while to mention it to his father, as he himself should so soon be
ninety, when he thought shoes would be more convenient. The
colonel also told me, with his hand upon his hip, that he felt
himself already getting on in life, and turning rheumatic. And I
told him the same. And when they said at our house at supper (they
are always bothering about something) that I stooped, I felt so
glad!

This is the end of the beginning-part that you were to believe
most.



PART II. - ROMANCE. FROM THE PEN OF MISS ALICE RAINBIRD (Aged
seven.)



THERE was once a king, and he had a queen; and he was the manliest
of his sex, and she was the loveliest of hers. The king was, in
his private profession, under government. The queen's father had
been a medical man out of town.

They had nineteen children, and were always having more. Seventeen
of these children took care of the baby; and Alicia, the eldest,
took care of them all. Their ages varied from seven years to seven
months.

Let us now resume our story.