ted, there'll be no one to
dig the gold!"

"We could hire full-grown white labourers, my dear. Of course at a
living wage, but, as they would work more systematically, they would
obtain a far larger output, so we should make a handsome profit by the
change."

"Ah, when you put it like _that_, Sidney, it makes all the difference. I
could see for myself that those hideous little horrors weren't taking
their work seriously."

"There's to be a State Council to-morrow morning," said the King. "It
would be a good opportunity to inform them that we do not intend to
countenance slavery any longer."

"That ought to have an excellent effect," Queen Selina replied. "I
shouldn't wonder if it made us more popular than ever.... Why, we're
back in the city already!... How delighted the dear people seem to see
us!... Yes, Children, you can empty the sack. The love of one's subjects
is well worth the money--and it's not as if we were ever likely to miss
it!"

The next morning after breakfast the King and Queen held their first
State Council, Prince Clarence, of whose business capacity both his
parents had a great opinion, being given a seat at the board. There
were, it appeared, various measures on the _agenda_ which, as the
President explained, were of the highest political importance, being
concerned with the settlement of such matters as the precise number of
cherries that were to be strung on a stick and sold for a groschen at
old women's fruit-stalls; the dimensions of the piece of jam that a
huckster should be permitted to put in his porridge; whether the
watchmen's horns really needed new mouthpieces, and, if so, whether
these should be of ivory or bone. Questions which had to be given the
fullest consideration and debated at prodigious length before the
Sovereigns could be asked to affix their signatures and seals to the
decrees.

Clarence fidgeted with undisguised impatience, and King Sidney was more
than once under the necessity of raising the golden hand at the end of
his sceptre to his lips in order to conceal an irrepressible yawn. But
at last the state business was disposed of, and the King was able to
introduce his own. It was clear from the vehement wagging of the
Councillors' white beards while he was announcing the Royal intention to
emancipate all Gnomes at present in the Gold mine, that they regarded
the new departure with no great favour. The President himself, although
he admitted that it concerned the Sov