affair, large enough to accommodate the entire populace.

"To-morrow it will be but five days," she said; "but how long the days
are growing." They sat beside the spring on the hillside and musingly
surveyed the busy architects on the plain below.

"How are the rehearsals progressing?" he asked.

"Excellently, but I am far from being a perfect savage. It doesn't seem
possible that I shall ever learn how to fall gracefully into that ring.
I believe I shall insist that you turn your head at the particular
juncture, for I know you'll laugh at me," she said with a great show
of concern.

"I don't like that part of the service. It's a shame for me to stand by
and to see you tumble at my feet. Firstly, it's not your place;
secondly, it's liable to hurt you; lastly, I'd feel a most unmanly
brute. Wonder if we can't modify that part of it somehow?"

"I might be carried in on a litter and set down in the ring, or we might
stretch a hammock," she said, laughing merrily.

"I'm determined on one point and that is in regard to the pile of soft
grass. Pootoo promised to cut a lot of it and put it in the ring. You
shan't break any bones if I can help it."

"Pootoo is to be master of ceremonies in every sense of the word, I can
see. I am the ward of a king."

At last the day arrived.