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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The City Curious, by Jean de Bosschère,
+Translated by F. Tennyson Jesse, Illustrated by Jean de Bosschère
+
+
+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 City Curious
+
+
+Author: Jean de Bosschère
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2010 [eBook #32406]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY CURIOUS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from
+page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American
+Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+ file which includes the original lovely illustrations,
+ many of which are in color.
+ See 32406-h.htm or 32406-h.zip:
+ (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32406/32406-h/32406-h.htm)
+ or
+ (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32406/32406-h.zip)
+
+
+ Images of the original pages are available through
+ Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+ http://www.archive.org/details/citycurious00boscrich
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY CURIOUS
+
+
+[Illustration: FRITILLA AND THE RED FLYING-FISH
+
+_Frontispiece_]
+
+
+THE CITY CURIOUS
+
+by
+
+JEAN de BOSSCHÈRE
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Illustrated by the Author and Retold in English by F. Tennyson Jesse
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York: Dodd, Mead and Company
+London: William Heinemann
+1920
+
+Printed in Great Britain
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Smaly and his wife Redy set forth in search of three little girls:
+They are bewitched so that their noses turn into beaks: Smaly
+eats the latch of a door and Redy eats the hinge: Redy's fingers
+weep tears: They meet with a Confectioner who resembles a
+Kangaroo 1
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Smaly installs himself upon one of the Kangaroo's paws: The
+two little people see some of the inhabitants of this peculiar
+country: They meet some sugar horses, and they see also a fish
+which flies and some sponges which walk: The Wigs imagine
+that Smaly is made of suet: The ebony and crystal spectacles:
+The Mother of the Crow 15
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Short-Legged Man with the musical voice: Smaly and
+Redy again declare they are travelling to find three little girls:
+Papylick puts Smaly and Redy in two boats made out of nutshells 34
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Smaly and Redy are not well received: They are thought to be
+made of painted cardboard: How the Despoiler fell into the
+water and left a foot behind him: Mistigris sticks a fish-bone
+into the back of the Despoiler: Judgment is passed on the two
+strangers: They will be banished at nightfall: The walls of
+the three gardens are discussed 38
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Redy and Smaly watch the review of the troops: Smaly and the
+Mother of the Crow discourse about soldiers: The Chief Contractor
+distributes the food, and the Wigs pass through a curious
+little door: The Soy powder makes the provisions grow 59
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Sugar-Cane Prison arrives: The Rats water it with Soy
+fluid to keep the canes growing as fast as the Prisoner breaks
+them down: The time for siesta draws on, and Smaly and Redy
+go into the house of the Historian 73
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Flying-Fish announces the hour of three, and the World
+falls asleep: The Hen makes six hard-boiled eggs: Smaly and
+Redy begin to read the manuscript of the Historian 82
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Redy and Smaly read of the childhood of the Prisoner 95
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The elder Flying-Fish loses one eye, and the Hen finds it:
+The Historian wakes up, and Smaly and Redy run out of the
+house: The Healer mends the paw of the Confectioner 100
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The Wigs all imagine they suffer from headache: The Rats come
+to the Healer to be cured of the ravages of hot Soy: The Chief
+Contractor has to make himself ill eating the musical instruments 111
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The young girls dance for the Rats, then play a curious game
+of tennis: They fail to understand Smaly's point of view 122
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Mother of the Crow tells of the life and death of Djorak
+in his own country 127
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Smaly and Redy are taken to see the Fleet: The Prisoner arrives
+and the Wigs fly in terror: Smaly and Redy at last have speech
+with the Prisoner 146
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The three daughters of the Prisoner are installed in their gardens 161
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Smaly and Redy effect the rescue of the three young girls:
+Djorak joins them and they all partake of a delightful picnic:
+Smaly blows the Soy powder over the country of the Wigs:
+Then the six friends go home 170
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+IN COLOUR
+
+ _Facing page_
+
+FRITILLA AND THE RED FLYING-FISH _Frontispiece_
+
+THE CITY CURIOUS 16
+
+THEY WERE KNOWN AS THE "WIGS" BECAUSE OF THEIR LARGE PERUKES 24
+
+THESE CREATURES DID NOT RESEMBLE ANYTHING THAT REDY AND
+ SMALY HAD SEEN UP TO THEN 32
+
+LAPTITZA AND PAPYLICK 64
+
+SOME OF THE DANCES WERE VERY COMPLICATED 96
+
+KISIKA IN HER SEDAN-CHAIR 128
+
+THE PICNIC WHICH FOLLOWED WAS AN UNFORGETTABLE REPAST 160
+
+
+IN BLACK AND WHITE
+
+ PAGE
+REDY 2
+
+SMALY 3
+
+IN THIS LAND ALL THE BIRDS WORE HATS AND SPURS 4
+
+REDY'S HANDS WERE CRYING WITH FRIGHT 6
+
+BUT HE FOUND HE, TOO, HAD A BEAK 7
+
+THEY SANG AND DANCED 8
+
+NEITHER THE LATCH NOR THE HINGE BORE ANY TRACE OF HAVING BEEN BITTEN 10
+
+LOOKING FOR THE KEY 11
+
+KANGAROO-CONFECTIONER 13
+
+TO CARRY THE LAST CURL AS THOUGH IT WERE THE END OF A TRAIN 16
+
+THEY MADE ONE WANT TO DANCE 17
+
+WITH THE SPOON WHICH EVERY WIG CARRIES HUNG FROM HIS BELT 19
+
+THESE HORSES, HOWEVER, WERE MADE OF SUGAR 20
+
+THE SPONGES 21
+
+TO RETURN TO A MERE SHAPELESS THING ONCE AGAIN 23
+
+A TRAVELLER TOLD US 24
+
+NEVERTHELESS SMALY AND REDY STARTED TO HELP HIM 26
+
+THE GRUB WAS REALLY THE DOORKEEPER 27
+
+"WE WISH TO HAVE THREE GIRLS" 28
+
+THE CROW LIFTED HIM UP 29
+
+THE CROW 30
+
+THE MOTHER OF THE CROW 31
+
+"SHE SEES ONLY ONE SIDE OF MEN, BIRDS, AND THINGS" 32
+
+THE SHORT-LEGGED MAN 35
+
+PAPYLICK 36
+
+OPENING THE NUTS AND DISPLAYING THE TWO LITTLE PEOPLE 39
+
+LEADING BY THE HAND THE CHOCOLATE GRUB 40
+
+THE BIRDS WITH THEIR LEGS ENCASED IN CUTLET FRILLS 41
+
+THE EGGS RUNNING ALONG 42
+
+THEY WERE GENTLE AND PRETTY PIGS 43
+
+A MOST SPLENDID FEAST 44
+
+THE DESPOILER 45
+
+WHICH IS IN THIS COUNTRY A GREAT SIGN OF MIRTH 46
+
+HE FLED HASTILY 47
+
+MISTIGRIS 48
+
+THE YOUNG STORK 49
+
+EVERY ONE UTTERED CRIES OF INDIGNATION 50
+
+"YOU CAN ROLL THE CORD" 51
+
+THE CHIEF CONTRACTOR REPLIED 53
+
+CHILDREN WERE BUILT OF MUCH FEWER SLICES OF CAKE THAN THE GROWN-UPS 54
+
+THESE CREATURES WILL EAT THE TOP OFF THE WALLS 55
+
+ANGER 56
+
+IT SEEMED TO THEM THAT MEN GREW UPWARDS AND NOT TOWARDS THE GROUND 57
+
+SOME VERY ELEGANT MICE 58
+
+ONE HALF EXPRESSED SEVERE AUTHORITY, THE OTHER WAS ALL GENTLENESS 60
+
+HE DECIDED THAT THEY MUST HAVE A SIMILAR REVIEW EVERY WEEK 62
+
+THEY HAD ALL PUT ON THICK GLOVES 63
+
+WIGS, WHO WERE PUTTING THE SOLDIERS BACK IN THEIR BOXES 64
+
+PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF PASENIPUS 65
+
+TO CONDUCT HER BACK TO HER HOUSE, WHICH WAS IN A COSY NOOK
+IN A GREAT TREE OF CORAL 67
+
+THE CONFECTIONER 69
+
+"NEVERTHELESS IT'S SO NARROW THAT ONLY ONE PERSON CAN GO
+THROUGH AT A TIME" 70
+
+THE SONG WENT ON 71
+
+RUNNING HARD WITH THEIR LITTLE SHORT LEGS 73
+
+SOY MILL 74
+
+SOY RESERVOIR 75
+
+CARRYING AWAY EVERY OBJECT THAT THEY COULD LIFT 77
+
+THE PRISONER 79
+
+THE PRISONER NEVER CEASED TO BREAK THE SUGAR-CANES 80
+
+THE PET FLYING-FISH, WHICH EVERY WIG FAMILY POSSESSES AND CHERISHES 83
+
+THE AMOUNT OF CAKE AND PUDDING EATEN ANNUALLY IN THE COUNTRY 84
+
+THE ELDER OF THE FISHES 85
+
+THE HEN 86
+
+THIS CARE WHICH THE CONFECTIONER TOOK OF FRITILLA WAS BY
+ NO MEANS UNNECESSARY 88
+
+THE SMALLER FLYING-FISH 89
+
+DROPPED THEM THROUGH A HOLE IN HIS BEAK 90
+
+WAS SITTING WITH ONE ANKLE ACROSS THE KNEE OF HIS OTHER LEG 91
+
+THE DESPOILER, WHO WAS ALWAYS AFRAID THAT SOME ONE WOULD
+ FIND OUT THAT HE WAS ONLY MADE OF CARDBOARD, NEVER
+ SLEPT IN PUBLIC 93
+
+"INSTEAD OF CUTTING HIS TOE-NAILS AS WE DO WITH THE HELP OF
+ A LONG-HANDLED PAIR OF SCISSORS AND A TELESCOPE" 96
+
+THE KING 97
+
+THE KING'S DAUGHTER 98
+
+THE HEALER 103
+
+BORN WITH THE IDEA OF ONE DAY BEING A VERY BIG MAN 104
+
+BETWEEN THEM WAS FASTENED A COMFORTABLE ARM-CHAIR 106
+
+THERE WERE NEWSBOYS SELLING ACCOUNTS OF THE LATEST DISASTER
+ TO THE WIGS 108
+
+THE HEALER HAD FINISHED HIS MENDING 109
+
+MATHEMATICIAN 111
+
+MIGRAINE 112
+
+WRAPPED THEIR HANDKERCHIEFS ROUND THEIR HEADS 112
+
+"I, TOO, HOPE SO," SAID HIS WIFE, WHO HAD JUST COME IN 113
+
+NEARLY ALL HAD ONE LEG WHICH WAS MUCH LONGER THAN THE
+ OTHER, OR A VERY LONG ARM 115
+
+HIS ELONGATED TAIL WAS TIED TO THE QUEUE OF HIS WIG 116
+
+"BUT ONLY LOOK AT OUR ARMS AND LEGS" 117
+
+EVEN MORE THAN THEY FEARED THE FLIES 118
+
+REWARDS 119
+
+THE DWARF HAD PULLED ON A PAIR OF BOOTS 120
+
+THE ACCORDION-PLAYERS BEGAN 123
+
+TENNIS 124
+
+THE BALL HUNG UP THUS 125
+
+TEA-COSY 128
+
+"WE'RE WAITING FOR THE SUN TO GO DOWN" 129
+
+SERVANTS OUT SHOPPING FOLLOWED IT WITH THEIR LADEN BASKETS
+ON THEIR ARMS 131
+
+HE THRUST HIS FACE INTO ROSES COVERED WITH DEW 132
+
+THE EXECUTIONER BANDAGED HIS EYES 133
+
+NEXT HE TOOK SOME OLD CARDBOARD BOXES 135
+
+OPENED THEM AND SHUT THEM AGAIN 136
+
+HIS YOUNG SON WAS THERE 137
+
+THE BRINDLED RABBIT 138
+
+HIS LITTLE PAW SHOVED A FOLDED SLIP OF PAPER THROUGH THE
+OPENING 139
+
+THEN THEY SANG A COMIC DUET 140
+
+THEN THEY QUESTIONED A BLACK TOAD 141
+
+AND FISH IN THE LITTLE RIVER IN THE AFTERNOON 142
+
+THE THIN LONG ARM OF THE HISTORIAN 143
+
+EXTRACTING FISH-BONES FROM THE BACK OF THE DESPOILER 147
+
+THEY BORE A LARGE COPPER CAULDRON 148
+
+THE ADMIRAL WAS A TRITON 149
+
+THE WHITE DOLPHIN WITH PINK EYES 150
+
+AN EXTREMELY CURIOUS FISH 151
+
+"A BAND OF OUR RATS WILL EACH MORNING COPIOUSLY WATER OUR
+FLEET" 153
+
+WIGS WERE BUSY WRITING THEIR NAMES 154
+
+A RED FLAG 155
+
+"I HAVE DESTROYED A HUNDRED TIMES PASSING OVER IT IN MY
+PRISON" 157
+
+"I WAS CAUGHT STEPPING RIGHT OVER THEIR SILLY OLD DRY CANAL
+WITH ONE STRIDE" 158
+
+THE MANUFACTURER OF CARDBOARD BOXES 159
+
+A SENTINEL WHO LOOKED LIKE A DRAGON-FLY 163
+
+THE GARDENS WERE ARRANGED AFTER THE SAME PRINCIPLE AS THE
+ WINDOWS IN THE HOUSE OF THE HISTORIAN 164
+
+A LITTLE RED FEATHER, WHICH SHE HAD PICKED UP IN THE MARKET-PLACE 166
+
+NEXT THE DESPOILER APPROACHED 167
+
+THE WIFE OF THE CHIEF CONTRACTOR PRESENTED KISIKA WITH A
+ BEAUTIFUL FAN MADE OF PAPER LACE 169
+
+DIRECTLY THEY SAW THE FLYING-FISH ENTER 171
+
+THEIR TWO LITTLE HEADS APPEARED SIDE BY SIDE 172
+
+SMALY STANDING ON THE POINT OF HIS TOES 173
+
+SO DURING THREE DAYS THE YOUNG GIRLS WERE BUSY MAKING THE
+STAIRS 175
+
+THE RED FLYING-FISH CARRIED A LARGE HAT AND MANTLE IN ITS
+CLAWS 176
+
+CARRYING AS MANY OF THE PRESENTS AS THEY COULD 177
+
+WIGS THEMSELVES WOULD HAVE MELTED AWAY DIRECTLY THEY
+ PASSED THE FRONTIER 178
+
+THEY HUNG OUT OF THE WINDOWS 179
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY CURIOUS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ Smaly and his wife Redy set forth in search of three little
+ girls: They are bewitched so that their noses turn into
+ beaks: Smaly eats the latch of a door and Redy eats the
+ hinge: Redy's fingers weep tears: They meet with a
+ Confectioner who resembles a Kangaroo.
+
+
+Smaly and Redy were husband and wife, and they lived together in a
+little white house. This house had three rooms upstairs and three rooms
+downstairs; and each room was so pretty that it gave one joy to see it.
+Smaly and Redy were very proud of their house, and were never so happy
+as when they were putting it to rights. Every day they did something to
+one or other of the rooms, changing the position of the furniture or the
+pictures.
+
+One day, while Smaly was walking in the town he saw three mirrors in a
+shop window, and he thought they would be just the thing to hang up in
+the three bedrooms; so he bought the mirrors and went home with them in
+high glee.
+
+In the meantime, Redy, his little wife, also had an idea to beautify the
+bedrooms, so she went out into the garden to pick some flowers.
+
+Smaly hung a looking-glass in each of the three little bedrooms, then he
+carefully closed all three doors and, going downstairs, sat himself by
+the hearth. A fire was burning there, for the spring was still young in
+the land.
+
+While he sat there, smoking, lost in the most delicious daydreams, his
+pleasant little wife Redy came in with her arms full of flowers. She
+took three vases from the dresser, and began to arrange the flowers in
+them, holding her head on one side like a bird.
+
+[Illustration: REDY]
+
+When she had put each flower exactly as she wished, she gently shook
+Smaly's elbow. He jumped up, took two vases without a word, while she
+picked up the third. They disposed a vase in each of the three little
+bedrooms, and stood back to admire the effect; which, indeed, was quite
+charming.
+
+Suddenly Redy gave a sigh.
+
+"It's all very well," said she, "but there's no one to live in our
+pretty rooms."
+
+Smaly sighed, too. "That's just what I was thinking," said he. "Oh,
+Redy, how nice it would be if we had three little girls to live in our
+three bedrooms, so that they could admire your flowers and look at
+themselves in my pretty mirrors."
+
+"Let us wish for them," said Redy, and she folded her hands together on
+her apron and chanted:
+
+ "We wish to have three girls,
+ Fine, sweet, pink, and good
+ They shall have more pudding than they like,
+ And a green, green, and rosy garden."
+
+Smaly repeated the poem in his turn, but Redy had to prompt him, for he
+had a very bad memory.
+
+They waited for some time, but nothing happened, so they said the verse
+over again, and this time Smaly repeated it without any mistake; but
+still nothing happened.
+
+"Wishing does not seem to be much good," said Smaly despondently.
+
+"Wishing never is any good," answered Redy, "unless one does something
+more than wish. If we want to find our three little girls we must set
+out and look for them."
+
+"Yes, but where?" asked Smaly.
+
+"As for that," answered his little wife, "I do not know any more than
+you, but that verse we chanted just now is a magic verse, and we shall
+find the way. We will get ready to start to-morrow."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+So the very next morning they set off on their search for the three
+girls who would fill the white house with joy.
+
+[Illustration: SMALY]
+
+Redy had dressed herself in her best. Her green gown was trimmed with
+black and emerald leaves, and her stockings and little cocked hat were
+green to match. In her basket she thoughtfully placed two apples.
+
+[Illustration: IN THIS LAND ALL THE BIRDS WORE HATS AND SPURS]
+
+Smaly faced the world in his beautiful dark violet coat, on his head a
+tall hat of the same colour. A belt of yellow leather clasped his waist.
+In his buttonhole he stuck a sunflower to show how happy he was. His
+best boots shone upon his feet. In the big pocket of his coat he placed
+a couple of fresh rolls. The rolls and the apples were their provisions
+for the journey. For weapon, in case of attack, Smaly carried a thin red
+stick.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+For a long while they walked and walked. They crossed many countries
+which everybody knows. At last, however, they found themselves in a
+strange land, a land of which one hardly ever even hears--a land which
+was even odder than these two odd little people.
+
+In this land both men and beasts lived upon nothing but sweetmeats and
+pastry.
+
+In this land the sun shone longer than it does with us, because it often
+stopped for a while to rest during the course of the day.
+
+In this land all the birds wore hats and spurs.
+
+In this land an orchestra of swallows played always at noonday.
+
+In this land earthworms wore spectacles on their noses and swords at
+their sides.
+
+In this land such things as bricks, iron, wood, stone, and steel were
+unknown.
+
+In this land, after one had finished dinner, one ate the plates and
+dishes, for they were made of sugar.
+
+In this land nearly every inhabitant was made of slices of cake, held
+together with pudding, sweetmeats, nougat, and chocolate.
+
+In a word, there were to be found in this curious country a great many
+things that were strange and wonderful and good to eat.
+
+Smaly and Redy knocked at the door of this wonderful land, but for some
+time no one came to answer them.
+
+"Bother this door!" said Smaly, at last, kicking at it with his new
+boots, and hitting it with his red cane.
+
+"Why, it's made of chocolate!" cried Redy, who had sucked her fingers
+after touching it.
+
+"I will eat the latch away!" decided Smaly.
+
+"And I'll eat the hinges," said Redy.
+
+She seized a hinge and he tore off the latch.
+
+The next moment the tears were pouring down their faces.
+
+"Oh, oh, it's burning me!" cried poor Redy.
+
+"It must be made of red pepper and spice!" wept Smaly.
+
+[Illustration: REDY'S HANDS WERE CRYING WITH FRIGHT]
+
+They had certainly burnt their tongues. They held hands and ran away,
+uttering little moans of pain. The path took an abrupt turn, then
+another, then a third, and yet a fourth, till it had described a
+complete circle. Smaly and Redy found themselves once again opposite the
+door.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+There was no longer any way out, for a thick hedge now surrounded the
+two travellers, and they found themselves in a sort of green arena.
+Quite a pretty arena, but all the same, it was rather alarming to find
+themselves there, without a word of warning.
+
+And the thick green hedge around the arena grew with such a horrible
+rapidity. Very soon it was so high that the place became as dark as
+night.
+
+[Illustration: BUT HE FOUND HE, TOO, HAD A BEAK]
+
+Smaly, in his alarm, had seized both Redy's hands in his, and now he
+suddenly noticed that they were all wet. For one dreadful moment Smaly
+thought they must be wet with blood, but the fact was that poor Redy's
+hands were crying with fright.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+For a little while Smaly and Redy wept bitterly, but they soon grew too
+tired to cry. They shut their mouths firmly, and tried to leave off
+sobbing when they left off weeping, but their sobs kept on and on in
+spite of them, for all the world like a tap that keeps on going
+"glug-glug!" when one has forgotten to turn it off.
+
+Smaly put up his hand, meaning to lay it gently over Redy's mouth.
+
+She no longer had a mouth--in place of it was a fine large beak, painted
+an elegant blue. Filled with horror, and sure that their end had come,
+Smaly thought to print on Redy's cheek one last kiss of despair.
+
+But he found he, too, had a beak, with which he could do nothing but
+peck. They stood staring at each other's beaks. They did not yet know
+that the beaks were invisible to all save themselves and the birds.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+They sat down on their heels like Turkish princes, and their sobs went
+on and on, sounding like the lament of thousands of insects, and still
+the green hedges around them went on growing, till it seemed that the
+two poor little people were at the bottom of a profound green funnel,
+brimming with darkness, in which their moaning sounded like the wind in
+the chimney of a winter's night.
+
+"Oh, oh, my Redy, we're in a pretty pass!" murmured Smaly, and Redy knew
+that he was feeling almost mad with fright, so that at once she felt mad
+with fright also. Now Redy had heard that mad people sing and dance, and
+so she at once began to do both, dragging Smaly along with her. They
+sang and danced till they had no breath left, and then they wanted to
+drop down and rest, but found they had to keep on and on in spite of
+themselves. The dance of terror, and the song with which their little
+little sobs and moans mingled, continued there at the bottom of the
+green funnel. There was more noise than there is at midday in Oxford
+Circus.
+
+[Illustration: THEY SANG AND DANCED]
+
+The pepper from the latch of the door began to burn again in Smaly's
+mouth, and reminded him that after all there was a door out of this
+horrible place. He began to feel about for it in the darkness. When he
+found it he uttered a sharp little cry, which, like the moans and the
+singing, refused to die away, but went on echoing in the green funnel,
+so that by now there was a noise like a tempest, for all the world as
+though the whole sea had been imprisoned in a box--and a box too small
+for it.
+
+Smaly uttered this cry because he had discovered that the latch was
+once more in its place on the door, although Smaly had thrown it far
+away after biting it. Redy's hinge also was back in its place. Neither
+the latch nor the hinge bore any trace of having been bitten, but felt
+smooth and solid to the fingers.
+
+[Illustration: NEITHER THE LATCH NOR THE HINGE BORE ANY TRACE OF HAVING
+BEEN BITTEN]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Smaly and Redy became even more terrified than before, so that their
+hearts felt like two little lumps of ice in their breasts. And then a
+very odd thing happened to them. Their beaks opened of themselves, and
+these words came out of them--words which Smaly and Redy had never
+thought of saying:
+
+"Where is the key?"
+
+Nothing answered them.
+
+Then they found themselves on their hands and knees looking for the key.
+
+"Where is the key? Oh, Reckybecky, where is the key?" the beaks
+demanded, entirely of their own accord.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING FOR THE KEY]
+
+Immediately a little grille opened in the door, and a voice said:
+
+"Upon this side are honey, tea, and sugar! On your side are pepper,
+ginger, and allspice!"
+
+"And on this side there are also the beaks of birds!" replied Smaly,
+alarmed at his own temerity; "and here also are the hands which weep!
+And the horrible moanings! And----"
+
+He was interrupted by a gentle laugh. This laugh sounded like a little
+peal of crystal bells. And as the laugh went rippling on, the hedge
+began to shrink and shrink, and the moans and sobs died away.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The hearts of Smaly and Redy were beating like a couple of
+alarum-clocks. The gate had a little grille in it and they peeped
+through this grille to see what creature it was whose silvery laughter
+had the power to charm away both the high hedge and the weird moanings.
+Although the creature was several yards away they could see quite
+clearly his large, rosy eyes edged with grey rims. They saw the creature
+as distinctly as one can see the actors on the stage when one looks
+through opera-glasses.
+
+They saw that the rosy grey-rimmed eyes were set in a face of the green
+of a pistachio-nut. The hair was the vague blue of cigarette smoke. The
+head looked as though it were sculptured out of mother-of-pearl. Later,
+they discovered that it was a mingling of ice-cream and jelly, for the
+creature himself was a confectioner.
+
+He was a confectioner ... and yet Smaly could have wagered his beautiful
+new boots that he was more of a kangaroo than anything else. For though
+this confectioner wore an apron and a fine green waistcoat, yet
+undoubtedly his chess-board trousers and embroidered stockings covered
+the powerful hind legs of a kangaroo. The long paws were shod with a
+species of pattens, so big they seemed like miniature tables, and these
+pattens were painted scarlet. Slung all about him, the Kangaroo carried
+as many pots and pans as a travelling tinker. He was adorned as well by
+spoons of bamboo, and from his belt hung ebony-handled knives, while
+jam-jars and flagons, filled with preserves and essences, dangled about
+him. The most tender mauves and translucent greens glowed through the
+glass of the flagons.
+
+[Illustration: KANGAROO-CONFECTIONER]
+
+Smaly studied the good-natured face of this personage, and asked him
+simply:
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+Then the Kangaroo-Confectioner said a surprising thing. He replied:
+
+"I am the Architect."
+
+The moment he had spoken he put up his hand and shut his mouth, to
+prevent the sound of his words going on and on in the curious air of the
+place, which seemed to hold sounds suspended as water holds the fronds
+of weeds.
+
+Smaly looked at him dubiously.
+
+"You say you are an architect ... and yet your occupation appears to me
+to be much more that of a confectioner, a super-confectioner."
+
+The Kangaroo seemed overcome with a nervousness; his smiling face
+creased itself into a thousand little lines of distress, his eyes looked
+vacant, his manner became flustered. Evidently he was struggling with
+his emotion. When he had sufficiently recovered he planted his long feet
+more firmly on their scarlet pattens, and, taking a deep breath, chanted
+as follows:
+
+ "With jam I build the walls,
+ And with jam I fill the tarts,
+ With honey-cake I tile the roofs
+ Which crest the pastry towers.
+ The chairs are made of barley-sugar
+ And the tables and napkins are not of custard,
+ Nor of mustard nor of treacle,
+ But I weave them of thin macaroni.
+
+ "I am the Builder Architect,
+ Who makes the cottages and the tarts,
+ Who knows all about chairs and farms,
+ Who makes the castles and the biscuits
+ With chocolate and nice cornflour.
+
+ "Where I am--honey, tea, and sugar!
+ Where you are, pepper, ginger, and allspice!"
+
+But, since the word "allspice" continued to reverberate through the air,
+the Confectioner shut his mouth smartly with his finger and thumb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ Smaly installs himself upon one of the Kangaroo's paws: The
+ two little people see some of the inhabitants of this
+ peculiar country: They meet some sugar horses, and they see
+ also a fish which flies and some sponges which walk: The
+ Wigs imagine that Smaly is made of suet: The ebony and
+ crystal spectacles: The Mother of the Crow.
+
+
+Smaly saw that there was no reason to be afraid of this strange creature
+so he crawled in through the grille of the gate and sat down upon one of
+the Confectioner's enormous paws. Redy made haste to follow him. No
+sooner was she settled than a number of strange little beings appeared
+as though from nowhere and clustered around her, pointing curious
+fingers at her while they chatted amongst themselves.
+
+These little beings were the inhabitants of this strange new country.
+They nearly all wore gigantic wigs, and sometimes these wigs were so
+long that they needed a page to carry the last curl as though it were
+the end of a train.
+
+The more Redy looked at these funny little people the greater was the
+amazement that appeared upon her face.
+
+Smaly also was astonished; but he would have died sooner than let his
+astonishment appear.
+
+[Illustration: TO CARRY THE LAST CURL AS THOUGH IT WERE THE END OF A
+TRAIN]
+
+These curious little beings, who were known as the "Wigs" because of
+their large perukes, were even smaller than Redy and Smaly. At first
+sight they looked rather like those stiff little coloured figures you
+may see in Egyptian drawings at the British Museum, but no Egyptians
+were ever dressed as these people were. Their vividly coloured clothes
+were composed of mosaics of caramel and jam, with insertions of fruit
+and cake. Each one wore on his head a hat made of preserved fruit or of
+a whole bun or little cake. Shoes seemed to be very much a matter of
+individual taste in this land, for every inhabitant wore a pair of a
+different colour, shoes so gay that the mere sight of them made one want
+to dance. There was one woman in particular who wore upon her head a
+cake in the form of a little tower, who had the most charming mauve
+shoes with red soles, upon which Redy felt her eyes always returning
+enviously.
+
+[Illustration: THE CITY CURIOUS]
+
+The Wigs for their part had not gathered together merely to look at the
+little strangers. With brightly coloured sponges some began to mop up
+the dew which still clung to the leaves of the hedge, while others with
+little pieces of blotting-paper set to work to dry each blade of grass
+at the side of the road. This seemed such a useless thing to do that
+Smaly would have liked to ask why they were doing it, but he felt too
+shy, so he contented himself with winking at Redy. Then he glanced up at
+the Confectioner.
+
+[Illustration: THEY MADE ONE WANT TO DANCE]
+
+"Tell me--why has Redy got a beak?" he asked, and before he could be
+answered began to suck his finger. He sucked it because a drop of sweet
+preserve had fallen upon it from one of the Confectioner's pots.
+
+"Has Redy got wings as well?" asked the Confectioner, thoughtfully
+taking a spoonful of the same preserve and offering it to Redy.
+
+"No," said Smaly.
+
+"Then she can't have a beak," replied the Confectioner triumphantly.
+
+"Do you mean to say you don't see her beak or mine either?" asked Smaly
+in astonishment.
+
+"Never in my life have I seen a beak upon any creature that had not
+wings as well," replied the Confectioner stolidly; "therefore it doesn't
+exist."
+
+"A beak, a beak, a beak, not exist, not exist, not exist," said all the
+echoes one after the other.
+
+Smaly decided to wait until the Confectioner spoke again; but it was
+Redy who broke the silence in an unexpected manner.
+
+She walked away from the Confectioner and stood looking at him
+scornfully from a little distance.
+
+"An architect!" she said. "You say you are an architect, but when we
+called 'Reckybecky' you opened the door, therefore you are Reckybecky,
+nothing but Reckybecky."
+
+The Confectioner, who was a simple soul, stared at her very
+disconcerted. "Reckybecky," he repeated in a sort of stupefaction.
+"Reckybecky, am I really nothing but that?"
+
+"You are Reckybecky," repeated Redy firmly.
+
+"Dear me, I never heard that before," said the Confectioner. "I wonder
+if you can be right. Then if I am Reckybecky I suppose I am not an
+architect at all," and he covered his face to try and think more
+clearly.
+
+The two little people watched him timidly, wondering what was going on
+in that bent head. Suddenly the Confectioner raised his head and flung
+his pots and pans, his spoons and his knives, on to the ground on either
+side of him.
+
+Most of the pots broke and fragrant streams of beautifully coloured
+preserves spread here and there over the uneven ground. Immediately
+dozens of Wigs pounced upon the wreckage, and while the jams trickled
+hither and thither amongst the grass these creatures tried to scrape it
+up again into jugs and basins, and even into their caps, with the spoon
+which every Wig carries hung from his belt.
+
+[Illustration: WITH THE SPOON WHICH EVERY WIG CARRIES HUNG FROM HIS
+BELT]
+
+At some distance off a procession had been passing which had hitherto
+paid no attention to the crowd round the gate, but now this broke up and
+various persons quitted its ranks to try and scrape up some of the
+precious preserves. These creatures did not resemble anything that Redy
+and Smaly had seen up to then. At first sight they all appeared to be
+riding little horses; horses draped like those which we see in old
+pictures of tournaments.
+
+These horses, however, were made of sugar, and very soon Redy and Smaly
+perceived that they were simply worn round the waists of the Wigs, whose
+two feet ran along the ground beneath the draperies where the four feet
+of the horses should have been.
+
+[Illustration: THESE HORSES, HOWEVER, WERE MADE OF SUGAR]
+
+Smaly could not help thinking that to have a horse like that would be
+rather fine if you could not afford a real horse of your own; but Redy
+was occupied in admiring the fine costumes of the Wigs who owned the
+horses.
+
+These cavaliers were splendidly clad in green, white, rose, grey, and
+black. One, in particular, wore rose-coloured boots, and his horse was
+made to resemble a blue roan. Its mane was like a cocks-comb, cut in
+scarlet points.
+
+All these things Redy and Smaly managed to observe without showing undue
+astonishment; but neither could resist a little cry of surprise when
+they saw flying through the air a large fish. This fish, who wore a ring
+through his nose, had also come to take part in the unexpected feast.
+
+Finally, even the Sponges, which the Wigs carried in their hands, and
+with which they had been drying the hedges, jumped out of their hands.
+Each Sponge unfolded little legs and started running towards the jam.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+And now a strange thing began to happen to the Confectioner. The poor
+fellow was evidently in great distress because Redy had told him that he
+was not an architect, but only Reckybecky.
+
+Redy and Smaly had never in all their lives seen any one so cruelly
+upset.
+
+He seemed to be melting before their eyes and becoming transparent. He
+did not cry; but seemed rather to be transformed into a sort of damp and
+clinging fog. "Just as though he were 'dissolving in tears,'" thought
+Smaly. And he stared curiously at the Confectioner who every moment
+became more cloud-like than ever.
+
+[Illustration: THE SPONGES]
+
+But suddenly the vague outline of a hand, which was all that remained
+of him, struck the vaguer outline of his forehead as though an idea had
+come to him. Once more his face assumed a clarity as though it were made
+of mother-of-pearl, and he cried out:
+
+"Reckybecky!"
+
+This name reverberated round and about like a clap of thunder. It went
+on and on, making such a noise that all the little Wigs left off
+scraping up the jam and scampered away.
+
+Redy felt afraid. Smaly jumped off the patten on which he had remained
+perched during the eclipse of the Confectioner. As to the latter, he
+endeavoured to shut his mouth and stop the noise from going on echoing;
+but he was not very solid again as yet and found some difficulty in
+doing it. At the end of the long avenue of sugar-trees Redy could see
+little groups of people gathered together looking about them to try and
+discover whence came this noise.
+
+The Confectioner succeeded in shutting his mouth, and then turning
+towards Redy he opened it again, and remarked firmly:
+
+"You are a stupid little thing."
+
+Then turning to Smaly he said, with that confidential accent which one
+adopts when singling out the most intelligent person of a company for
+one's remarks:
+
+"No, I cannot be Reckybecky, for somebody else is Reckybecky, so there!"
+
+The Confectioner seemed extremely relieved by this remarkable solution.
+
+[Illustration: TO RETURN TO A MERE SHAPELESS THING ONCE AGAIN]
+
+"Reckybecky must be the doorkeeper," he added firmly.
+
+"The doorkeeper?" asked Smaly and Redy.
+
+"Certainly, we've had a doorkeeper for years, and one day a traveller
+told us that since we had a doorkeeper it was necessary we should have a
+door, and then the Despoiler, who is the wisest of all of us, except the
+Mother of the Crow, decided that since we had a porter who was made of
+chocolate, we must have a gate made for him, and that the gate should be
+made of chocolate to match."
+
+Smaly and Redy turned to look back at the door; the grille by which they
+had entered had disappeared, and everywhere the chocolate had become
+solid once again.
+
+[Illustration: A TRAVELLER TOLD US]
+
+"I will show you the doorkeeper soon," promised the Confectioner, "but
+for goodness' sake don't tell him that you know he's a doorkeeper. He
+thinks he's simply a chocolate grub on his way to become a chocolate
+butterfly; in fact, we have nominated another doorkeeper to take his
+place if this ever comes off. This other person isn't really a
+doorkeeper either, but there's one thing he can do, and that is, he can
+make the latch and the hinge grow again when somebody has eaten them."
+The Confectioner looked at Redy and Smaly very severely when he said
+this.
+
+[Illustration: THEY WERE KNOWN AS THE "WIGS" BECAUSE OF THEIR LARGE
+PERUKES
+
+_Page 15_]
+
+They both felt extremely embarrassed.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+With his nail, which looked exactly like a horn salt-spoon, the
+Confectioner scraped the inner side of the door just beside the latch,
+and Redy and Smaly saw the chocolate grow again as rapidly as he scraped
+it away.
+
+The Confectioner gave a little exclamation of annoyance, and began to
+hunt for his magic ring amongst all the things he had thrown to the
+ground; but he could not find it. This ring had the power of preventing
+both plants and things from growing, and without it the Confectioner was
+unable to prevent the chocolate door from replacing itself as fast as he
+scraped it away. Nevertheless Smaly and Redy started to help him, and
+they all three scraped so hard that they caught a glimpse in the
+interior of the door of a tiny creature sitting in a niche. This
+creature was a grub about the size of a nut. Round its waist it wore a
+key as big as itself, and on its head a fur bonnet, which nodded forward
+to its chest.
+
+"It's asleep," said the little man to the little woman.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+At this moment a Crow made of bilberry preserve and liquorice hopped up
+to them. This Crow was the doorkeeper who was yet not the doorkeeper;
+and who had been nominated in the place of the grub. The grub was really
+the doorkeeper; but always refused to admit it.
+
+[Illustration: NEVERTHELESS SMALY AND REDY STARTED TO HELP HIM]
+
+The Crow, who seemed convulsed with rage, seized Redy in one claw and
+Smaly in the other, preparatory to throwing them outside once more.
+
+At this dangerous moment Smaly once again found his beak crying out of
+itself. This time he heard it say that he wished to speak to the Chief
+Contractor.
+
+The Crow lifted him up by his waistband, and gazed at him with his big
+bright eye like a magnifying-glass, then he dropped him.
+
+"Why, it's made of suet!" he cried in disgust.
+
+He turned his eye upon Redy, who appeared to him much better looking
+with her delicate little blue beak, which had a bloom on it like a
+grape. Unlike the Confectioner, the Crow was perfectly well able to
+perceive the beaks of Smaly and Redy, for he himself was a bird, and to
+no one save a bird or each other were their beaks visible.
+
+And that is why you who are reading this book, and who are not birds,
+cannot see their beaks either, unless you make a great effort.
+
+[Illustration: THE GRUB WAS REALLY THE DOORKEEPER]
+
+Redy, who saw that the moment had come to explain what they wanted,
+folded her hands on her apron, and repeated her little poem:
+
+ "We wish to have three girls,
+ Fine, sweet, pink, and good.
+ They shall have more pudding than they like,
+ And a green, green, and rosy garden."
+
+The Crow said:
+
+"It won't do," and he took off his glasses, which were made of ebony,
+set in a crystal frame. On the rims signs and letters were engraved in
+characters that looked rather Eastern. If you examined carefully you saw
+that round one lens was engraved:
+
+DON'T LOOK AT ME.
+
+And on the other one:
+
+FOR YOU DON'T HEAR WITH YOUR EYES.
+
+[Illustration: "WE WISH TO HAVE THREE GIRLS"]
+
+Smaly paid no attention to the spectacles, but answered the Crow's
+remark.
+
+"Why won't it do?" he asked.
+
+The Crow opened his beak to answer, then he shut it again, and put on
+his glasses, for he only wore them when he wanted to speak, and did not
+particularly wish to see.
+
+[Illustration: THE CROW LIFTED HIM UP]
+
+For this Crow had three eyes, one on each side of his beak, and a third
+one carried in a medallion which hung on a chain round his neck. This
+third eye was very busy and saw more than both the other two put
+together.
+
+Redy felt extremely annoyed.
+
+"How dare you look at me! You are only made of sugar and bilberry jam,"
+she exclaimed.
+
+"I didn't look at you," said the Crow, rather taken aback.
+
+"Only because you are looking at me," now shouted Smaly.
+
+"No, I am not," retorted the Crow, turning his back and taking off his
+spectacles.
+
+"Don't leave us," cried Redy hastily. "I only meant that you were
+looking at us with that beautiful eye that hangs on a chain round your
+neck."
+
+[Illustration: THE CROW]
+
+"Well," said the Crow, coming back and putting on his spectacles once
+more, "why didn't you say so at once? That's my mother's eye. She's
+very old; but she still wants to know what is happening in the world, so
+I carry about her eye with me to let it see. But don't be frightened.
+She only sees you, she doesn't hear you."
+
+"It wouldn't matter if she did. We should not dream of saying nasty
+things about your mother," said Redy with true emotion.
+
+"I thought not," said the Crow more peaceably, "besides, she's such a
+funny little thing, poor dear; she's no legs, no wings, and no tail."
+
+"Dear, dear, and only one eye?" asked Smaly.
+
+"Yes," said the Crow, "only one eye, so she sees only one side of men,
+birds, and things."
+
+"What does she live on?" asked Redy, with a woman's interest in
+practical matters.
+
+The Crow replied, "Oh, on candy and caterpillars and sweets and flies,
+just as you and I do."
+
+"I don't," said Smaly.
+
+"Nor I," said Redy.
+
+The Crow gazed at them with some disgust.
+
+[Illustration: THE MOTHER OF THE CROW]
+
+"No, I suppose you live on suet, mutton fat, and oil," he replied, and
+once again turned his back.
+
+[Illustration: "SHE SEES ONLY ONE SIDE OF MEN, BIRDS, AND THINGS"]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Again Redy tried to detain him; but this time the Crow said he must
+leave because he had something to write in his diary.
+
+[Illustration: THESE CREATURES DID NOT RESEMBLE ANYTHING THAT REDY AND
+SMALY HAD SEEN UP TO THEN
+
+_Page 19_]
+
+Smaly asked again why they could not have three sweet little girls.
+
+Putting on his spectacles the Crow replied, "Because there aren't any."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ The Short-Legged Man with the musical voice: Smaly and Redy
+ again declare they are travelling to find three little
+ girls: Papylick puts Smaly and Redy in two boats made out of
+ nutshells.
+
+
+At this moment a short-legged little man came up to them, upon whose wig
+was perched a little round hat trimmed with a single rose. A box hung at
+his side, and upon this box was inscribed the word "SOY."
+
+The Short-Legged Man had a voice so faint it was almost a whisper. It
+was as musical and delicate as a fiddle heard playing from a great
+distance. This little man whispered:
+
+ "What do we know
+ About boys and girls?
+ They have no feathers nor wings,
+ They are made of marzipan,
+ They have no claws nor beak,
+ They are everything that is sweet."
+
+Smaly and Redy replied at once:
+
+ "We wish to have three girls,
+ Fine, sweet, pink, and good.
+ They shall have more pudding than they like,
+ And a green, green, and rosy garden."
+
+The Short-Legged Man said, "It won't do."
+
+"Why?" asked Redy.
+
+"Because they should have _three_ green, green, and rosy gardens."
+
+"They shall have," said both the little man and his wife.
+
+"It still won't do," said the Short-Legged Man.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because they can't leave this country."
+
+There was a sad moment whilst Smaly and Redy thought of the little white
+house and the three bedrooms. Then they answered together:
+
+"We'll make their gardens here."
+
+"Come and talk to the Chief," said the Short-Legged Man.
+
+But Redy was hungry and so tired she could not walk. The Crow, instead
+of helping, flew away. He hadn't really got to write anything in a
+diary, but he had to carry a girl called Fritilla to the tennis-ground,
+where a lot of young people were going to play tennis.
+
+[Illustration: THE SHORT-LEGGED MAN]
+
+Fritilla was a pretty, fair girl with green eyes, whom the Crow had to
+look after. She was one of the three daughters of the Prisoner, of whom
+I will tell you later.
+
+But the Short-Legged Man took pity on Redy, and he shouted with his
+delicious voice out of his froglike mouth, "Papylick!" and this name was
+repeated as long as the Short-Legged Man did not put his spoonlike
+finger on his lips.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Papylick arrived with his name written on his boots, which were yellow
+as toffee, and had no laces. This Papylick was made of slices of
+different coloured cake, and he, too, carried a box with the word "SOY"
+inscribed upon it, a word which began to interest Smaly, though he was
+determined not to betray his interest.
+
+Papylick had a nut in one hand, and opening it he put Redy inside and
+shut it up again.
+
+Smaly, too, was tired, and thinking it much better for him also to be
+carried, he said:
+
+"Papylick, my dear Papylick," and immediately shut his mouth again with
+the first finger of his left hand.
+
+Papylick opened another nut and placed Smaly inside it, then the
+Short-Legged Man put both nuts in his pocket.
+
+[Illustration: PAPYLICK]
+
+Now Smaly and Redy could not see the country they were being carried
+through because the nuts were closed; but Papylick had thought of this,
+and so the landscapes were painted complete in every detail inside the
+nuts.
+
+But Smaly and Redy, instead of admiring these landscapes, soon
+discovered they were painted with delicious sweetstuffs such as they had
+seen in the jars and pots of the Confectioner.
+
+So they licked off the landscapes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ Smaly and Redy are not well received: They are thought to be
+ made of painted cardboard: How the Despoiler fell into the
+ water and left a foot behind him: Mistigris sticks a
+ fish-bone into the back of the Despoiler: Judgment is passed
+ on the two strangers: They will be banished at nightfall:
+ The walls of the three gardens are discussed.
+
+
+The two rulers of this country were the Chief Contractor and the
+Despoiler. On arriving at the town where the rulers lived, Redy and
+Smaly could hear a hundred bells ringing out crystal chimes. These bells
+were made of coloured sugar and were hung in campaniles of barley-sugar,
+whose domes were made of gilded crusts.
+
+When the bells left off ringing, a beautiful song arose, and each person
+who sang it had a voice as sweet as that of the Short-Legged Man or of
+Papylick.
+
+"We must have arrived for the midday prayer of the Wigs," said Smaly and
+Redy to themselves in their nuts.
+
+Before very long Papylick and the Short-Legged Man arrived at the house
+where the Chief Contractor lived and went into the great kitchen.
+
+"Well," said the Chief Contractor, coming forward to meet them, "what
+have you brought me?"
+
+[Illustration: OPENING THE NUTS AND DISPLAYING THE TWO LITTLE PEOPLE]
+
+"A mere nothing," replied Papylick, opening the nuts and displaying the
+two little people, who, jumping out, became their normal size once more.
+
+[Illustration: LEADING BY THE HAND THE CHOCOLATE GRUB]
+
+"They are two suet-eaters," said the Short-Legged Man apologetically, as
+he made Smaly and Redy sit down upon two charming seats made of painted
+wax.
+
+There were more than a hundred of these seats round the enormous
+kitchen, each occupied by some noted Wig.
+
+Smaly and Redy soon recognized the Crow, and the next moment they saw
+the Confectioner come in, apparently having quite got over his trouble
+and leading by the hand the Chocolate Grub who was the doorkeeper.
+
+The Chief Contractor and the Despoiler gazed attentively at Smaly and
+his wife; but as at this moment dinner was brought in, the two little
+humans were forgotten in the graver interest of the banquet. The eating
+in this country was a serious affair attended with many rites.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The banquet began. This solemn feast took place every day. As soon as
+the guests had taken their seats, each picked up a little slate, which
+hung by the side of his chair, a slate made of chocolate framed in
+well-cooked pastry, and each began to write his menu upon his slate. No
+matter what he wrote, whether it were eggs or roast larks, or whatever
+it were, the thing at once appeared: the birds with their legs encased
+in cutlet frills, and the eggs running along on two little feet, and
+carrying a spoon and salt-cellar in either hand.
+
+[Illustration: THE BIRDS WITH THEIR LEGS ENCASED IN CUTLET FRILLS]
+
+Redy and Smaly could not help thinking that all this was rather
+alarming; they were not used to seeing slices of toast arrive running
+like big spiders.
+
+Careering busily about the kitchen were little pigs made of marzipan.
+They were gentle and pretty pigs, who smelt deliciously of aromatic
+herbs, and each had a knife and fork stuck in his back.
+
+When each guest had cut as much marzipan as he wanted he replaced the
+knife and fork, and the little pig at once ran merrily on to the next
+guest without turning so much as one of its marzipan hairs.
+
+As to the tarts, they arrived flying like sparrows or miniature
+aeroplanes.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Redy also was presented with a slate, and she copied upon it the signs
+which she saw the Chief Contractor make upon his. By this means she
+partook of plum tart, oranges, and marzipan, all of which she shared
+with Smaly, who was not so quick as she was at copying the writing of
+the next-door neighbour.
+
+[Illustration: THE EGGS RUNNING ALONG]
+
+Certainly it was a most splendid feast; and as to the service, as one
+sees, it was conducted in a very novel fashion. Such was a banquet in
+this country, though on more ordinary occasions the Wigs had to go to
+their provisions instead of the provisions coming to them.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The feast over, the Wigs dipped their hands in finger-bowls, which
+consisted of the halves of melons scooped out and filled with
+rose-water. The Wigs all appeared very happy, their cheeks were flushed,
+their little amethyst-coloured eyes shone with satisfaction, the air was
+filled with a delicious scent of fruit.
+
+[Illustration: THEY WERE GENTLE AND PRETTY PIGS]
+
+"It seems to me there is an extraordinary smell of suet here," said the
+Chief Contractor, suddenly darting an unpleasant look at Smaly and his
+wife.
+
+"For my part," said the Despoiler, whose whole person from his nose to
+his feet, which were flatter than pancakes, expressed extreme
+suspicion--"for my part, what I smell is painted and varnished
+cardboard." And he, too, fixed Smaly and Redy with his eyes.
+
+[Illustration: A MOST SPLENDID FEAST]
+
+All the Wigs began to laugh, their large, amiable frogs' mouths
+expanded, and they crossed their fingers under their chins, which is in
+this country a great sign of mirth. They laughed because they all knew
+quite well that the Despoiler himself was only made of cardboard. He was
+certainly very well covered with jams and sweetmeats; but he was
+cardboard underneath for all that.
+
+[Illustration: THE DESPOILER]
+
+There was a story that one day the Despoiler had found himself beside a
+pool which lay between his house and the great kitchen of the Chief
+Contractor. The Despoiler had wanted to capture a flying-fish made of
+red marzipan, which was feeding upon a laurel-tree beside the pool. He
+leaned forward too far towards the tree and fell into the water, which
+was none the less wet for being scented with orange flowers. The birds
+which lived at the bottom of the pool brought him up to the surface once
+more. He was saved; but a terrible thing had happened to him. Not one
+spot of jam remained upon his cardboard.
+
+[Illustration: WHICH IS IN THIS COUNTRY A GREAT SIGN OF MIRTH]
+
+He fled hastily.
+
+[Illustration: HE FLED HASTILY]
+
+He had left one of his feet behind him in the water, and the Crow,
+taking off his spectacles, fished it up. Two kindly Wigs ran after the
+Despoiler with his cardboard foot.
+
+The Despoiler, although he was very clever, was also very vain, and
+pretended that it was not his foot at all; but only the sole of one of
+his shoes; but all the Wigs knew perfectly well that it was really his
+foot.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+While the Wigs were still laughing at the expense of the Despoiler,
+Smaly saw Mistigris, a Wig who moved with an extremely cat-like tread,
+strike the Despoiler from behind with a long fish-bone, and transfix his
+insensible cardboard back.
+
+The Chief Contractor, who saw what had happened, rattled the castanets
+which he wore on his left knee, and a young Stork dressed in the uniform
+of a fireman ran up behind the Despoiler, and by the aid of long pincers
+withdrew the fish-bone. This was evidently quite a usual occurrence.
+
+The Chief Contractor picked up one of the masks that hung round his
+neck, a mask which was called "Dignity," and placed it over his face.
+When he had worn this for a minute he let it swing like a monocle, and
+put in its place a mask called "Severity."
+
+"Let every one take his place," he cried in a stern voice.
+
+The Wigs gathered round in a circle, all looking towards the door.
+
+[Illustration: MISTIGRIS]
+
+"You're making a mistake, old man," whispered the Despoiler familiarly.
+"The arrangement was that we were going to see a review of your
+soldiers."
+
+"We are going to hold a council instead," shouted the Chief Contractor,
+and drops of perspiration, big and pink as strawberries, rolled down his
+mask.
+
+Suddenly he snatched it off and replaced it with a mask which signified
+"Anger."
+
+The assembly trembled. There was a sound as of shuddering macaroni or of
+dominoes rattling with fear.
+
+"Reckybecky, you are out of line!" cried the Chief Contractor from
+beneath his mask of saffron and flame colour. "Papylick and Mistigris,
+pay attention! Is it possible that already the intrusion here of two
+rascals made of suet is going to corrupt you all and reduce you to
+anarchy?"
+
+Mistigris and Papylick came running up with a cord, and, each taking an
+end, they held it in front of the row of Wigs to keep them straight.
+Those Wigs whose feet stuck out too far drew them back, and those whose
+feet did not come out far enough advanced them until every one's toes
+touched the cord and made a straight line.
+
+"You can roll the cord up," commanded the master; then he turned to
+Smaly. "Tell the truth," he demanded, "are you made of suet?"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+At this moment Papylick and the Young Stork gave a cry of horror. They
+had discovered that Smaly and Redy had licked the painted landscapes off
+the insides of the nuts in which they had been transported.
+
+[Illustration: THE YOUNG STORK]
+
+Every one uttered cries of indignation, and pressed forward so that
+their feet had to be brought to order again with the help of the cord.
+
+[Illustration: EVERY ONE UTTERED CRIES OF INDIGNATION]
+
+"The law is clear. These people made of cardboard and suet must be
+banished at once," said the Despoiler, who did not wear a mask, but
+could roll his eyes and open his mouth as much as he liked.
+
+"The sun is at its height. It's hot enough to bake tarts," said the
+Confectioner. "If these two people go out now the sun will melt them,
+and our beautiful lawns will be covered with fat."
+
+"Horror!" cried several of the Wigs.
+
+"Then they must stay here until the sun has set," decided the Chief
+Contractor, and putting on a mask called "The Listener" he continued:
+
+[Illustration: "YOU CAN ROLL THE CORD"]
+
+"Now tell me what they want, these disturbing people whom you have
+brought here. Tell me everything that you know, O Short-Legged Man."
+
+But Smaly and Redy spoke together, and they said:
+
+ "We wish to have three girls.
+ Fine, sweet, pink and good.
+ They shall have more pudding than they like,
+ And a green, green----"
+
+Here Redy stopped and said:
+
+ "... each a green garden."
+
+The Chief Contractor replied, "Won't do."
+
+The Crow added, "Because there aren't any."
+
+"There are the three daughters of the Prisoner," said the Chief
+Contractor; "but they can't go out of the country."
+
+"Look here," said the Mother of the Crow, who had just been brought in
+seated in her oyster-shell, "why shouldn't this man and his wife live
+just behind the wall of the country, then they will be able to look at
+the Prisoner's daughters."
+
+"That won't do," said the Chief Contractor, "the girls mustn't speak to
+each other. They don't know, none of them knows, that their father was
+beheaded, and if they spoke to each other about it they would all know."
+
+"Well, well," said the Mother of the Crow, preparing to be very wise,
+"they can surround each garden by a wall and keep the girls separate."
+
+So it was decided that the little man and his wife were to be banished
+after sunset; but they could live beyond the wall, and the girls should
+each have a green garden surrounded by a wall of its own.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHIEF CONTRACTOR REPLIED]
+
+These walls were to be quite low to suit the stature of the young girls,
+and each year the walls were to be raised as the girls grew taller.
+Thus the girls would not be able to see each other or be able to confide
+to each other indiscretions on a thousand and one subjects of which they
+knew nothing.
+
+[Illustration: CHILDREN WERE BUILT OF MUCH FEWER SLICES OF CAKE THAN THE
+GROWN-UPS]
+
+Here the Chief Contractor again made a very strong objection.
+
+"It's important," he said, "that every year on their birthdays we should
+insert a slice of cake in these little girls so that they should grow
+tall enough to suit their age."
+
+In the somewhat embarrassed silence which followed, Smaly discovered why
+the Wigs had such short legs and such long bodies.
+
+"Of course, that is it," he said to himself; "each year on their
+birthdays somebody adds another tart or slice of cake to them, and they
+grow taller."
+
+[Illustration: THESE CREATURES WILL EAT THE TOP OFF THE WALLS]
+
+He glanced out of the window and saw that this was indeed so, that the
+children were built of much fewer slices of cake than the grown-ups.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Chief Contractor now made a second objection.
+
+"But what shall we do," he said, "when the garden wall of the eldest
+girl grows to be five feet high, for you mustn't forget that that is the
+height at which the fishes and lizards fly, so the wall will never be
+able to be higher than five feet, for every night these creatures will
+eat the top off the walls."
+
+It was again the Mother of the Crow who saved the situation. The dark
+hole in which she wore her eye when her son was not carrying it round
+his neck seemed full of intelligence. She placed her finger upon her
+brow without moving her arm (for the simple reason that she did not
+possess one), and said:
+
+"When we can no longer make the walls higher, then we will sink the
+gardens as much as is needful."
+
+All the same the Wigs could not accept this as a solution, for it seemed
+to them that men grew upwards and not towards the ground, that is to
+say, from the head and not from the feet.
+
+[Illustration: ANGER]
+
+The Chief Contractor gave the matter due thought.
+
+[Illustration: IT SEEMED TO THEM THAT MEN GREW UPWARDS AND NOT TOWARDS
+THE GROUND]
+
+"We will place the annual slice of cake exactly in the middle of the
+girls," he announced, "and thus we will only have to sink the level of
+the gardens a little, and raise the top of the walls a little."
+
+But since nobody seemed quite ready to accept this as a solution, the
+Chief Contractor again placed upon his face the mask called "Anger," and
+every one held their tongues from perplexity.
+
+[Illustration: SOME VERY ELEGANT MICE]
+
+Happily at this moment the most charming music was heard upon the air.
+One could detect the scent of this music with one's nose, and taste it
+with one's tongue. One could see it floating out from various little
+boxes that some very elegant mice were opening and shutting with much
+delicacy and care.
+
+"It's the review of the troops beginning," exclaimed the Young Stork in
+a loud voice as he tweaked the hundredth fish-bone out of the insensible
+back of the Despoiler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ Redy and Smaly watch the review of the troops: Smaly and the
+ Mother of the Crow discourse about soldiers: The Chief
+ Contractor distributes the food, and the Wigs pass through a
+ curious little door: The Soy powder makes the provisions
+ grow.
+
+
+The Wigs now began to form themselves into a semicircle, the smallest
+nearest the door, and the others standing behind them so that they could
+see over their heads.
+
+It was a half-holiday for Laptitza, the second daughter of the Prisoner,
+and Papylick brought her in so that she could see the review of the
+troops.
+
+Laptitza was shown to a low chair in the midst of the semicircle formed
+by the Wigs.
+
+Laptitza was so beautiful that it would not have been possible to have
+painted her portrait.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The soldiers arrived in Indian file, one behind the other.
+
+"There are a hundred and two of them," announced the Chief Contractor,
+looking furtively at Smaly. He shot this look through the eyeholes of
+the mask which he had just slipped on and which appeared to be made in
+two halves, for while one half expressed severe authority, the other
+was all gentleness.
+
+[Illustration: ONE HALF EXPRESSED SEVERE AUTHORITY, THE OTHER WAS ALL
+GENTLENESS]
+
+"One hundred and two," repeated Smaly in a perfectly expressionless
+voice.
+
+"My brother used to have only one hundred," said the Despoiler, "but I
+made him understand that they could not possibly march until they had
+one at the head and one at the tail, and that makes one hundred and
+two." It was now the Despoiler's turn to look slyly at the two little
+human beings and see how they took his remark.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The soldiers came on in a straight line towards the great door of the
+kitchen. They had an extraordinarily complicated method of marching,
+taking two steps in advance and then one backwards, and this was made
+all the more difficult for them because discipline enjoined that each
+man should place his feet accurately in the footsteps of the leader.
+This man's feet, by an ingenious arrangement, left white marks in the
+ground.
+
+When the leading soldier arrived at the door, since it was not permitted
+him to turn his back upon such an august assembly, he had to take his
+departure marching backwards, and so had all those who followed after
+him. From that moment there were two long lines of soldiers, one going
+forwards, the other going backwards; but all the soldiers had their
+noses, their chests, their knees, and their big toes pointing in the
+same direction--the door of the kitchen.
+
+When the review was over, the Chief Contractor was so pleased that he
+decided that they must have a similar review every week. He had a fence
+erected round the traces left by the soldiers' feet, so that they would
+not be effaced, but could be used again each week.
+
+Just as this was finished Smaly noticed that the eye of the Mother of
+the Crow was regarding him steadfastly. Suddenly the eye winked as
+though to signal him to approach. Smaly began to walk towards the eye;
+but it occurred to him on reflection that it was towards the Mother of
+the Crow herself that he ought to turn his steps, and not towards her
+eye, which, after all, was merely hung in a locket round the neck of her
+son. Therefore he turned and approached the oyster-shell, where the
+Mother of the Crow was seated.
+
+The Wigs were no longer taking any notice of him; they were eating
+ices, and chatting together in their mellifluous voices. They had all
+put on thick gloves, for the warmth of the fresh pastry of which their
+hands were composed would have melted the ices.
+
+[Illustration: HE DECIDED THAT THEY MUST HAVE A SIMILAR REVIEW EVERY
+WEEK]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"None of them really knows what a soldier is," said the Mother of the
+Crow in a low voice to Smaly.
+
+"Oh," said Smaly; "but _you_ know, don't you?"
+
+"Certainly I know. Soldiers are beings who cut up the meat that men like
+you eat, who hack down big trees, who kill the beautiful horned animals
+for food. You see I know perfectly well what a soldier is, and one can
+always tell a real soldier because he carries big knives, axes, saws,
+razors, and scythes."
+
+"H'm! Not at all," contradicted Smaly with the air of one beginning a
+lecture. "A soldier is a man who fights other soldiers."
+
+"What?" asked the Mother of the Crow. "How is that possible when they
+are both the same thing?"
+
+"I assure you that it is so," replied Smaly.
+
+The Mother of the Crow reflected; but catching sight of the Wigs, who
+were putting the soldiers back in their boxes at the end of the
+courtyard, she began again.
+
+[Illustration: THEY HAD ALL PUT ON THICK GLOVES]
+
+"He," she said, nodding her head towards the Chief Contractor, "has no
+idea of what a soldier is. He has never seen one excepting in a painting
+that a cousin sent him. It is a painting that represents a court in full
+dress. There are several soldiers with knives standing round the cousin,
+who is the President of the Republic of Pasenipus. They wear
+breastplates of gold to prevent the blood of the animals they kill
+soiling their fine coats. The Chief Contractor thought that these
+breastplates must be eggs, and, as you see, these soldiers are just eggs
+with legs. The Chief Contractor has had oxeye daisies fastened to their
+heels, because in the picture there were golden daisies fastened to the
+boots of the soldiers."
+
+[Illustration: WIGS, WHO WERE PUTTING THE SOLDIERS BACK IN THEIR BOXES]
+
+[Illustration: LAPTITZA AND PAPYLICK
+
+_Page 59_]
+
+[Illustration: PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF PASENIPUS]
+
+"Those must have been spurs!" explained Smaly absently, his attention
+being distracted by a curious rattling noise from afar off.
+
+"I don't know what spurs are," admitted the Mother of the Crow; "but the
+Chief Contractor doesn't even know what the shield is that each soldier
+carries to protect his face from the horns of the animals. He doesn't
+even know that soldiers carry knives," she added, "but has put in his
+soldiers' hands flowers with long stalks. He doesn't know what a helmet
+is, for he thought that soldiers must be a sort of bird with a plume on
+their heads."
+
+Smaly didn't mind. He had very much admired the feathered heads, and,
+above all, he admired the shields, which were made of pearly shell-fish,
+but before the review the Wigs had eaten the contents of these beautiful
+shields lest the shell-fish should all have hidden their faces from
+fright.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+When the Wigs had placed the soldiers in the boxes the Young Stork and
+Papylick came towards Smaly. The Stork took charge of the Mother of the
+Crow to conduct her back to her house, which was in a cosy nook in a
+great tree of coral.
+
+Smaly and Redy now wished to go, but Papylick informed them that neither
+the sun nor moon having yet set, it was not possible, and so the little
+husband and wife sat down on their heels in the doorway of the kitchen.
+
+The rattling sound had now come nearer, and the Chief Contractor
+appeared in the public square surrounded by Wigs pushing wheelbarrows
+and turning rattles.
+
+[Illustration: TO CONDUCT HER BACK TO HER HOUSE, WHICH WAS IN A COSY
+NOOK IN A GREAT TREE OF CORAL]
+
+These Wigs laid the rattles in the wheelbarrows, and everything became
+quiet once more.
+
+Then the Chief Contractor advanced boldly into the full sunshine, and
+the Wigs, who watched him put one foot in front of the other, prepared
+also to advance.
+
+The Chief Contractor had made a few changes in his costume. He still
+wore his big ring and his box marked "Soy"; but a huge hat now covered
+his head. Little shelves were hung all about his person, and on these
+and on his hat were placed pots and jars, cakes and flagons. He had many
+more than the Confectioner, who, after all, was only his lieutenant. He
+carried a quiverful of ebony knives, and an urn from which stuck out
+long bamboo spoons. His masks were slung from the end of a stick. He
+touched his lips with his magic ring, then he agitated the castanets
+which hung at his knee, and cried:
+
+"Food, food! Come in by the door, come in by the door," and he shut his
+mouth up again quickly with his left thumb.
+
+"I don't see a door, or even a place for a door. There isn't anything,"
+said Smaly to Papylick.
+
+"There it is," said Redy, pointing towards a little door which stood in
+the middle of the square. "There's no wall, but that is a door. See,
+it's open," she added.
+
+"But what's the good of that door," cried Smaly to the Chocolate Grub,
+which had come up beside him and was waiting with the others to go and
+get his provisions.
+
+[Illustration: THE CONFECTIONER]
+
+"I know nothing about doors," said the Grub sharply. "You must ask some
+specialist in such matters; some one who knows about draughts and
+opening and shutting. Some one, in fact, who looks like a doorkeeper,"
+and the Grub withdrew proudly.
+
+[Illustration: "NEVERTHELESS IT'S SO NARROW THAT ONLY ONE PERSON CAN GO
+THROUGH AT A TIME"]
+
+Smaly realized that he had been lacking in tact to mention the word
+"door" to the Grub, who always pretended that he was not a doorkeeper.
+Papylick explained to the two little people:
+
+"If there weren't a door the people would simply tear the Chief
+Contractor to bits to get at the food."
+
+"But----" began Smaly.
+
+"And anyway the door was open," said Redy.
+
+"That's true," replied Papylick, "but nevertheless it's so narrow that
+only one person can go through at a time."
+
+[Illustration: THE SONG WENT ON]
+
+And, indeed, each Wig was passing singly through the little door to
+receive in his pot or pan a drop of gooseberry jam or a morsel of cake
+or apple, or one or two cherry-stones.
+
+The Chief Contractor served out his goods with his bamboo spoons. When
+the Wigs were served they made their way in single file towards two
+posts which stood in the square, and passed very carefully between them
+so as not to spill any of their precious provisions.
+
+And every one had received from the Contractor a little powder in a box
+like a small snuff-box labelled "Soy."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Back in their kitchen the Wigs sprinkled a pinch of the Soy powder on
+their crumbs of cake and spots of jam, and then taking hands danced
+slowly round the table, singing, while the little crumbs of food began
+to grow bigger and bigger. The fragments of cake became whole cakes, the
+spots of jam swelled to marvellous jellies, and the cherry-stones became
+baskets full of the most succulent fruits. When they had finished their
+song they did not shut their mouths up again, thereby attaining two
+excellent results--the song went on and on while they could eat their
+dessert at their ease.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ The Sugar-Cane Prison arrives: The Rats water it with Soy
+ fluid to keep the canes growing as fast as the Prisoner
+ breaks them down: The time for siesta draws on, and Smaly
+ and Redy go into the house of the Historian.
+
+
+While the Wigs were in the kitchen, and Smaly and Redy were seated in
+the doorway sharing Papylick's provisions, distant cries rose upon the
+air. Smaly and Redy turned to gaze out at the public square, which was
+hot and empty; but in a moment several Wigs arrived at the far end,
+running hard with their little short legs, and crying out:
+
+[Illustration: RUNNING HARD WITH THEIR LITTLE SHORT LEGS]
+
+"The prison has turned round, it's coming in this direction."
+
+The Chief Contractor, who was eating in the kitchen in company with the
+Despoiler, the Confectioner, the Crow, Mistigris, the Stork, and
+various other people, precipitated himself towards the door, followed by
+the rest. Listening to their scraps of conversation Smaly gathered that
+the Wigs held some stranger captive, and that this prisoner lived in a
+perambulating prison which travelled about the country. This astonished
+Smaly very much, as, indeed, it would have astonished you had you been
+in his place. Even I, who have seen many strange things, was very
+astonished when I first heard about it.
+
+[Illustration: SOY MILL]
+
+[Illustration: SOY RESERVOIR]
+
+The shouting grew nearer, and there appeared at the far end of the
+square a forest of sugar-canes moving steadily onwards. The canes reared
+up into the air like rockets which never rose any higher, or like a
+field of gigantic corn, and they formed a solid wall which came ever
+nearer and nearer.
+
+The wall came onward and hit against a house which stood in its way, and
+mowed it down. The sugar-canes were far more powerful than the pastry of
+which the house was composed.
+
+The sugar-cane forest came closer, so close that Smaly and Redy
+perceived how amongst the base of the canes there was a multitude of
+Water-Rats who were busy watering the roots.
+
+These Rats were all provided with large mackintoshes, which, however,
+they took off for greater freedom of movement while they were watering.
+They wore boots like those you see upon the men who clean out drains,
+and each Rat had upon its head a fireman's helmet similar to that worn
+by the Stork.
+
+Some watered with a watering-can, some with firemen's hose, connected
+with reservoirs shaped like enormous bottles of champagne, and mounted
+upon wheels.
+
+One of the Rats, who wore a long red feather trailing from its helmet,
+was mounted upon a Hare whose pads were wrapped in linen. The Rat
+galloped backwards and forwards upon the Hare from the forest to a big
+windmill marked "Soy," where the reservoirs were.
+
+Still the forest kept on advancing until the quiet square was
+transformed into a den of noise and activity. The sugar-canes grew
+higher and more numerous every moment under the influence of the water
+of Soy, which was as productive as the Soy powder.
+
+The kitchen was by now emptied of everything movable; the Wigs ran
+hither and thither carrying away every object that they could lift, as
+people move furniture when a neighbouring house is burning; only Smaly
+and Redy remained, stupefied before this moving forest which marched
+down upon them.
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING AWAY EVERY OBJECT THAT THEY COULD LIFT]
+
+When it was almost on them they ran to one side, and there, where the
+sugar-canes were less thick, they could see into the heart of the
+forest, and they saw crouching within it a strange-looking man dressed
+in rags. Little of his face showed between his long hair and his tangled
+beard. He wore no shoes; but carried at the end of a string several
+boxes of matches. Perpetually he made the same rhythmic gesture with his
+arms, and with every gesture the sugar-canes around him broke as if they
+were made of brittle glass. His eyes stared straight in front of him,
+and he seemed to be laughing to himself.
+
+"He is a madman," said Redy.
+
+"They have driven him mad," replied Smaly in a low voice.
+
+Smaly and Redy joined hands. "We ought to save him," they said together.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Prisoner never ceased to break the sugar-canes, and fresh canes
+sprang up around him also without a pause.
+
+Fish that had wings and paws flew above the forest, brushing the heads
+of the canes with their ringed noses. Whenever they did this the
+sugar-canes seemed to shrivel up and vanish.
+
+And thus the forest advanced, new canes springing up ahead, and the old
+canes withering behind; but always surrounding the Prisoner, no matter
+how he shattered them.
+
+Now these rings which the Flying-Fish wore in their noses had been fixed
+there by the Despoiler, and the rings worn by all the Wigs came from the
+same source and served the same purpose, that of stopping all growth.
+This was how the Despoiler came by his name, for mere creature of
+insensate pasteboard as he was, he had the power from his magic ring to
+arrest all life--a blade of grass in the ground, or the passage of a
+bird in the air.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRISONER]
+
+Suddenly the Prisoner paused in his frantic toil and fell asleep like a
+child. The rats also left off their work and wrapped themselves in their
+mackintoshes.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRISONER NEVER CEASED TO BREAK THE SUGAR-CANES]
+
+Smaly and Redy wished to attract the attention of the Prisoner; but the
+strange man slept on, and they did not dare speak to him too loudly, for
+they were afraid that he might be quite mad, and also they did not know
+how the Wigs would take interference with their prisoner. Indeed,
+Papylick and the Young Stork had already noticed what they were trying
+to do, and since the kitchen had been destroyed by the passing of the
+forest they now drew Smaly and Redy gently but firmly into one of the
+houses in the square.
+
+"This is the house of the Historian," said Papylick, "and here you must
+stay until the setting of the sun."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ The Flying-Fish announces the hour of three, and the World
+ falls asleep: The Hen makes six hard-boiled eggs: Smaly and
+ Redy begin to read the manuscript of the Historian.
+
+
+Smaly and Redy found themselves in a room that was rather dark in spite
+of the fact that the sun was still high in the heavens. There were only
+four windows, one placed so low down that the Wigs, even when seated,
+could observe what passed. Another, very little higher, was for the Wigs
+to look out of when they were standing on their short legs. These two
+windows had already been in existence when the Government of the country
+offered the house to the Historian to enable him to write the chronicles
+of the inhabitants.
+
+The Historian put in an indent asking for two more windows, and
+succeeded in obtaining them. The first of the new windows was put
+alongside the old one, which had been for the use of the Wigs standing;
+but this new window was for the Historian when he was sitting down, as
+he was twice the height of an ordinary Wig. The fourth window was set
+very high to allow of the Historian looking out on the market square as
+he walked about.
+
+It will be seen what bright ideas this Historian had; but the result of
+one of his brightest was to be seen in the ceiling, where there were two
+circular holes, one much bigger than the other.
+
+[Illustration: THE PET FLYING-FISH, WHICH EVERY WIG FAMILY POSSESSES AND
+CHERISHES]
+
+The big hole had been there for a long time and had been made to allow
+of free exit and entry to the pet Flying-Fish, which every Wig family
+possesses and cherishes, much as you or I cherish a dog or a cat; but
+when some one made the Historian a present of another and much younger
+Flying-Fish, he at once caused a smaller hole to be made so that his new
+pet also could come in and out as it pleased.
+
+Redy and Smaly found the Historian sitting in a corner of his room
+studying a piece of paper through a telescope, and taking notes as to
+what he saw. The little husband and wife shut the door gently behind
+them and remained very quiet. They were quite alone with this curious
+and enormous being, who took no more notice of them than if they had
+been a couple of mice.
+
+It was the first time that Redy and Smaly had seen the interior of a Wig
+house, and they found it resembled nothing so much as the laboratory of
+an alchemist or astronomer. The thing Smaly and Redy admired most was a
+large globe upon which all the Wig possessions were painted in red.
+
+[Illustration: THE AMOUNT OF CAKE AND PUDDING EATEN ANNUALLY IN THE
+COUNTRY]
+
+At first they were very astonished to see how big the Wigs' country
+appeared to be; but after a little study Smaly suggested that the areas
+covered in red must represent the importance morally and mentally of
+the country rather than its geographical area, and this Redy agreed
+with, for she had found ranged in a row beside the globe a lot of little
+painted cardboard figures of different sizes representing the amount of
+cake and pudding eaten annually in the countries represented by these
+little figures; which were the Wigs' country, Parseny's Land, England,
+France, Italy, and Belgium, and the Wigs' country was the biggest of the
+lot.
+
+[Illustration: The Elder of the Fishes]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+While the little husband and wife were discussing this in low voices so
+as not to disturb the Historian, the elder of the Fishes flew in. With
+great difficulty it scraped through the small hole instead of its own.
+It flew to its perch, and announced in a clear voice:
+
+"Three o'clock has struck."
+
+It said these words to a Hen who was sitting upon a coal-scuttle,
+busily making little white and yellow pasties.
+
+[Illustration: THE HEN]
+
+Having made this announcement the Fish pulled down its eyelids with its
+left paw, buried its nose in a nightcap, wrapped its wings round its
+head, and went to sleep. The Hen seemed very agitated by the Fish's
+words, and began to work harder than ever.
+
+She wore a peruke like all the Wigs, and an infinite number of skirts
+made of butter muslin. She looked at the clock, for the big hand had
+stopped at two, whereas the little hand was at the hour of three. While
+she gazed at it the left foot of the Historian shot out and brought the
+little hand round to six o'clock.
+
+At once the Hen started rolling out six yellow balls upon her
+pasteboard. These she wrapped up in a white crust and then hid them in
+the pockets of her skirts and sat upon them, while she made fourteen
+more eggs out of the white and yellow paste.
+
+"The little hand must be to ask for six hard-boiled eggs," whispered
+Redy to Smaly.
+
+At that moment Smaly, who was staring out of the window, nudged Redy,
+and looking out together they saw that the Wigs, who had been busily
+rebuilding the kitchen, had all fallen asleep in the market square
+because three o'clock was the hour of the afternoon's rest. The
+Confectioner, his hair streaming in the wind, was running hard towards
+his own house. He held by the hand Fritilla, the youngest of the
+Prisoner's daughters, whose big eyes were looking all about her as she
+ran. The Confectioner pushed her rapidly into his house and shut the
+door upon her, then he, too, fell asleep in the square like the other
+Wigs. This care which the Confectioner took of Fritilla was by no means
+unnecessary, as for several days she had been pursued by an enormous red
+Flying-Fish which declared that she had stolen from it its seven hundred
+and eighty-secondth feather. It declared that it had seen the plume
+actually in her hands, and that when it had gone home and counted its
+feathers over before going to sleep that night it only possessed seven
+hundred and eighty-one.
+
+[Illustration: THIS CARE WHICH THE CONFECTIONER TOOK OF FRITILLA WAS BY
+NO MEANS UNNECESSARY]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The smaller Flying-Fish now flew into the Historian's room, using its
+own little hole. It hated using this; but it seemed an even greater
+humiliation to use the big one, for that made the poor little Fish feel
+smaller than ever. Thus it came about that neither the big nor the
+little Flying-Fish ever used the larger hole, which had become all
+overgrown with delicate mosses and stonecrop, and even by a fine yellow
+wallflower. The windows in this country, if people did not look through
+them often enough, became almost opaque.
+
+[Illustration: The Smaller Flying-Fish]
+
+The little Flying-Fish seated itself on its perch, and called out:
+
+"It's nearly half-past three. We must rest. Everybody must rest. Let's
+go to sleep." And it, too, pulled down its eyelids with its left paw,
+buried its nose in a nightcap, and wrapped its wings round its head.
+
+The Historian stretched out a hand, took the six hard-boiled eggs from
+the Hen, dropped them through a hole in his beak, put the hand of the
+clock back to zero, then he, too, shut his eyes.
+
+"He sleeps," murmured Smaly and Redy.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Smaly tiptoed across to the Historian.
+
+[Illustration: DROPPED THEM THROUGH A HOLE IN HIS BEAK]
+
+He was a curious sort of man, extremely thin, his face dominated rather
+than adorned by an immense beak, which apparently he could not open; and
+he had little twinkling eyes like an elephant's, which twinkled even
+more when they were shut than when they were open. He wore a sort of
+wrapper, trimmed with fur round the neck, sleeves, and legs. Neither
+Redy nor Smaly could quite decide what the Historian was made of,
+whether of Manchester pudding, of pie-crust, or gingerbread, and they
+did not dare try and taste him for fear of waking him up.
+
+[Illustration: WAS SITTING WITH ONE ANKLE ACROSS THE KNEE OF HIS OTHER
+LEG]
+
+The Historian was sitting with one ankle across the knee of his other
+leg, and had rolled round his thin calf the manuscript upon which he had
+been working. This manuscript was trained to roll itself up slowly round
+his leg whilst he wrote it.
+
+Smaly looked carefully all round him. The Hen was sleeping, the two Fish
+slept also, the Historian slept profoundly without snoring. He had
+always wanted to be able to snore; but he could never succeed because of
+his beak, and therefore he had invented a sort of little suction-pump
+run by a motor, which he kept beside him, and which snored quite as well
+as a man.
+
+Except Smaly and Redy every one was sleeping in the house of the
+Historian. Outside in the sun-baked square the Chief Contractor, the
+Confectioner, Mistigris, the Young Stork, and the Crow slept also,
+heaped one upon the other in a casual manner, only the Despoiler, who
+was always afraid that some one would find out that he was only made of
+cardboard, never slept in public. He always retired to rest in a little
+room under the roof of his house.
+
+When Smaly had made quite sure that there was no one to see them, he
+took Redy by the hand and began gently to unroll the Historian's
+manuscript. Smaly and Redy began to read it to each other in low voices,
+word by word, like children who go upstairs one leg at a time. This is
+what they read:
+
+[Illustration: THE DESPOILER, WHO WAS ALWAYS AFRAID THAT SOME ONE WOULD
+FIND OUT THAT HE WAS ONLY MADE OF CARDBOARD, NEVER SLEPT IN PUBLIC]
+
+"Thursday, half-past three.
+
+"All buildings except the cherry-tart destroyed in the market square.
+
+"The Prisoner crossed the river while it was dry.
+
+"Rolled across the park of chocolate-moulds, crushing everything beneath
+him.
+
+"He then rolled on over the great kitchen, which was happily empty.
+
+"(The two little people made of suet have been shut in with me.)
+
+"Up past the public square, and the two little people tried to talk to
+him.
+
+"The Rats worked hard at keeping the prison together; but there are
+cries everywhere.
+
+"Every one is calling out 'The Prisoner is coming.'"
+
+"How annoying this is," said Redy, "we're reading it backwards."
+
+"Annoying," said a deep voice which came from the closed beak of the
+Historian. He had forgotten that he was asleep, and lifting up his foot
+he kicked the two inquisitive little people to the other end of the
+room.
+
+But the sight of the Flying-Fish and the Hen sleeping reminded him that
+he, too, was not really awake, so he closed his eyes and did not move
+again.
+
+Smaly was able to go on unrolling the whole of the manuscript.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ Redy and Smaly read of the childhood of the Prisoner.
+
+
+They read as follows:
+
+
+"THE STORY OF DJORAK
+
+"This is what I, the Historian, have been able to discover about the
+life of Djorak, called The Prisoner, before he came to us. He told it to
+me himself before he was placed in his prison of sugar-canes.
+
+"He is a sailor.
+
+"He has been tattooed.
+
+"Nearly everything that has been tattooed upon him is very terrible; for
+instance, one can read upon his shoulder-blade:
+
+"'Eat meat raw if you can't get it cooked.'
+
+"Indeed, he has himself avowed to me that he used to eat all sorts of
+animals, rabbits, sheep, and even birds.
+
+"On his other shoulder was written:
+
+"'Avoid water like poison.'
+
+"He had also inscribed about his person:
+
+"'Drink your gin and whisky neat.'
+
+"'Always have a hot drink in the evening.'
+
+"'Reverence the sun and each of the winds as it blows.'
+
+"On his breast he bore a heart cruelly transfixed with arrows.
+
+"I gathered that from his childhood he was rough and disobedient. That
+when as a little boy he used to go into the wood behind the house to
+smoke, his mother always followed him and carefully presented him with
+an ash-tray, yet he never made use of the tray; but kept it in his
+pocket and scattered the ash all over the wood.
+
+"Instead of cutting his toe-nails as we do with the help of a
+long-handled pair of scissors and a telescope, he preferred to take each
+nail off separately, trim it, and put it back, although this invariably
+made his mother cry.
+
+[Illustration: "INSTEAD OF CUTTING HIS TOE-NAILS AS WE DO WITH THE HELP
+OF A LONG-HANDLED PAIR OF SCISSORS AND A TELESCOPE"]
+
+[Illustration: SOME OF THE DANCES WERE VERY COMPLICATED
+
+_Page 122_]
+
+"He was so perverse that when any one asked him what the time was he
+would always insist on telling it by the barometer, although he knew
+perfectly well that the exact time is only to be found on the clock.
+
+"He always marked out the tennis-court with green chalk, because he
+maintained that the white looked too loud and left marks upon the grass.
+
+"Evidently from his earliest youth he was of the stuff of which
+criminals are made.
+
+"When he grew up he married and became the father of three adorable
+little girls."
+
+At the mention of the three little girls Redy and Smaly stopped and
+looked at each other.
+
+"Those are the three little daughters of the Prisoner," whispered Redy.
+
+Smaly went on reading:
+
+"When his wife died," Smaly read, "he decided to give to his daughters a
+good, if rather original education.
+
+[Illustration: THE KING]
+
+"Every alternate week he dressed them as boys, and during that week they
+behaved as boys, and the next week they would become girls again. 'That
+will accustom them to anything,' he used to say. 'Nothing in life
+should be difficult to them after that.'
+
+"Three young men fell in love with them, but unfortunately called on
+their father to demand them in marriage one Monday morning when the
+three girls were dressed as boys, and considered as such by their
+father.
+
+"The three young men were thrown out of the house with great violence by
+the infuriated parent. One young man lost his hat, the second lost his
+arms and his walking-stick, and the third lost one of his legs.
+
+"Certainly Djorak's love for his daughters was very intense.
+
+"It was this love which was his ruin.
+
+"One day in the presence of the King of his country he boasted of being
+the father of the three most beautiful young girls in his country.
+
+[Illustration: THE KING'S DAUGHTER]
+
+"What an imprudence! The King himself possessed a daughter whose beauty,
+to say the least of it, was not remarkable, and the King, who was very
+intelligent, was perfectly well aware of the fact. He was furious when
+he heard Djorak's boast. He had him arrested and tried before the high
+court, who decided that the punishment of death was barely sufficient
+for such an audacious criminal.
+
+"The punishment of death in Djorak's country is by beheading with the
+sword; a criminal's head is only cut off once--but it is once and for
+all."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ The elder Flying Fish loses one eye, and the Hen finds it:
+ The Historian wakes up, and Smaly and Redy run out of the
+ house: The Healer mends the paw of the Confectioner.
+
+
+The Flying-Fish upon their perches now began to shake their wings and
+then their paws, and last of all their heads.
+
+"Are we really awake?" asked the elder Flying-Fish of the younger.
+
+"It seems to me that we are more or less shaken up," replied the little
+Flying-Fish.
+
+The two Fish prepared themselves to fly forthwith once more upon their
+arduous duties, for the Flying-Fish in this country act as sentinels and
+look-out men, and also cry the hours publicly.
+
+Just as they were about to set off the little Flying-Fish noticed that
+the other had lost an eye.
+
+"That must have been when I shook my head," exclaimed the elder
+Flying-Fish with conviction, and both flew down on to the floor to look
+for the missing eye. The Hen joined them in their search, and as she
+fluttered down she managed to upset a glass retort from which an
+opalescent vapour began to escape.
+
+Soon the whole laboratory was filled with this vapour in layer upon
+layer of different colours, from deep rose at the base up through violet
+and pale green to a layer of no colour at all, which was succeeded by a
+layer of blue.
+
+Through the vapour Smaly and Redy could hear that the Fish and the Hen
+were continuing their search for the lost eye. Sometimes they were quite
+near the two little people, although no one could see any one else.
+
+It was the Hen who finally discovered the lost eye.
+
+"Why, it's still shut," said the younger Fish to the elder.
+
+"Doubtless it must have fallen out before I had really shaken myself
+awake," replied the elder.
+
+Taking the eye from the hands of the Hen, the Fish held it in its cupped
+paws to shake it, as one shakes a coin, to see whether it will come down
+heads or tails. When it had been well shaken the eye was open.
+
+The little Fish took the eye and replaced it in the elder Fish's head;
+then they both flew out, making a buzzing noise like gigantic
+bluebottles.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The layers of coloured vapour now began to twirl about and mix like
+wreaths of steam, and once again various objects in the room became
+visible. The Hen saw that the big toes of the Historian had begun to
+move, and knowing that these signs of wakefulness would presently mount
+as far as his head, she hastened back to her little pots of white and
+yellow paste.
+
+Indeed, the Historian was already almost awake; he had put down his hand
+and stopped the little snoring machine.
+
+Smaly and Redy joined hands and ran out of the door.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Directly they appeared in the square the Wigs seized hold of them and
+ran them into the kitchen once more, which by now had been built up
+again. Smaly and Redy began to hope that the evening was not far off,
+for they were becoming more and more anxious to see the three girls.
+They opened their mouths and began their little chant:
+
+ We wish to have three girls,
+ Fine, sweet----
+
+But at this moment Redy noticed that the sun had not moved during all
+the hours of the siesta. Nobody had explained to them that since all the
+Wigs had been asleep the sun had naturally thought it would be
+ill-mannered to continue his advance.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Redy and Smaly stood alone in the kitchen wondering what to do, when the
+door opened and a middle-sized man walked in, saying in a severe voice:
+
+"Where the dickens have those idiots got to?"
+
+[Illustration: THE HEALER]
+
+Smaly hid himself behind Redy, and Redy hid herself behind a large
+plant, which grew in one of the ornamental vases at the side of the
+Chief Contractor's throne.
+
+[Illustration: BORN WITH THE IDEA OF ONE DAY BEING A VERY BIG MAN]
+
+The man who came in had evidently been born with the idea of one day
+being a very big man. But he had been destined by his parents to become
+a great Healer, and as soon as he had discovered this it occurred to him
+that it would be better to be merely of medium height, so that he did
+not have to make his back ache bending over the beds of sick people.
+Therefore he at once left off growing, excepting in girth; and since he
+always wished to ride about the country it was obvious that he did not
+want his legs to be too strong, therefore he had small legs, enormous
+shoulders, a hump both back and front, and a large stomach.
+
+The Healer was accompanied by a page made in the shape of a drum. This
+drum, besides having the head of a page and two solid little legs
+mounted upon roller-skates, was hung about with an immense number of
+instruments, with tubes of gum, sealing-wax, and candles. In one of his
+hands he carried a funnel made of fish-glue, down which he poured
+medicine into the mouths of sick people.
+
+In the other he had a corkscrew for pulling out bad teeth.
+
+"It's simply freezing in this horrible kitchen," said the Healer,
+looking about him. "Where on earth have they got to?" Then turning to
+the page he added: "Fetch my cloak out of the right-hand pannier."
+
+He gave a shove to the drum, which skated off to the door where two
+donkeys stood side by side. One donkey could certainly never have
+supported the Healer, therefore he had to have two, and between them was
+fastened a comfortable arm-chair. The page came back trailing a large
+cloak behind him, made of the leaves of aromatic herbs.
+
+When the Healer had put it on he looked like a mound entirely covered
+with ivy. The bag which he carried slung on his right-hand side was
+almost hidden by his cloak, so was that on his left.
+
+Upon one of these, which contained little bottles and boxes, one could
+just read the word "Medicines," and upon the other "Rewards to be taken
+after medicine."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Healer continued to call out "Where are they, where are they?"
+gazing everywhere through his large single eyeglass, which was so big he
+could look through it with both eyes at once.
+
+[Illustration: BETWEEN THEM WAS FASTENED A COMFORTABLE ARM-CHAIR]
+
+He drew near to the plant behind which Smaly and Redy were hiding, and
+just as it seemed as though he must discover them, they managed to hide
+themselves beneath the folds of his cloak. They were only just in time.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Chief Contractor, the Crow, and the Despoiler, followed by several
+Wigs, now came in.
+
+"Where are they?" cried the Healer, turning towards them.
+
+"Here is the first of them," answered the Chief Contractor, pointing to
+the Confectioner, who was being supported by Mistigris and Papylick; and
+Smaly and Redy, peeping out from beneath the cloak, began to understand
+that the Healer was not searching for them, but for sick people.
+
+"Dear me. It's his paw that's hurt," said the Healer, and indeed this
+was not difficult to see, for the Stork had already laid down upon the
+table the broken paw of the Confectioner.
+
+The Healer lit a candle, took his sealing-wax, and set to work.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Outside an agitated crowd had assembled.
+
+Every one seemed to be crying and wailing.
+
+Already in the crowd there were newsboys selling accounts of the latest
+disaster to the Wigs.
+
+In the great square hundreds of frenzied people, at the risk of losing
+their shoes or their heads, danced frantically round and round.
+
+"What misery, what misery," murmured every one in the kitchen, gazing at
+the mask called "Supreme Sorrow," which the Chief Contractor had placed
+over his face.
+
+[Illustration: THERE WERE NEWSBOYS SELLING ACCOUNTS OF THE LATEST
+DISASTER TO THE WIGS]
+
+"Who on earth will rebuild the market square?" muttered the Young Stork,
+gently closing up with his nail some little holes which he had
+discovered in the back of the Despoiler.
+
+[Illustration: THE HEALER HAD FINISHED HIS MENDING]
+
+"Well, in the first place, who is going to draw the plans?" asked the
+Despoiler.
+
+"We don't need any plans," answered Papylick.
+
+"They will draw the plans after they have put up the building," remarked
+the Crow in a low voice to Smaly, whom he had discovered under the
+Healer's cloak.
+
+"If they have any plans they can quite well build up all the tarts and
+puddings in the square again."
+
+"The plans have all been burnt," announced the Chief Contractor.
+
+"But in the first place no one knows whether the plans or the buildings
+were made first," objected the Crow.
+
+No one had anything to say to this, so every one remained silent, sunk
+in the deepest perplexity. Papylick at last suggested that they should
+ask the advice of the Mother of the Crow.
+
+By this time the Healer had finished his mending.
+
+The Confectioner, placing his hand against his mother-of-pearl forehead,
+murmured, "I have a pain there."
+
+"That must be the fever," said the Despoiler.
+
+"Fever?" demanded the Healer sharply. "How can there be fever when I
+have glued his paw on again? He hasn't got fever at all. It's worrying
+that's given him a headache. What Wig worthy of the name is not worrying
+at this moment when such a grave and terrible problem lies before us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ The Wigs all imagine they suffer from headache: The Rats
+ come to the Healer to be cured of the ravages of hot Soy:
+ The Chief Contractor has to make himself ill eating the
+ musical instruments.
+
+
+Directly he heard the word "problem" the Chief Contractor put on the
+mask of the "Mathematician."
+
+"It is indeed atrocious, this problem that confronts us," continued the
+Healer, "and who can there be amongst us who is not full of distress
+when he considers that in the whole of our country there is no one who
+can tell us whether we should begin by making the plans or the
+buildings. I trust for the sake of your honour that you all have a
+headache," and so saying the Healer walked towards the pair of donkeys.
+
+"I, too, hope so," said the Chief Contractor, hastily slipping on the
+mask called "Migraine."
+
+[Illustration: MATHEMATICIAN]
+
+"I, too, hope so," said his wife, who had just come in.
+
+You, gentle reader, will find on another page a portrait of this lady,
+who was extremely vain and dressed very extravagantly.
+
+[Illustration: MIGRAINE]
+
+She bore a great resemblance to a butterfly.
+
+"We all hope so," said every one in the kitchen, and the crowd in the
+square took up the remark, so that all over the town the Wigs were
+sighing and placing their right hands upon their foreheads.
+
+Soon they felt so bad that they all wetted their handkerchiefs in the
+fountain of rose-water and wrapped them round their heads.
+
+There was a great silence....
+
+"I hope so, too," piped the Crow, a little late because he had only just
+succeeded in putting on his spectacles.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Stork re-entered, pushing the Mother of the Crow in her
+oyster-shell, and followed by the Healer. At once the Stork began to
+pull out all the fish-bones which during his absence ill-natured persons
+had stuck in the back of the Despoiler.
+
+[Illustration: WRAPPED THEIR HANDKERCHIEFS ROUND THEIR HEADS]
+
+[Illustration: "I, TOO, HOPE SO," SAID HIS WIFE, WHO HAD JUST COME IN]
+
+But all thought of the grave problem to be discussed was forgotten, for
+at this moment there entered many more victims of the travelling prison.
+(Smaly, who up to now had not been so _very, very_ astonished at
+anything he had seen or heard since he had passed through the chocolate
+door, really was a little surprised when he saw these victims.)
+
+The chief sufferers seemed to have been the Rats, whose business it was
+to keep the sugar-cane forest well watered. Nearly all had one leg which
+was much longer than the other, or a very long arm, or an elongated
+nose, or a tail that went on for ever.
+
+"They must have been walking upon hot Soy," whispered a Wig to Smaly.
+
+This Wig was a Dwarf with a very large head, and he carried a
+watering-can, out of which he perpetually drank a few drops.
+
+Smaly and Redy, their eyes round with curiosity, questioned him eagerly.
+
+"The Prisoner wanted to cripple us all for the rest of our days," said
+the Dwarf, drinking a little more water, for he suffered from a
+continual thirst.
+
+"If you know what a match is," observed the Crow, settling his
+spectacles, "you will very soon understand what has happened."
+
+"Yes," continued the Dwarf, looking anxiously into the bottom of his
+watering-can. "When the prison had crossed the square the Architect made
+an attempt to save the plans."
+
+"By the Architect he means the Confectioner," whispered Redy to Smaly.
+
+[Illustration: NEARLY ALL HAD ONE LEG WHICH WAS MUCH LONGER THAN THE
+OTHER, OR A VERY LONG ARM]
+
+"He rushed after the Prisoner, crying out to him to stop; but the
+Prisoner only looked at him with his big eyes and, ceasing for a second
+to break the sugar-canes, seized hold of a little wax vesta. He stared
+at the Architect with eyes full of hate, and cried, 'I think no more of
+you than I do of this match.'"
+
+[Illustration: HIS ELONGATED TAIL WAS TIED TO THE QUEUE OF HIS WIG]
+
+"No, no," interrupted one of the Rats, "that's not how it happened at
+all." He carried one long leg on a crutch, and his elongated tail was
+tied to the queue of his wig. "That's not how it happened at all," he
+repeated.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me he did not show the match?" asked the Dwarf.
+
+"Certainly not," replied the Rat.
+
+Smaly asked the Rat what the Prisoner had really done.
+
+The Rat, with fear in his eyes at the mere memory, made answer:
+
+"He struck his match on a little box so that it sprang into flame, and
+offered it to the Architect through the sugar-canes. The Architect, of
+course, ran away, and in running he broke his leg."
+
+[Illustration: "BUT ONLY LOOK AT OUR ARMS AND LEGS"]
+
+"Ah! I'd forgotten that detail," said the Dwarf.
+
+"A detail!" cried several of the Rats. "A detail! But only look at our
+arms and legs."
+
+"The Architect knew quite well," explained the first Rat, "that if the
+match fell on the liquid Soy it would become hot immediately and
+everything would start to grow--and only look at our legs and arms!"
+
+Smaly began to understand why it was that the Confectioner walked about
+on high pattens, and why the Rats wore boots. He saw that though all
+these people owed their pleasant life to Soy because it made everything
+grow without any trouble, yet they feared it, feared it even more than
+they feared the flies which used to come when they were asleep and eat
+the sugar of which their faces and hands were composed.
+
+[Illustration: EVEN MORE THAN THEY FEARED THE FLIES]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Dwarf had pulled on a pair of boots without any soles, and placed a
+large pot of flowers on his head, and he now began to imitate the Rats
+watering the ground, affecting an extreme fear of wetting his feet, for
+it was because their boots had melted in the hot Soy that the Rats' paws
+had grown so long.
+
+This imitation on the part of the Dwarf was interrupted by the sound of
+trumpets, for the Rats and the Wigs had already begun to recover from
+their emotion under the care of the Healer, and seizing hold of little
+trumpets of chocolate and sugar they had begun to blow upon them.
+
+[Illustration: REWARDS]
+
+Some seized drums and violins and even bag-pipes, and it was impossible
+to say whether any one was speaking or not, the noise was so loud.
+
+"Take away the mouthpieces and the violin strings," commanded the Chief
+Contractor.
+
+"There aren't any," cried the Rats and the Wigs, hastily eating them
+all.
+
+Then they continued to play their instruments; but these no longer made
+any noise.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Healer was by now attending to the last of the victims. He had
+poured cordial into their mouths from the page's funnel, and they had
+all become absolutely drunk. Then he peeled off from their legs the
+strips of leather which had remained stuck to them, and cooled their
+little paws with pistachio-nut ice. When he had finished he took out
+from the sack labelled "Rewards" a little trumpet, a punchinello, a
+drum, and a paper windmill, and handed them round.
+
+[Illustration: THE DWARF HAD PULLED ON A PAIR OF BOOTS]
+
+The Chief Contractor, however, refused to allow the noise to begin
+again, and placing over his face a mask called "Calming Influences," he
+followed the Healer, and every time when the latter gave as a reward an
+instrument of music, the Chief Contractor ate it himself.
+
+That night the Chief Contractor had a bad attack of indigestion, and it
+was the poor Confectioner, with his mended leg, who had to make the
+distribution of provisions.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ The young girls dance for the Rats, then play a curious game
+ of tennis: They fail to understand Smaly's point of view.
+
+
+The convalescent Rats all sat in a row upon a circular bench, still
+holding between their fingers the musical instruments which now lacked
+mouthpieces.
+
+To distract their thoughts some charming young girls of the country,
+dressed in fine and beautifully embroidered stuffs, began to dance and
+juggle for their amusement.
+
+Some of the dances were very complicated and elaborate; but some, on the
+other hand, were so simple that the performers had no need to exert
+themselves at all. They merely seated themselves upon the ground and
+sniffed luxuriously at jasmine and heliotrope blossoms. This dance was
+so simple that it was not necessary for there to be any dancers.
+
+After several of these simple and extremely comfortable dances the Rats
+begged the young girls to play a game of tennis.
+
+Accordingly eight of the most accomplished players arranged themselves
+about the court, and at each corner they placed two teacups to hold the
+balls.
+
+Thus there were eight teacups.
+
+The court was divided by a rose-coloured ribbon.
+
+Four players arranged themselves on either side of the ribbon, each
+standing behind the other.
+
+The two leaders in each group held rackets made of vermicelli, while the
+two couples standing behind held rackets made of stretched parchment.
+
+The game was about to begin.
+
+Two accordion-players began to play a quadrille.
+
+[Illustration: THE ACCORDION-PLAYERS BEGAN]
+
+The Rats licked their chops and, pulling at their moustaches, strutted
+about full of joy.
+
+Two chariots, filled with a pearly and transparent paste, were brought
+up, and several dancers taking long pipes began rapidly to make balls of
+it, and to blow them at the rackets; the paste seemed to be of some
+sugary substance, and if they blew too hard the balls exploded without
+leaving so much as a trace.
+
+[Illustration: TENNIS]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Several balls vanished in this way.
+
+Then a pretty blue ball, spangled with gold, hit one of the vermicelli
+rackets. The ball went right through the racket; but since it had lost
+velocity, it hung motionless in mid-air.
+
+While the ball was hanging thus, the two players who had the rackets of
+parchment tossed up to decide which of the two should send the ball
+back.
+
+[Illustration: THE BALL HUNG UP THUS]
+
+This fell to the part of the fair girl, who advanced with the stately
+steps of a quadrille, while the ball hung awaiting her, and with one
+short stroke she hit it towards one of the teacups.
+
+The ball rushed forward undeviatingly; but, as it neared the cup, its
+speed slackened so as not to break it. Finally it crept in as gently as
+a baby is put in a cradle.
+
+"For you, Vera, for you," cried the fair girl who had hit the ball.
+
+"Thank you, my love," replied she who had been called Vera.
+
+And thus the game went on; whenever a girl hit one of the balls hanging
+in mid-air she cried out the name of the friend to whom she offered it.
+
+By this ingenious method, without disputes or complications, the eight
+cups received each its ball, and when the game was over Vera took her
+ball, Dorothea hers, Simonetta hers, and so on, until each girl had her
+ball.
+
+They then all embraced, and twining their arms about each other began to
+go back along the road down which they had arrived.
+
+When they passed by Smaly, who was still standing at the door of the
+kitchen, he demanded:
+
+"But who won?"
+
+The young girls were quite unable to understand what this question
+meant. They smiled divinely at him with their delicately curved mouths,
+then each one showed him her ball made of pearly sugar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ The Mother of the Crow tells of the life and death of Djorak
+ in his own country.
+
+
+All this time Smaly and Redy had remained in the great kitchen. Suddenly
+they heard a voice say:
+
+"It's confoundedly cold in this disgusting kitchen."
+
+"Hullo, who is that?" asked Smaly and Redy together.
+
+"It's I," replied the Mother of the Crow.
+
+Peering about them they discovered her where she had been left forgotten
+under the table, still sitting in her oyster-shell.
+
+"I'm cold," she said again.
+
+"What can we do for you?" exclaimed Redy pityingly.
+
+"Yes, how can we help?" asked Smaly.
+
+"Take me back to my tree of coral."
+
+"They won't let us go out of here," exclaimed Redy and Smaly.
+
+"Then put the Tea-Cosy over me," suggested the poor old Mother of the
+Crow, whose teeth were chattering in her beak.
+
+And so it was done.
+
+There was no longer anything to see but a Tea-Cosy. The Mother of the
+Crow was completely hidden.
+
+"Now I'm nice and warm," said the Mother of the Crow.
+
+It was really quite a new experience for Smaly and Redy to hold a
+conversation with a Tea-Cosy. The Mother of the Crow was a great
+chatterbox, and she knew a thing or two, and several things more after
+that.
+
+"What are you doing here?" asked the Tea-Cosy.
+
+Redy and Smaly folded their hands, and began:
+
+ We wish to have three girls,
+ Fine, sweet----
+
+"I know, I know," interrupted the Tea-Cosy, "but I meant what are you
+doing here in the great kitchen?"
+
+"We're waiting for the sun to go down," was the response.
+
+"And you can't leave till then," replied the Tea-Cosy. "Then tell me a
+story, a nice long story. I love long stories," added the Tea-Cosy with
+enthusiasm.
+
+[Illustration: TEA-COSY]
+
+"Are you equally fond of telling long stories?" asked Redy and Smaly,
+both seized with the same idea.
+
+"I like it even better than gooseberry-fool and candy-sugar
+caterpillars," replied the Tea-Cosy in a voice that trembled with
+excitement.
+
+[Illustration: KISIKA IN HER SEDAN-CHAIR
+
+_Page 165_]
+
+[Illustration: "WE'RE WAITING FOR THE SUN TO GO DOWN"]
+
+"Then," said Smaly, "tell us the whole history of the Prisoner."
+
+"Ah," replied the Tea-Cosy, "the Historian has the monopoly of the local
+chronicles. We others can't even remember what happens in this country.
+But I can tell you what the Prisoner's life was like before he came here
+and was put in his sugar-cane prison."
+
+"We know that they cut off his head," interrupted Smaly.
+
+"Of course if you know all about it it's not worth while my telling you
+the story, it will be so short," said the Tea-Cosy huffily.
+
+Smaly managed to soothe the Tea-Cosy, which then told them the following
+story:
+
+
+"THE STORY OF DJORAK
+
+"My story begins on a Saturday, which was also market-day. There was a
+great crowd in all the streets. The chariot where Djorak was seated with
+the Executioner could barely force a way through the mass of people.
+Every one who had the leisure to do so followed the chariot of the
+condemned; others, who had not, took the time out of their work, or
+their luncheon hour. Servants out shopping followed it with their laden
+baskets on their arms. Great ladies sent away their sedan-chairs so that
+they might fight their way on foot, where no vehicles, however small,
+could have passed, so dense was the crowd.
+
+"When he arrived at the scaffold Djorak sat down. He was a little pale,
+which is not to be wondered at, for it was enough to put any man out.
+
+"The Executioner vested himself in his red robe, and taking out of his
+chariot a small grindstone he began to sharpen the pair of scissors with
+which he was going to cut off Djorak's head.
+
+[Illustration: SERVANTS OUT SHOPPING FOLLOWED IT WITH THEIR LADEN
+BASKETS ON THEIR ARMS]
+
+"The Prisoner, for his part, was so upset when he saw the scissors being
+sharpened that he neglected to respond to the farewell salutes of his
+friends, which they wafted to him across the barrier of policemen that
+surrounded the scaffold.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"It seemed to Djorak that he must be in a dream.
+
+"Quite little things of no importance from every period of his life
+passed before the eyes of his imagination.
+
+"He found himself thinking of a hen that his parents had possessed when
+he was a very little boy. This hen had been extremely intelligent.
+
+"One day she had found herself unable to break the shell of a snail, so
+she had gone to the stock-pot and taken out a lettuce-leaf. She came
+back, her bright eyes twinkling, laid the leaf down before the snail and
+hid herself.
+
+"Presently the snail began to shoot out his horns.
+
+"Then his head.
+
+"Then his whole body.
+
+"It was exactly what the hen had wished to see.
+
+"The hen gazed at it.
+
+"The hen laughed.
+
+"The hen opened her beak.
+
+"The hen gobbled the snail up.
+
+"This and equally ridiculous happenings passed through the Prisoner's
+brain. He remembered his mother, and how she used thoughtfully to put an
+ash-tray in his pocket when----"
+
+[Illustration: HE THRUST HIS FACE INTO ROSES COVERED WITH DEW]
+
+"We know all about the ash-tray," said Smaly and Redy together.
+
+"Very well, very well, I'll leave out the ash-tray," said the Tea-Cosy.
+"But do you know also how when he wanted his mother to do anything in
+particular for him, he thrust his face into roses covered with dew?"
+
+"No, we don't know that."
+
+"Well," continued the Tea-Cosy, "when he withdrew his face it would be
+covered with dew from the roses, and he would say to his mother:
+
+"'Only look how I am crying....'
+
+"Djorak thought of this and of a thousand other things. He had an
+excellent memory.
+
+"Meanwhile the moment of his death was approaching.
+
+[Illustration: THE EXECUTIONER BANDAGED HIS EYES]
+
+"The Executioner bandaged his eyes, then turned towards the crowd and,
+according to custom, demanded:
+
+"'Has any one in this town any objection to the way in which I am about
+to employ this magnificent pair of scissors?'
+
+"The Chief of Police answered, also according to custom: 'Have the
+scissors been sharpened according to rule?'
+
+"The crowd merely cried out, 'Can they cut?'
+
+"The Executioner thereupon took several old newspapers and, holding
+them out before the crowd, began to cut them into fine strips. Next he
+took some old cardboard boxes, which he treated in the same way. Finally
+he cut up whole logs of wood into thin circles. In order that every one
+might see, he did these things in front of him, behind him, to the right
+and to the left.
+
+"These experiments seemed to satisfy the crowd; but the Chief of Police
+still hesitated. Finally he approached the Executioner and, leaning
+forward, said in his ear:
+
+"'Excuse me, I beg of you, my dear friend, if I seem indiscreet; but I
+am merely doing my duty. The King has particularly commanded that all
+the rules shall be observed. Therefore you will understand that I am
+bound to ask you three questions to assure myself that you really have
+the strength to use these scissors successfully.
+
+"'1. Have you eaten three hard-boiled eggs this morning?
+
+"'2. Have you eaten three rashers of bacon this morning?
+
+"'3. Have you played a game of football this morning?'
+
+"To each question the Executioner replied with a nod of the head.
+
+"'Then get on with it,' said the Chief of Police.
+
+"The Executioner raised the scissors towards the sky, turning himself
+about to all points of the compass. Then with a brisk movement he
+lowered the scissors, opened them and shut them again, and the head of
+Djorak tumbled to the ground."
+
+[Illustration: NEXT HE TOOK SOME OLD CARDBOARD BOXES]
+
+"But that's the same Djorak who is here in the prison of the
+sugar-canes," interrupted Smaly, who in spite of his habit of being
+astounded at nothing could not help showing a little astonishment.
+
+[Illustration: OPENED THEM AND SHUT THEM AGAIN]
+
+"Don't be so impatient," replied the Mother of the Crow imperturbably.
+"You'll understand in a moment or two. Now I have already told you that
+Djorak had a very good memory. At the moment when his head was falling
+he remembered that he had always heard one doesn't die immediately when
+one's head is cut off.
+
+"It was extremely fortunate for him that he remembered this detail.
+
+"He hastened to pick up his head, and he jumped off the scaffold holding
+it under his arm."
+
+"Dear me," said Smaly and Redy.
+
+The Mother of the Crow continued her story imperturbably:
+
+"When the crowd saw this man in such a peculiar condition they began to
+fly in all directions. An indescribable panic followed. The square
+rapidly emptied. Soon there was no one left saving a few people who had
+been knocked down. The crowd ran and ran; but the beheaded Prisoner ran
+harder still. Soon he was running by himself; all the townspeople had
+taken shelter.
+
+"Djorak and his head had a very precise end in view in running thus. It
+was important both for the head and for Djorak to arrive as soon as
+possible at the house of a certain Magician whom he knew.
+
+"He arrived, rushed in and banged the door behind him. The Magician,
+unfortunately, was out, only his young son was there, and although this
+youth understood perfectly how urgent it was that Djorak's head should
+be fastened on again as soon as possible, he could do nothing to help
+him.
+
+"'Let's consult the Brindled Rabbit,' suggested the Head.
+
+"The Brindled Rabbit being questioned played several strains on a harp
+of silver and crystal, then he withdrew into an old comfit-box and shut
+the lid down on himself.
+
+"After a few seconds he opened the lid again, his eye became visible,
+and his little paw shoved a folded slip of paper through the opening.
+
+[Illustration: HIS YOUNG SON WAS THERE]
+
+"The Son of the Magician read as follows:
+
+"1 Three.
+
+"2 Three.
+
+"3 Three.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRINDLED RABBIT]
+
+"He at once tore up to the third story of the house. There he counted
+three shelves, and from the third shelf he took the third little bottle
+and ran downstairs again.
+
+[Illustration: HIS LITTLE PAW SHOVED A FOLDED SLIP OF PAPER THROUGH THE
+OPENING]
+
+"'What must he do with it?' asked the youth, of the Rabbit; but the box
+remained shut; there was no answer.
+
+"'I must drink it,' replied the Head.
+
+[Illustration: THEN THEY SANG A COMIC DUET]
+
+"'But you've no stomach,' cried the Son of the Magician.
+
+"'Put my head back on my neck,' suggested Djorak, 'then there will at
+least be a stomach beneath my head.'
+
+"The Son of the Magician at once placed Djorak's head back in its proper
+place with one hand, while with the other he tipped the little bottle
+between its lips.
+
+"The effect was immediate.
+
+"Directly the liquor trickled down his throat Djorak felt himself as
+well as ever. He danced about with joy. He even played a game of
+leapfrog with the Son of the Magician, then they sang a comic duet, of
+which I cannot remember the words. The first lines went something like
+this:
+
+ Every one who has lost his head,
+ Must have had a jolly bad memory.
+
+"But Djorak had a good memory, and so he had kept his head.
+
+[Illustration: Then they questioned a Black Toad]
+
+"During their song the Brindled Rabbit crept out of his comfit-box. He
+could not stay in it for laughing at the comic song.
+
+"Djorak and the Son of the Magician begged him to advise them what to do
+next; but the Rabbit only held its sides with laughter, and made no
+reply.
+
+"Then they questioned a Black Toad who came crawling out of a pot of
+treacle where he lived, and began to lick himself dry with a fine,
+forked tongue.
+
+"The Rabbit hopped up to him wishing to share in the treacle; but the
+Black Toad flew into a rage. It was a worse rage than even that of the
+Chief Contractor when we have not placed ourselves symmetrically," added
+the Mother of the Crow, remembering that Smaly and Redy had seen the
+Contractor in a temper.
+
+"Then," she continued, "the Son of the Magician asked the Black Toad in
+what country Djorak should take refuge, making the suggestion that they
+should send him to a green country where the clouds were all white and
+the trees mauve.
+
+[Illustration: AND FISH IN THE LITTLE RIVER IN THE AFTERNOON]
+
+"The Black Toad shot forward to within an inch of the Rabbit's nose; but
+without advancing a step, for his legs suddenly expanded to allow him to
+do so.
+
+"'I hate mauve and white,' he snapped, and shot back again.
+
+[Illustration: THE THIN LONG ARM OF THE HISTORIAN]
+
+"The Rabbit replied peacefully, 'How about a rose-coloured country,
+where the people dance as they bake the bread?'
+
+"'I would like that,' said Djorak.
+
+"'I don't doubt it,' said the Brindled Rabbit.
+
+"'Or would you like a country where they hunt butterflies all the
+morning, and fish in the little river in the afternoon?' asked the
+Rabbit.
+
+"'Yes, yes, that will do,' replied Djorak, who was anxious to get away.
+
+"'He is a misanthrope,' declared the Toad, retreating towards its pot of
+treacle.
+
+"'Oh, kind Toad, do tell me where I ought to go,' begged Djorak.
+
+"'Get into this little glass tube,' replied the Toad.
+
+"Djorak obeyed.
+
+"This tube was no bigger than a penholder; when Djorak was comfortably
+settled inside of it the Black Toad put one end of it into his mouth and
+blew.
+
+"He blew so hard that Djorak was shot right into our country. Then----"
+
+But here Redy interrupted the Mother of the Crow. She gave a little
+shake to the Tea-Cosy and whispered rapidly what she had noticed taking
+place on the other side of the public square.
+
+This is what she had seen.
+
+From one of the holes made for the Flying-Fish Redy perceived the thin
+long arm of the Historian sticking out, the finger pointing accusingly
+towards the door of the kitchen, where Smaly, Redy, and the Mother of
+the Crow were seated.
+
+The Mother of the Crow understood the significance of this at once. It
+meant she would not be permitted to carry her story any further. The
+monopoly of the chronicles of the country belonged to the Historian.
+
+The Mother of the Crow had to hold her tongue.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ Smaly and Redy are taken to see the Fleet: The Prisoner
+ arrives and the Wigs fly in terror: Smaly and Redy at last
+ have speech with the Prisoner.
+
+
+At this moment a crowd of Wigs ran in at the door crying:
+
+"The fleet has arrived, the fleet has arrived."
+
+"The fleet?" asked Smaly. "I haven't seen any sea."
+
+"There isn't any sea, or any water in the river," replied the Mother of
+the Crow.
+
+"Do you imagine," demanded the Young Stork, "that a nation like ours is
+going to deprive itself of the splendid luxury of a fleet simply because
+chance has decreed that the ocean should not come as far as its
+frontiers?"
+
+"Besides, a fleet's so ornamental," said the Mother of the Crow.
+
+"Oh, you're there, are you?" said the Young Stork. "I have been asked to
+beg you to assist at the grand inauguration ceremony of the fleet."
+
+Smaly and Redy begged the Young Stork to allow them to accompany him.
+
+The Stork, who was always charitably employed at the task of extracting
+fish-bones from the back of the Despoiler, and so was accustomed to
+doing kindnesses, promised to beg for this favour for them from the
+Chief Contractor. Then the Stork departed, taking with him the Mother of
+the Crow, huddled up in her oyster-shell.
+
+[Illustration: EXTRACTING FISH-BONES FROM THE BACK OF THE DESPOILER]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+After a quarter of an hour four more Wigs arrived in the kitchen;
+dangling from a long stick, they bore a large copper cauldron.
+
+[Illustration: THEY BORE A LARGE COPPER CAULDRON]
+
+"It is permitted that you should assist at the ceremony," they announced
+to Smaly and Redy. "Get into the pot."
+
+Smaly and Redy climbed in, full of joy, and Smaly whispered low to his
+little wife, "They are still afraid that the sun will melt us, and that
+we shall cover their beautiful lawn with grease."
+
+"Take this umbrella," continued the Wig who was the spokesman, offering
+them a mushroom. "This will protect you from the hot rays of the sun;
+and whatever you do don't lean over the edge of the cauldron."
+
+Then they set off.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The fleet was already arranged upon a long platform painted blue. The
+vessels were made of pink and white marzipan, and all had two masts of
+cane and little silken flags. A funnel of gilt paper was placed in the
+middle of each ship.
+
+[Illustration: THE ADMIRAL WAS A TRITON]
+
+"But there's no smoke coming out of the funnels," objected Smaly.
+
+"I know, I know," replied the Chief Contractor impatiently, and turning
+he ordered: "Admiral, put the smoke in place," and the Admiral at once
+arranged a charming little puff of smoke made of cotton-wool at the top
+of each of the forty funnels.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Admiral was a Triton, whom the Wigs had made themselves. They had
+set their heart on possessing this little animal; but since they had no
+sea from which to catch one, they had done their best to model one from
+an authentic picture.
+
+The Triton was made of barley-sugar and almond paste.
+
+[Illustration: THE WHITE DOLPHIN WITH PINK EYES]
+
+The other personages who had arrived with the fleet were the White
+Dolphin with pink eyes, and a young but very despondent Syren, a black
+Sea-Dog, and a large Sea-Horse, which seemed almost mad; also an
+extremely curious fish, which brought its own food in a glass jar.
+
+All these creatures had asked nothing better than to leave the sea,
+which had become unbearable for them during the past few years because
+of the submarines. All of them were very happy at the chance of
+obtaining employment in a country as solid and sweet as that of the
+Wigs. Their business here would be to look after the fleet. Already they
+knew all the ships quite well by sight, and that was all that was
+needed.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Chief Contractor placed over his face the "Master-Mask," and held
+out his hand, which held one of the long bamboo spoons.
+
+He announced in a solemn voice:
+
+"We, the Chief Contractor and the Wigs, declare the fleet of our country
+to consist of forty ships, here drawn up in line, and the Triton is
+declared by us to be Admiral, Painter, Rope-maker, and Sugar-repairer.
+So be it."
+
+"So be it, and long live the marzipan fleet," cried all the citizens,
+who had never seen the sea.
+
+"Is there really no water anywhere?" asked Smaly a little indiscreetly.
+
+The Chief Contractor leant towards Smaly, who was still sitting in his
+cauldron, and whispered low in his ear:
+
+"Tell the truth, do you really think that that fleet needs any water?"
+
+[Illustration: AN EXTREMELY CURIOUS FISH]
+
+"I am certain of it," replied Smaly imperturbably, leaning over the edge
+of the cauldron towards the Chief Contractor, whereupon the Stork gently
+pushed him back again.
+
+The Chief Contractor was in a great state of consternation and stood
+gazing from one to the other of the important officials of the Wig
+Republic as though for assistance, while even the crowd began uneasily
+to feel the effect of his dismay.
+
+Suddenly the Chief Contractor noticed that the eye slung round the neck
+of the Crow was winking at him to approach. He accordingly went towards
+the Mother of the Crow, who spoke into his ear.
+
+Beneath his mask the Chief Contractor's mouth began to smile. Quickly
+putting on the mask of "Good-Humour," he announced:
+
+"A band of our Rats will each morning copiously water our fleet, for,
+believe me, no fleet is quite complete without water."
+
+Here the Crow took two steps towards the Chief Contractor, and putting
+on his ebony spectacles, whispered a few words to him. The Chief
+Contractor thereupon added in a loud voice:
+
+"They will not use the water of Soy."
+
+Suddenly he perceived it was necessary to change the mask of
+"Good-Humour" for that of "Anger," for several audacious Wigs were busy
+writing their names upon the hulls of the white ships; but he had no
+time to give vent to his just indignation, for upon all sides the
+well-known cry arose:
+
+"The prison is coming, the prison is coming."
+
+[Illustration: "A BAND OF OUR RATS WILL EACH MORNING COPIOUSLY WATER OUR
+FLEET"]
+
+There was no doubt about it; the Prisoner must have heard the
+enthusiastic shouts of the crowd, and in his mad rage was now bearing
+down upon the fleet. Some of the bravest Wigs managed to save a few
+ships, many more were weeping; but the largest number did not wait to
+see what was happening, but took to their heels.
+
+Soon Smaly and Redy were almost alone in their cauldron. The forest of
+sugar-canes was arriving, preceded by the little army of Rats with
+watering-cans.
+
+When the Prisoner was near enough to hear them, Smaly and Redy cried
+out:
+
+[Illustration: WIGS WERE BUSY WRITING THEIR NAMES]
+
+"Djorak, Djorak, stop a minute."
+
+When he heard real voices, human voices, Djorak paused. His rage fell
+from him like a cloak.
+
+"Djorak, Djorak."
+
+"Who calls my name?" asked the Prisoner in a husky voice, a voice which
+had not been used for many years.
+
+"It's Smaly and Redy who call you. We want to help you," added Redy.
+
+When he heard a woman's voice Djorak's thoughts flew to the three
+daughters he had lost, and his madness fell away from him. He drew
+nearer to the two little people by breaking the sugar-canes in front of
+him. They could now see him, and he could see them. The Rats lay down to
+rest, so no new sugar-canes sprang up to bar the way.
+
+"Will you save me?" demanded Djorak.
+
+"It will be the first thing we shall think of when we are allowed out of
+this cauldron."
+
+"Cauldron?" repeated the Prisoner. "Cauldron? And when will you be
+allowed out of it?"
+
+"When the sun goes down," cried Redy; "and we will give you back your
+daughters."
+
+In his profound joy Djorak all but lost consciousness.
+
+[Illustration: A RED FLAG]
+
+"But while we're waiting," remarked Smaly, "tell us how came it about
+that you were put in this prison."
+
+But Redy interrupted to say, "First let's agree on a place where we can
+all meet, and what sign we shall tell it by."
+
+So they arranged that the Prisoner should turn his prison in the
+direction of a red flag, which Smaly would tie to a tree near the
+frontier.
+
+
+THE PRISONER'S STORY
+
+"I was hurled into this country," said the Prisoner, "by the powerful
+breath of a Black Toad. At first I was not at all badly received. I was
+able to render several services to the Wigs, and was especially useful
+to them in building their walls of gingerbread.
+
+"Unfortunately, however, the Chief Contractor is a fool. Without his
+idiotic conceit this country would be happy and prosperous, but you have
+undoubtedly seen for yourself what a ridiculous creature he is. Only to
+give you one instance, I will tell you what happened that made him put
+me in this prison of sugar-canes.
+
+"One day some feather-headed person or other began describing a bridge
+to him. The Chief Contractor insisted on having the nature of a bridge
+fully explained to him, and next day he caused a canal to be dug right
+across the middle of the country; but all the water that they poured
+into it disappeared at once, for it soaked away through the soil of
+sugar and flour.
+
+"However, in spite of the fact that there was no water in the canal, he
+caused the bridge of nougat to be built across it; the bridge which I
+have destroyed a hundred times passing over it in my prison.
+
+[Illustration: "I HAVE DESTROYED A HUNDRED TIMES PASSING OVER IT IN MY
+PRISON"]
+
+"It was forbidden under the most heavy penalties to cross the canal,
+although it was dry, by any other means than by way of the bridge. I had
+to conform to this stupid law, in spite of the fact that the nougat
+cracked beneath my feet each time I crossed the bridge.
+
+[Illustration: "I WAS CAUGHT STEPPING RIGHT OVER THEIR SILLY OLD DRY
+CANAL WITH ONE STRIDE"]
+
+"However, one evening I was caught stepping right over their silly old
+dry canal with one stride.
+
+[Illustration: THE MANUFACTURER OF CARDBOARD BOXES]
+
+"The Despoiler's rage, although he hid it from me, was deep and
+terrible. Doubtless that very evening my doom was agreed upon, for the
+next morning when I awoke I was surrounded by this barrier of
+sugar-canes," and the Prisoner wrung his hands and seemed in an impotent
+rage. He went on jumping up and down, and gesticulating, for his madness
+had caught him again.
+
+Once more he began to break the sugar-canes in his frenzy.
+
+At that moment Smaly and Redy saw the Despoiler pass by, followed by the
+Young Stork, carrying a pair of nippers.
+
+They were on their way to a secret meeting with the Manufacturer of
+Cardboard Boxes.
+
+The Despoiler seemed to be literally shaking with anger. The Young Stork
+had been forced to tell him that he stood in urgent need of certain
+repairs to his back, and the Despoiler, therefore, found himself in the
+humiliating situation of having to make a purchase from the Manufacturer
+of Cardboard Boxes.
+
+It added to the Despoiler's vexation to have been seen by the two little
+humans. He stopped and looked at the sun, of which only a small piece of
+the rim was visible.
+
+The Despoiler turned towards the Rats and, pointing to the cauldron,
+called out angrily:
+
+"Take that and run with it to the frontier and empty it out there."
+
+And thus it was done.
+
+[Illustration: THE PICNIC WHICH FOLLOWED WAS AN UNFORGETTABLE REPAST
+
+_Page 177_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ The three daughters of the Prisoner are installed in their
+ gardens.
+
+
+So Smaly and Redy found themselves on the frontier of the Wigs' country.
+They were so tired from having seen and done so many things during the
+day that hardly had they arrived than they fell sound asleep amid the
+myrtle-bushes which grew between the rocks.
+
+When they awoke they perceived just within the frontier (which was
+indicated by boundary stones made of sugar-candy) the three gardens that
+had been prepared for the daughters of the Prisoner.
+
+"The Wigs keep their word anyway," said Smaly and Redy to each other, as
+they rubbed their eyes; then they looked at each other and saw that
+their beaks had disappeared.
+
+You may imagine how happy this made them! Never would they have dared to
+return to their own village with those enormous beaks stuck in the
+middle of their faces, even though they were invisible to all save the
+birds and each other.
+
+They stood up and held hands, and to attract the attention of the Wigs
+began to chant:
+
+ We wish to have three girls,
+ Fine, sweet, pink, and good----
+
+But a sentinel who looked like a dragon-fly, and carried a lantern and
+a megaphone, shouted to them to be silent.
+
+The Confectioner, who was busy giving the final directions to the
+gardeners, struck an attitude and recited:
+
+ "Here plays the grasshoppers' band,
+ Here for days together shines the sun,
+ Here the birds wear hats and spurs,
+ And the worms spectacles and swords.
+ Here we don't know bricks,
+ Or wood, or stone, or steel,
+ Here we eat plates and saucers,
+ Here we----"
+
+"We know all about that," said Smaly and Redy together.
+
+"What do you know?" asked the Confectioner suspiciously.
+
+"How funny you all are," answered Smaly.
+
+"At least we are not made of grease and suet," retorted the Confectioner
+in a tone of mingled pride and disgust.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The gardens were arranged after the same principle as the windows in the
+house of the Historian. They were not really separated by walls; but
+since one speaks with one's mouth and sees with one's eyes, there was at
+about the height where the young girls' faces would be a plank of nougat
+separating the gardens, and since it was certain that sometimes the
+girls would sit down, there was another plank a little lower.
+
+There were altogether four planks, for as the three girls were of
+different ages and heights, the planks which would have prevented one
+girl from seeing her neighbour would not have prevented the next.
+
+How ingenious this was! It was as well thought out as the two openings
+for the Flying-Fish in the ceiling of the Historian's house, a big one
+for the big fish, and a smaller one for the smaller fish!
+
+In these gardens the lawns were made of angelica, and the flower-beds of
+jam tarts, and at the end of each garden there was a little house to
+sleep in at night, or in the heat of the afternoon.
+
+[Illustration: A SENTINEL WHO LOOKED LIKE A DRAGON-FLY]
+
+When all was ready the three daughters of the Prisoner were led in. The
+ceremony was extremely simple. Mistigris was the first to arrive, and
+touching his lips with his ring, he thus addressed the two little people
+perched upon their rock.
+
+[Illustration: THE GARDENS WERE ARRANGED AFTER THE SAME PRINCIPLE AS THE
+WINDOWS IN THE HOUSE OF THE HISTORIAN]
+
+"You are now about to see the three girls; but whatever you do don't
+forget they are ignorant of the history of their father, our prisoner.
+They were sent here by a certain Black Toad, the same creature who blew
+Djorak into our country. This Toad made out that it was doing a very
+charitable action, and upon a label round the neck of each young girl
+he had written their names and tastes. On the first label was: 'Number
+I, Kisika Djorak. Blue eyes, amiable disposition, fond of marrowfat peas
+and of getting up late.' On the second label was: 'Number II, Laptitza
+Djorak. Brown eyes, devoted to cherry tartlets and cheese soufflé. Gazes
+at the stars and dreams about a Prince Charming.' And on the third
+label: 'Number III, Fritilla Djorak. Green eyes, adores fruit,
+particularly tangerine oranges and nectarines. Dreams as much as Number
+II; but has very modern notions as well.'"
+
+When Mistigris had finished reading out the labels a large sedan-chair
+appeared, carried by several Wigs, among them Papylick and the Young
+Stork. The door of the chair opened and Kisika stepped into the first
+garden.
+
+Kisika certainly had beautiful blue eyes, soft hair, and a
+pink-and-white skin. She was so beautiful that one would have taken her
+for a picture rather than for a real girl.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The next person to arrive was the Despoiler, who wished to make sure for
+himself that the planks were at the right height before he permitted
+Papylick to approach with the second sedan-chair.
+
+The young girls had not lived in these chairs, they were simply carried
+from place to place in them.
+
+Kisika had lived in the house of the Crow.
+
+Laptitza, who was now brought into the second garden, had lived in the
+house of Papylick. Laptitza also was very beautiful, with a pale skin
+and eyes like a deer.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE RED FEATHER, WHICH SHE HAD PICKED UP IN THE
+MARKET-PLACE]
+
+Every one now awaited the arrival of Fritilla, the third daughter; but
+when she stepped out of her sedan-chair she beckoned to the Flying-Fish,
+who had been pursuing her for some days past, and handed it a little
+red feather, which she had picked up in the market-place. This feather
+was of great importance to the Flying-Fish, which thanked Fritilla many
+times and swore to serve her always. Then Fritilla was led into the
+garden. She had yellow hair and green eyes, and her beauty seemed at
+first a little sad and cold; but on looking into her eyes you saw that
+they were at once tender and ardent.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+When the three girls were installed in their gardens of angelica and jam
+tarts the Wigs arranged themselves in a long line. Then the little door
+that led into Kisika's garden was opened, and the Chief Contractor,
+placing over his face the mask called "Stoic Melancholy," approached her
+and said:
+
+"Kisika, farewell. I beg you to accept this large pot of Soy in memory
+of me. There's enough to last you all your life."
+
+[Illustration: NEXT THE DESPOILER APPROACHED]
+
+Next the Despoiler approached, followed by the Young Stork.
+
+"Farewell, Kisika," he said. "I make you a present of this ring, which
+will enable your voice to carry to great distances, and will also stop
+all tiresome and needless voices of others."
+
+The Confectioner next came forward and said, "Farewell, Kisika, my
+present is two bamboo spoons and two knives. Be happy in your garden;
+it's made of the best confectionery."
+
+The Crow, putting on his spectacles, said, "Farewell, Kisika, I beg that
+you will accept these spectacle-lenses in memory of me. They are made of
+solid ebony, and some day when you have reflected enough on life you
+will have them mounted on glass rims and will always put them on before
+you speak. Farewell."
+
+The Historian's gift consisted of six hard-boiled eggs, which he handed
+to Kisika, saying, "Accept my humble offering, Kisika. These eggs are
+home-made. Myself, I never eat anything else."
+
+Mistigris said, "Farewell, Kisika, take this little bow and arrow made
+of fish-bones. Perhaps it will amuse you to play with them."
+
+And the Young Stork added quickly, "Adieu, Kisika, take this pair of
+pincers to pluck from your heart the darts which may lodge in it."
+
+The wife of the Chief Contractor presented Kisika with a beautiful fan
+made of paper lace; and the Healer gave her a little sugar trumpet, of
+which the mouthpiece was this time intact.
+
+The Dwarf with the big head gave her a little watering-can to drink out
+of during the summer.
+
+All the crews of the marzipan fleet, and the Rats, came in their turn to
+offer each a little souvenir.
+
+Presently there was such an immense crowd that it seemed as though the
+ceremony must go on for days, since the same things had to be repeated
+three times, once before each garden.
+
+Every one was there.
+
+The Grasshoppers.
+
+The Birds with hats.
+
+The Worms with spectacles.
+
+The Sponges with shining eyes.
+
+The Pigs from the great kitchen.
+
+The Flying-Fish and Lizards.
+
+The Dancers who had played at tennis.
+
+The Accordion-Players.
+
+[Illustration: THE WIFE OF THE CHIEF CONTRACTOR PRESENTED KISIKA WITH A
+BEAUTIFUL FAN MADE OF PAPER LACE]
+
+In the end it would have needed pantechnicons to move all the presents.
+When the ceremony was over the Wigs departed in a long procession,
+singing in their sweet voices:
+
+ "Here plays the grasshoppers' band,
+ Here for days together shines the sun...."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ Smaly and Redy effect the rescue of the three young girls:
+ Djorak joins them and they all partake of a delightful
+ picnic: Smaly blows the Soy powder over the country of the
+ Wigs: Then the six friends go home.
+
+
+Smaly and Redy had been watching with all their eyes, and they observed
+that two sentinels, instead of taking their departure with the crowd,
+stayed behind to guard the three sides of the garden which were in the
+country of the Wigs. The fourth side gave upon the frontier and was
+marked off by a long ridge of rock, several feet in height. It was from
+this rock that Smaly and Redy sat looking into the gardens. They could
+have already spoken to the three girls, but Smaly advised that they
+should wait until the time of the next siesta had arrived.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+From their rock Smaly and Redy could see quite clearly the roof of the
+Historian's house. Directly they saw the Flying-Fish enter to announce
+the time for siesta Smaly meant to speak to the young girls.
+
+"Let us hang our red flag up there," said Redy to Smaly, pointing to an
+old tree.
+
+[Illustration: DIRECTLY THEY SAW THE FLYING-FISH ENTER]
+
+"Are you managing affairs or am I?" demanded Smaly severely.
+"Nevertheless," he added more kindly, "I will consider any advice you
+have to give, and may follow it ... if it is good...."
+
+[Illustration: THEIR TWO LITTLE HEADS APPEARED SIDE BY SIDE]
+
+Now the Flying-Fish began to fly low over the town, and two of them
+entered the house of the Historian.
+
+The whole country slept. It was evident that even the two sentinels
+slept heavily.
+
+When Smaly and Redy were sure that all was safe, they crept forward to
+the edge of the rock. Their two little heads appeared side by side
+before the astonished eyes of the three young girls, and since their
+beaks had disappeared for good and all, the two little people were
+certain they would make a good impression. And, indeed, the three young
+girls saw at once that these were the heads of human beings, real human
+beings, not creatures made of sugar and cake.
+
+When they heard these two human beings speak, the young girls were
+seized with intense emotion. Smaly and Redy whispered:
+
+"We've come to save you."
+
+Kisika, Laptitza, and Fritilla held up their arms towards them, while
+the tears ran down their cheeks for joy. They all began to speak at
+once; but Smaly and Redy each placed a finger on their lips with a
+mysterious air, to command silence.
+
+"We are going to take you away with us," whispered Redy.
+
+"Silence," said Smaly, standing on the point of his toes to appear
+taller. And he continued, "No one must speak until Kisika, Laptitza, and
+Fritilla have each made a little stairway by which they can climb up to
+where we are."
+
+"What a splendid idea," cried Redy.
+
+Smaly took no notice of her; but said, with an air of great importance,
+"Let the young girls begin at once to make the stairways."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+So during three days the young girls were busy making the stairs by
+which they would mount to freedom. During the siesta on the third day
+Smaly and Redy made trial of these stairs and found them perfectly firm.
+It was then that Smaly climbed into the dead tree which Redy had pointed
+out to him, and tied to it the big red handkerchief which was to be the
+signal to Djorak.
+
+[Illustration: SMALY STANDING; ON THE POINT OF HIS TOES]
+
+Smaly and Redy were both of them certain that Djorak was in his right
+mind once more, for during the three days the sugar-cane prison had not
+budged; but stayed still as if awaiting their signal, and directly the
+red flag fluttered in the breeze Redy cried out:
+
+"Look, look, the prison is coming."
+
+"Of course it is," said Smaly, as though he had never had any doubts.
+
+And indeed the prison was rushing furiously towards them.
+
+Smaly stayed up in the tree to watch, but Redy had her attention
+distracted by the Red Flying-Fish, which was sitting watching her.
+
+Suddenly the fish flew away; but it soon reappeared followed by a great
+flock of other fish. Each fish carried something good, tarts or cakes or
+fruits. The Red Flying-Fish carried a large hat and mantle in its claws.
+The fish all deposited their offerings at the feet of Redy, and from his
+tree Smaly looked on with great pleasure.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Towards evening the forest of sugar-canes came crashing into the three
+little gardens. Kisika, Laptitza, and Fritilla ran up their stairways
+and fell into Redy's arms; but Smaly was not going to waste any time on
+sentiment, to which he felt he could give way later. He ran down the
+centre staircase, seized one of the boxes of Soy which the Chief
+Contractor had given to the young girls, presented the other two to
+Djorak, and then, without waiting to listen to the Prisoner's
+exclamations of joy, bade him follow him.
+
+[Illustration: SO DURING THREE DAYS THE YOUNG GIRLS WERE BUSY MAKING THE
+STAIRS]
+
+[Illustration: THE RED FLYING-FISH CARRIED A LARGE HAT AND MANTLE IN ITS
+CLAWS]
+
+He sat the Prisoner down on a rock and drew out of his pocket a pair of
+scissors and cut his wild and streaming hair, and then proceeded to
+shave his beard, which was no less long. Then both of them, carrying as
+many of the presents as they could, joined Redy and the three young
+girls.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The emotion of this father on meeting once again his three daughters was
+a very moving spectacle. Djorak, who had such a good memory, could not
+forget that he had been beheaded, and that without his own great
+presence of mind and the wise counsels of the Brindled Rabbit, he would
+never have seen his daughters any more.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The picnic which followed was an unforgettable repast. Djorak looked
+very presentable in the hat and cloak brought by the grateful
+Flying-Fish.
+
+In the first place every one was filled with joy, and in the second the
+three young girls had been brought up in the Wig country thoroughly to
+appreciate the most delicious pastries ever made. They soon discovered
+that the Soy powder was no longer of any use to them, for its magic
+properties failed once it was over the borders of the Wig country, in
+the same way that the Wigs themselves would have melted away directly
+they passed the frontier. Therefore the six happy people seated amidst
+the fragrant heather and myrtle began to ask what use Smaly meant to
+make of the three big boxes of Soy.
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING AS MANY OF THE PRESENTS AS THEY COULD]
+
+"Patience," was all Smaly would reply when he was questioned, and they
+had to have patience until the evening, when a south-east wind sprang
+up.
+
+Smaly took the first box and threw the contents into the air. The wind
+took the powder and blew it over the town of the Wigs; and this Smaly
+did with the other two boxes as well.
+
+"What is going to happen next?" asked Redy.
+
+Smaly pointed to some clouds which were piling up, and replied
+sententiously, "Rain."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+[Illustration: WIGS THEMSELVES WOULD HAVE MELTED AWAY DIRECTLY THEY
+PASSED THE FRONTIER]
+
+And indeed the rain began to fall. The Soy powder mingling with the
+water had a magical effect, the effect that Smaly had hoped for; the
+whole country began to sprout, trees, houses, grass, walls, lawns,
+everything began to grow and grow, just as the sugar-cane prison had
+done when the Rats watered it with the liquid from the reservoir of Soy.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+As the six happy friends started out on their journey they could see, by
+looking behind them, the houses and plants growing and growing. The Wigs
+were evidently in a terrible state of alarm. They called frantically to
+each other, they hung out of the windows, they descended by long ropes
+into the streets. It was the most tremendous day in the history of the
+Wig country; but there were no casualties, and when the Confectioner had
+built another flight to their staircases, they were just as happy in
+their tall houses as they had been when they lived in those of two
+stories. It was a little more tiring for them to have to climb so high,
+but then what a splendid view they had into each other's attics!
+
+As to Smaly and Redy, once more returned to the world of men and women
+like ourselves, they installed Kisika, Laptitza, and Fritilla in the
+three little bedrooms prepared for them before ever the quest began.
+
+Djorak, completely cured of his madness, slept in a delightful little
+pavilion in the garden, but took his meals with the family.
+
+And they all lived happily ever after. I myself can quite well remember
+meeting them last springs taking their morning walk in the park of their
+town.
+
+[Illustration: THEY HUNG OUT OF THE WINDOWS]
+
+And what a charming sight they were to be sure!
+
+
+
+PRINTED AT THE COMPLETE PRESS
+WEST NORWOOD
+LONDON
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY CURIOUS***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 32406-8.txt or 32406-8.zip *******
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