“Because if you gits in right side afore, you’re sure to be left behind.”
The boys went along the platform to look for a carriage. The first they came to had a crown of a hat nailed on its side, and below in large letters—
EXHASPIRATING.
’ERE
AGAIN.
Looking in they saw a king in a long robe, standing before a number of square holes (over each of which there was a letter of the alphabet), with an armful of letters, which he was cramming into the different holes. The H’s seemed to be very troublesome, for they were constantly getting dropped, and those that he managed to force into their place the boys saw slyly slipping out, and gliding into the holes of the vowels, so that, struggle as he might, he could not get them right. Once he caught an H with a corner of an I, just as it was trying to get in beside the O’s.
“Oh ho!” said he, “is that what you’re after?” seizing him firmly. But the H was determined, if he could not be where he ought not, that he would be dropped; and as the king held on tightly to him, over they both rolled together, the king tripping on his long robes, and coming down in a most undignified position. The H’s that were on the ground could do nothing, but those that had got in beside the vowels shouted with laughter.
A DROP SCENE.