“‘I am not,’ I said; for I was determined not to give in as long as resistance was possible.  But as I said it I became aware, to my unutterable amazement, that I was inside the go-cart.  How I got there is to this moment a mystery to me—­but there I was.

“There was a great deal of excitement about the Jack-in-a-box’s speech.  It was evident that he was considered an orator, and, indeed, I have seen counsel in a real court look wonderfully like him.  Meanwhile, my old toys appeared to be getting together.  I had no idea that I had had so many.  I had really been very fond of most of them, and my heart beat as the sight of them recalled scenes long forgotten, and took me back to childhood and home.  There were my little gardening tools, and my slate, and there was the big doll’s bedstead, that had a real mattress, and real sheets and blankets, all marked with the letter D, and a work-basket made in the blind school, and a shilling School of Art paint-box, and a wooden doll we used to call the Dowager, and innumerable other toys which I had forgotten till the sight of them recalled them to my memory, but which have again passed from my mind.  Exactly opposite to me stood the Chinese mandarin, nodding as I had never seen him nod since the day when I finally stopped his performances by ill-directed efforts to discover how he did it.

“And what was that familiar figure among the rest, in a yellow silk dress and maroon velvet cloak and hood trimmed with black lace?  How those clothes recalled the friends who gave them to me!  And surely this was no other than my dear doll Rosa—­the beloved companion of five years of my youth, whose hair I wore in a locket after I was grown up.  No one could say I had ill-treated her.  Indeed, she fixed her eyes on me with a most encouraging smile—­but then she always smiled, her mouth was painted so.

“‘All whom it may concern, take notice,’ shouted the Jack-in-a-box, at this point, ‘that the rule of this honourable court is tit for tat.’

“‘Tit, tat, tumble two,’ muttered the slate in a cracked voice. (How well I remembered the fall that cracked it, and the sly games of tit tat that varied the monotony of our long multiplication sums!)

“‘What are you talking about?’ said the Jack-in-a-box, sharply; ’if you have grievances, state them, and you shall have satisfaction, as I told you before.’

“‘——­ and five make nine,’ added the slate promptly, ’and six are fifteen, and eight are twenty-seven—­there we go again.’  I wonder why I never get up to the top of a line of figures right.  It will never prove at this rate.’

“‘His mind is lost in calculations,’ said the Jack-in-a-box, ’besides—­between ourselves—­he has been “cracky” for some time.  Let some one else speak, and observe that no one is at liberty to pass a sentence on the prisoner heavier than what he has suffered from her.  I reserve my judgment to the last.’

“‘I know what that will be,’ thought I; ’oh dear! oh dear! that a respectable maiden lady should live to be burnt as a Guy Fawkes!’