oyment, commenced a long romance, of
which every relishing clause began with the words: "So this" or "And so
this." As, "So this boy;" or, "So this fairy;" or, "And so this pie was
four yards round, and two yards and a quarter deep." The interest of the
romance was derived from the intervention of this fairy to punish this
boy for having a greedy appetite. To achieve which purpose, this fairy
made this pie, and this boy ate and ate and ate, and his cheeks swelled
and swelled and swelled. There were many tributary circumstances, but
the forcible interest culminated in the total consumption of this pie,
and the bursting of this boy. Truly he was a fine sight, Barbox
Brothers, with serious attentive face, and ear bent down, much jostled on
the pavements of the busy town, but afraid of losing a single incident of
the epic, lest he should be examined in it by-and-by and found deficient.

Thus they arrived at the hotel. And there he had to say at the bar, and
said awkwardly enough: "I have found a little girl!"

The whole establishment turned out to look at the little girl. Nobody
knew her; nobody could make out her name, as she set it forth--except one
chambermaid, who said it was Constantinople--which it wasn't.

"I will dine with my young friend in a private room," said Barbox
Brothers to the hotel authorities, "and perhaps you will be so good as
let the police know that the pretty baby is here. I suppose she is sure
to be inquired for, soon, if she has not been already. Come along,
Polly."

Perfectly at ease and peace, Polly came along, but, finding the stairs
rather stiff work, was carried up by Barbox Brothers. The dinner was a
most transcendent success, and the Barbox sheepishness, under Polly's
directions how to mince her meat for her, and how to diffuse gravy over
the plate with a liberal and equal hand, was another fine sight.

"And now," said Polly, "while we are at dinner, you be good, and tell me
that story I taught you."

With the tremors of a civil service examination on him, and very
uncertain indeed, not only as to the epoch at which the pie appeared in
history, but also as to the measurements of that indispensable fact,
Barbox Brothers made a shaky beginning, but under encouragement did very
fairly. There was a want of breadth observable in his rendering of the
cheeks, as well as the appetite, of the boy; and there was a certain
tameness in his fairy, referable to an under-current of desire t