nwhile, the Costumer sat up in the tree, eating cherries, and
throwing the stones down. Finally, he stood up on a stout branch and,
looking down, addressed the people.

"It's of no use, your trying to accomplish anything in this way," said
he; "you'd better parley. I'm willing to come to terms with you, and
make everything right, on two conditions."

The people grew quiet then, and the Mayor stepped forward as
spokesman. "Name your two conditions," said he, rather testily. "You
own, tacitly, that you are the cause of all this trouble."

"Well," said the Costumer, reaching out for a handful of cherries,
"this Christmas Masquerade of yours was a beautiful idea; but you
wouldn't do it every year, and your successors might not do it at all.
I want those poor children to have a Christmas every year. My first
condition is, that every poor child in the city hangs its stocking for
gifts in the City Hall on every Christmas Eve, and gets it filled,
too. I want the resolution filed and put away in the city archives."

"We agree to the first condition!" cried the people with one voice,
without waiting for the Mayor and Aldermen.

"The second condition," said the Costumer, "is that this good young
Cherry-man here, has the Mayor's daughter, Violetta, for his wife. He
has been kind to me, letting me live in his cherry-tree, and eat his
cherries, and I want to reward him."

"We consent!" cried all the people; but the Mayor, though he was
so generous, was a proud man. "I will not consent to the second
condition," he cried angrily.

"Very well," replied the Costumer, picking some more cherries, "then
your youngest daughter tends geese the rest of her life, that's all!"

The Mayor was in great distress; but the thought of his youngest
daughter being a goose-girl all her life was too much for him. He gave
in at last.

"Now go home, and take the costumes off your children," said the
Costumer, "and leave me in peace to eat cherries!"

Then the people hastened back to the city and found, to their great
delight, that the costumes would come off. The pins staid out, the
buttons staid unbuttoned, and the strings staid untied. The children
were dressed in their own proper clothes and were their own proper
selves once more. The shepherdesses and the chimney-sweeps came
home, and were washed and dressed in silks and velvets, and went to
embroidering and playing lawn-tennis. And the princesses and the
fairies put on their own suitable dr