shall go about, and see for myself."

"Go ahead," said the Very Imp, "and I will attend to this fellow who
wants to be toned up." So saying he joined the Languid Youth.

"Look here," said that individual, regarding him with interest, "do
you black and shine yourself every morning?"

"No," said the other, "it is water-proof varnish. You want to be
invigorated, don't you? Well, I will tell you a splendid way to
begin. You see that Bee-man has put down his hive and his coat with
the bees in it. Just wait till he gets out of sight, and then catch a
lot of those bees, and squeeze them flat. If you spread them on a
sticky rag, and make a plaster, and put it on the small of your back,
it will invigorate you like every thing, especially if some of the
bees are not quite dead."

"Yes," said the Languid Youth, looking at him with his mild eyes,
"but if I had energy enough to catch a bee I would be satisfied.
Suppose you catch a lot for me."

"The subject is changed," said the Very Imp. "We are now about to
visit the spacious chamber of the King of the Snap-dragons."

"That is a flower," said the Languid Youth.

"You will find him a gay old blossom," said the other. "When he has
chased you round his room, and has blown sparks at you, and has
snorted and howled, and cracked his tail, and snapped his jaws like a
pair of anvils, your energies will be toned up higher than ever
before in your life."

"No doubt of it," said the Languid Youth; "but I think I will begin
with something a little milder."

"Well then," said other, "there is a flat-tailed Demon of the Gorge
in here. He is generally asleep, and, if you say so, you can slip
into the farthest corner of his cave, and I'll solder his tail to the
opposite wall. Then he will rage and roar, but he can't get at you,
for he doesn't reach all the way across his cave; I have measured
him. It will tone you up wonderfully to sit there and watch him."

"Very likely," said the Languid Youth; "but I would rather stay
outside and let you go up in the corner. The performance in that way
will be more interesting to me."

"You are dreadfully hard to please," said the Very Imp. "I have
offered them to you loose, and I have offered them fastened to a
wall, and now the best thing I can do is to give you a chance at one
of them that can't move at all. It is the Ghastly Griffin and is
enchanted. He can't stir so much as the tip of his whiskers for a
thousand years. You can go to his cav