“‘How you do tremble!’ whispered Hop-o’-my-Thumb; ‘are you cold?’ This inquiry received no answer; and after some minutes he spoke again.  ’I say, how very pretty they look! don’t they?’

“But for some reason or other, Melchior seemed to have lost his voice; but he stooped down and kissed both the girls very gently, and then the two brothers crept back along the passage to the ‘barracks.’

“‘One thing more,’ said Melchior; and they went up to the mantelpiece.  ‘I will lend you my bow and arrows to-morrow, on one condition—­’

“‘Anything!’ was the reply, in an enthusiastic whisper.

“’That you take that old picture for a target, and never let me see it again.’

“It was very ungrateful! but perfection is not in man; and there was something in Melchior’s muttered excuse—­

“‘I couldn’t stand another night of it.’

“Hop-o’-my-Thumb was speedily put to bed again, to get warm, this time with both the pillows; but Melchior was too restless to sleep, so he resolved to have a shower-bath, and to dress.  After which, he knelt down by the window, and covered his face with his hands.

“‘He’s saying very long prayers,’ thought Hop-o’-my-Thumb, glancing at him from his warm nest; ’and what a jolly humour he is in this morning!’

“Still the young head was bent, and the handsome face hidden; and Melchior was finding his life every moment more real and more happy.  For there was hardly a thing, from the well-filled ‘barracks’ to the brother bedfellow, that had been a hardship last night, which this morning did not seem a blessing.  He rose at last, and stood in the sunshine, which was now pouring in; a smile was on his lips, and on his face were two drops, which, if they were water, had not come from the shower-bath, or from any bath at all.”

* * * * *

“Is that the end?” inquired the young lady on his knee, as the story teller paused here.

“Yes, that is the end.”

“It’s a beautiful story,” she murmured, thoughtfully; “but what an extraordinary one!  I don’t think I could have dreamt such a wonderful dream.”

“Do you think you could have eaten such a wonderful supper?” said the friend, twisting his moustachios.

After this point, the evening’s amusements were thoroughly successful.  Richard took his smoking boots from the fire-place, and was called upon for various entertainments for which he was famous:  such as the accurate imitation of a train just starting, in which two pieces of bone were used with considerable effect; as also of a bumble-bee, who (very much out of season) went buzzing about, and was always being caught with a heavy bang on the heads and shoulders of those who least expected it; all which specimens of his talents were received with due applause by his admiring brothers and sisters.