body-guard made a back for the tutor; the
librarian stood for the portrait-painter.
Away went the high and mighty personages,
like schoolboys, beginning with very
low backs—for none of them were very
expert in the game—but gradually making
backs higher and higher. The noble quintett
found it rather hot work. The king did not
long stand a quiet spectator of the scene; he
determined to try too. His majesty, as his
dutiful and undutiful subjects are aware, is
very thin, and not over strong. The librarian
happened to be nearest to him at the time;
and he ran towards him, calling out. The
librarian loyally made a back, and the
sportive sovereign went over easily enough;
being very light, and a good horseman, he
succeeded in the vault without difficulty.
The king then stood for the librarian, who
would have given a good deal to have been
excused; but his majesty would have it so,
and to have refused would have given mortal
offence. The librarian ran, and vaulted;
down went the back, and down went the
vaulter with it. His majesty and the
guardian of the Oudean manuscripts went
rolling together amongst the flower-beds.
The king got up, a little annoyed, exclaiming,
"Boppery bopp, you are as heavy as an
elephant!" The librarian feared his royal
master would be in a passion; but,
magnanimously, he was not at all. The barber
adroitly made a back for him forthwith, and
over he went blithely. The lightest of the
august party was not far off; and the king
made a back for him, aud succeeded in
getting him safely over, without accident or
breakage. It was then all right. Away
they went, vaulting and standing, round and
round, until majesty was tired out, and
wanted iced claret to cool him.

To leap-frog succeeded a game of snowballs,
which was induced by the following
train of reasoning: Christmas-time is just
past. Christmas is called in India the great
day of the sahebs, and became the subject of
deliberation and debate by the king in
council. Christmas sports led to a description
of what winter was; winter led to snow;
snow, to snowballing. The privy-councillors
described to his majesty the art and pastime
of snow-balling, as well as they could. To a
royal inquirer who has never seen snow, it is
not very easy to describe it vividly. To aid
the elucidation, the king's garden abounds
with a large yellow flower, the African marigold,
the smaller varieties of which are used
to ornament houses in Calcutta at Christmas-time.
It is not quite so large as a dahlia,
but somewhat similar in form and appearance.
When the snow-balling had been
described to the king as well as his instructors
and advisers could describe it, he pulled
three or four of these yellow flowers, and
threw them at the librarian, who happened
to be the most distant of the party. The
good courtiers all followed the royal
example; and soon every one was pelting right
and left. The yellow flowers served as
snowballs, and the whole of the select
assembly entered into the game with hearty
good-will The king bore his share in the
combat right royally, discharging three
missiles for one that was aimed at him. He
laughed, and enjoyed the sport amazingly.
Before concluding, the combatants were all a
mass of yellow leaves; they stuck in the
hair and clothes, and on the king's London
hat, in a most tenacious way. It was a
delightful result that the king was amused;
he had found out a new pleasure, which he
proposes to enjoy as long as those yellow
flowers continue in bloom. The gardeners
afterwards set the garden to-rights again.

While his majesty was reposing after the
afternoon's exertions, the nawab, or prime
minister aud commander of the forces,
Rooshun-u-Dowlah, and the general at the
head of the police, Rajah Buktawri Singh by
name, were admitted to an audience by his
majesty, respecting a point of etiquette. The
real ground of their complaint was, that the
favour and intimacy which the European
members of the household enjoy, are by
no means pleasing to the higher native
nobility of Oude—nay, are altogether
displeasing. When the illustrious barber was
by, the Indian grandees were but secondary
beings.

The barber, who is also park-ranger and
head of the menagerie, being admitted to
present his monthly bill to his majesty,
entered with a roll of paper in his hand. At
Lucknow, and in India generally, long
documents, legal and commercial, are usually
written, not in books, or on successive sheets,
but on a long scroll, strip being joined to
strip for that purpose, and the whole rolled
up like a map.

''Ha, khan!" said the king, observing him;
"the monthly bill, is it?"

"It is, your majesty," was the smiling
reply.

"Come, out with it. Let us see the extent.
Unroll it, khan."

The king was in a playful humour; and
the barber was always in the same mood as
the king. He held the end of the roll in his
hand, and threw the rest along the floor,
allowing it to unroll itself as it retreated.
It reached to the other side of the long apartment,
a goodly array of items and figures,
closely written too. The king wanted it
measured. A measure was brought, and the
bill was found to be four yards and a-half
long. The amount was upwards of ninety
thousand rupees, or upwards of nine
thousand pounds. The king looked at the total,
and said, as he did so, "Larger than usual,
khan."

"Yes, your majesty; the plate, the new
elephants, the chandeliers, the rhinoceroses,
the—"

"Oh, it's all right, I know," said the king,