intelligence, which quite took away his breath for a moment, and the Fairy resumed

"We are about to journey on to our summer palace; and if you will favour us with your society for a brief space, I hope, by the varied delights of my courtly circle, to induce you to make a long sojourn there. Indeed, your talents are so thrown away in this solitary place, that your wisest course would be to make your permanent home amongst us, and return here no more."

"Your highness overwhelms me," said Speckleback, in a great flutter. "I cannot find words to express my feelings. Of course, I am the humblest of your servants, and your highness has but to command me. But will you graciously accord me permission to apprise my servants of my departure ?"

The Fairy courteously smiled, and begged him to make ready, and Speckleback hopped off in a desperate hurry to his hole.

"Well Specky, my dear," said his fond mother, "where have you been? Here's your supper

waiting for

you, and little Miss Beady-eyes has called for you to walk with her."

"Get out of my way, you foolish woman,' said Specky, in a great heat and agitation, “I've no time to attend to your nonsense. And as for that little silly Beady-eyes, I only wonder you can encourage her here. I'm surprised at you for liking such low society; I can't even tolerate it."

His poor old mother was accustomed to his pompous talking and rude manners; but when he told her the astounding news, and expatiated on the grandeur and beauty of the Fairy, his new patroness, she was so utterly bewildered that she had no time to think of grief for his departure. So, without much trouble or impediment, Speckleback, after pluming himself up to the utmost of his power, returned to the golden boat and the Fairy. Here he was installed on a grand golden stool, with a velvet cushion, and they were borne off on the bosom of the quiet river by the four swans.

All that night did the reeds and sedges echo

with the wails and doleful shrieks of his disconsolate mother, who found, however, that her grief met with little sympathy from her neighbours.

"What a ridiculous fuss about that disagreeable creature," said the discarded Beady-eyes to a companion.

"Don't you be afraid, my good woman; you're sure to see your precious son soon back again," said a shrewish old crayfish, who lived in a convenient cranny in the bank. "I am quite sure whoever has him in charge will speedily find out all his wonderful talents and graces-(graces indeed! Pshaw! A soft-skinned bag of bones and fluid!) and will return him, to the delight of his bereaved mother, and the discomfort of all his sensible neighbours."

"I tell you what it is," said Longtail, the water eft, "you ought to be thankful that your precious son is gone where he will have a little of the conceit taken out of him. Fairies are queer enough to deal with, and awfully capricious. I shall not be at all surprised if some