"He will think," merrily said in reply the Jolly-cum-pop, "that all yourprisoners are somewhat portly, and that the little girls have grown up intobig men."

"I will endeavor to explain that," said the jailer.

For several days the Jolly-cum-pop was highly amused at the idea ofhis being seventeen criminals, and he would sit first in one cell andthen in another, trying to look like a ferocious pirate, ahard-hearted usurer, or a mean-spirited chicken thief, and laughingheartily at his failures. But, after a time, he began to tire ofthis, and to have a strong desire to see what sort of a tunnel thePrince's miners and rock-splitters were making under his home. "Ihad hoped," he said to himself, "that I should pine away inconfinement, and so be able to get through the window-bars; but withnothing to do, and seventeen rations a day, I see no chance of that.But I must get out of this jail, and, as there seems no other way, Iwill revolt." Thereupon he shouted to the jailer through the hole inthe door of his cell: "We occasionally have revolted! We occasionally have risen in a body, andhave determined to resist your authority, and break jail!"

When the jailer heard this, he was greatly troubled. "Do not proceedto violence," he exclaimed; "let us parley."

"Very well," replied the Jolly-cum-pop, "but you must open the celldoor. We cannot parley through a hole."