IM!"]

"Av ye plaze, sor," groaned the man, panting beneath the Wallypug's
weight, "I have been doing nothing at all, at all. I waz just
a-finishin' me warrak of swapin' the chimneys, wen one ov the ould
gintleman came up an' poked me in the nose with a sthick, and the
other ould gintleman knocked me over and sthole me bag, while the
soger hild me down till the other gintleman sat on me--it's among a
lot of murtherin' thaves I've got entoirely, savin' yer presince,
sor."

"The man is a burglar," declared the Doctor-in-Law emphatically. "I
happened to hear a very suspicious noise down here, and calling to the
others, rushed down just in time to catch this man making off with a
bag of things. I think he was trying to escape up the chimney, for his
head was half-way up when we entered, and this bag, which evidently
contains plunder of some kind, is covered with soot too."

"Why, the man is a sweep, and was sweeping the chimney," I cried,
pointing to his brushes and sticks; and after a lot of explanations
the man was told to get up and his Majesty, followed by the others,
retired to his bedroom, evidently greatly disappointed that it was not
a real burglar that they had been combating.

The sweep, who was a very good-natured Irishman, took it in very good
part, and the present of half-a-crown sent him away quite reconciled
to his assailants.

The Rhymester afterwards made a great boast that he had not taken any
part in the melee.

"Of course I knew all along that he wasn't a burglar," he declared,
"and that's the reason why I wouldn't interfere."

"You managed to do a good deal of screaming though, I noticed,"
remarked the Doctor-in-Law grumpily.

"Ah! that was only for fun," asserted the Rhymester.

This was really about the only remarkable incident which occurred
during our holiday at Folkestone, which passed very pleasantly and
very quietly. We went for a sea bathe nearly every day, and his
Majesty would insist upon wearing his crown in the water on every
occasion.

"No one will know that I am a king if I don't," he declared; and I am
bound to admit that his Majesty did not look very regal in his bathing
costume, particularly when he was dripping with water and his long
straight hair hung half over his face, and even when he wore his
crown he was continually catching bits of seaweed in it, which gave
him a singularly untidy appearance for a king.

[Illustration: HIS MAJESTY DID NOT LOOK VERY REGAL]

A.