efrigerator stocked with
peanut brittle, molasses candy, and sugared fruits in the pantry. Your
reading will consist of Lucy the Lace Vendor, or How the Laundress
Became a Lady; the works of Marie Corelli; Factory Fanny, the Forger's
Daughter, and any other unwholesome book you may want from the House of
Correction Library. Playtime will begin at seven every morning and you
will be compelled to dress and undress dolls until one, when your
caramel will be given to you, after which you will skip the rope and
read fairy stories until six. You must drink five glasses of soda-water
every day and will not be allowed to go to bed before eleven o'clock at
night. Hurry now, and get your hair mussed and your hands dirty for
dinner. The first course of whipped cream and roasted chestnuts will be
served promptly at six-thirty."

"But," cried Alice, "I don't want to stay here--I want to go home."

"You are home," said the Duchess. "This is the Municipal Home of the
Children of Blunderland."

"But I want my father and mother," whimpered Alice.

"The City is your father, my child, and I am officially your mother,"
said the Duchess.

"You are not!" cried Alice. "You are trying to kidnap me!--I'll--I'll
call the police."

"The police can't arrest a city, my dear child, and as for me, as the
Commissioner of Maternity I am immune from arrest," laughed the Duchess.

"Well, I just won't stay, that's all," cried Alice, stamping her foot
angrily. "I don't want a city for a father, and I shan't have an official
mother in place of a real one."

[Illustration: "SEIZING HER BY THE ARM"]

The child ran toward the door, but the Duchess was too quick for her,
seizing her by the arm.

"Let me go!" shrieked Alice.

"Never," snapped the Duchess.

And then the little girl thought of the piece of paper the White Knight
had given her.

"I guess that will make you change your mind," she said, handing the
injunction to her captor.

The Duchess read it carefully; her face paled, and she too stamped her
foot.

"I'll see about this, she roared angrily, and in a moment she had gone,
slamming the door so hard behind her that the building fairly shook. A
moment later Alice followed, and in a short time was bounding down the
stairway as fast as her little legs would carry her toward freedom, when
all of a sudden she tripped and began to fall--down, down, down--O,
would she never stop! And then, bump! Her fall was over, and strange to
relate th