“I will explain the matter to you in a few words,” said the man with the red beard.  “For a long time I have been desirous to found a city.  In order to do this one must begin by forming a nucleus.  Every great city is started from a nucleus.  A few persons settle down in some particular spot, and live there.  Then they are a nucleus.  Then other people come there, and gather around this nucleus, and then more people come and more, until in course of time there is a great city.  I have loaded this cart with provisions, tools, and other things that are necessary for my purpose, and have set out to find some people who would be willing to form a nucleus.  I am very glad to have found you and that you are willing to enter into my plan; and this seems a good spot for us to settle upon.”

“What is the first thing to be done?” said the Prince.

“We must all go to work,” said the man with the red beard, “to build dwellings, and also a school-house for these young people.  Then we must till some ground in the suburbs, and lay the foundations, at least, of a few public buildings.”

“All this will take a good while, will it not?” said the Prince.

“Yes,” said the man, “it will take a good while; and the sooner we set about it, the better.”

Thereupon tools were distributed among the party, and Prince, courtiers, boys, girls, and all went to work to build houses and form the nucleus of a city.

When the jailer looked into his cells in the morning, and found that all but one of his prisoners had escaped, he was utterly astounded, and his face, when the Jolly-cum-pop saw him, made that individual roar with laughter.  The jailer, however, was a man accustomed to deal with emergencies.  “You need not laugh,” he said, “every thing shall go on as before, and I shall take no notice of the absence of your companions.  You are now numbered One to Seventeen inclusive, and you stand charged with highway robbery, forgery, treason, smuggling, barn-burning, bribery, poaching, usury, piracy, witchcraft, assault and battery, using false weights and measures, burglary, counterfeiting, robbing hen-roosts, conspiracy, and poisoning your grandmother by proxy.  I intended to-day to dress the convicts in prison garb, and you shall immediately be so clothed.”

“I shall require seventeen suits,” said the Jolly-cum-pop.

“Yes,” said the jailer, “they shall be furnished.”

“And seventeen rations a day,” said the Jolly-cum-pop.

“Certainly,” replied the jailer.

“This is luxury,” roared the Jolly-cum-pop.  “I shall spend my whole time in eating and putting on clean clothes.”

Seventeen large prison suits were now brought to the Jolly-cum-pop.  He put one on, and hung up the rest in his cell.  These suits were half bright yellow and half bright green, with spots of bright red, as big as saucers.

The jailer now had doors cut from one cell to another.  “If the Potentate comes here and wants to look at the prisoners,” he said to the Jolly-cum-pop, “you must appear in cell number One, so that he can look through the hole in the door, and see you; then, as he walks along the corridor, you must walk through the cells, and whenever he looks into a cell, you must be there.”