ΑΝ

SCARAMOUTCH.

IV.

ON THE RHINE (continued).

ND when the dove and Scaramoutch had soaked seventy-five pocket-handkerchiefs with wiping their eyes, and filled 150 buckets, Scaramoutch proposed they should go and stand in the river; which when they did, the river rose so high that it flooded all the towns, and the people had to go about in boats, and sit on the cocks on the church steeples.

"I think you have cried enough," said a sweet voice.

"Only one bucketful more," begged the dove. "It is so nice to cry," said Scaramouch.

But before they had quite filled the last bucket, the train came along with a scream and a whistle, and the guard blew his horn, and the sweet voice said, "Come, Scaramoutch, come!"

"But how can I pass the dragon?"

"I will show you how to do that," said the voice, "come with me."

So Scaramoutch followed the voice. At first she could see no one, but as they went on, she saw a queer-looking thing like a child's head and shoulders and arms, and a salmon's tail.

"Who are you?" asked Scaramoutch of this queer being.

"The Mermaid of the Lurlei," answered the voice. "I am very good to good people, so do not be frightened: I will take care of you.”

Then the mermaid seized Scaramoutch by the arm, and nearly tore her feather frock, for she thought they would miss the train, and hurried her into the carriage; and then the engine whistled, and off they went. But as they got near the Drachenfels-that is, in English, Dragon Rock-the light on the top went out. Then there was a dreadful howling throughout the train: women shrieked, but did not leave off knitting; children screamed; dogs moaned; cats mewed; but the men sat still and smoked, as is the German nature to.

"Don't be frightened," said the mermaid, seeing Scaramoutch grow greener and greener. "I will help you through the danger if you will do as I tell you."

So Scaramoutch promised, you may be sure, to sit still and do as she was told. And so she watched the Drachenfels. But she did not have to wait long, for she soon saw a red light dodging about, and gradually coming nearer and nearer; then she saw a great black body; then a frisky tail; then it seemed the body became green, and blue, and yellow, and red, and all colours she could think of. Then as the body and tail came

nearer, she saw red teeth, and a red tongue, and red eyes, and red fire in his tail which NEVER went out.

I hardly know how to describe the horrid beast. But if you can remember some years ago, a dragon at Covent Garden Theatre fighting St. George, you will have a very good notion of this Rhine dragon, for the two were first cousins: only, of course, the one at the Theatre was made of wickerwork, covered with tinsel, and had fireworks for fire, and so on, and this one that Scaramoutch saw was real flesh and blood and bone.

Then there was such a roaring, Scaramoutch could hear no one speak. And then, and then, and THEN,-down he came scampering into the river !!

Such a commotion he made in the water! you would have thought there was a storm.

"Whistle a tune," said the mermaid to the engine; and the engine began to whistle exercises and scales.

"That won't do! Who can dance to that?" screamed the mermaid.

"I thought the dragon would like the music he is made of," said the engine, meaning a stupid pun about scales, which was very heartless of the engine at such a time as this-to make puns where every one was thinking how soon it would be before he was eaten ! Do you think people like to be reminded of what they make or are made of, stupid engine? Do soapmakers ever wash with anything but mould? or do candlemakers ever burn anything but gas or oil? and do bottle merchants put bottles on their mantelpieces? Of course they don't. How stupid you German engines are! Slow engines, I can tell you! Play a lively tune.

"I should think 'Jam Tart Jamie is my Name' would suit her," thought the engine, and so he began; when, lo! such a scene took place!

The mermaid began to dance and sing. Then all the people got out of the train and did the same, and so did Scaramoutch. Then they all capered along over the water, and on the other side the dragon danced up to meet them; and when they arrived at the foot of the rock the dragon gave his hand to the mermaid, and they danced up the hill till they got to the rock, and then the dragon was so tired he fell asleep.

"Now," said the mermaid to Scaramoutch and the people, "you can go down," which, you may be sure, they were not slow in doing, though the men did not stop smoking, or the women knitting; no, though the dragon might wake and eat them up.

But the mermaid kept singing to him till they were all safe in the train, and started off, and then she left him and went back to her Lurlei Rock,

where you may hear her singing to this day, and the echo answering her sweet voice; and if you do not fall asleep, it is because you have drunk too much strong tea, for her music is most soothing.

The train went rushing down the Rhine, past Bonn, where the students cheered them, and past old Cologne, with its splendid dome; and through ugly Holland, with its grey sky and windmills. You can see nothing but windmills and tops of boats' sails in Holland, which seem to be growing out of the willow-fields, and so Scaramouch thought she would not stay there. But when she came to Rotterdam she thought she would, for it looked such a pretty, clean town. Lots of streets, with a canal in the middle, where our road is, and trees all along the edge, and heaps of bridges; and all the people look clean, and so do the houses, for they are always washing them with little hand-engines, which I wish they would do in London. But the people are not pretty. One Scaramoutch met she thought uglier than the Germans.

"But I wonder how I am to get to the whale?" she went on to herself. "I think I had better smoke my pipe."

So saying, she began, when down went Rotterdam (it seemed to Scaramoutch to go down, but I dare say it did not really) sinking lower and lower, till it bumped on the top of the whale's back.

"What are you boring me for?" said he; for he felt a Dutchman making a hole in his back to let the city through.

"Don't you know me?" answered Scaramouch. "Oh! it's you, is it, child? If you walk out of my jaws as you walked in, you will see Pearlstar waiting for you," said the whale.

Said Curly Wurly

To Hurly Burly,

"Yes, the show is funny;" Said Hurly Burly

To Curly Wurly,

"I have got no money."

Said Curly Wurly
To Hurly Burly,

"But, oh, the day is sunny!"
Said Hurly Burly
To Curly Wurly,

"And you are sweet as honey!"

Said a woman in the crowd-
She was cross and surly—
"Who is this that laughs so loud?"
It was Hurly Burly.

"Who is that, as fresh as truth,

Or the morning early?" Said a showman at a booth.

It was Curly Wurly!

All the women at the fair

Laughed with Hurly Burly; All the men said, "Sweet and rare, Sweet is Curly Wurly!"

Said the young, and said the old, Said the stiff and supple, "She is fair, and he is bold :

What a handsome couple!"

And the Showmen found their Shows All at once forsaken

"This is curious, gracious knows!-Not a penny taken!"

Said the Master of the Fair

"Give them free admission,
Then the folks will come and stare
At this exhibition."

Then they turned to Curly Wurly,
When they came up closer,
And they said to Hurly Burly,
"Will you see the show, sir?"

All the booths they entered free,
That is what they now did;
Folks said, "Look at He and She!"
And the Shows were crowded.

When the like befalls again,

I will get up early
To see Curly Wurly plain,
Likewise Hurly Burly!

ROBERT MAJOR.

became, as they grew older, big donkeys. And I have heard of young donkeys-also two-legged -who would not take good advice when it was given them, but would go on doing so many foolish things, that they, too, ended, like poor Billy, only by being old donkeys.

But these were so far different from Billy, that if they had liked or had cared to try, they need not have been donkeys at all; whereas poor Billy could not help himself. However much he might have tried, nothing would have made him anything but a donkey; and so he was obliged to make the best of things as they were.

When he was quite young he was a very frisky merry little fellow, and would play all sorts of pranks in the field where he lived with his brother Jacky, while their mother staidly browsed the

thistles at a little distance.

He would often wonder at his mother's gravity, and at the sad expression of her countenance, and would sometimes say to her, "Mother, how is it that you are so grave? Why don't you scamper about and enjoy yourself like Jacky and I do?"

And then his mother would answer him, "Ah, Billy, it is all very well for you to be so merry:

you are young. But I am glad to rest and be quiet. The troubles and fatigues of my life have been many."

Then Billy would laugh as he rolled over on the soft mossy turf and ask, "Troubles? fatigues? What are they, I wonder?"-for he was such a little donkey, that he did not know anything about such things.

As time went on, however, he began to find them all out, as we most of us do.

His first trouble-and that no slight onewas that he was separated from his affectionate mamma and pleasant playmate Jacky, and led literally by the nose (and a very unpleasant process he found it) into a field, where he was shut in all by himself.

Here he was dreadfully dull and wanted some

one to play with sadly. Indeed, so anxious was he for companionship, that he tried very hard to make friends with a flock of geese who lived on a pond at one end of the field. But when he trotted over to them with the friendliest intentions, they were such geese that they thought he was coming to eat them up, feathers and all, on the spot, and so rushed at him in a body, cackling, and flapping their wings about their heads. At this poor Billy was frightened almost out of his wits-so frightened that he stood for ever so long quite still, and let the geese cackle and flap at him without even thinking that it would be better for him to run away.

At length, however, that thought did strike him, for he had never been taught that "Bo" was the proper thing to say to a goose. If he