Ha! ha! Let me send you in a few dozen." He offered Mr. Punch an elaborate price-list as he concluded his self-condemnatory verse with an obsequious bow.
"Come," said Mr. Punch, once more taking hold of his aged companion's arm, without condescending to give the cheating tradesman any reply, "come—let us get out of this. 'Pon my word, I think we've almost had enough of Mercury!"
"Their morality does seem to have reached rather a low ebb, I must confess," replied Father TIME.
"Nothing like this on our Earth, anyhow," continued Mr. Punch, with a satisfied sigh of relief. "But come, we'll hear what the whole people say of themselves. See here's a chance. I believe there's a lot of them over there singing their National Anthem."
They listened as Mr. Punch spoke. He was right. There was a vast crowd collected outside one of the principal buildings on the other side of the square, and they were clearly finishing some popular anthem in chorus, for, as Father TIME and Mr. Punch paused to listen, the well-known familiar refrain—
"Never, never, never,
Shall be slaves!"
smote their ear.
"Capital! Capital!" cried Mr. Punch, approaching the throng. "We'll have that again." He turned his ring once more as he spoke, and the mob responded by shouting their second verse.
"Fool! Mercurius!