mandarins, Marmaduke and Wienerwurst, and Ping Pong, Sing Song, and Ah
See, all sat around the throne, drinking out of the little blue cups
and eating the strange food. It made Marmaduke's eyes almost pop out
of his head to see the way the Queen and her mandarins, and his three
little yellow friends, devoured those dishes,--the stewed rats, the
fricasseed shark's fins, and the old birds' nests. Now Wienerwurst
didn't seem to object to that sort of food at all, but "licked it
right up" like the Chinamen. Marmaduke chose other things
instead,--some pickled goldfish, candied humming-birds' tongues, some
frozen rose-petals, whipped cloud pudding, and a deep dish of spiced
air from the sky, with dried stars for raisins. And, to wash it all
down, he had a little blue cup of tea, "cambric" of course, quite as
his mother would have wished.

Seeing that he was growing drowsy from such a big meal, the Queen took
pity on him and said he could lean back against the golden throne and
take a nap.

But first she called the mandarin who was in charge of the
Fire-cracker Treasury, where they kept all the finest fire-crackers in
the world, and ordered him to bring Marmaduke some. Soon the mandarin
came back, and, with him, six servants, with trays heaped high with
the prettiest and the fanciest fire-crackers ever boy or man saw. They
were wrapped in rose-colored silk paper, with gold letters on the paper,
and dragons, too, with great eyes and fiery forked tongues.

[Illustration: "Then the Queen clapped her hands and the servants came
running in with trays piled high with wonderful foods."]

The six servants and the mandarin filled all Marmaduke's seven pockets