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The Jolly-cum-pop soon set out again, but he walked a long distance without seeing any person or any house. Toward the close of the afternoon he stopped, and, looking back, he saw coming toward him a large party of foot travellers. In a few moments, he perceived that the person in advance was the jailer. At this the Jolly-cum-pop could not restrain his merriment. “How comically it has all turned out!” he exclaimed. “Here I’ve taken all this trouble, and tired myself out, and have nearly starved myself, and the jailer comes now, with a crowd of people, and takes me back. I might as well have staid where I was. Ha! ha!”

The jailer now left his party and came running toward the Jolly-cum-pop. “I pray you, sir,” he said, bowing very low, “do not cast us off.”

“Who are you all?” asked the Jolly-cum-pop, looking with much surprise at the jailer’s companions, who were now quite near.

“We are myself, my three myrmidons, and our wives and children. Our situations were such good ones that we married long ago, and our families lived in the upper stories of the prison. But when all the convicts had left we were afraid to remain, for, should the Potentate again visit the prison, he would be disappointed and enraged at finding no prisoners, and would, probably, punish us grievously. So we determined to follow you, and to ask you to let us go with you, wherever you are going. I wrote a report, which I fastened to the great gate, and in it I stated that sixteen of the convicts escaped by the aid of outside confederates, and that seventeen of them mutinied in a body and broke jail.”

“That report,” laughed the Jolly-cum-pop, “your Potentate will not readily understand.”

“If I were there,” said the jailer, “I could explain it to him; but, as it is, he must work it out for himself.”

“Have you any thing to eat with you?” asked the Jolly-cum-pop.

“Oh, yes,” said the jailer, “we brought provisions.”

“Well, then, I gladly take you under my protection. Let us have supper. I have had nothing to eat since morning, and the weight of sixteen extra suits of clothes does not help to refresh one.”

The Jolly-cum-pop and his companions slept that night under some trees, and started off early the next morning. “If I could only get myself turned in the proper direction,” said he, “I believe we should soon reach my house.”

The Prince, his courtiers, the boys and girls, the course-marker, and the map-maker worked industriously for several days at the foundation of their city. They dug the ground, they carried stones, they cut down trees. This work was very hard for all of them, for they were not used to it. After a few days’ labor, the Prince said to the man with the red beard, who was reading his book: “I think we have now formed a nucleus. Any one can see that this is intended to be a city.”

“No,” said the man with the red beard, “nothing is truly a nucleus until something is gathered around it. Proceed with your work, while I continue my studies upon civil government.”

Toward the close of that day the red-bearded man raised his eyes from his book and beheld the Jolly-cum-pop and his party approaching. “Hurrah!” he cried, “we are already attracting settlers!” And he went forth to meet them.

When the prince and the courtiers saw the Jolly-cum-pop in his bright and variegated dress, they did not know him; but the boys and girls soon recognized his jovial face, and, tired as they were, they set up a hearty laugh, in which they were loudly joined by their merry friend. While the Jolly-cum-pop was listening to the adventures of the Prince and his companions, and telling what had happened to himself, the man with the red beard was talking to the jailer and his party, and urging them to gather around the nucleus which had been here formed, and help to build a city.