lla. "And they
are every one of them devoid of humour, except of the most obvious
kind--no subtlety."

"When _I_ was your age," said poor Louisa gently, "I used to laugh
very heartily over the adventures of _Tom Thumb_."

Claude seemed touched. "There are some capital situations in certain
of them," he conceded, "which might be quite effectively treated."

"How?" we asked weakly.

It was Drusilla, the most alarming of the children, who finally
undertook to sketch us out an example.

After a short meditation, "Something like this," she said. "The
situation, of course, you have met with before, but as remodelled you
might call it--

THE TRIUMPH OF VIRTUE;
OR,
THE BAD FAIRY FOILED.

A certain King and Queen had one daughter, to whose christening
they invited a large company, forgetting as usual a particularly
important and bad-tempered Fairy, who signified her annoyance in
the usual manner.

The attendants of the little Princess (having read their
story-books) were preparing dolefully enough to fall asleep for a
hundred years, when the Fairy, with a contemptuous sniff, remarked
that the spell would not take effect for some time yet.

They breathed again and had almost forgotten the affair by the
time the Princess had grown up. But the Fairy had so arranged it
that the spell fell upon the Princess at the time when she was
engaged in making her choice of a husband from among the suitors
who had arrived at her father's Court.

The Princess was now bewitched in this way--that good men appeared
bad, ugly men handsome, and _vice versa_. The Fairy had hoped that
she would thus make a mess of her matrimonial affairs and live
unhappily ever after.

But she had reckoned without the disposition of the Princess, a
kind good girl with an overpowering sense of duty. When pressed
to choose, she replied firmly, "I will have no other than Prince
Felix."

To her his ugliness seemed pathetic and his character evidently
needed reformation so urgently that she longed to be at the job.
No one wondered at her choice, for he was, of course, the most
handsome and excellent of men.

Ultimately the Fairy broke her spell in a fit of exasperation, but
without any gratifying result. The Princess seemed happier than
ever and would sometimes say to a slightly puzzled friend:--

"Hasn't Felix improved _wo