Okay so if he works so hard, King Birtram must play hard, too, right?
Right. Every day at 5 o'clock sharp, the King tells Eric to fetch him his stilts, and then he proceeds to gallivant about the castle and grounds on his tall red stilts (20-25).
Sure, he looks kooky, but the townsfolk love it, so hey, why not?
Actually, there is one person who doesn't love the king's nightly stilt-walks: Lord Droon. The name alone oughta clue you in that this guy hates sunshine and happiness.
Lord Droon always fumes up in his room about how the king carries on walking on stilts (27-28). In other words, the dude's a total killjoy.