low who grabbed a penny
had ten fellows pulling at him. The women and small fry did not get
into this mess, but they dodged around, and made snatches wherever they
could get their hands into the pile of boys and men.

They all yelled, and shouted and tussled and scrambled, until Priscilla,
who was dancing around with her bag, gave another throw into a different
part of the road. Then every fellow jerked himself loose from the rest,
and a fresh rush was made, and a fresh pile of darkeys arose in a
minute.

We stood and laughed until our backs ached, but, as I happened to look
around at the house, I saw the queen standing on her door-step looking
mournfully at the fun. She was alone, for even her good neighbor had
rushed out to see what she could pick up. I was glad to find that the
new monarch, who still wore her crown,--which no one would have imagined
to have ever been a saucepan,--had sense enough to keep out of such a
scrimmage of the populace, and I went back and gave her a shilling. Her
face shone, and I could see that she felt that she never could have
grabbed that much.

When there had been three or four good scrambles, Priscilla ran up the
road, a little way, and threw out all the pennies that were left in the
bag. Then she made a rush for them, and, having a good start, she got
there first, and had both hands full of dust and pennies before any one
else reached the spot. She was not to be counted out of that game.

After this last scramble, we came away. The queen had taken her throne
indoors, and we went in and shook hands with her, telling her we would
soon come and see how she was getting along. I don't suppose she
understood us, but it didn't matter. When we had gone some distance, we
looked back, and there was still a pile of darkeys rolling and tumbling
in the dust.

CHAPTER XIV.

A HOT CHASE.

That afternoon, Rectus and I went over to the African settlement to see
how the kingdom worked. It was rather soon, perhaps, to make a call on
the new queen, but we were out for a walk, and might as well go that way
as any other.

When we came near the house, we heard a tremendous uproar, and soon saw
that there was a big crowd in the yard. We couldn't imagine what was
going on, unless the queen had changed her shilling, and was indulging
in the luxury of giving a scramble. We ran up quickly, but the crowd was
so large that we could not get into the yard, nor see what all the
commotion was about.