g out,
but neither the King nor any Minister of State was able to form a
conception of any method of reduction and retrenchment but that of the
public headsman.

It is said--I do not know with how much truth--that the defeat of Wug was
made easy by a certain malicious prevision of the Wuggards themselves:
something of the nature of heroic self-sacrifice, the surrender of a
present advantage for a terrible revenge in the future. As an instance,
the commander of the fortified city already mentioned is reported to have
ordered his garrison to kill as few of their assailants as possible.

"It is true," he explained to his subordinates, who favored a defense to
the death--"it is true this will lose us the place, but there are other
places; you have not thought of that."

They had not thought of that.

"It is true, too, that we shall be taken prisoners, but"--and he smiled
grimly--"we have fairly good appetites, and we must be fed. That will cost
something, I take it. But that is not the best of it. Look at that vast
host of our enemies--each one of them a future pensioner on a fool people.
If there is among us one man who would willingly deprive the Uggard
treasury of a single dependent--who would spare the Uggard pigs one
_gukwam_ of expense, let the traitor stand forth."

No traitor stood forth, and in the ensuing battles the garrison, it is
said, fired only blank cartridges, and such of the assailants as were
killed incurred that mischance by falling over their own feet.

It is estimated by Wuggard statisticians that in twenty years from the
close of the war the annual appropriation for pensions in Ug will amount
to no less than one hundred and sixty _gumdums_ to every enlisted man in
the kingdom. But they know not the Uggard customs of exterminating the
army.

THE DOG IN GANEGWAG

A about the end of the thirty-seventh month of our voyage due south from
Ug we sighted land, and although the coast appeared wild and inhospitable,
the captain decided to send a boat ashore in search of fresh water and
provisions, of which we were in sore need. I was of the boat's crew and
thought myself fortunate in being able to set foot again upon the earth.
There were seven others in the landing party, including the mate, who
commanded.

Selecting a sheltered cove, which appeared to be at the mouth of a small
creek, we beached the boat, and leaving two men to guard it started inland
toward a grove of trees. Before we reached