CHAPTER LXIII. Mrs. Clive at Home CHAPTER LXIV. Absit Omen CHAPTER LXV. In which Mrs. Clive comes into her Fortune CHAPTER LXVI. In which the Colonel and the Newcome Athenæum are both lectured CHAPTER LXVII. Newcome and Liberty CHAPTER LXVIII. A Letter and a Reconciliation CHAPTER LXIX. The Election CHAPTER LXX. Chiltern Hundreds CHAPTER LXXI. In which Mrs. Clive Newcome’s Carriage is ordered CHAPTER LXXII. Belisarius CHAPTER LXXIII. In which Belisarius returns from Exile CHAPTER LXXIV. In which Clive begins the World CHAPTER LXXV. Founder’s Day at the Grey Friars CHAPTER LXXVI. Christmas at Rosebury CHAPTER LXXVII. The Shortest and Happiest in the Whole History CHAPTER LXXVIII. In which the Author goes on a Pleasant Errand CHAPTER LXXIX. In which Old Friends come together CHAPTER LXXX. In which the Colonel says “Adsum” when his Name is called THE NEWCOMES CHAPTER I. The Overture—After which the Curtain rises upon a Drinking Chorus A crow, who had flown away with a cheese from a dairy-window, sate perched on a tree looking down at a great big frog in a pool underneath him. The frog’s hideous large eyes were goggling out of his head in a manner which appeared quite ridiculous to the old blackamoor, who watched the splay-footed slimy wretch with that peculiar grim humour belonging to crows. Not far from the frog a fat ox was browsing; whilst a few lambs frisked about the meadow, or nibbled the grass and buttercups there. Who should come in to the farther end of the field but a wolf? He was so cunningly dressed up in sheep’s clothing, that the very lambs did not know Master Wolf; nay, one of them, whose dam the wolf had just eaten, after which he had thrown her skin over his shoulders, ran up innocently towards the devouring monster, mistaking him for her mamma. “He, he!” says a fox, sneaking round the hedge-paling, over which the tree grew, whereupon the crow was perched looking down on the frog, who was staring with his goggle eyes fit to burst with envy, and croaking abuse at the ox. “How absurd those lambs are! Yonder silly little knock-kneed baah-ling does not know the old wolf dressed in the sheep’s fleece. He is the same old rogue who gobbled up little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother for lunch, and swallowed little Red Riding Hood for supper. _Tirez la bobinette et la chevillette cherra_. He, he!” An owl that was hidden in the hollow of the tree woke up. “Oho, Master Fox,” says she, “I cannot see you, but I smell you! If some folks like lambs, other folks like geese,” says the owl. “And your ladyship is fond of mice,” says the fox. “The Chinese eat them,” says the owl, “and I have read that they are very fond of dogs,” continued the old lady. “I wish they would exterminate every cur of them off the face of the earth,” said the fox.