tute old monarch in conclusion, 'powerful as we undoubtedly are,
and as you can see for yourself that we are, we have yet one weakness,
and that weakness is, that we cannot boast of a single char-woman of any
description within our ranks. It has occurred to us, in listening to
your story, that if you are able, as I have no doubt you will be, to
obtain a good character from your last place, that we shall be delighted
to engage you as an assistant to the amiable Boadicea in her attendance
upon my person.'

'Fiddlesticks,' snapped the abrupt woman, 'look after your person
indeed! Look after it yourself,' and the strange creature walked off.
Unwilling to lose such a treasure, the King called after her, and
explained that if he had offended her it was quite unintentionally, and
offered her any post she would like to fill, of course providing that it
had not already been filled, in his army.

'Now you are talking reasonably,' replied the quickly mollified
creature. 'Well, as you are so very kind, I don't mind being the
flag-bearer.'

'But I am really afraid we have no flag,' objected the King.

'Oh, we'll soon settle that little difficulty,' replied the woman. And
she at once removed her apron and snatching from the astonished Scout
the staff he usually carried with him, she tied the apron thereto by its
two strings and waved it proudly in the air three or four times, at each
time jumping as high as she could.

Every one cheered in their delight at the readiness of the good woman,
and congratulated each other cordially on this interesting addition to
their forces.

The King now stood up in his chair, and after quieting the general
excitement by ringing his bell, he thus addressed his troops:--

'My dear old boys and girls, although, no doubt, I appear to you a very
fine man indeed, with a good appetite and fairly well covered for my
time of life, I am not quite the man I should be. You must know that in
my early babyhood I was a victim to the wicked carelessness of the royal
cook. One morning this thoughtless creature left an unboiled parsnip on
the garden path (had it been boiled and soft, my fate had been different
perhaps) while chatting with a friend at the tradesmen's entrance. As
ill luck would have it, I was at the time playing on the palace roof, to
which I had climbed through the nursery chimney, and, childlike, was
gazing curiously at a strange bird flying overhead, when I overbalanced
and fell from the roof