event disturbed the general rejoicing. This
was no other than the Emperor of France's aunt
catching hold of his hair. The proceedings
abruptly terminated, arid the court tumultuously
dissolved.

It was when the shades of the next evening
but one were beginning to fall, 'ere yet the
silver beams of Luna touched the earth, that
four forms might have been descried slowly
advancing towards the weeping willow on the
borders of the pond, the now deserted scene of
the day before yesterday's agonies and triumphs.
On a nearer approach, and by a practised eye,
these might have been identified as the forms of
the Pirate-Colonel with his Bride, and of the day
before yesterday's gallant prisoner with his Bride.

On the beauteous faces of the Nymphs, dejection
sat enthroned. All four reclined under the
willow for some minutes without speaking, till
at length the Bride of the Colonel poutingly
observed, "It's of no use pretending any more,
and we had better give it up."

"Hah!" exclaimed the Pirate. "Pretending?"

"Don't go on like that; you worry me,"
returned his Bride.

The lovely Bride of Tinkling echoed the
incredible declaration. The two warriors
exchanged stoney glances.

"If," said the Bride of the Pirate-Colonel,
"grown-up people WON'T do what they ought
to do, and WILL put us out, what comes of our
pretending?"

"We only get into scrapes," said the Bride
of Tinkling.

"You know very well," pursued the Colonel's
Bride, "that Miss Drowvey wouldn't fall. You
complained of it yourself. And you know how
disgracefully the court-martial ended. As to
our marriage; would my people acknowledge it
at home?"

"Or would my people acknowledge ours?"
said the Bride of Tinkling.

Again the two warriors exchanged stoney
glances.

"If you knocked at the door and claimed me,
after you were told to go away," said the
Colonel's Bride, "you would only have your
hair pulled, or your ears, or your nose."

"If you persisted in ringing at the bell and
claiming Me," said the Bride of Tinkling to
that gentleman, " you would have things
dropped on your head from the window over
the handle, or you would be played upon by the
garden-engine."

"And at your own homes," resumed the Bride
of the Colonel, " it would be just as bad. You
would be sent to bed, or something equally
undignified. Again: how would you support us?"

The Pirate-Colonel replied, in a courageous
voice, "By rapine!" But his Bride retorted,
suppose the grown-up people wouldn't be
rapined? Then, said the Colonel, they should
pay the penalty in Blood. But suppose they
should object, retorted his Bride, and wouldn't
pay the penalty in Blood or anything else?

A mournful silence ensued.

"Then do you no longer love me, Alice?"
asked the Colonel.

"Redforth! I am ever thine," returned his
Bride.

"Then do you no longer love mo, Nettie?"
asked the present writer.

"Tinkling! I am ever thine," returned my
Bride.

We all four embraced. Let me not be
misunderstood by the giddy. The Colonel
embraced his own Bride and I embraced mine. But
two times two make four.

"Nettie and I," said Alice, mournfully,
"have been considering our position. The
grown-up people are too strong for us. They
make us ridiculous. Besides, they have changed
the times. William Tinkling's baby-brother was
christened yesterday. What took place? Was
any king present? Answer, William."

I said No, unless disguised as great-uncle
Chopper.

"Any queen?"

There had been no queen that I knew of at
our house. There might have been one in the
kitchen; but I didn't think so, or the servants
would have mentioned it.

"Any fairies?"

None that were visible.

"We had an idea among us, I think," said
Alice, with a melancholy smile, "we four, that
Miss Grimmer would prove to be the wicked fairy,
and would come in at the christening with her
crutch-stick, and give the child a bad gift? Was
there anything of that sort? Answer, William."

I said, that Ma had said afterwards (and so
she had), that great-uncle Chopper's gift was a
shabby one; but she hadn't said a bad one.
She had called it shabby, electrotyped, second-
hand, and below his income.

"It must be the grown-up people who have
changed all this," said Alice. "We couldn't
have changed it, if we had been so inclined, and
we never should have been. Or perhaps Miss
Grimmer is a wicked fairy, after all, and won't
act up to it, because the grown-up people have
persuaded her not to. Either way, they would
make us ridiculous if we told them what we
expected."

"Tyrants!" muttered the Pirate-Colonel.

"Nay, my Redforth," said Alice, "say not
so. Call not names, my Redforth, or they will
apply to Pa."

"Let 'em!" said the Colonel. "I don't
care! Who's he?"

Tinkling here undertook the perilous task
of remonstrating with his lawless friend, who
consented to withdraw the moody expressions
above quoted.

"What remains for us to do?" Alice went on
in her mild wise way. "We must educate, we
must pretend in a new manner, we must wait."

The Colonel clenched his teeth—four out in
front, and a piece off another, and he had been
twice dragged to the door of a dentist-despot,
but had escaped from his guards. "How
educate? How pretend in a new manner?
How wait?"

"Educate the grown-up people," replied
Alice. "We part to-night.—Yes, Redforth!"
—for the Colonel tucked up his cuffs, "part