“Be still, you idiot!” whispered the landlady, putting her hand over the woman’s mouth. “Do you want to lose your ten pounds and your head too? If the King has caught the Golden-breasted Kootoo, why, then it _is_ the Golden-breasted Kootoo, as sure as I am a baroness!” and she added in a still lower tone, “There hasn’t been a Kootoo seen in the Vale for ten years; the birds have died out.” Great were the rejoicings at the palace when the King returned in triumph, bringing with him the much-coveted prize, the Golden-breasted Kootoo. The bands played until they almost killed themselves; the cooks waved their ladles and set to work at once on the pie; the huntsmen sang hunting-songs. All was joy and rapture, except in the breast of one man; that man was the Second Musician, or, as we should now call him, the Chief Musician. He felt no thrill of joy at sight of the wondrous bird; on the contrary, he made his will, and prepared to leave the country at once; but when the pie was finished, and he saw its huge dimensions, he was comforted. “No man,” he said to himself, “can eat the whole of that pie and live!” Alas! he was right. The unhappy King fell a victim to his musical ambition before he had half finished his pie, and died in a fit. His subjects ate the remainder of the mighty pasty, with mingled tears and smiles, as a memorial feast; and if the Golden-breasted Kootoo _was_ a Shanghai rooster, nobody in the kingdom was ever the wiser for it. THE STORY OF HOKEY POKEY. HOKEY POKEY was the youngest of a large family of children. His elder brothers, as they grew up, all became either butchers or bakers or makers of candlesticks, for such was the custom of the family. But Hokey Pokey would be none of these things; so when he was grown to be a tall youth he went to his father and said, “Give me my fortune.” “Will you be a butcher?” asked his father. “No!” said Hokey Pokey. “Will you be a baker?” “No, again.” “Will you make candlesticks?” “Nor that either!” “Then,” said his father, “this is the only fortune I can give you;” and with that he took up his cudgel and gave the youth a stout beating. “Now you cannot complain that I gave you nothing!” said he. “That is true!” said Hokey Pokey. “But give me also the wooden mallet which lies on the shelf, and I will make my way through the world.”