out
me, cuckoo?"

The cuckoo cleared his throat.

"Have you learnt to obey orders yet, Griselda?" he inquired.

"I'm trying," replied Griselda. "But you see, cuckoo, I've not had very
long to learn in--it was only last night you told me, you know."

The cuckoo sighed.

"You've a great deal to learn, Griselda."

"I dare say I have," she said. "But I can tell you one thing,
cuckoo--whatever lessons I have, I _couldn't_ ever have any worse than
those addition sums of Mr. Kneebreeches'. I have made up my mind about
that, for to-day, do you know, cuckoo----"

"Yesterday," corrected the cuckoo. "Always be exact in your statements,
Griselda."

"Well, yesterday, then," said Griselda, rather tartly; "though when you
know quite well what I mean, I don't see that you need be so _very_
particular. Well, as I was saying, I tried and _tried_, but still they
were fearful. They were, indeed."

"You've a great deal to learn, Griselda," repeated the cuckoo.

"I wish you wouldn't say that so often," said Griselda. "I thought you
were going to _play_ with me."

"There's something in that," said the cuckoo, "there's something in
that. I should like to talk about it. But we could talk more comfortably
if you would come up here and sit beside me."

Griselda thought her friend must be going out of his mind.

"Sit beside you up there!" she exclaimed. "Cuckoo, how _could_ I? I'm
far, far too big."

"Big!" returned the cuckoo. "What do you mean by big? It's all a matter
of fancy. Don't you know that if the world and everything in it,
counting yourself of course, was all made little enough to go into a
walnut, you'd never find out the difference."

"_Wouldn't_ I?" said Griselda, feeling rather muddled; "but, _not_
counting myself, cuckoo, I would then, wouldn't I?"

"Nonsense," said the cuckoo hastily; "you've a great deal to learn, and
one thing is, not to _argue_. Nobody should argue; it's a shocking bad
habit, and ruins the digestion. Come up here and sit beside me
comfortably. Catch hold of the chain; you'll find you can manage if you
try."

"But it'll stop the clock," said Griselda. "Aunt Grizzel said I was
never to touch the weights or the chains."

"Stuff," said the cuckoo; "it won't stop the clock. Catch hold of the
chains and swing yourself up. There now--I told you you could manage
it."

CHAPTER IV.

THE COUNTRY OF THE NODDING MANDARINS.

"We're all nodding, nid-nid-nodding."

_How_ she manage