y twining a thread of spun glass for
the rigging of a ship; in another a man sitting on a rug with a snake
before him, whose flat head stood stiffly up from his coil, and waved a
little to the motion of his master's finger; in another, a man was
bending over a flower-pot with a wand in his hand, and as he moved the
wand a stalk grew from the pot and at its end a bud appeared and
unfolded into a flower before the very eyes of his audience; in another
a great ape was marking down figures with chalk as his master called
them; in another a shuttle was weaving back and forth in a loom; there
seemed to be no end to the curious and diverting things to be seen in
those booths. The people in them were apparently of all the nations of
the earth; there were brown men and yellow men and black men, as well as
white; men with slant eyes, with round eyes, with flat noses, with
beak-noses, with wooly hair, with straight hair; there were turbans, and
fezzes, and hoods, and white gowns, and coloured robes, and velvet
jackets, and cotton blouses; and from all the venders rose such a hubbub
as Freddie had never in his life heard before, except once in the Gaunt
Street Theatre at home. A lively crowd chaffered with the venders and
walked in the paved street before their booths. It was a scene full of
life and colour, and Freddie was transported with delight.

"Oh!" he said, "can't we get down here and see all those sights? I
should like to spend the whole day here!"

"We've got other fish to fry just now, Freddie," said Toby. "We'll have
to see this some other time."

"It is a precious thought," said the Sly Old Fox, "that we have here
with us on our mules enough treasure to buy this whole bazaar, if we
wished to do it. It is a beautiful thought."

"Six 'undred paces to the right!" said Mr. Punch.

"Shiraz the Rug-Merchant!" said Toby. "By the looks of it, there must be
about five hundred rug-merchants along there."

"What was the number we were to find him by?" said Aunt Amanda.

"It's 3103101," said Toby.

"You are quite mistaken," said Mr. Punch. "Hit's 3013101."

"That's exactly what I said," said Toby.

"Excuse me," said the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg, "it seems to me
that it is--er--3101301."

"My recollection is," said the Churchwarden, "that it is 3031010."

"I am sorry to differ," said the Sly Old Codger, "but I am perfectly
sure it is 3013010."

"Why don't you look at the paper?" said Aunt Amanda, in an exaspera