ar?' said Mrs. Mumbles, who seemed herself to be
got to her wits' end.

'Why, _I_ was thinking, love, that after the old women we should have a
bullock, dressed with blue ribands, and garnished with flowers, roasted
whole.'

'Yes, upon the green, after the sports,' said Mrs. Mumbles; 'and, as I
should like the whole of the ceremony to conclude with a bonfire and a
discharge of fireworks, the fire that is to roast the bullock can be
kept up, which will be killing two birds with one stone, you know.'

And thus the preliminaries for the grand entertainment were settled by
the three who were to be chief actors in it. Quiddity, in the very
frolicsomeness of his heart, now canvassed the town, and, with little
difficulty, succeeded in bringing a number of persons into the plot or
joke; and banners were prepared, armour was provided, and arms of every
description brought into requisition.

At last the important day arrived. It was ushered in by a discharge of
firearms from the back of the butcher's premises. A squadron of horsemen
next paraded the town on horses, ponies, and donkeys, with the
marrow-bones and cleavers, and rung most dolorous music. Mr. Mumbles
arose from his bed at earliest dawn, and, having breakfasted, set to
enrobing himself as a grand grandee of the first order. His dress was of
the time of Louis XIV. of France, frilled and furbelowed; and, when
fully arranged, Mr. Mumbles looked like a real Prince, and Mrs. Mumbles
held up her hands in astonishment and delight.

The back premises of Mr. Mumbles had been already prepared; a rude
scaffolding, with seats, skirted three sides of a quadrangle, to which
admission was to be obtained for the small charge of one penny, the
whole of the proceeds to go to the Institution for the Cure of
Rheumatism. The people mustered in large numbers, and, although the
tournament joust did not boast of many lords and ladies, or persons of
high ancestral lineage, yet everyone was, according to Adamic heraldry,
a perfect gentleman or lady in their own right; for they all bore
_arms_, with the exception of Jack Sprat, the bellman, who could only
muster one, with which he rang his bell.

In the centre of the platform, at the upper end, was a raised seat, and
a canopy over it. The seat was covered with yellow baize, and the canopy
was formed of the hangings of Mr. Mumbles' best spare bed. It was red,
bordered with yellow, which hung in fanciful festoons, and a
richly-carved bed-fo