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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #65509 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65509)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Peterkin, by Gilly Bear
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Adventures of Peterkin
-
-Author: Gilly Bear
-
-Illustrator: Helen E. Ohrenschall
-
-Release Date: June 4, 2021 [eBook #65509]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The Internet
-             Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF PETERKIN ***
-
-
-
-
-                                  THE
-                             ADVENTURES OF
-                               PETERKIN.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “Inside his Pumperkin house”
-]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-    THE
-    ADVENTURES _of_
-
-    PETERKIN
-
-                                   BY
-
-                               Gilly Bear
-
-             AUTHOR OF “TOM TIT TALES,” “THE GREEN TULIP,”
-                       “FUN IN THE FOREST,” ETC.
-
-                              ILLUSTRATED
-                                   BY
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                HELEN E.
-                              OHRENSCHALL
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                      SAM’L GABRIEL SONS & COMPANY
-
-                                NEW YORK
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                          Copyright, 1916, by
-                      SAM’L GABRIEL SONS & COMPANY
-                                NEW YORK
-
-
-
-
-
-
-           By kind Permission of _The Evening Sun_, New York
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-
-
-                CHAPTER                             PAGE
-
-                     I. PETERKIN PUMPERKIN            13
-
-                    II. PETERKIN AFLOAT               17
-
-                   III. PETERKIN AND THE WHALE        21
-
-                    IV. PETERKIN’S APPETITE           25
-
-                     V. PETERKIN’S COOKING            29
-
-                    VI. AN HOUR OF STORM              32
-
-                   VII. PETERKIN ESCAPES              35
-
-                  VIII. PETERKIN IN THE VALLEY        39
-
-                    IX. PETERKIN TAKES A FALL         43
-
-                     X. PETERKIN IN THE PALACE        47
-
-                    XI. PETERKIN TELLS HIS TALE       51
-
-                   XII. PETERKIN’S FATE               55
-
-                  XIII. THE TOOTHLESS ENEMY           59
-
-                   XIV. PETERKIN’S RESCUE             64
-
-                    XV. THE WATER OF                  69
-                        BOUNCEABILITY
-
-                   XVI. THE VALE OF THE BLIND         74
-
-                  XVII. PETERKIN PROMISES             79
-
-                 XVIII. THE VALLEY OF SILENCE         83
-
-                   XIX. EARS TOO SHARP                87
-
-                    XX. THE VALLEY OF DANCING         92
-                        LEGS
-
-                   XXI. THE VALLEY OF                 97
-                        UP-IN-THE-AIR
-
-                  XXII. PETERKIN IN A MUDDLE         101
-
-                 XXIII. THE LOST PUMPERKIN           104
-
-                  XXIV. OUT OF HIDING                108
-
-                   XXV. A PRECIOUS PRISONER          112
-
-                  XXVI. THE VILLAIN’S STORY          116
-
-                 XXVII. IN THE CITY                  121
-
-                XXVIII. HOW PETERKIN TRICKED THEM    125
-                        ALL
-
-                  XXIX. PETERKIN BRINGS JOY          130
-
-                   XXX. VALLEY TO VALLEY             135
-
-                  XXXI. THE PATIENT PRINCESS         139
-
-                 XXXII. THE VILLAIN SATISFIED        143
-
-                XXXIII. THE GLORIOUS ENDING          148
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                         LIST OF COLORED PLATES
-
-
-            “Inside his Pumperkin house”             _Frontispiece_
-
-                                                       PAGE
-
-            “An early morning peek”                      21
-
-            “Then it grew darker than midnight”          32
-
-            “So they sat themselves on the flying        43
-            sea-shell”
-
-            “‘Take him away!’ ordered the King”          55
-
-            “The whole leap took but a moment”           69
-
-            “A young peasant girl came toward him”       83
-
-            “There came floating toward him in           97
-            midair”
-
-            “The windows in the palace were             108
-            gleaming”
-
-            “She strained her eyes to watch the         121
-            distant harbor”
-
-            “He jumped upon his shoulders”              135
-
-            “Where was it bound? Haven’t you            148
-            guessed?”
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-        To
-    Robert Stuart
-      Marquis
-
-
-                  ONE day old—
-                      And all your life ahead of you!
-                    How I wish that plodding I
-                      Could be there instead of you!
-
-                  _Tops and toys and picture books;
-                  Sliding ponds and summer brooks;
-                  Birds among the tree-tops green;
-                  Flowers thrusting to be seen—
-                  And about you, like a charm
-                  To protect you, Mother’s arm...._
-
-                  Just one day——
-                    And thousands more to come to you!
-                  How the chirrupy old crickets
-                    Of the hearth will hum to you!
-
-                  _All the things that brightest gleam
-                  In a mother’s brightest dream:
-                  Sunshine that is free from rain,
-                  Laughter that is free from pain;
-                  Faith and glory, love and hope
-                  Lie along your life’s long slope...._
-
-                  One day old—
-                    While within your cradle, you
-                  Smile to think of all the things
-                    Life will freely ladle you!
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-         _HERE is the story of Peterkin Pumperkin,
-              Lived in a patch, and afraid of a bumperkin.
-           The wind came along with a jig and a jumperkin—
-              When Peterkin stopped, he was all in a lumperkin._
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   I
-
-                           PETERKIN PUMPERKIN
-
-
-I KNOW you have all heard of the little man who lived inside a pumpkin.
-Just why he lived there I don’t exactly remember, but I can’t imagine
-that he used to sleep so comfortably inside his tiny bowl of a bed-room.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-For, when the growly wind took to blowing over the pumpkin patch and set
-the fat yellow balls of pumpkins swaying from this side to that on their
-slender vines, poor Peterkin would be jounced clear out of bed and sent
-spinning round and round the circled pumpkin wall.
-
-“Ugh, ouch!” he would groan. “My poor head’s all bumps and bruises. Ugh,
-ugh! Why in the name of everything foolish did I ever come to live in a
-pumpkin? Why didn’t I stay in a sensible house, and live like other
-folks live? Oh, ouch!” And then, as the wind gave one last roar and his
-jouncing little home gave one last, extra large somersault on its vine,
-Peterkin would usually find himself thwacked back into bed again, with
-his feet on the pillow and his head buried deep in the mattress.
-
-The wind, of course, thought it the greatest fun in the world. The wind
-was only a jolly playmate, after all—even if he was a bit too rough
-about it. And the wind could never understand what made Peterkin so
-angry in the matter.
-
-“Whee! I love to play free and frolic! I love to send the little leaves
-whirling and the dust mounds swirling, and the heavy laden pine-boughs
-tossing with sighs. I love to chase the thin gray wisps of mist and the
-spattering rain-drops as they fall, and to rattle the frosted window
-panes. Whee! I’m sure I’m more than gentle with Peterkin Pumperkin. I
-always take care not to snap his anchor stem! I always leave him fast
-upon his vine. Whee, whiz!”
-
-But then there came a night when myriad snowflakes were falling over the
-patch. It was more than the mischievous wind could stand. He _must_ get
-in among those flakes! He must make them jig and dart and dive in
-crooked merriment!
-
-He rushed down upon them, charging with a trumpet’s roar. And in his
-wild path he rolled the clumsy pumpkins to this side and that, until
-their rumble fairly shook the earth.
-
-Poor Peterkin was dozing at his tiny stove, just then—for it was very
-chilly and shivery inside his Pumperkin house. Whee! whistled the wind.
-Whee! it shrieked, right over his head.
-
-Then, suddenly, the terrible thing happened! The thing that Peterkin had
-feared so many years! SNAP! went the stem of Peterkin’s Pumperkin—off
-the vine, out of the patch—free, anchorless, guideless! And away and
-away rolled the pumpkin house—down the bumpy field, across the ditch,
-through the brook, to the top of a steep hill. Then away and away, down,
-down, down, went Peterkin and his Pumperkin—over and over in swift,
-dizzy tumbles. Head up, feet down, head down, feet up—down, down, down!
-Then up another hill. Up, up, to its top, with poor Peterkin turning an
-unwilling somersault at every yard!
-
-But, oh, at the top of this hill is a precipice—and beyond it, miles
-below, is the sea. Ah, what will happen now to Peterkin? His pumpkin
-house reaches the edge of the precipice, seems to linger for a short
-moment, then shoots far out and down, down into the sea! It sinks
-beneath the waves, then slowly bobs up again, sinks again, comes up
-again and floats peacefully away with the tide.
-
-And now, with this strange happening, begin the marvellous adventures of
-Peterkin in his Pumperkin! Let’s hope that in the next of them the wind,
-that merry playfellow, will try to be more gentle.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   II
-
-                            PETERKIN AFLOAT
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-WHEN last we heard of Peterkin—do you remember?—he was afloat on the
-waves in his pumpkin house. And sailing swiftly out to sea!
-
-Peterkin, as soon as he had gained his breath, climbed out of the tangle
-of bed-clothes and furniture which his sudden fall had thrown over and
-all about him. Then he pinched himself in every limb, and was glad to
-find everything whole and sound.
-
-“Whew!” he gasped. “That _was_ an escape! To think of landing in the
-sea!”
-
-He pulled his little ladder out from under a tumble of pots and pans and
-bric-a-brac and blankets, and set it up against the wall. Then up he
-clambered, step by step, until he had poked his head through the hole,
-in the Pumperkin’s top, which served for a door and a window and
-ceiling, all at the same time. It gave him just a glimpse of the open
-air and the wide stretch of sea on every hand. Waves—blue, choppy,
-hopping waves, as far as Peterkin could see ... nothing but waves!
-
-Well, there was nothing for it but to go back into his house and sit by
-the stove and begin to cry. Not that crying could help matters any—but
-Peterkin was sad at all these sudden happenings, and somehow his tears
-did make him feel a little better.
-
-“Boohoo!” wept he. “It’s all the fault of the wicked wind! One moment I
-was safe and dozing at home in my old pumpkin patch; the next, here I am
-bobbing and lost on the face of the ocean. The only thing I have to be
-thankful for is that there’s still a warm fire in my stove. Boohoo!”
-
-And oh, the saddest part of it all is that he wept so hard, and so many
-of his tears spilled down into the stove that—what did he do but put the
-fire out! And soon enough his pumpkin house grew cold and cheerless and
-wet with the briny waves which came dashing in through the
-door-window-ceiling.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It was a dreary party now. Peterkin felt his yellow ball of a boat leap
-and fall with every wave. Everything rattled and jingled to the see-saw
-motion. He grew dizzy. He could scarcely steady himself to climb up the
-ladder a second time. He could hardly see the white froth at the crests
-of the waves and the deep green of their troughs. He made out a ship
-passing by, miles and miles away. He screamed and waved his coat and
-whistled between two fingers—did everything he could think of to make
-the sailors see and save him. But the ship sailed on and away, until the
-white specks of its sails had faded from view.
-
-Night came on, gray and then blue, and the waves never tired of their
-ceaseless jigging. Peterkin crouched on the floor of his Pumperkin and
-thought of the fate which awaited him, and worried himself into a
-troubled sleep. Many times during the long, dark hours he woke up with a
-start, and, through the hole in the house-top, caught a glimpse of the
-stars and a smack of the salt spray. The last time he awoke, the stars
-had been swallowed up in the graying sky by a streak of glowing red, and
-Peterkin knew it was the dawn.
-
-Later, when the sunshine came straggling into his shell on the drops of
-glistening spray, he climbed his ladder for an early morning peek. White
-mists were rolling back across the waves, and ... oh! what was that?
-
-Not a hundred yards away, a thin fountain, shimmering like silver, rose
-up out of the green of the sea and curved down again upon it. Again it
-came—and again! Up, up—fifty feet into the air, a gleaming fountain! And
-then, as it came nearer and nearer, Peterkin caught the glimpse of a
-black fin ... and a huge jaw!
-
-Ugh! What could it be?
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “An early morning peek”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  III
-
-                         PETERKIN AND THE WHALE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A WHALE! Yes, it was a big, black, hungry whale! And it was drawing
-closer and closer to Peterkin’s pumpkin boat every time he blinked.
-
-Peterkin could see its forked tail now and its great, darkly gleaming
-sides. Once it disappeared completely under the foam, and when it rose
-again, it was so near that Peterkin saw its ugly little eyes and a white
-row of jagged teeth. Whenever it flashed its tail and fins, there was a
-great churning of water, and the Pumperkin would roll and rock so
-fiercely that it almost dumped its poor owner into the ocean.
-
-The whale, I’m sure, did not know what to make of it. The whale was used
-to boats, of course—but boats with sails and pointed prows and sailors
-in the rigging. While here was something round and fat, and such a
-golden yellow! No bow it had, nor stern, nor sails, nor flags, nor
-rudder. “Is it really and truly a boat?” thought the whale. Well, this
-would have to be looked into very closely!
-
-So the big whale came puffing and fountaining up to the little
-Pumperkin.
-
-“Oh, oh,” it sighed, “what a pretty thing to frisk with! Just like a
-play-toy! Here’s where I have my day’s fun!” And with that it dived deep
-under the pumpkin boat and came up on the other side. “Haw, haw,” it
-chuckled—as only a whale can chuckle—“what bully good sport! Just to
-look at that little man who is peeking out over the side of this yellow
-ball! Just to see how surprised he looks to find me over here, where he
-didn’t expect me to be! Haw, haw!” And the whale gave another frolicsome
-wiggle to his tail—nearly upsetting the Pumperkin again.
-
-As for Peterkin, he was chattering with fear. He did not know what was
-coming next! Perhaps the whale was about to swallow him for breakfast.
-Yes, yes, it was surely up to some mischief, was this black whale. For
-it had disappeared again. Oh, what now?
-
-True, the playful whale had taken another dive under the bottom of the
-pumpkin. But it didn’t bother to come up on the other side. It just
-stayed there under water, directly beneath the Pumperkin.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Haw, I wonder what would happen if I should squirt my fountain into the
-air?” thought the whale—and being a whale, it had to take a long while
-to think it over. In the dreadful pause, Peterkin trembled so hard that
-his stove and his bed and all the furniture took to rattling, too.
-
-Then, suddenly, the Pumperkin, Peterkin and all, shot fifty feet high
-into the air! Up, up, like a bubble at the top of a mighty geyser, it
-rose with the stream of the whale’s fountain. For the wink of an eye, it
-seemed to hang there—then down it came again—down with a spatter and
-splash into the trough of the sea!
-
-Peterkin could stand it no longer. He screamed aloud—with such a scream
-as the whale had never heard. It was a scream to make every fish in the
-sea shudder along its fins.
-
-“Oh, dear me!” sighed the whale, “I have made an enemy. I’ve been
-hurting somebody’s feelings, I fear. I should have been very glad to
-make a breakfast of that little man and his yellow bubble, if only he
-hadn’t minded and had acted cheerfully about it. But now, since he’s so
-cross and cranky, I shall punish him by going away and never looking at
-him again. So there!”
-
-Which was just what the big whale did. And it never could understand why
-the little man clapped his hands and laughed with delight when he saw it
-dwindle away into the waves of the distance.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   IV
-
-                          PETERKIN’S APPETITE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-NOW all this while poor Peterkin had not had a single bit to eat. Not a
-dry biscuit even. And as for a whole meal, why—that was out of the
-question. For wasn’t his stove drearily cold? And the eggs in his basket
-all crushed by the many falls his Pumperkin had taken? And he was
-hungry. So would you be, if you had gone so long without a meal—and
-Peterkin, for all he lived in a pumpkin, was not so far different from
-you. He sat and listened to the slap of the waves upon the bottom of his
-round yellow boat and rubbed his empty stomach mournfully.
-
-Suddenly, the Pumperkin gave a lurch and a fling up-ward. Then again and
-again! Oh, what was it now? Another whale? Peterkin rushed up his
-ladder, and ... oh, it was _land_!
-
-Yes, directly ahead of him, the waves were combing into a high, frothy
-surf thundering down upon a stretch of yellow sands. Behind that, he
-could see tall trees spreading their broad palm leaves in tufts of
-brightest green; and a low hill of glistening rock, where purple flowers
-clung and orange-leaved vines were twining.
-
-“Land!” cried Peterkin in rapture. “Land at last!”
-
-Sure enough, the pumpkin boat gave a last leap in the swirl of the surf
-and came down on something firm and grating. It was safe on the sands of
-the shore.
-
-In a jiffy Peterkin had hauled up his ladder and let it down on the
-other side. Then down he climbed, waded swiftly through the foamy edge
-of spume and dashed up on the beach. Before he did another thing, he
-danced a jig—which was Peterkin’s way of showing how happy and thankful
-he was. So you may be sure it was a very merry jig he danced!
-
-Then he went wisely back and pushed and pulled at his Pumperkin until it
-was high and dry upon the shore. Next he lifted his cold stove out and
-set it in a dark little cave of the rocks, where the rain might never
-find it in stormy weather.
-
-“But a lot of good my stove will be to me if I cannot find something to
-cook on it!” thought hungry Peterkin.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-So he searched the length of yellow sand. But he found nothing there
-excepting a few empty shells, pink and gray, like the glow of a pearl.
-He searched the mosses under the palm trees—but only a few nuts had
-fallen from the tufts overhead, and these were so hard and so bitter
-that the taste of them puckered up his face with sour twists. He climbed
-the hill of glistening stone until he could see from its summit the tops
-of thousands and thousands more of just such trees—like so many green
-and waving feather dusters—a whole forestful, swaying to the horizon’s
-boundary.
-
-And there at last, on the tip top of the rocks, he seized upon a handful
-of the purple flowers and another of the orange-leaved vine.
-
-“If nothing else,” he planned, “I shall make a dainty salad of flower
-and leaf and eat it from a plate of pearly sea-shell.”
-
-But alas! he was still to learn the evil of plucking strange things for
-salads!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   V
-
-                           PETERKIN’S COOKING
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-HIS arms full of leaves and flowers, Peterkin hurried back to the little
-black cave, where his stove was in hiding.
-
-“This cave shall be my kitchen,” he told himself. “Under its shadow I
-shall cook my meals and brew my broths, and boil and broil and bake....
-Only, I quite forgot, I have nothing to cook. Nothing but flowers and
-leaves.”
-
-He thought for a long while, and finally he decided that, instead of
-having just a cold and fragrant salad, he should heat them all up into a
-smoking stew. He should have a meal to warm the cockles of his heart.
-
-But, when he had gathered the stalks of withered palm leaves and had
-crammed them into the cindery throat of his stove, he had to wait
-another little while before he could figure out just how to make a
-flame. At length he remembered having read the way to strike a spark
-with two pieces of sharp rock. So he snatched up a pair of stones and
-smashed them and crashed them against each other until the fiery sparks
-were darting down into the mouth of the stove—into the midst of the
-fuel. There was a sudden bursting into red flame, and the fire was
-started!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Then Peterkin—clever cook that he was—laid his purple flowers and his
-orange vines prettily within the cup of a sea-shell, and sprinkled them
-over with salt water of the surf. Then he laid shell and all upon the
-stove and waited for results.
-
-Nor had he to wait so long. For, all in a twinkle, there was a monstrous
-pouf! Great billows of smoke, brown and lavender, gushed up from the
-heart of the sea-shell and spread themselves across the sky. There came
-a resounding crackle of flames ... the whole shell, trailing its glowing
-mists behind it, rose up, up, above the tree-tops, into the clouds, and
-out of sight! It was gone, forever and aye.
-
-For a long while poor Peterkin could scarcely realize all that had
-happened so much of a sudden. He stood staring up at the dwindling speck
-of the sea-shell and wondering ... where could his meal have
-disappeared? And what must he do now for another?
-
-“And I am so hungry, too,” he sighed. “Not a bite to eat since I and my
-Pumperkin left the patch. Well, there’s nothing for it but that I begin
-to search through the whole forest of green palms. Perhaps I shall find
-a scarlet cockatoo, or a yellow-tailed dove, to carry back with me for
-dinner.”
-
-But, indeed, he felt so weak from want of food that he could scarcely
-stand. He lay down on the sunny stretch of the sands and half closed his
-eyes. He could see, in a blur, that the low line where the sea and the
-sky met, far away, was smothered in black clouds—and that little streaks
-of angry red seemed to be flashing in the black. He asked himself,
-drowsily, was this a storm approaching? Was it a hurricane, or what....
-And then, before he had time to answer himself, he fell asleep.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   VI
-
-                            AN HOUR OF STORM
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-PETERKIN woke up with a start. Something was roaring in his ears. A
-rushing shower of sand stung his cheeks. The wind was shrieking behind
-him, across the low hill and in among the palm trees. At his feet, the
-waves of the surf were hammering down upon the beach in great, black,
-frothing mountains, until the earth itself seemed trembling. The air was
-cold and swept across his face in fresh, tossing gusts.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “Then it grew darker than midnight”
-]
-
-He jumped to his feet and ran. He was afraid of something—he did not
-know what. He ran, stumbling, to the crest of the hill. He could look
-out, now, across the sea of gray waves on one side and the sea of green
-tree-tops on the other. Above him the sky was a mass of heavy, darkening
-clouds, a field of clashing, rumbling shadows. Every little while it
-would cleave apart, and down to the sea would spin the forks of blinding
-lightning in jagged craziness. Then all heaven and earth would mutter
-and roar and take to trembling.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Palm leaves, torn from the trees, went flying off, high overhead, in
-somersaulting circles. Eddies of golden sand swirled the length of the
-shore. The wind, heavy with salt spray, wailed louder and louder.
-
-Then it grew darker than midnight. Peterkin could see nothing now. He
-knelt among the snapping, creaking vines and buried his face against the
-beaten-down flowers.
-
-The rain began. A few warm, pattering drops at first—then a sudden heavy
-downpour, streaming and cold. The vines were floating with drooping
-leaves upon a lake of rain, and the little flowers disappeared
-completely. The beach below was guttered with brown water.
-
-Gradually then the rain began to lessen. The clouds turned a lighter
-gray, until they broke apart in a long, uneven rift and showed a gap of
-blue. The sunshine came through this gap in a softly beaming shaft. High
-against the dark hung a curving rainbow, like an arch of jewels.
-
-The rainbow faded, the sunshine grew stronger and more golden, the last
-wisps of cloud sank away in the blue of the sky. The sea was calm now
-and blue. Nothing seemed to be moving upon it excepting the tiny darts
-of gleaming sunbeams. All was peace again....
-
-Only—something—far out at sea—Oh! what was it? Something round and
-yellow! A tiny yellow spot, sailing out, out toward the horizon!
-
-Peterkin looked down at the shore, his heart jumping into his throat.
-Yes, alas! His Pumperkin was gone! His pumpkin house had been swept away
-by the storm—swept out to sea!
-
-Yes, his house, his boat, his darling Pumperkin was sailing away from
-him—was lost and gone! Ah, what would his fate be now?
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  VII
-
-                            PETERKIN ESCAPES
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-PETERKIN was hungrier than ever. He had lost his faithful pumpkin, too!
-Oh, what could he do? He pondered a long while. He could try to cook
-some more flowers and vines on his stove. But, no ... he remembered what
-had happened the last time he tried. And, it seemed, there wasn’t
-anything else to eat on all the shore.
-
-He must escape, then. He must flee this lonely beach. He must wander
-away to somewhere ... he didn’t know where—just somewhere else.
-
-But how? For he had no Pumperkin now. His yellow house of a boat had
-been swept off on the waves, out beyond the horizon. At last, as he
-stood in deep thought, a merry idea came popping into his head. Indeed,
-it was an idea so full of mad adventure that, when it came to him, he
-had to burst out laughing and clapped his hands in glee. For he
-remembered what a comical thing had happened at the stove an hour
-before.
-
-So he hastened to kindle a roaring fire in the black iron throat of its
-oven. Then he ran this way and that on the beach until, half sunk in the
-sands, he found a huge, pearly sea-shell. He tore it out and carried it
-back and set it on the stove. To make sure, he added a sprinkling of
-vines and flowers and silver sea froth. Then he climbed up on the top of
-his stove and sat himself down in the cup of the shell. Ouch! it was
-hot!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Just as before, there was a little curl of lavender smoke, a little
-shivering and rocking—then POUF! Up went shell and Peterkin and all!
-
-Up, up, sailing up! Peterkin, clutching madly at the sharp sides of the
-shell, could feel the rush of wind against his face. He dared not look
-down, but he knew that the shore and all the wide-spread trees upon it
-were growing smaller and more distant. Something gray and filmy spun
-over his eyes, like a silken veil. He was in the clouds. Up, up, into
-the sunny blue again, where he could see the clouds below him now in
-great lazy billows. Up, up, always up!
-
-Once the fragile shell groaned, as if it would give way into shatters
-and send its rider hurtling toward the hidden earth. Once it bumped
-against the great black, cindery side of a dead star and nearly turned
-topsy-turvy. Once its pearly lining cracked dangerously under the heated
-blaze of the nearby sun.
-
-Now the flying shell and its rider were floating forward. And down, too.
-Down in a slow, curving line of grace—slowly, slowly down and forward,
-through the clouds and below them. Peterkin could see the high hills of
-a strange country now—a country where all the fields were yellow with
-grain, set in quaint squares like a checker board, and all the hills
-were soft with the green of pines. A silver thread of a river ran
-through the middle of the valley, and Peterkin could make out now the
-twinkling red roofs of cottages. It was the most peaceful scene he had
-ever come upon.
-
-“Oh, how I wish I were there!” he sighed.
-
-Which no sooner uttered than down dived his sea-shell straight upon the
-soft breast of a yellow haystack. Deep into the hay it landed, with
-never a bump or a scrape. Peterkin was safe in the valley.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  VIII
-
-                         PETERKIN IN THE VALLEY
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-AN old farmer came hobbling out of his house, along the little path that
-ran to the edge of the haystack. His mouth was wide open, and his eyes
-well-nigh popped from his head at the sight of so strange a fellow in
-his haystack.
-
-“Heigh!” cried the farmer, “what are you doing in my stack, eh? And
-what’s that silly, pearly thing you have at your side? What are you
-doing in this peaceful valley, eh?”
-
-“I’m flying,” replied Peterkin, climbing down to the ground. “I’ve flown
-from there to here, from the earth to the stars, from the moon to the
-sun ... and here I am, hungry as hungry can be. So come along, old
-farmerman, and feed me full of all the best things of your cupboard.”
-
-“Not I!” cried the toothless old farmer. “Not until you tell me your
-whole story.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-So they sat themselves down in the shade of a blossoming tree, and
-Peterkin told the tale of his adventures; of how he had lived in the
-pumpkin patch, and the wind had swept him away, in his pumpkin house,
-far upon the sea; and of the storms and the frisky whale, and the desert
-shore, and the loss of Pumperkin, and of how he made his final escape in
-the cup of the flying shell ... and here he was!
-
-The old farmer listened, with growing wonder. He could only shake his
-head and lick his toothless gums with his long tongue and say, “Tut,
-tut, what a queer affair! Tut, tut, tut!”
-
-Then he scratched himself very long and hard, and broke into a red-faced
-chuckling. It was plain to see he had just had a new, sly thought!
-
-“I’ve never seen a shell,” said he, “because I’ve never seen the sea.
-The sea is so far away from here ... it doesn’t touch our little valley
-at all. The thunder of its waves never comes to our ears, and the sting
-of its spray never flicks us. Perhaps that’s why we’re called the
-_peaceful_ valley. We never mind anything excepting our own business,
-nor care for anyone who dwells outside the boundary of our hills. Tut,
-tut!” And he sighed.
-
-“And yet, for all your happy valley,” declared Peterkin, “you seem to be
-sighing unhappily for something. Tell me, what is it?”
-
-“A new set of teeth,” wept the old fellow. “That’s what I need. I lost
-my old set—oh, so many years ago. And there’s no place to find a new one
-in all the valley.”
-
-“Ho, ho, that’s easily fixed,” laughed Peterkin. “You shall come with me
-on my sea-shell, up into the sky, over the hills, until we reach some
-huge and busy city. I have no doubt of it—you may find a new set of
-teeth there.”
-
-Now, that was just what the old farmer was wanting. When he heard this
-generous offer, he wasted no time, but ran to sit himself on the shell.
-
-“But, ho, what about my reward?” said Peterkin. “Not so fast, please.
-First you must feed me a fine meal—a meal to take away all my two days’
-hunger and to make me fat and glad.”
-
-“Agreed!” cried the farmer.
-
-So he took the starving Peterkin into his house and set before him a
-whole tableful of dishes: thick soups and red, juicy meats and white
-slabs of fish from the brookside, and frothy-leaved salads, ripening
-fruits ... and a whole mountain of desserts. Peterkin did not know where
-to begin, and having once begun, did not know where to end. The result
-was that he ate the whole tableful, from the first soup to the last
-dessert.
-
-But little did he guess what a wicked trick his appetite had played him.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “So they sat themselves on the flying sea-shell”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   IX
-
-                         PETERKIN TAKES A FALL
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-NO sooner had Peterkin satisfied his hunger and wiped his mouth than the
-old farmer fussed and fidgeted to start on their journey. Peterkin
-couldn’t understand why he was in such a hurry—but then Peterkin had a
-full set of teeth, while the farmer had none. And it was in search of a
-new set that they were going.
-
-So they sat themselves on the flying sea-shell and were off and away.
-
-But it was strange what a creaking and groaning came from the faithful
-shell. True, it went up, up, as high as ever before; but it went so
-slowly and by such rickety jumps and bounds, as if its wings were lamed.
-The old farmer was almost jounced completely off his seat ten times. His
-long gray beard was tousling over his eyes in the helter-skelter rush of
-the wind. He well-nigh died of fright.
-
-Peterkin, too, was afraid. Not that he wasn’t accustomed, by now, to
-this skimming through the clouds. But something was wrong ... yes,
-something was certainly wrong. His sea-shell had never acted this way
-before. Oh, listen! It was groaning and grunting now, louder than ever.
-Peterkin thought he could even hear a sharp cracking of its pearly cup.
-Suppose that it should break!
-
-He looked down, sick at heart! Through the cloud rifts he could see that
-they were passing over a great, white line of mountain tops. Like
-glistening needles they seemed, as he gazed down upon them. The sunlight
-glanced dazzlingly along their snowy sides. Peterkin shuddered and
-turned his eyes away.
-
-“Oh, oh, look again!” chattered the toothless old farmer. “We are past
-the mountains now. We are well above a brand-new valley, where a rushing
-river tumbles and froths, and oh, look ... over there are the spires and
-roofs of a city. Gray and silver they are, all gleaming and tall. And we
-are flying straight toward them. Hurrah, now I shall get me a new set of
-teeth!”
-
-But long ere they reached the city, the sea-shell began to crack and
-split, and to wabble from side to side. Once it dipped so far that both
-of its passengers were almost tossed off into the air. The farmer clung
-fast to Peterkin and Peterkin to the shell—and both of them gasped in
-horror.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Oh, we are too heavy a load,” sobbed Peterkin. “I should never have
-taken you along with me.”
-
-“It’s not my fault!” stormed the old fellow. “It’s you who are so heavy.
-You ate and ate until you weigh more than four fat men should weigh.
-’Twas your appetite that will kill us both”—and he sucked his toothless
-gums in rage.
-
-“Ungrateful man!” cried Peterkin. “I am risking my life to make you
-happy.”
-
-“Yes,” retorted the other, “and I am losing mine because you were so
-greedy!”
-
-Therewith they fell to in wrath and cuffed each other and tore and
-tussled, swaying to this side and that and jouncing up and down in
-mighty thwacks.
-
-“Out with you—out of the shell!” screamed the old farmer. And with that
-he seized poor Peterkin under the arms, and—for all he was so
-heavy—hurled him out into the air and down, down, down....
-
-The sea-shell, lightened of the heavier part of its load, shot up higher
-into the air. Then suddenly, with a noise like the crack o’ doom, it
-burst into many pearly pieces. The farmer shot down, too, as if from a
-gun. And down he came close behind Peterkin ... and landed, with a
-fearful splash, into a fountain in the center of the market place.
-
-As for Peterkin himself, you never could guess where he landed.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   X
-
-                         PETERKIN IN THE PALACE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-THROUGH an open skylight of the gilded dome of the palace. That’s where
-Peterkin landed. Through the open skylight, upon a springy, cushiony
-sofa. Up he bounced again, almost to the ceiling—then down to the marble
-floor in a huddle. He lay there stunned and silent for a little while,
-aching in every limb.
-
-A little lady stood over him when he opened his eyes. She was peering
-down at him with a white and frightened face—and Peterkin, for all his
-dizziness, thought he had never seen so beautiful a maiden in the world.
-For her startled eyes were blue—as blue as the sky had been, above the
-clouds—and her curls were a golden shawl upon her shoulders. Under the
-white of her lace and cambric gown, her little bare feet came peeping.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Peterkin leaped to his feet, as best he could—for he was sore and stiff.
-He made a handsome bow and smiled his prettiest smile, with his hand
-over his heart, as if he were the gallant master of a dancing school.
-But this only made the little lady’s eyes open the wider with surprise.
-
-“And who are you? And where do you come from? And what do you want in
-the bed-chamber of her Royal Highness, the Princess Clematis of the Four
-Kingdoms?”
-
-Peterkin was horrified. “Gracious me!” he stammered. “Where is her Royal
-Highness Whatever-you-called-her? I must apologize to her for bursting
-into her father’s palace so suddenly. Indeed, had I been able to, I
-should have walked in very humbly by way of the kitchen door or through
-the garden gate. But, don’t you see, I came so fast that I didn’t have
-time to choose. So lead me to the princess and let me beg her pardon.”
-
-The little lady rubbed one set of pink toes over the other in a bashful
-fashion. Her laugh was as light as the rustle of green vines in the
-spring.
-
-“You are pardoned, merry stranger,” she said. “It is I, the Princess
-Clematis, who bid you welcome to the palace of the Four Kingdoms.” Then
-she held out her hand.
-
-Poor Peterkin! His face grew red with flushes. He sank to his knee—in
-spite of the big bruise on it—and planted a most courteous kiss upon her
-rosy finger tips. And, if the truth be told, the princess smiled a
-charming “how-do-you-do,” and found it very easy to forgive him.
-
-But just at that moment, there came a loud rapping at the door and a
-hubbub of angry voices and a clanking of swords and spears against the
-walls.
-
-“Ho, hola!” thundered someone without. “Open the door and let me in! I
-shall find whoever dares to pop into my royal daughter’s chamber, by way
-of the gilded dome. Ho, hola!”
-
-At this, the little princess ran to fling open the door. And there, with
-a torch in his hand and a host of armed sentries behind him, stood His
-Majesty the King. Aye, no less a person than the monarch of the Four
-Kingdoms himself. Peterkin knew him at once by the jeweled crown which
-he wore atop his night-cap.
-
-But before he could say a word, the little princess tripped to her
-father’s side and commenced a sly tickling at his nightie, just where
-his royal ribs ought to be. And under his crown, the King was just a
-jolly old man after all. He tried very hard to purse his lips and
-frown—but under such gentle tickling, there was nothing for it but to
-burst into a great roaring of laughter. He laughed, laughed—until his
-eyes were wet and his sides were aching. All of which put him in a
-better mood and made him look more kindly upon his strange visitor. He
-clapped the frightened Peterkin upon the back and called him a merry
-dog, and ended by marching off with him, arm in arm, to the palace’s
-spare bed-room to give him royal shelter for the night.
-
-Thus it was that the princess, with a little wise tickling, saved a
-stranger’s life and brought much joy to the Four Kingdoms. But you shall
-have all that explained another time.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   XI
-
-                        PETERKIN TELLS HIS TALE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-SO Peterkin went to bed in fine fashion. His couch was of cushioned
-velvet and his pillows of down and silk. Over his head were hangings of
-lustrous satin, with ostrich plumes and gilded crowns by way of
-ornament. And when he woke in the morning, several slaves were kneeling
-at the bedside, ready to bathe him and dress him and to do his slightest
-bidding.
-
-“Ahem!” thought Peterkin. “I must admit that, after all, this is a
-better sort of thing than living in a pumpkin.”
-
-Just as soon as he was dressed in a princely robe of purple linen with
-gold clasps and jeweled collar, his slaves led Peterkin along a silvered
-hallway, where marble pillars gleamed with wreaths of precious stones,
-to a hall of gold. Here were a golden table and a host of golden
-chairs—and behind each chair stood, waiting in respect, some member of
-the royal court in brilliant costume. No sooner had Peterkin stepped
-over the marble threshold than they set up a loud, wild cheering and
-waved their silken napkins to bid him welcome.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-He took his seat at their head, in a chair which stood upon a golden
-dais. Before him, in a glowing line, were platters of fruit, red-cheeked
-and orange and purple. The smell of fragrant dishes steaming came to his
-nostrils and sharpened his appetite. He seized a golden fork and reached
-toward a pyramid of hot, brown muffins ... but oh, no! He was not to eat
-for a little while.
-
-For, just at this moment, who should enter the dining hall but the
-little princess and the King himself! The King was in his robes of
-state: ermine and velvet and cloth of gold. As for the princess, she had
-given up her nightie for a gown of dainty blue on which a field of
-slender lilies was embroidered in pale silk. Her golden hair was in a
-braid now, with fluttering ribbons woven, like veins, amidst it.
-Peterkin’s fork clattered down to the table at his first sight of her:
-he had no thought of food from then on.
-
-There was a great bending of knees and bowing of heads of the courtiers
-and another round of cheers and fluttered napkins as His Majesty and his
-fair daughter entered. But where do you think they sat? Why, one of them
-at the right hand of Peterkin and the other at his left.
-
-There was silence for many moments, during which the little princess
-lowered her blue eyes and pretended not to see that Peterkin, in the
-manner of all lovers, was staring eagerly at the rose of her cheeks and
-the bow of her little red lips. Oh, no! the princess saw nothing—but she
-was blushing, just the same.
-
-“Hold!” said the King at length as he juggled a biscuit thoughtfully
-upon the end of his diamond-studded scepter. “We shall eat no morsel or
-a mouthful until we have heard your story, good stranger. So tell us it
-now. If it pleases us, you shall dwell in our midst, in all the pomp and
-comfort you have had this morning—and whatever you ask, for your
-happiness shall be ours.” His Majesty shot a knowing smile at his lovely
-daughter. “But if your tale fails to please us, if it tells of cowardice
-instead of bravery, of weakness instead of strength—why, then, good
-stranger, you shall be driven out of our palace, out of the Four
-Kingdoms, with a tattered coat and an empty stomach—an exile in
-disgrace. So, hem your throat and purse your lips and make a good
-beginning of your tale.”
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “‘Take him away!’ ordered the King”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XII
-
-                            PETERKIN’S FATE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-IT was an hour—a full and hungry hour—before Peterkin had told his tale.
-For he told to the King and his courtiers all of the strange happenings
-which had brought him floating from the pumpkin patch and flying in
-through the bed-room window. And, all the while he spoke, he could see
-the shadows of wrath grow darker on the brow of His Majesty and that the
-little princess’s red mouth drooped sorrowfully. Peterkin faltered. He
-wondered what was wrong with his tale. How could it offend His Majesty?
-He went on slowly, until he came to the fearful experience he had had,
-in his flying shell, with the toothless old farmer.
-
-The King could stand it no longer. He banged his scepter down so hard as
-to crack every butter-plate on the table. Up to his feet he sprang, his
-eyes flashing lightning.
-
-“Yes,” he rumbled, “yes, yes, yes! I might have guessed it! It was the
-arch enemy of our Four Kingdoms that you brought into our midst. Yes,
-yes, the Farmer Without Teeth! It is told in all our histories that he
-will work us harm. Every witch in the land has warned me to beware of
-him! And of you, too, you bothersome wayfarer! All the ancient history
-books have prophesied your coming. All of them described exactly how you
-would fly into my palace by way of the roof. This is just what they say:
-
-                 “‘Beware the daring little fellow
-                  Who lives within a house of yellow;
-                  He sails the sky in a skiff of pearl—
-                  Through your window he will whirl.
-                  He will bring what harm can do:
-                  He will make you endless rue.’”
-
-When they heard this fateful rhyme, all of the courtiers shuddered with
-terror. A little moan escaped from the lips of the princess. As for
-Peterkin, his tongue clung to the roof of his mouth.
-
-“Take him away!” ordered the King. “Away to the dungeon with him! And
-send out my royal army in search of the toothless farmer, that arch
-enemy of the Four Kingdoms. Away, to the deep, black dungeon!”
-
-At once Peterkin was smothered in a great crowd of stalwart guards who
-bound him in heavy chains, who lifted him away and out of the banquet
-hall. The last thing he heard was the scream of the little princess.
-
-Down, down, into the darkness of narrow cellars; down steep stairs of
-crumbling stone, where the air was damp and smelling of old mosses;
-down, still further down, they carried him. At last they came to a
-little iron door in a wall of black rock. There was a creaking of a
-rusty iron key in its lock, and a swinging of the little door on its
-stiff hinges.
-
-“In with him!” cried the guards—and they tossed poor Peterkin, chains
-and all, into the furthermost corner of the cell. Then back went the
-door on its hinges, and creak, went the key in its lock. There was a
-faint sound of voices and footsteps dying in the distance ... and
-Peterkin was alone!
-
-A prisoner! Deep in the dark of the dungeon, he lay with his head in his
-hands and sobbed to think of what a fate had come to him. What a fine
-ending for his story!
-
-But then he remembered how the Princess Clem had screamed when he was
-snatched away—and he looked up and smiled. There was a tiny, barred
-window to his cell; and the sunlight came slanting through it in a
-narrow shaft, to make a little pool of brightness on the floor.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-For the longest while did Peterkin lie looking at it; and dreamed, as
-all true lovers do, of what a pretty sight the princess was in her blue,
-lilied gown, and ribbons in her braid!
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XIII
-
-                          THE TOOTHLESS ENEMY
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-WHILE Peterkin lay dreaming in the dungeon, the King and his guards were
-roaming the town in search of the toothless old farmer—that arch-enemy
-of the Four Kingdoms. But though they searched until the sun was low in
-the red west, they caught never a glimpse of him. He had found a secret
-hiding place which none could guess.
-
-He had fallen, you remember, into the fountain of the market place. And
-what a splash it was! What a wetting!
-
-Spluttering, dripping, he climbed out over the fountain’s rim. With a
-trail of water streaming on the cobbled street behind him, he shambled
-along into the shadow of a doorway and stood there shivering and
-wringing his hands for many minutes. Then he wiped the water from his
-eyes and looked about him.
-
-What had become of Peterkin he did not know—nor did he care. For
-Peterkin would be of no more use to him, now that he was in the King’s
-city. He smiled a toothless smile to think of how completely he had
-fooled that little wayfarer. Never a hint had he given Peterkin of the
-wicked harm he meant to do to the Four Kingdoms—and of the sweet revenge
-that he would take! Hee, hee! and he gnashed his gums in hate.
-
-He glanced over at the gilded dome of the palace. Strange lights were
-passing back and forth behind the darkened windows. Something had
-happened ... the palace was astir! Ha, perhaps they had learned that he
-was come into their city. Perhaps they were setting out at once to find
-him and to pounce upon him. He had better flee somewhere and hide!
-
-He started to step out into the street. Pit-a-pat, came someone’s
-footsteps. A tall soldier, hurrying home to bed, clanked noisily ’round
-the corner. The old man fled back into the hallway, until his back hit
-against a door. The soldier went by, darting a suspicious glance into
-the shadow. The farmer crouched back, back, until....
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The door flew wide! He had broken it open!
-
-The soldier, at the noise, stopped and looked about him sharply, then
-retraced his steps. There was nothing for it! The old farmer plunged
-through the open door and slammed it shut behind him.
-
-It was pitch black there. He groped and stumbled. His knee grazed
-against a step. He climbed ... then another, and another and another,
-until he was at the head of a steep flight of stairs. Then another
-hallway, and another flight of stairs. His hands hit upon something
-straight and sharp. It was a ladder. Up this he went, too, a rung at a
-time, through a narrow hole in the ceiling.
-
-A gust of wind caught him full in the face. Above him were the stars—and
-he knew that he had reached the roof. He crossed it on tiptoe, for fear
-of the crackle of the tiles under foot. A broken down, tumbled chimney
-stopped him at the edge. Clinging to its loosened bricks, he could peer
-down into the street and over the roofs of the houses of the
-neighborhood. On the other side, the lights had died away in the palace
-windows—and all was dark and still. Even the startled soldier had
-disappeared.
-
-He lay down at the bottom of the chimney. Slowly he drifted off to
-sleep, shivering in his dampened clothes, and mumbling strange words
-between his gums.
-
-All the next day he lay there, dozing in the heat of the sun upon the
-open roof. Every little while he raised himself on his elbow to look
-down into the street. He saw the soldiers marching back and forth there,
-so tiny in size, and heard their faint shouts as they halted and
-searched each passerby.
-
-So they were hunting for him, eh? Well, let them hunt! He would rest
-here against the chimney pots until the sun had set and the wisp of a
-new moon had risen ... and then! Ah, then for mischief!
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XIV
-
-                           PETERKIN’S RESCUE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-AND meanwhile Peterkin, in the dungeon deep, was lying face down upon
-the cold stone floor, trying his brave best to shut out from his head a
-thousand wild fears and torments which did not belong there. What if he
-should stay here in this dark cell for all his days? What if he should
-never again see the sunlight or hear the rustle of the trees? What
-should he do for food? And for drink?
-
-He rose and walked up and down, up and down, across the little floor. He
-scanned each wall closely. No, there was no escape possible. The door
-was fast shut, and its iron bars firm. And the little window, through
-which the day was fading quickly, was higher, by far, than he could
-reach a-tiptoe. No, no escape!
-
-The sky, through the window, was a little square of red now. Slowly it
-faded and grew dark. In the center of it a single star winked into view.
-Evening had come. And Peterkin must spend the night here, where the dew
-was gathering in gray, cobwebby streaks upon the chilly walls.
-
-Then softly—as softly as the coming of the dew—there was a pitter-patter
-of light footsteps at the end of the hall. Someone was stealing down the
-mossy steps. Someone was approaching. He seized the bars with tightening
-fingers. His breath came fast. Yes, yes, it was——
-
-The princess!
-
-He could hardly see her in the darkness of the hall. He could scarcely
-recognize the blue of her gown and the glint of her golden hair. But he
-heard the jingle of many keys in her hand and the creak of the lock, as
-she tried each key ... and failed!
-
-“Oh, this one will open it,” she whispered, each time. “Oh, this one
-must!”
-
-Then, at last, she came to the last key in her hand. She thrust it into
-the hole: it fitted perfectly. She turned it—snap! The lock flew open.
-Peterkin hunched his back and pushed against the bars. He was in the
-hall now—and free!
-
-Neither he nor the little princess said a word for a long moment. Then
-she took his hand and placed into it a little vial of purple liquid.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Guard this well,” she warned him. “It is the Water of Bounceability.
-Whenever you wish to leap over great heights, you have only to sip a
-little of it and then to bounce high up and away. And, alas, you have
-many heights to leap ere you are back in my royal father’s favor. He is
-so angry at you for having brought his arch-enemy into the city that he
-has ordered your death at midnight. The hangman is already plaiting his
-rope and the carpenters hammering at a high scaffold. So follow me
-quickly to the city’s edge, where none will find you.”
-
-Peterkin was close at her heels, all the dark way. Through pitchy
-tunnels she led him, far under the cellars of the city; through narrow
-cave-like passages, heavy with reeking gases, until at last they came up
-into an open space, where the woods came down from the slopes of black
-hills to meet the streets and houses. It was the furthermost edge of the
-city.
-
-“I must leave you here,” sighed the princess. “I must return and take
-the spanking which awaits me. But as for you, brave Peterkin, you have
-your choice: either you may escape safely into exile and never return to
-see me again—or else you may perform four mighty deeds. Aye, deeds so
-great that even the King, my father, cannot do them. But if you succeed
-in them, you may return here, so high in the King’s favor that he will
-grant your dearest wish. Tell me, stranger, which will you choose?” Ah,
-little princess—I wonder if she blushed when she said it!
-
-But Peterkin never wavered. “Need you ask, my Princess Clem?” he
-whispered.
-
-“Then you must know,” she continued, “that there is a misery in each of
-the Four Kingdoms o’er which my father rules. Misery, sorrow and tears.
-Go, now, to each of these Four Kingdoms and make its people happy. Give
-joy instead of sorrow and smiles instead of tears. More than this I
-cannot tell you, but go! You shall see strange things and do brave
-deeds, and I shall be sitting at my palace window, under the gilded
-dome, awaiting your return”——
-
-Then, all in a twinkling, the little princess had fled back into the
-tunnel and was gone. Peterkin was alone.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “The whole leap took but a moment”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   XV
-
-                       THE WATER OF BOUNCEABILITY
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-PETERKIN turned his face at once towards the hazy line of hills which
-loomed through the darkness. He must escape over their crests while
-night was still here. He must take a sip—as the Princess Clem had taught
-him—of that purple liquid from the little vial in his hand.
-
-Carefully he uncorked the bottle—and sniffed. What a sweet, fragrant
-odor! He touched his tongue to the rim. It was like melted candy—yet the
-taste of it stung like fire. His limbs seemed to twitch and throb at the
-touch.
-
-He drew a long breath—and gulped down a gurgling mouthful of the Water
-of Bounceability.
-
-Immediately he knew that he might jump—_must_ jump—jump anywhere, up
-into the sky, where the stars were, and over the distant hills. He made
-a little run, a hop, and then—up he went sailing far across the
-hilltops, down into the valley on the other side. The whole leap took
-but a moment: no more time than it takes the fluff of a withered
-dandelion to fly across a lawn.
-
-Yet here he was thirty leagues or more from his starting place, in a
-strange, new valley! He wondered what the name of it could be.... It was
-such a wild and woody-looking place. He could not see very much, of
-course, for the stars gave little light, and the moon was but a thin,
-pale crescent. But he saw that all was tangled forests here and that
-wild, thorny heather and tall weeds had spread across what should have
-been clean meadows. An old road went across the heath, but it was
-overgrown with ferns and brambles and ditched with great muddy pools as
-if no one mended or repaired it—and no one traveled it. It was all a
-vast desert of waste and decay, hid by the dark of the night.
-
-Peterkin knew how useless it would be to try to make his way forward
-before morning. So he lay down under the branches of the trees and
-slept.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But early the next day, before the sun was up, Peterkin had started on
-his way. A difficult journey it was, too, along the deserted road. There
-were puddles to wade and vines to skip and rocky barriers to climb.
-There were ruts where the leaves of the past autumn had buried
-themselves in a soggy mass or where the summer dust had sifted into
-foolish heaps. There were trunks of fallen trees across the road, and
-lizards, frogs and hedge-hogs crawled or hopped or ran beside them. All
-was desolate and wild. It was a valley of mysterious decay.
-
-Then, at last, where the road slanted down to meet another long stretch
-of brown heathered fields, Peterkin spied a house. A huge, tall house,
-too, which must have been a splendid mansion once upon a time. But now
-it was shabby and needed paint. The bricks of its walls were losing
-their mortar; the slates of the roof were falling to the ground; none of
-the windows had curtains and few of them glass. There was moss upon the
-steps and in the eaves. The chimney pots were crumbled, and the lawn was
-high with choking weeds.
-
-Peterkin wondered, Could anyone live here?
-
-As if in answer to his question, a little boy came around the corner of
-the house. He came slowly, though he never stopped or hesitated a moment
-when he was within sight of Peterkin. He stumbled unsteadily through the
-weeds, with his hands held out before him. His face was handsome,
-truly—but his hair was in a fearful tousle over his eyes and his clothes
-were all in rags.
-
-“No wonder you can’t see a thing,” laughed Peterkin. “Take your hair out
-of your eyes!”
-
-The little boy stopped short at the sound of a voice. He nodded his head
-sadly.
-
-“What are eyes?” he asked. “I know I have two of them—but what use are
-they? Won’t you tell me, stranger?”
-
-“Why, silly!” roared Peterkin. “Eyes are to see with!”
-
-The little boy smiled more sadly than before. “No,” he sighed. “If you
-can see with your eyes, you are not of this valley. For I am blind. And
-so are my father and my mother, and all our neighbors, too. And so is
-everybody in this valley. All of us are blind!”
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XVI
-
-                         THE VALE OF THE BLIND
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-THE little boy led Peterkin into the house to meet his father and
-mother. But they, like the boy, were in rags and tatters—and blind!
-
-“You can _see_?” asked the father in wonder, when Peterkin had explained
-whence he came. “What does it mean to _see_? Isn’t all the world a thing
-of blackness? Is there anything more to it than the dark nothing of the
-blind?”
-
-“Oh, yes, indeed!” cried Peterkin, his own eyes filling with tears of
-pity. “There’s the sunshine and the trees, and all the bright flowers of
-the garden. There are birds of bright plumage, and moonbeams on the
-surface of the water, and the smiles on people’s faces. Oh, the world is
-so full of things to see.... I could not tell you all of them.”
-
-The mother nodded. “Yes, that is just the way my father’s father used to
-speak,” she said slowly. “It was in his youth that this became the Vale
-of the Blind. Before that, it was known in all the Four Kingdoms as the
-Vale of Bright Eyes. But now——” Her voice sank away and she sighed.
-
-“Tell me the story,” begged Peterkin. “Tell me how this great misfortune
-came upon your grandfathers.”
-
-It was the father who answered him. “Our valley,” he began, “was the
-happiest-hearted of all hereabouts fifty years ago. These things you
-speak of—these colors and sunshine which we do not know—were here in
-smiling plenty. The fields were neat and trim with golden grain. The
-pastures were like new-swept velvet, clean and green. The roads were
-smooth and bright. The houses were all handsome, with pretty lawns and
-gardens. Men wore fine clothes and took pride in themselves and in one
-another.
-
-“But one day, there came into our Valley of Bright Eyes a haggard
-stranger. He was the saddest being that e’er trudged down over the
-boundary hills, my grandfather used to tell me. He wept, the whole day
-long, because he had no teeth. Think of it! he could not be happy for
-want of a set of teeth!
-
-“Now, all their happiness had made my grandparents and their neighbors a
-kind, soft-hearted lot. No sooner did they see this man—who said he was
-a farmer—than they took pity on him. They fed him with porridge and
-honey—for they knew he could not eat what must be chewed—and they gave
-him a bed of fragrant blossoms to lie on when the night came.
-
-“But he would not sleep, at once. He got up every little while to ask
-them: ‘And are you sure this Valley of Bright Eyes is one of the Four
-Kingdoms, hey? Are you sure that the King of the Four Kingdoms is its
-ruler, hey?’
-
-“Every time they told him ‘Yes’ he would chuckle and mumble strange
-words through his toothless gums. In the middle of the night, he arose
-and looked out across the moonlit fields, where the grain was rich, and
-down the gleaming road, where the handsome houses stood in sleeping
-order. He laughed aloud, this time, the story goes. Then he strode out
-into the road and ran and ran—faster than ever a man had run before.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“‘I seek a set of teeth!’ he screamed as he ran. Up flew the windows,
-all the good folk roused from bed, rushing to see who could possibly be
-making such a racket. All along his way the people stared at him. They
-saw him take a torch from out of his pocket. They watched him set it
-aflame. They saw him touch it, hot and sputtering, to the tops of the
-fields of grain, to the hedges and trees.... _He_ _was setting fire to
-their valley!_ They rushed down, seized him, and stamped out the fearful
-blaze in just the nick of time.
-
-“As for the toothless villain, he screamed with merry laughter when they
-caught him.
-
-“‘Hee, hee, my Bright Eyes!’ he cried. ‘You have been spying on me all
-this while, eh? Your eyes are too bright. You have been watching my
-revenge upon my enemy, the King! Too bright, too bright! From now you
-shall be blind—fast blind—you and your wives and your sons and daughters
-and your neighbors. From the Vale of Bright Eyes you shall now become
-the Vale of the Blind. And yours shall henceforth be a valley of ruin
-and decay. Blind, blind—and never again shall you see the gold of the
-day or the silver of the moon until I come to give you back your
-eyes—your bright eyes—hee, hee, hee!’
-
-“And thus he fled from us. For the dark of the blind had come over the
-valley many years ago ... and there is nothing left for us but tears.”
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XVII
-
-                           PETERKIN PROMISES
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“AND so our valley has gone to rack and ruin,” concluded the blind man.
-
-Peterkin was silent for some minutes after he had finished. Then he
-shook his head wisely, sadly.
-
-“Can you wait four days until I rescue you?” he asked.
-
-“Four days?” The man, his wife and little son all burst into a bitter
-laughter. “We have waited for half a century already. We can wait a
-century, if only in the end we gain our eyes again, and win revenge upon
-our toothless enemy. Four days, ho, ho!”
-
-“You shall have both your eyes and your revenge,” promised the stranger.
-“It was only three days ago that I sped through the air in the cup of a
-sea-shell, in company with this toothless farmer. Oh, if I had only
-known, then!”
-
-“What? In his company? Are you a friend of his?” The blind family rushed
-in about him, as if to capture him and flay him.
-
-“No, no,” smiled Peterkin. “Not a friend at all. He tried to throw me
-hundreds of feet down to the ground. But he disappeared—and I do not
-know where he is. But I shall search the whole world over till I find
-him. And then—woe to him!”
-
-So saying, he put his hand on the blind man’s shoulder and bade them all
-good-by. They gave him a few wild herbs to put into his blouse for
-luncheon—it was all they had for food. And then he went on his way,
-singing all sorts of promises to them as he went on down the hill.
-
-As he walked along the shabby road, he came to other houses, broken down
-and unpainted, all tangled in high weeds and matted vines. Each house
-was poorer than the last; each one more deserted than the other. And
-from each of them trooped little groups of blind folk, groping in
-darkness, to question him and to complain to him of their hard fate. All
-along his way he met the sight of their tears and heard the sound of
-their weeping. But wherever he went, Peterkin gave the same promise of
-happiness within four days and left a smile of hope behind him.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-At length he came to the last house of the valley. It was high on the
-slope of one of the boundary mountains, almost at the edge of the
-gleaming white glacier of the summit. It was fast in the shadow of a
-huge, bluish ice cave, and long icicles dripped from its eaves and
-glittered like jewels in the sunshine.
-
-“And are you, too, blind?” he asked of the man who lived in this high
-house.
-
-“Yes,” replied the old man, sorrowfully. “I am no better than all the
-others in this valley, no matter how high I live above them. I, like
-them, am awaiting the rescuer who shall return my sight and bring
-revenge upon our toothless enemy.”
-
-“That is just what you shall have,” promised Peterkin, “if only you tell
-me what is in the next valley, on the other side of the white mountains;
-and how I may reach there the best.”
-
-“Alas,” sighed the old fellow, “those are two riddles which I cannot
-answer. I only know that in that valley beyond the ridge of the
-boundary, there is just as much sorrow as there is here. There is
-something wrong there—though I have never known what it is—and the great
-barrier of glacier ice has hedged us from each other. So come and rest
-here for to-day, and to-morrow, bright and early, you may come upon some
-scheme to cross into that unknown valley over the mountains.”
-
-So Peterkin took shelter there, in the green shadows of the ice cave,
-and slept a troubled sleep until the morning.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “A young peasant girl came toward him”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                 XVIII
-
-                         THE VALLEY OF SILENCE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-AS soon as dawn was over the glacier the next day, Peterkin was on his
-feet and sipping a good gulp from his flask of the Water of
-Bounceability. You see, he dreamed about this magic gift of the
-princess’s as he lay a-sleeping ... and really, what an easy thing it
-was to cross the boundary mountains, now!
-
-Just one little swallow—and then a hop, skip and jump! Up, up and over!
-Over the tree-tops, over the glacier itself ... then down into the
-valley on the other side.
-
-As he floated to the earth there, a strange hush seemed to fall on him.
-It was the quiet sense of absolute stillness. He walked forward a little
-way, then stopped in bewilderment. Not a sound—not a whisper of
-anything. He could not hear even the crunch of his feet upon the
-greensward. He called out, but somehow his voice sank away into nothing.
-The trees rustled silently; a great, frothing brook went tumbling down
-through a bit of woods without a murmur. All was quiet.
-
-A young peasant girl came toward him, leading a horse across the
-fields—but Peterkin could hear neither the patter of her feet nor the
-hoof-beats of the horse.
-
-“What ho!” cried he, “I must have gone suddenly deaf! I can’t even hear
-myself speaking. Here, girl, tell me what’s wrong with my ears?”
-
-The peasant maid halted her horse; she looked at Peterkin with startled
-wonder. Her gaze settled on his moving mouth—and her eyes grew larger
-and larger with surprise. Suddenly she snatched a little twig from the
-branch of a nearby tree, stripped it and commenced to trace queer
-letters with it in the dust of the road.
-
-“Phew!” thought Peterkin. “She must be deaf herself. It’s a good thing I
-went to school and learned to read and write!” Then he looked down at
-what the little girl had traced upon the road—and this is what he read:
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“What are you eating?”
-
-Peterkin laughed a noiseless laugh. Then he snatched the twig from her
-and wrote in reply:
-
-“Nothing.”
-
-“Then what makes you move your mouth so queer?” she asked in writing.
-
-“I’m talking,” he scribbled back.
-
-“What does talking mean? That’s a word we know nothing about in this
-valley.”
-
-“Then how do you understand one another? And why don’t you make words
-with your mouth?” he traced.
-
-“We write to each other—like this. There would be no use in talking like
-you do. We are all deaf.”
-
-“All of you?”
-
-“Yes, everybody in the valley.”
-
-“Oh, then this is a valley of silence,” wrote Peterkin.
-
-“Silence? What is silence?”
-
-“Why, silence is when there is no noise.”
-
-“What is noise?” she scrawled.
-
-Poor Peterkin had to give it up after that. He tried to describe to her
-what the wind was like when it roared in wintry weather—or how the birds
-sing at evening in the woods—or how men can understand each other’s
-smiles and scowls by simple noises which they make with their mouths.
-But she only shrugged her shoulders and sighed. At any rate, Peterkin
-thought it was a sigh—but he could not hear it.
-
-So he marched along at her side in strange silence, making no noise and
-hearing none, until they came into the center of a little village.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XIX
-
-                             EARS TOO SHARP
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-THERE, in the silent village, they found a group of old men nodding on a
-bench in the warm sunlight. Across the brook a big mill wheel was
-turning; but it made no roar or clatter. A cart went by, but there was
-no rumble to its wheels. Down the street a blacksmith was hammering at
-his ruddy forge; but there was no clang or clatter to keep noisy company
-to the flying sparks. All was silence—dreary, unbroken silence.
-
-The old men stirred when Peterkin approached. They knew him for a
-stranger. They rose and made a place for him beside them on the bench.
-Then one of them took a piece of white chalk from his vest pocket,
-turned to the brick wall behind him and began to write. The words he
-wrote were so many that, before he was through, he had covered the wall
-from top to bottom with this sad and mysterious tale:
-
-“Once,” he wrote, “this was the Valley of the Rippling Brooks. All were
-happy here, then. It was in my youth, I remember, when in our ears there
-ran the murmur of a hundred gleaming, merry brooks that cross the woods
-and fields and tumble from the hills in frothy white. The music of our
-laughter was like the music of these brooks—never slowing, never
-saddening. We were the happiest of all the Four Kingdoms.
-
-“Then, one spring day, when the brooks were swollen and roaring with
-gladness, there came into our midst, from I don’t know where, a strange
-and toothless man. He was a farmer, like ourselves, he told us—and he
-was forever muttering low words between his empty gums.”
-
-“The toothless villain again!” thought Peterkin.
-
-“We gave him shelter for the night,” continued the old man with his
-writing. “But long before the moon was up, he had stolen off to the
-fields where the brooks were white in the darkness—up the steeps to
-where the waterfalls were splashing into quiet pools with a cheery
-murmur. He reached over the low banks, listening greedily to the music
-of the water. He knelt, bent his face close to the gurgling eddies—and
-began to drink!
-
-“We were all in bed by now and most of us asleep. It was so easy to fall
-asleep in those good days, with the murmur of the softly playing
-brooklets in our ears—not at all like to-day, when night is a black
-stretch of silent terror.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Suddenly, in every household, someone sat up straight in bed. In every
-household, someone had noticed that the sound of the water was growing
-fainter and fainter. First one brook and then another seemed to die
-down—as if it were suddenly drying up!
-
-“We rushed out into the village square, across the fields, up the hills.
-The moon came out and showed us, gleaming bare, the dry and empty beds
-of many of our beloved brooks. Yes, nothing but dry, pebbled ruts, where
-no stream trickled and no water sang. Where was the villain who had
-worked this trick of tricks?
-
-“We found him soon bending down at the edge of one of the last of our
-brooks. He was drinking, drinking, drinking. He was sucking the pearly
-water up, up into his puffed cheeks. He struggled to his feet as we
-surrounded him; he brushed the drops from his sagging mouth and started
-to run away. But he was bloated and heavy with all the water he had
-gulped and he could not move. We seized him and flung him into the
-water. He splashed and puffed and staggered clumsily, dripping, back
-into our midst. Hate was in his wet face, and his red gums were like
-round, snapping tongs.
-
-“‘You men of the Rippling Brooks,’ he hissed, ‘your ears are far too
-sharp! Your happiness is all in the ripple of water—and I am here to
-take away that happiness. So if I cannot steal your brooks—why, then, I
-shall steal your ears! From now on, I decree that you, your wives and
-your children and all your neighbors shall be deaf. You shall live
-henceforth in a valley of silence, where not even the whir of a wren on
-wing shall come to your ears. Henceforth, all who dwell in this valley
-shall be deaf—and all who enter it shall be deaf, too—until I come again
-to set you free from the spell of utter silence.’
-
-“Then the moon plunged behind a black cloud. This toothless demon
-disappeared with a terrific burst of thunder.
-
-“And that was the last sound that has been heard in this valley since he
-cursed us with silence and sorrow.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                   XX
-
-                       THE VALLEY OF DANCING LEGS
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-PETERKIN’S next move, when he had sipped his Water of Bounceability and
-came flying across into the next valley, was to clap his hands over his
-ears. He had been deaf awhile ... and now that he could hear again, all
-the thousand noises of the earth and air frightened and bewildered him.
-
-He was wondering what was wrong with _this_ valley. There must be
-_something_ wrong with it, of course. And he did not have to wait very
-long before he discovered.
-
-A group of fat and puffing people jigged into view. Hop, hop—what could
-be the trouble with them? Why, they were dancing! Hop, hop—skippetty
-hop, with never a stop—puffing, panting, groaning with weariness, they
-danced a crazy path toward Peterkin.
-
-“Hey, hey, stop!” cried he.
-
-“We can’t stop,” grunted the chief of them. “If you want to talk to us,
-you’ll have to dance along.”
-
-Then, before he could help himself, Peterkin had a dancing man, locked
-arms, on either side of him—and he was stamping, running, tripping,
-jigging along with them.
-
-“Oh, heigh, stop! Let go of me—stop, stop!” he commanded, out of breath
-and red in the face.
-
-“No, that’s just what we can’t do!” sighed the fat old chief. “We must
-dance on and on and on. Our legs are shot with pain, our lungs are like
-hot blasts, our feet are blistered and sore—but we cannot stop!”
-
-Peterkin stumbled and fell flat. His two guides yanked him to his
-feet—then on and on in a breathless dance.
-
-“Once,” went on the hoarse and puffing chief, “we were the happiest of
-all the Four Kingdoms. We were just plain, sensible, walk-along folk. We
-loved to rest and doze in the heat of the noon. We loved to lie about
-and let our fields grow of themselves with rich wheat and tasselled
-corn. We were content to take our ease.
-
-“Then, one lazy noon, there came into our midst—I don’t know whence—a
-toothless man.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“What a villain this toothless enemy must be!” thought Peterkin,
-remembering all that had gone before.
-
-“He was a genial farmer, it seemed to us,” continued the breathless
-chief, as they whirled along the road, uphill, downhill, in their
-ceaseless jig. “He lay down with us in the shade of the trees and looked
-out across our fields and sucked his pipe through his toothless gums.
-
-“‘Ah, this is rare comfort!’ he said in a cheery voice. ‘You seem to be
-a happy valleyful here.’
-
-“‘Oh, aye,’ I answered him, ‘we love to take our ease.’
-
-“‘Do you love that better than all else?’ he asked me slowly.
-
-“I stretched my arms in sleepy comfort and nodded back with a smile. He
-looked at me slyly—ah, if I had only known what villainy was behind that
-twinkle in his eye! He rose slowly to his feet.
-
-“‘I shall show you all a pretty dance,’ he said, baring his gums. ‘Just
-lie there in comfort—it will amuse you—yes, and give _me_ great
-pleasure, too!’
-
-“Then slowly, gently, he began to shuffle his feet. You would never have
-thought that he could be so nimble. In and out and round-about he
-pranced with fancy steps. It was so pleasant to be lying there in the
-cool shade and watching.... Then it seemed as if he were inviting us to
-join him. His brawny hands were beckoning; his smile said plainly: ‘Up,
-up—come along up and dance at my side.’
-
-“First one and then the other of us struggled to his feet, and fell into
-a merry, jigging step. We laughed at the fun of it—not a laggard in the
-valley but was dancing with him.
-
-“We grew breathless and tired. We wanted to stop. _But we couldn’t!_
-When the toothless man saw this, he burst into a cruel roar of laughter:
-
-“‘You would take your ease, eh?’ he mocked. ‘You loved more than all
-else to loll in the shade, eh? Well, henceforth you shall jig and dance
-from noon till night and night till noon in a never-ending wandering.
-Your ease is gone—and so’s your happiness! From now on, until I come
-again to free you, you shall be known as the Valley of Dancing Legs. Hee
-hee!’ and he was gone.”
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “There came floating toward him in midair”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXI
-
-                      THE VALLEY OF UP-IN-THE-AIR
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-THE chief of the dancing crew had scarcely finished his bitter story
-when Peterkin swore to have revenge on the toothless enemy—and to rescue
-these poor, tired folk in the bargain. Then he broke from their midst,
-took a long draught from his magic bottle, and bounced clear over into
-the next valley.
-
-And the odd part of it was that he never touched ground there at all.
-Instead, he was caught in a swirl of strong and steady breezes which
-kept him aloft, floating, swimming through the air, high above the
-ground.
-
-“Well,” thought Peterkin, amazed, “I wonder if this is the fate of
-everyone in this valley?”
-
-Yes, sure enough, a few moments later, there came floating toward him in
-midair a family of children and parents and grandparents. Behind them,
-in a string, floated feather beds and kitchen tables, dishes, parlor
-chairs and stoves—and a hundred and one other things of a household. It
-was a home complete—but all up in the air!
-
-Then other families floated past, with little tots in flying cradles and
-gray-haired patriarchs in cushioned easy chairs with blankets tucked
-about them. Wheelbarrows, topsy-turvy sheets and pillows, clothes and
-jugs and mugs and a thousand other things in helter-skelter spun along
-behind them in a far-away trail. Everyone, everything was up in the air.
-Aye, even Peterkin!
-
-“Who are you? And what are you doing up here?” he cried to the father of
-one of the families which floated past.
-
-“I’m Pater Familias,” came the answer, borne upon the wind. “And I and
-my dear ones are up here because we can’t be down below, on the ground.”
-
-“Well, why can’t you?”
-
-The Pater Familias steered his whole crew, table, bed and pots and pans
-and all, toward Peterkin. “We owe all our misery to——”
-
-“What? To the toothless villain?” interrupted Peterkin.
-
-The whole family groaned and the pots and pans leaped at the mention of
-this evil person. “Yes, yes, the toothless villain—the enemy of the Four
-Kingdoms!” wept the Pater Familias. “If it were not for him, we should
-now be down on the ground where we belong, living most sensible lives in
-our homes ... and not flying from horizon to horizon above the
-tree-tops. We were happiest of the Kingdoms.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“But one day, when we were folk of the earth, there came flying over our
-heads this wicked, toothless farmer—anyhow, he told us he was a farmer.
-He came down into our midst upon a grassy hill.
-
-“‘Well, what do you love more than all else in this valley?’ he asked
-us.
-
-“‘Ho, that’s an easy question!’ we told him. ‘We love to keep our feet
-upon the ground, as all good, sensible people should.’
-
-“He thought for a sly moment. ‘But wouldn’t you love to fly?’ he asked
-us. ‘Come, hop up into the air with me—up, up, as lightly as the birds
-on wing. Come, just try it—it’s such a delightful sport, this flying!’
-
-“Then, as if in obedience to his summons, a great breeze sprang up from
-out of nowhere and swept us all off our feet and up, up—up to where he
-was floating. And truly, for a few moments, it _was_ delightful sport.
-But when we wanted to return to earth again—why, the farmer was gone—and
-there was no returning! We had been tricked into the air and there we
-must remain, floating, drifting, useless, helpless—we and our families
-and all our neighbors, together with our household, tables, beds and
-rags and tags, until this toothless fellow comes again to free us from
-his cruel magic.”
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXII
-
-                          PETERKIN IN A MUDDLE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“AND so it is the toothless farmer who has caused all this misery in
-each of the four valleys,” mused Peterkin, as he floated along at the
-side of Pater Familias. “Well, here’s my solemn oath on it: I shall have
-revenge on him, and force him to substitute joy for sorrow in each of
-these stricken kingdoms.”
-
-Then he bade farewell to the People-Up-in-the-Air and floated away on
-the breath of the air—away to the boundaries of their land.
-
-But it was not high mountains and snowy cliffs which hemmed this valley
-from its neighbors. Instead, the land below grew flatter and more
-yellow. Peterkin passed over wide, misty stretches of marsh and bogs; in
-the distance he could hear the faint roar of waves. Yes, he was coming
-to the sea. He was drifting fast toward that golden line of sands where
-the ocean met the land in a jagged, wavering line of frothy white.
-
-He must swoop down to earth now—else he might be carried out into
-midwater. He must set foot upon the ground! But alas! try as he would,
-he was still in the Land of Up-in-the-Air—and up in the air he must
-stay!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Then he thought of his precious bottle of the Water of Bounceability.
-Perhaps, if he took a sip, he might be able to break the spell and to
-leap to the marshes below. He would try it.
-
-He took out the bottle and uncorked it. He lifted it to his lips and let
-half of what remained in it gurgle down his throat. Then down he dived,
-head first. Down, down—yes, the spell was broken! Down to earth, just
-where the narrow strip of sands met the straggly marshes. He landed with
-a mighty somersault, roly-poly, into the muddy bog. He rolled over and
-over, crashing through the slimy rushes and the sand, to where the waves
-were churning. He was sprawling face downward, dizzy and dazed. He
-staggered to his feet, looking about him mournfully.
-
-“All sea and sand and dreary marsh,” he sighed. “Over there, lost in the
-blue of the sea, must be the city whence I set out—the city of Princess
-Clem. Well, I shall have to finish my bottle of Water of Bounceability
-now—and fly in that direction.”
-
-So he groped in his pockets for the bottle. But oh, the saddest of all
-things had happened now! He found the bottle broken—and the water all
-spilled and wasted!
-
-Aye, his fall had smashed the precious vial—and there was no more of the
-magic liquid left to carry him home!
-
-What now? Peterkin looked mournfully out across the blue sea, towards
-where the city of the palace and the Princess Clem must lie; then he
-looked back across the marsh, where poisonous mists were gathering in
-low, curling clouds; he searched the shore in vain for the trace of
-anything or anybody.... No, he was alone and helpless!
-
-Ah, well, he did not know the great surprise which was in store for him!
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                 XXIII
-
-                           THE LOST PUMPERKIN
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-AND what do you think that surprise was?
-
-The Pumperkin! Yes, his old, long-lost Pumperkin!
-
-Peterkin caught his first, golden glimpse of it as it came up over the
-distant horizon. It was floating in on the tide from the far mid-ocean.
-It was dipping slowly, peacefully from one rippling wave to the next; it
-came up to the shore at last, bobbing in the surf, then pitching down
-with a last lurch into the soggy marsh.
-
-Peterkin ran to it. Yes, there could be no doubt—it was his beloved
-Pumperkin, his old home—his boat-house of a pumpkin which had been torn
-away from him by the tempest wind.... He scaled up the side and peeked
-in through the ceiling window. Yes, all was as he had left it. There was
-his tumbled bed in the corner, there were the chairs, legs up. And
-there, sure enough, was his ladder, with its top peeping up above the
-edge of the roof. All that was missing was the cook-stove.
-
-Peterkin climbed over the edge and down the ladder. He was safe now. He
-was hopeful and happy. He had only to push and shove a little bit
-and—away, away he went, bound for the home of his Princess Clem!
-
-How good it seemed to be in his pumpkin house again! He wondered how
-many seas it had passed over, whither it had wandered, where it would
-lead him now. For, of course, there was no such a thing as steering
-these roly-poly pumpkins: wherever it floated, Peterkin must float
-along!
-
-Away it sailed, over the waves, in the clutch of the lazy tide. Away,
-until the marshes and the golden strand were lost in a hazy mist. Up one
-wave and down the next, with the spray dashing in through the ceiling
-window. How like the first few days it all was—those first few days of
-the marvellous adventures. Peterkin smiled to think of them, and of how
-many wonderful things had happened to him since first his house was torn
-from his stem in the pumpkin patch.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-And now he was on his way to the most thrilling adventure of them all.
-He was bound for the city from which he had been banished; he was
-returning either to his happiness or to his death. As he looked out
-across the waves, he wondered how it would all end; was he going to find
-that toothless old villain? Was he going to bring back joy into the Four
-Kingdoms, and a smile to the lips of their monarch? Was he going to win
-the hand of the gracious Princess Clem? Or, after all, would the whole
-search and struggle end with his being captured and put to death? Or
-with the toothless villain murdering him? Well, he swore he should put
-up a hard fight.... For he knew a way to bring this cruel enemy to his
-knees. At least, he thought he did!
-
-So he sat and thought it all out, while his pumpkin boat sailed closer
-and closer to the other shore. Do you know what was on that shore?
-
-Why, a city, of course! The very city for which our Peterkin so dearly
-yearned. The city of the golden palace—and of the Princess Clem!
-
-And the city where he would find the toothless farmer! Perhaps Peterkin
-guessed that much ... for his cheeks grew a little white as he watched
-the distant spires and golden dome, all agleam in the sunset.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXIV
-
-                             OUT OF HIDING
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-NOW we must return to the toothless old villain. Do you remember, we
-left him dozing snugly in his hiding place atop the roof of a deserted
-house? He was waiting for the gray dusk, when he might steal out upon
-his wicked business. Perhaps it was the King himself he wished to harm,
-this visit—but I can’t be positive of that.
-
-Anyhow, when night had come and the streets were bare again of people
-and little dim lanterns were swinging in the shadows of the balconies,
-the old wizard crept down the stairs again, into the black vestibule.
-Then out he darted—out into the street.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “The windows in the palace were gleaming”
-]
-
-The windows in the palace, across the narrow street, were gleaming with
-bright cheer and threw big yellow squares of light across the cobbled
-gutters. The old villain, when he stood a-tiptoe, could see the gilded
-walls and the jeweled ceilings. He caught just a glimpse of a corner of
-the throne itself, all in a glory of precious stones and carvings. And
-once he thought he could make out the shadow of a man all decked in
-royal robes—and a crown on his head.
-
-The wizard trembled and growled at this sight of his ancient enemy. He
-raised his crooked finger threateningly in the dark and snarled a
-terrible oath. Then he sped on, up one gloomy, lonely alley and down the
-other, across wide boulevards and empty squares, dodging into the
-shadows at every sudden creak of a shutter or rustle of a tree. Once a
-company of soldiers marched past him—left, right, left, right, with
-weary, lagging steps. He had just time to slink out of their way and
-flee into a little court-yard, darker than the cloudy sky—blacker than
-black itself. He could see nothing here. He groped, he stumbled, he felt
-his way warily. Just ahead of him he heard a strange gurgling of water,
-low and soft, as if from a distance. He stopped short, bewildered.
-
-Then it seemed as if the tramp of those soldiers from whom he was
-fleeing was growing louder—that they were coming nearer and nearer. Had
-they discovered his whereabouts? Were they chasing him now?
-
-[Illustration]
-
-He could not keep his toothless gums from chattering. In fear he rushed
-forward in the darkness. A couple of wild steps and—down he went! Down
-through a great sewer hole! Down, down, below the street, into the
-rushing, roaring water which was sweeping through the great brick tube
-of the underground sewer!
-
-Whiz! What a roar! Whiz! What a rush and dash and smother of gurgling,
-thundering water! The old magician was swept swiftly along with the
-stream. He sank, rose again, coughed, sputtered, sank again. Then, as he
-rose a second time, he took a long breath and lay quite still. Yes, he
-was floating! He would not drown here, anyhow!
-
-As he sped along, lying on his back atop the rushing water, with his
-gums tight shut and his eyes wide open to the dark, he wondered where he
-was floating. Where was this water rushing? Where did the great sewer
-end?
-
-Then, of a sudden, the roar of the water grew louder than ever. He shot
-out, out into space—and then down, down, into the gushing spray of a
-waterfall. Then down, deep down, under the surface—and up again. He beat
-his hands frantically about in the churning froth. He shook the water
-from his eyes. Where had the great tube emptied him? Where was he?
-
-Why, in the sea, to be sure—in the sea!
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXV
-
-                          A PRECIOUS PRISONER
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-IT was late in the night when Peterkin’s pumpkin boat came riding into
-the city’s calm harbor. The reflections of the stars which had winked up
-into the sky were dotting the black water with melted gold. Red and
-green lights from the prows of sleeping boats and piers lay glowing in
-the easy tide. Not a sound—excepting the soft slap of little waves along
-the bottom of the drifting Pumperkin.
-
-Peterkin, as he stood on his ladder’s top rung, looked out across the
-harbor toward the huddled houses, gray and looming, with dim lit window
-panes blinking through the dark. Over the roofs he could make out the
-form of the huge dome of the palace—and he knew that there was the room
-of his princess. Aye, there was Princess Clem!
-
-Could she be asleep? The hour was so late ... perhaps her nurse had
-tucked her, long ago, into her warm and comfy bed. But, no—oh, no! For,
-suddenly, he caught the gleam of a little light from the window just
-below the dome. Yes, he was sure it was from the princess’s window. She
-must be yet awake. She must still be watching—be waiting—for his return,
-as she promised she would do, and his heart gave a great throb for joy.
-
-His Pumperkin drifted slowly in toward the shore. He heard a strange
-roaring, angry and deep. It was the rush of water he knew; perhaps some
-sewer, speeding its underground course and emptying itself, at the last,
-into the sea.
-
-In the midst of the rumble of water, he thought he heard a short splash;
-something dark went down in the white froth of the water, then rose to
-the surface near his boat—then sank and rose again not an arm’s length
-away. Peterkin peered over the edge to see what it was. He gasped and
-almost shrieked; it was a man! He reached down, made a wild grab at the
-floating jacket—pulled, tugged, hoisted—ouf! and he had the drowning one
-inside his Pumperkin. He gazed down into the face of the rescued. A loud
-cry escaped him. It was the Toothless Farmer!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Yes, the toothless old villain—the arch-enemy whom he had set out to
-find! And you and I know how it happened that this old farmer came to be
-plunging into the sea so suddenly and without warning.... But Peterkin
-didn’t!
-
-The toothless one had an unlucky time of it, didn’t he? For here he was
-in the very clutches of the hero—at the mercy of Peterkin, whom he had
-played so false—Peterkin, who had resolved revenge upon him for all the
-wrongs he had done in the Four Kingdoms!
-
-No sooner did he open his eyes than he saw heroic Peterkin above him,
-fists clenched and anger in his eyes.
-
-“Ow, ow,” chattered he, his red gums bobbing with fear and chill, “don’t
-threaten me! Why do you clinch your fists at me, eh? I’ve never met you
-before, have I?”
-
-Peterkin laughed scornfully. “What a lie! Don’t you remember who it was
-who brought you into these Four Kingdoms, not so long ago, astride of a
-flying shell? Don’t you remember whom you tried to fling off, down to a
-crashing death? What! don’t remember me?”
-
-The old man grew green with fright. He wrung his thin, crooked fingers.
-“I—I thought—I thought you were dead,” he moaned. “I didn’t dream of
-your escaping death ... dear, oh dear, I suppose you’ll kill me now, eh?
-Well, just let me tell you my story, first—oh, please, let me tell
-it—please, please, please!”
-
-And, of course, who could resist such pleading? Certainly not Peterkin,
-who folded his arms sternly and waited for the end of the tale.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXVI
-
-                          THE VILLAIN’S STORY
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“ONCE,” began the old villain, “I was as young and as happy-hearted as
-you are, stranger. For I was handsome, rich and powerful. I was
-noble—aye, more than noble—for I was a prince of the court of the Four
-Kingdoms. I was the son of the King’s older brother—and some said that
-I, not he, should be the king upon the jeweled throne.
-
-“This thought was like a flame to me. It burned and flared within my
-mind in jealous heat; I came to wish for my royal cousin’s death, so
-that I might succeed him to the honor of all honors of the kingdoms. I
-took a secret oath that ere I grew much older, I should murder him. Hee,
-hee, that’s the extraordinary sort of a villain I was!
-
-“But I had one thing of which I was more proud than all the world: my
-set of teeth! A set of white, sharp, glistening teeth! They were more
-splendid than the teeth of any other nobleman at court. They were finer
-even than the King’s own teeth. They were my constant pride, my dearest
-joy! With them I could eat all the rarest things of the kitchen. I could
-chew tin pans and pots; I could crumple pewter kettles; I could crunch
-thick venison steaks and the horns of a full grown cow. My teeth were my
-greatest power—and my joy!
-
-“But all the while my heart was black against my royal cousin. I coveted
-his crown, I longed for his scepter. My jealousy grew until I could hide
-it no longer. I made a journey into a far distant forest, where a famous
-witch lived in her cave. And there I dwelt for many months, learning all
-her wicked magic. She taught me how to curse whole valleys of people—how
-to bring sorrow to hundreds. But alas! she could not teach me how to
-kill my royal cousin.
-
-“‘When shall I be King?’ I asked her each morning.
-
-“And every eve, after a day of pondering over her caldron, she would
-answer: ‘When you have learned to kill man with the joy of your life’
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Then at last I understood. What could possibly be the joy of my life
-excepting these, my beautiful teeth? I must return and _bite_ my royal
-cousin to death!
-
-“I hurried back to the Four Kingdoms. I met the King in his gilded
-dining hall. Before his host of cowardly courtiers, I threw myself upon
-him and sought to bury my teeth into his breast.
-
-“But ah, under his velvet robes, he was wearing a coat of strong steel
-links. My teeth crunched against them—and could go no further. I fell
-back dismayed. A hundred men—courtiers and guards—were upon me, pinning
-me to the marble floor.
-
-“‘Take him away!’ cried the King, my enemy. ‘Take him away, and pull out
-all his teeth!’
-
-“And one by one, in the dark dungeon, they pulled out of my gums the joy
-of my life—my white, my sharp, my glistening teeth. Think of it! Think
-of the pain, of the deep shame!
-
-“But I swore a deep revenge, and when I was banished, I went to live as
-a simple farmer in that neighboring valley where first you beheld me. I
-have spent all the rest of my toothless, joyless days in taking terrible
-revenge upon this cousin King—this royal wretch who stole my proud
-possessions. I have brought sorrow into each of his Four Kingdoms, and I
-shall kill him—him and his pretty daughter, Princess Clem! Hee, hee!” He
-gave an evil chuckle and gnashed his gums in hate.
-
-Peterkin shuddered. “And is there nothing will satisfy you?” he pleaded.
-
-“Yes!” snapped the old man. “A new set of teeth! Teeth as white and
-sharp and glistening as the set they robbed me of. A new set of teeth—or
-else revenge!”
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “She strained her eyes to watch the distant harbor”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                 XXVII
-
-                              IN THE CITY
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-WHILE the toothless villain was finishing his cruel story, the dawn
-began to flicker in the eastern sky. And, beyond the gray piers, in the
-houses of the city, the early risers were already up and stirring. Thin
-wisps of smoke commenced to float up out of the houses’ chimneys to
-prove that cooks and housewives were already at their ovens.
-
-The dome of the palace was beginning to flash with the first rays of the
-sun. Just beneath it, the curtains of the little princess’s window were
-flapping strangely. It almost seemed as if she were standing behind them
-and peeking out upon the city’s roofs, as far as the harbor beyond.
-
-Aye—and so she was! With her fair curls tumbling to the clean, sweet
-morning breeze and her little white nightie fluttering softly, she
-strained her eyes to watch the distant harbor. Perhaps she saw something
-strange there—something she had never seen before in all the Four
-Kingdoms. Perhaps she had guessed it was the Pumperkin—and that in its
-big yellow cup her wandering lover had drifted home again, in triumph
-and in glee.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-Of course, her nurse was very shocked to find a royal princess with her
-head far out of the window; but Princess Clem never bothered to explain.
-She laughed and she laughed all the while her many maids were dressing
-her—and indeed they had not seen her in so happy a mood for many a weary
-week.
-
-“Put on my prettiest gown,” she bade them. “Dress me in my gown of pale
-blue silk—the one on which white lilies are embroidered, tall and
-shimmering. And run blue ribbons through my golden braids—ribbons as
-blue as my eyes, and deck them with pearls as white as my teeth.”
-
-At that the nurse looked shocked and horrified. “Oh, hush, Royal
-Highness,” whispered she. “Have you forgotten no one must mention that
-last word in this domain? Teeth are never spoken of here—_teeth_ is a
-banished word! And all because of that wicked villain——”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Ha, ha,” broke in the princess gayly, “lots of good things are banished
-from this land—and lots of good heroes, too! But they always come
-sailing home again at the end of a hero’s task.... And as for that
-villain, he’ll soon be one no longer, mark my words.”
-
-And mark her words they did, although they did not understand one of
-them. Yet, inasmuch as she was a Princess Royal, they dared not argue
-with her.
-
-After this came breakfast in the great gilded dining hall, in her chair
-at the side of the throne, where Princess Clem must peel her father’s
-orange and break his egg and—oh, do everything a daughter ought to do,
-no matter whether she be a king’s or a beggar’s child. But this morning
-she did it all with such a strangely happy smile—and all in such a
-furious, giggling hurry....
-
-“Bless my soul,” declared His Majesty, tilting one eyebrow up to meet
-his crown, “it would almost seem as if my little daughter had found a
-sweetheart, eh? Her smile is so bright—why, I’ll wager my crown she’s in
-love! Ho! I shall have to look into this.”
-
-But he did not have to! For, before he had swallowed another mouthful,
-he knew the whole story!
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                 XXVIII
-
-                     HOW PETERKIN TRICKED THEM ALL
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-AYE, he knew the whole story, did His Majesty. For enter at that very
-moment a dusty, breathless messenger—a sailor from the wharves which
-fronted on the harbor.
-
-“A ship—a strange ship is in the port, Your Majesty!” he cried, as he
-knelt at the side of the table. “A ship more strange than any we have
-ever seen. A ship entirely round, with neither prow nor stern nor sails
-nor flag—a ship of golden brown, and the very shape and color of a huge
-garden pumpkin!”
-
-Then the King remembered the famous story which Peterkin had told him
-weeks ago and he knew who had dared to come back to his city in spite of
-the order of exile.
-
-“What?” bellowed His Majesty, his face growing purple with rage. “This
-bold adventurer, this scalawag Peterkin, back in our midst? Come sailing
-back in that pumpkin boat of his, eh? Well, he shall suffer for it, I
-promise you. He shall be caught and clapped back into the dungeon cell
-from which he so mysteriously escaped.”
-
-At that, the little princess, at his side, blushed a very rosy blush and
-hung her head, so that they could not see her tears.
-
-“I swore death to this fellow, if ever he came again into my power,”
-hissed the King. “And death it shall be! Ho, my trusty guards! Arm
-yourselves with ropes and heavy chains and run to the harbor, in search
-of the lost prisoner. We shall have to give him a taste of death, death,
-death!”
-
-Whereupon all the soldiers, all the courtiers, all the nobles of the
-land, armed themselves, clattering, growling, thundering. And down to
-the wharves of the harbor they swept, leaving the gilded dining room
-deserted. Even the King himself left his half eaten eggs, and forgot to
-clap the cover on his dish of honey—and ran off, with his crown toppling
-over one ear and his royal robes dragging in the mud, all the way from
-the palace door to the planks of the piers. Only the little Princess
-Clem was left, in terror and in tears. She wept, poor thing—and made a
-sorry mixture of her tears in a pitcher of cream.
-
-Out from the shore, in a hundred boats, dashed the King and his cohorts.
-Out and around they spun, circling the peaceful pumpkin. Then closer and
-closer—and always pushing closer.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Heigh, wretch!” cried the King, who stood, straight and tall, in the
-bow of the royal barge. “You are captured and you cannot escape. You are
-surrounded by a thousand warriors, all armed with ropes and heavy
-chains. You are a prisoner again, and death shall be your punishment!
-Rush in, brave boatmen, and seize this dog of a Peterkin!”
-
-So in sped the boats, crashing against the sides of the poor Pumperkin.
-Then up with ladders—up with the men, climbing the steep, bulging sides
-of Peterkin’s house. Then, one peek through the ceiling window and—what
-a cry went up!
-
-_For Peterkin was gone!_
-
-Nothing could be found of him, no matter how hard they searched—in every
-nook, behind the chairs, under the bed and everywhere. He was gone!
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-And only you and I shall know the secret of where he disappeared. For
-when the dawn was breaking, Peterkin had seized his old companion by the
-shoulders and had whispered into his hairy ear:
-
-“Come, you shall have that set of teeth you crave. You shall have the
-whitest teeth in all the world, if only you do as I order. But if you do
-not, I shall have to punish you as all wicked villains must be punished.
-So take your choice, my toothless enemy. Will you do as I desire?”
-
-To be sure, the ugly old man could only mumble a consent through his red
-gums. Whereupon Peterkin leaped upon his shoulders and cried:
-
-“Fly first with me to the Valley of the Blind!”
-
-And away they flew, leaving the Pumperkin just as the King and his
-cohorts found it: empty and alone.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXIX
-
-                          PETERKIN BRINGS JOY
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I’M not sure what the old villain thought of the scheme of flying to the
-Valley of the Blind—but he dared not disobey. For Peterkin’s grip was
-firm upon his shoulders—and Peterkin’s breath was hot against his cheek.
-
-So over the mountains they flew, into the tumble-down, joyless valley of
-darkness—the valley where the toothless villain had stricken each
-innocent one with blindness.
-
-There, across the neglected road, at the edge of the wild grown heath,
-they found the sorrowful family of those who first had told the tale of
-woe to Peterkin. Their clothes were more wretched than ever; their house
-was crumbling to the point of falling apart. And they wept bitterly when
-they heard Peterkin’s voice again.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“But cheerily ho!” laughed Peterkin. “For I have brought you another
-stranger—well, not exactly a stranger, either. For, like me, he came to
-visit you once before. He brought you sorrow then—but this time he is
-sworn to bring you joy. When once you have eyes to see him——”
-
-They rushed about in a close circle, surrounding the spot whence came to
-them the sound of Peterkin’s voice. “Who is he? What is his name?” they
-demanded in a stormy chorus.
-
-“He is known as the toothless farmer——”
-
-At that, the hubbub swelled to a tempest of curses and wailing. The old
-villain had scarcely time to fall to his knees when the avenging blind
-men, groping in the dark, clutched him, plucked at his clothes, at his
-hair, at his eyes. Peterkin alone could save him from their vengeance.
-He screamed aloud, as he tore them from their prey.
-
-“He has come to give you back your eyes! From now on you will see! Aye,
-see everything—the sunlight and the summer night sky, the fields, the
-smiles upon your little children’s faces. Oh, do not touch him lest he
-keep not to his promise!”
-
-Therewith the blind folk fell back, waiting in a hushed and nervous
-circle. “Aye, we shall not touch him,” they promised.
-
-Then the old villain, trembling and repentant, made a hurried sign in
-the air—a mystic, magic sign—and the sunlight streamed into the eyes of
-all the valley folk. Everyone could see! Yes, could see each other—could
-see the rags in which they were dressed, the ruins of the houses, the
-wild heaths, the broken, rutted roads—and planned at once to build anew
-a happy valley. Their eyes were returned—and so should their laughter.
-Henceforth, the years of misery and darkness should be forgotten—and
-theirs should be what, long years before, it had been: The Valley of
-Bright Eyes!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Thus was the first errand done—and Peterkin smiled to think of what an
-easy, happy one it had been. And now they must go on, over the mountain
-boundaries, from one valley to the other, bringing the same gift of
-happiness and hope.
-
-“Come,” he whispered to the toothless villain, “you and I are not
-through yet. Now, don’t look cross and think of rebelling—for you are in
-my power, and there is no escape for you, unless you will obey my every
-order as nobly as you have this first one. Besides, think of those
-brand-new teeth which you shall have as a reward!”
-
-Even this was not enough to persuade the old man to go along peacefully;
-he sulked and gnashed his red gums and tried all sorts of magic tricks,
-but all in vain. For Peterkin’s life was a charmed one, now that he had
-the love of a Princess Royal to guard him!
-
-And, at last, when the old fellow saw that the people of the Valley of
-Bright Eyes were glancing at him angrily, as if they meant to lose their
-tempers after all, he took Peterkin upon his shoulders and flew
-dutifully away with him, over the boundary mountains.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “He jumped upon his shoulders”
-]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXX
-
-                            VALLEY TO VALLEY
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-IT was the Valley of the Deaf they came to next. And presto! by a twitch
-of his lean fingers and a mumbling of strange words, the old man had
-given back the hearing to each of its people.
-
-What joy was theirs, now! For they could hear the song of the birds and
-the chatter of their own glad voices and—oh, yes! the laughter of the
-thousand brooks, which once had played so great a part in their sad
-history. But all that was over now, and they had only smiles and thanks
-for Peterkin and forgiveness for the toothless villain who had done them
-so much wrong.
-
-They were all listening to the chirp of a little sparrow’s young, high
-in the nest, when Peterkin and his captive flew away. Peterkin looked
-back a moment, to watch the joyous smiles upon their faces—and he, too,
-was happy in their new-found happiness.
-
-And so he and his companion came to the Valley of Dancing Legs, where
-all the folk were racing hither, thither, everywhere, and all about, in
-weary, dreary, jigging, jogging flocks. Uphill, downhill, over fields
-and woods they went, never halting, never resting—on, on, lungs almost
-bursting and legs ready to drop off with weariness.
-
-“Halt!” cried the toothless one. And then, with a moment or two of
-whispering and winking, he brought them all to a happy halt. Poor folk!
-It was the first rest they had had for so many years! They fell down,
-each of them, panting, groaning, utterly motionless. Ah, they would be
-happy now! Already, as their legs grew rested, they seemed to be smiling
-more peacefully.... Peterkin and his companion might go forward now into
-the next and last valley. For all would be joy in this one from this
-time forth.
-
-So on they flew, these rescuing two, to the Valley of Up-in-the-Air. And
-only a few mystic symbols and commands, when down came all those
-floating, flying people, down to the ground they loved! And down came
-their beds, their chairs and tables after them—and all was set to
-rights!
-
-Thus, in all the Four Kingdoms did happiness succeed grim sorrow and
-smiles broke through the tears. Thus was the whole domain made joyful
-through the brave work of the little stranger, Peterkin!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Where now?” cried the old villain, rubbing his sore shoulders. “I am
-tired of carrying you wherever you ordered. My back is well-nigh broken
-with the load of you.”
-
-“We shall make one more flight,” said Peterkin, “and that shall be to
-the window of the palace, just beneath the gilded dome. Come, away with
-us—to the Royal Princess’s window.”
-
-“But—but, oh, no!” screamed the old fellow, quaking with fear. “That
-palace is in the city—don’t you understand, in the city of my bitter
-enemies! And they’ll kill me if ever they catch me there.”
-
-Peterkin laughed. “And they’ve sworn to kill me, too,” he chuckled
-bravely. “But never you mind—we’re going back anyhow.”
-
-And in spite of the old villain’s terror, Peterkin jumped upon his
-shoulders and whipped him up, over the marshes and the sea, toward the
-faint gray glimpse of towers and steeples in the far distance.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                  XXXI
-
-                          THE PATIENT PRINCESS
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-OH, little Princess Clem! Think what a sad thing it was for her to be
-left alone in the deserted dining hall, while her royal father and all
-his guards rushed out to kill her brave returning hero!
-
-She had tried so hard not to cry—but the tears _would_ come. They
-flooded the table-cloth and plates and set the omelets and the jam pots
-floating. It was only when her prying nurse came in to fetch her that
-Her Little Royal Highness could dry her eyes.
-
-But, all day long, she walked up and down, up and down, in the wide
-Throne Room. With nervous step she marched from one gilded corner to the
-other, her heart in a flutter of fear.
-
-“But haven’t you heard?” cried the nurse. “They found his Pumperkin—but
-it was empty. The poor Peterkin must have been drowned!”
-
-That only made the princess weep the harder. Yet she never lost hope—oh,
-no; she was not that sort of little lady to lose hope! And gradually she
-came to realize that Peterkin must have escaped, somehow, from his boat,
-and was safe upon some new adventure. But when would he return?
-
-All day she paced the marble floors, her blue eyes lighted with a gleam
-of tears. Once she stopped to look out of the window, and she saw a
-great commotion at the outer gate of the court-yard. A messenger was
-there, seeking admission: a ragged, dusty man, who asked with eager face
-to see the King. The little princess recognized him at once: he was a
-subject of the Valley of the Blind.... Only, had he recovered the sight
-of his eyes? She wondered how.
-
-And while he spoke, there came up behind him on the road another
-messenger—and this one was from the Valley of the Deaf. And then another
-from the Valley of the Dancing Legs. And, lastly, one from the Valley of
-Up-in-the-Air. Why, here were messengers from each of the stricken Four
-Kingdoms—and each of them was smiling happily!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Aye, true! For a little while later, the four of them had audience with
-His Majesty in this very same throne room, where the princess could hide
-behind a curtain of cloth of gold, and could hear each word they said.
-
-“We are saved!” cried he of the Valley of the Blind.
-
-“And so are we!” cried he of the Valley of the Deaf.
-
-“And so are we!” cried each of the others.
-
-“Our sorrow is gone. The curse of the toothless villain has been lifted
-away from our valley. We are the happiest folk in all the Four
-Kingdoms!” declared he of the Valley of the Blind.
-
-“And so are we!” declared the other three in chorus.
-
-“But—but I don’t understand,” stammered the King, mopping his royal brow
-in wonder. “All in a day, here is my whole domain changed from one of
-sorrow to one of joy. Tell me, who has wrought this splendid change?”
-
-And with one accord they answered, “Peterkin!”
-
-His Majesty’s scepter crashed to the floor, but he took no notice of it.
-He stared at them as if he thought them mad.
-
-“What? That same little scalawag of a Peterkin who fled from our dungeon
-and who escaped us so neatly but yesterday?”
-
-’Twas then that little Princess Clem came darting out from behind her
-curtain, dancing and laughing roguishly.
-
-“The very same, my royal father! The very same Peterkin! And look!” she
-cried, stopping short at the window, “here he comes now!”
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                 XXXII
-
-                         THE VILLAIN SATISFIED
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-NO mistake, either! For Peterkin it truly was, coming toward the palace!
-Peterkin, astride the shoulders of his old companion, flying through the
-clouds. At first they were only two specks, dark and tiny; then, coming
-nearer, they grew larger and larger, until the courtiers, crowding at
-the windows, could see the eager look in Peterkin’s bright eyes and
-could catch a glimpse of the red gums of the old villain under him.
-
-Nearer, nearer—then swooping down from the clouds and in at the window
-came the two travelers, into the midst of those who thronged the golden
-throne room.
-
-The toothless villain ran and cowered in a corner, trembling with fear.
-But Peterkin stood forth boldly, his head thrown back with pride.
-
-“Here am I, Your Majesty!” he cried. “Here am I, returned whence I once
-fled. You may thrust me back into that pitchy dungeon—you may kill me,
-but——”
-
-Great cheers drowned the rest of his words. One and all, the courtiers,
-the nobles, the King himself, were waving jeweled hands and making a
-joyous thunder of his name.
-
-“Peterkin! Peterkin, our hero! Peterkin, our saviour! Brave, mighty,
-magic Peterkin!”
-
-He fell back and rubbed his eyes. What did it all mean? Could he be
-dreaming?
-
-No, for the King had risen from his throne now and was coming down its
-golden steps straight toward him, with arms outstretched.
-
-“You have swept the shadows from my domain!” he cried. “You have brought
-laughter into faces which once were bathed in tears. You have given joy
-for sorrow—and joy—aye, untold joy!—shall be your reward! Ask of me now
-whatever you most wish, and I promise it shall be yours! But first of
-all, we must take our proper revenge upon the villain you have so neatly
-brought into our power.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Ah, that’s just it, Your Majesty!” interrupted Peterkin. “Here’s my
-dearest wish—and surely you’ll not have the heart to refuse it. I ask
-for mercy for your noble cousin, the toothless farmer. Indeed, if only
-you provide him with a new set of teeth, I’m sure he will make a very
-loyal and faithful subject evermore.”
-
-The King grew red in the face, at this reminder. But he had given his
-word—and not even a king can go back on that!
-
-“How now, my villainous cousin?” he roared, turning to the old fellow.
-“Will you cease your wicked magic all the days of your life, if I
-forgive you for the sake of generous Peterkin? And, if I do provide you
-a new set of teeth, will you try very hard not to bite me?”
-
-“Oh, yes—indeed, yes! I am so sick of soups and jellies: I am longing
-for the crunch of a good beefsteak. And oh! my royal cousin, what a
-feast I shall be able to eat if only you give me a brand-new set of
-teeth! And I shall be so proud of them I’ll do nothing more than sit in
-a corner and grin the whole day long!”
-
-So, when the little princess had joined her prayer for forgiveness to
-those of Peterkin and the rest of the courtiers, the King could do
-naught but order his royal dentist to appear upon the scene. And the
-dentist took very good pains to make an exact measure of the mouth of
-the old fellow, who went on mumbling in a most delighted way:
-
-“Hee, hee! New teeth! A brand-new set of teeth! Well, now I am
-satisfied! No more villainy for me! the crunch of a good beefsteak. And
-I shall be the happiest, most satisfied nobleman in the land!”
-
-Which set the whole court to cheering and clapping their hands louder
-than ever!
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                                 XXXIII
-
-                          THE GLORIOUS ENDING
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“SO, now,” said the King, “you shall have your true reward.” And to make
-it the more impressive, he nudged our Peterkin in the ribs with the end
-of his golden scepter and winked his royal eye at the Princess Clem, who
-stood nearby in blushing joy.
-
-Straightway the courtiers gathered about their new hero, lifted him high
-upon their shoulders and bore him away, out of the throne room, out of
-the pillared halls, into the center of that very same market square
-which flanked the sunny palace. And there they cheered him, long and
-loud:
-
-“All hail to Peterkin, Prince of the Realm! All hail to Peterkin,
-beloved of a Princess Royal! All hail to Peterkin, hero of heroes and
-King-to-be!”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “Where was it bound? Haven’t you guessed?”
-]
-
-It was only then that modest Peterkin could guess how great were the
-honors and rewards which had befallen him. For a golden coronet they
-placed upon his head—and a purple robe upon his shoulders. And a golden
-sword upon a jeweled belt went ’round his waist to mark, from this time
-forth, that he was chief commander of all the King’s guards.
-
-And, the very next day, at the hour of ruddy sunset, when all the
-windows of the palace burned with a bright reflection, and the moon was
-sailing high up, white and wan, into the clouds, there began the
-celebration of the most magnificent marriage that e’er was held or will
-be held in all the Four Kingdoms. And you know well enough who were the
-bride and bridegroom!
-
-The banquet which followed was so splendid an affair that for three days
-thereafter the court doctor and all his chemists were kept busy at
-compounding cures for indigestion. For there were twenty different soups
-to taste—and each one thicker than the other. There were fish from the
-sea, the river and the brook; roast peacocks, with their tails still
-spread in blue and shimmering beauty; stuffed pigs with brown and
-crackling skin; all sorts of jellies, jams and ices; bonbons heaped in
-silver dishes, and—ah, yes, a wedding cake which towered so high that it
-touched the gilded ceiling. Think what a time the princess must have had
-cutting it to pieces—as all thoughtful brides do—with Peterkin’s sharp
-sword!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Of course, you are curious to learn how beautiful the bride appeared.
-But that’s beyond my power to describe. I can only tell you that she was
-more lovely than ever she had been before; and that her golden hair was
-twined with precious rubies, with a rivulet of diamonds on her forehead.
-Her gown was of silver white brocade; but on it were embroidered, in
-fine gold, a complete set of pictures of the marvelous history of her
-heroic husband. The Pumperkin, the adventure with the whale, the meeting
-with the old villain, the flight from the dungeon, the rescue of each of
-the four joyless valleys, ... all were depicted there. Everyone
-wondered, to be sure, how such a handsome work of art could have been
-made so hastily—but ah, they did not know that, in her long hours of
-lonely waiting, the little Princess Clem had nearly ruined her dainty
-fingers with the needle and threads of the loom. For happiness is always
-born of toiling; and love grows greater for a little patient hardship.
-
-The villainous cousin, now very peaceful, was very proud of a set of
-false teeth; and munched and munched in hungry bliss upon a plate of his
-favorite beefsteak. The King, at his end of the table, smiled down upon
-his feasting friends in joy and perfect bliss. Here was his whole domain
-reborn into happiness and hard at work and play again. Here was his only
-daughter wed to the nation’s hero. And—this is what made him smile the
-broadest—here was a chance to climb down from his royal throne, within a
-year or two, and place his heavy crown on Peterkin’s own forehead. For,
-if the truth must be told, the King was growing a little tired of
-playing King and wearing velvet robes the whole day long; he longed, as
-old men always do, for the comfort of his big clay pipe, his shirt
-sleeves and his slippers. And here were a new King and a Queen, all
-ready made, to rule his land with virtue and with wisdom.
-
-Then, while the banquet was at its jolliest, the bride and bridegroom
-stole away in a coach that was drawn by six white steeds, and clattered
-down the festooned streets to the steps of the royal wharf. And there,
-in the moonlit harbor, the Pumperkin lay waiting. But oh! what a
-different Pumperkin! For plates of gold were on it now, and a hundred
-gay flags, and a sail of blue satin. There were sailors to tend it, too,
-and a great fleet of skiffs to bear it company across the sea.
-
-There was music on the waters and the soft and tender strains played by
-the royal harpists were caught up by the breezes and carried straight to
-the Pumperkin. It seemed to sway gently up and down, up and down, as if
-the waves kept time with the music.
-
-Inside his snug and comfortable boat-house, Peterkin was telling his
-dear little bride the many wonderful adventures that befell him from the
-time they had parted in the dungeon to the happy hour of his return. And
-while they were thus in sweet converse, the Pumperkin was gliding on....
-
-Where was it bound? Haven’t you guessed? Why, for brave Peterkin’s old
-home, the Pumpkin Patch! That’s where the honeymoon would be—and
-then.... Then back to the Four Kingdoms, to reign for years in peace and
-power and glory.
-
-And some day, when you, too, have grown up and have wed a Princess Clem,
-and have come into a kingdom of your own, you will live—as they
-lived—happily ever after.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-                                THE END.
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-Tom Tit Tales By GILLY BEAR
-
-_Bed-time Stories for Children_
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Contains 156 Pages, 12 Color Plates and numerous Black and White
-Illustrations
-
-Bound in Cloth Gold and Color Stamping
-
-Price $1.25
-
-“If you are favored and can still stand under the barred Gate of the
-Years to the twelfth notch or so, you will not yet have mislaid the key
-to your Imagination, and you will see—as probably your elders will not
-be able to do clearly—that this book has the familiar look in its pages
-of the places you know so well when you are asleep or just dozing before
-the fire. Some people write stories for children which remind one of the
-man on the city roof-top looking through the skylight at what the people
-are doing in the room below. But Gilly Bear, when he wrote these
-stories, sat at the desk within the room and possessed himself of an
-intimate knowledge of all that happened there. The entire book deals
-with Bobby and a funny old elf, evidently numberless hundreds of years
-old, who lures the former to Slumberland every night. The old elf is
-vividly portrayed by Helen E. Ohrenschall, to whom the author is
-indebted for the delightful pictorial features of the book.”—_The New
-York Evening Sun._
-
-“Saml. Gabriel Sons & Company have recently published three attractively
-bound children’s books for the holiday season, written by Gilly Bear.
-‘TOM TIT TALES’ tells of a most convenient fairy, who comes to comfort
-children at Tired-time—Bobby is delightfully entertained by Tom Tit and
-is taken on most fascinating excursions into Candy Land, to the Clock in
-the Sky, to the Rainbow and other equally interesting places, if he has
-been good all day. The illustrations in color are by Helen E.
-Ohrenschall.”—_News Press, St. Joseph._
-
-“The Gilly Bear books, which have been published on the eve of the
-holiday season, have come out at an opportune moment, inasmuch as the
-book-buying habit becomes intense at this particular time. ‘TOM TIT
-TALES,’ ‘THE GREEN TULIP’ and ‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ are ideal stories for
-children. They contain an immense amount of wholesome sentiment and
-clean humor, and there are no keener humorists than the little
-people.”—_The Times Star, Cincinnati._
-
-“‘TOM TIT TALES,’ ‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ and ‘THE GREEN TULIP’ by Gilly
-Bear are all attractive children’s books. Gilly Bear has made himself
-known to a large section of the child world by the creation of Tom Tit,
-whom Bobby met and who introduced the little boy to a host of marvelous
-people, with some surprising adventures.
-
-“‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ describes, in a way to please any normal child, the
-adventures of a score of animals and fowl.
-
-“Two little Dutch children, Katrina and Jan, in search of a fairy tulip,
-are the figures in ‘THE GREEN TULIP,’ and the experiences they go
-through are attractively described and pictured.”—_The Standard Union,
-Brooklyn._
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-                           Fun in the Forest
-
-                             By Gilly Bear
-
- Contains 64 Pages, Profusely Illustrated in Color and Black and White.
-
-                          Bound in Cloth, with
-                        Colored Insert on Cover
-
-                             Price 75 Cents
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ is a story that cannot fail to hold the attention
-of children, instruct them, too, and develop sympathy and affection for
-the small animals.”—_The Evening Star, Newark._
-
-“‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ by Gilly Bear contains little stories of animals
-and their family and social life in a ‘wood at the top of the big green
-hill.’ It is seen that the Squirrel Family are generous entertainers and
-that all the wood folk are glad to come to their party. There is no hint
-of either fable or moral in the tales, but just the play of a pleasant
-imagination in the telling of animal stories.”—_The Post, Hartford,
-Conn._
-
-“‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ by Gilly Bear is an instructive and amusing tale of
-animals, which should delight children from six to ten years. It is
-profusely illustrated.”—_The Bulletin, San Francisco._
-
-“Parents or aunts or uncles, looking for picture books for the little
-ones, with some element of cleverness in them, will be glad to pick up
-any of a group of handsomely got up books published by Saml. Gabriel
-Sons & Company. They are the Gilly Bear books and the contents were
-originally published in the New York _Evening Sun_ ‘Bedtime Stories’ and
-were immensely popular. They stimulate the child’s imagination and
-delight him by their whimsical humor.
-
-“‘TOM TIT TALES’—Entrancing stories of adventure, inspiring,
-entertaining and amusing and full of life, action and interest ‘just
-before the Sandman comes.’
-
-“‘THE GREEN TULIP’—A splendid fairy tale, describing the exciting
-adventures of two little Dutch children in search of a fairy tulip.
-
-“‘FUN IN THE FOREST’—A charming story of absorbing interest, which tells
-an amusing tale of animals and their doings in field and forest.
-
-“The illustrations and general make-up of the books are very
-attractive.”—_Herald-Telegraph, Montreal._
-
-“‘THE GREEN TULIP’ and ‘FUN IN THE FOREST,’ from the press of Saml.
-Gabriel Sons & Company, New York, are two delightful children’s books
-illustrated by Frances Brundage. The illustrations are in black and
-white and in color, the color pages being beautifully done. The stories
-are printed in large type and are nicely bound.”—_The Journal,
-Milwaukee._
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-                            The Green Tulip
-
-                             By Gilly Bear
-
- Contains 64 Pages, Profusely Illustrated in Color and Black and White.
-              Bound in Cloth, with Colored Insert on Cover
-
-                             Price 75 Cents
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Katrina and Jan are two quaint Dutch children living in Holland,
-described in ‘THE GREEN TULIP’ as ‘the loveliest, strangest, pleasantest
-land on earth.’ They first meet a green fairy who is crying for a green
-tulip. So Katrina and Jan start out to find the green tulip for the
-grieving fairy. In their search, the pair have some funny adventures.
-The illustrations are as delightfully Dutch as a windmill or one of
-Franz Hals’s pictures.”—_Post Express, Rochester, N.Y._
-
-“‘THE GREEN TULIP’—A fairy tale of Holland by Gilly Bear and published
-by Saml. Gabriel Sons & Company. Another clever and attractive bit of
-reading for the quite young juvenile. The illustrations done by Frances
-Brundage are in themselves ample commendation for this charming book for
-the Christmas list. The world of fairyland is put under tribute to
-furnish the theme. Holland is made the setting and the talented
-co-workers in author and artist offer one of the most pleasing numbers
-in the Gilly Bear series, as a result of their deft workmanship. There
-is a world of diversion in following the fortunes of Katrina and Jan in
-sailing down ‘the Laziest Canal’ and in stopping, ‘but not too long,’ in
-the village of None-May-Care, in which ‘nobody thinks very hard.’”—_The
-Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio._
-
-“The vogue of bed-time stories is continually broadening and the demand
-for new books of this character naturally increases as the holiday
-season approaches. To meet it, Saml. Gabriel Sons & Company have just
-issued three attractive new works calculated to fire the imagination of
-‘Youngest America.’ The first of this series, ‘TOM TIT TALES,’ contains
-a series of entertaining stories to be told ‘just before the Sandman
-comes.’ The second, ‘THE GREEN TULIP,’ is a fairy tale built around the
-adventures of two little Dutch children in search of a fairy tulip. The
-third, entitled ‘FUN IN THE FOREST,’ tells in a charming way the life
-and adventure of animals in the field and forest. All three books are
-embellished with attractive colored plates.”—_The Examiner, Chicago._
-
-“Three attractive books for the little children, which will interest the
-early Christmas shopper, are ‘TOM TIT TALES,’ ‘THE GREEN TULIP’ and ‘FUN
-IN THE FOREST.’ The stories are by Gilly Bear and originally appeared in
-a New York newspaper. The books are freely illustrated and the tales are
-just what children enjoy.”—_The Call, San Francisco._
-
-“‘THE GREEN TULIP’ and ‘FUN IN THE FOREST’ are two very good stories and
-very long, as stories for the little people go, with excellent pictures
-running through the text. They are both by Gilly Bear, illustrated by
-Frances Brundage and published by Saml. Gabriel Sons & Company, New
-York.”—_The Times, New York._
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- ● Transcriber’s Notes:
-    ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
-    ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
-    ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
-      when a predominant form was found in this book.
-    ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
-
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF PETERKIN ***
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-
-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Peterkin, by Gilly Bear</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Adventures of Peterkin</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Gilly Bear</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Helen E. Ohrenschall</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 4, 2021 [eBook #65509]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF PETERKIN ***</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c000' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h1 class='c001'>THE<br />ADVENTURES OF<br />PETERKIN.</h1>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/halftitle.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c002' />
-</div>
-<div id='frontis'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/frontis.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“Inside his Pumperkin house”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c000' />
-</div>
-<div class='box1'>
-
-<div class='lg-container-l c003'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='c004'>THE</span></div>
-      <div class='line'><span class='c004'>ADVENTURES <i>of</i></span></div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='c005'>PETERKIN</span></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>BY</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/gilly.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>AUTHOR OF “TOM TIT TALES,” “THE GREEN TULIP,”</div>
-    <div>“FUN IN THE FOREST,” ETC.</div>
-    <div class='c000'>ILLUSTRATED</div>
-    <div>BY</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/pumpkin.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>HELEN E.</div>
-    <div>OHRENSCHALL</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id005'>
-<img src='images/publogo.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>SAM’L GABRIEL SONS &amp; COMPANY</div>
-    <div class='c000'>NEW YORK</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
-    <div>Copyright, 1916, by</div>
-    <div>SAM’L GABRIEL SONS &amp; COMPANY</div>
-    <div>NEW YORK</div>
-    <div class='c007'>By kind Permission of <i>The Evening Sun</i>, New York</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div  class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/i005.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c008'>CONTENTS</h2>
-</div>
-<div class='font85'>
-
-<table class='table0' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='20%' />
-<col width='64%' />
-<col width='15%' />
-</colgroup>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'><span class='small'>CHAPTER</span></td>
-    <td class='c010'>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td class='c011'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>I.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Pumperkin</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch01'>13</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>II.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Afloat</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch02'>17</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>III.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin and the Whale</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch03'>21</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>IV.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin’s Appetite</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch04'>25</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>V.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin’s Cooking</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch05'>29</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>VI.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>An Hour of Storm</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch06'>32</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>VII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Escapes</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch07'>35</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>VIII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin in the Valley</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch08'>39</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>IX.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Takes a Fall</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch09'>43</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>X.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin in the Palace</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch10'>47</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XI.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Tells His Tale</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch11'>51</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin’s Fate</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch12'>55</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XIII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Toothless Enemy</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch13'>59</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XIV.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin’s Rescue</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch14'>64</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XV.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Water of Bounceability</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch15'>69</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XVI.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Vale of the Blind</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch16'>74</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XVII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Promises</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch17'>79</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XVIII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Valley of Silence</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch18'>83</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XIX.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Ears Too Sharp</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch19'>87</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XX.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Valley of Dancing Legs</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch20'>92</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXI.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Valley of Up-in-the-Air</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch21'>97</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin in a Muddle</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch22'>101</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXIII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Lost Pumperkin</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch23'>104</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXIV.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Out of Hiding</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch24'>108</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXV.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>A Precious Prisoner</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch25'>112</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXVI.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Villain’s Story</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch26'>116</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXVII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>In the City</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch27'>121</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXVIII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>How Peterkin Tricked Them All</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch28'>125</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXIX.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Peterkin Brings Joy</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch29'>130</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXX.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>Valley to Valley</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch30'>135</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXXI.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Patient Princess</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch31'>139</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXXII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Villain Satisfied</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch32'>143</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c009'>XXXIII.</td>
-    <td class='c010'><span class='sc'>The Glorious Ending</span></td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#ch33'>148</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div  class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/i007.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c012'>LIST OF COLORED PLATES</h2>
-</div>
-<div class='font85'>
-
-<table class='table1' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='86%' />
-<col width='13%' />
-</colgroup>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“Inside his Pumperkin house”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#frontis'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td class='c011'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“An early morning peek”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f021'>21</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“Then it grew darker than midnight”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f032'>32</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“So they sat themselves on the flying sea-shell”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f043'>43</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“‘Take him away!’ ordered the King”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f055'>55</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“The whole leap took but a moment”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f069'>69</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“A young peasant girl came toward him”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f083'>83</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“There came floating toward him in midair”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f097'>97</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“The windows in the palace were gleaming”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f108'>108</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“She strained her eyes to watch the distant harbor”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f121'>121</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“He jumped upon his shoulders”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f135'>135</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'>“Where was it bound? Haven’t you guessed?”</td>
-    <td class='c011'><a href='#f148'>148</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='lg-container-l c006'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in4'><span class="blackletter"><span class='c013'>To</span></span></div>
-      <div class='line'><span class="blackletter"><span class='c013'>Robert Stuart</span></span></div>
-      <div class='line in2'><span class="blackletter"><span class='c013'>Marquis</span></span></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-    <div  class='linedc drop-capanf0_25_0_7'>ONE day old—</div>
-      <div class='line in4'>And all your life ahead of you!</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>How I wish that plodding I</div>
-      <div class='line in4'>Could be there instead of you!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><i>Tops and toys and picture books;</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Sliding ponds and summer brooks;</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Birds among the tree-tops green;</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Flowers thrusting to be seen—</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>And about you, like a charm</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>To protect you, Mother’s arm....</i></div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Just one day——</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>And thousands more to come to you!</div>
-      <div class='line'>How the chirrupy old crickets</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Of the hearth will hum to you!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><i>All the things that brightest gleam</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>In a mother’s brightest dream:</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Sunshine that is free from rain,</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Laughter that is free from pain;</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Faith and glory, love and hope</i></div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Lie along your life’s long slope....</i></div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>One day old—</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>While within your cradle, you</div>
-      <div class='line'>Smile to think of all the things</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Life will freely ladle you!</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i009.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i011.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='lh'>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c015'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-    <div  class='linedc drop-capanf0_15_1_0'><i>HERE is the story of Peterkin Pumperkin,</i></div>
-      <div class='line in5'><i>Lived in a patch, and afraid of a bumperkin.</i></div>
-      <div class='line in2'><i>The wind came along with a jig and a jumperkin—</i></div>
-      <div class='line in5'><i>When Peterkin stopped, he was all in a lumperkin.</i></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c016' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>
-  <h2 id='ch01' class='c008'>I<br /> <br />PETERKIN PUMPERKIN</h2>
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>I&nbsp;KNOW you have all heard of the little man who lived
-inside a pumpkin. Just why he lived there I don’t exactly
-remember, but I can’t imagine that he used to sleep so
-comfortably inside his tiny bowl of a bed-room.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i013.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>For, when the growly wind took to blowing over the
-pumpkin patch and set the fat yellow balls of pumpkins
-swaying from this side to that on their slender vines, poor
-Peterkin would be jounced clear out of bed and sent spinning
-round and round the circled pumpkin wall.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ugh, ouch!” he would groan. “My poor head’s all
-bumps and bruises. Ugh, ugh! Why in the name of everything
-foolish did I ever come to live in a pumpkin? Why
-didn’t I stay in a sensible house, and live like other folks
-live? Oh, ouch!” And then, as the wind gave one last roar
-and his jouncing little home gave one last, extra large somersault
-on its vine, Peterkin would usually find himself
-thwacked back into bed again, with his feet on the pillow and
-his head buried deep in the mattress.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The wind, of course, thought it the greatest fun in the
-world. The wind was only a jolly playmate, after all—even
-if he was a bit too rough about it. And the wind could
-never understand what made Peterkin so angry in the
-matter.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Whee! I love to play free and frolic! I love to send the
-little leaves whirling and the dust mounds swirling, and the
-heavy laden pine-boughs tossing with sighs. I love to chase
-the thin gray wisps of mist and the spattering rain-drops as
-they fall, and to rattle the frosted window panes. Whee!
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>I’m sure I’m more than gentle with Peterkin Pumperkin.
-I always take care not to snap his anchor stem! I always
-leave him fast upon his vine. Whee, whiz!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But then there came a night when myriad snowflakes were
-falling over the patch. It was more than the mischievous
-wind could stand. He <i>must</i> get in among those flakes! He
-must make them jig and dart and dive in crooked merriment!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He rushed down upon them, charging with a trumpet’s
-roar. And in his wild path he rolled the clumsy pumpkins to
-this side and that, until their rumble fairly shook the earth.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Poor Peterkin was dozing at his tiny stove, just then—for
-it was very chilly and shivery inside his Pumperkin house.
-Whee! whistled the wind. Whee! it shrieked, right over his
-head.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, suddenly, the terrible thing happened! The thing
-that Peterkin had feared so many years! SNAP! went the
-stem of Peterkin’s Pumperkin—off the vine, out of the patch—free,
-anchorless, guideless! And away and away rolled
-the pumpkin house—down the bumpy field, across the ditch,
-through the brook, to the top of a steep hill. Then away and
-away, down, down, down, went Peterkin and his Pumperkin—over
-and over in swift, dizzy tumbles. Head up, feet
-down, head down, feet up—down, down, down! Then up
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>another hill. Up, up, to its top, with poor Peterkin turning
-an unwilling somersault at every yard!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But, oh, at the top of this hill is a precipice—and beyond
-it, miles below, is the sea. Ah, what will happen now to Peterkin?
-His pumpkin house reaches the edge of the precipice,
-seems to linger for a short moment, then shoots far
-out and down, down into the sea! It sinks beneath the waves,
-then slowly bobs up again, sinks again, comes up again and
-floats peacefully away with the tide.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And now, with this strange happening, begin the marvellous
-adventures of Peterkin in his Pumperkin! Let’s hope
-that in the next of them the wind, that merry playfellow, will
-try to be more gentle.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/i016.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>
-  <h2 id='ch02' class='c008'>II<br /> <br />PETERKIN AFLOAT</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i017.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>WHEN last we heard of
-Peterkin—do you remember?—he
-was afloat on
-the waves in his pumpkin
-house. And sailing swiftly
-out to sea!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin, as soon as he had
-gained his breath, climbed
-out of the tangle of bed-clothes
-and furniture which his sudden
-fall had thrown over and
-all about him. Then he pinched himself in every limb, and
-was glad to find everything whole and sound.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Whew!” he gasped. “That <i>was</i> an escape! To think of
-landing in the sea!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He pulled his little ladder out from under a tumble of pots
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>and pans and bric-a-brac and blankets, and set it up against
-the wall. Then up he clambered, step by step, until he had
-poked his head through the hole, in the Pumperkin’s top,
-which served for a door and a window and ceiling, all at the
-same time. It gave him just a glimpse of the open air and the
-wide stretch of sea on every hand. Waves—blue, choppy,
-hopping waves, as far as Peterkin could see ... nothing
-but waves!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Well, there was nothing for it but to go back into his house
-and sit by the stove and begin to cry. Not that crying could
-help matters any—but Peterkin was sad at all these sudden
-happenings, and somehow his tears did make him feel a little
-better.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Boohoo!” wept he. “It’s all the fault of the wicked wind!
-One moment I was safe and dozing at home in my old pumpkin
-patch; the next, here I am bobbing and lost on the face
-of the ocean. The only thing I have to be thankful for is
-that there’s still a warm fire in my stove. Boohoo!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And oh, the saddest part of it all is that he wept so hard,
-and so many of his tears spilled down into the stove that—what
-did he do but put the fire out! And soon enough his
-pumpkin house grew cold and cheerless and wet with the
-briny waves which came dashing in through the door-window-ceiling.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i019.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>It was a dreary party now. Peterkin felt his yellow ball
-of a boat leap and fall with every wave. Everything rattled
-and jingled to the see-saw motion. He grew dizzy. He
-could scarcely steady himself to climb up the ladder a second
-time. He could hardly see the white froth at the crests of
-the waves and the deep green of their troughs. He made out
-a ship passing by, miles and miles away. He screamed and
-waved his coat and whistled between two fingers—did everything
-he could think of to make the sailors see and save him.
-But the ship sailed on and away, until the white specks of its
-sails had faded from view.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>Night came on, gray and then blue, and the waves never
-tired of their ceaseless jigging. Peterkin crouched on the
-floor of his Pumperkin and thought of the fate which
-awaited him, and worried himself into a troubled sleep.
-Many times during the long, dark hours he woke up with
-a start, and, through the hole in the house-top, caught a
-glimpse of the stars and a smack of the salt spray. The last
-time he awoke, the stars had been swallowed up in the graying
-sky by a streak of glowing red, and Peterkin knew it
-was the dawn.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Later, when the sunshine came straggling into his shell on
-the drops of glistening spray, he climbed his ladder for an
-early morning peek. White mists were rolling back across
-the waves, and ... oh! what was that?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Not a hundred yards away, a thin fountain, shimmering
-like silver, rose up out of the green of the sea and curved
-down again upon it. Again it came—and again! Up, up—fifty
-feet into the air, a gleaming fountain! And then, as it
-came nearer and nearer, Peterkin caught the glimpse of a
-black fin ... and a huge jaw!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Ugh! What could it be?</p>
-
-<div id='f021'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f021.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“An early morning peek”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>
-  <h2 id='ch03' class='c008'>III<br /> <br />PETERKIN AND THE WHALE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i021.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>A&nbsp;WHALE! Yes, it
-was a big, black,
-hungry whale! And it
-was drawing closer and
-closer to Peterkin’s pumpkin
-boat every time he
-blinked.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin could see its forked tail now and its great, darkly
-gleaming sides. Once it disappeared completely under the
-foam, and when it rose again, it was so near that Peterkin
-saw its ugly little eyes and a white row of jagged teeth.
-Whenever it flashed its tail and fins, there was a great churning
-of water, and the Pumperkin would roll and rock so
-fiercely that it almost dumped its poor owner into the ocean.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The whale, I’m sure, did not know what to make of it. The
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>whale was used to boats, of course—but boats with sails and
-pointed prows and sailors in the rigging. While here was
-something round and fat, and such a golden yellow! No
-bow it had, nor stern, nor sails, nor flags, nor rudder. “Is it
-really and truly a boat?” thought the whale. Well, this
-would have to be looked into very closely!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So the big whale came puffing and fountaining up to the
-little Pumperkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, oh,” it sighed, “what a pretty thing to frisk with!
-Just like a play-toy! Here’s where I have my day’s fun!”
-And with that it dived deep under the pumpkin boat and
-came up on the other side. “Haw, haw,” it chuckled—as
-only a whale can chuckle—“what bully good sport! Just
-to look at that little man who is peeking out over the side of
-this yellow ball! Just to see how surprised he looks to find
-me over here, where he didn’t expect me to be! Haw, haw!”
-And the whale gave another frolicsome wiggle to his tail—nearly
-upsetting the Pumperkin again.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As for Peterkin, he was chattering with fear. He did not
-know what was coming next! Perhaps the whale was about
-to swallow him for breakfast. Yes, yes, it was surely up to
-some mischief, was this black whale. For it had disappeared
-again. Oh, what now?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>True, the playful whale had taken another dive under the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>bottom of the pumpkin. But it didn’t bother to come up on
-the other side. It just stayed there under water, directly beneath
-the Pumperkin.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i023.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='c018'>“Haw, I wonder what would happen if I should squirt
-my fountain into the air?” thought the whale—and being a
-whale, it had to take a long while to think it over. In the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>dreadful pause, Peterkin trembled so hard that his stove and
-his bed and all the furniture took to rattling, too.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, suddenly, the Pumperkin, Peterkin and all, shot
-fifty feet high into the air! Up, up, like a bubble at the top
-of a mighty geyser, it rose with the stream of the whale’s fountain.
-For the wink of an eye, it seemed to hang there—then
-down it came again—down with a spatter and splash into the
-trough of the sea!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin could stand it no longer. He screamed aloud—with
-such a scream as the whale had never heard. It was a
-scream to make every fish in the sea shudder along its fins.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, dear me!” sighed the whale, “I have made an enemy.
-I’ve been hurting somebody’s feelings, I fear. I should have
-been very glad to make a breakfast of that little man and his
-yellow bubble, if only he hadn’t minded and had acted cheerfully
-about it. But now, since he’s so cross and cranky, I
-shall punish him by going away and never looking at him
-again. So there!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Which was just what the big whale did. And it never
-could understand why the little man clapped his hands and
-laughed with delight when he saw it dwindle away into the
-waves of the distance.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>
-  <h2 id='ch04' class='c008'>IV<br /> <br />PETERKIN’S APPETITE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i025.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>NOW all this while poor Peterkin
-had not had a single
-bit to eat. Not a dry biscuit
-even. And as for a whole meal,
-why—that was out of the question.
-For wasn’t his stove drearily
-cold? And the eggs in his
-basket all crushed by the many
-falls his Pumperkin had taken?
-And he was hungry. So
-would you be, if you had gone so long without a meal—and
-Peterkin, for all he lived in a pumpkin, was not so far different
-from you. He sat and listened to the slap of the waves
-upon the bottom of his round yellow boat and rubbed his
-empty stomach mournfully.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>Suddenly, the Pumperkin gave a lurch and a fling up-ward.
-Then again and again! Oh, what was it now? Another
-whale? Peterkin rushed up his ladder, and ... oh,
-it was <i>land</i>!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Yes, directly ahead of him, the waves were combing into
-a high, frothy surf thundering down upon a stretch of yellow
-sands. Behind that, he could see tall trees spreading
-their broad palm leaves in tufts of brightest green; and a
-low hill of glistening rock, where purple flowers clung and
-orange-leaved vines were twining.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Land!” cried Peterkin in rapture. “Land at last!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Sure enough, the pumpkin boat gave a last leap in the
-swirl of the surf and came down on something firm and
-grating. It was safe on the sands of the shore.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>In a jiffy Peterkin had hauled up his ladder and let it
-down on the other side. Then down he climbed, waded
-swiftly through the foamy edge of spume and dashed up on
-the beach. Before he did another thing, he danced a jig—which
-was Peterkin’s way of showing how happy and thankful
-he was. So you may be sure it was a very merry jig he
-danced!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then he went wisely back and pushed and pulled at his
-Pumperkin until it was high and dry upon the shore. Next
-he lifted his cold stove out and set it in a dark little cave of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>the rocks, where the rain might never find it in stormy
-weather.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But a lot of good my stove will be to me if I cannot find
-something to cook on it!” thought hungry Peterkin.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i027.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>So he searched the length of yellow sand. But he found
-nothing there excepting a few empty shells, pink and gray,
-like the glow of a pearl. He searched the mosses under the
-palm trees—but only a few nuts had fallen from the tufts
-overhead, and these were so hard and so bitter that the taste
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>of them puckered up his face with sour twists. He climbed
-the hill of glistening stone until he could see from its summit
-the tops of thousands and thousands more of just such
-trees—like so many green and waving feather dusters—a
-whole forestful, swaying to the horizon’s boundary.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And there at last, on the tip top of the rocks, he seized
-upon a handful of the purple flowers and another of the orange-leaved
-vine.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“If nothing else,” he planned, “I shall make a dainty salad
-of flower and leaf and eat it from a plate of pearly sea-shell.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But alas! he was still to learn the evil of plucking strange
-things for salads!</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i028.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>
-  <h2 id='ch05' class='c008'>V<br /> <br />PETERKIN’S COOKING</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i029.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>HIS arms full of leaves
-and flowers, Peterkin
-hurried back to the little
-black cave, where his
-stove was in hiding.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“This cave shall be my
-kitchen,” he told himself.
-“Under its shadow I shall
-cook my meals and brew
-my broths, and boil and
-broil and bake....
-Only, I quite forgot,
-I have nothing to
-cook. Nothing but
-flowers and leaves.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He thought for a long while, and finally he decided that,
-instead of having just a cold and fragrant salad, he should
-heat them all up into a smoking stew. He should have a
-meal to warm the cockles of his heart.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But, when he had gathered the stalks of withered palm
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>leaves and had crammed them into the cindery throat of
-his stove, he had to wait another little while before he could
-figure out just how to make a flame. At length he remembered
-having read the way to strike a spark with two pieces
-of sharp rock. So
-he snatched up a
-pair of stones and
-smashed them and
-crashed them
-against each other
-until the fiery sparks
-were darting down
-into the mouth of
-the stove—into the
-midst of the fuel.
-There was a sudden bursting into red flame, and the fire was
-started!</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i030.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then Peterkin—clever cook that he was—laid his purple
-flowers and his orange vines prettily within the cup of a sea-shell,
-and sprinkled them over with salt water of the surf.
-Then he laid shell and all upon the stove and waited for
-results.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Nor had he to wait so long. For, all in a twinkle, there
-was a monstrous pouf! Great billows of smoke, brown and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>lavender, gushed up from the heart of the sea-shell and
-spread themselves across the sky. There came a resounding
-crackle of flames ... the whole shell, trailing its glowing
-mists behind it, rose up, up, above the tree-tops, into the
-clouds, and out of sight! It was gone, forever and aye.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>For a long while poor Peterkin could scarcely realize all
-that had happened so much of a sudden. He stood staring
-up at the dwindling speck of the sea-shell and wondering
-... where could his meal have disappeared? And
-what must he do now for another?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And I am so hungry, too,” he sighed. “Not a bite to eat
-since I and my Pumperkin left the patch. Well, there’s nothing
-for it but that I begin to search through the whole forest
-of green palms. Perhaps I shall find a scarlet cockatoo, or a
-yellow-tailed dove, to carry back with me for dinner.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But, indeed, he felt so weak from want of food that he
-could scarcely stand. He lay down on the sunny stretch
-of the sands and half closed his eyes. He could see, in a
-blur, that the low line where the sea and the sky met, far
-away, was smothered in black clouds—and that little streaks
-of angry red seemed to be flashing in the black. He asked
-himself, drowsily, was this a storm approaching? Was it
-a hurricane, or what.... And then, before he had time to
-answer himself, he fell asleep.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>
-  <h2 id='ch06' class='c008'>VI<br /> <br />AN HOUR OF STORM</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i032.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>PETERKIN woke up
-with a start. Something
-was roaring in his
-ears. A rushing shower
-of sand stung his cheeks.
-The wind was shrieking
-behind him, across the low hill and in among the palm trees.
-At his feet, the waves of the surf were hammering down
-upon the beach in great, black, frothing mountains, until
-the earth itself seemed trembling. The air was cold and
-swept across his face in fresh, tossing gusts.</p>
-
-<div id='f032'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f032.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“Then it grew darker than midnight”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>He jumped to his feet and ran. He was afraid of something—he
-did not know what. He ran, stumbling, to the
-crest of the hill. He could look out, now, across the sea
-of gray waves on one side and the sea of green tree-tops on
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>the other. Above him the sky was a mass of heavy, darkening
-clouds, a field of clashing, rumbling shadows. Every
-little while it would cleave apart, and down to the sea would
-spin the forks of blinding lightning in jagged craziness.
-Then all heaven and earth would mutter and roar and take
-to trembling.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i033.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Palm leaves, torn from the trees, went
-flying off, high overhead, in somersaulting
-circles. Eddies of golden sand
-swirled the length of the shore. The
-wind, heavy with salt spray,
-wailed louder and louder.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then it grew darker than
-midnight. Peterkin could
-see nothing now. He knelt
-among the snapping, creaking
-vines and buried his face against the beaten-down
-flowers.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The rain began. A few warm, pattering drops at first—then
-a sudden heavy downpour, streaming and cold. The
-vines were floating with drooping leaves upon a lake of rain,
-and the little flowers disappeared completely. The beach
-below was guttered with brown water.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Gradually then the rain began to lessen. The clouds
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>turned a lighter gray, until they broke apart in a long, uneven
-rift and showed a gap of blue. The sunshine came
-through this gap in a softly beaming shaft. High against
-the dark hung a curving rainbow, like an arch of jewels.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The rainbow faded, the sunshine grew stronger and more
-golden, the last wisps of cloud sank away in the blue of the
-sky. The sea was calm now and blue. Nothing seemed
-to be moving upon it excepting the tiny darts of gleaming
-sunbeams. All was peace again....</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Only—something—far out at sea—Oh! what was it?
-Something round and yellow! A tiny yellow spot, sailing
-out, out toward the horizon!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin looked down at the shore, his heart jumping into
-his throat. Yes, alas! His Pumperkin was gone! His
-pumpkin house had been swept away by the storm—swept
-out to sea!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Yes, his house, his boat, his darling Pumperkin was sailing
-away from him—was lost and gone! Ah, what would
-his fate be now?</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>
-  <h2 id='ch07' class='c008'>VII<br /> <br />PETERKIN ESCAPES</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i035.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>PETERKIN was hungrier than
-ever. He had lost his faithful
-pumpkin, too! Oh, what could he do?
-He pondered a long while. He
-could try to cook some more flowers
-and vines on his stove. But,
-no ... he remembered what had
-happened the last time he tried.
-And, it seemed, there wasn’t anything
-else to eat on all the shore.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He must escape, then.
-He must flee this lonely
-beach. He must wander
-away to somewhere ... he
-didn’t know where—just somewhere else.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>But how? For he had no Pumperkin now. His yellow
-house of a boat had been swept off on the waves, out beyond
-the horizon. At last, as he stood in deep thought, a
-merry idea came popping into his head. Indeed, it was
-an idea so full of mad adventure
-that, when it came to him,
-he had to burst out laughing
-and clapped his hands in glee.
-For he remembered what a
-comical thing had happened
-at the stove an hour before.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So he hastened to kindle a
-roaring fire in the black iron
-throat of its oven. Then he
-ran this way and that on the
-beach until, half sunk
-in the sands, he found
-a huge, pearly sea-shell.
-He tore it out and carried it back and set it on the
-stove. To make sure, he added a sprinkling of vines and
-flowers and silver sea froth. Then he climbed up on the
-top of his stove and sat himself down in the cup of the shell.
-Ouch! it was hot!</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i036.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Just as before, there was a little curl of lavender smoke,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>a little shivering and rocking—then POUF! Up went
-shell and Peterkin and all!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Up, up, sailing up! Peterkin, clutching madly at the
-sharp sides of the shell, could feel the rush of wind against his
-face. He dared not look down, but he knew that the shore
-and all the wide-spread trees upon it were growing smaller
-and more distant. Something gray and filmy spun over his
-eyes, like a silken veil. He was in the clouds. Up, up, into
-the sunny blue again, where he could see the clouds below
-him now in great lazy billows. Up, up, always up!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Once the fragile shell groaned, as if it would give way
-into shatters and send its rider hurtling toward the hidden
-earth. Once it bumped against the great black, cindery
-side of a dead star and nearly turned topsy-turvy. Once its
-pearly lining cracked dangerously under the heated blaze
-of the nearby sun.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Now the flying shell and its rider were floating forward.
-And down, too. Down in a slow, curving line of grace—slowly,
-slowly down and forward, through the clouds and
-below them. Peterkin could see the high hills of a strange
-country now—a country where all the fields were yellow
-with grain, set in quaint squares like a checker board, and
-all the hills were soft with the green of pines. A silver
-thread of a river ran through the middle of the valley, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>Peterkin could make out now the twinkling red roofs of
-cottages. It was the most peaceful scene he had ever come
-upon.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, how I wish I were there!” he sighed.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Which no sooner uttered than down dived his sea-shell
-straight upon the soft breast of a yellow haystack. Deep into
-the hay it landed, with never a bump or a scrape. Peterkin
-was safe in the valley.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i038.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>
-  <h2 id='ch08' class='c008'>VIII<br /> <br />PETERKIN IN THE VALLEY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i039.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_7 c017'>AN old farmer came hobbling
-out of his house,
-along the little path that ran to
-the edge of the haystack. His
-mouth was wide open, and
-his eyes well-nigh popped
-from his head at the sight of
-so strange a fellow in his
-haystack.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Heigh!” cried the farmer, “what are you doing in my
-stack, eh? And what’s that silly, pearly thing you have at
-your side? What are you doing in this peaceful valley, eh?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I’m flying,” replied Peterkin, climbing down to the
-ground. “I’ve flown from there to here, from the earth
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>to the stars, from the moon to the sun ... and here I am,
-hungry as hungry can be. So come along, old farmerman,
-and feed me full of all the best things of your cupboard.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Not I!” cried the toothless old farmer. “Not until you
-tell me your whole story.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i040.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>So they sat themselves down in the shade of a blossoming
-tree, and Peterkin told the tale of his adventures; of how he
-had lived in the pumpkin patch, and the wind had swept
-him away, in his pumpkin house, far upon the sea; and of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>the storms and the frisky whale, and the desert shore, and
-the loss of Pumperkin, and of how he made his final escape
-in the cup of the flying shell ... and here he was!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The old farmer listened, with growing wonder. He
-could only shake his head and lick his toothless gums with
-his long tongue and say, “Tut, tut, what a queer affair!
-Tut, tut, tut!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then he scratched himself very long and hard, and broke
-into a red-faced chuckling. It was plain to see he had just
-had a new, sly thought!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I’ve never seen a shell,” said he, “because I’ve never
-seen the sea. The sea is so far away from here ... it
-doesn’t touch our little valley at all. The thunder of its
-waves never comes to our ears, and the sting of its spray
-never flicks us. Perhaps that’s why we’re called the <i>peaceful</i>
-valley. We never mind anything excepting our own
-business, nor care for anyone who dwells outside the boundary
-of our hills. Tut, tut!” And he sighed.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And yet, for all your happy valley,” declared Peterkin,
-“you seem to be sighing unhappily for something. Tell me,
-what is it?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“A new set of teeth,” wept the old fellow. “That’s what
-I need. I lost my old set—oh, so many years ago. And
-there’s no place to find a new one in all the valley.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>“Ho, ho, that’s easily fixed,” laughed Peterkin. “You
-shall come with me on my sea-shell, up into the sky, over
-the hills, until we reach some huge and busy city. I have
-no doubt of it—you may find a new set of teeth there.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Now, that was just what the old farmer was wanting.
-When he heard this generous offer, he wasted no time, but
-ran to sit himself on the shell.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But, ho, what about my reward?” said Peterkin. “Not
-so fast, please. First you must feed me a fine meal—a meal
-to take away all my two days’ hunger and to make me fat
-and glad.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Agreed!” cried the farmer.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So he took the starving Peterkin into his house and set
-before him a whole tableful of dishes: thick soups and red,
-juicy meats and white slabs of fish from the brookside, and
-frothy-leaved salads, ripening fruits ... and a whole
-mountain of desserts. Peterkin did not know where to begin,
-and having once begun, did not know where to end.
-The result was that he ate the whole tableful, from the first
-soup to the last dessert.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But little did he guess what a wicked trick his appetite
-had played him.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div id='f043'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f043.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“So they sat themselves on the flying sea-shell”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>
-  <h2 id='ch09' class='c008'>IX<br /> <br />PETERKIN TAKES A FALL</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i043.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>NO sooner had
-Peterkin satisfied
-his hunger and
-wiped his mouth than
-the old farmer fussed
-and fidgeted to start
-on their journey. Peterkin
-couldn’t understand
-why he was in
-such a hurry—but
-then Peterkin had a full set of teeth, while the farmer had
-none. And it was in search of a new set that they were
-going.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So they sat themselves on the flying sea-shell and were off
-and away.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But it was strange what a creaking and groaning came
-from the faithful shell. True, it went up, up, as high as
-ever before; but it went so slowly and by such rickety
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>jumps and bounds, as if its wings were lamed. The old
-farmer was almost jounced completely off his seat ten times.
-His long gray beard was tousling over his eyes in the helter-skelter
-rush of the wind. He well-nigh died of fright.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin, too, was afraid. Not that he wasn’t accustomed,
-by now, to this skimming through the clouds. But
-something was wrong ... yes, something was certainly
-wrong. His sea-shell had never acted this way before. Oh,
-listen! It was groaning and grunting now, louder than
-ever. Peterkin thought he could even hear a sharp cracking
-of its pearly cup. Suppose that it should break!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He looked down, sick at heart! Through the cloud rifts
-he could see that they were passing over a great, white line
-of mountain tops. Like glistening needles they seemed, as
-he gazed down upon them. The sunlight glanced dazzlingly
-along their snowy sides. Peterkin shuddered and
-turned his eyes away.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, oh, look again!” chattered the toothless old farmer.
-“We are past the mountains now. We are well above a
-brand-new valley, where a rushing river tumbles and froths,
-and oh, look ... over there are the spires and roofs of a
-city. Gray and silver they are, all gleaming and tall. And
-we are flying straight toward them. Hurrah, now I shall
-get me a new set of teeth!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>But long ere they reached the city, the sea-shell began
-to crack and split, and to wabble from side to side. Once
-it dipped so far that both of its passengers were almost
-tossed off into the air. The farmer clung fast to Peterkin
-and Peterkin to the shell—and both of them gasped in
-horror.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i045.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, we are too heavy a load,” sobbed Peterkin. “I
-should never have taken you along with me.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“It’s not my fault!” stormed the old fellow. “It’s you
-who are so heavy. You ate and ate until you weigh more
-than four fat men should weigh. ’Twas your appetite that
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>will kill us both”—and he sucked his toothless gums in
-rage.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ungrateful man!” cried Peterkin. “I am risking my
-life to make you happy.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Yes,” retorted the other, “and I am losing mine because
-you were so greedy!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Therewith they fell to in wrath and cuffed each other and
-tore and tussled, swaying to this side and that and jouncing
-up and down in mighty thwacks.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Out with you—out of the shell!” screamed the old
-farmer. And with that he seized poor Peterkin under the
-arms, and—for all he was so heavy—hurled him out into
-the air and down, down, down....</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The sea-shell, lightened of the heavier part of its load,
-shot up higher into the air. Then suddenly, with a noise
-like the crack o’ doom, it burst into many pearly pieces.
-The farmer shot down, too, as if from a gun. And down he
-came close behind Peterkin ... and landed, with a fearful
-splash, into a fountain in the center of the market place.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As for Peterkin himself, you never could guess where
-he landed.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>
-  <h2 id='ch10' class='c008'>X<br /> <br />PETERKIN IN THE PALACE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i047.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>THROUGH an open skylight
-of the gilded dome of
-the palace. That’s where Peterkin
-landed. Through the open
-skylight, upon a springy,
-cushiony sofa. Up he
-bounced again, almost to
-the ceiling—then down to
-the marble floor in a huddle. He lay there stunned and silent
-for a little while, aching in every limb.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>A little lady stood over him when he opened his eyes.
-She was peering down at him with a white and frightened
-face—and Peterkin, for all his dizziness, thought he had
-never seen so beautiful a maiden in the world. For her
-startled eyes were blue—as blue as the sky had been, above
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>the clouds—and her curls were a golden shawl upon her
-shoulders. Under the white of her lace and cambric gown,
-her little bare feet came peeping.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i048.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin leaped to his feet, as best he could—for he was
-sore and stiff. He made a handsome bow and smiled his
-prettiest smile, with his hand over his heart, as if he were
-the gallant master of a dancing school. But this only made
-the little lady’s eyes open the wider with surprise.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And who are you? And where do you come from?
-And what do you want in the bed-chamber of her Royal
-Highness, the Princess Clematis of the Four Kingdoms?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin was horrified. “Gracious me!” he stammered.
-“Where is her Royal Highness Whatever-you-called-her? I
-must apologize to her for bursting into her father’s palace
-so suddenly. Indeed, had I been able to, I should have
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>walked in very humbly by way of the kitchen door or
-through the garden gate. But, don’t you see, I came so fast
-that I didn’t have time to choose. So lead me to the princess
-and let me beg her pardon.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The little lady rubbed one set of pink toes over the other
-in a bashful fashion. Her laugh was as light as the rustle of
-green vines in the spring.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“You are pardoned, merry stranger,” she said. “It is I, the
-Princess Clematis, who bid you welcome to the palace of
-the Four Kingdoms.” Then she held out her hand.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Poor Peterkin! His face grew red with flushes. He
-sank to his knee—in spite of the big bruise on it—and
-planted a most courteous kiss upon her rosy finger tips.
-And, if the truth be told, the princess smiled a charming
-“how-do-you-do,” and found it very easy to forgive him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But just at that moment, there came a loud rapping at the
-door and a hubbub of angry voices and a clanking of swords
-and spears against the walls.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ho, hola!” thundered someone without. “Open the
-door and let me in! I shall find whoever dares to pop into
-my royal daughter’s chamber, by way of the gilded dome.
-Ho, hola!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>At this, the little princess ran to fling open the door.
-And there, with a torch in his hand and a host of armed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>sentries behind him, stood His Majesty the King. Aye, no
-less a person than the monarch of the Four Kingdoms himself.
-Peterkin knew him at once by the jeweled crown
-which he wore atop his night-cap.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But before he could say a word, the little princess tripped
-to her father’s side and commenced a sly tickling at his
-nightie, just where his royal ribs ought to be. And under
-his crown, the King was just a jolly old man after all. He
-tried very hard to purse his lips and frown—but under such
-gentle tickling, there was nothing for it but to burst into a
-great roaring of laughter. He laughed, laughed—until his
-eyes were wet and his sides were aching. All of which put
-him in a better mood and made him look more kindly upon
-his strange visitor. He clapped the frightened Peterkin
-upon the back and called him a merry dog, and ended by
-marching off with him, arm in arm, to the palace’s spare
-bed-room to give him royal shelter for the night.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Thus it was that the princess, with a little wise tickling,
-saved a stranger’s life and brought much joy to the Four
-Kingdoms. But you shall have all that explained another
-time.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>
-  <h2 id='ch11' class='c008'>XI<br /> <br />PETERKIN TELLS HIS TALE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i051.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>SO Peterkin went to bed
-in fine fashion. His
-couch was of cushioned velvet
-and his pillows of down
-and silk. Over his head
-were hangings of lustrous
-satin, with ostrich plumes
-and gilded crowns by way
-of ornament. And when he
-woke in the morning, several slaves were kneeling at the
-bedside, ready to bathe him and dress him and to do his
-slightest bidding.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ahem!” thought Peterkin. “I must admit that, after
-all, this is a better sort of thing than living in a pumpkin.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Just as soon as he was dressed in a princely robe of purple
-linen with gold clasps and jeweled collar, his slaves led
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>Peterkin along a silvered hallway, where marble pillars
-gleamed with wreaths of precious stones, to a hall of gold.
-Here were a golden table and a host of golden chairs—and
-behind each chair stood, waiting in respect, some member
-of the royal court in brilliant costume. No sooner had
-Peterkin stepped over the marble threshold than they set
-up a loud, wild cheering and waved their silken napkins to
-bid him welcome.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i052.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>He took his seat at their head, in a chair which stood
-upon a golden dais. Before him, in a glowing line, were
-platters of fruit, red-cheeked and orange and purple. The
-smell of fragrant dishes steaming came to his nostrils and
-sharpened his appetite. He seized a golden fork and
-reached toward a pyramid of hot, brown muffins ... but
-oh, no! He was not to eat for a little while.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>For, just at this moment, who should enter the dining hall
-but the little princess and the King himself! The King
-was in his robes of state: ermine and velvet and cloth of
-gold. As for the princess, she had given up her nightie for
-a gown of dainty blue on which a field of slender lilies was
-embroidered in pale silk. Her golden hair was in a braid
-now, with fluttering ribbons woven, like veins, amidst it.
-Peterkin’s fork clattered down to the table at his first sight
-of her: he had no thought of food from then on.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>There was a great bending of knees and bowing of heads
-of the courtiers and another round of cheers and fluttered
-napkins as His Majesty and his fair daughter entered. But
-where do you think they sat? Why, one of them at the right
-hand of Peterkin and the other at his left.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>There was silence for many moments, during which the
-little princess lowered her blue eyes and pretended not to
-see that Peterkin, in the manner of all lovers, was staring
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>eagerly at the rose of her cheeks and the bow of her little red
-lips. Oh, no! the princess saw nothing—but she was blushing,
-just the same.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Hold!” said the King at length as he juggled a biscuit
-thoughtfully upon the end of his diamond-studded scepter.
-“We shall eat no morsel or a mouthful until we have heard
-your story, good stranger. So tell us it now. If it pleases
-us, you shall dwell in our midst, in all the pomp and comfort
-you have had this morning—and whatever you ask, for
-your happiness shall be ours.” His Majesty shot a knowing
-smile at his lovely daughter. “But if your tale fails to
-please us, if it tells of cowardice instead of bravery, of
-weakness instead of strength—why, then, good stranger,
-you shall be driven out of our palace, out of the Four Kingdoms,
-with a tattered coat and an empty stomach—an exile
-in disgrace. So, hem your throat and purse your lips and
-make a good beginning of your tale.”</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div id='f055'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f055.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“‘Take him away!’ ordered the King”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>
-  <h2 id='ch12' class='c008'>XII<br /> <br />PETERKIN’S FATE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i055.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_7 c017'>IT was an hour—a full and
-hungry hour—before Peterkin
-had told his tale. For
-he told to the King and his
-courtiers all of the
-strange happenings
-which had brought
-him floating from the
-pumpkin patch and
-flying in through the
-bed-room window.
-And, all the while he
-spoke, he could see
-the shadows of wrath
-grow darker on the
-brow of His Majesty
-and that the little princess’s red mouth drooped sorrowfully.
-Peterkin faltered. He wondered what was wrong with his
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>tale. How could it offend His Majesty? He went on slowly,
-until he came to the fearful experience he had had, in his
-flying shell, with the toothless old farmer.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The King could stand it no longer. He banged his
-scepter down so hard as to crack every butter-plate on the
-table. Up to his feet he sprang, his eyes flashing lightning.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Yes,” he rumbled, “yes, yes, yes! I might have guessed
-it! It was the arch enemy of our Four Kingdoms that you
-brought into our midst. Yes, yes, the Farmer Without
-Teeth! It is told in all our histories that he will work us
-harm. Every witch in the land has warned me to beware
-of him! And of you, too, you bothersome wayfarer! All
-the ancient history books have prophesied your coming.
-All of them described exactly how you would fly into my
-palace by way of the roof. This is just what they say:</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c019'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“‘Beware the daring little fellow</div>
-      <div class='line in1'>Who lives within a house of yellow;</div>
-      <div class='line in1'>He sails the sky in a skiff of pearl—</div>
-      <div class='line in1'>Through your window he will whirl.</div>
-      <div class='line in1'>He will bring what harm can do:</div>
-      <div class='line in1'>He will make you endless rue.’”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c020'>When they heard this fateful rhyme, all of the courtiers
-shuddered with terror. A little moan escaped from the lips
-of the princess. As for Peterkin, his tongue clung to the
-roof of his mouth.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>“Take him away!” ordered the King. “Away to the
-dungeon with him! And send out my royal army in search
-of the toothless farmer, that arch enemy of the Four Kingdoms.
-Away, to the deep, black dungeon!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>At once Peterkin was smothered in a great crowd of stalwart
-guards who bound him in heavy chains, who lifted him
-away and out of the banquet hall. The last thing he heard
-was the scream of the little princess.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Down, down, into the darkness of narrow cellars; down
-steep stairs of crumbling stone, where the air was damp and
-smelling of old mosses; down, still further down, they carried
-him. At last they came to a little iron door in a wall
-of black rock. There was a creaking of a rusty iron key
-in its lock, and a swinging of the little door on its stiff
-hinges.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“In with him!” cried the guards—and they tossed poor
-Peterkin, chains and all, into the furthermost corner of the
-cell. Then back went the door on its hinges, and creak,
-went the key in its lock. There was a faint sound of voices
-and footsteps dying in the distance ... and Peterkin was
-alone!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>A prisoner! Deep in the dark of the dungeon, he lay
-with his head in his hands and sobbed to think of what a
-fate had come to him. What a fine ending for his story!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>But then he remembered how the Princess Clem had
-screamed when he was snatched away—and he looked up
-and smiled. There was a tiny, barred window to his cell;
-and the sunlight came slanting through it in a narrow shaft,
-to make a little pool of brightness on the floor.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/i058.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>For the longest while did Peterkin lie looking at it; and
-dreamed, as all true lovers do, of what a pretty sight the
-princess was in her blue, lilied gown, and ribbons in her
-braid!</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>
-  <h2 id='ch13' class='c008'>XIII<br /> <br />THE TOOTHLESS ENEMY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i059.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>WHILE Peterkin lay dreaming in
-the dungeon, the King and his
-guards were roaming the town in search of the toothless old
-farmer—that arch-enemy of the Four Kingdoms. But
-though they searched until the sun was low in the red west,
-they caught never a glimpse of him. He had found a secret
-hiding place which none could guess.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He had fallen, you remember, into the fountain of the
-market place. And what a splash it was! What a wetting!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Spluttering, dripping, he climbed out over the fountain’s
-rim. With a trail of water streaming on the cobbled street
-behind him, he shambled along into the shadow of a doorway
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>and stood there shivering and wringing his hands for
-many minutes. Then he wiped the water from his eyes and
-looked about him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>What had become of Peterkin he did not know—nor did
-he care. For Peterkin would be of no more use to him,
-now that he was in the King’s city. He smiled a toothless
-smile to think of how completely he had fooled that little
-wayfarer. Never a hint had he given Peterkin of the
-wicked harm he meant to do to the Four Kingdoms—and
-of the sweet revenge that he would take! Hee, hee! and he
-gnashed his gums in hate.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He glanced over at the gilded dome of the palace.
-Strange lights were passing back and forth behind the darkened
-windows. Something had happened ... the palace
-was astir! Ha, perhaps they had learned that he was come
-into their city. Perhaps they were setting out at once to find
-him and to pounce upon him. He had better flee somewhere
-and hide!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He started to step out into the street. Pit-a-pat, came
-someone’s footsteps. A tall soldier, hurrying home to bed,
-clanked noisily ’round the corner. The old man fled back
-into the hallway, until his back hit against a door. The
-soldier went by, darting a suspicious glance into the shadow.
-The farmer crouched back, back, until....</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>
-<img src='images/i061.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>The door flew wide! He had broken it open!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The soldier, at the noise, stopped and looked about him
-sharply, then retraced his steps. There was nothing for it!
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>The old farmer plunged through the open door and
-slammed it shut behind him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>It was pitch black there. He groped and stumbled. His
-knee grazed against a step. He climbed ... then another,
-and another and another, until he was at the head of a steep
-flight of stairs. Then another hallway, and another flight
-of stairs. His hands hit upon something straight and sharp.
-It was a ladder. Up this he went, too, a rung at a time,
-through a narrow hole in the ceiling.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>A gust of wind caught him full in the face. Above him
-were the stars—and he knew that he had reached the roof.
-He crossed it on tiptoe, for fear of the crackle of the tiles
-under foot. A broken down, tumbled chimney stopped him
-at the edge. Clinging to its loosened bricks, he could peer
-down into the street and over the roofs of the houses of the
-neighborhood. On the other side, the lights had died away
-in the palace windows—and all was dark and still. Even
-the startled soldier had disappeared.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He lay down at the bottom of the chimney. Slowly he
-drifted off to sleep, shivering in his dampened clothes, and
-mumbling strange words between his gums.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>All the next day he lay there, dozing in the heat of the
-sun upon the open roof. Every little while he raised himself
-on his elbow to look down into the street. He saw the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>soldiers marching back and forth there, so tiny in size, and
-heard their faint shouts as they halted and searched each
-passerby.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So they were hunting for him, eh? Well, let them hunt!
-He would rest here against the chimney pots until the sun
-had set and the wisp of a new moon had risen ... and
-then! Ah, then for mischief!</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i063.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>
-  <h2 id='ch14' class='c008'>XIV<br /> <br />PETERKIN’S RESCUE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i064.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_45_0_7 c017'>AND meanwhile Peterkin, in the
-dungeon deep, was lying face
-down upon the cold stone floor, trying
-his brave best to shut out
-from his head a thousand wild
-fears and torments which
-did not belong there. What
-if he should stay here in
-this dark cell for all his
-days? What if he should
-never again see the sunlight or hear the rustle of the trees?
-What should he do for food? And for drink?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He rose and walked up and down, up and down, across
-the little floor. He scanned each wall closely. No, there
-was no escape possible. The door was fast shut, and its
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>iron bars firm. And the little window, through which the
-day was fading quickly, was higher, by far, than he could
-reach a-tiptoe. No, no escape!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The sky, through the window, was a little square of red
-now. Slowly it faded and grew dark. In the center of it
-a single star winked into view. Evening had come. And
-Peterkin must spend the night here, where the dew was
-gathering in gray, cobwebby streaks upon the chilly walls.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then softly—as softly as the coming of the dew—there
-was a pitter-patter of light footsteps at the end of the hall.
-Someone was stealing down the mossy steps. Someone was
-approaching. He seized the bars with tightening fingers.
-His breath came fast. Yes, yes, it was——</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The princess!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He could hardly see her in the darkness of the hall. He
-could scarcely recognize the blue of her gown and the glint
-of her golden hair. But he heard the jingle of many keys
-in her hand and the creak of the lock, as she tried each key
-... and failed!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, this one will open it,” she whispered, each time.
-“Oh, this one must!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, at last, she came to the last key in her hand. She
-thrust it into the hole: it fitted perfectly. She turned it—snap!
-The lock flew open. Peterkin hunched his back and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>pushed against the bars. He was in the hall now—and free!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Neither he nor the little princess said a word for a long
-moment. Then she took his hand and placed into it a little
-vial of purple liquid.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i066.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Guard this well,” she warned him. “It is the Water of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>Bounceability. Whenever you wish to leap over great
-heights, you have only to sip a little of it and then to bounce
-high up and away. And, alas, you have many heights to
-leap ere you are back in my royal father’s favor. He is so
-angry at you for having brought his arch-enemy into the
-city that he has ordered your death at midnight. The hangman
-is already plaiting his rope and the carpenters hammering
-at a high scaffold. So follow me quickly to the
-city’s edge, where none will find you.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin was close at her heels, all the dark way.
-Through pitchy tunnels she led him, far under the cellars
-of the city; through narrow cave-like passages, heavy with
-reeking gases, until at last they came up into an open space,
-where the woods came down from the slopes of black hills
-to meet the streets and houses. It was the furthermost edge
-of the city.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I must leave you here,” sighed the princess. “I must
-return and take the spanking which awaits me. But as for
-you, brave Peterkin, you have your choice: either you may
-escape safely into exile and never return to see me again—or
-else you may perform four mighty deeds. Aye, deeds so
-great that even the King, my father, cannot do them. But if
-you succeed in them, you may return here, so high in the
-King’s favor that he will grant your dearest wish. Tell me,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>stranger, which will you choose?” Ah, little princess—I
-wonder if she blushed when she said it!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But Peterkin never wavered. “Need you ask, my Princess
-Clem?” he whispered.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then you must know,” she continued, “that there is a misery
-in each of the Four Kingdoms o’er which my father
-rules. Misery, sorrow and tears. Go, now, to each of these
-Four Kingdoms and make its people happy. Give joy
-instead of sorrow and smiles instead of tears. More than
-this I cannot tell you, but go! You shall see strange things
-and do brave deeds, and I shall be sitting at my palace
-window, under the gilded dome, awaiting your return”——</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, all in a twinkling, the little princess had fled back
-into the tunnel and was gone. Peterkin was alone.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id009'>
-<img src='images/i068.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div id='f069'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f069.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“The whole leap took but a moment”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>
-  <h2 id='ch15' class='c008'>XV<br /> <br />THE WATER OF BOUNCEABILITY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i069.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>PETERKIN turned his
-face at once towards
-the hazy line of hills which
-loomed through the darkness.
-He must escape over
-their crests while night was
-still here. He must take a sip—as
-the Princess Clem had taught him—of
-that purple liquid from the
-little vial in his hand.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Carefully he uncorked the bottle—and
-sniffed. What a
-sweet, fragrant odor! He
-touched his tongue to the
-rim. It was like melted candy—yet the taste of it stung
-like fire. His limbs seemed to twitch and throb at the touch.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>He drew a long breath—and gulped down a gurgling
-mouthful of the Water of Bounceability.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Immediately he knew that he might jump—<i>must</i> jump—jump
-anywhere, up into the sky, where the stars were,
-and over the distant hills. He made a little run, a hop, and
-then—up he went sailing far across the hilltops, down into
-the valley on the other side. The whole leap took but a
-moment: no more time than it takes the fluff of a withered
-dandelion to fly across a lawn.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Yet here he was thirty leagues or more from his starting
-place, in a strange, new valley! He wondered what the
-name of it could be.... It was such a wild and woody-looking
-place. He could not see very much, of course, for
-the stars gave little light, and the moon was but a thin,
-pale crescent. But he saw that all was tangled forests here
-and that wild, thorny heather and tall weeds had spread
-across what should have been clean meadows. An old road
-went across the heath, but it was overgrown with ferns and
-brambles and ditched with great muddy pools as if no one
-mended or repaired it—and no one traveled it. It was all a
-vast desert of waste and decay, hid by the dark of the night.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin knew how useless it would be to try to make
-his way forward before morning. So he lay down under
-the branches of the trees and slept.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>
-<img src='images/i071.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>But early the next day, before the sun was up, Peterkin
-had started on his way. A difficult journey it was, too,
-along the deserted road. There were puddles to wade and
-vines to skip and rocky barriers to climb. There were ruts
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>where the leaves of the past autumn had buried themselves
-in a soggy mass or where the summer dust had sifted into
-foolish heaps. There were trunks of fallen trees across the
-road, and lizards, frogs and hedge-hogs crawled or hopped
-or ran beside them. All was desolate and wild. It was a
-valley of mysterious decay.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, at last, where the road slanted down to meet another
-long stretch of brown heathered fields, Peterkin spied
-a house. A huge, tall house, too, which must have been a
-splendid mansion once upon a time. But now it was
-shabby and needed paint. The bricks of its walls were losing
-their mortar; the slates of the roof were falling to the
-ground; none of the windows had curtains and few of them
-glass. There was moss upon the steps and in the eaves.
-The chimney pots were crumbled, and the lawn was high
-with choking weeds.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin wondered, Could anyone live here?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As if in answer to his question, a little boy came around
-the corner of the house. He came slowly, though he never
-stopped or hesitated a moment when he was within sight of
-Peterkin. He stumbled unsteadily through the weeds, with
-his hands held out before him. His face was handsome,
-truly—but his hair was in a fearful tousle over his eyes and
-his clothes were all in rags.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>“No wonder you can’t see a thing,” laughed Peterkin.
-“Take your hair out of your eyes!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The little boy stopped short at the sound of a voice. He
-nodded his head sadly.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What are eyes?” he asked. “I know I have two of
-them—but what use are they? Won’t you tell me,
-stranger?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Why, silly!” roared Peterkin. “Eyes are to see with!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The little boy smiled more sadly than before. “No,” he
-sighed. “If you can see with your eyes, you are not of this
-valley. For I am blind. And so are my father and my
-mother, and all our neighbors, too. And so is everybody
-in this valley. All of us are blind!”</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id010'>
-<img src='images/i073.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>
-  <h2 id='ch16' class='c008'>XVI<br /> <br />THE VALE OF THE BLIND</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i074.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>THE little boy led Peterkin
-into the house to
-meet his father and mother.
-But they, like the boy, were in
-rags and tatters—and blind!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“You can <i>see</i>?” asked the father
-in wonder, when Peterkin
-had explained whence
-he came. “What does
-it mean to <i>see</i>? Isn’t
-all the world a thing of
-blackness?  Is there
-anything more to it than the dark nothing of the blind?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, yes, indeed!” cried Peterkin, his own eyes filling
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>with tears of pity. “There’s the sunshine and the trees, and
-all the bright flowers of the garden. There are birds of
-bright plumage, and moonbeams on the surface of the water,
-and the smiles on people’s faces. Oh, the world is so
-full of things to see.... I could not tell you all of them.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The mother nodded. “Yes, that is just the way my father’s
-father used to speak,” she said slowly. “It was in his
-youth that this became the Vale of the Blind. Before that,
-it was known in all the Four Kingdoms as the Vale of
-Bright Eyes. But now——” Her voice sank away and
-she sighed.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Tell me the story,” begged Peterkin. “Tell me how this
-great misfortune came upon your grandfathers.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>It was the father who answered him. “Our valley,” he
-began, “was the happiest-hearted of all hereabouts fifty
-years ago. These things you speak of—these colors and sunshine
-which we do not know—were here in smiling plenty.
-The fields were neat and trim with golden grain. The pastures
-were like new-swept velvet, clean and green. The
-roads were smooth and bright. The houses were all handsome,
-with pretty lawns and gardens. Men wore fine
-clothes and took pride in themselves and in one another.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But one day, there came into our Valley of Bright Eyes
-a haggard stranger. He was the saddest being that e’er
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>trudged down over the boundary hills, my grandfather used
-to tell me. He wept, the whole day long, because he had
-no teeth. Think of it! he could not be happy for want of
-a set of teeth!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Now, all their happiness had made my grandparents
-and their neighbors a kind, soft-hearted lot. No sooner did
-they see this man—who said he was a farmer—than they
-took pity on him. They fed him with porridge and honey—for
-they knew he could not eat what must be chewed—and
-they gave him a bed of fragrant blossoms to lie on when
-the night came.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But he would not sleep, at once. He got up every little
-while to ask them: ‘And are you sure this Valley of Bright
-Eyes is one of the Four Kingdoms, hey? Are you sure
-that the King of the Four Kingdoms is its ruler, hey?’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Every time they told him ‘Yes’ he would chuckle and
-mumble strange words through his toothless gums. In
-the middle of the night, he arose and looked out across the
-moonlit fields, where the grain was rich, and down the
-gleaming road, where the handsome houses stood in sleeping
-order. He laughed aloud, this time, the story goes.
-Then he strode out into the road and ran and ran—faster
-than ever a man had run before.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i077.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘I seek a set of teeth!’ he screamed as he ran. Up flew
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>the windows, all the good folk roused from bed, rushing to
-see who could possibly be making such a racket. All along
-his way the people stared at him. They saw him take a
-torch from out of his pocket. They watched him set it
-aflame. They saw him touch it, hot and sputtering, to the
-tops of the fields of grain, to the hedges and trees.... <i>He</i>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span><i>was setting fire to their valley!</i> They rushed down, seized
-him, and stamped out the fearful blaze in just the nick of
-time.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“As for the toothless villain, he screamed with merry
-laughter when they caught him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Hee, hee, my Bright Eyes!’ he cried. ‘You have been
-spying on me all this while, eh? Your eyes are too bright.
-You have been watching my revenge upon my enemy, the
-King! Too bright, too bright! From now you shall be
-blind—fast blind—you and your wives and your sons and
-daughters and your neighbors. From the Vale of Bright
-Eyes you shall now become the Vale of the Blind. And
-yours shall henceforth be a valley of ruin and decay. Blind,
-blind—and never again shall you see the gold of the day
-or the silver of the moon until I come to give you back your
-eyes—your bright eyes—hee, hee, hee!’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And thus he fled from us. For the dark of the blind
-had come over the valley many years ago ... and there is
-nothing left for us but tears.”</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>
-  <h2 id='ch17' class='c008'>XVII<br /> <br />PETERKIN PROMISES</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i079.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_7 c017'>“AND so our valley has
-gone to rack and
-ruin,” concluded the blind
-man.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin was silent for
-some minutes after he had finished. Then he shook his head
-wisely, sadly.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Can you wait four days until I rescue you?” he asked.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Four days?” The man, his wife and little son all burst
-into a bitter laughter. “We have waited for half a century
-already. We can wait a century, if only in the end we gain
-our eyes again, and win revenge upon our toothless enemy.
-Four days, ho, ho!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>“You shall have both your eyes and your revenge,” promised
-the stranger. “It was only three days ago that I sped
-through the air in the cup of a sea-shell, in company with
-this toothless farmer. Oh, if I had only known, then!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What? In his company? Are you a friend of his?”
-The blind family rushed in about him, as if to capture him
-and flay him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“No, no,” smiled Peterkin. “Not a friend at all. He
-tried to throw me hundreds of feet down to the ground.
-But he disappeared—and I do not know where he is. But
-I shall search the whole world over till I find him. And
-then—woe to him!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So saying, he put his hand on the blind man’s shoulder
-and bade them all good-by. They gave him a few wild
-herbs to put into his blouse for luncheon—it was all they
-had for food. And then he went on his way, singing all
-sorts of promises to them as he went on down the hill.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As he walked along the shabby road, he came to other
-houses, broken down and unpainted, all tangled in high
-weeds and matted vines. Each house was poorer than the
-last; each one more deserted than the other. And from each
-of them trooped little groups of blind folk, groping in darkness,
-to question him and to complain to him of their hard
-fate. All along his way he met the sight of their tears and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>heard the sound of their weeping. But wherever he went,
-Peterkin gave the same promise of happiness within four
-days and left a smile of hope behind him.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i081.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>At length he came to the last house of the valley. It was
-high on the slope of one of the boundary mountains, almost
-at the edge of the gleaming white glacier of the summit. It
-was fast in the shadow of a huge, bluish ice cave, and long
-icicles dripped from its eaves and glittered like jewels in
-the sunshine.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>“And are you, too, blind?” he asked of the man who lived
-in this high house.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Yes,” replied the old man, sorrowfully. “I am no better
-than all the others in this valley, no matter how high I live
-above them. I, like them, am awaiting the rescuer who shall
-return my sight and bring revenge upon our toothless
-enemy.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“That is just what you shall have,” promised Peterkin, “if
-only you tell me what is in the next valley, on the other side
-of the white mountains; and how I may reach there the
-best.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Alas,” sighed the old fellow, “those are two riddles
-which I cannot answer. I only know that in that valley
-beyond the ridge of the boundary, there is just as much sorrow
-as there is here. There is something wrong there—though
-I have never known what it is—and the great barrier
-of glacier ice has hedged us from each other. So come and
-rest here for to-day, and to-morrow, bright and early, you
-may come upon some scheme to cross into that unknown
-valley over the mountains.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So Peterkin took shelter there, in the green shadows of the
-ice cave, and slept a troubled sleep until the morning.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div id='f083'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f083.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“A young peasant girl came toward him”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>
-  <h2 id='ch18' class='c008'>XVIII<br /> <br />THE VALLEY OF SILENCE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i083.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_7 c017'>AS soon as dawn was
-over the glacier the
-next day, Peterkin was on
-his feet and sipping a good
-gulp from his flask of the
-Water of Bounceability.
-You see, he dreamed about
-this magic gift of the princess’s
-as he lay a-sleeping ...
-and really, what an
-easy thing it was to
-cross the boundary
-mountains, now!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Just one little swallow—and then a hop, skip and jump!
-Up, up and over! Over the tree-tops, over the glacier
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>itself ... then down into the valley on the other side.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As he floated to the earth there, a strange hush seemed
-to fall on him. It was the quiet sense of absolute stillness.
-He walked forward a little way, then stopped in bewilderment.
-Not a sound—not a whisper of anything. He
-could not hear even the crunch of his feet upon the greensward.
-He called out, but somehow his voice sank away
-into nothing. The trees rustled silently; a great, frothing
-brook went tumbling down through a bit of woods without
-a murmur. All was quiet.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>A young peasant girl came toward him, leading a horse
-across the fields—but Peterkin could hear neither the patter
-of her feet nor the hoof-beats of the horse.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What ho!” cried he, “I must have gone suddenly deaf!
-I can’t even hear myself speaking. Here, girl, tell me
-what’s wrong with my ears?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The peasant maid halted her horse; she looked at Peterkin
-with startled wonder. Her gaze settled on his moving
-mouth—and her eyes grew larger and larger with surprise.
-Suddenly she snatched a little twig from the branch of a
-nearby tree, stripped it and commenced to trace queer letters
-with it in the dust of the road.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Phew!” thought Peterkin. “She must be deaf herself.
-It’s a good thing I went to school and learned to read and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>write!” Then he looked down at what the little girl had
-traced upon the road—and this is what he read:</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i085.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What are you eating?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin laughed a
-noiseless laugh. Then
-he snatched the twig
-from her and wrote in
-reply:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Nothing.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then what makes
-you move your mouth
-so queer?” she asked
-in writing.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I’m talking,” he scribbled back.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What does talking mean? That’s a word we know
-nothing about in this valley.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then how do you understand one another? And why
-don’t you make words with your mouth?” he traced.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We write to each other—like this. There would be no
-use in talking like you do. We are all deaf.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“All of you?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Yes, everybody in the valley.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, then this is a valley of silence,” wrote Peterkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Silence? What is silence?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>“Why, silence is when there is no noise.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What is noise?” she scrawled.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Poor Peterkin had to give it up after that. He tried to
-describe to her what the wind was like when it roared in
-wintry weather—or how the birds sing at evening in the
-woods—or how men can understand each other’s smiles and
-scowls by simple noises which they make with their mouths.
-But she only shrugged her shoulders and sighed. At any
-rate, Peterkin thought it was a sigh—but he could not
-hear it.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So he marched along at her side in strange silence, making
-no noise and hearing none, until they came into the
-center of a little village.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id011'>
-<img src='images/i086.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>
-  <h2 id='ch19' class='c008'>XIX<br /> <br />EARS TOO SHARP</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i087.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>THERE, in the silent
-village, they found
-a group of old men nodding
-on a bench in the warm sunlight.
-Across the brook a big mill wheel was turning; but
-it made no roar or clatter. A cart went by, but there was no
-rumble to its wheels. Down the street a blacksmith was
-hammering at his ruddy forge; but there was no clang or
-clatter to keep noisy company to the flying sparks. All was
-silence—dreary, unbroken silence.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The old men stirred when Peterkin approached. They
-knew him for a stranger. They rose and made a place for
-him beside them on the bench. Then one of them took a
-piece of white chalk from his vest pocket, turned to the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>brick wall behind him and began to write. The words he
-wrote were so many that, before he was through, he had
-covered the wall from top to bottom with this sad and mysterious
-tale:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Once,” he wrote, “this was the Valley of the Rippling
-Brooks. All were happy here, then. It was in my youth,
-I remember, when in our ears there ran the murmur of a
-hundred gleaming, merry brooks that cross the woods and
-fields and tumble from the hills in frothy white. The music
-of our laughter was like the music of these brooks—never
-slowing, never saddening. We were the happiest of all the
-Four Kingdoms.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then, one spring day, when the brooks were swollen
-and roaring with gladness, there came into our midst, from
-I don’t know where, a strange and toothless man. He was
-a farmer, like ourselves, he told us—and he was forever
-muttering low words between his empty gums.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“The toothless villain again!” thought Peterkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We gave him shelter for the night,” continued the old
-man with his writing. “But long before the moon was up,
-he had stolen off to the fields where the brooks were white
-in the darkness—up the steeps to where the waterfalls were
-splashing into quiet pools with a cheery murmur. He
-reached over the low banks, listening greedily to the music
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>of the water. He knelt, bent his face close to the gurgling
-eddies—and began to drink!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We were all in bed by now and most of us asleep. It
-was so easy to fall asleep in those good days, with the murmur
-of the softly playing brooklets in our ears—not at all
-like to-day, when night is a black stretch of silent terror.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i089.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Suddenly, in every household, someone sat up straight
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>in bed. In every household, someone had noticed that the
-sound of the water was growing fainter and fainter. First
-one brook and then another seemed to die down—as if it
-were suddenly drying up!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We rushed out into the village square, across the fields,
-up the hills. The moon came out and showed us, gleaming
-bare, the dry and empty beds of many of our beloved brooks.
-Yes, nothing but dry, pebbled ruts, where no stream trickled
-and no water sang. Where was the villain who had worked
-this trick of tricks?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We found him soon bending down at the edge of one of
-the last of our brooks. He was drinking, drinking, drinking.
-He was sucking the pearly water up, up into his
-puffed cheeks. He struggled to his feet as we surrounded
-him; he brushed the drops from his sagging mouth and
-started to run away. But he was bloated and heavy with
-all the water he had gulped and he could not move. We
-seized him and flung him into the water. He splashed and
-puffed and staggered clumsily, dripping, back into our
-midst. Hate was in his wet face, and his red gums were
-like round, snapping tongs.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘You men of the Rippling Brooks,’ he hissed, ‘your ears
-are far too sharp! Your happiness is all in the ripple of
-water—and I am here to take away that happiness. So if I
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>cannot steal your brooks—why, then, I shall steal your ears!
-From now on, I decree that you, your wives and your children
-and all your neighbors shall be deaf. You shall live
-henceforth in a valley of silence, where not even the whir
-of a wren on wing shall come to your ears. Henceforth,
-all who dwell in this valley shall be deaf—and all who enter
-it shall be deaf, too—until I come again to set you free from
-the spell of utter silence.’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then the moon plunged behind a black cloud. This
-toothless demon disappeared with a terrific burst of thunder.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And that was the last sound that has been heard in this
-valley since he cursed us with silence and sorrow.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id009'>
-<img src='images/i091.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>
-  <h2 id='ch20' class='c008'>XX<br /> <br />THE VALLEY OF DANCING LEGS</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i092.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>PETERKIN’S next move,
-when he had sipped his Water
-of Bounceability and came flying
-across into the next valley,
-was to clap his hands over
-his ears. He had been deaf
-awhile ... and now that
-he could hear again, all the
-thousand noises of the earth
-and air frightened and bewildered
-him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He was wondering what
-was wrong with <i>this</i> valley.
-There must be <i>something</i> wrong with it, of course. And
-he did not have to wait very long before he discovered.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>A group of fat and puffing people jigged into view.
-Hop, hop—what could be the trouble with them? Why,
-they were dancing! Hop, hop—skippetty hop, with never
-a stop—puffing, panting, groaning with weariness, they
-danced a crazy path toward Peterkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Hey, hey, stop!” cried he.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We can’t stop,” grunted the chief of them. “If you want
-to talk to us, you’ll have to dance along.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, before he could help himself, Peterkin had a
-dancing man, locked arms, on either side of him—and
-he was stamping, running, tripping, jigging along with
-them.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, heigh, stop! Let go of me—stop, stop!” he commanded,
-out of breath and red in the face.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“No, that’s just what we can’t do!” sighed the fat old
-chief. “We must dance on and on and on. Our legs are shot
-with pain, our lungs are like hot blasts, our feet are blistered
-and sore—but we cannot stop!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin stumbled and fell flat. His two guides yanked
-him to his feet—then on and on in a breathless dance.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Once,” went on the hoarse and puffing chief, “we were
-the happiest of all the Four Kingdoms. We were just
-plain, sensible, walk-along folk. We loved to rest and doze
-in the heat of the noon. We loved to lie about and let our
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>fields grow of themselves with rich wheat and tasselled corn.
-We were content to take our ease.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then, one lazy noon, there came into our midst—I don’t
-know whence—a toothless man.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i094.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What a villain this toothless enemy must be!” thought
-Peterkin, remembering all that had gone before.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“He was a genial farmer, it seemed to us,” continued
-the breathless chief, as they whirled along the road, uphill,
-downhill, in their ceaseless jig. “He lay down with us in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>the shade of the trees and looked out across our fields and
-sucked his pipe through his toothless gums.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Ah, this is rare comfort!’ he said in a cheery voice.
-‘You seem to be a happy valleyful here.’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Oh, aye,’ I answered him, ‘we love to take our ease.’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Do you love that better than all else?’ he asked me
-slowly.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I stretched my arms in sleepy comfort and nodded back
-with a smile. He looked at me slyly—ah, if I had only
-known what villainy was behind that twinkle in his eye!
-He rose slowly to his feet.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘I shall show you all a pretty dance,’ he said, baring his
-gums. ‘Just lie there in comfort—it will amuse you—yes,
-and give <i>me</i> great pleasure, too!’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then slowly, gently, he began to shuffle his feet. You
-would never have thought that he could be so nimble. In
-and out and round-about he pranced with fancy steps. It
-was so pleasant to be lying there in the cool shade and
-watching.... Then it seemed as if he were inviting us to
-join him. His brawny hands were beckoning; his smile
-said plainly: ‘Up, up—come along up and dance at my
-side.’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“First one and then the other of us struggled to his feet,
-and fell into a merry, jigging step. We laughed at the fun
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>of it—not a laggard in the valley but was dancing with him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We grew breathless and tired. We wanted to stop.
-<i>But we couldn’t!</i> When the toothless man saw this, he
-burst into a cruel roar of laughter:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘You would take your ease, eh?’ he mocked. ‘You
-loved more than all else to loll in the shade, eh? Well,
-henceforth you shall jig and dance from noon till night and
-night till noon in a never-ending wandering. Your ease is
-gone—and so’s your happiness! From now on, until I
-come again to free you, you shall be known as the Valley
-of Dancing Legs. Hee hee!’ and he was gone.”</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id009'>
-<img src='images/i096.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div id='f097'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f097.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“There came floating toward him in midair”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>
-  <h2 id='ch21' class='c008'>XXI<br /> <br />THE VALLEY OF UP-IN-THE-AIR</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i097.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>THE chief of the dancing
-crew had scarcely
-finished his bitter story when
-Peterkin swore to have revenge
-on the toothless enemy—and
-to rescue these poor,
-tired folk in the bargain.
-Then he broke from their
-midst, took a long draught
-from his magic bottle, and
-bounced clear over into the
-next valley.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And the odd part of it was
-that he never touched ground
-there at all. Instead, he was
-caught in a swirl of strong and steady breezes which kept
-him aloft, floating, swimming through the air, high above
-the ground.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Well,” thought Peterkin, amazed, “I wonder if this is
-the fate of everyone in this valley?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>Yes, sure enough, a few moments later, there came floating
-toward him in midair a family of children and parents
-and grandparents. Behind them, in a string, floated feather
-beds and kitchen tables, dishes, parlor chairs and stoves—and
-a hundred and one other things of a household. It was
-a home complete—but all up in the air!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then other families floated past, with little tots in flying
-cradles and gray-haired patriarchs in cushioned easy chairs
-with blankets tucked about them. Wheelbarrows, topsy-turvy
-sheets and pillows, clothes and jugs and mugs and a
-thousand other things in helter-skelter spun along behind
-them in a far-away trail. Everyone, everything was up in
-the air. Aye, even Peterkin!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Who are you? And what are you doing up here?” he
-cried to the father of one of the families which floated past.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I’m Pater Familias,” came the answer, borne upon the
-wind. “And I and my dear ones are up here because we
-can’t be down below, on the ground.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Well, why can’t you?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The Pater Familias steered his whole crew, table, bed and
-pots and pans and all, toward Peterkin. “We owe all our
-misery to——”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What? To the toothless villain?” interrupted Peterkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>The whole family groaned and the pots and pans leaped
-at the mention of this evil person. “Yes, yes, the toothless
-villain—the enemy of the Four Kingdoms!” wept the Pater
-Familias. “If it were not for him, we should now be down
-on the ground where we belong, living most sensible lives
-in our homes ... and not flying from horizon to horizon
-above the tree-tops. We were happiest of the Kingdoms.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/i099.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But one day, when we were folk of the earth, there came
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>flying over our heads this wicked, toothless farmer—anyhow,
-he told us he was a farmer. He came down into our
-midst upon a grassy hill.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Well, what do you love more than all else in this valley?’
-he asked us.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Ho, that’s an easy question!’ we told him. ‘We love to
-keep our feet upon the ground, as all good, sensible people
-should.’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“He thought for a sly moment. ‘But wouldn’t you love
-to fly?’ he asked us. ‘Come, hop up into the air with me—up,
-up, as lightly as the birds on wing. Come, just try it—it’s
-such a delightful sport, this flying!’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then, as if in obedience to his summons, a great breeze
-sprang up from out of nowhere and swept us all off our feet
-and up, up—up to where he was floating. And truly, for
-a few moments, it <i>was</i> delightful sport. But when we
-wanted to return to earth again—why, the farmer was gone—and
-there was no returning! We had been tricked into
-the air and there we must remain, floating, drifting, useless,
-helpless—we and our families and all our neighbors, together
-with our household, tables, beds and rags and tags,
-until this toothless fellow comes again to free us from his
-cruel magic.”</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>
-  <h2 id='ch22' class='c008'>XXII<br /> <br />PETERKIN IN A MUDDLE</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i101.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>“AND so it is the toothless farmer
-who has caused all this misery in
-each of the four valleys,” mused Peterkin,
-as he floated along at the side of
-Pater Familias. “Well,
-here’s my solemn oath on it:
-I shall have revenge on him,
-and force him to substitute
-joy for sorrow in each of
-these stricken kingdoms.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then he bade farewell to
-the People-Up-in-the-Air and floated away on the breath of
-the air—away to the boundaries of their land.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But it was not high mountains and snowy cliffs which
-hemmed this valley from its neighbors. Instead, the land
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>below grew flatter and more yellow. Peterkin passed over
-wide, misty stretches of marsh and bogs; in the distance he
-could hear the faint roar of waves. Yes, he was coming
-to the sea. He was drifting fast toward that golden line of
-sands where the ocean met the land in a jagged, wavering
-line of frothy white.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He must swoop down to earth now—else he might be
-carried out into midwater. He must set foot upon the
-ground! But alas! try as he
-would, he was still in the
-Land of Up-in-the-Air—and
-up in the air he must
-stay!</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i102.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then he thought of his
-precious bottle of the
-Water of Bounceability.
-Perhaps, if he
-took a sip, he might be
-able to break the spell
-and to leap to the marshes below. He would try it.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He took out the bottle and uncorked it. He lifted it to
-his lips and let half of what remained in it gurgle down his
-throat. Then down he dived, head first. Down, down—yes,
-the spell was broken! Down to earth, just where the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>narrow strip of sands met the straggly marshes. He landed
-with a mighty somersault, roly-poly, into the muddy bog.
-He rolled over and over, crashing through the slimy rushes
-and the sand, to where the waves were churning. He was
-sprawling face downward, dizzy and dazed. He staggered
-to his feet, looking about him mournfully.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“All sea and sand and dreary marsh,” he sighed. “Over
-there, lost in the blue of the sea, must be the city whence I
-set out—the city of Princess Clem. Well, I shall have to
-finish my bottle of Water of Bounceability now—and fly in
-that direction.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So he groped in his pockets for the bottle. But oh, the
-saddest of all things had happened now! He found the
-bottle broken—and the water all spilled and wasted!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Aye, his fall had smashed the precious vial—and there
-was no more of the magic liquid left to carry him home!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>What now? Peterkin looked mournfully out across the
-blue sea, towards where the city of the palace and the Princess
-Clem must lie; then he looked back across the marsh,
-where poisonous mists were gathering in low, curling
-clouds; he searched the shore in vain for the trace of anything
-or anybody.... No, he was alone and helpless!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Ah, well, he did not know the great surprise which was
-in store for him!</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>
-  <h2 id='ch23' class='c008'>XXIII<br /> <br />THE LOST PUMPERKIN</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i104.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>AND what do you
-think that surprise
-was?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The Pumperkin! Yes,
-his old, long-lost Pumperkin!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin caught his first,
-golden glimpse of it as it
-came up over the distant
-horizon. It was floating in on the tide from the far mid-ocean.
-It was dipping slowly, peacefully from one rippling
-wave to the next; it came up to the shore at last, bobbing
-in the surf, then pitching down with a last lurch into
-the soggy marsh.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>Peterkin ran to it. Yes, there could be no doubt—it was
-his beloved Pumperkin, his old home—his boat-house of a
-pumpkin which had been torn away from him by the tempest
-wind.... He scaled up the side and peeked in
-through the ceiling window. Yes, all was as he had left it.
-There was his tumbled bed in the corner, there were the
-chairs, legs up. And there, sure enough, was his ladder,
-with its top peeping up above the edge of the roof. All that
-was missing was the cook-stove.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin climbed over the edge and down the ladder.
-He was safe now. He was hopeful and happy. He had
-only to push and shove a little bit and—away, away he went,
-bound for the home of his Princess Clem!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>How good it seemed to be in his pumpkin house again!
-He wondered how many seas it had passed over, whither
-it had wandered, where it would lead him now. For, of
-course, there was no such a thing as steering these roly-poly
-pumpkins: wherever it floated, Peterkin must float along!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Away it sailed, over the waves, in the clutch of the lazy
-tide. Away, until the marshes and the golden strand were
-lost in a hazy mist. Up one wave and down the next, with
-the spray dashing in through the ceiling window. How
-like the first few days it all was—those first few days of the
-marvellous adventures. Peterkin smiled to think of them,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>and of how many wonderful things had happened to him
-since first his house was torn from his stem in the pumpkin
-patch.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i106.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>And now he was on his way to the most thrilling adventure
-of them all. He was bound for the city from which he
-had been banished; he was returning either to his happiness
-or to his death. As he looked out across the waves, he
-wondered how it would all
-end; was he going to find
-that toothless old villain?
-Was he going to bring back
-joy into the Four Kingdoms,
-and a smile to the lips of
-their monarch? Was he
-going to win the hand of
-the gracious Princess Clem?
-Or, after all, would the whole search and struggle end with
-his being captured and put to death? Or with the toothless
-villain murdering him? Well, he swore he should put up
-a hard fight.... For he knew a way to bring this cruel
-enemy to his knees. At least, he thought he did!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So he sat and thought it all out, while his pumpkin boat
-sailed closer and closer to the other shore. Do you know
-what was on that shore?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>Why, a city, of course! The very city for which our
-Peterkin so dearly yearned. The city of the golden palace—and
-of the Princess Clem!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And the city where he would find the toothless farmer!
-Perhaps Peterkin guessed that much ... for his cheeks
-grew a little white as he watched the distant spires and
-golden dome, all agleam in the sunset.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id009'>
-<img src='images/i107.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>
-  <h2 id='ch24' class='c008'>XXIV<br /> <br />OUT OF HIDING</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i108.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>NOW we must return
-to the toothless old
-villain. Do you remember,
-we left him dozing snugly
-in his hiding place atop the
-roof of a deserted house?
-He was waiting for the gray dusk, when he might steal out
-upon his wicked business. Perhaps it was the King himself
-he wished to harm, this visit—but I can’t be positive of that.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Anyhow, when night had come and the streets were bare
-again of people and little dim lanterns were swinging in the
-shadows of the balconies, the old wizard crept down the
-stairs again, into the black vestibule. Then out he darted—out
-into the street.</p>
-
-<div id='f108'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f108.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“The windows in the palace were gleaming”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>The windows in the palace, across the narrow street, were
-gleaming with bright cheer and threw big yellow squares
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>of light across the cobbled gutters. The old villain, when
-he stood a-tiptoe, could see the gilded walls and the jeweled
-ceilings. He caught just a glimpse of a corner of the
-throne itself, all in a glory of precious stones and carvings.
-And once he thought he could make out the shadow of a
-man all decked in royal robes—and a crown on his head.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The wizard trembled and growled at this sight of his ancient
-enemy. He raised his crooked finger threateningly
-in the dark and snarled a terrible oath. Then he sped on,
-up one gloomy, lonely alley and down the other, across wide
-boulevards and empty squares, dodging into the shadows at
-every sudden creak of a shutter or rustle of a tree. Once a
-company of soldiers marched past him—left, right, left,
-right, with weary, lagging steps. He had just time to slink
-out of their way and flee into a little court-yard, darker than
-the cloudy sky—blacker than black itself. He could see
-nothing here. He groped, he stumbled, he felt his way
-warily. Just ahead of him he heard a strange gurgling of
-water, low and soft, as if from a distance. He stopped short,
-bewildered.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then it seemed as if the tramp of those soldiers from
-whom he was fleeing was growing louder—that they were
-coming nearer and nearer. Had they discovered his whereabouts?
-Were they chasing him now?</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>
-<img src='images/i110.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>He could not keep his toothless gums from chattering.
-In fear he rushed forward in the darkness. A couple of
-wild steps and—down he went! Down through a great
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>sewer hole! Down, down, below the street, into the rushing,
-roaring water which was sweeping through the great
-brick tube of the underground sewer!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Whiz! What a roar! Whiz! What a rush and dash
-and smother of gurgling, thundering water! The old magician
-was swept swiftly along with the stream. He sank,
-rose again, coughed, sputtered, sank again. Then, as he
-rose a second time, he took a long breath and lay quite still.
-Yes, he was floating! He would not drown here, anyhow!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As he sped along, lying on his back atop the rushing
-water, with his gums tight shut and his eyes wide open to
-the dark, he wondered where he was floating. Where was
-this water rushing? Where did the great sewer end?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, of a sudden, the roar of the water grew louder than
-ever. He shot out, out into space—and then down, down,
-into the gushing spray of a waterfall. Then down, deep
-down, under the surface—and up again. He beat his hands
-frantically about in the churning froth. He shook the
-water from his eyes. Where had the great tube emptied
-him? Where was he?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Why, in the sea, to be sure—in the sea!</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>
-  <h2 id='ch25' class='c008'>XXV<br /> <br />A PRECIOUS PRISONER</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i112.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>IT was late in the night when
-Peterkin’s pumpkin boat
-came riding into the city’s
-calm harbor. The reflections
-of the stars which had
-winked up into the sky were
-dotting the black water with
-melted gold. Red and
-green lights from the prows
-of sleeping boats and piers lay glowing in the easy tide.
-Not a sound—excepting the soft slap of little waves along
-the bottom of the drifting Pumperkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin, as he stood on his ladder’s top rung, looked out
-across the harbor toward the huddled houses, gray and looming,
-with dim lit window panes blinking through the dark.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>Over the roofs he could make out the form of the huge
-dome of the palace—and he knew that there was the room
-of his princess. Aye, there was Princess Clem!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Could she be asleep? The hour was so late ... perhaps
-her nurse had tucked her, long ago, into her warm and
-comfy bed. But, no—oh, no! For, suddenly, he caught
-the gleam of a little light from the window just below the
-dome. Yes, he was sure it was from the princess’s window.
-She must be yet awake. She must still be watching—be
-waiting—for his return, as she promised she would do, and
-his heart gave a great throb for joy.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>His Pumperkin drifted slowly in toward the shore. He
-heard a strange roaring, angry and deep. It was the rush
-of water he knew; perhaps some sewer, speeding its underground
-course and emptying itself, at the last, into the
-sea.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>In the midst of the rumble of water, he thought he heard
-a short splash; something dark went down in the white froth
-of the water, then rose to the surface near his boat—then
-sank and rose again not an arm’s length away. Peterkin
-peered over the edge to see what it was. He gasped and
-almost shrieked; it was a man! He reached down, made
-a wild grab at the floating jacket—pulled, tugged, hoisted—ouf!
-and he had the drowning one inside his Pumperkin.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>He gazed down into the face of the rescued. A loud cry
-escaped him. It was the Toothless Farmer!</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i114.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Yes, the toothless old villain—the arch-enemy whom he
-had set out to find! And you and I know how it happened
-that this old farmer came to be plunging into the sea so
-suddenly and without warning.... But Peterkin didn’t!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The toothless one had an unlucky time of it, didn’t he?
-For here he was in the very clutches of the hero—at the
-mercy of Peterkin, whom he had played so false—Peterkin,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>who had resolved revenge upon him for all the wrongs he
-had done in the Four Kingdoms!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>No sooner did he open his eyes than he saw heroic Peterkin
-above him, fists clenched and anger in his eyes.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ow, ow,” chattered he, his red gums bobbing with fear
-and chill, “don’t threaten me! Why do you clinch your
-fists at me, eh? I’ve never met you before, have I?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin laughed scornfully. “What a lie! Don’t you
-remember who it was who brought you into these Four
-Kingdoms, not so long ago, astride of a flying shell? Don’t
-you remember whom you tried to fling off, down to a crashing
-death? What! don’t remember me?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The old man grew green with fright. He wrung his
-thin, crooked fingers. “I—I thought—I thought you were
-dead,” he moaned. “I didn’t dream of your escaping death
-... dear, oh dear, I suppose you’ll kill me now, eh? Well,
-just let me tell you my story, first—oh, please, let me tell it—please,
-please, please!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And, of course, who could resist such pleading? Certainly
-not Peterkin, who folded his arms sternly and waited
-for the end of the tale.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>
-  <h2 id='ch26' class='c008'>XXVI<br /> <br />THE VILLAIN’S STORY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i116.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>“ONCE,” began the old
-villain, “I was as
-young and as happy-hearted
-as you are, stranger. For
-I was handsome, rich and
-powerful. I was noble—aye,
-more than noble—for
-I was a prince of the
-court of the Four
-Kingdoms. I was the
-son of the King’s older
-brother—and some
-said that I, not he, should be the king upon the jeweled
-throne.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“This thought was like a flame to me. It burned and flared
-within my mind in jealous heat; I came to wish for my royal
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>cousin’s death, so that I might succeed him to the honor of all
-honors of the kingdoms. I took a secret oath that ere I grew
-much older, I should murder him. Hee, hee, that’s the extraordinary
-sort of a villain I was!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But I had one thing of which I was more proud than all
-the world: my set of teeth! A set of white, sharp, glistening
-teeth! They were more splendid than the teeth of any
-other nobleman at court. They were finer even than the
-King’s own teeth. They were my constant pride, my dearest
-joy! With them I could eat all the rarest things of the
-kitchen. I could chew tin pans and pots; I could crumple
-pewter kettles; I could crunch thick venison steaks and the
-horns of a full grown cow. My teeth were my greatest
-power—and my joy!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But all the while my heart was black against my royal
-cousin. I coveted his crown, I longed for his scepter. My
-jealousy grew until I could hide it no longer. I made a
-journey into a far distant forest, where a famous witch lived
-in her cave. And there I dwelt for many months, learning
-all her wicked magic. She taught me how to curse whole
-valleys of people—how to bring sorrow to hundreds. But
-alas! she could not teach me how to kill my royal cousin.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘When shall I be King?’ I asked her each morning.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And every eve, after a day of pondering over her caldron,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>she would answer: ‘When you have learned to kill
-man with the joy of your life’</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/i118.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Then at last I understood. What could possibly be the
-joy of my life excepting these, my beautiful teeth? I must
-return and <i>bite</i> my royal cousin to death!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>“I hurried back to the Four Kingdoms. I met the King
-in his gilded dining hall. Before his host of cowardly
-courtiers, I threw myself upon him and sought to bury my
-teeth into his breast.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But ah, under his velvet robes, he was wearing a coat of
-strong steel links. My teeth crunched against them—and
-could go no further. I fell back dismayed. A hundred
-men—courtiers and guards—were upon me, pinning me to
-the marble floor.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘Take him away!’ cried the King, my enemy. ‘Take
-him away, and pull out all his teeth!’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And one by one, in the dark dungeon, they pulled out
-of my gums the joy of my life—my white, my sharp, my glistening
-teeth. Think of it! Think of the pain, of the deep
-shame!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But I swore a deep revenge, and when I was banished,
-I went to live as a simple farmer in that neighboring valley
-where first you beheld me. I have spent all the rest of my
-toothless, joyless days in taking terrible revenge upon this
-cousin King—this royal wretch who stole my proud possessions.
-I have brought sorrow into each of his Four
-Kingdoms, and I shall kill him—him and his pretty daughter,
-Princess Clem! Hee, hee!” He gave an evil chuckle
-and gnashed his gums in hate.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>Peterkin shuddered. “And is there nothing will satisfy
-you?” he pleaded.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Yes!” snapped the old man. “A new set of teeth!
-Teeth as white and sharp and glistening as the set they
-robbed me of. A new set of teeth—or else revenge!”</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id011'>
-<img src='images/i120.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div id='f121'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f121.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“She strained her eyes to watch the distant harbor”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>
-  <h2 id='ch27' class='c008'>XXVII<br /> <br />IN THE CITY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i121.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>WHILE the
-toothless villain
-was finishing his
-cruel story, the dawn
-began to flicker in the
-eastern sky. And, beyond
-the gray piers,
-in the houses of the
-city, the early risers
-were already up and
-stirring. Thin wisps of smoke commenced to float up out
-of the houses’ chimneys to prove that cooks and housewives
-were already at their ovens.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The dome of the palace was beginning to flash with the
-first rays of the sun. Just beneath it, the curtains of the
-little princess’s window were flapping strangely. It almost
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>seemed as if she were standing behind them and peeking out
-upon the city’s roofs, as far as the harbor beyond.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Aye—and so she was! With her fair curls tumbling to
-the clean, sweet morning breeze and her little white nightie
-fluttering softly, she strained her eyes to watch the distant
-harbor. Perhaps she saw something strange there—something
-she had never seen before in all the Four Kingdoms.
-Perhaps she had guessed it was the Pumperkin—and that in
-its big yellow cup her wandering lover had drifted home
-again, in triumph and in glee.</p>
-
-<hr class='c021' />
-
-<p class='c018'>Of course, her nurse was very shocked to find a royal
-princess with her head far out of the window; but Princess
-Clem never bothered to explain. She laughed and she
-laughed all the while her many maids were dressing her—and
-indeed they had not seen her in so happy a mood for
-many a weary week.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Put on my prettiest gown,” she bade them. “Dress me
-in my gown of pale blue silk—the one on which white lilies
-are embroidered, tall and shimmering. And run blue ribbons
-through my golden braids—ribbons as blue as my eyes,
-and deck them with pearls as white as my teeth.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>At that the nurse looked shocked and horrified. “Oh,
-hush, Royal Highness,” whispered she. “Have you forgotten
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>no one must mention that last word in this domain?
-Teeth are never spoken of here—<i>teeth</i> is a banished word!
-And all because of that wicked villain——”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i123.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ha, ha,” broke in the princess gayly, “lots of good
-things are banished from this land—and lots of good
-heroes, too! But they always come sailing home again at
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>the end of a hero’s task.... And as for that villain, he’ll
-soon be one no longer, mark my words.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And mark her words they did, although they did not understand
-one of them. Yet, inasmuch as she was a Princess
-Royal, they dared not argue with her.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>After this came breakfast in the great gilded dining hall,
-in her chair at the side of the throne, where Princess Clem
-must peel her father’s orange and break his egg and—oh,
-do everything a daughter ought to do, no matter whether
-she be a king’s or a beggar’s child. But this morning she
-did it all with such a strangely happy smile—and all in such
-a furious, giggling hurry....</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Bless my soul,” declared His Majesty, tilting one eyebrow
-up to meet his crown, “it would almost seem as if my
-little daughter had found a sweetheart, eh? Her smile is
-so bright—why, I’ll wager my crown she’s in love! Ho!
-I shall have to look into this.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But he did not have to! For, before he had swallowed
-another mouthful, he knew the whole story!</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>
-  <h2 id='ch28' class='c008'>XXVIII<br /> <br />HOW PETERKIN TRICKED THEM ALL</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i125.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_5_0_7 c017'>AYE, he knew the whole
-story, did His Majesty.
-For enter at that very moment a
-dusty, breathless messenger—a
-sailor from the wharves
-which fronted on the harbor.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“A ship—a strange ship is in the port, Your Majesty!”
-he cried, as he knelt at the side of the table. “A ship more
-strange than any we have ever seen. A ship entirely round,
-with neither prow nor stern nor sails nor flag—a ship of
-golden brown, and the very shape and color of a huge garden
-pumpkin!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then the King remembered the famous story which Peterkin
-had told him weeks ago and he knew who had dared
-to come back to his city in spite of the order of exile.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>“What?” bellowed His Majesty, his face growing purple
-with rage. “This bold adventurer, this scalawag Peterkin,
-back in our midst? Come sailing back in that pumpkin
-boat of his, eh? Well, he shall suffer for it, I promise you.
-He shall be caught and clapped back into the dungeon cell
-from which he so mysteriously escaped.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>At that, the little princess, at his side, blushed a very rosy
-blush and hung her head, so that they could not see her tears.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“I swore death to this fellow, if ever he came again into
-my power,” hissed the King. “And death it shall be! Ho,
-my trusty guards! Arm yourselves with ropes and heavy
-chains and run to the harbor, in search of the lost prisoner.
-We shall have to give him a taste of death, death, death!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Whereupon all the soldiers, all the courtiers, all the
-nobles of the land, armed themselves, clattering, growling,
-thundering. And down to the wharves of the harbor they
-swept, leaving the gilded dining room deserted. Even the
-King himself left his half eaten eggs, and forgot to clap the
-cover on his dish of honey—and ran off, with his crown toppling
-over one ear and his royal robes dragging in the mud,
-all the way from the palace door to the planks of the piers.
-Only the little Princess Clem was left, in terror and in tears.
-She wept, poor thing—and made a sorry mixture of her
-tears in a pitcher of cream.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>Out from the shore, in a hundred boats, dashed the King
-and his cohorts. Out and around they spun, circling the
-peaceful pumpkin. Then closer and closer—and always
-pushing closer.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i127.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Heigh, wretch!” cried the King, who stood, straight and
-tall, in the bow of the royal barge. “You are captured and
-you cannot escape. You are surrounded by a thousand
-warriors, all armed with ropes and heavy chains. You are
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>a prisoner again, and death shall be your punishment!
-Rush in, brave boatmen, and seize this dog of a Peterkin!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So in sped the boats, crashing against the sides of the poor
-Pumperkin. Then up with ladders—up with the men,
-climbing the steep, bulging sides of Peterkin’s house.
-Then, one peek through the ceiling window and—what a
-cry went up!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><i>For Peterkin was gone!</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Nothing could be found of him, no matter how hard they
-searched—in every nook, behind the chairs, under the bed
-and everywhere. He was gone!</p>
-
-<hr class='c021' />
-
-<p class='c018'>And only you and I shall know the secret of where he
-disappeared. For when the dawn was breaking, Peterkin
-had seized his old companion by the shoulders and had
-whispered into his hairy ear:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Come, you shall have that set of teeth you crave. You
-shall have the whitest teeth in all the world, if only you do
-as I order. But if you do not, I shall have to punish you
-as all wicked villains must be punished. So take your
-choice, my toothless enemy. Will you do as I desire?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>To be sure, the ugly old man could only mumble a consent
-through his red gums. Whereupon Peterkin leaped
-upon his shoulders and cried:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>“Fly first with me to the Valley of the Blind!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And away they flew, leaving the Pumperkin just as the
-King and his cohorts found it: empty and alone.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id009'>
-<img src='images/i129.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>
-  <h2 id='ch29' class='c008'>XXIX<br /> <br />PETERKIN BRINGS JOY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i130.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>I’M not sure what the old villain
-thought of the scheme of flying
-to the Valley of the Blind—but he
-dared not disobey. For
-Peterkin’s grip was firm
-upon his shoulders—and
-Peterkin’s breath was hot
-against his cheek.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So over the mountains
-they flew, into the tumble-down,
-joyless valley of darkness—the valley where the
-toothless villain had stricken each innocent one with blindness.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>There, across the neglected road, at the edge of the wild
-grown heath, they found the sorrowful family of those who
-first had told the tale of woe to Peterkin. Their clothes
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>were more wretched than ever; their house was crumbling
-to the point of falling apart. And they wept bitterly when
-they heard Peterkin’s voice again.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i131.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But cheerily ho!” laughed Peterkin. “For I have
-brought you another stranger—well, not exactly a stranger,
-either. For, like me, he came to visit you once before. He
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>brought you sorrow then—but this time he is sworn to bring
-you joy. When once you have eyes to see him——”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>They rushed about in a close circle, surrounding the spot
-whence came to them the sound of Peterkin’s voice. “Who
-is he? What is his name?” they demanded in a stormy
-chorus.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“He is known as the toothless farmer——”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>At that, the hubbub swelled to a tempest of curses and
-wailing. The old villain had scarcely time to fall to his
-knees when the avenging blind men, groping in the dark,
-clutched him, plucked at his clothes, at his hair, at his eyes.
-Peterkin alone could save him from their vengeance. He
-screamed aloud, as he tore them from their prey.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“He has come to give you back your eyes! From now
-on you will see! Aye, see everything—the sunlight and the
-summer night sky, the fields, the smiles upon your little children’s
-faces. Oh, do not touch him lest he keep not to his
-promise!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Therewith the blind folk fell back, waiting in a hushed
-and nervous circle. “Aye, we shall not touch him,” they
-promised.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then the old villain, trembling and repentant, made a
-hurried sign in the air—a mystic, magic sign—and the sunlight
-streamed into the eyes of all the valley folk. Everyone
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>could see! Yes, could see each other—could see the
-rags in which they were dressed, the ruins of the houses,
-the wild heaths, the broken, rutted roads—and planned at
-once to build anew a happy valley. Their eyes were returned—and
-so should their laughter. Henceforth, the
-years of misery and darkness should be forgotten—and
-theirs should be what, long years before, it had been: The
-Valley of Bright Eyes!</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i133.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Thus was the first errand done—and Peterkin smiled to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>think of what an easy, happy one it had been. And now
-they must go on, over the mountain boundaries, from one
-valley to the other, bringing the same gift of happiness and
-hope.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Come,” he whispered to the toothless villain, “you and
-I are not through yet. Now, don’t look cross and think of
-rebelling—for you are in my power, and there is no escape
-for you, unless you will obey my every order as nobly as
-you have this first one. Besides, think of those brand-new
-teeth which you shall have as a reward!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Even this was not enough to persuade the old man to go
-along peacefully; he sulked and gnashed his red gums and
-tried all sorts of magic tricks, but all in vain. For Peterkin’s
-life was a charmed one, now that he had the love of a
-Princess Royal to guard him!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And, at last, when the old fellow saw that the people of
-the Valley of Bright Eyes were glancing at him angrily, as
-if they meant to lose their tempers after all, he took Peterkin
-upon his shoulders and flew dutifully away with him, over
-the boundary mountains.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='f135'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f135.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“He jumped upon his shoulders”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>
-  <h2 id='ch30' class='c008'>XXX<br /> <br />VALLEY TO VALLEY</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i135.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>IT was the Valley of the Deaf they
-came to next. And presto! by a twitch
-of his lean fingers and a mumbling of strange words, the
-old man had given back the hearing to each of its people.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>What joy was theirs, now! For they could hear the song
-of the birds and the chatter of their own glad voices and—oh,
-yes! the laughter of the thousand brooks, which once
-had played so great a part in their sad history. But all that
-was over now, and they had only smiles and thanks for
-Peterkin and forgiveness for the toothless villain who had
-done them so much wrong.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>They were all listening to the chirp of a little sparrow’s
-young, high in the nest, when Peterkin and his captive flew
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>away. Peterkin looked back a moment, to watch the joyous
-smiles upon their faces—and he, too, was happy in their
-new-found happiness.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And so he and his companion came to the Valley of
-Dancing Legs, where all the folk were racing hither, thither,
-everywhere, and all about, in weary, dreary, jigging,
-jogging flocks. Uphill, downhill, over fields and woods
-they went, never halting, never resting—on, on, lungs almost
-bursting and legs ready to drop off with weariness.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Halt!” cried the toothless one. And then, with a moment
-or two of whispering and winking, he brought them
-all to a happy halt. Poor folk! It was the first rest they
-had had for so many years! They fell down, each of them,
-panting, groaning, utterly motionless. Ah, they would be
-happy now! Already, as their legs grew rested, they
-seemed to be smiling more peacefully.... Peterkin and
-his companion might go forward now into the next and last
-valley. For all would be joy in this one from this time
-forth.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So on they flew, these rescuing two, to the Valley of Up-in-the-Air.
-And only a few mystic symbols and commands,
-when down came all those floating, flying people, down to
-the ground they loved! And down came their beds, their
-chairs and tables after them—and all was set to rights!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>Thus, in all the Four Kingdoms did happiness succeed
-grim sorrow and smiles broke through the tears. Thus was
-the whole domain made joyful through the brave work of
-the little stranger, Peterkin!</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i137.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>“Where now?” cried the old villain, rubbing his sore
-shoulders. “I am tired of carrying you wherever you ordered.
-My back is well-nigh broken with the load of you.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We shall make one more flight,” said Peterkin, “and
-that shall be to the window of the palace, just beneath the
-gilded dome. Come, away with us—to the Royal Princess’s
-window.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But—but, oh, no!” screamed the old fellow, quaking
-with fear. “That palace is in the city—don’t you understand,
-in the city of my bitter enemies! And they’ll kill me
-if ever they catch me there.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Peterkin laughed. “And they’ve sworn to kill me, too,”
-he chuckled bravely. “But never you mind—we’re going
-back anyhow.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And in spite of the old villain’s terror, Peterkin jumped
-upon his shoulders and whipped him up, over the marshes
-and the sea, toward the faint gray glimpse of towers and
-steeples in the far distance.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>
-  <h2 id='ch31' class='c008'>XXXI<br /> <br />THE PATIENT PRINCESS</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i139.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>OH, little Princess Clem! Think
-what a sad thing it was for her
-to be left alone in the deserted dining
-hall, while her royal father and all his
-guards rushed out to kill her
-brave returning hero!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>She had tried so hard not to
-cry—but the tears <i>would</i>
-come. They flooded the table-cloth
-and plates and set the omelets and
-the jam pots floating. It was only
-when her prying nurse came in
-to fetch her that Her Little
-Royal Highness could dry
-her eyes.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>But, all day long, she walked up and down, up and down,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>in the wide Throne Room. With nervous step she marched
-from one gilded corner to the other, her heart in a flutter
-of fear.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But haven’t you heard?” cried the nurse. “They found
-his Pumperkin—but it was empty. The poor Peterkin
-must have been drowned!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>That only made the princess weep the harder. Yet she
-never lost hope—oh, no; she was not that sort of little lady
-to lose hope! And gradually she came to realize that Peterkin
-must have escaped, somehow, from his boat, and was
-safe upon some new adventure. But when would he return?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>All day she paced the marble floors, her blue eyes lighted
-with a gleam of tears. Once she stopped to look out of the
-window, and she saw a great commotion at the outer gate
-of the court-yard. A messenger was there, seeking admission: a
-ragged, dusty man, who asked with eager face to see
-the King. The little princess recognized him at once: he
-was a subject of the Valley of the Blind.... Only, had he
-recovered the sight of his eyes? She wondered how.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And while he spoke, there came up behind him on the
-road another messenger—and this one was from the Valley
-of the Deaf. And then another from the Valley of the
-Dancing Legs. And, lastly, one from the Valley of Up-in-the-Air.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>Why, here were messengers from each of the
-stricken Four Kingdoms—and each of them was smiling
-happily!</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i141.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Aye, true! For a little while later, the four of them had
-audience with His Majesty in this very same throne room,
-where the princess could hide behind a curtain of cloth of
-gold, and could hear each word they said.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“We are saved!” cried he of the Valley of the Blind.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And so are we!” cried he of the Valley of the Deaf.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And so are we!” cried each of the others.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>“Our sorrow is gone. The curse of the toothless villain
-has been lifted away from our valley. We are the happiest
-folk in all the Four Kingdoms!” declared he of the Valley
-of the Blind.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“And so are we!” declared the other three in chorus.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“But—but I don’t understand,” stammered the King,
-mopping his royal brow in wonder. “All in a day, here is
-my whole domain changed from one of sorrow to one of
-joy. Tell me, who has wrought this splendid change?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And with one accord they answered, “Peterkin!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>His Majesty’s scepter crashed to the floor, but he took no
-notice of it. He stared at them as if he thought them mad.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“What? That same little scalawag of a Peterkin who
-fled from our dungeon and who escaped us so neatly but
-yesterday?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>’Twas then that little Princess Clem came darting out
-from behind her curtain, dancing and laughing roguishly.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“The very same, my royal father! The very same Peterkin!
-And look!” she cried, stopping short at the window,
-“here he comes now!”</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>
-  <h2 id='ch32' class='c008'>XXXII<br /> <br />THE VILLAIN SATISFIED</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i143.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>NO mistake, either!
-For Peterkin it truly
-was, coming toward the palace!
-Peterkin, astride the
-shoulders of his old companion,
-flying through the
-clouds. At first they were
-only two specks, dark and
-tiny; then, coming nearer,
-they grew larger and larger,
-until the courtiers, crowding at the windows, could see the
-eager look in Peterkin’s bright eyes and could catch a
-glimpse of the red gums of the old villain under him.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Nearer, nearer—then swooping down from the clouds
-and in at the window came the two travelers, into the midst
-of those who thronged the golden throne room.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>The toothless villain ran and cowered in a corner, trembling
-with fear. But Peterkin stood forth boldly, his head
-thrown back with pride.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Here am I, Your Majesty!” he cried. “Here am I,
-returned whence I once fled. You may thrust me back into
-that pitchy dungeon—you may kill me, but——”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Great cheers drowned the rest of his words. One and all,
-the courtiers, the nobles, the King himself, were waving
-jeweled hands and making a joyous thunder of his name.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Peterkin! Peterkin, our hero! Peterkin, our saviour!
-Brave, mighty, magic Peterkin!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>He fell back and rubbed his eyes. What did it all mean?
-Could he be dreaming?</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>No, for the King had risen from his throne now and was
-coming down its golden steps straight toward him, with
-arms outstretched.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“You have swept the shadows from my domain!” he
-cried. “You have brought laughter into faces which once
-were bathed in tears. You have given joy for sorrow—and
-joy—aye, untold joy!—shall be your reward! Ask of
-me now whatever you most wish, and I promise it shall be
-yours! But first of all, we must take our proper revenge
-upon the villain you have so neatly brought into our
-power.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>
-<img src='images/i145.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Ah, that’s just it, Your Majesty!” interrupted Peterkin.
-“Here’s my dearest wish—and surely you’ll not have the
-heart to refuse it. I ask for mercy for your noble cousin,
-the toothless farmer. Indeed, if only you provide him with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>a new set of teeth, I’m sure he will make a very loyal and
-faithful subject evermore.”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The King grew red in the face, at this reminder. But
-he had given his word—and not even a king can go back
-on that!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“How now, my villainous cousin?” he roared, turning
-to the old fellow. “Will you cease your wicked magic all
-the days of your life, if I forgive you for the sake of generous
-Peterkin? And, if I do provide you a new set of teeth,
-will you try very hard not to bite me?”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Oh, yes—indeed, yes! I am so sick of soups and jellies:
-I am longing for the crunch of a good beefsteak. And oh!
-my royal cousin, what a feast I shall be able to eat if only
-you give me a brand-new set of teeth! And I shall be so
-proud of them I’ll do nothing more than sit in a corner and
-grin the whole day long!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>So, when the little princess had joined her prayer for forgiveness
-to those of Peterkin and the rest of the courtiers,
-the King could do naught but order his royal dentist to
-appear upon the scene. And the dentist took very good
-pains to make an exact measure of the mouth of the old
-fellow, who went on mumbling in a most delighted way:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Hee, hee! New teeth! A brand-new set of teeth! Well,
-now I am satisfied! No more villainy for me! the crunch
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>of a good beefsteak. And I shall be the happiest, most satisfied
-nobleman in the land!”</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Which set the whole court to cheering and clapping their
-hands louder than ever!</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i147.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>
-  <h2 id='ch33' class='c008'>XXXIII<br /> <br />THE GLORIOUS ENDING</h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/i148.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_7 c017'>“SO, now,” said the King, “you
-shall have your true reward.”
-And to make it the more impressive, he
-nudged our Peterkin in the ribs
-with the end of his golden scepter
-and winked his royal eye at the
-Princess Clem, who stood
-nearby in blushing joy.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Straightway the courtiers
-gathered about their new
-hero, lifted him high upon their shoulders and bore him
-away, out of the throne room, out of the pillared halls, into
-the center of that very same market square which flanked
-the sunny palace. And there they cheered him, long and
-loud:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“All hail to Peterkin, Prince of the Realm! All hail to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>Peterkin, beloved of a Princess Royal! All hail to Peterkin,
-hero of heroes and King-to-be!”</p>
-
-<div id='f148'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/f148.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>“Where was it bound? Haven’t you guessed?”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>It was only then that modest Peterkin could guess how
-great were the honors and rewards which had befallen him.
-For a golden coronet they placed upon his head—and a
-purple robe upon his shoulders. And a golden sword upon
-a jeweled belt went ’round his waist to mark, from this time
-forth, that he was chief commander of all the King’s guards.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And, the very next day, at the hour of ruddy sunset, when
-all the windows of the palace burned with a bright reflection,
-and the moon was sailing high up, white and wan, into
-the clouds, there began the celebration of the most magnificent
-marriage that e’er was held or will be held in all the
-Four Kingdoms. And you know well enough who were
-the bride and bridegroom!</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The banquet which followed was so splendid an affair
-that for three days thereafter the court doctor and all his
-chemists were kept busy at compounding cures for indigestion.
-For there were twenty different soups to taste—and
-each one thicker than the other. There were fish from the
-sea, the river and the brook; roast peacocks, with their tails
-still spread in blue and shimmering beauty; stuffed pigs
-with brown and crackling skin; all sorts of jellies, jams and
-ices; bonbons heaped in silver dishes, and—ah, yes, a wedding
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>cake which towered so high that it touched the gilded
-ceiling. Think what a time the princess must have had
-cutting it to pieces—as all thoughtful brides do—with Peterkin’s
-sharp sword!</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i150.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Of course, you are curious to learn how beautiful the
-bride appeared. But that’s beyond my power to describe.
-I can only tell you that she was more lovely than ever she
-had been before; and that her golden hair was twined with
-precious rubies, with a rivulet of diamonds on her forehead.
-Her gown was of silver white brocade; but on it were embroidered,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>in fine gold, a complete set of pictures of the
-marvelous history of her heroic husband. The Pumperkin,
-the adventure with the whale, the meeting with the old
-villain, the flight from the dungeon, the rescue of each of
-the four joyless valleys, ... all were depicted there.
-Everyone wondered, to be sure, how such a handsome work
-of art could have been made so hastily—but ah, they did
-not know that, in her long hours of lonely waiting, the little
-Princess Clem had nearly ruined her dainty fingers with
-the needle and threads of the loom. For happiness is always
-born of toiling; and love grows greater for a little patient
-hardship.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The villainous cousin, now very peaceful, was very
-proud of a set of false teeth; and munched and munched in
-hungry bliss upon a plate of his favorite beefsteak. The
-King, at his end of the table, smiled down upon his feasting
-friends in joy and perfect bliss. Here was his whole domain
-reborn into happiness and hard at work and play
-again. Here was his only daughter wed to the nation’s
-hero. And—this is what made him smile the broadest—here
-was a chance to climb down from his royal throne,
-within a year or two, and place his heavy crown on Peterkin’s
-own forehead. For, if the truth must be told, the King
-was growing a little tired of playing King and wearing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>velvet robes the whole day long; he longed, as old men
-always do, for the comfort of his big clay pipe, his shirt
-sleeves and his slippers. And here were a new King and a
-Queen, all ready made, to rule his land with virtue and with
-wisdom.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Then, while the banquet was at its jolliest, the bride and
-bridegroom stole away in a coach that was drawn by six
-white steeds, and clattered down the festooned streets to the
-steps of the royal wharf. And there, in the moonlit harbor,
-the Pumperkin lay waiting. But oh! what a different
-Pumperkin! For plates of gold were on it now, and a
-hundred gay flags, and a sail of blue satin. There were
-sailors to tend it, too, and a great fleet of skiffs to bear it
-company across the sea.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>There was music on the waters and the soft and tender
-strains played by the royal harpists were caught up by the
-breezes and carried straight to the Pumperkin. It seemed to
-sway gently up and down, up and down, as if the waves kept
-time with the music.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Inside his snug and comfortable boat-house, Peterkin was
-telling his dear little bride the many wonderful adventures
-that befell him from the time they had parted in the dungeon
-to the happy hour of his return. And while they were thus
-in sweet converse, the Pumperkin was gliding on....</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>Where was it bound? Haven’t you guessed? Why, for
-brave Peterkin’s old home, the Pumpkin Patch! That’s
-where the honeymoon would be—and then.... Then
-back to the Four Kingdoms, to reign for years in peace
-and power and glory.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>And some day, when you, too, have grown up and have
-wed a Princess Clem, and have come into a kingdom of
-your own, you will live—as they lived—happily ever after.</p>
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i153.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c006'>
-    <div>THE END.</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<p class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span><span class='xlarge'>Tom Tit Tales</span>
-By GILLY BEAR</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='under'><i>Bed-time Stories for Children</i></span></p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id007'>
-<img src='images/tomtittales.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>Contains 156 Pages,
-12 Color Plates
-and numerous
-Black and White
-Illustrations</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Bound in Cloth
-Gold and Color Stamping</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Price $1.25</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“If you are favored and can still stand under the barred Gate of the Years to the twelfth
-notch or so, you will not yet have mislaid the key to your Imagination, and you will see—as
-probably your elders will not be able to do clearly—that this book has the familiar look in its
-pages of the places you know so well when you are asleep or just dozing before the fire. Some
-people write stories for children which remind one of the man on the city roof-top looking through
-the skylight at what the people are doing in the room below. But Gilly Bear, when he wrote
-these stories, sat at the desk within the room and possessed himself of an intimate knowledge
-of all that happened there. The entire book deals with Bobby and a funny old elf, evidently
-numberless hundreds of years old, who lures the former to Slumberland every night. The old
-elf is vividly portrayed by Helen E. Ohrenschall, to whom the author is indebted for the delightful
-pictorial features of the book.”—<i>The New York Evening Sun.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Saml. Gabriel Sons &amp; Company have recently published three attractively bound children’s
-books for the holiday season, written by Gilly Bear. ‘<span class='sc'>Tom Tit Tales</span>’ tells of a most
-convenient fairy, who comes to comfort children at Tired-time—Bobby is delightfully entertained
-by Tom Tit and is taken on most fascinating excursions into Candy Land, to the Clock
-in the Sky, to the Rainbow and other equally interesting places, if he has been good all day.
-The illustrations in color are by Helen E. Ohrenschall.”—<i>News Press, St. Joseph.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“The Gilly Bear books, which have been published on the eve of the holiday season, have
-come out at an opportune moment, inasmuch as the book-buying habit becomes intense at this
-particular time. ‘<span class='sc'>Tom Tit Tales</span>,’ ‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’ and ‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ are ideal
-stories for children. They contain an immense amount of wholesome sentiment and clean
-humor, and there are no keener humorists than the little people.”—<i>The Times Star, Cincinnati.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Tom Tit Tales</span>,’ ‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ and ‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’ by Gilly Bear are all
-attractive children’s books. Gilly Bear has made himself known to a large section of the child
-world by the creation of Tom Tit, whom Bobby met and who introduced the little boy to a
-host of marvelous people, with some surprising adventures.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ describes, in a way to please any normal child, the adventures of
-a score of animals and fowl.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Two little Dutch children, Katrina and Jan, in search of a fairy tulip, are the figures in
-‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>,’ and the experiences they go through are attractively described and pictured.”—<i>The
-Standard Union, Brooklyn.</i></p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c006'>
-    <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span><span class='xxlarge'>Fun in the Forest</span></div>
-    <div class='c000'><span class='xlarge'>By Gilly Bear</span></div>
-    <div class='c000'>Contains 64 Pages, Profusely Illustrated in Color and Black and White.</div>
-    <div class='c000'>Bound in Cloth, with</div>
-    <div>Colored Insert on Cover</div>
-    <div class='c000'>Price 75 Cents</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/funintheforest.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ is a story that cannot fail to hold the attention of children, instruct
-them, too, and develop sympathy and affection for the small animals.”—<i>The Evening Star,
-Newark.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ by Gilly Bear contains little stories of animals and their family
-and social life in a ‘wood at the top of the big green hill.’ It is seen that the Squirrel Family
-are generous entertainers and that all the wood folk are glad to come to their party. There is
-no hint of either fable or moral in the tales, but just the play of a pleasant imagination in the
-telling of animal stories.”—<i>The Post, Hartford, Conn.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ by Gilly Bear is an instructive and amusing tale of animals, which
-should delight children from six to ten years. It is profusely illustrated.”—<i>The Bulletin, San
-Francisco.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Parents or aunts or uncles, looking for picture books for the little ones, with some element
-of cleverness in them, will be glad to pick up any of a group of handsomely got up books published
-by Saml. Gabriel Sons &amp; Company. They are the Gilly Bear books and the contents were
-originally published in the New York <i>Evening Sun</i> ‘Bedtime Stories’ and were immensely
-popular. They stimulate the child’s imagination and delight him by their whimsical humor.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Tom Tit Tales</span>’—Entrancing stories of adventure, inspiring, entertaining and amusing
-and full of life, action and interest ‘just before the Sandman comes.’</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’—A splendid fairy tale, describing the exciting adventures of two
-little Dutch children in search of a fairy tulip.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’—A charming story of absorbing interest, which tells an amusing
-tale of animals and their doings in field and forest.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“The illustrations and general make-up of the books are very attractive.”—<i>Herald-Telegraph,
-Montreal.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’ and ‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>,’ from the press of Saml. Gabriel Sons &amp;
-Company, New York, are two delightful children’s books illustrated by Frances Brundage.
-The illustrations are in black and white and in color, the color pages being beautifully done.
-The stories are printed in large type and are nicely bound.”—<i>The Journal, Milwaukee.</i></p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c006'>
-    <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span><span class='xxlarge'>The Green Tulip</span></div>
-    <div class='c000'><span class='xlarge'>By Gilly Bear</span></div>
-    <div class='c000'>Contains 64 Pages, Profusely Illustrated in Color and Black and White.</div>
-    <div>Bound in Cloth, with Colored Insert on Cover</div>
-    <div class='c000'>Price 75 Cents</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/thegreentulip.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Katrina and Jan are two quaint Dutch children living in Holland, described in ‘<span class='sc'>The Green
-Tulip</span>’ as ‘the loveliest, strangest, pleasantest land on earth.’ They first meet a green fairy
-who is crying for a green tulip. So Katrina and Jan start out to find the green tulip for the
-grieving fairy. In their search, the pair have some funny adventures. The illustrations are
-as delightfully Dutch as a windmill or one of Franz Hals’s pictures.”—<i>Post Express, Rochester, N.Y.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’—A fairy tale of Holland by Gilly Bear and published by Saml. Gabriel
-Sons &amp; Company. Another clever and attractive bit of reading for the quite young juvenile.
-The illustrations done by Frances Brundage are in themselves ample commendation for this
-charming book for the Christmas list. The world of fairyland is put under tribute to furnish
-the theme. Holland is made the setting and the talented co-workers in author and artist offer
-one of the most pleasing numbers in the Gilly Bear series, as a result of their deft workmanship.
-There is a world of diversion in following the fortunes of Katrina and Jan in sailing down ‘the
-Laziest Canal’ and in stopping, ‘but not too long,’ in the village of None-May-Care, in which
-‘nobody thinks very hard.’”—<i>The Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“The vogue of bed-time stories is continually broadening and the demand for new books
-of this character naturally increases as the holiday season approaches. To meet it, Saml. Gabriel
-Sons &amp; Company have just issued three attractive new works calculated to fire the imagination
-of ‘Youngest America.’ The first of this series, ‘<span class='sc'>Tom Tit Tales</span>,’ contains a series of entertaining
-stories to be told ‘just before the Sandman comes.’ The second, ‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>,’
-is a fairy tale built around the adventures of two little Dutch children in search of a fairy tulip.
-The third, entitled ‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>,’ tells in a charming way the life and adventure of animals
-in the field and forest. All three books are embellished with attractive colored plates.”—<i>The
-Examiner, Chicago.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Three attractive books for the little children, which will interest the early Christmas shopper,
-are ‘<span class='sc'>Tom Tit Tales</span>,’ ‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’ and ‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>.’ The stories are by
-Gilly Bear and originally appeared in a New York newspaper. The books are freely illustrated
-and the tales are just what children enjoy.”—<i>The Call, San Francisco.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘<span class='sc'>The Green Tulip</span>’ and ‘<span class='sc'>Fun in the Forest</span>’ are two very good stories and very long,
-as stories for the little people go, with excellent pictures running through the text. They are
-both by Gilly Bear, illustrated by Frances Brundage and published by Saml. Gabriel Sons &amp;
-Company, New York.”—<i>The Times, New York.</i></p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c006' />
-</div>
-<p class='c018'>&nbsp;</p>
-<div class='tnbox'>
-
- <ul class='ul_1 c006'>
-    <li>Transcriber’s Notes:
-      <ul  class='ul_2'>
-        <li>Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
-        </li>
-        <li>Typographical errors were silently corrected.
-        </li>
-        <li>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant 
-        form was found in this book.
-        </li>
-      </ul>
-    </li>
-  </ul>
-
-</div>
-<p class='c018'>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF PETERKIN ***</div>
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