FURTHER ADVENTURES 123

crown and a tumble for their pains, But I
never knew Jack come without Jill, and
besides, you do not seem to have any pail—
Who are you?’

During this speech the Prince had rapidly
thought over the position of his affairs, and
remembering that he had been especially
told of the pride which the hump-backed
mountebanks (of whom this was probably
one) took in their humps, and, moreover, that
the fact of his being himself possessed of a
similar ornament could not be concealed, he
determined to invent a tale which, if not
absolutely true in every particular, should
have enough of truth in it to satisfy his con-
science, and at the same time prevent the
interruption of his journey.

‘Sir,’ said he, when the other had ceased
speaking, ‘I am here because I am the
happy possessor of an ornament which
mortals calla hump. So far as I am aware,
there is no other country in the world but
that which I now seek to enter, in which a
proper value is attached to humps, ahd
those who enjoy them take a rightful pride
and pleasure in their glorious possession.
I come, therefore, to my brothers with