it. I think that by the end of the year we shall have stamped out the
love of soda almost entirely. The same way with caramels and other
candies in place of beef. We have caramels for breakfast, gum-drops for
dinner and marshmallows for tea, regularly, and last night seventeen of
the children presented a petition asking for beefsteak, mutton chops and
boiled rice. I have a firm conviction that when the new law, requiring
beef to be sold at candy stores, and compelling those in charge of the
young to teach them that boiled rice and hominy are bad for the teeth,
goes into effect, we shall find the children clamouring for wholesome
food as eagerly as they do now for things that ruin their little
tummies."

"It's a splendid system--and how are you meeting the matinee problem?"
asked the March Hare.

[Illustration: "WHEN THEY THINK NOBODY'S LOOKING"]

"Same way," said the Duchess. "Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon we
make 'em go to a matinee, rain or shine, whether they want to or not,
and really it's pathetic to see how some of the little dears pine for a
half-holiday with a hoople, and since I forbade the youngsters to even
look at the back of a geography or a spelling book, it is most amusing
to see how they sneak into the library and devour the contents of those
two books when they think nobody's looking. I caught one of the boys
reading an Arithmetic in bed last night, wholly neglecting his Jack
Harkaway books that I had commanded him to read, and leaving his 'Bim,
the Broncho Buster of Buffalo,' absolutely uncut.

"Fine!" chuckled the Hatter. "And now, my dear Duchess, will you oblige
me by taking charge of Miss Alice? She has expressed a desire to go
home and so I have brought her here."

"Certainly," said the Duchess. "I'll look after her."

"You'll excuse us, Alice," said the Hatter, politely. "We'd escort you
further ourselves, but a question has come before the Municipal
Ownership Caucus that we must settle before the meeting of the Common
Council to-night. Certain of our members claim that they have a right
to sell their votes for $500 apiece----"

"Mercy!" cried Alice. "Why, that is--that is terrible."

"It certainly is," said the March Hare ruefully. "It's more than
terrible, it's rotten. Here I've been holding out for $1,250 for mine,
and these duffers want to go in for a cut rate that will absolutely ruin
the business."

"It's a very important matter," said the Hatter. "After all our striving