upon brains!--We shall see, Wideawake--we _shall_ see:--let this page bear testimony! I hope the briny ocean may not swallow up the Captain's luggage." Victoria and Albert slumber late on the morning of the 5th:--Alphonso is the first up--or rather down, having rolled off his uncomfortable bed, constructed upon four chairs, in the drawing-room. Mrs. Brown, too, must have risen on the wrong side of her teaster, so testy is she this morning--thanking her stars that Twelfth-day has arrived, to put an end to the Christmas miseries!--Soon, now, will that little pest, Tom, be packed back to "Tortwhack House;" and the juvenile party, of to-day, it is hoped may appease some rampant mammas uninvited to the grand _reunion_--rendering any petty excuses that may be given the more feasible. The day rolls rapidly away, though not with half the speed Master Brown could desire--the hands of the hall-clock appearing to creep so, that every time Tom passed it (and that was not seldom), he stopped to see if it was going, the day seeming most unusually long, and night as if it never would come; but it did!--firstly, bringing the little "Merrys," from Hope Cottage, the Tudor lodge, next-door-but-one--Master Walter Merry being the first to answer Tommy's nubbly note of invitation, in intoxicated text capitals, that appeared to be making a desperate effort to run off the paper, at the right-hand corner, leaving no room to "remain," and scarcely any to "please turn over;" so folded was it, to give the desired angular form, that the paper looked as if it had been used to make five hundred geometrical cocks and boats. Tom met the Merrys with such fervent joy, that he never thought they had healths, or anything else to ask after; his only object, seeming to be the finding of his friend, who is rolled, like a mummy, in numberless boas and shawls:--during the process of unswathing, which was no easy job to one in a hurry, so artfully were the pins introduced, Master Tommy treats his friend Walter to a railroad retrospective review of the good things in store--recounting all the "lummy" things left yesterday;--telling about the "nobby" Christmas tree Captain de Camp gave them--though his ma' did say it was "a pretty give!"--it was stolen out of _his_ father's garden.--My father's a jolly sight richer than your's--he has more trees in his garden--ain't we got a "swag" of nuts, and a "plummy" twelfth-cake--my father won it at an _art-union_, in the city! I am to draw King--if I don't, just see how I'll cry!--Mercy Merry shall be Queen. You shall have Punch off the cake; and ma'says I shall have "Rule Britannia," as soon as the waves and ice have melted away. [Illustration]