No More Learning

"Ah! ha! ha! " roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the
beaker. --"See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are
shining already! "

Poor fellow! his large eyes gleamed, rather than shone; for the effect
of wine on his excitable brain was not more powerful than instantaneous.
He placed the goblet nervously on the table, and looked round upon the
company with a half--insane stare. They all seemed highly amused at the
success of the king's 'joke. '

"And now to business," said the prime minister, a very fat man.

"Yes," said the King; "Come lend us your assistance. Characters, my fine
fellow; we stand in need of characters--all of us--ha! ha! ha!
" and
as this was seriously meant for a joke, his laugh was chorused by the
seven.

Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly.

"Come, come," said the king, impatiently, "have you nothing to suggest? "

"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf,
abstractedly, for he was quite bewildered by the wine.

"Endeavoring! " cried the tyrant, fiercely; "what do you mean by that?
Ah, I perceive. You are Sulky, and want more wine. Here, drink this! "
and he poured out another goblet full and offered it to the cripple, who
merely gazed at it, gasping for breath.

"Drink, I say! " shouted the monster, "or by the fiends-"

The dwarf hesitated. The king grew purple with rage. The courtiers
smirked. Trippetta, pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch's seat,
and, falling on her knees before him, implored him to spare her friend.

The tyrant regarded her, for some moments, in evident wonder at
her audacity.