the tips of his fingers together, he told me the following story.

"The very last place in which I appeared before turning up here, was in
the grounds of the Palace belonging to the Grand Panjandrum--"

"Where is that situated, if you please?" I ventured to inquire.

Shin Shira gave me a quick glance.

"Do you mean to say that you actually don't even know where the land of
the Grand Panjandrum is?" he asked. "H'm! well," he continued as I shook
my head, "I remarked a short time ago that you didn't _look_ very
clever, but really, I couldn't have believed that you were so ignorant
as all that. You'd better look it up in your atlas when I am gone, I
can't bother to explain where it is now--but to resume my story. I
appeared there, as I said, and in the middle of the kitchen garden all
amongst the cabbages and beans.

"I could at first see nobody about, but at last I heard somebody
singing, and presently came upon a man carrying a basket in which were
some cabbages that he had evidently just gathered.

"Although he was singing so cheerfully, his head was bound up with a
handkerchief, and I could see that his face was badly swollen.

"When he had come a little nearer, I bowed politely and inquired of him
what place it was, for my surroundings were quite strange to me, it
being my first visit to the neighbourhood.

"He told me where I was, and explained that he was the Grand