ts eyes with
sympathy--or indifference, she could not be quite sure which. Then
Pauline's wayward thoughts took a sudden flight to the island of Java,
in the China seas, where she beheld a bald little old gentleman--a
merchant and a shipowner--who was also her father, and who sat reading a
newspaper in his office, and was wondering why his good ship _Flying
Fish_--which was bringing his children to him besides a quantity of
other goods--did not make its appearance, and she plainly saw the look
of disappointment as he threw the paper down, exclaiming, "Odd, very
odd, but she _must_ turn up soon."

Pauline saw nothing more after that for some time, because her eyes were
blinded with tears.

Then Queen Pina cheered up again, for she thought that surely a ship
would soon pass the island and take them off. As this last thought
became more definite (for Pina was very young and hopeful) her eyes
dried and permitted her to observe her kingdom more clearly.

The Prime Minister, she observed, was still busy on the shore, and, from
his frequently stooping to pick up something, she argued that the
affairs of State in that quarter were prospering.

Presently, from the midst of a mass of reeds not far off, there arose a
shout, easily recognisable as that of the army, which was followed by
cries of a stupendous, yet extremely familiar, kind. Pauline started up
in considerable haste, and a moment later beheld the chief authors of
the noise burst from the clump of reeds in the form of a large sow and a
troop of little pigs.

They were evidently in a state of wild alarm, for, besides squealing
with a degree of intensity possible only to pigs, they ran in such
furious haste that they stumbled over sticks and stones in reckless
confusion, scrambling to their feet again in such a hurry as to ensure
repeated falls, and, generally, twirling themselves and their tails in a
manner that was consistent with nothing short of raving madness.

Little wonder that those creatures acted thus, for, close on their
heels, gasping and glaring, the army burst forth and fell on them--
literally fell on one of them, for Otto in his anxiety to catch the
hindmost pig, a remarkably small but active animal, tripped over a root
just as he was about to lay hold of its little tail, and fell on the top
of it with fearful violence. The mechanical pressure, combining with
the creature's spiritual efforts, produced a sudden yell that threw the
cries of its co