next and for several days the work continued,
and in each case the itching vanished at once; the city was cured
again, and my vat in the public square was filled to the brim, with all
the dead orange leaves that the people owned. The glory of my
future was beyond calculation; my sister, I resolved, should yet be
Queen; and I planned for myself such offices in the state as should
give me power even greater than the King’s.
When I awoke in my bed on the following morning, I found that I
was rubbing my hands.
I dressed hurriedly, and my sister came to me in tears. She was
rubbing her hands.
We hurried to the King. He was running up and down, rubbing his
hands.
We fled from him and ran out upon the palace steps, not knowing
where next to go; and as we stood there, hesitating, the King’s
brother appeared before us, and spoke with excitement.
“Beloved!” he cried. “We love each other—what more is needed?
Quick, it is not yet too late! Say that you love me—let me hear it
again!”
“Ah, yes, I do,” said my sister, and he threw his arm about her and
clasped her to his breast.
“Come! I will save you!” he cried. “There is time, if we hurry. Will
you come with me now?”
My sister drew back a little, still struggling within herself; and while
she hesitated, a commotion arose at the gate, and the young man
cried out, in a voice full of despair:
“It is too late, too late!”

Tush and His Sister are Seized by the Angry Crowd

At the gate a throng of people were pressing in with angry shouts.
They made toward us, dancing and rubbing their hands. They
surrounded us; they crowded upon us to suffocation; the young man
and myself tried in vain to shield my sister; angry hands were laid
upon her and upon myself, and we were hustled away toward the
gate.
“Give us back our leaves! Kill them both! To the square!” shouted the
mob; and thrusting the King’s brother aside they pulled and pushed
us to the public square, and halted us beneath the vat which
contained all my wealth.
A sudden outcry, followed by silence, drew my attention upward.
There above us, on the rim of the vat, stood the King’s Fool. He held
a lighted torch aloft in his hand.
“Madmen!” he cried. “I am ready to cure you! All alone! Speak! Shall
I destroy the leaves?”
“No, no!” shouted the crowd. “Stop him! Stop him!”
“If you fire the leaves, we will kill these two!” shouted one of our
captors.
“Oh!” said my sister at my side, pale with terror. “What shall we do?
Stop him! If the genie would only come and help us! I wish the
genie were here to help us!”
“The time has come!” cried the Fool. “I must save you! Why will you
all be mad? I must save you from your madness! In with the torch!”
He faced about toward the center of the vat, and swung his torch as
if about to toss it in; but at that instant a great wind swept across
the square with a roar, such a blast as I had never in my life known
before, and the King’s Fool tottered in it for a moment, and his torch
went out; and then, clutching at the air, he was blown headlong to
the ground in a heap.
“The whirlwind! The whirlwind!” shouted the crowd in terror. “Fly! Fly
for your lives!”
Far off across the housetops appeared a yellow cloud, and a saffron
gloom overspread the city. From the cloud to the ground revolved a
yellow funnel, as of dust-laden wind; and it was coming toward us
with the speed of lightning.
The crowd dispersed madly, trampling one another, shrieking and
cursing, and in a twinkling they were gone. I seized my sister and
dragged her to the street corner, where I opened one half of a cellar
door and plunged down with her, closing the door over us, but
peeping out through a crack. We were just in time.

The Genie in the Whirlwind

The whirling funnel of wind and dust swept over the square; and in
the forefront of it, at a great height, flew the genie, his great mouth
open, and darts of fire flickering around his face.
The square was empty, save for the crumpled body of the King’s
Fool, lying motionless beside the vat of dead leaves; and as I gazed
at him where he lay, I saw, moving toward him across the bare
pavement, the humped figure of his little monkey.
The genie, far above, kept just ahead of the whirlwind; the yellow
funnel whirled after him directly across the vat and covered it and
passed; and as it passed, all the dead leaves surged up into it in a
furious gale, so that it was darkened with them; and the next
moment the whirlwind was gone, and the square lay quiet in the
sunshine.
“Come, Paravaine!” said I, and pulled my sister forth across the
square.
We came to the base of the vat, and on the ground beside it, left
there untouched by the storm, lay the King’s Fool on his side, graver
than he had ever been in his life; and huddled against his breast sat
his monkey, shivering, and looking up at us with eyes that seemed
to reproach us.
We hurried toward the city gate. Many houses were in ruins, and the
streets were strewn with rubbish. People were running busily about,
gazing intently at the ground, and now and then one would stoop
and pick up something. I saw what it was they were doing; they
were searching for dead leaves, scattered by the whirlwind.
“I can’t go!” said my sister, weeping. “I must see him first! Oh, my
love, my love!”
“Too late now!” I cried. “Too late, too late!”
I pulled her onward, knowing that death awaited us in that city; and
we came to the plot of grass where we had seen the sacred tree. It
was gone, and in the place where it had been was only a gaping
hole. The whirlwind had passed that way. On the ground beside the
hole lay the panther, its head on its paws. It watched us with sleepy
eyes as we fled by.
In a moment we had reached the city gate and passed out. The
Guardian was standing there, his face clouded with a frown, and his
scimitar raised.
“Why do you flee?” said he.
“From the wrath of the people!” I cried. “Let us pass!”
“You cannot pass,” said he. His scimitar glittered in the sun.
“But we repent! We repent!” cried my sister.
“Too late, too late!” said the Guardian. “See!”
He pointed upward, and afar off in the sky appeared a black speck,
speeding toward us.
“The genie!” I cried; and I had no sooner said it, than the earth
trembled, and before us on the ground towered the genie, breathing
fire.
“Save us from him!” I cried, turning to the Guardian, but he was
gone. We were alone with the genie.
 The genie swung him back and forth and tossed him out to
sea

The Pulling Off of the Genie’s Ring

“Off with the ring! That will send him away!” I cried to my sister, and
she tugged at the ring on her forefinger, to pull it off; but it came
unwillingly; and as she pulled, her finger lengthened; she tugged
harder, and as the ring came her finger stretched out longer and
longer; and when the ring was off and dropped on the ground, the
first finger of her right hand was more than a foot long,—a black,
stiff rod, hooked at the end like a poker.
The genie stooped, and gathered me under his right arm and my
sister under his left; and giving a stamp upon the ground which
shook the earth he mounted into the air....
Far out over the Great Sea, as the sun was setting, the genie drew
downward toward an island; and on a bluff of this island,
overlooking a cove in which fishing boats lay moored, he alighted
and set us on our feet. Over my sister’s head and back he passed his
hand, speaking strange words in his throat. She shriveled before my
eyes; her face became old and wrinkled and her body bent; and
before I could speak she was the hideous creature I had seen in the
Fool’s glass, with a forefinger like the poker of a ragpicker.
“Paravaine!” I cried; but the genie turned her away toward a village
which showed itself at the back of the cove, and sent her off in that
direction; and when she had gone, he picked me up in his mighty
hands, and carrying me to the further edge of the bluff where it
looked down on the rolling surf, he swung me back and forth three
or four times and tossed me out to sea.
I sank into the depths; I rose to the surface; and as my head came
up I looked for the genie. Far up in the evening sky flew what
seemed a tiny, black arrow. I cried aloud; and instead of a shriek
there came from my throat a bark. It was the bark of a seal.
 THE SIXTH NIGHT
THE ENCHANTED HIGHWAYMAN

M ORTIMER the Executioner, very grand and uncomfortable in his

new suit, placed a chair for the Queen before Solario’s
worktable, and the old tailor having seated himself cross-legged on
the table, the entire company sat down in a row, facing him.
There were first the Executioner, with the tiny Encourager on his
shoulder; then Bodkin; then Bojohn; then his mother, the Princess
Dorobel, and his father, Prince Bilbo; and last, his grandmother, the
Queen.
“Now then,” said Bojohn, “I hope we’re going to hear the story of
Montesango’s Cave at last.”
“If it please your majesty,” began Solario, addressing the Queen,—
but at this moment there came a loud knock at the door.
Mortimer the Executioner hastened to open it, and there in the
doorway stood the King himself. Solario sprang down from his table,
and all the others rose.
“Ah! your majesty!” cried Solario, bowing profoundly. “This is indeed
an honor!”
“I was told I would find you here,” said the King. “It seems that my
entire family deserts me in the evening, and I am obliged to climb
the worst stairs in the castle to— But of course if you find my society
too—”
“My dear!” said the Queen. “We have been listening to Solario’s
stories, and you were so taken up with your chess that we thought
you wouldn’t care to—”
“Why not?” said the King. “But of course if you don’t want me to
hear the stories, I’ll—”
“Sit down, grandfather!” cried Bojohn. “He’s just going to begin.”
“Do sit down, my dear,” said the Queen. “Don’t you remember the
story he told us the first night?”
“Hum! Ha! I’m all out of breath with those plaguey stairs. Something
about a button, wasn’t it?”
“Perhaps,” said Prince Bilbo, “he’ll tell us to-night how the magic
doublet came to be—”
“Well,” said the King, “if it isn’t a long story— Is it a long story?”
“No, no, your majesty,” said Solario, bowing again, “it is quite short.”
“Hum!” said the King. “If you’re sure it’s not a long story—Why don’t
you begin?” and he sat down in the Executioner’s chair.
Solario took his place cross-legged on the table again, and the
others resumed their seats before him,—all except the Executioner,
who stood, with the Encourager on his shoulder, behind the King.
“My dear,” said the Queen, “did you give the orders for locking the
castle for the night?”
“I believe I usually attend to that,” said the King. “Solario, proceed.”
“If it is your pleasure,” said Solario, fingering his shears, “I will now
relate to you the story concerning the magic doublet, as it was told
to the Black Prince by his father the King of Wen, and by the Black
Prince to me. The King of Wen, having directed his son regarding his
mission to the City of Oogh, placed the doublet in his son’s left hand,
and thus commenced what I may call
 “THE STORY OF THE ENCHANTED HIGHWAYMAN.”

“I thought,” interrupted Bojohn, “you were going to tell us the story

of the magic doublet.”
“I am about to do so,” said Solario. “As I was saying, the King of
Wen, placing the magic doublet in his son’s left hand, thus
commenced

“THE STORY OF THE ENCHANTED HIGHWAYMAN.”

When I was a young man (said the King of Wen), I left my father’s
castle one morning for a day’s hunting in the forest. Late in the
afternoon it chanced that I had wandered away from my attendants,
and being warm and weary I threw myself down upon the moss to
rest. I had lain there but a moment when I saw, not far off among
the trees, a fine buck, the only game I had come upon that day. I
crept cautiously in his direction, and soon came within easy bowshot
of him; but just as I was fitting my arrow to the string he tossed his
head and trotted off into the forest and disappeared.
I made off after him as fast as I could, marking his trail by a broken
branch here and there and an occasional hoof-print in the damp
earth, and presently I found myself deep in a considerable thicket of
underwood, and from this thicket I came out, to my surprise, upon a
forest road.

A Voice from Nowhere Bids the Prince Stop

I stood for a moment looking up and down curiously. The deer was
nowhere to be seen. The road was arched in a charming manner by
the branches of the trees, and at no great distance lost itself in the
shadowy forest. I wondered that I had never heard of this road
before, and after pondering this for a moment I began to cross the
road, looking carefully for the deer’s tracks in the dust. I saw no
trace of him, and I was about to push into the forest on the other
side, when suddenly a voice, a low but clear voice, said distinctly in
my ear, “Stop!”
I looked about me, but I could see no one. There was positively no
living creature near me,—unless I except a wasp which at the
moment was flying about my head, and which I struck away with my
hand.
I walked down the road some twenty paces, peering about for the
person who had spoken, and becoming more and more perplexed;
and as I was about to enter the forest the same voice, still low but
quite distinct, spoke again close into my ear: “Stop!”
I stopped in bewilderment. The forest was silent as the sky; no living
creature, not even a bird, could I see anywhere; there was nothing;
—nothing, indeed, except the wasp which was still flying about my
head and which now began to annoy me exceedingly.
I went on again, striking out at the wasp, and in a moment (I assure
you I began to doubt my senses), the same voice spoke again, this
time close into my left ear.
“Stop! Just a moment!” it said. “Look, if you please! On your left
shoulder!”
I craned my neck about, and there was nothing on my left shoulder
except the wasp. The wasp was there, indeed, and I made as if to
brush him off; but the voice said, “Don’t, if you please!” and I stayed
my hand.
You may imagine that I was more astonished than ever. I gazed at
the wasp intently, and as I did so the voice began to murmur, in a
kind of rapid, buzzing drone, into my left ear.
“Mercy on us!” I cried. “It’s the wasp that’s talking!”
It was true, beyond a doubt. “Yes!” said the voice. “Please listen! If
you’d only be so good—I really wish you would!”

The Prince Listens to a Curious Discourse

I stood perfectly still in the roadway, and I know that my mouth
hung open as I listened. The wasp buzzed into my ear a kind of
rapid, droning song, so low that I had to strain my attention a little
to catch it all, and these were the words I heard:
“I know it’s rude to speak to you, it’s something I but seldom do,
to speak before I’m spoken to,
Or buttonhole a stranger;
Excuse me if I do not pause to think just now of social laws, I can
not spare the time, because
I’m in the gravest danger;
In gravest danger, yes, it’s true, I’m sure I don’t know what I’ll
do, I’ll positively die if you
Refuse me your assistance;
Come, follow me without delay, I pray you do not say me nay,
it’s life or death,—and anyway
It’s scarcely any distance.

“My lot is sad in the extreme, I really am not what I seem,

I once was held in high esteem
By every friend and neighbor:
A man entirely free of guile, who lived but in his children’s smile,
and kept them all in modest style
By hard and patient labor,
A man of pleasing manners who, whatever other men might do,
spoke seldom unless spoken to,
A practice much commended;
My trade in such a way I plied upon the highway far and wide
(I say it with a modest pride)
I scarcely once offended.

“It used to be my pleasant way (it always made my work seem

play) to take the air from day to day,—
Unless, of course,’twas raining,—
Upon the road to watch and wait from early morn to rather late,
but always coming home by eight
(Such was my early training),
I used to watch and wait, I say, and when a trav’ler came my
way, which happened every other day
Unless too cold or sunny,
I never spoke a word not I I merely breathed a patient sigh
I never spoke a word, not I, I merely breathed a patient sigh,
and held my trusty blade on high
And took from him his money.

“’Twas thus I kept my children ten, a decent, worthy citizen,

the happiest of mortal men
My humble sphere adorning,
The father of ten daughters fair who needed tons of clothes to
wear, and that was why I took the air
Upon the road each morning,
But oh, alas for them and me, it’s over now, as you may see,
and you are incontestably
Our only hope remaining;
And all our truly dreadful plight is just because one rainy night
I simply for a moment quite
Forgot my early training.
“I held my trusty blade on high
And took from him his money”
“’Twas rainy and ’twas after eight, I knew that I was out too
late, but when your trade’s in such a state
You hardly know what cash is,
You cannot stop because you get your feet all muddy, cold and wet,
I knew I should be ill, and yet,—
My children needed sashes.
I shivered with the wet and cold, I counted twenty times all told
I’d meant to have my shoes half-soled
And still they’d not been cobbled,
‘I’ll certainly,’ I thought, ‘be sick,’—and then from out the darkness
thick an ancient woman with a stick
In fearsome silence hobbled.

“She was an ancient, crooked crone, an ugly thing of skin and

bone, she passed me silent as a stone
(I thought it rather funny),
But I could hear my children cry, ‘Oh, buy us ribbons, father, buy,’
and stopping her, my blade on high,
I shouted, ‘Stand! Your money!’
Ah, that was just where I did make a most unfortunate mistake,
for she with mirth began to shake
(It made my blood run colder),
And up she raised her crooked staff, she gave a most unearthly
laugh, a thing I did not like by half,
And touched me on the shoulder.

“She stood, she looked me through and through, she said not even
‘How d’ye do,’ she merely gave a laugh or two,
And munched her gums together:
A witch, a sorceress of the wood! I nearly fainted where I stood,
I really truly think you could
Have felled me with a feather.
A witch, as sure, as sure could be! You see what she has done to
me! And all because I carelessly
Forgot my early training.
From which you learn this lesson true that it will never never
 From which you learn this lesson true, that it will never, never
do to speak before you’re spoken to
Or stay out when it’s raining.”

The voice stopped, and the wasp flew off, directly before my nose,
as if leading me away.
“Why, dear me!” interrupted the Queen. “I believe this wasp was
nothing more nor less than a Highwayman.”
“What I don’t understand is,” said the King, “how a Highwayman
could have learned to make up verses.”
“In the Forest of Wen, your majesty,” said Solario, “the Highwaymen
always talked in that fashion. It was their regular custom. I am told
that no Highwayman could get his certificate until he had passed an
examination in arithmetic, swordplay, and composition; and of
course composition included verse making.”
“Well,” said the King, “I don’t see what that had to do with making a
good Highwayman of him; but then I don’t pretend to understand
these notions about education. As far as I’m concerned, if I had to
pass an examination in arithmetic in order to be a King, I’d simply
have to look about for something else to do. I never could see the
sense in teaching a King arithmetic, and I don’t see the sense in
teaching a Highwayman how to make verses. I know it’s done in
some places; it’s gotten to be quite the thing, I understand that
perfectly well; but I don’t see any sense in it.”
“My dear,” said the Queen, “you mustn’t forget that a Highwayman
has to know a great deal more than a King. It’s so very much harder
to be a good Highwayman. But I don’t think I should like to be
married to one.”
“This one was a widower, evidently,” said the King. “I know I
shouldn’t like to be a widower with ten daughters on my hands. I
don’t see how any human being could keep ten daughters in ribbons
and—”
“When Dorobel was little,” said the Queen, “I always had the most
terrible time to make her remember that she mustn’t speak until she
was spoken to. I don’t wonder the poor man forgot it, when he was
so worried about sashes for his dear children,—and out so late at
night, and in the rain, too!”
“Why don’t you let the man go on with his story?” said the King.
“We’ll never get to bed at this rate. Solario, be kind enough to
proceed.”
The wasp flew off (said the King of Wen), directly before my nose,
as if leading me away; and I followed him down the road.
We had gone about a mile, when the wasp turned off into the forest.
I hesitated a moment, but I was curious to know what this
unfortunate Highwayman intended, and I pushed on after him into a
portion of the forest which was wilder and gloomier than any I had
yet seen. The branches of the trees hung low, and the ground was
thick with underbrush; I had to part the bushes and branches with
my hands in order to get through.
The wasp flew within a foot of my nose, and I kept on after him thus
for more than half an hour. He seemed to know the way, but for my
part I began to wonder whether I should ever be able to find my
way back. Suddenly he flew off, and I saw him no more.

The Prince, Alone in the Forest, Hears the Bark of a

Dog
I was at this moment in an uncommonly thick part of the forest. The
trees were perhaps less close, but the underbrush was taller; so tall
that I could not see through. I stopped for a moment, and listened.
All was still. Not a bird twittered among the leaves overhead. I was
vexed that I had allowed myself to be drawn upon such a wild-goose
chase, and I decided that I had better begin to make my way back
to the road; and as I was considering this, I heard the bark of a dog.
It was a single, sharp bark, and it stopped abruptly, as if a hand had
been clapped over the animal’s mouth. I listened again, but it came
no more. “What should a dog be doing here?” I thought; and full of
curiosity I pushed on through the underbrush in the direction of the
sound. In a moment I had broken through the tanglewood, and I
was standing at the edge of a clearing, in the midst of which was a
little house.
It was a very tiny house indeed,—not much more, in fact, than a
hut. Its door was closed, and the window beside the door was
barred with shutters. I listened intently, thinking to hear again the
bark of a dog, but I heard nothing. Evidently the place was deserted.
I crossed the open space before the door, and as I did so I noticed,
clinging to the trunk and lower branches of a tree at the side of the
clearing, what appeared to be a wasp’s nest; but an enormous
wasp’s nest, big enough, in all conscience, to contain a man if need
be; a wasp’s nest greater than I should have thought could exist in
the world. I looked at it curiously, and coming nearer I saw, crawling
over it, a number of wasps. I counted them, and there were eleven.
They arose with one accord and flew in great agitation about my
head; and at the same time I heard a voice from inside the wasp’s
nest,—the voice of a human being, but not the one I had already
heard; a voice much stronger and louder. I put my ear against the
wasp’s nest, and from within came these words:
“Don’t speak before you’re spoken to!”
“Who is it?” I said. “Where are you?”
“Beware the dog!” said the voice again.
“But who—what—?” I began.

The Prisoner Inside the Wasp’s Nest

“I can’t get out! I’m imprisoned inside the wasp’s nest! Do as you’re
bid, and don’t speak before you’re spoken to. Beware the dog!”