"In the morning, the wax cases were quite set and hard, and when the maid and I went out to hang up the clothes, it was great fun to see the bewilderment of a large blackbird when he flew away with the maid's false nose, and she calmly stuck on another.
"The birds soon gave up their evil ways after that, but for some months, as a precaution, the maids never ventured out without a nose protector.
"It was for this useful invention that the King of Hearts bestowed on me the title of 'Doctor to His Majesty's Household.'"
"H'm!" I remarked, when he had finished, "it's a very remarkable story. I seem to have heard of some of the incidents before, somehow."
"Very likely, very likely," said Shin Shira "Well, I must be going now." And he shook hands and went out by the door, in a sensible way for once.
As he went out of the house, I heard him singing softly—
"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts
All on a summer's day"—
And then he changed his song to—
"Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocketful of rye,
Four-and-twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
The maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes,
And along came a blackbird
And nipped off her nose."