my grey hairs!"

"Tush! Master Carter--nonsense; 'tis choicely well sung. Come,
brother, the chorus!"

"With a fa-la--"


And the chorus was roar'd forth, with shouts of laughter and
clinking of glasses. Then came an interval of mournful appeal, and
my kinsman's voice was again lifted----

"He scattered the tadpoles, and set 'em agog,
Hey! nod-noddy-all head and no body!
Oh, mammy! Oh, minky!--"

"--O, mercy, mercy! it makes me sweat for shame."

Now meantime I had been searching about the garden, and was lucky
enough to find a tool shed, and inside of this a ladder hanging,
which now I carried across and planted beneath the window. I had a
shrewd notion of what I should find at the top, remembering now to
have heard that the Princes Rupert and Maurice were lodging with
Master Carter: but the truth beat all my fancies.

For climbing softly up and looking in, I beheld my poor kinsman
perch'd on his chair a-top of the table, in the midst of glasses,
decanters, and desserts: his wig askew, his face white, save where,
between the eyes, a medlar had hit and broken, and his glance
shifting wildly between the two princes, who in easy postures, loose