"OLD KING COLE was not always a king, nor was he born a member of any royal family. It was only chance"hard luck" he used to call itthat made him a king at all. He had always been a poor man, being the son of an apple peddler, who died and left him nothing but a donkey and a fiddle. But that was enough for Cole, who never bothered his head about the world's goods, but took things as they came and refused to worry about anything." and so begins the story of how this happy soul became the king of a country by accident.