hunder! Where's my boots? Boots! Slaves! Hounds! Get me
my boots! boots!! boots!!!"

[Illustration]

"O! he's a Prince!" cried the King, jumping up. "I want no further
proof. He's a Prince. Give him boots. And blow, horners, blow! Beat your
drums, drummers! Join hands all! Clear the floor for a dance!"

And in a trice the floor was cleared, and about five thousand couples
stood ready for the first note from the band.

"Hold up!" cried the Giant. "Hold up! here is one I forgot," and he
commenced feeling in his pockets. "I know I have got her somewhere. O
yes, here she is!" and taking the Lady Nerralina from his coat-tail
pocket, he put her carefully upon the table.

Every face in the room was in an instant the picture of horror,--all but
that of the little girl whose duty it was to fasten Nerralina's dress
every morning,--who got behind the door, and jumping up, and clapping
her hands and heels, exclaimed, "Good! good! Now she can see to fasten
her own frock behind!"

The Prince was the first to move, and, with tears in his eyes, he
approached the luckless lady, who was sobbing piteously.

"Poor thing!" said he, and, putting his arm around her, he kissed her.
What joy thrilled through Nerralina! She had never been kissed by a man
before, and it did for her what such things have done for many a young
lady since--it turned her head!

"Blow, horners, blow!" shouted the King. "Join hands all!"

Seizing Nerralina's hand, and followed by the Prince and Princess, who
sprang from the table, he led off the five thousand couples in a grand
gallopade.

The Giant stood, and laughed heartily, until, at last, being no longer
able to restrain himself, he sprang into the midst of them, and danced
away royally, trampling about twenty couples under foot at every jump.

"Dance away, old fellow!" shouted the King, from the other end of the
room. "Dance away, my boy, and never mind the people."

And the music blew louder, and round they all went faster and faster,
until the building shook and trembled from the cellar to the roof.

At length, perfectly exhausted, they all stopped, and Ting-a-ling,
slipping down from the Giant's frill, went out of the door.

"O!" said he, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes, "it was all so
funny, and every body was so happy--that--that I almost forgot my
bereavement."

TING-A-LING AND THE FIVE MAGICIANS.

Ting-a-ling, for some weeks after the death of his young companion,
Lin