was speaking. Besides you have not told us yet the particulars."

"I was flying up the river," proceeded the eldest Tufter, respectfully,
"when I happened to recollect little Isal, and how we brought her away
from her house. I was passing the very spot, so I just flew in for a
moment, and there I saw the woodman, her father, lying upon his bed very
sick. There was no one with him."

"How sad!" said Rosedrop, mournfully.

"The cot from which we took Isal," added the Tufter, "was there still,
just as we left it, in precisely the same spot."

"How remarkable!" said the rash Tufter, who had become prudent.

While all this cackling was going on, the Phoenix maintained a stiff
silence. At last he stroked his beak with a claw. "Hush!" said the
second Tufter, "we shall hear something now." And surely the Phoenix
did speak.

"Children, Isal must know of this. We took her away on the Old Brown
Coat. My great-great-great grandfather made the coat. He was called
Phoenix the Tailor." It was very hard for the Phoenix to avoid
speaking of this whenever the Old Brown Coat was mentioned, and he
continued for some time to wander upon the subject, till they all
thought he was through, and the Tufter, who had once been rash asked:
"And who shall tell Isal?" The Phoenix was not really through, though.
He was just in the midst of the sentence, "The world is growing very
degenerate--" only the last word stuck in his throat--and he was
exceedingly vexed that he should be interrupted by an upstart Tufter.
"You--" are a goose, he tried to say, but the difficulty in his throat
occurred again, and prevented any word beyond the first, and the Tufter
taking it for a command to carry the news--he was too quick
sometimes,--set off for the palace as fast as his wings could carry him.

"How provoking!" said the oldest; "he will spoil it all with his
rashness!" The Phoenix now recovered himself, and having finished his
two broken sentences together, "degenerate--are a goose," for he never
left anything undone, told Rosedrop to fly faster and carry the news
before the other. Rosedrop sped swiftly, and overtaking her brother,
went with him in company and soon persuaded him, for he was a
good-natured fellow, to let her undertake the message. So when they
reached the palace garden, while her brother remained without, Rosedrop
flew in at the open window where she had tapped nearly five years ago,
and hovering over Isal as she lay asleep, told her the s