a ruinous castle the lovely face. He was delighted, inquired who lived in this old castle, and was told that several captive princesses were kept there by a spell, and spun all day to lay up money to buy their liberty. The knight wished intensely that he could free them; but he was poor, and could only go by each day, watching for the sweet face, and longing to see it out in the sunshine. At last he resolved to get into the castle and ask how he could help them. He went and knocked; the great door flew open, and he beheld--'

`A ravishingly lovely lady, who exclaimed, with a cry of rapture, "At last! at last"', continued Kate, who had read French novels, and admired the style. `"'Tis she!" cried Count Gustave, and fell at her feet in an ecstasy of joy. "Oh, rise!" she said, extending a hand of marble fairness. "Never! till you tell me how I may rescue you," swore the knight, still kneeling. "Alas, my cruel fate condemns me to remain here till my tyrant is destroyed." "Where is the villain!" "In the mauve salon. Go, brave heart, and save me from despair." `I obey, and return victorious or dead!" With these thrilling words he rushed away, and flinging open the door of the mauve salon, was about to enter, when he received--'

`A stunning blow from the big Greek lexicon, which an old fellow in a black gown fired at him,' said Ned. `Instantly Sir What's his-name recovered himself, pitched the tyrant out of the window, and turned to join the lady victorious, but with a bump on his brow; found the door locked, tore up the curtains, made a rope ladder, got half way down when the ladder broke, and he went head first into the moat, sixty feet below. Could swim like a duck, paddled round the castle till he came to a little door guarded by two stout fellows; knocked their heads together till they cracked like a couple of nuts, then, by a trilling exertion of his prodigious strength, he smashed in the door, went up a pair of stone steps covered with dust a foot thick, toads as big as your fist, and spiders that would frighten you into hysterics, Miss March. At the top of these steps he came plump upon a sight that took his breath away and chilled his blood--'

`A tall figure, all in white, with a veil over its face, and a lamp in its wasted hand,' went on Meg. `It beckoned, gliding noiselessly before him down a corridor as dark and cold as any tomb. Shadowy effigies in armour stood on either side, a dead silence reigned, the lamp burned blue, and the ghostly figure ever and anon turned its face towards him showing the glitter of awful eyes through its white veil. They reached a curtained door, behind which sounded lovely music; he sprang forward to enter, but the spectre plucked him back, and waved threateningly before him a--'

`Snuff-box,' said Jo, in a sepulchral tone, which convulsed the audience. `"Thankee," said the knight, politely, as he took a pinch, and sneezed seven times so violently that his head fell off. "Ha! ha!" laughed the ghost; and having peeped through the keyhole at the princesses spinning away for dear life, the evil spirit picked up her victim and put him in a large tin box, where there were eleven other knights packed together without their heads, like sardines, who all rose and began to--'

`Dance a hornpipe,' cut in Fred, as Jo paused for breath; `and, as they danced, the rubbishy old castle turned to a man-of-war in full sail. "Up with the jib, reef the tops'l halliards, helm hard a-lee, and man the guns!" roared the captain, as a Portuguese pirate hove in sight, with a flag black as ink flying from her foremast. "Go in and win my hearties!" says the captain; and a tremendous fight began. Of course the British beat; they always do.'

`No, they don't,' cried Jo, aside.

`Having taken the pirate captain prisoner, sailed slap over the schooner, whose decks were piled with dead, and whose leescuppers ran blood, for the order had been "Cutlasses, and die hard!" "Bosun's mate, take a bright of the flying jib sheet, and start this villain if he don't confess his sins double quick," said the British captain. The Portuguese held his tongue like a brick, and walked the plank, while the jolly tars cheered like mad. But the sly dog dived, came up under the man-of-war, scuttled her, and down she went, with all sail set, "To the bottom of the sea, sea, sea," where--'

`Oh, gracious! what shall I say?' cried Sallie, as Fred ended his rigmarole, in which he had jumbled together, pell-mell, nautical phrases and facts out of one of his favourite books. `Well, they went to the