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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16731-pdf.pdf b/16731-pdf.pdf Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a160808 --- /dev/null +++ b/16731-pdf.pdf diff --git a/16731-pdf.zip b/16731-pdf.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2233dac --- /dev/null +++ b/16731-pdf.zip diff --git a/16731.txt b/16731.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac17b1e --- /dev/null +++ b/16731.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4931 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Garden of the Plynck, by Karle Wilson Baker + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Garden of the Plynck + +Author: Karle Wilson Baker + +Illustrator: Florence Minard + +Release Date: September 23, 2005 [EBook #16731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GARDEN OF THE PLYNCK *** + + + + +Produced by William F. Seabrook + + + + + + The Garden of the Plynck + + by + + Karle Wilson Baker + + + + + + + Contents + + Chapter I. The Dimplesmithy + + Chapter II. Avrillia + + Chapter III. Relations + + Chapter IV. The Invaders + + Chapter V. Crumbs and Waffles + + Chapter VI. The Little Lost Laugh + + Chapter VII. Accepting an Invitation + + Chapter VIII. The Vale of Tears + + Chapter IX. Cheers and Butter + + Chapter X. Sara's Day + + + + + + + + Chapter I + The Dimplesmithy + + +Grown people have such an exasperating way of saying, "Now, when I was +a little girl--" + +Then, just as you prick up the little white ears of your mind for a +story, they finish, loftily, "I did--or didn't do--so-and-so." + +It is certainly an underhand way of suggesting that you stop doing +something pleasant, or begin doing something unpleasant; and you would +not have thought that Sara's dear mother would have had so unworthy a +habit. But a stern regard for the truth compels me to admit that she +had. + +You see, Sara's dear mother was, indeed, most dear; but very +self-willed and contrary. Her great fault was that she was always busy +at something. She would darn, and she would write, and she would read +dark-colored books without pictures. When Sara compared her with other +mothers of her acquaintance, or when this very contrary own-mother +went away for a day, she seemed indeed to Sara quite desperately +perfect. But on ordinary days Sara was darkly aware, in the clearest +part of her mind--the upper right-hand corner near the window--that +her mother, with all her charm, really did need to be remoulded nearer +to her heart's desire. + +She was especially clear about this on the frequent occasions when she +would come into the room where her mother was sitting, and plump down +upon a chair with a heart-rending sigh, and say, "I wish I had +somebody to play with!" + +For then her dear but most contrary mother would glance up from her +book or her darning and remark, with a calm smile, + +"When I was a little girl--" + +"Ah!" + +"I used to go inside my head and play." + +And Sara would answer with a poor, vindictive satisfaction, "There's +nothing in my head to play with!" + +And her kind-hearted mother would snip off her thread and say gently, +in a tone of polite regret, "Poor little girl!" + +Then Sara would gnash the little milk-teeth of her mind and have awful +thoughts. The worst she ever had came one day when Mother, who had +already filled about fourteen pages of paper with nothing in the world +but words, acted that way again. And just as she said, "Poor little +girl!" Sara thought, "I'd like to take that sharp green pencil and +stick it into Mother's forehead, and watch a story run out of her head +through the hole!" + +But that was such an awful thought that she sent it scurrying away, as +fast as she could. Just the same, she said to herself, if Mother ever +acted that way again-- + +And, after all, Mother did. And that was the fatal time--the +four-thousand-and-fourth. For, after Mother had suggested it four +thousand and four times, it suddenly occurred to Sara that she might +try it. + +So she shut the doors and went in. + +Yes, I said shut the doors and went in; for that is what you do when +you go into your head. The doors were of ivory, draped with tinted +damask curtains which were trimmed with black silk fringe. The curtains +fell noiselessly behind Sara as she entered. + +And there in the Gugollaph-tree by the pool sat the Plynck, gazing +happily at her Echo in the water. + +She was larger than most Plyncks; about the size of a small peacock. +Of course you would know without being told that her plumage was of a +delicate rose color, except for the lyre-shaped tuft on the top of her +head, which was of the exact color and texture of Bavarian cream. Her +beak and feet were golden, and her eyes were golden, too, and very +bright and wild. The wildness and brightness of her eyes would have +been rather frightening, if her voice, when she spoke, had not been so +soft and sweet. + +"I think a little girl has forgotten something," she said gently, +looking down into her Teacup. + +Sara examined herself anxiously. She knew it was something about +herself, because the Plynck's tone was exactly like Mother's when she +wished to remind Sara, without seeming officious, that she had not +wiped her feet on the mat, or spread out her napkin, or remembered to +say "Thank you" at the exact psychological moment. + +Sara was extremely anxious to please the Plynck, because she thought +her so pensive and pretty; but, try as she would, she couldn't think +what she had forgotten to do. + +"Does a little girl wear her dimples in The House?" asked the Plynck, +still more gently. + +"Oh, of course not!" said Sara, taking them off hastily. But she could +not help adding, as she looked around appreciatively at the silver +bushes and the blue plush grass and the alabaster moon-dial by the +fountain, "But this isn't The House, is it?" + +"Isn't it?" asked the Plynck, glancing uneasily about her. What she +saw startled her so much that she dropped her Teacup. Of course it +flew up to a higher branch and balanced itself there instead of +falling; but the poor little thing was so round and fat, +that--especially as it hadn't any feet--it had some difficulty at +first in perching. As for the Plynck, she seemed so embarrassed over +her mistake that Sara felt dreadfully uncomfortable for her. +Recovering herself, however, in a moment, she said in her sweet, +gentle way, + +"Well, dear, you wouldn't want the Zizzes to fall into them, even if +this isn't The House--would you?" + +Sara hadn't noticed until then that the air was full of Zizzes; but +the minute she saw their darling little vibrating wings she knew that +she wouldn't for anything have one of them come to grief in her +dimples. They were more like hummingbirds than anything she had ever +seen outside of her head, but of course they were not nearly so large; +most of them were about a millionth-part as large as a small mosquito. +She noticed, too, that their tails were bitter. If it had not been for +the bitterness of their tails, she would not have felt so uneasy about +them; as it was, she held the dimples tight in her hand, with the +concave side next her palm. + +"Avrillia's at home," said the Plynck gently, with her eyes on her +Teacup, which she was gradually charming back into her hand. (Her +hands were feet, you know, like a nightingale's, only golden; but she +called them hands in the afternoon, to match her Teacup.) The timid +little thing was fluttering back, coming nearer twig by twig; and it +trembled up to the Plynck just as she said, softly and absent-mindedly, +"Avrillia's at home." + +"Oh, is she?" exclaimed Sara, clapping her hands with joy. She did not +know who Avrillia was; nevertheless, it somehow seemed delightful to +hear that she was at home. But alas and alas! when she clapped her +hands she forgot all about the dimples she had been holding so +carefully. To tell the truth, she had never taken them off before; but +she was ashamed to let the Plynck know about that, especially as she +had lived in The House all her former life. Her first thought, indeed, +when she realized what had happened, was to conceal the catastrophe +from the Plynck; but before she could get her breath that gentle bird +startled her almost out of her wits by shrieking, + +"Watch out! the Snimmy will get it!" + +And there, at Sara's feet, where a bit of the dimple lay on the taffy +(looking very much like a fragile bit of a Christmas-tree ornament), +was a real Snimmy, vest-pocket and all. His tail was longer than that +of most Snimmies, and his nose was sharper and more debilitating, but +you would have known him at once, as Sara did, for a Snimmy. She +thought, too, that he trembled more than most of them, and that he was +whiter and more slippery. Ordinarily, she had never felt afraid of +Snimmies; but the startling shriek of the Plynck, and the exposed +position of her dimple, set her to jumping wildly up and down. And, +indeed, the worst would have happened, had not the Echo of the Plynck, +with great presence of mind, cried out', "Cover it! Cover it!" And at +that cry the Teacup fluttered hastily down and turned itself upside +down over the piece of dimple. And there it sat, panting a little, but +looking as plump and pleased as possible, though the Snimmy was still +dancing and sniffing ferociously around its rim. + +"There!" said the Plynck in her own gentle voice, though it still +shook with excitement. "It's a mercy you settled without breaking." +Then, turning to Sara, "And goodness knows how we'll ever get it out, +Sara. It will take at least three onions to anaesthetize the Snimmy." + +Now, this was indeed dreadful. Sara had been conscious enough before +this announcement of the havoc she had wrought by her carelessness; +and now to have brought down upon herself a word like that! She was +almost ready to cry; and to keep from being quite ready, she suggested, +tremulously, "Do you suppose I could go after the onions?" + +The Plynck looked at her in surprise. "Why, didn't you bring them with +you?" she said. Then, suddenly, she noticed how threateningly the +Snimmy was dancing and squeaking around Sara's feet, and how Sara was +shrinking away from him. + +"He won't hurt you," she began. "He's perfectly kind and harmless, +aside from his mania for dimples. He still smells the piece under the +Teacup." Then, all at once, she grew rigid, and her golden eyes began +to leap up and down like frightened flames. + +"It's the ones in your hand!" she shrieked. "In your hand! Sit down +for your life!" + +Sara at first thought she had said, "Run for your life," and had +indeed taken two-elevenths of a step; but when she realized that the +Plynck had said, "Sit down for your life," she sat down precisely +where she was, as if Jimmy had pulled a chair out from under her, on +the very ice-cream brick her feet stood on. She realized that in a +crisis like this obedience was the only safe thing. And the instant +she touched the pavement, the Snimmy gave a great gulping sob and hid +his face in his hands; and small, grainy tears the size of gum-drops +began to trickle through them and fall into his vest-pocket. + +The Echo of the Plynck in the water gave a rippling laugh of relief. +"Well," she said, "it's a mercy you remembered that. Perhaps you don't +know, my dear," she said, turning to Sara, "that no Snimmy can endure +to see a mortal sit down. It simply breaks their hearts. See, he's +even forgotten about the dimples." + +And indeed, the Snimmy was standing before her, overcome by remorse. +He was holding his shoe in his hand in the most gentlemanly manner, +and Sara forgave him at once when she saw how sorry and ashamed he +was. + +"I--hope you'll try to--to--to excuse me, Miss," he sobbed, humbly +offering her a handful of gum-drops. "Them dimples--" here, for a +moment, his nose began to wink and his feet pranced a little, but he +looked closely to see that she was still sitting down, and controlled +himself. "Them dimples--" he began again; but he could say no more. +The gum-drops began falling all around like hail-stones, so fast that +Sara felt that she ought to help him all she could--without getting +up--to get them into his vest-pocket. + +The clatter of the gum-drops again attracted the attention of the +Plynck's Echo, who said, kindly, "Go and take a nap, now, Snimmy, and +you'll feel better." + +The Snimmy lifted his shoe and tried to reply, but he only gave a +respectful sob. So he turned away and crept back to his home in the +prose-bush--where, all this time, his wife had been sitting in plain +sight on her own toadstool, grimly hemming the doorknob. At her feet +lay her faithful Snoodle. + +Up to this time, Sara had not ventured to address the Teacup. But, as +she looked around and saw her still sitting there, so pleasant and +bland and fragile, and with such a consanguineous handle, she felt a +sudden certainty that the Teacup would always be kind and helpful; so +she suggested timidly, + +"Then we shan't need the onions?" + +"Oh, dear, yes," answered the Teacup, in a soft, wrinkled voice. "We'd +never in Zeelup be able to get the pieces of the dimple to Schlorge +without first anaesthetizing the Snimmy." + +Sara jumpled: that awful word again! Her head reeled (exactly as heads +do in grown-up stories) as she realized how many things there were in +this strange place that she didn't know. Who was Schlorge, for +example? And how was she to get anything to anybody without getting +up? And "anaesthetize"? + +She hated to disturb the Teacup; she was knitting so placidly, and +murmuring over and over to herself, "Never in Zeelup." She looked up +into the tree; the Plynck, too, had fallen asleep, worn out by the +unwonted excitement of the morning; and her lovely Echo also slept in +the amber pool. Sara now noticed that, though the Plynck was +rose-colored, her Echo was cerulean. + +The great, soft, curled plumes of the Plynck and her Echo rippled as +they breathed and slept, rather like water or fire in a little wind; +and with every ripple they seemed to shake out a faint perfume that +drifted across Sara's face in waves. And they both looked so lovely +that she could not think of disturbing them, either. So she looked +about to see if there might be any one else who could enlighten her. + +And there at her elbow, as luck would have it, stood a Koopf. Up to +this time, Sara had not been able to tell a Koopf from a Gunkus. To be +sure, there isn't any difference, really; but you would think that any +fairly imaginative child ought to be able to tell one. However, Sara +now saw that the ground was swarming with Gunki. + +"Do you know who Schlorge is?" asked Sara, rather timidly. + +At first the Koopf only grinned. "Guess I do," he managed to say at +last. Then he surprised and rather startled her by winking his left +ear at her. "He's the best dimplesmith ever," he said at last. +"He's--he's--" he began looking all about him, vaguely and a little +wildly. But, just as Sara was growing a little afraid of him, his +attention suddenly came back to her with a kind, businesslike +interest. "Need some repairs?" he asked. "Some fractured dimples, +maybe?" + +"Yes, sir," said Sara, earnestly. "I have most of them here in my +hand." She opened her hand and showed him the pretty little pieces. + +"Where's the rest?" he inquired, with another grin. "Your plump friend, +here, sitting on 'em?" + +Sara nodded. + +The Koopf stooped and picked up one of the gum-drops that had rolled +out of the Snimmy's vest-pocket. "Thought so," he said. "Happens every +now and then. Only lately there ain't been anybody here that was +dimpliferous, to speak of." + +Then, suddenly, as if somebody had told him his house was on fire, he +turned and set off down the path as fast as he could run. "Bring 'em +to the shop!" he shouted back over his shoulder, excitedly. "Bring 'em +to the shop!" + +While Sara was looking after him, and wondering where the shop might +be, and whether she dared try to get up without waking the Snimmy, the +Koopf suddenly stopped running, and started thoughtfully back up the +path toward her. "Don't know how I happened to forget it," he said, +"but I--well, fact is, I'm--where's a stump? Where's a stump?" He +looked hastily about him, and this time, seeing a stump near by, he +clambered upon it, thrust one hand into his bosom and the other behind +his back, like the pictures of Napoleon, and repeated, solemnly, + +"I am Schlorge the Koopf, King of Dimplesmiths. + + "Under the gright Gugollaph-tree + The Dimplesmithy stands; + The smith is harder than the sea + And softer than the lands; + He mends cheek-dimples frank and free, + But will not work on hands." + + +And as soon as he had finished he started wildly down the path again, +shouting back, "Bring 'em to the shop!" + +Sara sat looking down the path, then at the dimples in her hand. "Well," +she said aloud, "I'm glad they're cheek-dimples, anyhow. But what in +the world shall I do about the onions?" + +"What in Zeelup," corrected the Teacup gently, counting her stitches. +"Milder than swearing, my dear, more becoming, and quite as +effective." + +Sara wanted to tell her she wasn't swearing, but just at that moment +the wife of the Snimmy remarked, with some disgust in her voice, + +"Well, if you'd of asked me sooner, I could of told you. I have them +in the sugar-bowl, of course. Do you suppose I'd be without, and him +subject to such fits?" + +And so saying, she replaced the doorknob, which was now neatly hemmed, +on the front door of the prose-bush, and came down the steps to Sara, +carrying three large onions. She was not a bad-looking person, though +an amnicolist. + +She then proceeded to slice the onions very deftly with a tuning-fork, +after which she rubbed the ice-cream of the pavement with the slices, +making a circle all around the Teacup, and another all around Sara, +somewhat like the ring they used to burn about a fire in the grass, to +keep it from spreading. All this time she was talking to them +grumblingly, though she never once looked up. + +"I should think anybody'd know better than to bring dimples around +where he is," she said, "and I have my opinion of such. A poor, +hardworking man like him, that tries to act moral. I should think--" + +She kept on saying things like this, that made Sara feel very +uncomfortable. But at last she finished her work, and looking +watchfully back over her shoulder at the sleeping Snimmy, she said +grudgingly to them both, "Now get up careful." + +Sara rose to her feet, and the Teacup lifted her dainty little skirt +ever so slightly. The minute the perfume from the dimples reached the +Snimmy (he couldn't smell those in Sara's hand, of course, so long as +she was sitting down), he sprang to his feet, quivering; but almost +immediately he caught a whiff of the onions, and sank down again, +entirely overcome, into a deep sleep. + +The Teacup arose and shook out her skirts. She picked up the tiny, +sparkling piece of dimple she had been protecting so long, and handed +it prettily to Sara. "Now, my dear," she said, "I think I shall return +to my mistress. I would suggest that you take your dimples to the shop +immediately." So saying, she hopped up into the tree and settled +quietly down beside the dreaming Plynck, taking great care not to +disturb her. And Sara started down the path toward the Dimplesmithy. + +The path turned presently into a wide road, very pleasant and +peaceful-looking, and so deep with pollen-dust that Sara's shoes soon +looked as if they were powdered with gold. Sunset sheep came wandering +down the road now and then, and lines of white geese, and once she +passed a little pond where green ducks were quacking and paddling; the +road was so pretty, indeed, that it was hard for her to keep her mind +on finding the Dimplesmithy. There were tall Gugollaph-trees all along +the road, here and there, but Sara felt sure she would know the right +one when she saw it. And sure enough, there it was, with the smithy in +the shade of it, and the Koopf blowing up the fire in his forge with a +pair of puff-ball bellows. She knew now why he had hurried home so +fast: it was to put on his apron. It was of the finest mouse-hide, and +he was plainly very proud of it. + +He took the dimples from Sara at once, and showed a keen professional +interest in them. He assured her that he had never seen a finer pair. +"But you must take better care of them," he said. + +He seemed so kind and interested that Sara thought perhaps he would +help her with a problem she had been revolving in her mind ever since +the accident. (She had fastened the problem on a little stick with a +pin, like the paper windmills Jimmy made, so that she could turn it +around very easily, and so see all sides of it.) So she asked the +Koopf, quite respectfully, + +"What ought I to do with them, when I shut the doors and come in?" + +"Well," said the Koopf, judiciously, "the Plynck's Echo should have +seen to that, first thing. Ought to have had a dimple-holder at the +gate. Ought to know the Snimmy, by this time. A good fellow--can't +help his failing. We used to keep a dimple-holder there all the time, +but it's been so long, as I told you, since we've had anybody come +along that was dimpliferous, to speak of. We've got sort of careless, +I guess. I've got a very nice stock, here; I'll put one up before you +go, so you'll know where to find it next time." As he spoke he took +down from a shelf behind him a sort of receptacle which looked rather +like a soap-bubble, rather like a gazing-globe; except that it had a +tiny opening at the top, and a cushion of whipped cream in the bottom. +Then he picked up from his bench the dimples, which he had been +mending as he talked. + +"It's a good thing the Snimmy can't see 'em now," he said, holding +them off at arm's length and looking at them with frank admiration. +"They're as good as new. Now let me show you what to do with 'em next +time you come." + +So saying, he dropped them into the holder, where they looked very +pretty sparkling on the whipped cream cushion. + +"Now," he said, "you carry them, and I'll bring the pedestal." + +He tucked the pedestal under his arm, and they started back down the +road together. It was very lovely to be trudging along under the late +clear sky, through the sweet-smelling pollen-dust, and now and then +meeting the sunset sheep, who, by this time, had found their little +lambs. When they got back to the Garden, and stood in front of the +gate through which Sara had entered, Schlorge had Sara sit down at +once. It was really an unnecessary precaution, he said, since the +holder was a non-conductor of dimple-waves, and not even the Snimmy +could detect their presence when they were inside of it. "Still," said +Schlorge, "I'll feel safer about 'em when they're on the pedestal out +of his reach," and with that he took the globe from Sara's hands and +fastened it deftly on the pedestal. Sara had never enjoyed herself +more than she did as she sat by the amber waters in the fading light, +watching the kind, clumsy Koopf (who was yet so skilful at his own +work) place the pretty globe with so much pride and pleasure. She kept +sniffing, meanwhile, at the tantalizing perfume that seemed to sift +downward from the feathers of the Plynck, as she stirred, ever so +softly, in her dreams. + +At last the Koopf took a large slice of onion, which the Snimmy's wife +had left convenient, and rubbed it all around the base of the +pedestal. + +"Now," he said, "if you'll always remember to stand inside of that +circle, when you take 'em off and put 'em on, there won't be any more +trouble. And take 'em off as soon as you shut the doors. If you +dilly-dally a minute--" + +At that moment the Plynck awoke and saw Sara. She stretched her warm, +shimmering feathers and smiled. + +"Avrillia's at home," she said, gently. + + + + + + + Chapter II + Avrillia + + +"I make it a rule," the Plynck was saying, as Sara dropped the curtain +behind her the next morning, "to fly around the fountain at least +twice every day." As she spoke, she reached out and took, from a +bundle that lay within easy reach in a crotch of the Gugollaph-tree, +something that looked like a little ivory stick. She snapped it easily +with one golden claw, dropped the fragments, and reached out with +careless grace for another. + +"Oh," breathed Sara, clasping her hands. And she could not help adding, +shyly, "If I could only see you when you fly--Madame Plynck!" + +Sara was very proud of herself after she had said that. She had never +called anybody "Madame" before, but she had read it in books, and it +seemed just the title for a creature so beautiful and gentle and +stately as the Plynck. It seemed so suitable that it gave her courage +to repeat, "If I could only see you fly!" + +"But I don't do it often, you see," answered the Plynck, quietly. + +"Why--!" exclaimed Sara. "I thought you just said--" Not for worlds +would she have seemed rude or impolite to the Plynck, but she was +completely puzzled. + +The Plynck looked very kind. "I said I make it a rule," she said, +gently. "I didn't say--you explain it to her," she said suddenly to +her Echo in the pool, who had been looking on with rather an amused +expression. + +The Echo fluffed out her deep blue plumes a little and took up the +task. "What are rules for, my dear?" she began. + +"Why--to keep, I guess," ventured Sara, a little flustered. "Aren't +they?" + +The Echo glanced up at the Plynck with a twinkling smile. "Do you hear +that?" she asked. "Bless the child! She says rules are made to keep!" +She laughed to herself a little longer, then she turned to Sara more +soberly. "As far as your country is concerned, my dear, you are +doubtless right, and I suppose it's important for you to keep that +fact in mind. But here it's very different. Our rules are made to +break. Don't you hear the Plynck breaking them?" + +So that was what she was doing! For the first time, Sara understood +why she had so enjoyed the delightful little snapping sounds, which +made her think of corn dancing against the lid of a corn-popper--or of +the snapping of little dry twigs under the pointed shoes of a brownie, +slipping through the woods alone on Christmas Eve. She thought it was +the most completely satisfying sound she had ever heard. She thought, +too, that the broken rules under the tree made a charming litter, and +wished that the Gunki who were raking them up would leave them there +instead. But they went on piling them into wheelbarrows and trundling +them down the road toward the smithy. + +"They are taking them to be mended," said the Echo of the Plynck, who +had been watching her. "We believe in conservation, you see. Schlorge +mends them one day, and she breaks them the next, and so we usually +have plenty." + +Sara was charmed. But as she stood gazing at the Plynck she remembered +what she had heard her say as she came in. "Will--will she fly?" she +whispered to the Echo. + +"Well, I don't know," said the Echo of the Plynck. "There's a rule +that she must, and so it's quite an effort. And there's a rule that +she must not sit on that particular branch of the Gugollaph-tree. So +of course she usually sits there. You wouldn't think, yourself, that +she'd want to sit there, day after day, if there wasn't--would you?" + +Sara was speechless; she was wondering why anything that seemed so +reasonable and familiar should sound so strange. But it was a blissful +wonder, and she stood spellbound, while the sound of breaking rules +continued to fall with an enchanting effect upon the still air of the +Garden. All at once she was startled nearly out of her wits by the +Plynck, who dropped an unbroken rule and shrieked, + +"Look! Be careful! Oh, dear, oh, dear, it's in!" + +"Oh, what is it?" cried Sara, afraid to move, yet longing to clap her +hand to her cheek; for she knew by a sudden terrible tickling there +that something had happened to her southwest dimple--and she had meant +to be so careful! And yet she had allowed herself to get so interested +in the talk of the Plynck and her Echo that she had walked right past +Schlorge's beautiful dimple-holder. "What is it?" she cried, jumping +up and down. "Oh, what is it?" + +"It's one of the Zizzes!" cried the Plynck. "Where are the forceps? +Run for Schlorge--won't somebody please run for Schlorge?" + +She sat fluttering her lovely pink plumes and gazing around with her +sweet, wild, golden eyes in such acute distress that the sight of her +grieved and terrified Sara even more than the awful tickling. "I'll +go--" she began, desperately. + +But that seemed to frighten the Plynck more than ever. "Oh, don't you +go," she cried, more wildly than before. "You stay right here where I +can watch it! Oh, somebody--" + +"I can't come out of the pool," panted her Echo, fluttering around the +rim distressfully. + +"I know I could never in Zeelup get there, with this consanguineous +handle," hesitated the Teacup, in tears. + +And just then they saw one of the Gunki rushing off down the road as +fast as his feet could carry him. + +The Plynck drew a sobbing breath of relief. "Don't cry, dear--stand +still," she said, finding time at last to feel sorry for Sara. "We'll +soon have it out now, when Schlorge gets here." + +Sara stood as still as she could, for the tickling. "What is it?" she +ventured to ask, tremulously. + +"It's a Zizz, dear," said the Plynck, soothingly. "He flew into your +dimple and got stuck in the sugar left there from your last smile. You +should have wiped it off," she added, very gently. "Standing so close +to the pool has made it sticky, and now the poor little Zizz--" + +"I meant to take off my dimples entirely," said Sara, her lip +beginning to tremble again. + +"Never mind, dear," said the Plynck. "It will be all right now. I see +Schlorge coming with his forceps." + +And sure enough, in a moment Schlorge came panting up, with his +forceps in his hair, as usual. Very deftly he extricated the poor +little Zizz, and held it out for Sara to see, still buzzing its wings +as furiously as it could, with so much syrup on them. + +The Teacup fluttered down, and they all looked at it with mingled +sympathy and curiosity. The mixture seemed to agree with it, too, for +the familiar faint, pale-blue "zizzing" sound began to come from its +wings. + +"Poor little thing!" said the Echo of the Plynck. "Why will they +persist in doing it? Flying right into the syrup like that!" + +"It's on account of the bitterness of their tails," explained Schlorge +absently, without looking up from his work. + +"Oh, yes," said Sara, though she didn't quite understand. "Will it +ever be able to fly again?" + +"Well," answered Schlorge, "I'm afraid you'll have to dry it." He +looked about him. "Where's the stump?" + +He found it presently, and led Sara to its mossy base; then he gently +pressed one of her shoe-buttons, and she was lifted upon it in safety. + +"Now," he explained, "you got it all sticky with your smile, and you'll +have to frown on it to dry it. I know it's hard to do, here, but if you +keep your mind on it, you can. I'll hold the Zizz's wings out, and it +won't take long. Think of something very unpleasant--something you came +here to escape. Come, what shall it be?" + +"Fractions," said Sara. + +"All right," said Schlorge. "Now think hard. And frown." + +So Sara sucked in the corners of her mouth to keep from smiling, and +tried hard to feel very cross indeed. But, as you will imagine, it was +not easy to do in that place. As you have already guessed, the place +into which Sara went when she shut the ivory doors was a sort of +garden, but not an ordinary one. To be sure, it had the pool, and the +fountain in the middle, and the moon-dial, like most gardens, and the +Gugollaph-tree where the Plynck sat, and a good many prose-bushes +besides the one with the hemmed doorknob where the Snimmy lived with +his wife. But not many gardens have such charming little openings in +the flowery hedges that shut them in, through which little paths run +out as if they were escaping through sheer mischief, and on purpose to +lead you on. And not many are placed, as this one seemed to be, in the +middle of a sort of amphitheatre, with distant mountains rising like +walls about it, golden and pansy-colored, a million miles away. The +space that lay between the hedge and the mountain-walls seemed to be +filled with sunrises and sunsets, like the Grand Canyon. I said, all +around; but, really, the walls of the amphitheatre didn't quite meet. +On one side, over the hedge, Sara could see a marble balcony, with +box-trees in vases on the balustrades; and beyond and beneath it there +was Nothing--Nothing-at-All. Sometimes, as Sara afterward learned, the +sun came to that place to set; but usually it was too lonesome, and he +set nearer the Garden. + +You may well imagine that it was not easy for Sara to look cross in +such a strange, delicious place. But she knew she owed it to the poor +little Zizz, so she tried with all her might to think only of +fractions and asparagus. (Her mother had an obstinate conviction that +that, too, was good for children.) + +They were all so interested in listening to the deepening blueness of +the sound the Zizz made that they kept quite still. Suddenly Schlorge +thought of something. + +"Where's the Snimmy?" he asked, sharply. + +"He's gone with his wife to bathe the Snoodle," answered the Echo of +the Plynck. "They have to bathe it every three days, you know, in +castor oil. That's what keeps it white. And there isn't any here." + +"Thank goodness!" thought Sara, who had nearly jumped off the stump at +the sound of those baleful syllables. It would be good to think of, +anyhow, she decided; and as she thought of it, the wings of the Zizz +began to dry so fast that they fairly sang. And suddenly it zizzed +right out of Schlorge's forceps and went buzzing straight off to the +flowery hedge. + +"Well!" said Schlorge, with much satisfaction, "that's over." Then, as +Sara's face twinkled into smiles, he added, excitedly, "Bless my +bellows! She's still got on her dimples! Won't you learn, Sara? Course +I didn't notice 'em while you frowned. Come, now--" + +"And it's time for the Snimmy to be back," interrupted the Teacup, who +had fluttered down and perched on the edge of the moon-dial to see +what time it was. "They said they'd only be gone two hours." + +"Then there's no time to lose," said Schlorge. He pressed Sara's +shoe-button decidedly and she floated softly down upon the blue plush, +like a milk-weed seed in the fall. And then Schlorge deftly took off +her dimples--it felt very funny to have them removed with the +forceps--and put them in the dimple-holder where they belonged. Then, +drawing a deep breath, he rubbed his hands and smiled at her, saying, +"What's the next thing you'd like to do?" + +Sara saw that, though he was still rather bashful, Schlorge had taken +a great fancy to her. It pleased her very much; he was such a useful +and accommodating person. While she was trying to decide which one of +several places she would ask him to show to her, the Plynck remarked, +gently, + +"Avrillia's at home." + +Avrillia--that was it! Sara clapped her hands again, and this time no +harm was done; for her cheek-dimples were safe in the dimple-holder, +and her hand-dimples were on the outside, so that the clapping only +jarred them a little. It was funny, she thought, that Schlorge scorned +to work on hand-dimples, and even the Snimmy scarcely noticed them. +But it didn't worry her. Avrillia--that was it. She had come this time +especially to see Avrillia. + +"Do you know where she lives?" she asked Schlorge. + +"Avrillia? I should say so. Everybody knows Avrillia. At least I +know her to speak to. As to what goes on inside of her, I can't say. +She's queer. She writes poetry, you know." + +"But she's nice?" asked Sara anxiously. + +"Oh, she's pleasant-spoken," said Schlorge, "and pretty. Some like her, +and some don't. The Plynck, here," he spoke respectfully, though +dissentingly, "thinks the sun rises and sets in her. For myself, I +like folks of a more sensible turn." + +"Even fairies?" asked Sara, half inclined to protest. + +For the first time Schlorge was almost rude to her. "Well, do you take +me for a human? And I can do something besides write poetry on +rose-leaves." He replaced the forceps in his hair with obvious +professional pride--and, of course, when he put them in in that way, +they stayed. + +But Sara echoed delightedly, "On rose-leaves?" + +"Well, go and see her, then," said Schlorge, ungraciously. Then, +relenting a little, "Come on, I'll take you--if you're stuck on +verse-writing females." + +He took Sara by the hand, and of course his hand was kinder than his +voice. To Sara's joy they struck into the curliest of the little paths, +which slipped suddenly through a half-hidden arch in the hawthorn +hedge, and then skipped confidingly right up to Avrillia's door. +Avrillia's house was right on the Verge, but the Verge was quite wide +at this point, and very lovely. It was more like a beach than anything +else; and the sands, of course, like those of most beaches, were of +gold; but instead of being bare, like most beaches, it was sprinkled +quite thickly with lovely clumps of fog-bushes, which were of a +different color every hour of the day and every day of the year; and +the shells had stems and leaves, and were prettier even than most +shells. And Avrillia's house had sails, instead of curtains. Still, it +was not a boat, because it had star-vines climbing all over the +terrace (the flowers were of all colors, except square, and only +opened in the evening) and it had the marble balcony, with the +box-trees in urns. For, without knowing it, it was Avrillia's balcony +that Sara had seen from the stump. + +"Well, there's Pirlaps," said Schlorge, lifting his shoe politely and +turning back toward the Dimplesmithy. "He'll tell you where to find +Avrillia." + +Sara was left looking at a middle-aged fairy-gentleman with a little +pointed beard, who was sitting on a sort of stool or box before an +easel, hard at work. He had on white tennis-flannels, and an odd but +becoming sort of cap. Usually Sara was very shy of strangers; but this +gentleman looked so pleasant that she had almost made up her mind to +speak to him when she saw Schlorge running wildly back up the path. +"Where's a stump?" he panted. "I forgot--where's a stump?" + +He spoke so loudly that the gentleman in tennis-flannels heard him and +looked around. "Oh, it's you, Schlorge," he said. "Why, there isn't +any stump here, you know--but you may use my step, if you like." + +He had lovely manners, even with a plain dimplesmith like Schlorge; +and he rose as he spoke, with his palette in his hand, and made a +pleasant gesture to indicate that Schlorge was quite welcome to it. +But Schlorge looked at it doubtfully; and, indeed, Sara saw that it +was of chocolate, and rather soft where the gentleman had been sitting +on it. "I don't want to soil my soul," mumbled Schlorge, standing on +one foot and looking down at the sole of the other, very much agitated +and embarrassed. + +"That's true," said the gentleman politely; "I never stand on it." At +that Sara could not help showing that she noticed the large black spot +left by the chocolate on the seat of his trousers. He saw her look at +it, and spoke to her kindly. + +"That's all right, little girl," he said. "Avrillia will have me +change them in a minute." + +Then he noticed Schlorge's dreadful impatience for something to stand +on, and rang a little bell in his left ear. + +Immediately a small servant, also of chocolate, came tumbling out of +the house. He was the most attractive-looking person you can imagine. +His eyes and teeth were exactly like the filling in a chocolate cream, +and how his eyes rolled and his teeth twinkled! But it was the inside +of his mouth that fascinated Sara most. It was of the lovely, violent +red of certain jelly-beans she had known, and she caught the most +tantalizing, cavernous glimpses whenever he grinned. + +"Yassuh," said his master, "go at once and get a piece of plain white +satin for Mr. Schlorge to stand on. You'll find a bolt in the +tool-box." + +Yassuh scrambled off down the path. (He was very bow-legged, because +his mother had allowed him to go out in the sun too much, when he was +a baby, and, being of chocolate, his legs had softened into that +shape.) Almost immediately he came rolling back with the white satin, +which he spread on the box. + +All this time Schlorge had been in an agony of impatience. Almost +stepping on Yassuh in his eagerness, he jumped upon the box, and, +arranging his hands as before, shouted loudly, "Pirlaps, this is Sara, +a little girl! Sara, this is Pirlaps, Avrillia's step-husband!" Then +he sprang down and went running down the path again, shouting +excitedly, "See you again, Sara! See you again!" + +"Well, Sara," said the pleasant fairy-gentleman, taking her hand, "how +are you? Did you come to see Avrillia?" + +"Yes, sir," said Sara, looking up at him from under her lashes and +thinking she had never see a shaving-person, except her own father, so +delightful. + +"I think you'll find her on her balcony," said Pirlaps, kindly. "I +just heard a poem drop over the Verge. Here, Yassuh," he said, "take +this little girl to your mistress." + +Sara followed Yassuh along the path of silver gravel that led around +the house, and then up a little outside staircase of marble to the +balcony; and there, on the third step from the top, she paused. + +Has any mortal but Sara ever seen Avrillia? Certainly there never was +another fairy so wan and wild and beautiful. When Sara caught sight of +her she was leaning over the marble balustrade, looking down into +Nothing, and one hand was still stretched out as if it had just let +something fall. She seemed to be still watching its descent. Her body, +as she leaned, was like a reed, and her hair was pale-gold and cloudy. +But all that was nothing beside Avrillia's eyes. + +For she turned around after a while and saw Sara, and smiled at her +without surprise, though she looked absent-minded and wistful. + +"It didn't stick," she said. + +"What didn't?" asked Sara. Her words may not sound very polite; but if +you could have heard the awe and wonder in her little voice you would +have pardoned her. + +"The poem," said Avrillia. What was it her voice was like? +Sheep-bells? Sheep-bells, that was it. Sheep-bells across an English +down--at twilight! Sara had never seen more than three sheep in her +life; and those three didn't wear bells; and she had never heard of a +down. And yet, Avrillia's voice sounded to Sara exactly as I have +said. + +Moreover, it drew Sara softly to her side. Her dress smelled like +isthagaria; and it was very soft to touch. For Sara touched it as +confidingly as she would her own mother's. + +At that Avrillia seemed to remember her. Sara saw at once that +Avrillia never remembered anybody very long at a time. She was kind, +and her smile was entrancingly sweet; but her mind always seemed to be +on something else. Probably on her poetry, Sara decided. + +Now, however, she remembered Sara, and asked, "Would you like to look +over?" + +"What's down there?" Sara could not help asking. + +"Nothing. Would you like to see it?" + +Sara drew nearer the balustrade, full of awe, and uncertain whether +she wished to look or not. But presently curiosity got the better of +her, and she leaned over the balustrade and looked down into Nothing. +It was very gray. + +"Do you throw your poems down there?" she asked of Avrillia, in +inexpressible wonder. + +"Of course," said Avrillia. "I write them on rose-leaves, you know--" + +"Oh, yes!" breathed Sara. She still thought she had never heard of +anything that sounded lovelier than poems written on rose-leaves. + +"Petals, I mean, of course," continued Avrillia, "all colors, but +especially blue. And then I drop them over, and some day one of them +may stick on the bottom--" + +"But there isn't any bottom," said Sara, lifting eyes like black +pansies for wonder. + +"No, there's no real bottom," conceded Avrillia, patiently, "but +there's an imaginary bottom. One might stick on that, you know. And +then, with that to build to, if I drop them in very fast, I may be +able to fill it up--" + +"But there aren't any sides to it, either!" objected Sara, even more +wonderingly. + +Avrillia betrayed a faint exasperation (it showed a little around the +edges, like a green petticoat under a black dress). "Oh, these literal +people!" she said, half to herself. Then she continued, still more +patiently, "Isn't it just as easy to imagine sides as a bottom? Well, +as I was saying, if I write them fast enough to fill it up--I mean if +one should stick, of course--somebody a hundred years from now may +come along and notice one of my poems; and then I shall be Immortal." +And at that a lovely smile crossed Avrillia's face. + +Sara stood a long time, thinking. She couldn't help loving Avrillia, +although she knew that Avrillia was not nearly so fond of her as the +Plynck, or Schlorge, or even the Teacup. Yet she would have loved +Avrillia, even if she had not been kind to her at all. + +Now she attracted her attention again by timidly touching her dress. + +"It--it seems a waste," she murmured. I think probably she was +thinking of the rose-petals rather than of the poems. All those lovely +"rose-leaves"! And she had never seen even one blue one. But Avrillia +was thinking of the poems. + +"That's the regular way to do about Poetry," she said, with a pretty +little air of authority. "First, you write it, and then you drop it +over the Verge into Nothing. But it must be very good--otherwise, it +isn't worth while to spend your time on it." But just then the +thermometer went off. + +Yes, the thermometer. Well, perhaps you do set the alarm-clock; but +Avrillia was a poetess, and a fairy besides, and she set the +alarm-thermometer. It sounded very pleasant to Sara, like soda-water +running through a straw on a hot afternoon; but Avrillia seemed to +find it rather nerve-racking. + +"There it goes," was all she said, however. Sara noticed that her +voice and manner were extremely quiet and controlled; but she had a +suspicion that it was because her eyes were so very wild. Oh, yes, +they were beautiful, but wild--wilder even than the Plynck's. The +Teacup, however, had quite tame eyes; it must be confessed that, when +Sara saw the effect of the thermometer upon Avrillia she wished for +the Teacup, a little. + +But Avrillia merely called Yassuh in her sweet, controlled voice, and, +when he appeared, said to him quietly, + +"Go tell your master it's time for him to change his trousers and +shave." + +When Yassuh was gone she turned to Sara again--rather as one +entertains a visitor when one really wants to be doing something +else--and said, politely, "I suppose you know he's my step-husband. +That makes it rather troublesome." + +Sara, remembering Pirlaps and his white trousers, looked so eager and +so uncomprehending that Avrillia evidently felt called upon to explain +further. + +"It makes it necessary for him to sit on the step constantly, you see. +And it's of chocolate. That's unfortunate, too, but it can't be +helped. It's all right in winter, of course, but in summer it's a +great deal of trouble. When we were first married he used to wear +black trousers in summer; but I soon put a stop to that. I have him +trained now so that he always wears white ones, and I set the +thermometer and remind him to change them every two hours. That's my +part of the bargain. He has forty-seven pairs. And, every time he +changes them, he has to shave. That's part of the agreement, too." + +"Why," began Sara, "I thought he had--" + +"To be sure he has," said Avrillia, looking a little amused. "It grows +so fast, you see." + +Sara turned this over in her mind for several moments. Then her +thoughts returned to the step. She simply couldn't help making +suggestions to Avrillia. She seemed, for all her little haughty +politenesses, so helpless. + +"You might put something over it--" she began. + +"I have suggested that," said Avrillia, "but he would not consent to +it. He says it would be circumnavigating Nature. Of course, when it's +necessary to offer it to guests--" + +But just at that moment Pirlaps himself came out of the house, wearing +a fresh, immaculate pair of trousers. His little pointed beard was +gone; but Sara thought she could see it already coming back. Yassuh +came along behind him, carrying the step. + +"You see, marriage is very civilizing, Sara," he said, in his gay, +kind way. "I wouldn't do this for anybody but Avrillia. How's the +poetry, Avrillia?" + +"Doing nicely, thank you," said Avrillia, pleasantly. "How's the +painting?" + +"Flourishing," said Pirlaps, cheerfully. "How are the children?" + +"I haven't seen them this week," said Avrillia. "I vanished them last +Roseday." + +Pirlaps' face fell a little--perhaps an inch, altogether. But Sara +cried out, clapping her hands again with impunity (try doing it that +way, sometime--it's great fun), + +"Oh, are there children?" + +"Yes," said Avrillia. + +"How many?" + +"Oh, about seventy," said Avrillia, a little languidly. + +"May--may I see them?" asked Sara. + +"I hope so," said Avrillia. "Perhaps you'll come some day when they're +not vanished." + +Sara, somehow, felt herself to have been politely dismissed; and she +soon found herself walking beside Pirlaps down the little marble +stairs. She slipped her hand into his as she would into her own +father's, and, looking up into his face, said, enthusiastically, "Oh, +isn't she lovely?" + +Pirlaps seemed very much pleased, and looked down upon her more kindly +than ever. "You like Avrillia?" he said. "That's good. It isn't +everybody that appreciates Avrillia." + +He stopped before a lilac-colored fog-bush and put his step down +before his easel. Sara did not dare remonstrate, but she cast an +agonized look first at the step and then at his lovely white trousers. + +"Is--is that what is meant by step-relations?" was all she could say. + +"Why, yes," said Pirlaps, sitting firmly down on the chocolate. "Are +you interested in relations?" he asked eagerly, after he had adjusted +his easel. "Because, if you are, we'll go to see mine, some day. I +have a lot." + + + + + + Chapter III + Relations + + + +Sara was determined, when she shut the ivory doors behind her the next +morning, to do two things, no matter what happened; first, she would +put her dimples in the dimple-holder immediately; and, second, she +would go right on to find Pirlaps, and not be beguiled into lingering +around the pool by the fascinating talk of the Plynck and her Echo. +For, ever since she left him, she had been thinking of the offer +Pirlaps had made to take her to see his relations; and she had been +growing more and more curious and interested. + +And this time she did remember her dimples; she saw them sparkling on +the whipped cream cushion, all safe and contented, before she so much +as lifted her eyes from the blue plush grass. But alas, for her +resolution not to loiter! For although, on the other days, there had +been such a variegated murmur of delighted sound--the Echo of the +Plynck in the pool, and the lovely crackling of breaking rules, and +the deep-blue singing of the Zizzes' wings, and the melodious snoring +of the Snoodle (like that of a tuning-fork when it sleeps on its side) +--yet everything had been as still and motionless to the eye as an +April daydream. But this morning it was the other way around. Not a +sound was to be heard; but what a scene! You see, for the first time, +the Snoodle was awake, frisking soundlessly around the fountain; and +the Plynck--the Plynck was flying! + +Now, it is true that a Plynck at rest is a beautiful sight; but it is +nothing to the charm and wonder of a Plynck in motion. (The same, as +we shall see in a moment, is true in a lesser degree of a Snoodle.) +Its long, rosy plumes, like those of an ostrich, only four times as +long, went waving through the air with an indescribably dreamy grace; +and now Sara could actually see the perfume, which before she had only +smelled. It rained down through the air, as the Plynck circled slowly +round and round the fountain, and looked rather like a sort of golden +spice. And as Sara stood watching, spellbound and sniffing, she knew +she had been mistaken in thinking that, there was no sound at all. +There was just one: a little soft, straining sound the Plynck's +cerulean Echo made as it circled round and round in the pool and tried +to keep up with the Plynck. Her motions would have been exactly as +lovely as those of the Plynck, if they had not been just a trifle +labored, owing to the difficulty of flying under water; and her +breathing was distinctly perceptible. Sara could hear it, too; and it +sounded like the ghost of a dead breeze in a pine-top. + +As soon as Sara could take her ravished eyes from the sight, she +looked down to see what was nuzzling about her shoe-buttons; and, just +as she had suspected, it was the Snoodle, frisking and tumbling and +rolling about her feet to make her notice him. And, indeed, when he +was awake, the Snoodle was irresistible. Not that he looked like +anything Sara had ever seen before. He might, perhaps, have looked +like a dog, except that he was so very long--his length, indeed, gave +him a haunting resemblance to a freshly cooked piece of macaroni. +(Sara was later to find out the reason for this; but at the moment she +was puzzled, just as you are when you meet a stranger who looks like +somebody else, and you can't remember who else it is.) And his head, +which was not very clearly defined, was finished off with a neat +little cap that looked like a snail-shell, and seemed to be fastened +to him. His eyes, which stuck out several inches in front of his face +on long prongs, were delightfully mischievous and confiding; and he +was covered with the most beautiful snow-white, curly hair. But he had +one drawback; and Sara discovered that when she started to pick him +up. It was a sort of little window in the exact middle of his back, +with an ising-glass cover, like the slide-cover of some boxes. The +minute you touched him, this little slide drew back, and from within +there escaped an odor of castor oil. It, too, was distinctly +perceptible; Sara could even smell it. As soon as she did so, she +herself drew back, and contented herself with looking admiringly at the +confiding, playful little Snoodle. + +As she stood watching his pretty antics she became aware that the +Snimmy's wife had stopped her work and was watching them with a grim +smile. Sara saw that she had just unscrewed the knob of the prose-bush, +and was still holding the doorknob and the corkscrew in her hand. As +far as Sara could tell, the doorknob seemed as neatly hemmed as ever; +so, overcome by curiosity, she asked the Snimmy's wife what she was +going to do with it. + +"This is the day to unhem it," she answered rather glumly. "I unhem it +every Pinkday, and hem it every Lilyday. I used to hem it only oncet a +month, but Avrillia said that wasn't civilized, and whatever she says, +goes. At least," she added, glancing up at the Plynck, who was still +circling beautifully around the fountain, "she thinks so. And as long +as I live neighbor to her it's sort-of up to me to respect her +standards." + +Avrillia! Ah, now Sara remembered! She had meant to go straight to +find Pirlaps and Avrillia! She glanced around to see if she could find +the curly little path; but she could not really start until she had +asked a few questions about the darling little Snoodle. + +"Is--isn't he lovely?" she began, aware of a vague necessity of +pleasing the wife of the Snimmy, if one wanted to find out anything. +However, she was quite honest; she really did think the Snoodle was +lovely--except for his drawback. + +"You think so?" answered the Snimmy's wife, trying hard not to show +how foolishly pleased she really was. "He's the only child we have." + +If Sara had thought a minute, she would not have asked the next +question--certainly not of so formidable a person as the Snimmy's +wife. But she didn't think. She just asked, eagerly, + +"Is he a--a sort of--dog?" + +"A sort of _dog_?" echoed the Snimmy's wife, in the most outraged +italics. + +"A--kind of--puppy?" + +"A kind of--PUPPY?" said the Snimmy's wife, in perfectly withering +small capitals. Then she said, in the loftiest large capitals Sara had +ever seen, + +"HIS MOTHER WAS A SNAIL--SHE HELD THE WORLD'S RECORD FOR SLOWNESS. AND +HIS FATHER WAS A PEDIGREED NOODLE." + +Sara looked at him in awe; now she understood the cap, and the prongs, +and the extreme length. But, in spite of the Snimmy's wife's indignant +mood, she had to ask one more question. + +"But you said he was your child," was the way she put it. + +"I didn't," retorted the Snimmy's wife, with undisguised contempt. "I +said he was the only child we have. We have him, haven't we?" And with +that she sat down with her back to Sara on her own toadstool, and +curled her long white tail around the base with quite unnecessary +tightness. Her nose was not quite so debilitating as the Snimmy's; +still, it nearly stuck into the doorknob as she hemmed. + +Sara saw there was nothing further to be got out of her, and she did +not wish to pick up the Snoodle on account of his drawback; so she +decided to go on to Avrillia's without further delay, and began to +look around her again for the little curly path. It was pink, this +time, instead of curly, but that made it all the more attractive; so +she struck into it at once, and went skipping happily toward the arch +in the hawthorn hedge. Just before she reached it she heard Avrillia's +thermometer go off, so she knew that she was on the right path. + +The minute she got through the hedge she saw Avrillia, and, oh, +loveliest of wonders! What were those? Flying around her hair, +clinging to her silken skirts, dancing among the shell-flowers, +swarming over the balcony, playing a dainty game up and down the +marble stairs--oh, it was the children! The children were at home! + +And when Avrillia saw Sara she came toward her with the loveliest look +of welcome, the children hanging all around her like rose-garlands. +And if Sara had loved Avrillia the day before, she could simply find +no words now to express her adoration. For Avrillia knelt down among +the shell-flowers, and held out her arms (which were like the necks of +swans) to Sara; and she really seemed to see her this time. And when +she smiled at her, her eyes were hardly at all wild, but quite playful +and gentle; and so sweet that Sara, for a moment, had a dizzy +conviction that if she were a Zizz she would fly right into them. +(Though, of course, the Zizzes' tails were bitter.) Besides, Avrillia +held her at that minute tight to her breast, which was as soft as her +own perfect, contrary mother's, and had, besides a most entrancing, +faint perfume of isthagaria. + +When she had finished hugging Sara, she held her off at arms' length, +and said to her, smiling, in that lovely voice, + +"Well, Sara, you see the children are here. Aren't they nice?" + +And once more Sara could find no words to express their niceness. And +she could no more have described them to you than if they had been so +many endearing young charms. But one of the queerest, prettiest things +she was sure about: their faces were all dimples! Moreover, they were +much more becoming to them than ordinary features would have been. + +"How old are they?" asked Sara, in the most delighted bewilderment. +The friendly little things fluttered and chattered and chirruped +around her in the most distracting way, brushing her face with their +wings in their eagerness to get acquainted, and even getting their +silver sandals tangled in her hair. + +"Well," said Avrillia with great exactitude--Sara had already +discovered that Avrillia had a weakness for being considered +practical--"fourteen of them are six and three of them are two and +thirty are seven and ten are nine, and five are six months." + +"My!" said Sara, in doubt and wonder. And right there she had a +suspicion that that was one reason she had loved Avrillia from the +first: she couldn't do arithmetic! To be sure, Sara herself couldn't +add all that mixture in her head--at least not with all those lovely +children about--but it sounded like a great deal more than seventy; +and there certainly looked to be a million. So, as she stood and gazed, +she said, more in wonder than with any idea of correcting Avrillia, +"And you said there were just seventy?" + +For a moment Avrillia's eyes again grew distraught and doubtful, and +she answered, uncertainly, "I think there are just seventy." Then she +called to Pirlaps, who was sitting on his step in the light of a +glorious flame-colored fog-bush, hard at work, "Pirlaps, have we had +any children since Sara was here yesterday?" + +"Not one," said Pirlaps, smiling at her with a look of pleasant +amusement. "Don't you remember that you dropped poems over the Verge +all day?" + +"I thought so," said Avrillia, with relief, "but Sara seemed to think +there were more than seventy." Then her eyes fell upon the trousers of +Pirlaps, who had risen and was coming toward them now, with Yassuh +rolling along behind with the step. + +"O Pirlaps," said Avrillia, her sweet voice full of reproach, "you +haven't changed your trousers! That's just the way things go," she +added, beginning to look wild and worried and distraught, "when the +children are here! I can't keep up with everything! And the +thermometer went off fifteen minutes ago! I heard it, but I was busy +with the children. And your shaving-water will be perfectly cold!" She +grew more and more agitated. + +"Never mind, Avrillia," said Pirlaps, soothingly, and Sara noticed +that his pleasant, cheerful ways always had a wonderfully calming +effect upon Avrillia. "I'm going right in now to change; and then I +have a plan that will straighten things out and please everybody." + +"What is it?" asked Avrillia, looking more hopeful. + +"It's too soon to tell yet," said Pirlaps, with a delightfully wise +air, and he went on up the steps, with Yassuh tumbling after him, +leaving them all feeling very much relieved. + +Avrillia, making a brave effort to recover her composure, began +playing with the children again, and they were having almost as +delightful a time as if nothing distressing had occurred, when Pirlaps +reappeared, all fresh-shaven and immaculate. + +"Put the step out in the sun where it will keep soft, Yassuh," he +said. "I shan't need it this afternoon." + +They all stopped playing and looked at him in wonder. + +"I'm going to take Sara to see my relations, as I promised her I would," +he explained, taking Sara kindly by the hand. + +"Oh, that's lovely," said Avrillia, looking at Pirlaps gratefully out +of her speaking eyes. "There's nobody like you, Pirlaps." + +Pirlaps looked wonderfully pleased with himself; and, since there was +not a bit of chocolate on his trousers, he looked unusually spruce and +handsome, too. Sara skipped along beside him delightedly; only, +sometimes when she looked back, she wished she could stay with +Avrillia while she was in such a lovely mood, and all those +interesting children. Still, Sara's dear, self-willed mother had +taught her to be a considerate little girl, and she reflected that she +really ought not to bother Avrillia with another child, when she +already had seventy to look after. The thoughts of Pirlaps also seemed +to be running in the same channel (indeed, Sara could catch glimpses +of them, trickling along under that thin, funny cap he always wore), +and he presently said, + +"It's too bad to bring you away when the children are at home, Sara, +but you know they are a great deal of care to Avrillia, and when +they're at home I try to do everything I can to relieve her. Now, you +see, she won't have to bother about my trousers for the whole +afternoon." + +"But how can you get along without your step?" asked Sara. She knew +this was a personal question, but she felt, somehow, that Pirlaps +would not think her impolite. + +He looked down at her and smiled, just as her own father did when she +asked questions which showed her youth and inexperience. + +"I'm not a step-man, Sara," he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement +at her lack of information, "only a step-husband. When I'm away from +Avrillia I don't need the step." + +All this time they had been walking along hand in hand. Sara noticed +that they had left the Verge behind, and were following a very +pleasant sort of ridge, from which they could see down into a sort of +hollow for smiles and smiles, and, beyond the hollow, the buff-colored +hills and mountains that formed the walls of the amphitheatre. There +were not so many Gugollaph-trees as there were in the Garden and along +the road to the Dimplesmithy, owing to the different topography of the +country; instead, there were a good many poker-bushes. + +"My relations live in a colony," said Pirlaps. "There used to be +nearly seven hundred of them; but now there are only eight hundred and +three." + +And just at that moment they came in sight of the colony. It consisted +in a large number of odd, attractive-looking little houses grouped +around an open space covered with pleasant red grass, which Pirlaps +told her was an uncommon. In the middle of the uncommon was a sort of +platform, and upon the platform there was something which Sara, at +first glance, took to be an enormous statue. But even at that distance +she could see it move; so she hastened to ask Pirlaps what it was. + +"Why, that's my Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather," said Pirlaps, +with a good deal of pride. "He occupies the Post of Honor in the +colony, you know, because he's the oldest and the largest. He's really +great, and quite pleasant; you'll enjoy meeting him." + +By this time they were going down a little shady road that led +straight to the uncommon. Sara was so struck by the large number of +curious and interesting people she saw on all sides, going quietly +about their regular occupations, that she could hardly look where she +was going. But Pirlaps led her right to the foot of the post, and the +first thing she knew he was introducing her. "This is Sara, +Great-Great-Great-Great," he was saying; and Sara looked up and saw, +sitting in a sort of easy chair on top of the post, the very largest +person she had ever seen. In size he was a veritable giant, or even an +ogre; but anybody could see that in disposition he was as far as +possible from being either. Indeed, his disposition was evidently very +like that of her own grandfather (who wasn't great at all, at least +not in comparison with this one), even to the bag of marshmallows in +his pocket. Sara could see it sticking out--but such enormous +marshmallows! Why, each one was larger than the biggest, fattest +sofa-pillow Sara had ever seen. And, of course, beside the +marshmallows, the Great-Great-Great-Great had beautiful white hair, +and twinkling eyes, and all the usual equipment of a grandfather. + +"Why, good afternoon, Pirlaps," said the Great-Great-Great-Great, in a +little high, cracked voice that seemed very odd. ("As they get greater, +their voices get smaller," explained Pirlaps, who had noticed that +Sara jumped when the old gentleman spoke.) "Would you like a +marshmallow?" he continued, tossing one down to her; and Sara saw +that it would have tipped her over, as Jimmie's missiles sometimes did +when they had a pillow-fight, if Pirlaps had not caught it. While she +was wondering what would be the polite way to eat so huge a +marshmallow, she saw the other Grandfathers coming toward her. She +knew them because there were four of them, marching in single file, +with their hands on each other's shoulders. The Great-Great-Great, who +was next in size to the one on the Post of Honor, was leading, and +they were arranged in order down to the plain Grandfather, who was not +much above the usual height. + +At the same moment she saw the Grandmothers coming from the +opposite direction, in the same manner. Only, the mate to the +Great-Great-Great-Great was leading, and they were coming straight +toward the vacant Post. Sara watched them with extreme interest. They, +too, were of quite the usual grandmotherly pattern, but were equally +variable and extraordinary in size. When they reached the Post they +made a sort of living stepladder, like the acrobats in the circus; that +is, the plain Grandmother stooped over, like a boy playing leapfrog, +and the Great mounted on her back; then the Great-Great mounted on her +back, and so on, until finally the Great-Great-Great-Great got upon the +very top and so stepped upon the Post. She took her seat in an +arm-chair like the one on the other Post, and Sara noticed that her +kerchief was exactly the size of one of Mother's hemstitched sheets. +She was indeed a handsome, venerable and distinguished-looking old +lady, if you stood far enough away to see her all at once. + +"Well, Sara, should you like to see the cousins?" asked Pirlaps, when +this interesting manoeuvre had been completed and the other +Grandmothers began to disperse. "We'll be just about in time for the +drill." + +"Yes, indeed," cried Sara, who was very fond of watching drills. So +Pirlaps led her to a level place which he told her was the cousins' +drill-ground. It was hard and smooth, and marked off with lines like a +tennis-court, only much more intricately. And there were numbers of +cousins standing about, each one looking very erect and alert, with +his hand on the back of a chair. Just as Sara came up, the captain of +the cousins stepped out in front and called, "Attention!" + +The cousins looked so attentive it was almost painful. + +Then he called out, "First Cousin once removed!" and the First Cousin +marched out very stiffly and set his chair down accurately on the +first mark, after which he sat down in it with military precision. +Then the captain called, "Second Cousin once removed!" and the Second +Cousin marched out and sat down in the right place quite as +impressively. + +Well, you can imagine how it went on, as far as Tenth Cousin eighth +removed; and after they had gone through it straight the captain began +skipping them around. It was very lively and exciting; but when +Pirlaps heard Sara give a little sigh, and asked her, with a twinkle, +how she liked it, she was obliged to answer, "I like it, but--it makes +my head turn around. It's so much like arithmetic." + +"That's what Avrillia says," answered Pirlaps, smiling. "Well, let's +walk around a bit. And then I'll show you the Strained Relations." + +Sara thought that sounded very interesting; and, besides, she was glad +to walk after standing still so long. So they strolled about, enjoying +the pleasant afternoon, and the oddity of the people and their ways. +There were any number of step-relatives, mothers, fathers, brothers +and sisters, sitting around on their various steps, or carrying them +jauntily under their arms. She noticed that none of them had a servant +to carry them, however, from which she concluded that they were not so +well-to-do as Pirlaps. But then, none of the steps were of chocolate. +They were of various materials, however, even yellow. + +Once, in crossing the uncommon, they met one of Pirlaps' half-sisters. +She was divided lengthwise, and so had only a profile; but, as her +profile was very pretty, the effect was not at all unpleasant. While +they were talking to her, one of his half-brothers came up, but he was +divided crosswise, and so had no back. However, from the front, of +course, you hardly noticed it. + +"Well," said Pirlaps, at last, glancing at the small clinical +thermometer he carried, "we'll just have time to take a look at the +Strained Relations, and then I must get back and help Avrillia vanish +the children." + +He led Sara to a distant corner of the uncommon that was fenced off +from the rest by a high wire netting. It looked rather like the high +nets about a tennis-court, except that it was made of silver wire, +with a mesh as fine as a milk-strainer. Inside the wire, in a sort of +little private park, she could see a number of very haughty-looking +persons moving about. + +"Don't speak to them," said Pirlaps, as they drew near. "They're +entirely too snobbish to be spoken to." + +Sara approached in awe, and they stood gazing at the pale, +supercilious-looking creatures, who returned their gaze through +monocles, lorgnettes, and other contemptuous media. + +"You see," explained Pirlaps, "nobody speaks to them. Every time they +go in or out, they pass through the strainer, and that strains out all +of their red corpuscles and leaves only the blue. That's why they are +so superior and exclusive. Of course, too, it makes them very thin, +and gives them that sheer, transparent look." And, indeed, Sara +noticed that she could see quite through one of the thinnest ones, who +wore a very high-necked dress buttoned in the back. + +Pirlaps was now growing anxious to be at home, so after saying good-by +to the important personages on the Posts of Honor, they started back. + +As they drew near, they saw Avrillia in the rose-garden near the +balcony, looking very lovely as she moved among the flowers. + +"Ah," said Pirlaps, "she's already vanished them. She's gathering +rose-leaves for tomorrow's poems." + +As he spoke, Avrillia, looking up, waved a blue rose to them, and +disappeared within the house. In a moment she reappeared, wearing the +sweetest smile Sara had ever seen. + +Pirlaps looked greatly pleased and touched. And no wonder; for +Avrillia was coming out to meet him, bringing him his step with her +own hands. + + + + + + Chapter IV + The Invaders + + +When Sara dropped the curtains behind her the next morning she paused +in horror, with her hand poised above the dimple-holder. What had +happened to her lovely Garden in the night? + +It looked exactly as her own little garden was accustomed to look +three days after a hard freeze. Blighted--that was the word: it was +blighted. The leaves hung limp and brown from the trees; the blue +plush grass, and even the blue bark of the Gugollaph-tree, had turned +a most sickly green. The water was frozen in the pool; and, imprisoned +below it, she could see the Echo of the Plynck, perfectly stiff, and +looking as if she were in some sort of awful trance. The Plynck, on +the other hand, drooped on her accustomed branch like the leaves on +the trees, as if she hardly had strength to hold her loosened plumes +together. The Snimmy's wife sat on her own toadstool, rigid and +angry-looking, with her tail wound tightly around the base, and with +the half-hemmed doorknob forgotten in her lap; the Snimmy lay +watchfully at the door of the prose-bush, with his long, debilitating +nose on his paws, shivering terribly; and the Snoodle looked as if +somebody had put salt on his mother. And the poor, timid Teacup looked +like a gentle, fat little old lady who has just been shot out of a +volcano. + +Avrillia and Pirlaps were standing together in the little arch, +looking with passionate and indignant eyes upon the general distress +and havoc, and especially upon the insolent creatures who had caused +it. For Sara saw, after a few minutes of bewilderment, that the +beautiful place with its gentle inhabitants had been overrun in the +night by a horde of Fractions. + +For there they sat, grouped insolently around the fountain, drinking +tears out of mugs of enormous sighs, and hammering with their fists +upon the peculiarly disagreeable-looking tables at which they sat. +These tables were of various sizes, but they were all very ponderous +and slippery-looking; and observing them closely, Sara saw that her +instinctive aversion was well founded--for they were multiplication +tables. The Two-Times table was nearest to her, being placed just to +the left of the dimple-holder; and they increased regularly in size up +to the Twelve-Times table, at which the officers were sitting. +The whole crowd of invaders were disgustingly haughty and +self-important--worse even than the Strained Relations, Sara thought; +but the officers were the worst of all. From the Least Common Multiple +up to the Greatest Common Divisor, from the thin, poker-like Quotient +with the fierce white moustache to the enormous, puffy Multiplicand, +Sara thought they were the most pompous lot she had ever seen. However, +since they were officers and units, she could imagine that they might +have some excuse; but what possible excuse could there be for conceit +in the Fractions, every one of whom had something missing about him? +Some of them, of course, lacked only an ear or a little finger; but +numbers of them had only one leg or one arm, and many of them were +much worse off! Why, at the farthest side of the Three-Times table +Sara saw a Fraction who consisted entirely of one eye! + +There was one table, to be sure, the Eleven-Times, the noisiest of all, +that was occupied entirely by Improper Fractions; but aside from their +table-manners and general behavior, which were shocking, Sara thought +they looked even worse than the proper ones. For one of them had two +faces, another three feet, and a third one had as many arms as an +octopus. Sara positively refused to look at them. + +While Sara stood gazing in horror and dismay, and feeling so grieved +for her friends that she could not bring herself to ask anybody what +had happened or what could be done, she saw Schlorge coming at a run +down the path from the Dimplesmithy. He looked as wild and distracted +as any of them, but Sara felt a great relief when she saw him, because +she knew he was so clever and practical. She felt, too, that she could +ask him what the trouble was and he could bear it--better than the +Teacup, for instance, who, she feared, would go all to pieces, or the +Echo of the Plynck, who was clearly all in. So she ran up to him and +touched his elbow and asked, almost crying, "What is it, Schlorge? How +did it happen?" + +Schlorge, even in his excitement, was comforted by her sympathy, and +evidently very glad to see another ally. "Why--a--" he began, and then, +remembering, he cried excitedly, "Where's the stump--where's the +stump? I have to tell Sara about it!" + +But alas, the invaders had razed the stump to the ground, apparently +out of wanton malice, for they had made no use of it. All over and +around it were strewn plus-signs, minus-signs, and other weapons; and +Sara noticed that the dots from the divided-by signs were rolling +about everywhere on the withered grass. Manifestly, Schlorge could not +get upon the fallen stump, through such a thicket of debris, and he +dared not move them nor step on them; besides, it is doubtful if he +could have told Sara about it unless the stump were right side up. + +At this juncture, however, Pirlaps stepped boldly forward and once +more offered Schlorge his step. Schlorge sprang upon it without +noticing the chocolate, but he was so agitated that he put his left +hand into his bosom and his right behind his back, instead of the +other way around. However, it was in a loud, firm voice, with fierce, +defiant looks at the invaders, that he informed Sara: + + "The Fractions came down like a wolf on the fold: + Their ears are acute but their noses are cold. + They know nothing of poetry, music or art-- + So why in Sam Hill should they think they're so smart?" + + + +"Why in Zeelup?" corrected the Teacup, from above, in a tremulous, +weeping voice; but even had it been louder it would have been drowned +in the clamor that rose from the tables. + +"Silence, impudent clown!" roared the fat, fierce-looking +Multiplicand. "Ignoramus! nothing of music! Why, you don't know Common +Time!" + +Sara quaked; only yesterday she had got all tangled up trying to tell +the difference between three-four time and two-four time; and she knew +Schlorge was wrong and the dreadful creature was right. But Schlorge +was beside himself with fury and beyond the reach of fear or reason. + +"Oh, go on!" he shouted fiercely. "You don't know nothing about the +insides of music--that's only the outsides! Besides, what time does a +bird sing by? That's music, ain't it?" + +But before the Multiplicand could answer, his henchman, the Multiplier, +called out, "And what do you know of art, Oaf? Don't you know that +modern art is colored geometry?" + +"And poetry?" squeaked the Quotient, fiercely, "Don't poets have to +count their feet to write poems?" + +But at that juncture they were all electrified to see Avrillia +stepping forward, looking so beautiful and so queenly and so +transfigured by righteous indignation that even the invaders merely +blinked. "Not modern poets," she said, with an icy authority that sent +a hostile shiver up and down the multiplication tables. "They do not +count anything--not even the cost." + +It was not so much what Avrillia said, as the way she said it, and the +way she looked, that cowed even the all-powerful invaders for a +moment. Pirlaps, at her side, said, "Good for you, Avrillia!" under +his breath; and Schlorge glared at the Fractions with triumphant scorn +and continued, + + "Like leaves of the forest when summer is green + Our beautiful Garden at sunset was seen; + Like leaves of the forest when autumn is flown, + You see it this morning all withered and strown." + + +As he finished this stanza Schlorge seemed to rise to twice his full +height (indeed, he seemed to Sara for a moment almost half as tall as +her waist) in his eloquent fury, as he continued: + + "But we will lambast you, you straight-waisted pigs, + As sure as black's yellow and thistles is figs! + Yea, surer than squashes our vengeance we'll wreak; + If it isn't today, why, we'll do it next week!" + + + +Sara had a distressed feeling that this was rather a weak ending, but +nobody else seemed to notice it; indeed, several of the Fractions were +so incensed at the bold threat that two or three of them called out, +"Shoot him at sunrise!" The Greatest Common Divisor, however, merely +gave him a savage and contemptuous glance over his tear-mug, as much +as to say that he would annihilate him when it was quite convenient. + +In a few moments they were again entirely absorbed in their drinking +and carousing, and then Pirlaps cautiously touched Schlorge on the +arm. "Let's have a council of war," he said, in a very low voice, +drawing him a little to one side. "I have an idea. Where shall we go?" + +"Better come down to the Smithy," said Schlorge. "They haven't +discovered it yet." + +Very quietly then, while the Fractions were busy drinking, Schlorge +and Pirlaps and Avrillia and Sara and the Snimmy and the Snimmy's wife +slipped out of the Garden and down the path to the Dimplesmithy. They +didn't think it necessary to tell the Plynck, who was too much crushed +to be of use, or the Teacup, for whom they dreaded the slightest +shock. The Echo of the Plynck might have been useful, only she was +still frozen into the pool. + +The farther they got from the Garden the less blighted and the more +natural everything looked; and by the time they reached the road, they +would not have suspected, from the look of the country, that +destruction was lurking so near. + +When they reached the Dimplesmithy, they sent the Snimmy to sniff out +the neighborhood carefully with his debilitating nose, to see if there +were any spies about; and when he returned, Pirlaps carefully unfolded +his plan. + +"I am convinced," he said earnestly, "from what I have observed this +morning, that Poetry will be absolutely fatal to these hateful +intruders who have descended upon us. The only question in my mind is, +How shall we apply it? After thinking about it most carefully, I have +worked out a tentative plan. Avrillia, I am sure, can furnish us +plenty of ammunition." (Sara, glancing admiringly at Avrillia, saw the +thrilling look of high resolve that shone in her face.) "And Schlorge +will have to make us two or three more pairs of bellows. Are you +strong enough to wield a pair, Sara?" he asked. Even in the stress of +this dire moment he spoke so kindly that she loved him more than ever; +and she told him proudly that she was sure she could. Schlorge had +already dragged down from a shelf three extra pairs of bellows--one +brand-new one and two old ones; and he was busy at his forge mending +and putting them in order. All the while, however, he was listening +anxiously to Pirlaps. + +"The only part I haven't been able to work out," said Pirlaps, with a +worried look, "is this: How can we reduce the Poetry to a powdered +form fast enough to be effective?" + +This was a problem indeed; and everybody thought deeply and +desperately. Avrillia, Sara could see, was already so absorbed in +making the poems that she didn't even hear; but it was an agonizing +moment for the rest of them. It did not last long, however; for the +Snimmy's wife stepped forward and said triumphantly, in her deep, +cross voice, "My coffee-mill!" + +"Ah, these practical people!" cried Pirlaps, rubbing his hands +delightedly. "Now for our organization. Avrillia, have you plenty of +rose-leaves?" + +"An extra supply," answered Avrillia, raptly. "Yassuh filled the +leaf-closet only yesterday. How fortunate!" + +"Then the problem of transportation," said Pirlaps, greatly pleased. +"There must be no break--" + +"The Gunki will bring 'em," said Schlorge, decisively. "Here, you!" he +shouted; and a swarm of Gunki came tumbling out from under the +adjacent bushes. "Bring your coal-scuttles!" he shouted; and each +Gunkus scuttled back, reappearing in a moment with the desired +receptacle. + +"Good!" said Pirlaps. "Stand at attention until I give you further +orders." And each Gunkus stood perfectly still and straight, holding +his coal-scuttle by the handle between his teeth, and dropping his +eyes into it. They hit the bottom of the scuttle with a ringing, +martial sound. + +"Now," said Pirlaps, "how many hands for the bellows? Avrillia will be +busy writing poems; Mrs. Snimmy will be busy grinding them. That +leaves Schlorge, Sara, Mr. Snimmy and myself. Four pairs of +bellows--how fortunate!" He then explained to the Gunki that they were +to march straight to Avrillia's balcony and form an unbroken line from +there to the Snimmy's wife's coffee-mill, on the front porch of the +prose-bush; and that they were to pass the scuttles full of loaded +rose-leaves in a steady stream, as fast as they could. The last Gunkus +was to empty the scuttles into the coffee-mill. + +In a very short time they had this plan in execution. When they +slipped back into the Garden they found that the Fractions had been +drinking so heavily that many of them were snoring loudly under the +multiplication tables; and the rest were carousing so uproariously +that they took no notice whatever of the preparations for their +overthrow. The Snimmy's wife took her station grimly at the +coffee-mill; Pirlaps, Schlorge, Sara and the Snimmy grouped themselves +about her, and in a very few minutes the first scuttleful of poems +arrived. The first Gunkus emptied them into the mill; Mrs. Snimmy +began to grind violently; the gunners, with hands trembling with +excitement, loaded their bellows. Even in this terrible moment Sara +could not help noticing what a lovely stuff the powder was--a blue and +silver dust, with a delicate fragrance like sachet powder. Surely it +could not harm anybody! She felt a sinking of the heart; but she kept +her eyes on Pirlaps, and his splendid, confident bearing helped to +reassure her. And when he said, "A--B--C!" they all fired +simultaneously. And oh, glorious success! It was clear that the +poem-dust was absolutely deadly to the enemy. At the first shot the +Least Common Multiple and a number of privates fell out of their +chairs, as dead as if they had been caught between the covers of an +arithmetic! Moreover, the poem-dust that filled the air seemed to tend +to stupefy the others; so that, though there was a terrible uproar and +a desperate scramble for weapons, victory for the defenders was +certain from the start. There was only one defect in the organization; +one thing had escaped Pirlaps' wonderful foresight. There was no +efficient way to get the powder from the coffee-mill to the bellows; +and in the loading much time was wasted and much ammunition spilled. +While Pirlaps was looking about him with great anxiety, trying to +think of some way to remedy the trouble, the little Teacup came +fluttering tremulously down from above. "Let me do it!" she cried; and +while they all looked on in admiration (though with only one eye +apiece, since the other was busy aiming at the enemy) she proceeded to +load one pair of bellows after another, with the utmost nicety and +plenty of poetry-powder. A little was spilled, to be sure, because she +trembled so terribly; still, it was an enormous improvement, and they +all praised and congratulated the Teacup. + +"Ah, these sheltered women!" said Pirlaps. "How an emergency does +bring them out!" + +The battle must have raged for nearly an hour; but at the end of that +time there was not so much as a One-Twenty-Second left alive. The +Greatest Common Divisor, as befitted his rank, was the last to succumb; +and when he went down the defenders of the Garden threw down their +weapons and began tossing their shoes into the air and shaking each +others' hands and talking all at once. The Gunki passed the word down +the line to Avrillia, who presently came floating in, with her wild +eyes shining and her pale-gold hair rumpled, and her golden +swan's-quill still in her hand; and everybody fell upon her with +congratulations. But, indeed, everybody was congratulating everybody +else, and calling him or her the hero or heroine of the day. Schlorge +was doubly cordial to Avrillia because he felt that he had +underestimated her; and for the same reason Pirlaps was particularly +delighted with the Teacup and the Snimmy's wife--whom, to tell the +truth, he had always considered very ordinary women. The Teacup +fluttered and laughed nervously, murmuring, whenever anybody praised +her, "If my handle hadn't been so consanguineous--" But the Snimmy's +wife merely smiled grimly, as much as to say that she had always +thought they would all come to their senses sooner or later. + +Presently the Snimmy, who had been sniffing about the fallen invaders, +suggested, "What's to be done with the remains, begging everybody's +pardon?" + +"Don't make such long speeches, Snimmy," said his wife, "and don't beg +anything. Didn't you blow as hard as any of 'em?" + +But Schlorge was already deeply interested in the problem. He began +walking around among them, now and then turning one over with his +foot. Of course there had never been an ounce of flesh and blood among +them; they were as dry as bones--which, indeed, they much resembled. + +"I could make them into first-class rules," he said, picking up the +waist-line of an Improper Fraction and snapping it easily across his +knee. "They'd keep the Plynck supplied a whole winter." + +The Plynck! In the excitement of victory they had all momentarily +forgotten the Plynck, though, when the fight was hottest, it had been +the sight of her tragic drooping plumes among the blighted leaves that +had nerved them to redoubled effort. Now Avrillia stepped softly under +the tree and called gently, "O Plynck, dear Plynck! They're all dead, +and Schlorge is going to make them into rules for you to break!" + +A shiver ran through the soft, rosy plumes of the Plynck; she opened +her terrified eyes, and when she saw that the good tidings was indeed +true, she began to shine and smile down upon them again like a +convalescent rainbow. The Gunki had already formed a line to +Schlorge's smithy, and were briskly sending scuttlefuls of the hateful +fragments down the line. + +"I--I'm sorry I was so useless," apologized the Plynck with deep +humility, looking down upon her faithful friends. But they one and all +began to protest that she had not been needed in the least. "It was +for you as we done it, ma'am," Schlorge assured her, looking up into +her tree with his shoe in his hand; and the poor Snimmy was so +overcome by emotion that he was compelled to lie down at the foot of +the Gugollaph-tree, with his debilitating nose on his little cold paws, +and sniffle frankly. + +"But how will they get back the lovely grass and flowers?" asked Sara +of Pirlaps, softly. Her friends were saved; but her Garden still +looked sadly afflicted. + +"Well, perhaps it will snow," said Pirlaps, hopefully. + +"Snow?" asked Sara. "Will that bring the grass and leaves back?" + +"Why, certainly, Sara," said Pirlaps, looking down at her with his +kind, amused smile. Pirlaps was often amused at her ignorance; but he +was always so kind about it that Sara didn't mind at all. + + + + + Chapter V + Crumbs and Waffles + + +Sara beheld such an entrancing sight the next morning that her dimples +nearly escaped from her control while she was putting them into the +dimple-holder. The Snimmy leaped up with a wild sniff, only to sink +down again, trembling, as Sara shooed the little rollicking things +safely down through the opening. + +For it had indeed snowed in the night; the whole glittering Garden was +as white as the Snoodle. The pool was unfrozen, and in her accustomed +place within it sat the Echo of the Plynck, looking wonderfully happy +and refreshed; the bark of the Gugollaph-tree was again a healthy, +dazzling blue, and the branches were piled with little ridges of +fluffy-looking snow, which produced a delightful effect. And among +them, with her happy golden feet in the snow, and her rosy plumes +fluffed out, sat the Plynck, looking as softly dazzling as a snowy +sunrise. An army of Gunki were busily mowing the deep snow with +scintillating long-handled ice-sickles. It flew up in clouds as they +mowed, and another army of Gunki was engaged in catching it in baskets +and spreading it smoothly down again. One and all, they seemed deeply +absorbed in this useful work. + +Still a third crew of Gunki were engaged in helping Schlorge reset the +stump. They had got it nearly into place by the time Sara arrived. It +was a tremendous engineering feat, and had evidently required any +number of ropes and pulleys and things. + +Sara could see that the ropes were made of taffy, but she could not +imagine where they had found enough pulley-bones to supply all the +pulleys. So she asked Schlorge about it, and he explained with great +relish that they had used the wish-bones of the Fractions themselves. + +"Oh, we've made 'em useful!" said Schlorge, triumphantly. "We've used +everything about 'em except their conceit. We didn't want that, so we +just raked it up into piles and burned it." + +As he talked, Schlorge was busy fitting the stump exactly to the root +that was left in the ground, so that it would grow back just right +when the snow melted. + +"I have to hurry," explained Schlorge, working away with an anxious +expression, "because I have an announcement to make to you--a message +from Avrillia." + +"Oh, do hurry!" cried Sara, clapping her hands so recklessly that +Schlorge looked up from his work to say, "Take care--I don't mend them +knuckles ones, you know." + +So Sara sat down very quietly on the snow near by, keeping a watchful +eye out for the Gunki with the keen ice-sickles, and sitting very +still so that she would not disturb Schlorge. And in a very little +while, indeed, the work was finished, and Schlorge scrambled eagerly +upon the stump and arranged his hands. Then he began: + + "I'm requested to say + On this glickering day + That Avrillia is feeding the Birds; + And if Sara will come + She will find her at home, + With waffles and welcoming words." + + + +Schlorge jumped down and began scrambling his tools together; then he +went rushing wildly, as usual, down the road to the Dimplesmithy. "Go +see her, Sara!" he shouted back over his shoulder encouragingly. +"You'll enjoy it! Go on!" + +So Sara, who really needed no urging, went smiling down the little +path (it was curly again, though very white) toward the little arch in +the hedge. And from there she looked out upon another exhilarating +scene. + +Now I did not think it necessary to say that the snow in the Garden +was of powdered sugar, as it is in all well-informed stories; but +beyond the hedge, as far as the eye could reach (and Sara had quite a +long eye for her age--her mother was kept busy letting out hems) the +snow was of powdered silver. I am sorry to say it was not good to eat +at all; but it was so much more beautiful than the common garden kind +that I do not believe you would have minded, any more than Sara did. +It was, of course, fairy snow, while the other was just the plain +imaginary kind. + +But the scene before her was so strange and animated that even the +snow could not hold Sara's attention for long. (It was slippery, for +one thing; and, besides, the crust was thin, and Sara's attention was +so excited and skippy that it was continually breaking through.) + +Beyond Avrillia's house on one side, in the direction Sara had gone +with Pirlaps to see his relations, was a long, delightful hill; and +there all the seventy children were coasting and snowballing. Every +one of them had on a cap that seemed to be made of a tiny red pepper, +and their little mittened fists looked exactly like holly-berries. +Their sleds were of curled rose-petals, and Sara knew without being +told that it had cost their mother quite a struggle to spare so many +from the supply she had collected to write poems on. Sara had watched +them for several minutes before she noticed that they always coasted +uphill and dragged their sleds down. And all the time the air flashed +with snowballs so big that they looked like the tantalizing silver +balls which sometimes occur in the nicest boxes of chocolates. + +It was some time before Sara could disengage her attention (it had +become entangled in the rope on one of the smaller children's sleds) +to examine the extraordinary scene near at hand. For, on the lawn at +one side of Avrillia's house, opposite the rose-garden, where Pirlaps +usually sat painting under the fog-bushes, a large table had been +placed; and around it were assembled a group of the most +remarkable-looking persons Sara had ever seen. If they had not been so +large, Sara would have been sure that they were birds; but the largest +one was a head taller than Sara herself, and the very smallest was at +least as large as her youngest cousin. + +Pirlaps, who was helping Yassuh put some sort of food on the table, +looked up and saw Sara; and in a moment he put down the dish he had in +his hand and seemed to slip away unnoticed, to come to her. Sara +wondered at this, for Pirlaps was always so polite; it would have been +much more like him to excuse himself with a courteous bow to his +guests. + +"Good morning, Sara," he said in a low tone, when he reached her side. +"A glorious morning, isn't it? Avrillia thought you would enjoy seeing +the Birds fed, and the children at their winter sports. Avrillia +herself is very busy just now; the suet gave out and she's gone to +order some more. But I daresay she'll have time to speak to you after +a while. Meantime, I'll tell you who they are: it isn't polite to +introduce them to anybody. Indeed, I must tell you that their ways are +very peculiar, and they are very easily offended; so try to be +careful. For instance, you must never speak aloud in their presence, +but only behind your hand, in a whisper; and if you wish to make the +best impression, do not seem to see them at all. Also, if you should +care to partake of any of the food, remember not to touch it with your +hands: that is the very worst of bad manners. Always take it with your +beak--I mean your mouth." + +Sara stood perfectly still, watching; never had she been so charmed +and astonished. + +"Who are they?" she asked, after a moment. + +"Well, the tallest one, with the high blue beaver hat, is the Popinjay," +said Pirlaps. "He's just about the cock of the walk, and he's quite +self-important and touchy. The one with the very long bill, and the +stiff, stumpy tail that he uses for a cane, is the Redpecker. The one +in the checked suit, with the black necktie, yellow satin +sleeve-linings, and white patch on his coat-tail, is the Snicker. He's +full of fun and a good fellow, but rather crude--for he'll sometimes +talk to you a little if he's sure the others aren't looking. Ants are +his favorite food, but Avrillia didn't put up any this summer, so I +had to send Yassuh down to the colony to get one of my uncles for him. +Poor Uncle," said Pirlaps, looking very sad for a moment, "I hated to +do it; but he was only a half-uncle and quite old, and lately he had +grown so thin that he was hardly more than a three-eighths one. +However, he was plenty for the Snicker," he added more cheerfully, +"he's not as exacting as most of them. The little lady in brown, with +the bustle, is a When; like the Snicker, she's really quite a charming +little person, though of an interrogative turn of mind; and they all +frown on her sociable ways. The fierce-looking old gentleman with the +Roman nose is the Squawk; he has a worse disposition, even, than the +Popinjay. That beautiful little lady with the deep blue velvet cloak +and the vest that looks like ploughed fields in March, is the Skybird; +she is lovely and gentle, and reminds me of Avrillia. But she's quite +absent-minded. Besides, she's very careful of her manners; so don't +expect her to speak to you. Now come on, and watch them eat." + +Sara was very curious, but a little timid, the visitors looked so +large and so strange; so she held tight to Pirlaps' hand as they stole +carefully up to the group and stopped near the table. The Popinjay, +the Squawk, the Redpecker and the Skybird went on eating as if nothing +had happened, so Sara felt sure she had been sufficiently polite; but +the little When, who was hopping about from one side of the table to +the other, cast a bright, questioning glance at her that made her +whisper, behind her hand, and under her breath, "Next August!" And +then she was sure she heard the Snicker wink. + +All this time Sara had been aware of an irresistible curiosity about +the table. It looked somehow familiar and unpleasant; and yet it was +of a beautiful primrose yellow, decorated with blue roses. At last she +put up her hand and whispered to Pirlaps, "The table! Where did you +get the table? It wasn't here the other day!" + +Pirlaps laughed softly. "Ah, Sara," he said, "you aren't easy to +hoodwink! That's the Seven-Times table. Avrillia and I had a regular +battle about it. Of course we never really quarrel," he explained +seriously, "but we sometimes have a lively clash of wills. After we +finished off the Fractions yesterday, I was determined to save that +table for a memento. Avrillia hated the idea, and positively refused +to have it in the house; and then I won my point by remembering that +we'd never had a table large enough for the birds to eat from when it +snowed. I told her we'd keep it on the lawn. She tried to persuade me +to order a plain Time-Table from your country, instead; saying that, +though it would be bad enough to have our nice clean eternity +cluttered up with a Time-Table, it would be better than one of these. +But I finally brought her around, by promising to paint it and make it +as pretty as possible. She'll forget its real nature after a while, +and I shall always value it greatly for its historical interest." + +Sara's mind was distracted toward the close of this explanation by the +peculiar, not to say angry, behavior of the Popinjay and the Squawk, +who, she was sure, had become displeased about something. One +peculiarity of the Popinjay's she had not noticed until she came near +the table. It was that, though he had two perfectly good feet, they +seemed to have grown to a sort of perch, which was fastened crosswise +to a sharp peg; and when he wished to move he had to hop from place to +place, sticking this peg into the snow. He was now hopping round and +round the table with loud, incoherent cries, while the little When +flitted from place to place to keep out of his way, and the Snicker +laughed softly in his yellow satin sleeve. Sara touched Pirlaps on the +arm. + +"Mercy me!" cried Pirlaps, speaking softly, but forgetting in his +excitement to cover his mouth with his hand. "The table is quite empty, +and Avrillia has not come with the rest of the suet! Yassuh should +have brought more crumbs long ago. Let's go to the house and see +what's the trouble, Sara!" + +They hurried to the house, and began looking everywhere. They even +opened the door of Avrillia's own bed-room, which was upholstered +entirely in pink morning-glory satin, with hangings of opalescent mist; +Sara thought it was quite the most ravishing place she had ever seen; +at least she though so until Pirlaps distractedly led her down into +the basement to Avrillia's kitchen. A smell of something delectable +scorching enveloped them as they opened the door. And there beside the +stove, all deliciously sticky and comfortable, lay Yassuh, fast asleep +and half melted; while little wisps of smoke curled out of the crack +between the oven and the door. The stove was almost as big as the tin +one Jimmy had given Sara for Christmas, but much more massive and +efficient-looking. On the table, looking so delicious that they made +your mouth water, were the ingredients with which Yassuh had been +working: a bubble-pitcher of milk-weed cream, a bowl of butterfly eggs +(the daintiest things!), a silver panful of flour from the best white +miller, and a large silk sack of snow-sugar from the Garden. Sara had +to put her hands behind her back. + +"Yassuh!" shouted Pirlaps; and Sara had never before heard him speak +angrily. "The messy little rascal! I can't even kick him to wake him +up--I'd never get my foot out! Where are the tongs? Here, Sara, you +take the poker, and help me with him!" + +So saying, Pirlaps picked the soft and sleeping Yassuh up gingerly +with the tongs, and Sara put the poker crosswise under the softest +part of him to keep him from pulling apart, and together they carried +him to the door and dropped him outside, where he made a +delicious-looking brown puddle on the silver snow. + +"You stay and watch him till he hardens," called Pirlaps, hurrying +back toward the kitchen, "and don't let him go to sleep again. As soon +as he's hard enough, send him straight in here to me." + +Sara stood on the doorstep watching Yassuh, who was now awake and +grinning, and she was very much interested to see how, as he hardened, +he wriggled himself back into shape, like a chrysalis that has just +shed its caterpillar skin. She was sure this was no new experience to +Yassuh. + +Presently she thought he was hard enough to be taken back into the +kitchen; and there they found Pirlaps, sitting with flushed face upon +his own fast-melting step, taking little muffin-pans full of +fresh-baked crumbs out of the oven. One panful, alas, was burnt to a +crisp, and some of the others were a shade too brown; but oh, they did +smell and look so very delightful! Considered as muffins (and they +looked so like them that Sara could not help being reminded of them) +they were certainly the tiniest things imaginable; considered as +crumbs (and that was what she had heard Pirlaps call them) they were +considerably above the average in size. For all that, what +discouragingly small crumbs for such appallingly large birds! No +wonder Pirlaps was so worried, and looked so unnaturally hurried and +strenuous! + +"Here, Yassuh!" he called, without stopping to scold him. "You empty +these into the baskets and take them right out to the table; and then +you hurry right back and get another batch into the oven as quick as +you can. Roll!" + +Yassuh, apparently quite refreshed by his nap, went tumbling out with +the fragrant baskets, and Sara hurried after Pirlaps in his anxious +search for Avrillia. At last they thought of the balcony; and as they +ran up the stairs, there, indeed, they saw Avrillia, with her white +arm outstretched above the balustrade, watching a curled rose-leaf as +it floated down, down, down. + +"Avrillia!" called Pirlaps. "Where is the suet?" + +Avrillia was leaning far out over the balcony, gazing down into +Nothing. She straightened up and turned around, looking at them with +eyes that hardly saw them. + +"It didn't stick," she murmured. + +"Avrillia! the suet!" cried Pirlaps, laying his hand on her arm and +shaking it ever so little. "The suet!" + +He was not cross--he couldn't be cross with Avrillia--but Sara thought +he was for once almost half impatient. Avrillia's mind came back into +her beautiful eyes and she cried remorsefully, + +"O Pirlaps, I forgot. Is it all gone? What will they think of me?" + +"Every bit," said Pirlaps, relenting at once. "And Yassuh went to +sleep and burnt up a whole panful of crumbs." + +"Oh, dear!" cried Avrillia, "how dreadful! The suet came quite a while +ago, but while I was slicing it I thought of a poem about snow; and +then I happened to think that maybe the air over the Verge might be a +little warmer than it is here, and so the poem might melt a little as +it fell, and, maybe, stick. But it didn't," she finished, growing +abstracted again. + +"Too bad," said Pirlaps, peering down into Nothing with real sympathy +in his voice. Then, with a start, "But the suet, Avrillia?" + +"Oh, let's go get it," cried Avrillia. "I laid it on my dressing-table +when I went to get a fresh handkerchief just before I sat down to +write." + +So they flew to Avrillia's pink bed-room, and there was the suet, in +the midst of Avrillia's lacy pin-cushions and crystal toilet-bottles. +They gathered it up and hurried out to the Birds, who were now eating +crumbs and looking fairly good-natured; though you could tell by the +way Yassuh's knees trembled that he had found them in a dreadful +state. + +Well, you can hardly imagine how busy they were kept, all that +afternoon--Sara and Yassuh and Pirlaps and Avrillia--supplying crumbs +and suet to those thankless Birds. The lovely Skybird did, toward +sundown, trill a beautiful little song of gratitude; but she addressed +it to nobody in particular, and looked all the time straight into a +fog-bush--because of course it would have been very bad manners, as +she thought, to pay any attention to her hosts. The little When cast a +bright look at Avrillia, who whispered, when no one was looking, "Next +year, dear--the first snow," and the Snicker, who was the most +reckless of all, nudged Sara with his elbow and said in a +stage-whisper, "Certainly did have a good time," and then snickered +loud and long. But the Popinjay and the Squawk and the Redpecker +departed without a word of thanks for all the food they had eaten and +all the trouble they had caused. + +As soon as they were gone Pirlaps and Avrillia drew a long, relieved +breath; then Pirlaps tossed his step to Yassuh and seized Avrillia +about the waist, and whirled her up and down the silver paths in the +gayest, most fantastic little dance Sara had ever seen. Presently they +stopped before Sara. + +"Now for the waffles, Sara," said Pirlaps; and Avrillia stooped and +kissed her and said, "Come, Sara, and see what I can cook!" + +Sara thought the notion of Avrillia's cooking must be an odd and +pretty fancy, but she skipped back with them to their little house, +holding a hand of each. Through the windows she could see the fairy +lights gleaming, for it was growing late and cold. They led her again +down into the little shining, warm kitchen, where the lights from the +glowing stove danced upon the silver bowls, and the air was full of +delicious, spicy smells. + +"Lie down, Yassuh, and go to sleep," cried Avrillia; and so saying she +took down her kitchen-apron from the gold-headed pin where it hung and +began to flit about the cook-table--measuring out snow-sugar and +breaking butterfly eggs into her shining cups and bowls. Then she got +out the silver waffle-irons (Sara wanted them for her toy stove) and +buttered them, and put them on the stove to heat while she beat up the +batter. + +Meantime, Sara helped Pirlaps to set a dainty little round table (not +at all like a multiplication table) with pink shell dishes, and put on +a jar of honeysuckle honey and a pat of buttercup butter. Then +Avrillia baked the waffles and they sat down to eat. + +Avrillia had hardly taken the first mouthful when she cried, "I forgot +the children!" and sprang up and flitted to the door. + +As she opened the door Sara heard faint little cries and tinkling +laughter, drifting back from the hill where the children still played +and frolicked in the snow. Presently Avrillia shut the door and came +back to her place at the table. + +"Bless their hearts!" she said, smiling, "I think I'll just let them +stay out and play all night--they're always begging me to let them. +And they're having such a good time I can't bear to vanish them. They +won't bother us," she added, daintily pouring honeysuckle syrup on her +waffle. + +The waffles were so tiny and delicious that, every time she had +swallowed one, Sara almost thought she had dreamed it. + +"I didn't know you could cook, Avrillia," she said, shyly and +admiringly. + +Avrillia looked pleased. "Oh, anybody can cook!" she said, lightly. +Sara understood from her tone that not everybody could write poems on +rose-leaves. + +"We do this every year, Sara," said Pirlaps, "the first time it snows. +It's our favorite philanthropy. It's a big undertaking, and rather too +much of a strain for Avrillia, but we can't make up our minds to give +it up." + +"And then, when it's all over," continued Avrillia, "I make waffles +(aren't they good, Sara?) and we eat down here in the kitchen, and +relax, and have a lovely, cozy time. And it makes it doubly pleasant +when we have some congenial person to help us celebrate--like you, +Sara." + +Sara's little heart swelled with love and pride. Her eyes traveled +once more over the shining little table, and the friendly faces of +Pirlaps and Avrillia, and the glowing little kitchen, and out through +the little window, where the fog-bushes were making long blue shadows, +and the fairy lights danced on the silver snow. + +Never before had she stayed so late. But neither had she ever had such +a lovely time. + + + + + Chapter VI + The Little Lost Laugh + + +Sara had always intended to take her dolls with her to the Garden, but +every morning before the sixth morning she forgot it. On the sixth +morning, however, her arms were so full of dolls that she could not +take off her dimples. She had not foreseen that difficulty. + +She had not really intended to bring them all. But the Brown +Teddy-Bear looked so fiercely sad that she decided at the very outset +that she could not leave him. He was not really a doll, of course, but +as Sara kept him dressed in a kerchief and full skirt, he had the +effect of a doll--a sort of Wolf-Grandmother-of-Red-Ridinghood doll. +And the Billiken looked so cheerful that Sara decided that she must +surely take him along, to reward him for being so unfailingly +pleasant. And the Japanese doll had to go, because he was the newest, +and because he was the only one who was large enough to wear the pink +tulle lady-doll's hat Sara's aunt had sent her on her birthday. His +head was as bare as an egg, because the little rosette of black hair +that distinguishes a Japanese doll had come unglued. This made the +effect of the hat a little odd; still, he could wear it. The Kewpie +was just too cunning to leave--that was all there was to that; and no +right-minded mother ever left the baby. So that made it necessary to +take the Baby doll with the long clothes. (That is, she should have +been wearing long clothes, but Sara's dolls never wore the clothes +that belonged to them; and this morning the Baby was tastefully +attired in a wide red sash, with the Japanese doll's paper parasol +stuck through it, like the dagger in a comic opera.) + +So there was Sara, with five dolls in her arms, and the Snimmy +shuddering deliciously from head to foot because he was beginning to +smell dimples in his sleep. + +"What in the world shall I do?" wondered Sara, half aloud. + +"What in Zeelup, my dear," corrected the Teacup, leaning out from her +perch with sympathetic interest. + +And then, what do you think the Teacup saw? She saw the Kewpie, who +was always a friendly little soul, reach up and take off Sara's +dimples himself! + +"I'll do it for Sara," he said, helpfully, as he dropped them safely +upon the whipped cream cushion. + +And then what do you think happened? Why, the daintiest little +creature sprang right out from between Sara's lips and went skipping +and leaping and tumbling and running over the ice-cream bricks around +the pool, across the blue plush grass, and, before you could tell it, +disappeared around the turn of a little dim path Sara had never +followed. + +Sara stood gazing after him. She had never seen anything that looked +like that before. Some of Avrillia's children came nearest to looking +like it: but not even they were so tinkly or so bubbly or so +altogether gay-looking. And how nimble it was--disappearing like a +drop of water trickling down a rock! + +"What in the world?" breathed Sara again. + +"--In Zeelup?" breathed the Teacup, quite as softly. But Sara hardly +heard her: she was so astonished at the babel of small voices that +started up about her feet. She had been so startled at the appearance +and the disappearance of that strange little creature that she had not +noticed that all the dolls were wriggling out of her arms and sliding +down her skirts and legs like schoolboys escaping from a burning +dormitory. Not that they were afraid of anything: it was only that +they were so glad to be able at last to move and talk. + +"There he goes!" cried the Japanese doll, pointing excitedly: and +indeed they did catch one more glimpse of the fleeting sprite between +the shrubs. "He was mighty jolly," said the Brown Teddy-Bear enviously, +in his deep, mournful voice; and "Let's go catch him!" cried the Baby, +where it sat flat on the bricks, crowing and clapping its hands. + +"I'll have to get off these togs, then," said the Billiken, who was +always fat and cheerful, but seldom spoke. He was driven to it this +time by the fact that Sara had dressed him in the Baby's long clothes. + +"But what is it?" asked Sara, still bewildered. + +"Why, it's your laugh, child," said the Echo of the Plynck, who, all +this time, had been watching the scene with much amusement. "Don't you +know your own laugh when you see it?" + +"I never saw it before," said Sara with a wondering smile. "I guess +I've heard it." + +"Now, isn't that odd--and interesting!" said the Echo to the Plynck. +"The child says she has heard it, but never seen it. Here," she added, +turning to Sara, and speaking in a louder tone, "we see a great deal +of laughter--but we never hear it." + +"Well, and are you going to stand there all day staring?" suddenly put +in the wife of the Snimmy from the prose-bush. "Ain't you going to go +after it and ketch it? What'll your Maw say if you come home without +your laugh? And your Paw?" + +Sara had not thought of that. But when she did think, she realized +that it would be dreadful. What would Father think when he told her +his funniest story and she did not laugh? + +"But--but what shall I do?" she wondered, half to herself. + +The dolls at her feet set up a clamor of plans, but as they were all +talking at once (except the Brown Teddy-Bear, who looked even more +pessimistic than usual) their suggestions were not very helpful. Sara +and her other friends stood knitting their brows in perplexity. (Sara +was just learning to knit, so she had her needles and a ball of yarn +sticking out of her apron pocket. She was delighted to find brows so +much easier to knit than yarn.) + +Suddenly the Snimmy's wife spoke again. "Send for Schlorge," she said. +"He'll know what to do." + +No sooner were the words out of her mouth than they saw a Gunkus +running down the path toward the Dimplesmithy to tell Schlorge. + +"In the meantime, Sara, you'd better dress me more suitably," +suggested the Billiken kindly. Sara had never heard him object before +to wearing the Baby's long dress; but he was evidently looking forward +to a race and did not wish to be handicapped. + +So Sara sat down on the blue plush grass, and undressed the Billiken +while they waited for Schlorge. She had time now to notice that the +snow had melted and left everything beautifully fresh and bright, just +as Pirlaps had assured her it would do. She had never seen the Garden +look so lovely and spring-like. She was glad, too, to see that the +stump had grown back exactly as it was; they had even removed the +ropes and scaffolding. + +She took the Baby's clothes off the Billiken, and left him all free +and unimpeded in his own, fat, white, furry body. You see, she always +called the Teddy-Bear the Brown Teddy-Bear because the Billiken was +his first cousin, and had a white Teddy-Bear body; it was only their +colors and their heads that were different. Oh, yes,--and their +dispositions; for the Billiken was a supremely cheerful person, while +the Brown Teddy-Bear was a misanthrope. Sara had always known that he +had something very depressing on his mind; and she was planning, now +that he had learned to talk, to ask him what it was at the first +suitable opportunity. + +When she had got the clothes off the Billiken, she started to put them +on the Baby; but the Baby behaved as it had never done before. It had +always been a good baby, adapting itself amiably to any schedule its +mother saw fit to adopt. Sara saw at once that animated babies are not +so easy to manage as inanimate ones; for the Baby kicked and cried and +positively refused to be dressed. So Sara, who was really a very young +mother, and had not yet trained herself to be firm and self-willed and +contrary, put the Baby's clothes in her pocket with the yarn and +knitting needles and a ginger-snap she had brought, and set the +stubborn Baby down on the blue plush grass, where it rolled around +quite happily again in its red sash and parasol. + +And just at that moment she saw good old Schlorge hurrying down the +path from the Dimplesmithy with the Gunkus at his heels. + +Of course they all had to tell Schlorge about it at once, even the +dolls (all except the Brown Teddy-Bear), so that Schlorge looked quite +wild, and scratched his head a good deal before he was finally quite +clear what had happened. Then he turned and looked thoughtfully down +the path they had pointed out to him, and scratched it some more. +Finally he said slowly, + +"I tell you what we'll have to do,"--and then, looking about him all +at once very wildly,--"where's the stump--I'll have to tell Sara! +Where's the--" + +But this time he found it without loss of time; and scrambling upon it, +he adjusted his hands and shouted loudly, + + "Over hill, over dale, + Thorough bush, thorough briar, + Over park, over pale, + Thorough flood, thorough fire, + We'll have to follow everywhere, + If Sara's laughter we would snare. + I will go and lead the van, + You may follow if you can. + Sara's would be an awful plight + To go home laughterless tonight." + + + +Then he sprang from the stump and went rushing straight down the +little dim path, shouting back over his shoulder, "Come along, all of +you! Sara, ask the Plynck to come, too!" + +Down the path they went tumbling--the Snimmy, his wife, a crowd of +Gunki, and all the dolls. Sara and the faithful little Teacup stayed +behind to see if the Plynck would come, and the Snoodle was still +asleep. + +"Will you come with us, dear Madame Plynck?" asked Sara, softly, +looking up into the tree; and "Do you think you could stand it?" +fluttered the Teacup solicitously. + +"It's against my rules to leave the Garden," said the Plynck, and +Sara's heart sank; for she really thought the search would be a sort +of picnic, and she had hoped that the lovely Plynck would go, too. It +sank clear to the bottom of the pool, and the Plynck's Echo fished it +up and handed it back to her, all wet and shiny, just as the Plynck +finished her sentence, "So I think I'll go." + +Sara clapped her hands, and to add to her pleasure she heard just then +the most delicious crashing sound: the kind of sound she had imagined +when she stood at the top of the basement steps at home with the glass +pitcher in her hands, wishing she could hurl it down upon the cement +because Mother would not let her wear her new short-sleeved dress. She +saw at once that the Plynck had broken the largest rule she had, and +dropped it upon the pile at the foot of the tree; and now she was +moving her plumes softly for flight, so that the golden spice was +falling in Sara's hair. The Teacup was looking intensely pleased and +flustered, and both of them had forgotten the poor Echo, who was +scrambling about the rim of the pool like a swimmer trying to draw +himself out of the water by a slippery bank. When she saw Sara looking +at her, however, she stopped trying, and sat down stiffly in her usual +place. + +"I can't go, of course," she said with dignity, "but go ahead--don't +mind me." + +"Oh, my dear, I'm so sorry!" said the Plynck, hovering over her +softly. "I wish you could!" + +"Go ahead," said the Echo, trying hard not to look sulky and virtuous; +and so Sara ran down the path after the others, with the Plynck and +the Teacup fluttering gracefully over her head. As she passed through +the hedge she cast a backward look at the Garden, which was now so +still that she thought it looked like a picture in a dream--shimmering +and bright and clear, without a soul left at home but the Plynck's +cerulean Echo and the sleeping Snoodle. + +As soon as they passed through the hedge they found themselves in a +picturesque broken country, rather difficult to traverse, but very +prettily decorated with rocks, streams, and waterfalls. Little groves +of cedars, the exact size and shape of Christmas-trees, grew out of +the rocks; the candles were already full-grown, but Schlorge sent the +Japanese doll running back to tell Sara that she must not light them, +as they would not be ripe till Christmas Eve. Sara had never seen a +prettier place, but she was rather worried by a maternal anxiety about +the dolls. For it was certainly not a very safe place for them. Of +course the Brown Teddy-Bear and the Billiken were all right, though +the latter might come to grief if he should fall on his head. The +Japanese doll, who had lost a hand, was unbreakable; but unbreakable +only means that you may be dropped from a reasonable height upon +hard-wood floors, but not from a second-story window on concrete or +asphalt. That was how the Japanese doll had lost his hand (it would +have been his head, but for the fact that the accident happened while +he was indisposed from neuralgia, and had his head pinned up in the +Baby's flannel petticoat). And these rocks certainly looked as hard as +any pavement. And even as Sara worried, the worst happened: she heard +a dreadful cracking sound, followed by a shrill clamor from the dolls +and a hoarse cry from Schlorge, and the grim, excited voice of the +Snimmy's wife. It was by no means a pleasant sound, like the cracking +of breaking rules: no, it was the familiar, heart-rending sound that +makes the heart of any mother of dolls turn cold. Sara went leaping +and scrambling down the rocks, with the Plynck and the Teacup hovering +anxiously over her. In a few moments she reached the scene of the +accident, and found them all gathered around the Kewpie, who lay in +the lap of the Snimmy's wife with both legs broken. Sara ran and knelt +beside her. + +"Now, here, don't you go and burst into tears," said Schlorge, +speaking in the gruff tone an anxious doctor uses toward an excitable +patient. "I'll have my hands full mending your baby here, without +having to mend you. He has no internal injuries," he added, turning +the Kewpie upside down and peering down the stumps of his legs (which +were hollow) into a perfectly pink and smooth and healthy-looking +interior, "and you might have. Besides, we'll fix it up all right." + +"Can you really, Schlorge?" asked Sara. There were tears in her voice, +but, by trying very hard, she did keep from bursting into them. + +"Of course I can!" said Schlorge, speaking quite crossly to conceal +his sympathy. "Here--you Gunki! A stretcher!" + +So the Gunki came running with a stretcher made out of a large +mullein-leaf, and they put the Kewpie and his legs tenderly upon it. +He was a trifle pale, but still smiling, and insisted that he did not +suffer at all. + +"Only it's inconvenient, you know, not to be able to walk," he +explained, "and I didn't want to miss the fun. Would it be too much +trouble--could you take me this way? These gentlemen, now--" + +"Sure!" said the four Gunki at once, in tenor, baritone, bass, and +second bass. Sara, even in her distress, was charmed; for that was the +first time she had heard a Gunkus speak. + +"Are you sure you won't faint from loss of air?" asked Schlorge +looking at the patient anxiously; and indeed the air was pouring in a +steady stream out of the Kewpie's inside. + +"I'll be all right--only take me along," maintained the Kewpie, +valiantly. + +So they all started on again across the rough, uncharted country. + +Now, all this time they had not had so much as a glimpse of Sara's +laugh. The Snimmy ran along ahead with his long, quivering, +debilitating nose to the ground; and two or three times he raised it, +and said in an excited undertone, to Schlorge, "It touched here." And +then they would all look anxiously about, under every rock, and behind +every stump, without finding a trace of it. + +But after they had gone a long way, and were all getting tired and +thirsty (not to say hungry) they came to a most inviting little grove +around a spring; and here, with one accord, they all threw themselves +down to rest. The Teacup, with an arch look, dropped down to the +spring, filled herself with water, and fluttered up to Sara's lips, +saying softly, "Allow me, my dear!" Sara drank, in delight and wonder, +and found that the spring was not made of water, but of a sort of +super-lemonade, the most delicious beverage she had ever tasted. After +she had drunk, the Teacup took a drink to the Plynck, explaining to +her with an apologetic smile, "I served her first, my dear, because +she was the guest of honor--so to speak," and the Plynck assented most +graciously. Then the kind-hearted and democratic little Teacup +performed the same gracious office for the whole company, one after +the other--even the Baby doll and the Gunki who bore the stretcher. +But the Billiken did look very funny drinking out of the Teacup; and +it was just at that moment that they were startled by a little +gurgling sound in the tree above them (as if a Brownie had overturned +a blue honey-pitcher, and the little drops were tumbling over each +other upon a silver floor) and Sara's lost laugh sprang from the top +of the tree to the ground, and went tinkling off again among the +rocks. They all looked after it with their mouths open, as a fisherman +gazes at the hook from which he has just lost the largest fish that +ever was on sea or land. + +"There, now! If we had only been more watchful!" exclaimed the +Japanese doll. The pink tulle lady-doll hat had slipped far back on +his perspiring head; he looked as if he had come a long way. + +"I thought I saw something moving up in the tree--I was just going to +speak about it," said the plucky little Kewpie, who, being compelled +to lie on his back, had been gazing straight up into the branches. + +"Well!" said Schlorge grimly. "It won't do that again." + +They all saw that Schlorge had something on his mind, and began to +watch him as he took his gimlet out of his pocket and began to cut a +small willow wand. + +"What are you going to do, Schlorge?" asked the Japanese doll, who was +a good sort of a person, but a little lacking in tact. + +"Never mind me," said Schlorge, "the rest of you take a nap!" + +Sara saw that his professional pride, as the leader and practical man +of the party, had been hurt by the escape of her laugh; and he spoke +so crossly that they all turned around and began to try to make +conversation to cover their embarrassment. But they didn't succeed +very well; and presently the Baby spoke the thought that was uppermost +in everybody's mind. + +"I'm hungry!" he said. + +Alas, so were they all! It was no use trying to disguise it! So the +Snimmy said, almost tearfully, "Why didn't we think to bring some +lunch?" + +"Humph!" retorted his wife. "You'd never think of anything--except +dimples!" + +So saying, she took down a large hamper which she had been carrying on +her head, and removed the cloth which was tucked neatly over it. They +had all noticed the hamper, but supposed it was Avrillia's wash, which +the Snimmy's wife always took home on Poppyday. + +Now it proved to be packed full of a rich and varied picnic luncheon, +the sight and aroma of which made even the Brown Teddy-Bear look +eager. The Snimmy's wife set all the viands out on the grass, and the +Plynck graciously drifted down and took her place at the head of the +table. There was a trifle too much sand in the sandwiches, but +everything else was perfect; and they all ate as immoderately as +people do at picnics. + +Sara found herself seated next to the Brown Teddy-Bear. After he had +eaten a pickle or two and begun to look cheerful, she asked him, +tactfully, what he had had so long on his mind. + +"I'll tell you, Sara," said the Brown Teddy-Bear candidly and +mournfully. "I'm so ephemeral." + +Sara opened her eyes, and looked at him carefully. What new affliction +was this? "Do you mean you're sick?" she asked, after a while. + +"No, Sara," said the Teddy-Bear, smiling sadly. "You don't understand. +What I mean is, I'm already old-fashioned; I've had my day. Twenty +years from now, nobody will know what you mean when you speak of a +Teddy-Bear." + +"I will," said Sara, squeezing his paw affectionately. + +"Well, perhaps you will, Sara," admitted the Teddy-Bear, "because +you'll remember. But the children won't, and they're the only ones +that matter." + +"I'll tell mine," insisted Sara stoutly. + +"Ah, yes, Sara," said the Teddy-Bear, still more sadly, "but such +loyalty as yours is rare. I have but a frail hold upon posterity. The +same is true of many of my colleagues--the Billiken, for instance, and +the Kewp. But the Billiken is a philosopher, and doesn't care; and the +Kewp is a careless child. But I feel it, Sara; I have to confess to +you that I am a prey to the 'last infirmity of noble minds.'" After a +moment he added, less sadly but more irritably, "That creature, now, +brainless as it is, is just a doll. And dolls are immortal." + +"It's a Baby doll," said Sara, wishing to offer consolation, but +really not knowing what to say. + +"Humph," said the Brown Teddy-Bear disgustedly. "Babies are as +universal as dolls." + +Sara was still trying to think of something pleasant to say to him, +when she noticed that the Plynck, having finished her luncheon, had +flown up to a bough of the tree just over the spring; and suddenly she +heard her speak. + +"Well!" she said in astonishment. "Where did you come from?" + +And looking down, Sara saw the Echo of the Plynck in the water. She +looked quite imperturbable again, and quite cerulean. "Oh, I have ways +of doing things," she answered, preening her feathers. And the Plynck +was so mystified that she did not say another word. + +Really, she didn't have time, for Schlorge strolled back into their +midst at that moment, carrying a butterfly net he had just finished. +The stick was made of the willow wand Sara had seen him cut; and the +bag was made of two thicknesses of spider's web. "Now I'll get him," +said Schlorge grimly. "Pack up now, and let's start out again." + +So all together they started out, climbing hills, and jumping across +tumbling streams, and scrambling over rocks. It was quite hard for the +stretcher-bearers, but they bore up manfully; and the Kewpie never +lost his arch, heroic smile. + +Suddenly Schlorge, who was ahead, came stealing back to them. "Hist!" +he cried, and all the Gunki hissed venomously. "I saw it light in an +am-bush just to the left of that big rock. Now, I want you all to +spread out and form a large circle, with the bush in the centre; then, +if I miss it, everybody must try to shoo it back toward the middle. +Don't let it pass over you." + +So they all stole to the places Schlorge indicated, and then waited +breathlessly while he stealthily approached the am-bush. The little +laugh, feeling over-confident, must have been dozing; for it did not +see him until he was within a few feet. Then it flew out wildly, with +a sound like that made by the wings of a mother bird who leaves her +nest at the last moment. But it was caught at last. With one skilful, +triumphant swoop Schlorge had it. + +And then how it did titter and twitter and giggle and struggle! It +fanned its wings as furiously as a Zizz; it was as wild as a moon-moth +in a net, or a bird you hold in your hand. And all the time, it was +about to die with amusement. + +They all gathered around to see what a darling little thing it was. +Even Schlorge admired it openly; and the Snimmy's wife said grudgingly, +"It sure is pretty." As for the Snimmy, he buried his face in his +hands. "I can't stand it!" he groaned, and the gum-drops began to +squeeze through his fingers. "It makes him think of dimples," his wife +explained, in a low tone, to Sara. + +"'So near and yet so far,' you know," fluttered the Teacup, +sympathetically. + +The next thing was to decide how to get their captive home. Schlorge +was quite sure it couldn't break the net; still, he thought it best to +accept the Brown Teddy-Bear's suggestion that they put it, net and all, +into the Snimmy's wife's basket, and tie the lid securely. + +"'Specially since we have to go around by the Smithy," he added, "and +patch up our brittle friend, here." + +So they made the little laugh secure in the basket, and went on toward +the Smithy. It kept them all amused by the happy, ridiculous little +sounds it made, giggling and scuttling and fluttering about in the +basket. Even the Brown Teddy-Bear smiled once or twice. + +Toward sundown they reached the Smithy, and Schlorge had soon turned +his anvil into an operating table, on which they laid the +uncomplaining little sufferer. The Snimmy's wife said there were +plenty of onions at home in the sugar-bowl, and Schlorge offered to +send a Gunkus after them; but the Kewpie would not hear of it, so +Schlorge mended him quite quickly and neatly without an anaesthetic at +all. He declared himself able to walk, at once, but they persuaded him +to let the Gunki carry him to the gate on the stretcher. And so they +all escorted Sara and her dolls back to the dimple-holder in state. + +The Snoodle was awake, and howling lonesomely; but he was soon +frisking happily about their feet. The Plynck flew at once to her +branch and looked into the pool, and there sat her Echo. + +"Have a pleasant day?" the latter asked, inscrutably. + +But the Plynck was so puzzled that she said nothing at all. However, +when she was leaving the Garden, Sara heard her say to the Teacup, as +she slipped on an iris-colored kimono and shook down her back plumes, + +"I think I won't break any rules tomorrow. I think I'll just rest." + + + + + + Chapter VII + Accepting an Invitation + + +The next morning Sara took with her only the Kewpie and the Baby. The +Japanese doll was perfectly willing either to go or stay; he was not +at all temperamental, and anything suited him. She could tell from the +Billiken's smile that he didn't mind staying in the least; and the +Brown Teddy-Bear looked tired. He couldn't talk, of course, on the +everyday-side of the ivory doors; but with the new insight she had +acquired into his character, Sara felt sure his expression meant, "I +think I'd rather just sit in the corner. At my age a little excitement +goes a long way." As for the Kewpie, Sara was determined to take him, +as a reward for the distinguished fortitude he had shown the day +before; and the Baby, on the other hand, had behaved so badly that she +felt uneasy about leaving him. If he should act that way again--for +instance, when Lucy disturbed him in dusting the room--why, Lucy might +spank him! So the Kewpie was rewarded for being good, and the Baby was +rewarded for being bad, and Sara slipped through the ivory doors with +both of them tucked under one arm. + +Almost immediately a Gunkus in livery stepped up and handed her a note +from Avrillia. He made a low bow, holding his shoe in his right hand +over his heart. + +It was written on a rose-leaf, of course, and it had a delightful +faint odor, not only of roses, but of isthagaria. Sara opened it, and +read, + +"We're leaving on the early boat. Would you like to go with us? We'll +be gone all day." + +There was no answer to that but to run as fast as she could down the +little curly path. This morning it was not so much curly as melodious; +but Sara was in such a hurry that she hardly noticed. She forgot to +dismiss the Gunkus, but left him standing in front of the +dimple-holder, still bowing low, with his left shoe in his right hand +over his heart. + +Pirlaps was standing on the front steps, all ready to start, and +beside him grinned Yassuh, carrying the step in one hand and an +enormous traveling-bag (almost as large as Sara's mother's leather +purse) in the other. + +"Good-morning, Sara," said Pirlaps, in his unfailingly delightful way, +"I'm glad you got here in time. Avrillia will be ready in a second or +two." + +Sara could hardly keep from skipping, she was so pleased at the +prospect of a day's expedition with Pirlaps and Avrillia. She did not +know where they were going, but that didn't matter: she was sure to +see something interesting. She edged up to Yassuh, taking care, +however, not to get close enough to brush against his chocolate +outside, which might come off on her clean apron. "What's in your +bag?" she coaxed, mischievously. + +"Only my extra trousers, Sara," said Pirlaps, smiling; and then Sara +remembered that, though he did so many useful things (when he was not +asleep), she had never once heard Yassuh speak. He only grinned and +rolled his white eyes as Pirlaps continued, "We're taking twelve extra +pairs." + +Just then Avrillia came out of the door. Avrillia could not be +ungraceful or abrupt, but she was evidently in a hurry. Her motions +were rather like that of a wisp of white sea-fog that is blown ahead +of a rising wind. + +"There was so much to do before I could get off!" she explained a +little breathlessly. "The children came unexpectedly, too, and I had +to vanish them. Then, while I was dressing, I thought of a poem I had +to write about hair-pins--and oh, it almost stuck! It acted as if it +were going to, so I watched it longer than usual. But now I guess +we're off," she ended turning to fasten the door behind her. Sara +noticed that she fastened it with a hook and eye exactly like the ones +on Mother's prettiest waist--only this one was more valuable, being of +gold. + +"Well, it's quite a long walk down to the landing," said Pirlaps, +leading the way, "and we don't want to miss the boat." + +So they started off in the direction Sara had never gone before, +following a path that presently began to wind down among the cliffs, +giving them a blue view of the sea. Sara could hardly follow the path +for looking. Before long they could look back and see Avrillia's +balcony, with the little box-trees on the marble balustrade, and, far +below it, the gray abyss of Nothing. It was very strange and beautiful, +but it gave Sara a queer, empty feeling somewhere under her little +apron; and she was glad to turn her eyes back to the sea, which +beckoned far below them, a dancing blueness; and to the golden cliffs, +laughing in the sunlight far and near. The path was quite steep and +winding and unexpected, and Yassuh scrambled about a good deal; but he +managed to keep hold of the step and the bag. As for Sara, she had +never seen a more fascinating place, and she supposed these great +cliffs must form a part of the walls of the amphitheatre she had seen +from Schlorge's stump. Presently, at one especially wild, golden place, +where the path followed the edge of a chasm, Pirlaps paused a moment +and said, + +"You can hear a lovely reflection from here, Sara. Shall I call?" + +"A reflection?" said Sara, wonderingly. + +"Surely," said Pirlaps. "Listen." Then he cupped his hands about his +lips and called clearly, + +"Avrillia!" + +"'Rillia!" came back the wild, eerie syllables, so distinctly that +Sara's heart leaped. + +"Oh, an echo!" she cried, clapping her hands. "How beautiful!" + +"Bless the child!" said Pirlaps, smiling at Avrillia. "You hear a +reflection, Sara; you see an echo." + +"Like the Echo of the Plynck in the pool," supplemented Avrillia. +"Don't you remember, Sara?" + +Sara was sure her father had told her it was just the other way around; +but she was too happy to argue. So, to change the subject, she asked +Pirlaps very respectfully where they were going. + +"To Zinariola, Sara--to the City. You've never been there, have you?" + +Never, never had Sara been there; and she began immediately trying to +build that lovely city in her mind--the frail spires, and the rich +bazaars, dusky and spicy and full of brocades and silks, and the +little narrow, climbing streets. But, though it was a pleasure to try, +she knew she could not imagine anything so strange and charming as the +real City of Zinariola would be. + +All this time they had been winding steadily down to the sea. And +presently they caught sight of the boat, riding at anchor near the +landing place, with a little skiff drawn up on the sand. Of course you +know that the boat was a scallop-shell, with sails of gossamer; but +Sara had been expecting an ordinary boat, and she was perfectly +delighted. Of course it was large enough to hold Sara, as well as the +rest of the party; but just barely. And the sailors were no larger +than Pirlaps, though of course more rugged-looking and not so +smooth-shaven. And not one of them said a single word, during the +entire voyage, except "Yo-ho!" They sang that out continually; but as +their voices were small and musical (though hoarse) one didn't mind +the monotony of it. + +The sea was very smooth that morning, and not one of the party was +seasick; and Sara, who had been gazing, fascinated, into the water in +front of the bow was just beginning to suspect that the boat was being +drawn by a very large amber-colored fish who kept just ahead of it and +just under the surface (with the sails chiefly for ornament) when +Avrillia called suddenly from the stern, "You can see Zinariola now, +Sara!" + +Ah, there was the magical city!--for that it was magical the most +matter-of-fact person could see at a glance. Of course it was not just +imaginary, like the one Sara had built up in her mind, for this little +city was shining upon the cliffs; but for all that it was not a common +city--it was a toy one, and enchanted at that. And it was even more +strange and beautiful than she had dreamed. For streamers of violet +fog blew up its streets from the sea, and a wild light from behind the +farthest cliff struck across its green roofs and gilded weather-vanes. +Just as they drew up to the quay they heard a tinkling sound of music +and much laughter; and an organ-man with a monkey came spilling out of +one of the little streets, followed by a crowd of clapping children. +They were somewhat like Avrillia's children, only quite +foreign-looking, with green and red and yellow kerchiefs. The +organ-man was not so large as Yassuh, and the monkey was about the +size of a small spider. As for the organ, it looked strangely like the +music-box that belonged to Sara's dolls. + +Sara had never before seen a city simply swarming with fairies. Any +city was a wide-eyed place to Sara; so what of the wonder of a fairy +city? To be sure, many of them were foreign-looking, like the ones who +followed the organ-man, and in other ways, too; still, as Zinariola +was a seaport, it was very cosmopolitan, and one saw all sorts of +people on its streets. Many were just natural-looking people, like +Pirlaps and Avrillia; but some were of chocolate, like Yassuh, and +some were Chinese, with long pigtails of black buttonhole-twist; and +some were Parisians, with hats exactly like the one that the Japanese +doll wore so unbecomingly. (Yes, Sara knew in her heart that it was +unbecoming, though she would not have admitted it, even to you.) On +the gay Parisian lady-fairies, however, these hats were charming--but +hardly more striking than the many-colored headdresses, made of +humming-bird's feathers, that attracted so much attention when a band +of wild Indians went whooping down one of the principal streets. And +everywhere one saw sailors--rolling along the sidewalks and greeting +each other with loud "Yo-ho's!" (Loud, that is, for their size, but +always hoarsely musical.) + +This visit of Sara's took place before automobiles were introduced +into Zinariola, and the carriages were drawn by devil's horses. Of +these Sara was frankly afraid--they reared so, and turned their heads +so weirdly on their long green necks. Sara noticed one in particular, +which was drawing a carriage in a wedding procession that was just +leaving a church. This was a closed carriage, occupied by the bride +and groom; and the devil's horse was not looking where he went at all; +he had turned his head completely around, and was staring through the +little window straight into the carriage! Sara was afraid to cross the +street in front of horses that never looked where they stepped. It +took all her courage to attempt it, and you may be sure she held fast +to Pirlaps. And when Pirlaps had to leave them in order to go to a +barber-shop (Avrillia had not insisted upon his bringing his shaving +things today, but he went to a barber-shop every two hours) she would +not cross the street, but stayed on the sidewalk. Pirlaps changed his +trousers at the barber-shop, too, whenever it was necessary; but today +there were so much to do and see that he did not sit on his step as +much as usual, and so did not need as many. + +For they had a good deal of shopping to do, besides showing Sara the +sights. In the first place, Avrillia had to go to the stationery store +and get a new supply of swan's-quill pens. "That's one store I always +know where to find," she said. "The others change about so that I +always have to ask somebody." Then, Pirlaps needed some new trousers +(two or three pairs had worn out and he only had forty-four or five +left) and some shaving soap. "And besides," said Avrillia, smiling at +Sara mysteriously, "we want to get some presents." + +"And you'll have to make your usual visits of charity. Oh, I know you, +Avrillia," said Pirlaps. "If we don't hurry we won't catch the evening +boat." + +So they went first to the stationery store (which, just as Avrillia +had said, was in the usual place), and then to a bazaar where they +disposed of their household buying. While Sara was feasting her eyes +on the strange, delicious-looking fruits, the old candlesticks, and +the bolts and lengths of rich-looking cloth with stories woven into it, +she heard Avrillia say, "Now a set of self-buttoning buttons, please." + +The jolly little old leather-colored man who kept the bazaar winked at +Sara as he brought out the buttons for Avrillia's inspection. They +looked very much like ordinary buttons, except that they were, of +course, more intelligent-looking, and they were on a pink card instead +of a white one; also, they were in a shiny lacquer box, the lid of +which was watched over by gold dragons. + +"They will do very nicely," said Avrillia. "Now a thimble--a really +good one, please, that is thoroughly finger-broken, and has a +tractable disposition and some sense. The one this little girl has now +is simply abominable, and wouldn't push a needle through cobweb--not +to mention the heavy textiles they are obliged to use in her country. +Now, some knotless thread, please," she continued, having decided upon +a thimble after much careful thought. "Oh, no--not that! I don't mean +the kind that won't take a knot at the end; what I want is the kind +that won't tangle and snarl, even if a child's fingers are tired. +There, that's it!" and she tucked a smiling little spool into Sara's +apron pocket. + +"Now, Sara," she asked, "is there any other simple little thing you'd +like to have? They have self-washing hands and self-learning lessons, +and such things, but they're very expensive, and I know your mother +wouldn't want you to accept expensive presents," and she smiled at +Sara affectionately. + +Sara wanted terribly to ask for a set of self-learning multiplication +tables, but she knew Avrillia was right, and that her mother wouldn't +like it. Besides, how could she ever get all that furniture home on +the boat? + +So she assured Avrillia that she was more than satisfied--as, indeed, +being a dear child, she was. And then Avrillia nearly took her breath +away by saying, "Well, then, we'll go up and fit the dollies--just for +good measure. I know a shop where the loveliest doll clothes may be +bought for a trifle." + +And, would you believe it, that was the first time that Sara had +remembered the Baby doll and the Kewpie! However, one could tell from +the Kewpie's delighted smile that no harm had been done, so far as he +was concerned; and the Baby, for a wonder, was asleep. + +So Avrillia took them to the oddest little shop, the shape of a Dutch +teapot, kept by a little old-lady doll who was delighted to show them +everything. They bought a complete wardrobe for the Kewpie, who had +never had any clothes, and was charmed by the novelty of possessing +them; but the Baby nearly spoiled everything by waking up and kicking +and squalling and refusing to try on a thing! "You'd better behave, +you little rascal," said Pirlaps, "it will be a long while before +you'll ever have another chance like this!" But the Baby only kicked +the harder. However, the little shop-keeper doll was very patient, and +by measuring him between kicks they managed to fit him out with a very +nice layette. And then Avrillia insisted on buying all sorts of things +for the dolls at home--gorgeous oriental costumes for the Japanese +doll, sailor-suits for the Billiken, and a handsome fur overcoat, of a +conservative style and cut, for the Brown Teddy-Bear. + +"Now," said Pirlaps, "we'll have luncheon--it's getting rather +late--and then I suppose Avrillia will have to call on her poor +families." + +He led them to a little Chinese restaurant where a dumb-waiter with a +pigtail noiselessly served them with very good things to eat--though +Avrillia said the prices were outrageous. As they were dipping their +eyelashes daintily in the finger-bowls, Pirlaps said, + +"Well, Sara, shall we go with Avrillia, or would you rather stay +here?" + +"Oh, let's go!" cried Sara. She would have stayed anywhere with +Pirlaps, but if there was more to see, she wanted to see it. + +"Have you had the measles?" asked Pirlaps. + +Sara had; she could not be mistaken about it. + +"And the mumps?" Again Sara nodded, swallowing hard as she thought of +lemons and vinegar. + +"All right, come ahead," said Pirlaps. And they started off. + +"But the Baby hasn't!" suddenly remembered Sara. "The Kewpie has, but +the Baby hasn't." + +"Then it will never do to take him," said Pirlaps, decisively. "Here, +Yassuh, you stay here and keep the Baby." + +Pirlaps saw a look of doubt and reluctance in Sara's eyes as he was +about to consign the Baby to Yassuh's sticky care. So he handed the +Baby back to Sara and darted into a store near by where he got some +clean wrapping-paper. He then rolled the Baby, in its nice white dress, +up in the paper, taking care to leave its nose out, so it could +breathe. Then he handed it over to Yassuh, and Sara felt quite +comfortable and contented. "Keep out of the sun," he called back to +Yassuh, "and mind you don't melt!" + +The next thing, Avrillia said, was to stop in a drug store. They found +one quite readily, and Sara watched with astonished eyes while +Avrillia purchased a very large stock of drugs. Even a fairy drug +store is a disagreeable place to a child with a past like Sara's, and +if this one had not had a show-case full of candies for her to look at +she would have been exceedingly restless. But the bonbons were +charming--of all shapes and colors, and almost as large as a pinhead. + +Sara was really suffering from curiosity to know what Avrillia was +going to do with the medicines, but she had already asked so many +questions that she thought she would try to be very polite, and wait. +Waiting was made easier by the fact that the poorer quarter of the +city, through which they were now walking, was very queer and +interesting. It was like most such places, but Sara had not seen many, +and she was fascinated by the babies tumbling about on the sidewalk, +and the clothes-lines on the upstairs porches with clothes drying on +them. Once a goat in an alley looked up and spoke to her--but she did +not understand what he said. His mouth was full; for he was eating a +tin can that looked strangely like Sara's old thimble. + +Presently they stopped before a mean-looking house and Avrillia +knocked. Now, you often hear that word applied to quite innocent +houses that are only plain and poor; but this one really was +mean-looking. And Sara noticed with wonder that there was a red flag +over the door. + +A disagreeable-looking woman with watery eyes and her handkerchief to +her nose opened the door; and then, at the sound of Avrillia's voice, +there swarmed out from the rooms on both sides of the hall a crowd of +the most unattractive children! They fairly mobbed Avrillia, all +talking at once and snatching at the bottles which they could see +sticking out of Avrillia's basket. They had the reddest faces Sara had +ever seen, and no manners at all; for without even asking permission +they began to drink out of the bottles, quarreling among themselves +into the bargain. + +Sara drew as far away from them as she could; and while Avrillia was +talking kindly to the woman and the children (who didn't listen to her), +and also to an old man who sat hunched over a stove in the corner, +she whispered to Pirlaps, "Who are they?" + +"Why, the Measles, of course," said Pirlaps. "I told you we were +coming to see them! They live with their mother, Mrs. Sneeze, and +their grandfather, Old Man Cough. Avrillia thinks she can help them, +but they're a shiftless lot. Haven't a particle of get-up-and-go! +Always waiting for somebody to take 'em!" + +Avrillia was too much interested to notice what Sara and Pirlaps were +doing. "Now, children," she was saying kindly but severely, "I shall +expect to find you better the next time I come. No, you can't have +that bottle--that's for the Mumps." + +Sara found, as they left the house, that the Mumps were an old couple +who lived only a few doors down the same street. Old Mr. Mump had once +made a fortune in the pickle-business; but he had had reverses, and +was now very old and poor. + +They found the old couple sitting in front of their rickety grate, +with their jaws tied up in red flannel. The old man evidently had a +vicious temper, but he was plainly glad to see Avrillia. The old lady +was more mild and tearful; and both were overjoyed to get the +medicine. + +As they went out into the street again, Sara gave a sigh of relief; +but Avrillia looked quite rapt and uplifted. + +Sara was anxious to see if any mishap had overtaken Yassuh and the +Baby; but when they had hurried back to the restaurant they found +Yassuh still awake and the Baby still asleep. Pirlaps took off the +sticky paper and handed him, as clean as ever, back to Sara, who was +very glad that she had not exposed him to those dreadful diseases. + +They caught the scallop-shell boat, though they had to run for it, and +they were quite quiet all the way home. Avrillia sat by the rail, +watching the gulls, and dreaming; and Sara strained her eyes for a +long time to catch the last glimpse of the little magic, toy City of +Zinariola. She was still lost in memories when the boat scraped on the +beach; and then they climbed the little path among the cliffs through +the sunset. As soon as they reached the house Pirlaps sat emphatically +down on his step, remarking, "My, but it's good to be at home!" But +Avrillia hurried off to her balcony, murmuring absent-mindedly, "I +must write a poem about streets!" + +As for Sara, she sped along the little curly path in the dusk toward +the ivory doors. And there, in front of the dimple-holder, stood the +Gunkus in livery, still bowing low, holding his left shoe in his right +hand over his faithful heart. + +Sara was much ashamed of having forgotten him, and she had no money +with her; but she had a postage stamp in her pocket, from which the +puppy had licked the mucilage. This she gave him. + +It was, in all other respects, a perfectly good stamp. And the +faithful Gunkus seemed much pleased. + + + + + + + Chapter VIII + The Vale of Tears + + +Such a thing had never happened before, and how it happened this time +I am at a loss to understand: but when Sara entered the Garden on this +particular morning her eyes were full of tears. She had to fumble +blindly around for her dimples, and when she did find them they were +buried quite deep in her little wet cheeks. She would have strayed +right on into the Garden without removing them, except that as soon as +she saw the Snimmy's wife, absorbed in some simple domestic task, and +sitting on her own toadstool at the door of the prose-bush with her +tail wrapped so tightly around the base, she felt that she might smile +after a while, and then it might be too late to save the dimples from +the Snimmy. But before they had touched the whipped cream cushion in +the bottom of the holder, two Gunki rushed forward in great excitement, +and seizing her by the arms, began to hurry her through the Garden, +crying hoarsely, + +"She's crying! She's crying! She mustn't cry here!" + +Sara had never had a Gunkus touch her before; but, though they hurried +her so fast that she was breathless, and the tears hung where they +were on her lashes without having time to fall, they were as gentle +with her as possible, and she understood that their anxiety was all on +her account. She was further reassured when she saw the Teacup +fluttering and hopping along--now on one side, now on the other, and +now in front--and murmuring, "What in Zeelup, my dear?" with the +utmost solicitude expressed on her gentle old face. Sara knew that the +Teacup was timid, and seldom left the Garden; and she realized that +her affection and concern for her must be very deep, to bring her +fluttering along with her in this fashion, without stopping to ask the +Plynck, or to think of the consequences to herself and her +consanguineous handle. + +By this time they had passed through the hawthorn hedge that bounded +the Garden, and could see just below them a beautiful little Vale, +with a rainbow arching over the entrance to it, like a gate. Inside +the Vale the view was not very distinct, for streamers of light mist +blew across its green moss, and its white boulders, and the little +stream that wound down the middle of it. It was rather a sad-looking +little place, of course, but not bitter-looking or very long; and now +and then a sun-pencil struck across it, and for a moment made more +rainbows like the one at the entrance. + +As soon as they had passed through the hedge the Gunki stopped, +breathing heavily and mopping their brows with their hatbands. + +"Rest a minute, dear, and try to keep them from falling," said the +Teacup, who was also breathless, but very kind. "Of course, if they +should fall here it wouldn't be so bad; still, if you can keep them on +your lashes till we reach the Vale--" + +"What would they do," asked Sara, in awe, "if they fell in the +Garden?" + +The Teacup and the Gunki looked at each other with wide, horrified +eyes, each waiting for the other to speak. + +"Well, you see, none ever have fallen in the Garden," said the Teacup, +at last, speaking in a voice that was hardly more than a whisper. +"Before my Saucer was broken--" + +"She's a widow, Miss," explained the Gunki, whispering to Sara behind +their hands. One whispered in baritone, one in bass. + +"Before my Saucer was broken," continued the Teacup, with a grateful +look at the thoughtful Gunki, "I've heard him say that a little girl +came into the Garden one day with tears in her eyes, and that one +would have fallen, if a Gunkus had not caught it in his shoe. Haven't +you noticed the old, gray-haired Gunkus, who always wears a wooden +medal on his coat-tail--" + +"Our grandfather," whispered the Gunki, behind their hands. This time +they whispered in second bass and tenor. + +"Yes, the grandfather of these dear boys," said the susceptible old +lady. "He was showing the little girl about the Garden, and so had his +shoe in his hand out of respect for her; so he caught the tear in his +shoe with the greatest presence of mind, and ran down here with it +before any actual harm was done. What the child was crying about I +can't imagine; though, for that matter, why any nice child should +bring tears into the Garden--" + +"Would it be worse than the Fractions?" asked Sara, hastily. + +"It would," said the First Gunkus, in bass. + +"It would," said the Second Gunkus, in the solemnest second bass. + +"Much, much worse," said the Teacup, in her soft, anxious tremolo. +"One snow remedied that, you see; but if a tear fell--but oh, dear, +let's don't talk about it! My handle is so consanguineous, and I +forgot to ask the Plynck--and--and--" + +The poor old lady was evidently growing hysterical herself; so the +faithful Gunki hastily put up their hatbands, seized Sara by the arm, +and again began hurrying toward the Rainbow Gate. The Teacup, having +again to put her mind on the task of keeping up with them, regained +her composure--at least as much of it as she had ever had since her +Saucer was broken. + +Once inside the little arch, the Gunki stopped and relaxed their hold +on Sara's arm. "Now you can cry, Miss," they said, with evident +relief. + +"But I don't want to, now," said Sara, wonderingly. + +"Treatment successful," said the First Gunkus. + +"That's what usually happens," explained the Teacup. "At least I've +heard my Saucer say that that's what happened to the other little +girl. But here, boys, you must attend to these two she's already +cried." + +The two Gunki stepped up with alacrity, a little ashamed of having to +be reminded of their duties. + +"Mad or sad?" they asked. + +"Wh-what?" stammered Sara. + +"Mad or sad?" repeated the Gunki, twirling their thumbs. + +"They mean, my dear," explained the Teacup, "were you crying because +you were angry, or for some more or less legitimate reason--because +you cut your finger, for instance, or broke one of the charming +children you had with you the other day? Because--" + +"It was because Jimmy wouldn't play what I wanted--" began Sara, +hanging her head, and thinking she might as well get it out and over +with. + +"Mad!" commented the Gunki in unison, with great professional +interest. "Then they'll have to go to the fishes. Steady, now--" + +As he said the last words the First Gunkus stepped up and deftly +removed the tear from Sara's right eyelashes, while the Second Gunkus, +with almost equal skill, captured the one from her left ones. They ran +with them toward the little stream, and Sara was so curious to know +what they meant to do with them that she followed unconsciously. + +Now this was, indeed, the saddest little stream Sara had ever seen. +Its source was hidden in mist, and after it passed through the rainbow +arch it disappeared somewhere, as if the earth had swallowed it. But +all along its banks, where Sara could see it, sat great frogs, with +their green pocket handkerchiefs to their eyes; and every now and then +the most dismal sounds escaped them. Sara did not need to be told that +they were Sobs--anybody would have known it. + +Looking closely, Sara could see in the water hundreds of little black +fish, decorated with silver dots and streaks. As the Gunki approached +the stream with Sara's tears, all the Sobs began to sob at once, and +at the sound the little black fish all stuck their wide, greedy mouths +up out of the water. The Gunki fed the tears to the two nearest, and +then they all sank again, with a great splashing and flouncing. + +"You see, Miss," explained the First Gunkus (who seemed to have taken +a great liking to Sara, in spite of all the trouble she had caused him), +"we have to feed 'em all the mad tears. The sad ones turn into +these." + +Sara looked where he pointed, and there, at her feet, she saw numbers +of little blue-eyed flowers. They were extremely pretty, and by far +the pleasantest things she had seen in this Vale; but even they had a +sad little fragrance, and each eye had a dewdrop on it. Sara found +that, if she looked at them long, she felt a lump coming in her throat; +and at last she turned to her friends and said what she had been +trying to get up courage to say from the first, "Please--I don't like +this place! I want to go!" + +"There, there, dear," said the Teacup, soothingly, looking as if she +had been dreading the worst, and it had come. + +"We has orders, Miss," said the First Gunkus, stepping up, "that we +must keep you here three-quarters of an hour, and show you the whole +Vale, Miss." + +"Whose orders?" faltered Sara. + +For a moment the Gunki looked quite wild and disorganized. Then the +First Gunkus collected himself and said quite firmly, + +"Just orders, Miss--without any whose." + +"But I can tell you why, dear," interrupted the Teacup soothingly, as +if she hoped to distract Sara's mind. "I've heard my Saucer say why. +It's so children can understand what kind of a place mothers have to +stay in, when they cry. So cheer up, dear, and try to enjoy the +scenery. The trip through the Vale won't last long." + +Sara felt a good deal like crying again--but it was like carrying +coals to Newcastle to cry in a place like this! Besides, she was +thinking of what the Teacup had said about mothers. Was it possible +that she brought anything like this on her own dear, self-willed +Mother every time she indulged in a few natural tears? + +And the more she thought of it, the more strongly she decided that she +just wouldn't cry. And just at that moment one of those lovely pencils +of sunlight, that looked brighter in this misty green place than +anywhere she had ever been, fell across her path. + +"What's that?" she asked the Teacup. + +"Why, dear, that comes from the Smiles. They live just over the way, +you know. We'll go by and see them on our way home." + +Here was good news, indeed! Sara had never felt more relieved. But at +that very moment she drew back; for she had seen several disheveled, +cross, black-browed children peering at her out of a sort of cave in +the rock. Behind them was a very ill-natured-looking old man. + +"Those are the Frowns," said the Teacup, holding Sara's hand +reassuringly. "They live in that cave with their step-father, Old Man +Scowl. Just come on by, as if you didn't notice them. But remember how +they look. And listen to those sighs!" + +So that was the doleful noise she had been hearing, up in the little +pine-trees? Sara looked up, and for a minute could see them quite +distinctly--little wispy, gray creatures, blowing about in the wind. +They were better than the Frowns and the Sobs, she decided,--but dear +me! Why should anybody be so dismal? + +They had now followed the windings of the little Vale till they came +to a great wall of rock that rose across it. In the rock was an +opening closed by a sagging, worm-eaten door, and in front of the door +hung a rusty black curtain. + +"Children don't go in there, dear," said the Teacup, as Sara stood +gazing at it, fascinated. But indeed she had no wish to go in; and it +was with a skip of joy that she heard the First Gunkus say, "Time's up, +Miss!" + +At that word, back they all went scampering through the Vale, till +they came to a bridge, which was made of another rainbow. On this +bridge they crossed the stream, and found themselves at the entrance +of a little opening between the hills that shut in the Vale. The +sunshine streamed through it, and looking down it Sara could see that +it opened into a meadow full of daffodils and buttercups and +black-eyed Susans. There seemed to be children playing in it, and a +few lambs; and down the path toward it waddled a long line of snowy +geese. Altogether, it seemed to Sara she had never beheld so peaceful +and ravishing a scene. + +"This way out," said the First Gunkus, touching Sara's arm, and +pointing up to a signpost, marked "Exit," beside the path. Drops of +water, like tears, dripped continually from this sign; but the +sunshine falling upon them from beyond the valley made them look like +jewels. + +The Teacup had told Sara that the Smiles lived in a peaceful village +just beyond the valley; so she knew that the children playing among +the flowers were their children. She would have been glad to stop and +join in the gay, fairy-like games the little Smiles were playing; but +she could see that the Teacup was getting a little nervous, and +anxious to be back in the Garden. And, since the kind little Teacup +had broken into her regular habits, and braved so many dangers and +discomforts just to keep her company through the dismal Vale, she felt +that she ought to be very considerate. So she followed her down the +path, which was now turning into a little lane, though she walked +backward part of the way, with her eyes on the children and the lambs. + + +When she turned around she could see a lovely little old village ahead +of her. It nestled at the foot of a mountain, and it had vine-covered +cottages with thatched roofs, and spreading trees that made a velvety +shade underneath and winked in the sunshine above. The air was full of +the prettiest sounds; and Sara, listening, thought they must come from +the mountain. The mountain itself looked like Fairyland; it was +covered with ferns and blossoming laurel and festoons of jessamine; +and the sounds that seemed forever playing and skipping about from +wall to wall and rock to rock were like the echoes (or was it the +reflection?) of happy bells. Sara thought she ought to know what they +were, but she could not quite make out. + +"Why, that's where Laughter lives, my dear," said the Teacup when she +asked her. "That's where your own little Laugh was making off to, the +day you caught him. Listen--there are some as little as he was." + +And indeed Sara could distinguish many sorts--small, gurgly +Baby-Laughs, dimpled Little-Girl Laughs, Chuckles like Jimmy's, soft +Laughs like Mother's, and--almost the pleasantest of all,--deep, +delighted Father-Laughs that almost made her homesick. They seemed to +be having such a very good time up there that she would have liked to +listen to them forever; besides, she kept thinking she might catch +sight of one. But, though she several times saw the vines swaying, or +something flashing behind a laurel-bush, she was obliged to go on +without really seeing any. + +At the shady door of almost every cottage a pleasant Smile in a very +white, old-fashioned kerchief and cap sat spinning at a queer sort of +wheel; and the Teacup explained to Sara that this was where the +dimples were made. + +"It's the chief occupation of the women," said the Teacup. "The thread +they use is something like spun-glass, and this is the only place in +the world where the secret of making it is known. They weave it into +this fabric that looks something like cloth, and then cut it into the +different shapes with their scissors. You see now why dimples are so +fragile." + +The Smiles all spoke to them with pleasant looks, and gladly stopped +their work to talk to Sara, as she stood admiringly beside their +wheels. She saw a good many gentleman Smiles going happily about their +work--drawing water, watering the flowers, or (since it was getting +late) milking the little buttercup-colored cows. Here and there, too, +a happy Smile, too little to go with the other children, rolled about +and gurgled at its Mother's feet like a Cupid escaped from a +Valentine. + +All this time Sara had been struggling with a plan that had been +shaping itself in her mind as she looked at basket after basket full +of shimmering, shining dimples, sitting beside the spinning wheels. +After trying to start several times, she finally managed to ask of one +of the pleasantest Smiles, + +"Do you--do you sell them?" + +"Well, we don't usually sell them here," she answered doubtfully. "We +ship them, you see, to the Stork. He takes our entire output. But, if +you like, I could let you have a dozen for a kiss or two." + +Sara clapped her hands, and drew the Teacup aside. "I'd like to take +some to the Snimmy," she explained. "He wanted mine so. Do you think I +might?" + +"Why, bless the child!" cried the Teacup. She looked pleased and +flustered and doubtful, all at once; for she wasn't used to taking so +much responsibility. "That's very dear and generous of you, I'm sure. +It's never been done, has it?" she asked, turing to the Gunki, who, +for their part, were so surprised that they only blinked. "No, I'm +sure it's never been done; but I don't see how it can do the least +harm. Why, yes, my dear--I wouldn't refuse you the pleasure." + +So Sara picked out a dozen of the largest dimples, and paid gladly +with two kisses. Then, though she could hardly bear to leave the +pretty village, with the laughter always echoing over it like bells, +she grew all at once terribly impatient to take the Snimmy his +dimples. + +"It will be such fun to feed him," she said. + +For a while Sara was too much absorbed in anticipation to notice that +something was the matter with the Gunki. Then, all of a sudden, she +noticed that they were looking crestfallen and chagrined. + +Sara was sorry to notice this because they had been very kind to her +all through this rather trying day. She began to feel sure that she +had in some way hurt or offended them; and while she was wondering how +she could have done it, and how she might make amends, the First +Gunkus saw her looking at him. + +"I'd be willing to do anything I could for you, Miss," he blurted out, +turning his shoe awkwardly round and round in his hand. + +"What's more, we done all we could," said the Second Gunkus, looking +deeply hurt. + +"Oh!" said Sara, who now understood. "Why-why! You've been so kind to +me! I'd love to repay you in some way! I haven't any money with me," +she went on doubtfully,--"or any postage stamps,--or any +ginger-snaps-- Do you--do you like kisses?" + +The First Gunkus drew the back of his hand across his mouth and +giggled. + +The Second Gunkus dropped his shoe, and fumbled about trying to pick +it up. + +"Don't we, though!" said both of them, at last. + +So Sara gave the faithful creatures two kisses apiece, which left them +beaming. + +"Do--do you like them as well as dimples?" she asked. "Because, if +you'd like dimples, I'll give you some of the Snimmy's." + +But the Gunki felt themselves honored beyond any Snimmy who had ever +sniffed. They stuck their noses into the air and strutted along like +drum-majors. + +"Dimples is for folks with tails," said the First Gunkus. + +It was blue dusk and starlight when they reentered the Garden. Sara, +with her friends standing a little apart to enjoy the fun, slipped +unseen quite close to the prose-bush, where the Snimmy lay with his +long debilitating nose on his paws, looking up at the stars. Sara +waited until the nose began to quiver and twitch; and then she +suddenly emptied her whole handkerchief full of dimples out before +him. + +Sniff-gobble-gulp! Was there ever such haste and excitement? Sara +jumped up and down with delight, and everybody in the Garden laughed. +As for the Snimmy, he was quite overcome, and began to shed gum-drops +of joy. + +"For once he's had a full meal," said his wife, grimly indulgent. As +for Sara, she ran off, laughing, to tell Jimmy how funny he had +looked. + +The Plynck waked up from her first nap and rustled her fragrant +plumes. + +"Was that Sara?" she asked of her Echo. + +"Of course," said the Echo. "You've been asleep." + +"Then it wasn't Sara this morning--the strange child with the tears?" + +Her more practical Echo shrugged her wings. "Go explain to her," she +said to the Teacup. + +So the little Teacup, very glad to be safe at home again, fluttered up +to her place beside her mistress; and they talked about Sara and her +strange adventures far into the night. + + + + + Chapter IX + Cheers and Butter + + +You would have followed the Snoodle, too, if he had wagged himself at +you in that delightful, insinuating fashion, rolled over and over +across your foot, and then gone frisking down the path, looking back +beguilingly over his shoulder. + +So of course Sara did, as soon as she had properly disposed of her +dimples. She went skipping along so eagerly that she did not notice +that it was an entirely different path--neither pink nor curly--until +she had gone through a new arch in the hedge and found herself in the +meadow, with the Equine Gahoppigas, all saddled and bridled, waiting +for her. + +She had known from the first, just from his general expression, that +the Snoodle was going to lead her to something interesting; but she +was not prepared for this. + +It was clear, of course, that she was expected to ride the creature; +but what it was she could not at first make out. It was about the size +of a large hobby-horse, and, in respect to its beautiful, wavy mane +and tail, much resembled it. Otherwise, it was exactly like a +grasshopper. And it was rearing and snorting in a most alarming +manner. As Sara stood considering, however, she caught a backward look +out of its wild eyes that said, "Oh, come on; it's all a joke." + +So Sara took her seat in the saddle. Just as she gathered up the reins +the Snoodle leaped up behind her--exactly as the trained dog in the +circus leaps up behind the monkey on the big Newfoundland. (Only, +don't fall into the error of thinking that the Snoodle was a dog; you +remember his mother was a snail.) + +It was a novel and exhilarating sensation to Sara (that means the way +you feel when you shoot the chutes at the Park) to go bounding through +the sunny air on the back of the Gahoppigas. The soft wind whistled +through her hair, and blew past her so strongly that she was not even +conscious of the Snoodle's drawback, though he sat so close to her. At +the end of every leap the Gahoppigas rested for an instant upon a +daisy head, and Sara saw that the heads of these daisies were as big +as her own. + +Now, though Sara was really a nice child, there were two things she +had always been rather greedy about: and they were flowers and +butterflies. She had often wished, of a spring morning, wandering +along her own garden paths, and gazing at the velvety brightness of +the daisies, and the marvelous patterns of the butterflies who +uncoiled their long tongues above them, that she might some day +discover a meadow full of flowers as large as moons, perpetually +fluttered over by butterflies as big as peacocks! Here, at last, were +just such flowers; and since the grasshoppers were as large as +hobby-horses--no, it was not a grasshopper, it was an Equine +Gahoppigas! Still, it was more like a grasshopper than anything else +she had ever seen. + +You must not be surprised that Sara's thoughts were quite jerky and +disconnected, for she had never before traversed a meadow in soaring +leaps, with only a minute now and then to take breath--and even that +minute spent among the flying yellow hair of a swaying daisy. Still, +all through the enjoyment and excitement, she managed to keep tight +hold of one wish--if only there would be butterflies as big as +peacocks! + +Well, there were, of course; on that side of the ivory doors you +cannot wish for anything as hard as Sara did without getting your +wish. To be sure, they must have been there long before Sara wished; +for the Butterfly Country on which Sara now rested her astonished eyes +had the look of a long-settled community. I need not tell you that it +was so beautiful it fairly took your breath: you would know that it +had to be, with those great flowers nodding everywhere, and those +great gay wings drifting, and sailing, and soaring, and zigzagging, +and crossing over them. But, all of a sudden, Sara made a discovery +that stopped her heart in a breath. In a country where the butterflies +were as big as peacocks, the caterpillars were as big as +boa-constrictors! Sara didn't know the exact size of a boa-constrictor, +having met them only in her Geography: but surely they couldn't be any +bigger than these! Certainly they were big enough to swallow her as +easily as the big black snake Jimmy had killed swallowed the egg. + +Now, if you can imagine a country inhabited by sea-serpents, of bright +green and brown and pink and yellow, with all kinds of assorted horns +and knobs and prickles, you can imagine what Sara saw as the +Gahoppigas took its last flying leap and alighted on a flaming +marigold at the foot of the palace-steps. Well, of course you would +have to imagine the palace, too; and part of it would be quite hard to +imagine. It was a gorgeous place, of a beautiful amber color, and was +built of solid blocks of honey-comb,--which, however, had been treated +by the builders so that they had a hard glaze, to prevent the wings +and feet of the butterflies from sticking when they touched the walls. +The roof was a woven affair, very cunningly made so that the top +surface was a sort of thatch of flower-stems, while the ceiling was a +solid sheet of flowers. Of course, in this climate, they were always +fresh. The butterflies had their beds on the ceiling; indeed, as Sara +arrived rather early, a few roistering young blades who had been out +late the night before were still hanging with closed wings from the +roof, fast asleep. + +Sara could see all this through the open door, which was made of an +enameled lily-pad (extra-size, like the other things in this luscious +place). But the thing that startled her most, and that you would have +found it most difficult to imagine, was the strange way in which the +roof was supported. + +A very elegant butterfly, who seemed to be an officer in uniform, was +standing on his hind legs at the right of the entrance. His waist was +very slim, his wings were very rich, and he was curling and uncurling +his proboscis languidly. Sara slid off the Gahoppigas and approached +as near as she dared. + +At that moment a little gong sounded somewhere (like a temple-gong in +a Japanese fairy-story) and the Butterfly-Officer straightened up and +called out in a sharp, military voice, "Shift Three!" + +Instantly the caterpillars that were supporting the roof began +wriggling out from under it, and a new relay that appeared as if by +magic began taking their places, planting their tails firmly on the +floor and adjusting their heads against the ceiling, and pressing +upward by making their long bodies very stiff and straight. Of course +they did not all do it at once, or the roof would have floated off +into the sky; on the other hand, they relieved each other a few at a +time, with admirable precision and with no disorder whatever, as if +they had had long drill in this complicated manoeuvre. + +The caterpillars who had been relieved seemed to be very much relieved +indeed; they stretched out their long, cramped bodies luxuriously, and +went lumbering off together by twos and threes, with their hands in +their pockets. Sara started to follow a bristly comma-caterpillar who +went off alone, but he was so big that she just couldn't make up her +mind so do it. She had once fed one for three weeks in a fruit jar, +and she knew that kind couldn't hurt her--still-- She felt she was +just compelled to talk to somebody; but she believed she would rather +try the Butterfly-Officer who was on duty at the entrance. He looked +bored and supercilious, but his wings were beautiful. + +She drew near after a while and said, as pleasantly as she could, + +"Good-morning!" + +"Yes," said the officer, without looking around. + +Sara was a little taken aback, but he looked so conceited, as he stood +there coiling and uncoiling his watch-spring tongue, that she suddenly +felt herself growing quite provoked. + +"That isn't the right answer," she said. + +The Butterfly-Officer turned his lazy eyes and looked her over for +some time without speaking. + +"You said it was a good morning, didn't you?" + +"Yes." + +"And I agreed, didn't I?" + +"Yes," said Sara. + +"Well, then," said the Butterfly-Officer, turning away and beginning +to coil and uncoil his spring. + +This was not a very promising beginning. Sara would never learn +anything at this rate. She must be more direct. + +"Whose palace is this?" she asked. + +"The Monarch's." + +"Might--might I go in?" + +"Certainly." + +What a baffling person! He agreed to anything, apparently, and yet one +never learned anything. Sara wandered past him, presently, quite +subdued by his elegant scorn. + +She strayed on into the palace. She was speechless with +admiration--even if there had been anybody to talk to. There were +numbers of courtiers and ladies-in-waiting about, but nobody seemed in +the least surprised to see her, and they all seemed too languid to +talk. Sara heard them exchange a word occasionally, but for the most +part they simply stood about, fanning themselves and coiling and +uncoiling their springs. Never, however, had Sara seen such sumptuous +costumes. Such court-trains, and velvet breeches, and rainbow-colored +cloaks! + +Presently, since nobody seemed to mind, Sara wandered straight into +the throne-room; and there sat the Monarch dozing on his throne, while +fourteen courtiers took turns in fanning him with their wings. At +Sara's entrance, however, he awoke with a start; and Sara was terribly +startled herself, because it was the first time anybody had really +taken any notice of her. + +"Bring her some butter!" he commanded. + +At his command four of the courtiers drifted away, and presently +returned carrying a silvery-white cloth, very rich and lustrous, woven +of many thicknesses of milk-weed-silk. This they spread on the +green-tiled floor in a corner of the throne-room, near a little +fountain that trickled continually a sort of silver-colored syrup, +which made a drowsy sound as it fell. Then they flew away again, and +after a good while returned carrying a pat of butter in a large +magnolia petal. The magnolia petal was about the size of Mother's best +turkey-platter, and as white and fragrant as the magnolias at home. +And the pat of butter was about as large as a veal loaf. Of course it +did not look in the least like a veal loaf; it looked exactly like +butter--a delectable, golden yellow, and all dewy-looking, as it used +to come out of the spring-house at Grandmother's. + +"Sit," said the Monarch, briefly. + +Sara sat. + +"Eat," said the Monarch, in the same sleepy but authoritative voice. + +Now, Sara was terribly uncomfortable. To be sure, nothing had ever +looked more delicious, and Sara liked butter on bread--a great deal of +it, in fact. But to eat all butter, without anything to go with it! +Yet she felt it would be dreadfully impolite to refuse; and she could +not bear to be thought impolite by all these haughty and elegant +persons. She was just about to say, humbly, "Please, might I have a +little bread?" when it occurred to her that she might just taste it, +at least. And oh, how glad she was that she did! For, of course, you +have guessed that it was not just ordinary butter, though it looked +exactly like it. It was not even the plain imaginary kind: it was +enchanted butterfly butter. And if you have ever seen a monarch +butterfly as big as a peacock, sitting on a throne, you know what it +tasted like. The nearest I can come to explaining is to say that it +tasted a little like custard and a little like ice-cream and a little +like a sort of candy Sara had forgotten the name of. And it had a +fragrance something like that of isthagaria. + +The Monarch went to sleep as soon as he saw that Sara had begun to eat; +but just before she finished he was awakened by a court official who +came in to announce, with a bored expression, that two ladies of high +degree, members of families very prominent in the realm, desired an +audience with His Majesty. + +The Monarch sighed and rubbed his eyes with his feelers. + +"Show them in," he said. + +The two ladies came zigzagging in, talking and arguing excitedly; they +were the first really animated persons Sara had seen in all this warm, +shimmering place. + +"The Princess Interrogation: the Countess Leaf-Wing," announced the +courtier. + +Then the two ladies, who had been talking to each other, both began +talking at once to the king. In spite of their aristocratic, high-bred +air, their long necks and waists and slender wrists and ankles, their +high heels and gorgeous clothes, they were as angry as cooks. + +"She was laying eggs on my food-plant!" cried the Princess. + +"I wasn't!" shrilled the Countess. "What do I want with her old +nettle? Don't I know Croton capita turn when I see it? I was just +resting, and she came and pushed me off--" + +"She had already come and stuck her long tongue into a lily I had just +occupied," continued the Princess. "And I saw the eggs after she +left--" + +"They were your own old flat eggs," said the Countess contemptuously. +"You haven't mind enough to remember where you put them!" + +"Oh, roses!" sighed the Monarch, "I suppose I'll never have any +peace. Always on the verge of civil war! Yesterday it was the +clover-caterpillars complaining that the zebras were eating their +food--" + +Sara was just thinking how shockingly unbecoming such conduct was, and +how they were all behaving more like children than like the nice, +unintelligent lower animals they ought to be, when another messenger +came flying in in a state of actual excitement. + +"Your Majesty!" he cried. "There's a strange animal attacking the +caterpillars!" + +Sara's heart sank. The Snoodle--she knew it must be the Snoodle! And +she felt responsible for him! + +She jumped up from her silver table-cloth and ran out of the palace +door, with the whole court zigzagging excitedly after her. It was a +noiseless chase, for the butterflies (except when they quarrel) are +very quiet; but there was much excitement nevertheless. Sara ran a +little way from the palace before she came to the scene of the +disturbance--and such a scene as it was! Caterpillars everywhere, +bristling, smooth, green, pink, eye-marked and eyeless; caterpillars +standing on their tails, or crouching in every conceivable attitude of +defense; and in their midst the little Snoodle, frisking and fawning +and endeavoring to come to grips with the horny and horrified worms. +There was one old Hickory Horn-Devil in particular, who had come out +in front of the others like Goliath before the ranks of the +Philistines; and the Snoodle was dancing around him in an ecstasy of +anticipation. Though he was so excited, he looked so good-natured that +Sara could not believe that he wished to harm even these +fierce-looking brutes; indeed, there was a sort of resemblance between +them, except for the expression. And, as she thought that, it flashed +into Sara's mind that the Snoodle did not really want to hurt them, at +all, but only to embrace them! So she ran forward and cried to the +excited populace (who were spinning this way and that, wildly coiling +and uncoiling their springs and crying, "What in butter shall we do?), + +"He won't hurt them--he won't hurt them! He only wants to embrace +them! He thinks they're his relatives--his father was a noodle!" + +At this the people grew calmer, and began to gather around her head, +asking cautious questions. The caterpillars did not seem to +understand, and looked as frightened and agitated as ever; for Sara +was unconsciously speaking the butterfly language, and the +caterpillars spoke a different dialect. + +"Give me a chance to prove my theory!" continued Sara, in the +butterfly language. "Here, Snoodle!" she called, soothingly. +"Here--Horn-Devil!" It took a great deal of courage for Sara to speak +soothingly to the giant caterpillar; but you see the butterfly people +were beginning to think her a very wise, brave person, and that made +it rather necessary for her to be one. So she gave a little gulp which +the spectators took for a sign of bravery, and drawing nearer by +inches, actually laid her hand on the rearing, plunging, +panic-stricken creature! He lurched and snorted terribly when her hand +first touched him, but as he did nothing worse, Sara grew braver and +more hopeful, and began to pat and stroke him and say soothing words. +Of course he could not understand the words, but he seemed to +understand the tone, for presently he stopped rearing, and at last +stood quite quiet, only breathing hard and trembling a little. + +"Now, Snoodle, come here!" cried Sara, nerving herself for the supreme +test of her theory. + +The Snoodle sprang forward at the word, and, as Sara had foretold, +threw his paws about the Horn-Devil's neck. The Horn-Devil sprang into +the air, making a sort of wild, whinnying sound (the only sound Sara +ever heard, then or afterward, from a caterpillar); but as Sara patted +him kindly and the Snoodle only wagged himself ecstatically, he grew +quiet again, and allowed himself to be hugged without further protest. +Then the Snoodle, having finished his embrace, released his long-lost +relative and sat down on his long hinder-parts, looking about at the +spectators with an air that said, "There! I'm satisfied! I didn't do +any harm, did I?" + +And at that the populace went wild. You never saw such a change come +over a nation of people in your life. They showered attentions upon +Sara until she was so delighted that she scarcely knew how to deport +herself. They proclaimed her a heroine; they brought a sort of sedan +chair, borne, not by the common cabbage butterflies who usually +carried them, but by a Chrysophanus hypophlaeas and a Lavatera +assurgentiflora. And when they had put her into it they carried her at +the head of a procession to the royal gardens behind the palace, where +no mortal had ever entered; and there they crowned her with flowers +which have no name in our language, but which the butterflies call +tinnulalia. And they fed her--not with butter this time--but with +honey-dew. They fanned her with their enormous wings (as big as +peacocks') and hovered over her, and murmured compliments in her ears, +until it was hard for her to believe that they were the same lovely +but supercilious race who had received her so coolly in the morning. +And when, suddenly, the temple-gong sounded, and the Equine Gahoppigas, +saddled and bridled, and champing his bit, appeared at the entrance to +the royal gardens, they all took out their cobweb handkerchiefs and +wept bitterly. + +And, indeed, Sara was loth to go; for this strange land was an +enchanting place when its people were kind. But she saw that it was +growing late; and, as the shadows began to lengthen, she suddenly +remembered that she had followed the Snoodle away without telling +anybody. She was certainly older than the Snoodle; he was so young and +irresponsible. Ought she not to have told the Snimmy's wife? Perhaps +he was running away! + +So she gathered up the reins and saw him leap safely up behind her; +then she turned to wave good-by to the Butterfly Country and its +strange, changeable, elegant inhabitants. And as long as she could see +anything she watched the pulsing, many-colored wings waving +regretfully over the royal garden with the strange flowers. + +The ride home through the cool of the evening was as delightful as the +morning's ride had been; but not quite so breathless and exciting, +because it seemed to Sara by this time quite natural to ride upon a +Gahoppigas. But when she slid off her charger at the entrance of the +Plynck's Garden her ears were assailed by an unspeakable clamor of +mournful sound; it sounded a little like a Swiss yodler with a broken +heart, and a little like a dog howling because the yodler was singing. +And it went "Snoodle-oodle-oodle-ooo!!" And Sara knew, with a sinking +heart, that it was the Snimmy's wife lifting up her voice in +lamentation for her lost child. + +Therefore, for the first time, she was a little afraid to go into the +Garden. But she had already been so brave that day that she had rather +contracted the habit; so she drew a long breath, and, saying calmly, +"Come, Snoodle!" she walked straight up to the pool. + +And such a clamor of rejoicing as arose at their appearance! The +Plynck was so surprised that she crowed like a rooster; and then +apologized to everybody (half-laughing and half-crying) for being so +unladylike. The Teacup fluttered, the Snimmy sniffed; and the Snimmy's +wife--that grim, undemonstrative woman--rushed out from the prose-bush +and gathered her darling, and Sara, too, to her heart. + +But Sara was not through being brave. She stepped up upon Schlorge's +stump, and, swallowing hard, said in a clear voice, + +"Perhaps it was my fault. I'm older than the Snoodle--" + +"Hurrah for Sara! She's older than the Snoodle!" cried the First and +Second Gunki. And at that the whole Garden went wild over her just as +the butterflies had done. The Gunki carried her around on their +shoulders; the Snimmy and his wife pelted her with moon-flowers; the +Plynck and the Teacup kept up an agitated patter of feminine +hand-clapping; and Schlorge came running down the path from the +Dimplesmithy, cheering wildly. + +When they finally put her down beside the dimple-holder, very rumpled +and bright-eyed and flushed, Sara felt her little heart swell with +pride. For twice that day she had been acclaimed a heroine--once because +she had tamed a caterpillar, and once because she was older than the +Snoodle. + + + + + + Chapter X + Sara's Day + + +Something told Sara, the next morning, to take every one of her dolls. +And the minute she entered the Garden she was glad that she had. + +It was clear that something very unusual was afoot. She had never seen +her dear Garden look so festive. It was lavishly decorated with +sun-shafts and rainbows, and everywhere waved streamers of pink +sunrise and violet mist. Over the fountain, in front of the tree where +the Plynck sat, had been stretched a large electric sign. It read, + +"In Honor of Sara. Because She is Older than the Snoodle!" + +It was made of white and pink gum-drops, and they told her afterward +that the Snimmy had sat up all night to weep them. The Plynck +furnished the electricity by smiling every little while. This lit up +the pink and white gum-drops, till they looked like the tiny globes on +the Wooded Island at the Park. Of course this was in the daytime, but +the Plynck's smile was so much stronger than ordinary electricity that +even in daytime it shone with quite a dazzling effect. + +All of her friends were there except Avrillia. Pirlaps had come and +brought all seventy of the children; he said Avrillia was coming on in +a moment, and kept looking down the path for her. The minute the +Kewpie saw Avrillia's children, he slid out of Sara's arms and ran to +them; and all that day Sara could hardly pick him out from the rest of +them. The Baby, too, kicked and cried and stretched out his hands +until one of the older children came and took him; and all day long +they passed him, too, from one to another, and he seemed perfectly +contented. The Teddy-Bear sat down in a quiet corner and shaded his +eyes from the lights; the Billiken strolled about with his hands in +his pockets, smiling at everything; and the Japanese doll went over +and took a seat on the steps of the prose-bush, where he was soon +discussing with Mrs. Snimmy the best way to stew onions. + +There were so many of Avrillia's children and so many of the Gunki +that the Garden had a delightfully animated appearance. Yassuh was +there, carrying Pirlaps' step and the hand-bag with his shaving-things +and extra trousers; but as Avrillia hadn't come yet he hadn't used his +step, and his clothes were quite immaculate. + +He now stepped up to Sara, who stood looking about her with surprise +and wonder, and said, "Well, Sara, this is your day. You are the guest +of honor, and we're all proud of you. We hope you'll have the +pleasantest time you ever had." + +Sara was as charmed as she was bewildered. She didn't say anything at +first, because she didn't want them to know that she didn't quite +understand what it was all about. But presently she couldn't stand not +knowing any longer, so she whispered to Pirlaps, + +"Is--is it a sort of birthday?" + +"Well,--yes, I suppose you might call it that," answered Pirlaps, +looking at her in the kind, indulgent way he had when she showed her +odd little ideas and her inexperience. "Didn't you announce yesterday +that you were older than the Snoodle?" + +For a moment Sara felt as if she ought to explain that that was only +the beginning of her speech, and that, if they had not interrupted her, +she had meant to tell them that she was sorry that she had not taken +more responsibility for the Snoodle, and reminded him to ask +permission from the Snimmy's wife before he left the Garden. But, on +reflection, she realized that they did not blame her in the least, so +there was no need to make excuses; and they all seemed so delighted to +find that she was older than the Snoodle! A birthday is too charming a +thing to refuse, even if it's a special sort of birthday one doesn't +exactly understand; so Sara decided to accept hers with a thankful +heart. Besides, it must be confessed that she had caught glimpses of +parcels here and there. The Plynck, she was sure, had one under her +right wing; and there was no doubt that one was sticking out from +under the coat-tails of the First Gunkus. + +"We are to celebrate all day in your honor, Sara," added Pirlaps. "And +this evening, when you are ready to go home, Schlorge will made you an +address of welcome. But what can be keeping Avrillia?" + +They all looked down the pathway, but no Avrillia was in sight. +Suddenly the Echo of the Plynck spoke from the pool. + +"The guest of honor always goes and fetches anybody who doesn't come," +she said. + +"Does she?" asked Sara, opening her eyes wide; but Pirlaps said, "To +be sure! I had forgotten. Come on, Sara. Let's go bring Avrillia." + +Sara was always glad to go to Avrillia's lovely house, though she +couldn't help thinking as she ran that this was one manner Mother +failed to remind her of, whenever she was overhauling her manners for +any especial use. + +All was still about the beautiful little house where Avrillia lived, +and Sara looked at it lovingly, for she had a sort of feeling +somewhere deep under her little apron that she would not see it again +for a long while. Pirlaps, who knew Avrillia pretty well, did not look +in the pink bed-room, or the kitchen, or the sitting-room; no, he went +straight to the balcony. And there sat Avrillia, in a mist of her +bright, wild hair, so intent upon her writing that she did not see +them, or hear them speak. + +"Sh--sh--" said Pirlaps, in a low tone, when he saw how absorbed she +was. "We'll wait till she finishes that one. Why didn't I bring my +step?" + +As he didn't have it, however, he leaned against the alabaster wall, +and waited patiently; though Sara, it must be confessed, was quite +restless. After what seemed to her a very long time, Avrillia drew a +deep breath and shook back her golden hair, and moving like a lost +bird to the balustrade, leaned far out and let her new poem flutter +from her hand. For another long time she did not move, straining her +eyes down into the abyss. At last she straightened up with a long sigh, +and, seeing them, smiled. + +"Did it stick?" asked Pirlaps, eagerly. + +"No," was all Avrillia said, but her voice made Sara's heart quiver, +for in the sound of it she seemed to hear the temple-bells, and the +fairy hand-organ she had heard in the steep street at Zinariola, and +the drowsy tinkle of the fountain in the Butterfly Palace, and the +little Laughs that leaped about the mountain, and the morning and +evening sheep-bells, all gathered together into one sound that seemed +to say that presently she would have to say good-by to Avrillia. But +Avrillia, seeing her suddenly sad little face, stooped and kissed her +as she had done that other morning, and patted her cheek, and said, +"Oh, but I have a present for you, Sara! This is your day--we must all +be very merry!" And with that she picked up something that was wrapped +in several layers of silver fog and tied with a ripple, and seizing +them both by the arm, went dancing with them down the path to the +Garden. + +Everybody applauded when they saw Pirlaps and the guest of honor +returning with Avrillia; and the Teacup, unable longer to restrain her +excitement, fluttered down to the rim of the pool and cried excitedly, +"Now let's give the presents!" + +Then something happened that came near turning the fete into a tragedy; +for the Teacup lost her balance in the excitement, and splashed right +over into the pool! The Plynck screamed, Schlorge whistled, the Gunki +came running from every direction; but it was the Echo who saved the +Teacup's life. With great presence of mind she spread out her cerulean +plumes so that the Teacup settled upon them harmlessly, instead of +crashing down upon the hard emerald bottom and shattering to bits. +Then, of course, Schlorge could very easily reach down and draw her +out. + +The poor Teacup was naturally very much upset. "If my handle had not +been so consanguineous--" she quavered, again and again. But, on the +whole, considering her age and her timid disposition, they were all +rather surprised at her fortitude. + +Schlorge, who was still holding her, was looking very grave. "Sara +will have to frown on her," he said, "as she did on the Zizz." + +"But I can't frown, today," cried Sara, in dismay. + +"I know it's hard," said Schlorge. + +"Or at the Teacup!" pleaded Sara. + +"It's your duty, Sara," said the Echo. + +"Oh, dear, it's putting off the presents!" sighed one of the oldest of +Avrillia's children; then, as she looked at the poor little gentle, +bedraggled Teacup, with her consanguineous handle, she felt ashamed of +herself, and hid behind her mother's drapery. + +As for Sara, she was indeed in distress. "If some of you would only +think of something to make me frown--I can't even think of any +disagreeable things today!" + +"You're frowning now!" suddenly cried the First Gunkus, waving his +shoe; and they all forgave him his lack of respectfulness, because he +was plainly so excited. + +"Hold her up, Schlorge!" cried Pirlaps, running forward. +"There--Sara--hold that expression--just a moment. Fix your eyes +here--on this leaf! And keep your mind firmly on this thought: 'The +Disagreeable Necessity of Frowning in the Presence of Presents.'" + +Sara remembered how brave and useful she had been the day before, and +concentrated her mind by a really tremendous effort. And she was soon +rewarded; for in a few minutes everybody was clapping hands and waving +handkerchiefs and crying, "She's dry! She's dry! Three cheers for +Sara!" + +Sure enough, the little Teacup was dry enough to flutter back to her +perch, on which she sat throwing kisses to Sara. And then Pirlaps came +forward, and taking Sara by the hand, said, "Come, Sara." + +He then began leading her in a sort of triumphal march around the pool, +while the rest fell in behind them and formed a procession. As there +were so many of the Gunki and Avrillia's children it was quite a long +procession, so that the only way they could tell the head from the +tail of it was by remembering that Sara was the head and that the +Snimmy's wife was the tail. The Echo, who could not leave the pool to +march, spread out the lyre-shaped feathers on the top of her head and +played the most beautiful rippling chords for them to march by. + +And suddenly, when they had gone three times around the fountain, +Pirlaps said, "Take the seat of honor, Sara, and receive our gifts." +And there, in front of the Gugollaph-tree, was an enormous frosted +cake, as big around as a wagon-wheel. Sara was sure it had not been +there when the march began. She would have rubbed her eyes, had she +not felt that such a conventional proceeding would be wholly +inadequate. + +"Take your seat, Sara," said Pirlaps kindly, enjoying her delight and +astonishment. + +Sara came to herself with a start. "Wh-where?" she asked. She was +anxious not to appear awkward, but she did not see any particular +place to sit. + +"On the cake, dear, of course," said Pirlaps, who seemed never to tire +of smiling at her odd little questions. + +Sara had never done this before, but she was willing to try; and she +was just about to climb upon the cake when another thought deterred +her. + +"But the candles? Won't my dress catch?" + +"Try and see," said Pirlaps; but Avrillia whispered in her ear, "They +aren't flames, dear: they're only colored perfumes." + +So, reassured, Sara took her seat on the cake; and at once she saw +that it made a very nice sort of throne. The frosting was resilient, +but firm; and she now saw that the candles were arranged so that they +made a sort of semicircle about her. Just as Avrillia had said, she +could pass her hands across their wicks without being burned at all; +they only winked and breathed out sweet odors--each flame a different +color and scent. They were as tall as her head, as she sat among them; +and the one at her right ear was of isthagaria, while the one on the +left faintly suggested tinnulalia-flowers. + +Before she had finished examining the candles, the Plynck flew down +with the first present. "A lock of my hair," she said, looking eager, +but a little embarrassed; and she actually perched on the rim of the +pool while Sara unwrapped it, so that she might see whether or not she +was pleased. But I do not need to tell you that Sara was; for it was +one of her loveliest tail-feathers, a rich, curling plume of the +deepest rose, from which sweet odors were shaken out as Sara lifted it +to the light. Weeks afterward, when Sara astonished her mother by +begging for the pink plume on her prettiest hat, what she was really +pining for was a lock of the Plynck's hair. + +Avrillia came next with her present. It was a little urn of jade and +ivory, and it was full to the top of dried poems written on +rose-leaves. Have you ever seen the quaint rose-jars some +old-fashioned ladies have in their parlors? Well, some one of them, +when she was little, saw one of Avrillia's poem-jars; and she made +these others in a homesick effort to imitate it. And the +fragrance--like nothing else you ever smelled--is the perfume of +Avrillia's poems, as nearly as that little old-fashioned lady, after +she grew up, could remember it. + +You would not expect me to remember all of the presents Sara got that +day. But a good many I can remember. Pirlaps brought her a picture he +had painted; a very beautiful view of Nothing from Avrillia's balcony. +Yassuh brought her a delicious Crumb; it was wrapped in a sticky paper +covered with his finger-prints, but inside the paper was one of +Avrillia's exquisite napkins of embroidered mist. The First Gunkus, +remembering how she had loved the mountain, brought her a little live +Laugh. He had climbed the mountain and trapped it for her, and made +her a little cage to take it home with. It was very funny to hear it +tittering about inside. The rest of the Gunki had clubbed together and +bought her a gold-headed tuning-fork, so that she might be sure their +answers were in tune. The Snimmy's wife brought her three large onions, +neatly hemmed and tied in a bouquet with purple ribbon; the Snimmy +himself a striped paper bag full of gum-drops. And the Snoodle's +present was too cunning for anything! It was a little silver +plum-extractor. With it a child could extract all the fattest raisins +from her piece of mince-pie or portion of rice pudding without having +to bother with the uninteresting remainder and being reprimanded; for +the ingenious little instrument was invisible to adults. All the other +presents were marked "For Sara, with our congratulations, because she +is older than the Snoodle." But this one was marked, in a round, +childish hand, "For my dear Sara--because she is older than me." + +But the grand surprise came when, near the last, four Gunki hurried in +bearing a large chest, which they placed at Sara's feet. "It came by +the Gahoppigas Express, Miss, with no message," they explained. And +when Sara opened it she found that it was full of butterfly money--the +loveliest pieces of gold and silver that the frittilaries and papilios +had collected from their own wings. Just inside the lid was a lily +leaf bearing the inscription, + + "For Sara, from a grateful Nation, + Because she is older than the Snoodle." + + + + +Sara distributed handfuls of the beautiful little coins among them and +again they cheered her for her generosity. Sara felt that she really +did not deserve the cheering, however, as she seemed to have as many +as ever--even after she had filled Mrs. Snimmy's apron and a shoe +apiece for each Gunkus. + +When the excitement over the money had subsided a little, Pirlaps +announced; "The Banquet is now ready!" and again offering Sara his arm, +he led her at the head of another procession three times around the +fountain; and the third time, as before, there beside the cake was the +banquet table--all spread and loaded down and glittering. Of course it +was quite a long table, with a good many covers; there had to be one +for each of Avrillia's children and for every one of the Gunki. The +covers were very thin (being made of cobweb, of course) still, having +so many, spread one on top of the other, made the table quite high, so +that there were step-ladders instead of chairs. As there was a +step-ladder for each guest, and as they were made of gold and silver, +arranged alternately, the effect was very unique and elaborate. + +Sara, being the guest of honor, was assigned the most inconspicuous +place, three step-ladders south of the centre. When they were seated, +and Sara's mouth was fairly watering at the sight of all the fairy +delicacies the table displayed, Pirlaps, as master of ceremonies, rose +and said, "You understand, Sara, that, on occasions like this, the +guest of honor eats nothing but Toast." + +Now, just imagine how disappointed Sara was! She really was having a +hard time to wink back the tears, when Avrillia, who often understood +more than the others, leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Wait till +you taste it, Sara!" + +Avrillia's eyes sparkled so that Sara was quite reassured; besides, +she suddenly remembered the butterfly butter, and how her distress had +been turned into rapture on that occasion. And when Avrillia added, +"Besides, you have Birdsong wine with it!" she felt as happy as ever, +and quite confident that there would be some delightful surprise about +it. + +When Pirlaps announced the first Toast, however, and the first +slice walked heavily out from behind the little screen at the +toastmaster's elbow, Sara again felt a sinking of the heart; for, +except that he walked on his lower right-hand corner, as he had been +trained to do, and made a rather awkward and laborious bow when his +name was announced, he looked otherwise so exactly like a plain, brown, +fat, every-day-in-the-year piece of breakfast toast that it was hard +to be enthusiastic about him--at least in the presence of all the +exotic-looking dainties the other guests were to have! However, Sara +made a great effort, and settled herself to listen to the Toasts +politely. The name of this Toast was "Sara's Day--Because She is Older +than the Snoodle," and the Plynck responded to it. The way she +responded was this: the Toast balanced himself with difficulty on his +lower corner, and said, in a throaty voice, "How do you do, Madame +Plynck?" and the Plynck bowed (much more gracefully) and responded, +"How do you do, Toast?" And then she made a speech on the Toast's +subject. While she was making the speech (which was lovely--she fairly +soared) the Toast tottered over to Sara's plate and lay down in it, +without any further sign of life or animation. Avrillia leaned over +and Whispered, "Eat it, Sara," and then Sara did. And she didn't have +any trouble keeping from being disappointed, after that. For, just as +Avrillia had hinted, the toast, in spite of its appearance, was really +Angel Food cake; and as she ate it, Sara found at her elbow a bottle +marked "Birdsong Wine--Bluebird." As the Gunki were all eating, they +couldn't wait on her, so she poured it into her glass herself; and +when she had taken a sip, it tasted just like April! You may imagine +that, from that time on, Sara had no further anxiety about what she +was to eat, and that her mind was now entirely free to enjoy the +Toasts. The second Toast was announced, indeed, before she had +recovered from her first surprise and delight. The subject of this +Toast was, "Sara's Dimples--May I Never Get Them"; and of course it +was responded to by the Snimmy. There was no variety either in the +looks or in the performance of the Toasts; I must admit that they were +very heavy, awkward, and short of breath, and were as much alike as +the trained sea-lions at a circus. However, you felt that, like the +sea-lions, they were doing very well to perform at all. (Avrillia +whispered to Sara that Pirlaps, as toastmaster, had spent days and +days preparing them; so Sara suspected that Pirlaps, at least, had +known all along that she was older than the Snoodle.) The speeches, on +the other hand, were marvels of variety and interest. The Snimmy's, of +course, was sad--even heartrending; and he was sniffing before he had +finished saying, "How do you do, Toast?" and shedding gum-drops like +hail-stones before he was half through. His Toast, however, was +orange-cake, unusually delicious; and the wine served with it was a +sparkling cherry-colored beverage marked "Cardinal." It was so heady +that it even had a topknot, and it served admirably to counteract the +depressing effect of the Snimmy's speech. The next Toast was responded +to by the First and Second Gunki; and its subject was, "Sara's +Tears--May There Be No Mad and Few Sad." The speech was in the form of +a duet, rendered by the Gunki with deep feeling, and accompanied by +the Plynck and her Echo with liquid-sounding arpeggios on their lyres, +that were most appropriate. The Toast was old-fashioned jelly-cake, +with Robinsong wine. Avrillia responded to a thin slice, whose subject +was "Nothing"; everybody clapped when this subject was announced, for +they felt that the subject was in the hands of an authority, and would +be handled in a masterly manner. Nor were they disappointed; +Avrillia's speech was in the form of a long poem, which she recited +from memory, looking very wild and lovely. The Toast was silver-cake, +with Veerie wine. Pirlaps himself, although he was toastmaster, +responded to a Toast called "Sara's Questions--Bless Their Hearts!" +and his Toast was chocolate-cake, with Wren wine. The Snoodle was too +young to make a speech, but they had taught him to respond to a simple +little Toast, "On Being Older than Snoodles," and it was very charming +to hear him lisp, "How do you do, Toast?" like the others. His Toast +was a plum-cake; and you should have seen how pleased he was when Sara +took out the little silver plum-extractor, and used it like an adept! +And the Teacup, having responded to a Toast with the subject, "If Only +My Saucer Could Have Known Sara," made a very graceful but agitated +little speech that brought out many cobweb pocket-handkerchiefs. + +Of course that is not all the Toasts, nor even half of them; they kept +it up until it was growing quite late, and at last Pirlaps said, + +"Sara, Schlorge did not bring you a present or respond to a Toast, +because he has made you an address of welcome. You have spent many +happy days with us, and will soon be leaving. The time has come at +last for us to bid you welcome. We will not dwell on the natural +sadness of the occasion; rather, let us rejoice in the delights we +have enjoyed together, and hope for a recurrence of these fair and +memorable days. Sehlorge!" + +Schlorge, overcome with pride and embarrassment, rose from his seat. +He started around the pool with much dignity; then his composure +suddenly gave way. "Where's the stump?" he began to shout wildly. +"Where's the--where's the--" + +"There, there, Schlorge, you're walking right to it," said Pirlaps, +soothingly, hastening after him and laying a hand upon his arm. Then, +as Schlorge scrambled upon it, Pirlaps raised his hand to command +attention. + +"Schlorge wishes me to state," he said, in his pleasant, clear voice, +"that the gesture he will now make goes with the first line of his +address. He cannot make it at that point because his hands will be +already arranged. But I will request that you all observe it carefully, +and hold it in mind until it is needed." + +Thereupon Schlorge made a large, deliberate, comprehensive gesture. It +included the pool, the Gugollaph-tree, the prose-bush--not only the +whole Garden, in fact, but the lovely amphitheatre beyond it. Moreover, +it seemed to Sara to include even more distant things; the Rainbow +Vale and the Butterfly Country, and the colony where lived the +relations of Pirlaps, and the Laughter Mountain and Avrillia's house +and the magic toy City of Zinariola. + +At last, having concluded his gesture, Schlorge arranged his hands and +began in a loud voice: + + "A little girl's mind is a place like this-- + At least, that of one little dear girl is: + Full of quaint little thoughts made of sugar and spice, + And queer little notions like little white mice. + + "But a little boy's mind is not nearly so neat, + And a little boy's fancies are scarcely so sweet: + So we'll give you a tale next, if fortune avails, + Full of snapses and snailses and puppy-dog's tails." + + +Then, for the last time, Schlorge went running wildly down the dear, +familiar path toward the Dimplesmithy. + +"Come again, Sara!" he shouted back, excitedly, over his shoulder. +"Come again! And bring Jimmy!" + +Sara knew that he could not bear to tell her good-by; and, suddenly, +she felt the same way about them all. They had been so kind to her! So +she began to throw kisses to them all, and then, suddenly, slipped +down from her step-ladder. Her dollies jumped down and gathered about +her, and with them all at her heels she went running past the +dimple-holder and out through the ivory gates. + +And the last thing she saw, when she turned to throw her last kiss, +was the Echo, who, overcome by emotion, had at last climbed clear out +upon the rim of the pool, where she sat waving her plumes to Sara in +plain sight of them all. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Garden of the Plynck, by Karle Wilson Baker + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GARDEN OF THE PLYNCK *** + +***** This file should be named 16731.txt or 16731.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16731/ + +Produced by William F. 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