At last the Colonel, slower of foot than the rest,
arrived on the scene, just as the pride of his heart, the old King
Chanticleer of the yard, made his exit, draped in a royal red paper
robe and a species of tinsel crown, out of which his red face looked
most ludicrous as he came halting and stupefied, haying evidently
been driven up in a corner and pinched rather hard; but close behind
him, chuckling forth his terror and flapping his wings, came the pert
little white bantam, belted and accoutred as a page.
Colonel Brownlow's severe command to open the door was not resisted
for one moment, and forth rushed a cloud of dust and feathers, a
quacking waggling substratum of ducks, and a screaming flapping
rabble of chickens, behind whom, when the mist cleared, were seen,
looking as if they had been tarred and feathered, various black and
grey figures, which developed into Jock, Armine, Robin, Johnny, and
Joe. Jock, the foremost, stared straight up in his aunt's face,
Armine ran to his mother with-—"Did you see the old king, mother, and
his little page? Wasn't it funny—-"
But he was stopped by the sight of his uncle, who laid hold of his
eldest son with a fierce "How dare you, sir?" and gave him a shake
and blow. Robin stood with a sullen look on his face, and hands in
his pockets, and his brothers followed suit.
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