I know not how I ran, nor what mighty strength was in my limbs, but in a moment I was with them, and his hairy throat was in my clutch.  Quickly he turned upon me and fain had freed himself.  Our breast-bones cracked in the conflict, his arms wound round and round me, and a hideous gleam of triumph was in his face.  Thrice he had me off my feet, but at the fourth close I swayed him to the right, and then with one last heave I flung him on his back, and had the end of it, leaving him dead and flattened where he lay.

CHAPTER V.

Then gently I bore my MARIAN home, and mother greeted her fondly, saying, “Miss MUFFET, I presume?” which pleased me, thinking it only right that mother should use ceremony with my love.  But she, poor darling, lay quiet and pale, scarce knowing her own happiness or the issue of the fight.  For ’tis the way of women ever to faint if the occasion serve and a man’s arms be there to prop them.  And often in the warm summer-time, when the little lads and lasses gather to the plucking of buttercups and daisies, likening them gleefully to the gold and silver of a rich man’s coffers, my darling, now grown matronly, sitteth on the tuffet in their midst, and telleth the tale of giant SPIDER and his fate.—­[THE END.]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

[Illustration]

One of our “Co.”—­and the Baron may observe that, when “Co.” is written it is not an abbreviation of “Coves”—­has been reading Sir George (BENTLEY), a Novel, which Mrs. HENNIKER has the courage to put forth in one volume.  At the outset, the writing is a little slipshod.  Mrs. HENNIKER has, moreover, a wild passion for the conjunction.  When she can’t summon another “which,” she sticks in a “that.”  On one page appears the following startling announcement—­“The March winds this year were unusually biting, and her nervous guardian would therefore [why therefore?] never allow her to walk out without a respirator, till they blew no longer from the East.”  We assume that, as soon as respirators blew from the West, this injunction would be withdrawn.  But, as Mrs. HENNIKER, gets forward in her story, the style improves, “which’s” disappear as they did in Macbeth’s time, and the tale is told in simple strenuous language. Uncle George is a character finely conceived, and admirably drawn.

The Baron returns thanks to the publisher, W. HEINEMANN, for sending a volume of DE QUINCEY’s Posthumorous Works.  A small dose of them, taken occasionally the last thing at night, may be confidently recommended to admirers of The Opium Eater, and will probably be found of considerable value to some who hitherto may have been the victims of insomnia.  Highly recommended by the Faculty.

(Signed.) BARON DE BOOK-WORMS & Co.

* * * * *

EVENINGS FROM HOME.