soon. In fact, she forgot all about him, and about me as well, and became entirely absorbed in an attempt to teach the raven to play jack-stones—for which recreation he showed very little talent. As there was, necessarily, considerable noise in her course of instruction, I requested her to hold the sessions out of doors, and she kindly adopted the suggestion.
THE SLUGGARD, CONSIDERING.
In order to occupy the magician's mind, I gave him some copying, but he was n't interested in his work. He was restless, and wandered out into the country searching high and low for the curious crowd of nondescripts which my careless niece had liberated in a praiseworthy attempt to gain knowledge. I called his attention to this view of the subject, and asked whether he did not see it in the same light, but I must say he was quite unreasonable and prejudiced. He left the room abruptly, forgetting his hat, leaving the door wide open, and his quill-pen behind his ear. He was gone for some time. In the afternoon he came back radiant, crying aloud: "I have found them—I have found them!" and dancing with joy. His dancing was very good, but I was busy and paid no attention to him. If he had been a man of any tact, he would have felt my indifference; but some people cannot take a hint, and he went on as eagerly as though I had shown some interest in the performance.
"As I was walking in the meadows," he shouted, "I nearly tripped over the body of a peasant lying flat upon the ground, studying an ant-hill with a magnifying-glass. I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that he was The Sluggard and that he had been advised to go to the ants and
