154 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [111.

 

his bed about nine o’clock, by no means approved
of having to sit up until one or two in the morning.

To his untaught mind, moreover, many of the
speeches made appeared very useless and unneces-
sarily long, and he could not understand why the
House of Commons, though it occasionally stopped
an orator by clamouring him down with undignified
shouts, had no regular method by which it could
prevent its time being wasted, and put an end to
fruitless discussions and prosy speeches. He was also
puzzled to know why the Chairman was called the
Speaker, as he spoke less than anybody else, and why
he and the clerks at the table before him wore great
wigs, when they had plenty of very good hair of their
own. The huge mace, too, which hung at the end of
the table, was an object which excited the mingled
astonishment and reverence of Simon Ricketts, and
scarcely less so the court dress and sword of the
Serjeant-at-Arms, with awe of whom he was mightily
impressed.

The worthy milkman was not altogether unhappy
at first : he made great friends with the door-keepers,
who, stern and haughty in their demeanour to the
outer world, are ever affable and condescending to
those who have once passed the sacred threshold
and become members of the august assembly whose
avenues they guard. Simon found, moreover, an
excellent friend in the worthy individual who presided
over the corridors in which members hung their coats
and deposited their umbrellas, and from him our good
friend received many useful hints as to the forms and
ways of Parliament. But, somehow or other, he felt