ark at me! And how my own servants will not know me! It is the
funniest thing I ever knew of!" And his gay laugh echoed far and
wide. But when he had gone several miles without seeing any signs of
his habitation, his gayety abated. "It would have been much better,"
he said, as he sat down to rest under the shade of a tree, "if I had
brought with me sixteen rations instead of these sixteen suits of
clothes."

The Jolly-cum-pop soon set out again, but he walked a long distance
without seeing any person or any house. Toward the close of the
afternoon he stopped, and, looking back, he saw coming toward him a
large party of foot travellers. In a few moments, he perceived that
the person in advance was the jailer. At this the Jolly-cum-pop could
not restrain his merriment. "How comically it has all turned out!" he
exclaimed. "Here I've taken all this trouble, and tired myself out,
and have nearly starved myself, and the jailer comes now, with a
crowd of people, and takes me back. I might as well have staid where
I was. Ha! ha!"

The jailer now left his party and came running toward the
Jolly-cum-pop. "I pray you, sir," he said, bowing very low, "do not
cast us off."

"Who are you all?" asked the Jolly-cum-pop, looking with much
surprise at the jailer's companions, who were now quite near.

"We are myself, my three myrmidons, and our wives and children. Our
situations were such good ones that we married long ago, and our
families lived in the upper stories of the prison. But when all the
convicts had left we were afraid to remain, for, should the Potentate
again visit the prison, he would be disappointed and enraged at
finding no prisoners, and would, probably, punish us grievously. So
we determined to follow you, and to ask you to let us go with you,
wherever you are going. I wrote a report, which I fastened to the
great gate, and in it I stated that sixteen of the convicts escaped
by the aid of outside confederates, and that seventeen of them
mutinied in a body and broke jail."

"That report," laughed the Jolly-cum-pop, "your Potentate will not
readily understand."

"If I were there," said the jailer, "I could explain it to him; but,
as it is, he must work it out for himself."

"Have you any thing to eat with you?" asked the Jolly-cum-pop.

"Oh, yes," said the jailer, "we brought provisions."

"Well, then, I gladly take you under my protection. Let us have
supper. I have had nothing to eat since morning, and the