ready to gather. There they stand, swaying to and fro, and dancing
lightly on their slender feet which are connected with the ground,
each by a tiny green stem; their dresses of pink, or blue, or
white--for their dresses grow with them--flutter in the air. Just
about the prettiest sight in the world, is the bed of wax dolls in the
garden of the Christmas Monks at Christmas time.

Of course ever since this convent and garden were established (and
that was so long ago that the wisest man can find no books about it)
their glories have attracted a vast deal of admiration and curiosity
from the young people in the surrounding country; but as the garden is
enclosed on all sides by an immensely thick and high hedge, which no
boy could climb, or peep over, they could only judge of the garden by
the fruits which were parcelled out to them on Christmas-day.

You can judge, then, of the sensation among the young folks, and older
ones, for that matter, when one evening there appeared hung upon a
conspicuous place in the garden-hedge, a broad strip of white cloth
trimmed with evergreen and printed with the following notice in
evergreen letters:

"WANTED:--By the Christmas Monks, two _good_ boys to assist in
garden work. Applicants will be examined by Fathers Anselmus and
Ambrose, in the convent refectory, on April 10th."

This notice was hung out about five o'clock in the evening, some time
in the early part of February. By noon, the street was so full of boys
staring at it with their mouths wide open, so as to see better, that
the king was obliged to send his bodyguard before him to clear the way
with brooms, when he wanted to pass on his way from his chamber of