convert it to their own apparel and adornment. But the morning
light and scattered rainbows were only a type and symbol of the real
wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to magic, yet
perfectly natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy are
neglected in the lower world had been carefully gathered up and
deposited in the saloon of morning sunshine. As may well be
conceived, therefore, there was material enough to supply, not
merely a joyous evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as
many people as that spacious apartment could contain. The company
seemed to renew their youth; while that pattern and proverbial
standard of innocence, the Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among
them, communicating his own unwrinkled gayety to all who had the
good fortune to witness his gambols.

"My honored friends," said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed
themselves awhile, "I am now to request your presence in the
banqueting-hall, where a slight collation is awaiting you."

"Ah, well said!" ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been
invited for no other reason than that he was pretty constantly in
the habit of dining with Duke Humphrey. "I was beginning to wonder
whether a castle in the air were provided with a kitchen."

It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were
diverted from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting
with so much apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well
as liquid delights of the festive board. They thronged eagerly in
the rear of the host, who now ushered them into a lofty and
extensive hall, from end to end of which was arranged a table,
glittering all over with innumerable dishes and drinking-vessels of