His and myself stared at each other in dismay. Our position was growing more and more uncomfortable every moment, and, added to this, I had a growing impression that the rods to which we were attached would sooner or later break with our weight.  
“Well! I do think that they might have helped us off the hooks, at any rate,” his Majesty, discontentedly.
 
“So do I,” I rejoined, and was about to add something else when my attention was attracted to the behavior of the two blue birds which we had noticed circling about over our heads.
 
 
They were wheeling round and round in a most eccentric manner, and as they drew closer we could see that they were as singular in appearance as they were in their manner.
 
“Why, they’ve got ever so many wings!” cried his Majesty in surprise.
 
“Go away!” he shouted, as one of them fluttered past his face. The birds, however, were not to be got rid of so easily, and, uttering little cries, they about over his Majesty’s head, every now and then making a vicious at the sandwich which he still held in one hand.
 
“Oh! take them away!—take them away!” he shouted, dropping his carpet-bag in alarm, and evidently forgetting that I was as as he was of driving them off.
 
“Throw your sandwich away!” I shouted; “it’s that they are after, I believe.”
 
His Majesty did so, and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing the birds squabbling over it on the bank at the side of the shute.
 
 
“Fortunate I tied my bag to the string of my cloak, wasn’t it?” remarked the Wallypug, when they had gone. “I should have lost it else. Oh, look! What’s that coming down the shute?” he cried, as something suddenly came rolling and bounding down the steep incline.
 
“O—o—o—h!” he continued delightedly, as it stopped, caught in the mouth of the carpet-bag which, attached to the cord of his Majesty’s cloak, down the shute. “Why, it’s my crown! They must have thought that I wanted it, and sent it down after me. How very kind of them. Wasn’t it?”
 
I had my own opinions on the subject, and held my peace, for I felt quite sure that it was not through any kindness that the crown had found its way to its proper owner.
 
His Majesty very carefully drew up the carpet-bag with its precious burden, and soon had the intense satisfaction of putting the crown of Why on his royal head once more.
 
“Oh!” he cried with a little sigh of satisfaction, “it does seem nice to have it on again. I’m afraid that I should soon have caught a cold in my head, like A. Fish, Esq., if I had gone without it much longer.”
 
“Gracious!” he cried, pointing excitedly towards the top of the shute, “there’s something else coming down! Why it’s the Doctor-in-Law and Madame. Oh!—and the Cockatoo—and—the Rabbit and the . Bless me! if the whole of Why isn’t coming along.”
 
It was quite true; attached to a strong rope a long line of creatures was coming down the shute, the Doctor-in-Law leading the way.
 
He soon caught sight of us at the end of our rods, and calling out “Halt!” in a loud voice, he pulled at the rope as a sign that they were to stop. This signal was passed along by the others, and the Cockatoo, who was attached to the rope in a very uncomfortable manner, gave a loud “squ-a-a-k” as the sudden jerk caused it to about her neck.
 
The signal, however, managed somehow to reach those at the other end, for the procession suddenly came to a standstill.
 
“Oh, there you are then!” called out the Doctor-in-Law in a severe voice. “Thought you had escaped us, I suppose.”
 
The Cockatoo, in a voice choking with rage, and the rope, out, “Down with the !” while the Rabbit passed the word along, “It’s all right. We’ve found them.”
 
“Just you come down and tie yourself to this rope at once!” called out Madame, glaring fiercely at the Wallypug.
 
“Shan’t!” shouted his Majesty , pushing his crown further on to his head.
 
“What!” screamed the good lady, in a terrible passion. “Do you dare to rebel?”
 
“Yes, I do,” called out his Majesty bravely. “I don’t believe you are my sister-in-law at all, and I’m not going back to Why to be snubbed and ill-treated for you or any one else—so there. You can’t get at me, hanging up here, and I don’t mean to get down till you’re gone. Yah!”
 
“Oh, we’ll soon see all about that,” called out the Doctor-in-Law, working himself to the edge of the shute, and tryin............