kept their promise, and set out for the wood. The threatened shower
came up, and they took refuge in an old empty barn, where they had
not been many minutes before all the children, one after the other,
came dripping in, some laughing, some small ones crying. Soon,
however, the laughers prevailed; and, after showing their flowers,
of which they had collected many, they set themselves to work to
spread out the dinner, in the most attractive way possible, and make
what amends they could for the unlucky chance of the rain. An old
milk stool was appropriated to the queen. It had not even the
accustomed number of three legs to support it, so that the poor
queen had to endure the anxiety of a tottering throne, and learned
experimentally some of the pains of royalty. The king took
possession of an old barrel that had lost both ends, and sitting
astride upon it, Bacchus fashion he took his place by the side of
the poor queen on her two-legged stool, upon which she was
exercising all the art of balancing that she had acquired in one
quarter at dancing school, hoping against hope that she might keep
her dignity from rolling on the barn floor. Just as his May-majesty
was fairly seated on the barrel, it, all at once, fell in, smash,
and he was half covered with old hoops and slaves. Whereupon the
queen laughed so immoderately as to lose her balance, and thus both
rolled in the dust. In the mean time, the other children, who had no
dignity to support, had spread their little repast on an old sledge.
Mrs. Chilton, who had brought a table-cloth, assisted them. Dinner
was now announced. The queen declared she could support her throne
no longer, and she and the king, both forgetting their royalty, sat
down with the others on the hay-strewn floor, and discussed apples,
cake, &c., &c.

Unfortunately the rain lasted longer than the dinner; every scrap