them a big dive.

"You see," said I to Rectus, as we started down the ravine toward the
river, with the crowd of adherents marching in front, "we've got to have
these fellows at the coronation. So it wont do to scare 'em off now."

We went down to a little public square in front of the town, where there
was a splendid diving-place. A good many people were strolling about
there, but I don't suppose that a single person who saw those darkey
fellows, with nothing on but their cotton trousers,--who stood in a line
on the edge of the sea-wall, and plunged in, head foremost, like a lot
of frogs, when I threw out a couple of "big coppers,"--ever supposed
that these rascals were diving for monarchical purposes. The water was
so clear that we could see them down at the bottom, swimming and
paddling around after the coppers. When a fellow found one he'd stick it
in his mouth, and come up as lively as a cricket, and all ready for
another scramble at the bottom.

Sometimes I threw in a silver "check," which is no bigger than a
three-cent piece; but, although the water was about fifteen feet deep,
it was never lost. The fellows seemed just as much at home in the water
as on land, and I suppose they don't know how to get drowned. We tried
to toss the money in such a way that each one of them would have
something, but some of them were not smart enough to get down to the
bottom in time; and when we thought we had circulated enough specie, we
felt sure that there were two or three, and perhaps more, who hadn't
brought up a penny.

So when they all climbed out, with their brown shoulders glistening, I
asked which one of them had come out without getting anything. Every
man-jack of them stepped forward and said he hadn't got a copper. We
picked out three little fellows, gave them a few pennies apiece, and
came home.

[Illustration: A FAMILY DIVE]

The next day we were all hard at work. Corny and her mother went down to
the queen's house, and planned what they could get to fit up the place
so that it would be a little more comfortable. Mrs. Chipperton must have
added something to our eight dollars, for she and Corny came up into the
town, and bought a lot of things, which made Poqua-dilla's best room
look like another place. The rocking-chair was fixed up quite royally.
Mrs. Chipperton turned out to be a better kind of a woman than I
thought she was at first.

We hired a man to cut a pole and set it up in the queen's front yard,