to Davy as if a thousand of him had come back. At this moment a
voice called out, "Bring Frungles this way;" and the crowd gathered
around him and began to rudely hustle him across the room.

"That's not my name!" cried Davy, struggling desperately to free
himself. "It isn't even the name I came in with!"

[Illustration: "THE CROWD BEGAN TO HUSTLE HIM ACROSS THE ROOM."]

"Tut! Tut!" said a trembling voice near him; and Davy caught sight of
the Hole-keeper, also struggling in the midst of the crowd, with his
great book hugged tightly to his breast.

"What does it all mean?" said Davy, anxiously.

"It means that we are to be taken before the king," said the
Hole-keeper, in an agitated voice. "Don't say a word until you are
spoken to, and then keep perfectly still;" and the next moment they
were dragged up to a low platform, where the king was sitting on a
gorgeous tin throne. He was precisely like the rest of the creatures,
except that he was a little larger, and wore a blue paper coat and a
sparkling tin crown, and held in his hand a long white wand, with red
lines running screw-wise around it, like a barber's pole. He stared at
Davy and the Hole-keeper for a moment, and then called out, "Are the
chairs buttered?"

"They are!" shouted the crowd, like one man.

"Then sit down!" roared the king.

The crowd shuffled off in all directions, and then engaged in a confused
struggle for the chairs. They fought desperately for a few moments,
tearing each others' shirts, and screaming out hoarse little squawks of
pain, while the king thumped furiously with his wand, and the
Hole-keeper trembled like a leaf. At last all were seated and the hubbub
ceased, and the king, frowning savagely at the Hole-keeper, exclaimed,
in a terrible voice, "Who broke the barley-sugar skylight?"

The Hole-keeper began fumbling at the leaves of his book in great
agitation, when the king, pointing at him with his wand, roared
furiously: "Boil _him_, at all events!"

"Tut! Tut! your majesty," began the Hole-keeper, confusedly, with his
stiff little tunic fairly rustling with fright; but before he could
utter another word he was rushed upon and dragged away, screaming with
terror.

"Don't you go with them!" shouted Davy, made really desperate by the
Hole-keeper's danger. "They're nothing but a lot of molasses candy!"

At this the king gave a frightful shriek, and, aiming a furious blow at
Davy with his wand, rolled off the platform into the