tive,
must, alas! remain unexplained for the moment. The rug, by the way,
had completely disappeared, my friend comforting me on this score,
however, by saying he had seen it rolled up and taken away by one whom
he knew.

"We are very tidy people here, stranger," he said, "and everything
found Lying about goes back to the Palace store-rooms. You will laugh
to see the lumber there, for few of us ever take the trouble to reclaim
our property."

Heaven knows I was in no laughing mood when I saw that enchanted web
again!

When I had lain and watched the brightening scene for a time, I got up,
and having stretched and shaken my clothes into some sort of order, we
strolled down the hill and joined the light-hearted crowds that twined
across the plain and through the streets of their city of booths. They
were the prettiest, daintiest folk ever eyes looked upon, well-formed
and like to us as could be in the main, but slender and willowy, so
dainty and light, both the men and the women, so pretty of cheek and
hair, so mild of aspect, I felt, as I strode amongst them, I could have
plucked them like flowers and bound them up in bunches with my belt.
And yet somehow I liked them from the first minute; such a happy,
careless, light-hearted race, again I say, never was seen before. There
was not a stain of thought or care on a single one of those white
foreheads that eddied round me under their peaked, blossom-like caps,
the perpetual smile their faces wore never suffered rebuke anywhere;
their very movements were graceful and slow, their laughter was low and
musical, there was an odour of friendly, slothful happiness about them
that made me admire whether I would or no.

Unfortunately I was not able to live on laughter, as they appeared to
be, so presently turning to my acquaintance, who had told me his name
was the plain monosyllabic An, and clapping my hand on his shoulder as
he stood lost in sleepy reflection, said, in a good, hearty way,
"Hullo, friend Yellow-jerkin! If a stranger might set himself athwart
the cheerful current of your meditations, may such a one ask how far
'tis to the nearest wine-shop or a booth where a thirsty man may get a
mug of ale at a moderate reckoning?"

That gilded youth staggered under my friendly blow as though the hammer
of Thor himself had suddenly lit upon his shoulder, and ruefully
rubbing his tender skin, he turned on me mild, handsome eyes, answering
after a moment, during which his