"

With which words Hoffland laughed, and pointed to a boy and girl who
were passing along some steps in advance of them.

The girl was that young lady who received, as the reader may possibly
recollect, so much excellent and paternal advice from Jacques. She was
not burdened with her satchel on this occasion, but carried, in the
same careless and playful fashion, a small reticule; while her
cavalier took charge of her purchases, stored in two or three bundles,
and kindly relinquished to the gentleman by the lady, as is still the
custom in our own day.

The boy was a fine manly young fellow of sixteen, with a bright kind
face, rosy and freckled. There seemed to be quite an excellent
understanding between himself and his companion, and they went on
conversing gaily.

But in this world we know not when the fates will interrupt our
pleasures;--a profound remark which was verified on this occasion.

Just as the girl was passing the residence of Sir Asinus, her feet
dancing for joy, her curls illuminated, her reticule describing the
largest possible arc of a circle--just then, little Martha, or Puss,
as she was called, found herself suddenly arrested, and the over-skirt
of her silk dress raised with a sudden jerk. The reticule ceased to
pendulate, the conversation stopped abruptly, the boy and girl stood
profoundly astonished.

"Oh, me!" cried the child, clasping her hands; "what's that?"

"Witchcraft!" suggested her companion, laughing.

"No, my dear young friends," here interposed a voice from the
clouds--figuratively speaking--really from an upper window; "it is not
witchcraft, but a simple result of natural laws."

The child raised her head quickly at these words, and saw leaning out
of a dormer window of Mrs. Bobbery's mansion, that identical
red-haired gentleman whom she had seen upon a former occasion; in a
word, Sir Asinus: Sir Asinus dressed magnificently in his old faded
dressing-gown; his sandy hair standing erect upon his head; his
features sharper than ever; and his eyes more eloquent with
philosophical and cynical humor. As he leaned far out of the window,
he resembled a large owl in a dressing-gown, with arms instead of
legs, fingers instead of claws.

"I repeat, sir and miss," he said blandly--"or probably it would be
more proper to say, miss and sir--I repeat that this is not
witchcraft, and your dress is simply caught by a hook, which hook
contained a grain of wheat, which wheat has been devour