KING ALFRED AND THE CAKES, 15

Mrs. 8. Come, your Assurance, sir, I don’t require,
Unless it will make good our loss by fire.
Where have you been, and what have you been takin’ ?
Would I had been in time to save my bakin’!
ALF. Now, pray with those black gloomy looks have done.
Mrs. 8. Black looks, indeed! Behold this Sally Lunn!
ALF. I may explain this accident unpleasant,
Although things do look rather black at present-——

Enter SMITH, excited.

SmI. News! news! The Danes, with suddenness surprising,

 

Have been defeated, and the stocks are rising.
On Guthrum’s head a heavy price is set-——
ALF. Huzza! my friends. We may be happy yet.