, which he wrung most heartily, and for all the world was his
good old self again.

'He now bade me follow him, and in utter silence we both crept out of
the throne-room, through the ante-room, down the stairs, across the
hall, and out by the front door into the garden.

'We now traversed the terrace and crossed the tennis lawn, and stepping
gently across the Rhododendron beds, scrambled as carefully as possible
over the barbed-wire fence and found ourselves in the kitchen garden.
Passing through innumerable beds of cabbages, beetroots, turnips,
brussels sprouts, and broccoli, we at last stood in front of an old
broken-down hen-house. The Minister knocked very gently three distinct
times and gave a low musical call, which was immediately answered from
within. The door now opened just sufficiently to admit one person at a
time, and the Prime Minister crept in, dragging me after him, and then
closing the door as quickly and as quietly as possible.

'You may imagine my surprise when I discovered my two other old cronies
seated amongst the hay newly strewn on the floor, the fat old roosters
chortling wisely the while on their perches in the roof of the shed. Two
or three candles, that were glued with their own fat on the stakes that
were driven securely into the ground, together with an old stable
lantern suspended from the roof, served to light up the interior. A
squat and homely kettle was simmering cheerily in front of some glowing
embers in the centre of the floor awaiting the brewing of a stout cup of
tea, and the dominoes were all ready for a rattling game as of old.

'Nothing could exceed the joy of the dear old boys, as they gripped me
by the hand and punched me first on the chest and again on the back from
pure joy, forgetting all the awe with which they had regarded me for so
long since, and only remembering the many happy times we had spent
together in days of yore,--those far-off happy days, before I had been
so terribly, so uncomfortably exalted by my subjects.

'As soon as I had made myself pretty comfortable, the Minister of
Education reached up, and taking one of the old chickens from its perch,
quickly killed it, plucked it and trussed it, and then, suspending it
over the embers by a piece of string from the roof, turned it round and
round gently until it was done to a T.

'What a time we had in that old shed to be sure. After demolishing the
chicken we played the most exciting games of dominoes until