“OH! this is lovely!” cried Girlie, as the Balloon rose higher and higher, till the island with the solitary Sphinx on it looked a mere speck in the sea below them. “Will it take us long to get home?” she asked, after they had been floating along for some time. “Oh no, not long,” replied the Royal Microscopist. “What shall we do to pass away the time?”
“I know a little love story about a pig that I can repeat, if you wish,” suggested Girlie. “It’s called ‘Piggie’s Courtship.’”
The Wallypug and the Royal Microscopist both said that they should very much like to hear it, and the Crow laughed and said, “Oh, if it’s about 175a Pig, I daresay you will repeat it very nicely.”
“What do you mean?” asked Girlie.
“Why, ‘birds of a feather flock together,’ and the same remark applies to pigs, I suppose,” he said, chuckling to himself.
Girlie wisely did not take the slightest notice of this rude remark, but stood up and tried to curtsey, as she had been taught to do before beginning a recitation; curtseying in a balloon, though, while it is going up, is a most difficult thing to do, and poor Girlie did not succeed very well in her attempt, for she first stumbled forward into the Wallypug’s arms and then, trying to recover her balance, she fell back and sat plump into the Royal Microscopist’s lap.
They all had a good laugh at her misfortunes, and then Girlie smilingly said that she thought that, under the circumstances, perhaps, she had better sit down to recite, and the others agreeing with her, she sat with one hand holding the side of the car and the other one resting in her lap while she repeated the following story which, as she explained, a young friend had recited at their last School Entertainment just before the Holidays:—
176“PIGGIE’S COURTSHIP.
“A black and white pig, who’d been properly taught
To walk and to talk and behave as he ought,
Went out one day,
In a casual way—
‘The fresh air would improve his complexion,’ he thought.
“Having walked up and down all the streets in the town,
He thought he’d go into the fields and sit down.
So he rested awhile
By the old wooden stile,
And then hurried on with a dignified frown.
“He knocked at the door of a Sty by the Mill,
Just to ask them about an old friend who was ill;
Then trotted along,
Softly humming a song,
Till he finally reached the old oak on the hill.
“He threw himself down on the grass in the shade,
And complacently thought ‘What a picture he made!’
(Of his black and white face,
And his form full of grace,
He thought just a trifle too much, I’m afraid.)
“He sat for a while much admiring the scene,
For the hedges, the trees, and the grass looked so green,
While the rippling rill,
At the foot of the hill,
Just completed a view such as seldom is seen.
177“He thought about this, and he thought about that,
And wondered if ‘laughing did make one grow fat.’
‘He must build a new Sty,’
He thought with a sigh,
For his old one was shabby, not fit for a rat.
 
“Then he blushed when he heard a slight squeal on his right,
And a little white Piggie came trotting in sight;
For this Piggie, you see,
Betwixt you and me,
Was the one that he’d fallen in love with one night.
“The Piggie looked shy when she saw him sit there,
And turned to go back with a most confused air,
When he ventured to say,
In a stammering way,
‘Pray will you not rest for a while, lady fair?
178“She timidly came and sat down by his side;
And to make some remarks on the weather, he tried.
Then they both laughed with glee
When from off the oak tree
A shower of large acorns fall down they espied.
 
“They begged they might take some, because, to be brief,
To take without asking would cause them both grief;
When they asked of the oak,
The old tree never spoke,
But only just boughed and thus gave them its leaf.
179“So they munched at the acorns and had a great feast,
And neither pig noticed the time in the least,
Till the Sun in the West
Had sunk down to its rest,
And the Silver Moon rose o’er the hill in the East.
“Then they trotted away down the hill side by side,
And they whispered sweet nothings, and each of them sighed,
Then oh! what do you think?
By the silver stream’s brink,
The white Piggie promised to be his sweet bride.
“Before I quite bring this short tale to a close
I must tell you that Piggie now wears in her nose
A lovely brass ring,
Which is quite the right thing
For engaged little Piggies to wear, I suppose.”
The Wallypug and the Royal Microscopist both clapped their hands when Girlie had finished, but the Crow said in a scornful voice,—
“That’s a very old-fashioned kind of love story; they don’t write them like that at all, nowadays. This is how a modern love story goes”—and he took off his spectacles and held them in one claw while reciting the following verses:—
180 
“A MODERN LOVE STORY.
“The Lady Betsy Mary Jayne Was very tall and somewhat plain. (Indeed, does anybody doubt it?) Sir Robert Richard Peter Prim Was also tall and rather slim (Well, please don’t make a fuss about it).
“They met each other quite by chance While touring in the South of France. (Pray, why repeat such idle chatter?) She said she really wouldn’t wed; It drove the poor man off his head! (Oh! did it? Well, it doesn’t matter.)
“They met again, ’twas at a ball, And so got married after all. (Don’t bother! No one cares a jot!) She turned out cross and rather ‘snappy,’ So even now they are not happy! (Oh, aren’t they? Who cares if they’re not?)”
181“Well, I’m sure I like the way mine ends much the best,” said Girlie, when he had finished.
“Hear, hear!” said the Royal Microscopist, “so do I, my dear. I like the old-fashioned stories best, too; those that end with a smile and leave you feeling all the better and happier for having read them, and not all this new-fangled rubbish that ends up with a sneer and makes you feel miserable. What do you say, Wallypug?”
“Oh,” said the Wallypug, who seemed to be anxious to please everybody, “I thought them both very pretty. But isn’t that Why that I can see over there?” he said, pointing down to where the tops of some large buildings were just visible amongst the trees a long way below them.
“I believe it is,” said the Royal Microscopist, turning a tap and letting some gas escape so that the balloon began to descend rapidly.
They could soon see that the Wallypug was right, for presently, they recognised the Royal Palace and the Public Hall.
“Ah! I shall be very glad to get back again,” said the Wallypug wistfully. “I am beginning to get very anxious about my people. How very quiet everything seems,” he went on as they floated over the town. And indeed the streets seemed to be quite deserted, and there was no one 182at all in sight, not even in the Market Place in front of the Public Hall.
“I hope nothing serious has happened,” thought Girlie; for this mysterious silence frightened her, and she was very glad when the balloon slowly settled down in the gardens of the Royal Palace and they all got out.
The Wallypug walked quickly towards the Palace, looking very serious, and the others followed him in silence. On nearing the building they could hear voices raised in angry dispute, and, hurrying to the Dining Hall, whence the sounds proceeded, they threw the door open and beheld an extraordinary sight.
The room was in the utmost confusion, the remains of a feast occupying one end of the long table, while the rest of it was piled high with little bags of silver and gold. The Doctor-in-law and the Cockatoo sat at the table, the Doctor-in-law with a very red face and the Cockatoo looking very angry; they had evidently been quarrelling violently. They both looked up in surprise when they heard the door open, and the Cockatoo screamed as the Wallypug, followed by Girlie and the Royal Microscopist, entered.
“What does all this mean?” said the Wallypug in a stern voice and with a quiet dignity which seemed to come to him all at once.
183The Cockatoo shrank back into her chair and the Doctor-in-law hung his head and seemed to be stricken dumb.
“Where are all my people?” demanded the Wallypug in a firm voice. “Answer me!”
 
“‘OH, PRAY FORGIVE US,’ CRIED THE DOCTOR-IN-LAW THROWING HIMSELF ON HIS KNEES.”
“In bed!” said the Doctor-in-law faintly.
“In bed!” cried the Wallypug. “Wha............