AN Object was walking along the King's highway wrapped in
meditation¹ and with little else on, when he suddenly found himself
at the gates of a strange city.  On applying for admittance, he was
arrested as a necessitator of ordinances², and taken before the
King.

  "Who are you," said the King, "and what is your business in life?"

  "Snouter the Sneak," replied the Object, with ready invention;
"pick-pocket."

  The King was about to command him to be released when the Prime
Minister suggested that the prisoner's fingers be examined.  They
were found greatly flattened³ and calloused⁴ at the ends.

  "Ha!" cried the King; "I told you so! - he is addicted⁵ to counting
syllables⁶.  This is a poet.  Turn him over to the Lord High
Dissuader⁷ from the Head Habit."

  "My liege," said the Inventor-in-Ordinary of Ingenious Penalties,
"I venture to suggest a keener affliction.

  "Name it," the King said.

  "Let him retain that head!"

  It was so ordered.

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