therefore came to an agreement with the King, that a third should go to the royal treasury, a third to the poor of Rodentia, and that he should keep the remaining third himself; an arrangement which was SO satisfactory to all parties that his Majesty gave him a bodyguard of two hundred Ratti, amongst whom were his old friends, to whom he distributed such liberal presents that they agreed to stick to him as long as he had anything left.

Taking some of the more valuable articles as a present to the old Countess Porcupine, they set out on their journey; and Rana, leaving the Ratti encamped in the hills till his return, waited on her highness, who received him very graciously, but in great state, wearing a dress so elaborately quilled that it was a wonder how she ever got into it. She had heard of the minstrel's prowess, and also of the doings of "those horrid Radicals " the insurgents; for the old lady was a true Conservative, and her arguments were so extremely pointed that very few people liked to attack her. For a whole day the Princess, the Countess, and the Minstrel, assisted by Madame Nightingale, who had a pretty taste, and had flown over to help them, were busy making an elegant basket-work cradle, woven of parti-coloured grass and rushes, lined with moss and wool, and decorated with flags and flowers. In this cradle, supported by long tendrils and ribands of bark, which left it to swing gently to and fro, Rana seated himself on the following morning, and then a company of Mandible guards, in

shining armour, lifted him into the air, and, led by Madame Nightingale, transported him swiftly towards Batrachia; whence, in the same cradle, the Crown Prince and his nurse were to be conveyed to a place of safety on the estate of the Countess Porcupine.

Can you imagine the overwhelming joy and delight which transported the whole Court when Madame Nightingale flew to impart the news of the arrival of Rana the minstrel, and the reason for his coming? Words would fail to describe the uproarious greeting which saluted him as he bounded from the cradle right into the arms of Ka Foozlum, the Prime Minister. The Court trumpeters struck up such a blast on their whelkophones and, whigmaleeries that Echo itself was too much startled to make any reply; and while the infant Prince was held aloft amidst the acclamations of the nobles, the Minister of Finance, who had nothing else to do, and so had practised ground and lofty tumbling, stood on his head at the very foot of the Throne, an indiscretion unnoticed by the Queen Mother, whose eyes were filled with

tears.

The Crown Prince and his nurse were quickly on their journey under the escort of the faithful Mandibles, and some old Toads who still retained places at Court actually took the jewels from their own heads to send as presents to the Princess. As to Rana he knew well enough how to get back again, and before midnight on the second day, dressed in Minstrel garb, and singing