eyes on me with a most encouraging smile--but then she always smiled,
her mouth was painted so.

"'All whom it may concern, take notice,' shouted the Jack-in-a-box, at
this point, 'that the rule of this honourable court is tit for tat.'

"'Tit, tat, tumble two,' muttered the slate in a cracked voice. (How
well I remembered the fall that cracked it, and the sly games of tit
tat that varied the monotony of our long multiplication sums!)

"'What are you talking about?' said the Jack-in-a-box, sharply; 'if you
have grievances, state them, and you shall have satisfaction, as I told
you before.'

"'---- and five make nine,' added the slate promptly, 'and six are
fifteen, and eight are twenty-seven--there we go again.' I wonder why I
never get up to the top of a line of figures right. It will never prove
at this rate.'

"'His mind is lost in calculations,' said the Jack-in-a-box,
'besides--between ourselves--he has been "cracky" for some time. Let
some one else speak, and observe that no one is at liberty to pass a
sentence on the prisoner heavier than what he has suffered from her. I
reserve _my_ judgment to the last.'

"'I know what that will be,' thought I; 'oh dear! oh dear! that a
respectable maiden lady should live to be burnt as a Guy Fawkes!'

"'Let the prisoner drink a gallon of iced water at once, and then be
left to die of thirst.'