[Illustration: "I WILL GO AND TEND MY GEESE!"]

So the whole board of Aldermen set out, walking by twos, with the
Mayor at their head, to consult the Wise Woman. The Aldermen were all
very fleshy, and carried gold-headed canes which they swung very high
at every step. They held their heads well back, and their chins stiff,
and whenever they met common people they sniffed gently. They were
very imposing.

The Wise Woman lived in a little hut on the out-skirts of the city.
She kept a Black Cat; except for her, she was all alone. She was very
old, and had brought up a great many children, and she was considered
remarkably wise.

But when the Aldermen reached her hut and found her seated by the
fire, holding her Black Cat, a new difficulty presented itself. She
had always been quite deaf, and people had been obliged to scream as
loud as they could in order to make her hear; but, lately, she had
grown much deafer, and when the Aldermen attempted to lay the case
before her she could not hear a word. In fact, she was so very deaf
that she could not distinguish a tone below G-sharp. The Aldermen
screamed till they were quite red in their faces, but all to no
purpose; none of them could get up to G-sharp, of course.

So the Aldermen all went back, swinging their gold-headed canes, and
they had another meeting in the City Hall. Then they decided to send
the highest Soprano Singer in the church choir to the Wise Woman; she
could sing up to G-sharp just as easy as not. So the high-Soprano
Singer set out for the Wise Woman's in the Mayor's coach, and the
Aldermen marched behind, swinging their gold-headed canes.

The high-Soprano Singer put her head down close to the Wise Woman's
ear, and sang all about the Christmas Masquerade, and the dreadful
dilemma everybody was in, in G-sharp--she even went higher,
sometimes--and the Wise Woman heard every word. She nodded three
times, and every time she nodded she looked wiser.

"Go home, and give 'em a spoonful of castor-oil, all 'round," she
piped up; then she took a pinch of snuff, and wouldn't say any more.

So the Aldermen went home, and each one took a district and marched
through it, with a servant carrying an immense bowl and spoon, and
every child had to take a dose of castor-oil.

But it didn't do a bit of good. The children cried and struggled when
they were forced to take the castor-oil; but, two minutes afterward,
the chimney-sweeps were crying for their brooms, and th