cket, and a pair of
gloves. What is he doing? These are things which have been badly tied
up, and have consequently come undone in the post, and some of them have
no addresses, but perhaps there is a letter inside the parcel. This
letter begins 'My darling,' but there is no time to read it; all that is
wanted is the address of the sender, to which the things can be
returned. This is quickly found, and the parcel is tied up again and
sent back. But if you do not want to have any of your letters seen by a
man in the Post-Office, you had better tie them up very carefully when
you send them by post. The things for which no addresses can be found go
to the Dead Letter Office, and every now and then there is a sale of
them.

But the Post-Office does its best always to find the people to whom the
things should be sent, and tries to please everyone, which is a
difficult task, and it very often comes in for a great deal of blame.
But we wonder as we leave the great building, not at the things that are
occasionally lost, but at the great mass, the millions of letters, that
are sent safely through to their journey's end without being either lost
or delayed.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW AND OTHER THINGS

We have now seen a good deal of London, and know something about it; but
there are a few facts that do not come very well into any of the
preceding chapters, and so to end up I am going to make a chapter about
the odd things.

You remember that when Dick Whittington, weary and disheartened, would
have gone away from London, he heard the bells of Bow Church ringing,
and what they seemed to say to him was, 'Turn again, Whittington, thrice
Lord Mayor of London.' And he was so much encouraged that he did turn
again, and persevered, and in the end he rose so high as to be Lord
Mayor, not once, but three times.

It is a great thing to be the Lord Mayor. He is chosen every year, and
rules the city for a year, and then resigns his grand position to his
successor. There is a splendid house right in the heart of the City
called the Mansion House, and here the Lord Mayor lives while he is
Lord Mayor, and here he gives great banquets. Sometimes the King and
Queen come to lunch with him, and all the great people from abroad who
visit England go to see the Lord Mayor. When the King makes a procession
through London in state he is met at Temple Bar, where the City begins,
by the Lord Mayor, who hands him the keys of the Ci