CHAPTER III.
Guy read some of the signs. One was to the land Selfishness, another to Forgetfulness. To the land of Put-off, and By-and-by. Another was I Can’t and I Won’t.
“Oh, dear! They are all as bad as the one I am in, and I’ve no time to read any more. Dear! Dear! I am always saying no time myself now;” and, feeling very miserable, he entered the arbour, sat down on one of the cane chairs, and, putting his arms on the table, rested his head on them.
“What a dreadful muddle things have got into.”
“Perhaps you have stirred up the mud,” said a voice.
Guy started! “The only sensible thing I have heard yet,” he thought; and, looking up, saw on the mantelpiece—he never noticed a fireplace in the arbour before—a little old man holding a scroll.
“May I ask your name, please sir?” said Guy.
“Mr. Memory-Pricker,” replied the little man; “but I am called M.P. for short.”
“Why, that stands for member of Parliament too,” said Guy.