ccasion, had not reached the tide of League affairs at
its swell.

Whether the machine was an eight-day affair, and had accomplished the
moments of its destiny, or simply a piece of mechanism poorly planned, we
are quite unable to say. But at the moment when the Quaker period of the
aforesaid conference had reached its most eloquent passage, a cracking
sound was heard in the vicinity of his ghostship, followed by a rattling
explosion, whose fussiness could hardly be resembled to anything but an
avalanche of dry bones hurled from some upper region; and, instantly, in
obedience to this warning, a desire to forsake present surroundings for
some less melancholy region took the form of an inspiration in the breast
of each "politishun." In what way this manoeuvre would have been
executed, if the chairman had persisted in the high-tragedy role he had
assigned himself, by remaining to announce some plan of retreat, is
another mystery connected with this event, with which we are not concerned
beyond the bare announcement. But it is certain that that individual,
taking time by the forelock, had made a successful advance on the rear
window, carrying the sash with him, and that his followers were engaged in
a very animated game of leap-frog, directed towards similar advantages at
other angles of the building. In less time than is consumed by a record of
the event, the doors were blocked with a mass of rolling, tumbling,
somersaulting Leaguers. The windows had their full quota of struggling,
sweating passengers. A large crack in the wall was in labor with three
burly forms, and yet a score or more were unaccommodated, and, with heads
ducked, were hurling themselves endwise against the retreating columns,
with an energy which evinced the strong determination of each to avoid the
fate of that hindmost unfortunate, whom Satan, from time immemorial, has
exacted for toll.

But, though some confusion waited upon this exodus from the neighborhood
of the big haunt, it was conducted with greater dispatch than had
characterized any similar movement in the history of the rickety old
building, and soon the boss straggler, having eluded the individual on two
sticks by pigeon-winging it through a hole in the roof, rolled upon the
green sward beneath with a grunt of overpowering relief.

When the building was completely deserted, and the swallows, half in
doubt, had returned to their perch under its eaves, a sound, which could
scarcely have been