us draw lots from
the donkey!'

'Draw lots from the donkey?' repeated Yellow-cap, puzzled in his turn.

'To be sure--the way we always do it--draw lots of hair, you know,
from the donkey's tail,' continued his Majesty, brightening up, and
turning back the ruffles from his wrists. 'The way it is done is this:
we each of us in turn pull out a handful; and the one that makes the
donkey kick first wins the match.'

'Very well,' said Yellow-cap, 'I agree, on condition that you take the
first pull.'

'Such courtesy shows the true prince,' replied the King, with a
pleased smile. 'I accept the favour as frankly as it was offered. Ho!
fellows, back the animal round there--give him plenty of room to
kick--so. Now, then, my lords and gentlemen, make a circle round us,
and mark his tail with care. And do you, Mr. Chancellor of the
Jingle, act as umpire.'

Everything having been thus arranged, and amidst a pause of breathless
interest, his Transparent Majesty King Ormund, Emperor of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland, and Defender of the Faith, advanced on
tiptoe towards the donkey, who, not suspecting what was to come, stood
with its hind quarters turned to him, its head being held fast by the
half-witted driver.

When within about two feet of the donkey's heels the monarch stopped,
and stretching out his arm, he grasped with his hand the long tuft of
hair which grew at the end of the animal's tail. Then by a sudden
motion he gave it such a tug as might almost have fetched the tail
itself out by the roots.

Without an instant's delay the donkey kicked out as if it wanted to
put its hoofs through the skylight in the roof of the theatre; but,
King Ormund's stomach happening to be in the way, that potentate was
lifted from the ground and made to pass through the air in a graceful
curve. He came down upon the upturned face of the Chancellor of the
Jingle (who was too busy with his duties as umpire to notice his
danger) and flattened him out upon the stage in such a way as to make
it quite impossible for him to give his decision.

CHAPTER X.

AN ABSOLUTE MONARCH.

Upon this tableau the curtain came down; but the applause was really
so deafening that all the performers--including, of course, the King
and the donkey--had to come out and pass before the footlights: when
the donkey got a bouquet, and the King a bunch of turniptops. They
then returned to the stage and took their places as before, and the
curtain went