When Lucy entered the nursery that morning, soon after Robert, he exclaimed—
"I say, Lucy! There's something fresh for breakfast. Look on your plate!"
"Oh, my poor Cuckoo!" she cried in distress. "You've shot it at last. You bad boy—I shan't love you ever any more!"
But she did love him at once again, for it was a fact that no one knew how ever the Cuckoo came to be lying on the floor in the remote corner where Nurse had picked it up. The cushioned chair was in its place again—a long way off the clock. Every one was mystified, and could not imagine how it had happened. But Tabiatha knew all about it, though you would never have guessed it from her round, innocent eyes as she sat licking first one velvety paw, and then the other velvety paw, as though she were washing them of any share in the mischief.
When the Clock-House was spring-cleaned, and the Cuckoo duly set there on its legs again, it formed the firm determination to remain at its post in the future, and, with its Clock-House in order, it worked ever after with regularity and good humour just like one o'clock.
"Cuc—koo!" Bow, click.
CHRISTMAS AT THE COURT OF KING JORUM
The great evening had come, and every one in Cosmopolis Castle was agog with excitement. Eight months before, the Monarch had by Royal Herald Extraordinary announced his intention of making known his decision on Christmas Eve. And Christmas Eve had come. No wonder every one was agog with excitement, because King Jorum was at last going to announce which of the lovely ladies of the Court should be raised to the position of the late Queen, his defunct consort. She, poor soul, had possessed neither charm nor beauty, and without her he had been quite happy for the past two years, surrounded by smiling faces and kept constantly amused by the ladies and gentlemen of his Court.