most of us wear artificial ones; but
please don't tell the others, they are sure to make fun of me, if you
do."

"All right," promised the Archaeopteryx, kindly; "I won't, if you don't
wish me to; but I----"

"Hist! hist!" interrupted a voice, and the Dodo, with a very scared
face, peeped from behind a tree. "Who _do_ you think is here?" he
gasped.

"Who?" inquired the others, curiously.

"The Little Panjandrum himself," declared the Dodo. "I have just caught
sight of him up by the Palace, and he looks _so_ angry about
something."

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LITTLE PANJANDRUM AT LAST.

"The Little Panjandrum!" exclaimed Marjorie, "I _shall_ be glad to see
him at last. What is he like?"

"Oh! don't bother me about him," cried the Dodo, impatiently; "he's all
right as Panjandrums go, I suppose, but I don't want to get into his
clutches again, I can tell you."

"Don't you, indeed?" remarked a voice, sarcastically. "Well, His
Importance is particularly anxious to see _you_ again, anyhow."

The Dodo gasped, and the children turning around beheld the Little
Panjandrum's Ambassador.

"Hullo! you here, too?" he continued, when he recognized them. "Well, I
must say, you have been long enough bringing this wretched bird along."

"I think you ought to be very grateful to us for having done so at all,"
said Dick, boldly. "What are you going to do with him now you have got
him?"

"H'm! that remains to be seen," said the Ambassador, pursing his lips up
tightly, and staring at the Dodo severely.

[Illustration: "'Come along,' said the Ambassador."]

"Come along," he continued, catching hold of what would have been the
Dodo's ear if he had had one, but which was in reality a sort of woolly
fluff growing all over his head.

"Come along, and see your friend the Little Panjandrum."

"Leave go!" screamed the Dodo, "you hurt."

"Rubbish!" exclaimed the Ambassador, dragging him along, "it doesn't
hurt _me_!"

"Oh! oh! I've dropped one of my gloves," cried the Dodo, pathetically.

"If you take my advice, you'll throw the other one away, too," said the
Ambassador; "it will only make the Little Panjandrum more angry than
ever to see them."

"They make me look so respectable," whispered the Dodo.

"Respectable!" said the Ambassador, contemptuously; "nothing would make
_you_ respectable--you ridiculous object, you."

"I think you are most un--un--ki--ki--kind," sobbed the Dodo, "you are
always pi--pi--pi--pitching i