the neat old ladies in the
kingdom had been thrown from a high tower for cleaning up after the
Prince and Princess Butterflyflutterby and Flutterbybutterfly, the
young Khan and Khant of Tartary entered the kingdom with a magnificent
retinue of followers, to select a bride and groom from the children of
the royal family. As there were no children in the royal family except
the twins, the choice of the Khan and Khant naturally fell upon the
Prince--"

"Butterflyflutterby!"

"And the Princess--"

"Flutterbybutterfly!"

"Correct. It also happened that the Khan and the Khant were brother and
sister; but if you can't tell which was the brother and which was the
sister, the story stops at this point."

"Why, but, uncle," said the little girl, reproachfully, "you haven't
ever told us which is which yourself yet!"

"I know it. Because I'm waiting to find out. You see, with these Asiatic
names it's impossible sometimes to tell which is which. You have to wait
and see how they will act. If there had been a battle anywhere, and one
of them had screamed, and run away, then I suppose I should have been
pretty sure it was the sister; but even then I shouldn't know which was
the Khan and which was the Khant."

"Well, what are we going to do about it, then?" asked the nephew.

"I don't know," said the papa. "We shall just have to keep on and see.
Perhaps when they meet the Prince and Princess we shall find out. I
don't suppose a boy would fall in love with a boy."

"No," said the niece; "but he might want to go off with him and have
fun, or something."

"That's true," said the papa. "We've got to all watch out. Of course the
Khan and the Khant scuffed the landscape awfully, as they came along
through the kingdom, and got the face of nature all daubed up with
marmalade--they were the greatest persons for marmalade--and when they
reached the palace of the Prince and Princess they had to camp out in
the back yard, and they had to have bonfires to cook by, and they made a
frightful mess.

"Well, there was the greatest excitement about it that there ever was.
The General-in-Chief kept his men under arms night and day, and the
fairy godmother was so worked up she almost had a brain-fever; and if
she had not taken six of aconite every night when she went to bed she
_would_ have had. You see, the question was what to do about the mess
that the Khan and Khant made. They were visitors, and it wouldn't have
been polite to banish th