"No, sonny, that he won't," said she with a determined glint of her eyes and a twitching of the corners of her mouth, "for I won't let him; but he does suffer anguish!"
"Oh, tell me, mamma, what misfortune has befallen us," I cried.
"It is very sad," said mother. "Your father, who is the finest speaker in the country, has been commanded by a worshipful senate and most honorable civic corporation of the Free City of Hamburg to appear before the visiting king in full dress, and officiate as orator of the day at a reception to be tendered his majesty by our city"—here mother broke down completely, overwhelmed by grief and wept copiously into her handkerchief.
"Oh, oh," I wailed, "do say it, mamma!"
"And—and your father has no coat!" she sobbed. "Poor man, he fears disgrace and dreads the loss of preferment and of a royal decoration, perhaps. He will have to feign sickness as an excuse for his absence; but I hope he realizes now how degraded and unhappy I must feel with my last year's gowns and made-over millinery—and your poor sister's ancient bonnets, I dare not look at them any longer!"
"But papa has a coat," I said, "a royal Prince Albert!"
"True," answered mother, "but it has no swallow's tails!"
"A Prince Albert has no swallow-tails?" I gasped wonderingly; "but it has great, long tails, surely!"
"Oh, now I see," an idea flashing through my mind; "it has cock-tails, has it, mamma, and it can't swallow them, can it, mamma?"
"Oh my, oh my!" screamed mother, "you are the funniest little chap to ask me questions. Go, ask pussy!"