the stage and inspect the "preparations." Two
gents promptly accepted. One of these looked
to be a most respectable elderly householder,
with the highest shoulders, the longest nose,
and the closest eyes I ever see together; a
sharp hand, I'll be bound. He peeped about
him with such a air of not having been there
before, that I began to think he had. He felt
the handles and bolts of the clothes-press,
pricked the panels with his penknife, as if he
thought a confederal or two might be concealed
within the half-inch plank, and finally looked at
us under the press, which was raised on trestles,
as though he would say, " You're all right in
my hands, my friends. Catch them a humbugging
me."

T'other gent, he devoted himself to the cords,
examining them through a heye-glass, pulling
them across his knee, and handing them down
to be pulled at by us, which they was. Similiar
to the first gent, there was something in his
manner that made me think he had either been
there before, or had been generally in the showman
line— he knew so very well what he was
about.

When this was over, another friend of the
Mrs. Davingpodge went on the stage, and
proposed that we, the audience, should choose two
of our "body" for to sit on the stage, keep a
heye on the proceedings, and tie the knots
which was going to be huntied. There was, at
first, a great shuffling of feet, as if all was
coming forrard, but it ended in nought. Our
"body" didn't seem to know its members at all.
At last, after a long pause, three gents stepped
out, and, hoddly enough, one of the two as
remained was the gent with the high shoulders
and long nose. The other was a gentleman
apparently of Jewish horigin, which nobody
seemed to know.

The friend of the Mrs. Davingpodge then made
another speech, saying nothing about sperrets,
but giving us leave to form any opinion we
liked, about what we come to see. We thought
this very kind and civil, and me and Mrs.
Lufkin applauded it with the big umbrella, till
Tom said that was enough. After that the two
Mrs. Davingpodge, which was so like each other
that you couldn't tell which was most like,
come forrard, and was tied hand and foot, one
at each end of the clothes-press, the two gents
pulling the cords tremendous tight indeed, and
quite puffing with their exertions, so kindly
made, to satisfy us that all was on the square.

As far as their legs went, I could see that
they was pretty fast, but their hands being tied
behind them out of sight, I had to take the
word of the honourable high-shouldered gent,
and t'other gent, that all was as tight as tight
could be. The doors of the clothes-press was
then shut, one at a time, and secured with a
bolt by the high-shouldered gent. It was a very
peculiar and hobstinate bolt, and took more
than a minute to fasten. Me and Mrs. Lufkin
observed afterwards, that, every time the clothes-
press had to be shut, this haggravating bolt
took longer and longer to fix, the Mrs. Davingpodge
no doubt sitting quiet inside all the
time.

At last all the doors was shut and fastened,
and then came a wonderful thing! At a little
square window, in the middle door, we saw a
white hand flickering and beckoning! Presently
it came out, the fingers, wrist, the whole arm,
bare to the shoulder.

"The sperrets !" shrieked Mrs. L. clutching
me round the neck in her flurry.

There was a burst of applause, followed by a
titter, owing to Mrs. L.'s being overheard
remarking to me that, to whatever spear of
being the sperrets belonged, she could see that
vaccination was practised there.

The clothes-press was now thrown open, and
the Mrs. Davingpodge appeared tied as they
was shut in. But a gent in the audience
having expressed some dissatisfaction about the
knots, the friend of Mrs. Davingpodge invited
any one to examine the same— whereby there
stepped out a dapper little old gentleman, in
large blue spectacles, who looked at them for a
long time, and then said it was all right, and
very wonderful, he thought.

"What's your name, sir?" asked a very stern-
looking gent, in our front row.

"I am ze Baron von— " began the little man.
But his voice and manner was so comical, that
the audience giggled, and neither me nor Mrs.
Lufkin could catch the name. It was the same
whenever he spoke, so I must call him the
Baron von Giggle.

The Mrs. Davingpodge's friend now asked
the baron whether he felt like— which means in
English, didn't object to— being tied up in the
clothes-press, between the Mrs. D. The baron
hesitated, but, seeing another gent coming, said
something that sounded like "yah voale," and
got in. The friend then said that the gas must
be lowered for this hinteresting hexperiment,
seeing that the hintroduction into the clothes-
press of a new horganisation habsorbed more
hatmosphere. It seemed to us as if the
hatmosphere was more likely to absorb the Baron
von Giggle. Howsoever, the baron was tied by
the high-shouldered gent in what must have
been, from the faces he made, a very hagonising
position, and the doors was shut.

Then wasn't there a to-do! The fiddle, the
tambourine, and the post-horn, seemed to be
fighting, the tambourine getting punished
shocking; after which, the post-horn jumped
out of the little window exactly on the shoulder
of the gent of Jewish horigin, who seemed very
much surprised indeed, and rubbed his shoulder
with a rueful expression that greatly amused
the audience. After they'd had their laugh,
crash went the clothes-press doors open from
within, and there sat the three gents all fast
tied— the Baron von Giggle crowned with the
tambourine, and the fiddle laid across his
knees!

"Will you please to explain whether you felt
any peculiar sensation, sir?" inquired the friend
of the Mrs. D.

The baron winked, and blinked, and wriggled,