g therein, they all
suddenly altered their minds and walked back down the mountain side to
Pompeii or Herculaneum, where they were supposed to have settled and
married, and repented, let us hope, of their unkind and unreasonable
behaviour.

Whether either of these stories is true or not, it is certain that the
rivals disappeared altogether from the country. Unmolested, Bill now
devoted all his days to minding, and Randall, Noah, Knut, Biddulph,
Nero, Ratchett, Hannibal, Quentin, Chad, and his innumerable other
charges never left him, but wandered with him everywhere, even in his
dreams.

Such a minder was Bill!

[Illustration: tailpiece]

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE KING OF TROY]

[Illustration: headpiece]

THE KING OF TROY

Now it happened one morning as Bill was shepherding his little flock
across the downs, whither they loved to ramble on a fine summer's day,
that Hannibal, Quentin, and Boadicea came running up to him with the
wonderful tidings that they had discovered a real golden crown lying on
the top of a hayrick. Bill hastened to the spot, and there, sure enough,
was a most beautiful crown, ornamented with what he took to be
priceless gems. Looking all round and seeing no one to whom it might
belong, he climbed the rick and attempted to remove the treasure. But,
try as he would, it still resisted his efforts, until at last, with one
mighty wrench, he seemed to elicit a groan from the depths of the rick,
and presently the crown arose apparently of its own accord and disclosed
the head of an aged man firmly fixed therein. Soon his neck, then his
shoulders appeared, as gradually the old fellow lifted himself from his
place of hiding and climbed down the sides of the rick and stood
trembling in the midst of the children, who now wonderingly gathered
round him.

Having recovered from his agitation, and being greatly encouraged by
Bill's kindly inquiries and genial manners, the royal old boy proceeded
to account for his strange appearance on the downs.

'Prepare yourselves, you bantlings, and you, their noble curator, for
the most astounding revelations; and those of you who are nerveful or
softish in any way, hide your chubby heads in this old rick, that no
word of my story of woes may enter your ears and so curdle your simple
minds.'

At this young Chad and some of the others set up a terrible hullabaloo,
but Bill soon comforted them, and then, seated in a ci