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Title: The Magical Land of Noom
Author: Gruelle, Johnny
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Magical Land of Noom" ***
[Illustration: The MAGICAL LAND of NOOM]
[Illustration]
The MAGICAL LAND of NOOM
_by_
JOHNNY GRUELLE
_with
Sundry and Mondry
Illustrations
by the Author_
[Illustration]
_Published by_
P.F. VOLLAND COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON TORONTO
CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1922
JOHN B. GRUELLE
(All rights reserved.)
COPYRIGHT GREAT BRITAIN, 1922
Printed in U. S. A.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Johnny and Janey Fly Away to the Moon 11
II. Johnny and Janey Meet the Strange Man 23
III. Gran’ma and Gran’pa Fly After the Children 37
IV. Enter the Magic Boxing Gloves, the Wolves and the Rubber
River 49
V. The Beautiful Girl Tells Her Strange Story 61
VI. Now We Come to the Little Old Lady and Jingles’ Magic
Whistle 71
VII. The Soft-Voiced Cow Meets the Witch and the Invisible
People 81
VIII. Tiptoe, the Dancing Master, Uses His Magic Umbrella 97
IX. Johnny and Janey Grow Very Tall and Have Some Strange
Adventures 111
X. The Tiptoe Brothers and the Slide Raft 121
XI. Again We Meet the Princess, the Palace and the Magician 131
XII. Gran’ma Tweaks Old Jingles’ Nose 142
XIII. Everybody Goes Home 153
DEDICATED TO
DOROTHY MARY
AND
J. P. JUNIOR
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATIONS
“You just wait! I’ll catch you and pay you back!” 31
The little Faun Boy caught up with the Strange Man, butting him
with all his might 44
Gran’pa struck them right and left with his cane, but was finally
knocked down 50
“Did you open the Green Jar?” the Beautiful Girl asked 65
“It was in the year 339,700 that I talked to the Queer Horse and
the Strange Man put me in the jar” 72
The Old Woman caught the Soft-Voiced Cow’s tail and began dragging
her back 83
“I was forced to step into the Magic Umbrella” 102
The Soft-Voiced Cow jumped three feet in the air and started across
the valley, kicking her heels and mooing 112
Down, down, the Slide Raft sped, until it was going so fast that
its occupants could not talk 125
Gran’ma, Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe rode in the Magic Umbrella and the
men rode underneath 131
Catching his long nose in her hands she gave it a tweak 145
“There it is!” David shouted. “Guide the Flying Boat to the balcony
at the right of the Palace!” 154
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I
JOHNNY AND JANEY FLY AWAY TO THE MOON
Gran’pa had finished building the chicken coop and he walked out in
front of the house to speak to a neighbor.
Johnny and Janey, who had been watching Gran’pa with such interest, grew
tired of waiting for his return.
“Let’s build a Flying Machine,” Johnny said after a while. “Grand’pa has
finished and will not need the boards that are left and we can find
plenty of nails.”
“Do you think we can build a Flying Machine?” asked Janey, delighted at
the idea.
“Easily!” Johnny told her. “Of course we can’t make one that will really
fly, but we can pretend that it goes ’way up in the air.”
“It will be loads of fun!” cried Janey, and she jumped up and down and
smiled.
So Johnny got an old box and nailed four or five boards to the sides for
wings.
“It should have a sail,” Janey said.
“Yes, it needs a sail and a mast and a rudder,” replied Johnny. “Run in
and ask Gran’ma for an old sheet to make the sail of, will you, Janey?
I’ll be putting on a mast and the rudder.”
When Janey came running back with an old sheet she cried, “I just
thought! We must have something to start and stop the Flying Machine
with, so Gran’ma gave me two empty spools. We can use them.”
[Illustration]
“Just the thing!” Johnny answered. “I’ll put them at the front of the
box and label one ‘Start’ and the other ‘Stop.’”
“How can we guide the Flying Machine when we get to flying?” Janey
asked. “When we make believe we’re flying, I mean.”
“I’ve put only one nail in the rudder,” Johnny replied, “so that by
pulling on these strings we can guide it. See?” And Johnny showed his
sister how the board with only one nail in it turned from side to side
as he pulled the strings.
“Oh! That’s fine!” Janey exclaimed. “I’ll ask Gran’ma if we may have
some lunch to take with us on our trip,” she added, as she ran into the
house.
When Janey came out with a tiny basket of lunch Johnny had marked “Polly
Ann” on both sides of the box. He had fastened the sail made from the
old sheet to a stick and run a string through a screw-eye, so that the
sail could be raised or lowered whenever they might wish.
“Let’s see!” Johnny mused. “Have we everything we need?”
“Well, here are the wings, the rudder, the ‘Start’ and ‘Stop’ spools and
the sail,” Janey told him. “I think that is all, don’t you?”
“All right, then, Sis! Put the lunch on one of the sails. No!” and
Johnny hammered a nail on one side of the box, “hang the basket of lunch
there and climb in. It’s going to be a tight squeeze for both of us. But
it won’t take this Flying Machine long to get to Mars or Venus or the
Moon, and we can get out and rest on some of the Stars if we get tired.”
“Let’s go to the Moon first, and then to the Milky Way!” Janey cried.
“All right, if you are ready!” Johnny agreed, as he sat in the bottom of
the box, in front of Janey. “Hold your hat, Sis, for here she goes!”
And Johnny turned one of the spools in the front of the box.
“Oh! isn’t the view grand from up here, Johnny!” Janey cried. “See,
there is Gran’ma’s house ’way down below, and we are getting closer to
the Moon all the time!”
“Those are queer birds flying by, Sis,” said Johnny, who could make
believe any way he liked. “Can you make out what they are?”
“Yes,” Janey answered, as she looked at the chickens in the yard, “they
are Eagles. See that beautiful big one with the red comb? That’s a Roc!”
[Illustration]
“My, I wish this Flying Machine would really Fly!” Johnny said, a little
later. “But it’s fun pretending anyway. Let’s get out at the next Star,
Sis, and eat our lunch. I didn’t eat much breakfast and I’m hungry!”
“All right, Brud!” said Janey, who wasn’t tired of the play either.
“Wait a minute!” as Johnny started to climb out of the box. “You forgot
to stop the Flying Machine.”
“Well, I’ll bring it to a stop very slowly,” Johnny told her. “So that
we won’t strike these mountain tops and tip over!”
And he turned the “Stop” spool a fraction of an inch.
Neither of the children was prepared for what followed.
The Polly Ann shot up over the fence, suddenly, scattering the startled
chickens in all directions, and as Johnny and Janey crouched low in the
box the familiar objects about the farm whizzed by them like bullets.
“We are really going!” Janey gasped, as they sped upward. “I feel as if
I’d like to jump!”
At this Johnny caught his sister’s foot and held it tight.
“Don’t look over the side until you get used to flying!” he cautioned
her, very wisely.
“Twist the other spool!” Janey told him. “I don’t like to be up so high.
Everything seems so small.”
Johnny gave the other spool a twist and the Flying Machine swept ahead
at twice its former speed.
“You’re twisting the wrong spool!” Janey screamed. “You must have been
twisting the wrong one all the time, somehow. See, you’ve been twisting
the one marked ‘Start.’”
“Sure enough! That’s just what I did,” Johnny admitted. “Well, I’ll
twist the other now.”
The Flying Machine came to such a sudden halt that the children were
almost thrown from the box, and the basket of lunch was whirled off its
nail so suddenly that it flew straight ahead of the Flying Machine for
nearly a hundred feet before it curved to the earth.
The children watched it curve and circle as it fell. Then the paper came
off and there was a regular shower of sandwiches, doughnuts and small
cakes.
“Now, Mister! You be careful or we’ll never get back!” Janey cried as
she clutched her brother tightly by the collar. “Send the Flying Machine
down to the ground again, Johnny. Please do!”
But the Flying Machine, when it stopped, hung suspended in the air
although when Johnny gently twisted the “Start” spool and it started off
again, it went in the opposite direction from the earth.
“It won’t go down,” cried Johnny, as he brought the Flying Machine to a
stop again. “What shall we do?”
“Well, if it won’t go down, there’s nothing to do but go on!” Janey
answered. “It’s all your fault for building the Flying Machine!”
“Now, Sis, that isn’t fair!” cried Johnny. “You know you suggested
putting on the spools, and if we’d left them off we shouldn’t have
started. What we should have thought of was something to make the Flying
Machine go up or down as we wanted. Now it only goes ahead or stops.”
“Try guiding it with the rudder,” Janey suggested.
So Johnny twisted the “Start” spool, and as the Flying Machine started
forward he pulled one of the rudder strings. The Flying Machine slowly
turned and flew in a large circle.
“We can’t do it!” Janey cried, the tears coming to her eyes. “We can’t
make it go down as we want to! We’re only flying in a circle above
Gran’ma’s farm. See! Gran’ma and Gran’pa and a lot of other people are
out looking at us!”
Sure enough, so far below that they looked like tiny specks of dust, the
children could see their grandparents and many of the neighbors watching
them as they sailed.
Johnny brought the Flying Machine to a stop directly over Gran’ma and
Gran’pa and the neighbors, and they could hear Gran’pa calling to them
quite distinctly. The children called back at the top of their voices,
but they couldn’t make Gran’ma and Gran’pa hear.
Johnny tried twisting first one spool and then the other, but this
jerked the Flying Machine so violently that his sister objected. She
said she would rather go on than stay just where they were, doing
nothing. So the children took off their hats and waved farewell to the
people below, and Johnny, twisting the “Start” spool gently at first,
increased the speed until the Flying Machine sped along like a meteor,
leaving the farm far below and behind.
The different colors in the fields gave the Earth a sort of patchwork
effect, but as the Flying Machine climbed higher and higher the yellows
and greens and blues blended together until the Earth was more the color
of an opal. In fact, the children now saw a continuous change of colors,
ranging from a deep yellow to a bluish purple, with every now and then a
speck of crimson as the sunlight glanced along a hill.
“Isn’t it beautiful!” Janey cried. “I don’t feel as if I wished to jump
any more, do you, Brud?”
“No, I don’t feel like jumping,” her brother answered, and he stopped
the Flying Machine so that he could see better. “Look, Sis, what causes
that yellow blaze down there?”
They both looked over the side of the Flying Machine and saw the Earth
bathed in a sheen of gold, with here and there glimpses of brilliant
purple showing.
“Oh! I know what it is now!” Janey cried, presently. “A thunder storm
has just passed between us and the Earth and the sun is shining on the
Clouds. Look! See the lightning?”
A faint rumble came up to them as of someone rolling potatoes down a
wooden trough, and a vivid streak of blue zigzagged through the yellow
of the clouds.
“The purple we see is the Earth in shadow beneath the clouds,” Johnny
concluded, after a while.
The children watched the strange sight for a long time before they
decided to go on. Then they looked away for a moment, and when they
looked back toward the Earth they could not find it at once. They had
traveled so far that the Earth now seemed no larger than a bright Star,
and but for the fact that it was almost beneath them they would never
have recognized it at all.
Lots of other Stars could be plainly seen now. The Moon had grown to an
enormous size; in fact, it almost filled the sky behind them. The
children were greatly surprised to see it. They had been watching the
Stars in front of them and they had not once turned their heads the
other way.
“What is that?” Janey cried suddenly, as she grasped her brother’s arm
and pulled one of the rudder strings so that the Flying Machine swung
around to face the Moon.
[Illustration]
Johnny was so startled at the wonderful sight that he gave the “Stop”
spool a twist and brought the Flying Machine to a stop with a jerk.
“It must be the Moon!” said Johnny, in an awed voice, after he had
looked at the enormous object in speechless amazement for fully five
minutes.
“It _is_ the Moon, Brud!” Janey agreed. “See, there is the Man in the
Moon’s face as plain as day, and there are mountains and valleys, too.
See?”
The Moon, seen from where the children viewed it, was of a pale
bluish-greenish tint, except where the rays of the Sun slanted across
the mountain peaks and into the deep valleys. It seemed to Johnny and
Janey as though they were looking through beautiful blue-green glass
down into a dark well; for wherever the Sun did not shine or was not
reflected from the mountains into the valleys the Moon’s surface was
black—so black that it made the rest of the Moon seem transparent. This
seemed to the children very strange.
“Say, Sis,” Johnny exclaimed, “this can’t be the Moon after all! It must
be some extra big Star.”
[Illustration]
“I believe it is the Moon,” said his sister, “for, you can see the face
of the Man in the Moon quite plainly. But it is a great deal larger than
it usually is, and it doesn’t look quite as it does from the earth. But
see! There are the Man’s eyes and nose and mouth.”
“Yes, I see now,” Johnny admitted. “But it isn’t exactly the same view
we have from the Earth.”
“You are right, Johnny!” said Janey, after a moment. “It isn’t the same
view. We must have passed to the other side of the Moon!”
[Illustration]
Johnny started the Flying Machine again and steered it toward the Moon.
And as they whirled around the side of the Moon the part that resembled
a man’s face twisted about until it disappeared.
“I can’t tell whether we are getting closer to the Moon or not!” cried
Johnny anxiously.
Presently, however, they saw the face of the Man in the Moon coming
around from the other side.
“We must have made a complete circuit of the Moon,” Janey decided. “See,
Johnny, the rudder is pulled over to one side! That’s the reason!”
Johnny pulled the rudder string until the Flying Machine was aimed right
at the Moon, and they approached it at great speed.
“Slow up, Johnny!” Janey cried, when they could make out all the
mountain tops and valleys very distinctly. “It feels too much as if we
were falling when we go so fast.”
So Johnny twisted the “Start” spool backwards until they were flying
very slowly and seemed to be floating down toward the Moon’s surface as
lightly as a feather.
[Illustration]
The Flying Machine still was headed directly toward the Moon, and this
gave the children the impression that they were falling. But Johnny, by
pulling the rudder about occasionally, steered the Flying Machine so
that they landed among large mushrooms and queer ferns, instead of on
the mountain tops or in the deep valleys they had seen on the other side
of the Moon.
For, although the children did not know this, they had passed around the
side of the Moon that always faces the Earth and had alighted in the
Magical Land of Noom.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II
JOHNNY AND JANEY MEET THE STRANGE MAN
By twisting the “Start” spool backward and forward Johnny had brought
the Flying Machine to the Moon’s surface very gently, but by no twisting
of rudder or the spools could he effect a landing except by heading the
Flying Machine directly for the surface. It was in this manner that the
machine came to rest, with the front of the box resting upon the surface
of the Moon, and the rudder sticking up in the air. The children sat in
the box as though they were tied there and were very much surprised to
find that they did not fall to the ground.
There they sat—directly facing the ground, with their backs to the sky.
“Let’s get out and look around, Janey! This feels too funny, sitting
this way!” And Johnny started to put his foot over the side of the box
down to the Moon.
“Wait a moment!” Janey cried as she caught her brother and held him. “We
may tumble back into the sky if we get out of the Flying Machine!”
“I do not think we shall do that! I had not thought of it, though!”
Johnny mused.
“One thing certain—it is a long fall to the farm.”
Finally Janey cried, “I have it!” And she took off her slipper and held
it out to the side of the box. Johnny watched her with much interest.
“If the slipper falls to the ground, it is safe for us to get out!” she
said as she dropped it.
The slipper dropped very slowly to the ground.
“It didn’t seem to want to go very much!” she said.
“Try the other one,” Johnny suggested.
The second slipper floated to the ground in the same manner, very
slowly.
This puzzled the children, and they were undecided just what to do until
another idea struck Janey. “I’ll hold your hand while you climb out, so
that if you start to fall up in the air, I can pull you back into the
box!” she said.
So while his sister held his hand Johnny stepped from the box to the
surface of the Moon and straightened up. “Dear me!” he exclaimed. “You
look funny sitting there, Janey. Climb out!”
“How does it feel when you stand up, Johnny?” she asked.
“Natural!” he replied. “Come on!”
“I don’t like to!” Janey said, holding to the sides of the box. “It
seems so queer.”
At this Johnny pushed on the rudder of the Flying Machine and tipped the
box over backward, so that his sister found herself sitting up in the
box, while the box rested in a natural position upon the ground.
“Oh!” Janey exclaimed, as she stood up beside Johnny. “What a relief! My
legs are stiff and cramped.”
When she stepped from the box Janey intended hopping up and down to
straighten out the cramps, but when she jumped she rose in the air six
or eight feet, and Johnny, springing to catch his sister, who seemed
about to fly off the Moon, gave such a spring he rose ten feet in the
air and passed her.
Both children settled slowly to the ground, and when they reached there
they sat down and held to mushrooms.
Johnny wiped the perspiration from his forehead. “My goodness! I thought
we were both goners then,” he said.
Presently they both laughed. “How silly we are! If we had only thought
we wouldn’t have been scared a bit!” Johnny exclaimed. “The Moon is so
much lighter than the earth the attraction of gravity is not so strong,
and we naturally are lighter. Look at this, Sis!” he continued jumping
up in the air and throwing his feet out in front of him, so that he took
what in the water is called “A Seat in Congress.”
“Be careful, Bud!” Janey exclaimed anxiously.
“We are safe,” said Johnny as he settled slowly to the ground, “and we
can have barrels of fun doing stunts! Whee!” and he stamped both feet
upon the ground and gave such a spring that he turned over and over in
the air four or five times before he settled to the ground again.
Janey could not see so much fun without being in it herself, so she
caught Johnny’s hand and they turned flip-flops and jumped up into the
air and pretended they were swimming as they came down. They were having
the best time of their lives.
[Illustration]
Then, seeing some giant mushrooms not far off, Johnny called to Janey
and ran toward them. When about twenty feet away he leaped and sailed
through the air up to the top of the tallest, one about ten feet high.
Janey followed, and they jumped from one mushroom to another. Sometimes
they missed the jump, but this did not matter, as they settled to the
ground easily and gently.
Janey and Johnny played among the giant mushrooms for a long time, doing
all sorts of tricks, and jumping around until they grew tired.
As they sat under an immense fern, resting, Johnny said, “It’s too bad
we lost the lunch, Sis. I’m beginning to feel hungry!”
“I should like some of Granny’s doughnuts!” Janey said. “Let’s see if we
can find any berries or fruit to eat. I’ve read that is the way all
shipwrecked people do.”
“Perhaps we shall have to live on mussels and clams,” said Johnny as he
arose. “Let’s find something! I could almost eat one of these
mushrooms!” And Johnny broke off a piece of mushroom and held it towards
Janey.
[Illustration]
Janey caught a whiff of the mushroom and said, “It smells good enough to
eat!”
Johnny smelt the piece he had in his hands and then took a tiny bite.
“Be careful, Johnny!” Janey warned. “You know Granny said there was
really no way to tell whether a mushroom was a mushroom or a toad-stool,
except by eating it, and if you ate it and it was poison it was a
toad-stool, and if you ate it and it did not hurt you, it was a
mushroom!”
“Ummmmm!” Johnny exclaimed, when he had tasted the mushroom. “It’s fine,
Janey!” and Johnny broke off another piece and ate it as if it had been
cake.
“I’ll wait and see if it poisons you first!” said Janey.
Johnny picked off pieces of different mushrooms and tried them. “They’re
different, Janey!” he cried. “You’re missing it! Try this piece! It
tastes of raspberry or blackberry, I can’t tell which!”
Janey nibbled at the piece Johnny gave her and found the flavor
excellent. She went to the mushroom from which Johnny had broken the
piece and tore off a chunk as large as her head and began to eat it. The
mushrooms were sweet and of different flavors, tasting just like cake.
The children discovered that the old mushrooms which had turned brown
were of chocolate or ginger flavor.
“We can’t starve with all these goodies!” cried Johnny. “I feel as if I
had just finished a Thanksgiving dinner!”
Janey left Johnny sitting under one of the mushrooms and walked about to
see if she could discover a spring, as the sweet mushrooms had made her
very thirsty.
Johnny had eaten so much it made him drowsy, and before Janey had gone
far he was sound asleep.
Janey passed under the mushrooms and giant ferns until she came to an
open space in the center of which a spring bubbled up.
Walking up to the spring, Janey was surprised to see no outlet for the
water. It bubbled up just as water would bubble in a kettle when
boiling, but this water felt very cold when she put her finger in it.
Upon tasting the water Janey found it sour. “Lemonade!” she cried, and
running to the side of the clearing she picked a large leaf and folded
it for a cup.
The lemonade was just sweet enough, and Janey drank two large leavesful.
She was dipping in again when she heard a tread upon the grass behind
her.
“Oh, Johnny,” she cried, “I’ve found a spring of lemonade and it is
lovely!”
Then, as Johnny did not answer, she turned her head and saw a strange
Man approaching her with upraised stick and a fierce frown upon his
face.
“Who said you might drink of my spring!” he shouted, quickening his walk
to a hop and waving his arms in a threatening manner.
“I—I—I—did not know it was your spring!” the little girl answered, as
she scrambled to her feet and dropped her leaf-cup.
“Of course you didn’t!” the Strange Man cried as he came up to her and
caught her arm fiercely. “Of course you didn’t! Of course you didn’t!”
And with that he raised his stick above his head as if to strike her.
“I’ll teach you to drink of my spring!”
Janey screamed and pulled with all her might to get away, but the
Strange Man held her tightly.
Johnny, hearing his sister’s cry, came running through the ferns, and
seeing the Strange Man about to hit Janey, he flew at him like a little
tiger. When about eight feet from the Strange Man, Johnny, who was
running at good speed, jumped through the air and landed upon the
Strange Man’s back. The force of his dive carried himself and the
Strange Man head over heels, knocked off the Strange Man’s tall hat and
made him lose his hold upon Janey and the stick.
Johnny was on top when they finally quit rolling and with all his might
he pummeled the Strange Man about the head. The Strange Man’s long legs
kicked through the air and he scratched at Johnny’s face with his long
fingers.
The Strange Man cried out for Johnny to quit, but Johnny, angry at the
Strange Man’s treatment of his sister, managed to get his knees on the
Strange Man’s arms, sat upon his chest and pounded him right and left.
[Illustration: “You just wait! I’ll catch you and pay you back!” (page
31)]
“Say enough!” Johnny yelled. “Say enough! Say enough!” and Johnny caught
hold of the Strange Man’s long hair and bumped his head upon the ground.
Janey held her breath. It was the first time she had ever seen Johnny in
a fight, for he was a quiet little fellow and always avoided a fight if
it were possible. But now Johnny was very angry, and Janey felt sorry
for the Strange Man.
“Let him up, Johnny! He’s had enough! He says for you to quit! Let him
up!” Janey cried.
“Now, you keep back, Sis!” Johnny shouted, his eyes full of tears. “I’ll
teach him to strike you! There!—There! Will you ever—There!—do it
again?”
“No, I won’t! Honest!” the Strange Man cried, closing his eyes tight
each time Johnny bumped his head on the ground.
“All right!” Johnny said as he got off of the Strange Man and stood back
to see what he would do upon getting up from the ground.
The Strange Man picked up his hat and stick without looking at Johnny,
turned and walked across the clearing. When he had reached the other
side he looked over his shoulder, and shaking his stick at the children
he cried, “You just wait! I’ll catch you and pay you back! You just
wait!”
Johnny, in spite of his sister’s attempt to hold him back, ran across
the clearing after the Strange Man, who turned again and sped through
the ferns like a deer.
When Johnny reached the edge of the clearing he stamped his feet upon
the ground loudly. The Strange Man, thinking Johnny was close behind
him, redoubled his efforts and catching his foot in a vine went
sprawling among the ferns.
Johnny doubled up with laughter and Janey could not help joining in.
“My! You surely can fight, Johnny!” she said admiringly. Janey put her
arm around her brother’s neck and kissed him.
“Ah shucks!” said Johnny, embarrassed. “I couldn’t stand to see him
strike you, Janey, but I don’t like to fight.”
“Weren’t you mad though! You cried!” Janey went on.
“That’s it!” Johnny exclaimed. “I get too angry and have to cry like a
boo baby! That’s why I always get licked, because my eyes fill up with
tears and I can’t see!”
“Oh Johnny, I’ll bet you don’t always get licked, either! You can lick
anyone I’ll bet, if you want to!” his sister said proudly.
“Well of course I really don’t get licked every time!” Johnny admitted.
Then, with a laugh, he added, “Because sometimes I can run faster than
the other fellow and he doesn’t catch me!”
“Of course it’s wrong to fight!” Janey said as they walked away in a
different direction from the one taken by the Strange Man. “It always
seems so useless, doesn’t it?”
“Unless it’s something like this fight!” Johnny answered.
“I guess I couldn’t have fought so well if I hadn’t been fighting for
you! Did he hurt you much, Janey?”
“He hurt me when he pinched my arm, but he didn’t hit me with the
stick,” Janey said, as she showed Johnny the bruised place on her arm.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t know of that bruise,” cried Johnny, “while I
had him down!”
As they talked the children came to a path. They walked down it until
they saw a queer little house made of sticks plastered together with mud
and colored clay.
“What a queer house!” the children cried. “Isn’t it small!”
They walked up to the door and knocked. “Come in!” a voice called to
them from within.
So the children, pushing open the door, stepped inside.
At first they could see nothing, for the door had swung shut behind
them, but presently their eyes growing accustomed to the darkness, they
made out a form across the room.
[Illustration]
“My! It’s dark!” Janey exclaimed. “Can’t we have a light!”
The form across the room chuckled and Johnny reached behind him for the
door-knob, so that he could let some light into the room. The door was
locked!
When Johnny found this out he stepped in front of Janey. “Keep behind
me, Sis!” he whispered. “This doesn’t seem safe!”
At this moment something struck Johnny in the face and splashed all
over. It took him so by surprise he staggered backward and stumbled over
Janey, so that both the children fell to the floor.
As he scrambled to his feet Johnny felt his arms caught and a rope
whirled around and around his arms and legs, so that he could not move.
A bright flame shot up from the fireplace and the children saw the
Strange Man sitting there with a book across his knees. He had just
thrown a powder in the fireplace and it burnt brightly.
The Strange Man was the only one in the room except the children and he
mumbled to himself as he read from the great book. Johnny looked at
Janey and saw that she was tied in much the same manner as himself.
“It’s the man who owns the Lemonade Spring,” cried Janey.
“Say!” Johnny shouted. “You untie us and let us go, or we’ll have you
arrested when we get out!”
“You won’t get out!” the Strange Man told him. “I’ll see to that!”
“Help!” Johnny shouted at the top of his voice, Janey joining him.
“Dear me!” the Strange Man exclaimed fretfully. “How can you expect me
to change you into animals when you make so much noise? You distract my
mind from my reading, and I am trying to find just how to work the
magic!”
“Is that a magic book?” Janey asked.
“Of course!” the Strange Man replied. “And I have to memorize the magic
song that I must sing when I puff the magic powder over you and change
you into animals, and I can not think when you make so much noise!”
“We’re sorry we drank your lemonade!” Janey said.
“I’m sorry I had a fight with you!” Johnny said.
“Yes! I know you are,” the Strange Man cried, shaking his stick at them,
“and I told you that I would get even with you! I am about to change you
into pigs!”
“Oh dear! I don’t care to be changed into a pig!” Janey cried.
“I don’t believe he can do it!” Johnny told her.
“Oh, don’t you!” the Strange Man hissed, as he put down the large book
and came towards Johnny. “I can easily change you into a cat, but I am
learning the rhyme to change you into pigs and then I’ll show you!”
Janey began crying and Johnny said, “Don’t cry, Sis! He’s trying to fool
you! He can’t change us into anything, it isn’t possible!”
The Strange Man puffed some powder from a tiny bellows upon Johnny and
began to sing.
“A diddle daddle hunka dee, A chunka lunka diddle fee,
Kerlike kerlunk kachunkapat, and so I change you to a cat!”
“There! I guess you believe it possible now, don’t you?” the Strange Man
said when he stopped singing.
“Meow!” said Johnny. “Meow!” He _had_ changed into a cat.
“Killikaluka, willyculoosa! Now I change you to a boy!” said the Strange
Man, again puffing the powder upon Johnny, and changing him back to a
boy.
“What shall we do?” Janey cried.
“You must keep still,” the Strange Man commanded, “or I can never change
you to pigs!”
“Let us keep yelling at the top of our lungs,” cried Johnny, “so that he
can not study the rhyme to change us into pigs!”
So the two children began yelling at the top of their voices, and the
Strange Man grew so impatient he finally said, “Well, if you continue
like that, I shall have to go outside and study, but it will be all the
worse for you when I do change you to pigs, for I shan’t let you see a
mud puddle for two years!”
And as the children continued their cries, the Strange Man closed his
book and went out by a back door. He stamped along the walk kicking the
loose pebbles viciously.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER III
GRAN’MA AND GRAN’PA FLY AFTER THE CHILDREN
When Gran’pa and Gran’ma saw the children fly over the fence they could
scarcely believe their eyes. They shouted as loudly as possible for
Janey and Johnny to come back.
And when the children circled above the farm in their home-made Flying
Machine, all the neighbors, hearing the cries of the two old people,
came running over to the farm and watched the strange sight.
When the home-made Flying Machine rapidly disappeared in the sky the two
old people put their arms around each other and wept like children.
Of course there was nothing they could do, so they went into the house
and sat down upon the old couch.
“They were such good children!” Gran’ma sobbed.
“They were always good children!” Gran’pa cried. “Oh dear! Oh dear!”
All the rest of the day the old people thought of Janey and Johnny and
wondered what had become of them.
“I wish we could go in search of them!” Gran’pa said.
“Where did they get such a wonderful Flying Machine?” Gran’ma asked as
she wiped the tears from Gran’pa’s eyes and her own with her apron.
“They made it from an old box and some boards I had left after finishing
my chicken coop!” Gran’pa told her.
“Yes, I remember now!” Gran’ma said. “Janey came in and asked me for an
old sheet for a sail, and for two spools. The spools, she said, would be
the ‘Start’ and ‘Stop’ twisters for the flying machine!”
“It’s funny they didn’t come back when we called to them!” Gran’pa
mused. “They always have minded so well!”
“I don’t believe they knew how to work the Flying Machine so that they
could return to the earth!” Gran’ma replied. “Perhaps they did not think
it would really fly and so neglected to put something on to send the
machine down. I am sure that must have been the reason!”
“It must have been!” Gran’pa mused. “But see here, why can’t we go after
them and bring them back, Gran’ma! If the children could build a Flying
Machine, I see no reason why I couldn’t build one! In fact,” Gran’pa
continued, “I could build a better one, I’m sure!”
“But how do we know where they have gone to?” Gran’ma asked.
“We can easily find out!” Gran’pa said, as he walked to the door. “I
will build my machine with many spools on it, and one spool we will mark
‘Direction taken by the children’ and the machine will follow them
everywhere they have gone until we find them! The other spools can be
labeled ‘Stop,’ ‘Go,’ ‘Rise,’ ‘Lower,’ and anything else we can think
of. We must be careful and have everything complete before we start!”
“It is six o’clock now,” Gran’pa added. “I should have it finished by
eight or nine o’clock and we can start the first thing in the morning!”
So Gran’pa took all his tools out in the back yard and began to work.
Johnny had picked out the largest box around the place and all that
Gran’pa could find were four little soap boxes; these he nailed
together.
A neighbor boy came over to watch Gran’pa, and when he heard what
Gran’pa was building he said, “Gran’pa, why don’t you borrow my boat? I
should be glad to let you have it, and you could put a sail on it and
fix it up fine!”
“That will be great, Eddie!” Gran’pa said, “I’ll come right over and get
it!”
So Gran’pa hitched up old Ned, and telling Gran’ma where he was going,
he drove over to Eddie’s home and brought back the boat.
It did not take Gran’pa long to make the wings on either side of the
boat. He took all the spools he could find and nailed them around the
front part. He made a rudder behind that could be turned in any
direction. Gran’pa, when he had the boat completed, sat and thought a
minute, then he went into the buggy shed and taking two lamps from an
old surrey he trimmed the wicks, filled them with oil and fastened them
on the sides of the boat.
When he had everything to his liking, it was still daylight and he
called Gran’ma to come out and see the new Flying Boat.
“Do you think it will really go?” Gran’ma asked.
“Jump in and let’s try it!” Gran’pa cried.
So the two old people climbed into the boat and Gran’pa twisted one of
the spools. The Flying Boat rose quietly in the air and flew about as
Gran’pa twisted the spools or the rudder.
“It is a success!” both cried as Gran’pa brought the boat back to the
starting point.
When they settled to the ground, Gran’ma ran into the house and came out
with Gran’pa’s coat and hat. She had put on her best bonnet and shawl.
She had Janey’s and Johnny’s coats and several sweaters with her.
Gran’ma had prepared a large basket of food while Gran’pa had been
working on the boat, so she told Gran’pa to get this while she filled a
jar with water.
“If we find them, the dears will be hungry and thirsty,” Gran’ma said,
“and it is such a beautiful evening we might as well start now.”
“You are right!” Gran’pa exclaimed. “We will start immediately!”
Eddie had remained at home to eat his supper when Gran’pa went for the
boat, and now he came running over just in time to see the Flying Boat
rise from the ground and go sailing over the fences and trees.
“I’ll take care of your place until you come back!” he yelled.
And Gran’pa and Gran’ma, increasing the speed of the Flying Boat, were
soon only a speck in the sky.
When they had reached a great altitude, Gran’pa twisted the spool marked
“Direction taken by the children” and the Flying Boat swooped down
towards the earth until it was on a plane with the course taken by Janey
and Johnny; then, as Gran’pa twisted the “Speed” spool, the Flying Boat
whizzed through the air so fast that the wind screamed as it rushed in
and out of the chinks in the wing boards. Gran’pa and Gran’ma saw the
sun rise as they flew over the horizon. The side of the earth away from
the sun was in darkness, so that when they flew higher it took on the
appearance of a half moon.
[Illustration]
Gran’pa looked at his watch and said it was ten-thirty.
“You take a wink of sleep, Gran’ma,” he said. “I’ll keep watch!”
So Gran’ma rolled up in the blankets she had placed in the boat and was
soon fast asleep.
Gran’pa awakened her in about an hour to look at the Moon, which they
were approaching at great speed.
“They must have gone to the Moon!” Gran’ma cried. “No, they must have
changed their course!” she added after a moment as the Flying Boat,
following the course taken by the children, made the circuit of the
Moon.
But the Flying Boat soon flew directly at the Moon and the old folks
knew the children must have made a landing there.
[Illustration]
In fact, the Flying Boat soon landed near the Flying Machine that Johnny
had made.
“Here we are!” Gran’pa cried, as he helped Gran’ma from the Flying Boat.
“See where they have been sitting in the grass!”
And Gran’ma and Gran’pa followed the children’s path in the grass until
they came to the spring. There they saw the signs of Johnny’s fight.
“It looks as though a struggle had taken place here!” cried Gran’pa.
“Oh! Maybe wild beasts have eaten them up!” cried Gran’ma.
“No! There are no signs of wild beasts!” Gran’pa replied. “We should see
their torn clothes about if that were the case! See, their trail leads
off this way!”
Gran’pa and Gran’ma at last came to the tiny house of sticks and mud and
heard the cries of the children inside.
“Here we are!” Gran’pa cried as he ran around the house.
Gran’ma, lifting her skirts, followed, and when she turned the corner of
the house she stopped in amazement beside Gran’pa.
Back of the house the Strange Man was running in circles and dodging
behind trees and bushes, now this way and now that, while right behind
him came a Faun Boy with lowered head. They were so busy running they
didn’t notice Gran’ma and Gran’pa.
And as the old couple watched, the little Faun Boy caught up with the
Strange Man and, butting him with all his might, sent him flying through
a bunch of ferns.
Before the Strange Man could regain his feet the Faun Boy was upon him
and sent him tumbling head over heels again.
The Strange Man scrambled to his feet when the Faun Boy tripped over
some vines and without looking behind him he circled about and ran for
the house.
As he reached the door, another Faun Boy rushed from the bushes and,
taking the Strange Man unawares, sent him flying back towards the first
Faun Boy.
“Those goats will butt him to pieces!” cried Gran’ma, as she ran after
the Faun Boys and tried to shoo them away.
The Faun Boys paid no attention to Gran’ma’s shooing and continued to
butt the Strange Man about between them until he scarcely had time to
know from which side he was attacked.
When Gran’pa saw that Gran’ma’s shooing had no effect upon the Faun
Boys, Gran’pa ran after them and managed to catch their arms, and
although they struggled to get free he held them tightly.
“My gracious!” Gran’pa asked them, “Do you wish to kill that poor old
man?”
“Let us go!” the Faun Boys cried, “He’s a wicked magician!”
[Illustration: The little Faun Boy caught up with the Strange Man,
hitting him with all his might. (page 44)]
“I thought they were goats,” Gran’ma exclaimed, and she looked hard at
the Faun Boys as she adjusted her glasses, “but they _are_ part boys!”
The Strange Man had managed to get to his feet and without thanking
Gran’pa, who still held the Faun Boys, he slipped through the bushes and
disappeared.
The two Faun Boys began crying. “He was a wicked magician!” they said,
“and he changed us partly into goats. We are trying to get him to change
us back to our own shapes! Now you have spoiled it all!”
“Dear me!” Gran’ma cried, as she caught the two Faun Boys in her arms.
“Gran’pa, you should have known better!”
“I know I should have known better now, but I didn’t until they told
me!” Gran’pa said. “I’m very sorry!”
[Illustration]
Just then Janey and Johnny, who had stopped yelling to rest a little,
started up again and Gran’pa and Gran’ma ran towards the house.
The door was locked.
“Open the door and we will let you out!” cried Gran’pa when he could
make himself heard.
“We are tied, hands and feet,” Johnny yelled, “and we can’t get to the
door!”
“Besides, it’s locked on the outside!” Janey called.
“Let’s get a fence rail and break in the door!” said Gran’pa.
But there wasn’t a fence in sight.
“I’ll run back to the Flying Boat and get a hatchet!” Gran’pa called, as
he started away.
“No doubt you will find that old Jingles, the Magician, intended
changing your grandchildren into animals,” the Faun Boys told Gran’ma.
[Illustration]
“If I had him now!” Gran’ma said, stamping her foot upon the ground,
“I’d tweak his long nose! That’s what I’d do!”
Finally Gran’pa came running back all out of breath. “The Flying Boat
and the children’s Flying Machine are both gone!”
“Oh dear!” Gran’ma exclaimed, as she sat down on the ground and began
crying.
The Faun Boys began butting their heads against the door, Gran’pa
helping them by throwing his shoulder against it, and soon the door gave
way.
Gran’ma and Gran’pa untied the children and hugged them.
The children told Gran’ma and Gran’pa of their experience. “As soon as
he had learned the rhyme he was going to change us into pigs!” Janey
said.
“Well, we won’t let him now that we are here!” said, Gran’ma, firmly.
“Oh, but you couldn’t help yourself if he decided to change you into
animals!” the Faun Boys told Gran’ma.
[Illustration]
“I’d like to see him just try it!” Gran’ma said, her lips in a tight
line. “I’d tweek his nose out of joint!”
“Perhaps we’d better leave the place before he returns!” Gran’pa said.
“Evidently it was Jingles the Magician who took our Flying Boat!”
“Surely it must have been!” the Faun Boys said.
“Here’s his large book, with the verses in, that he uses to work his
magic with!” cried Johnny.
The book was too large for them to carry with them, so they hid it under
some stones and scattered leaves over it so that Jingles would not be
able to find it if he came back.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV
ENTER THE MAGIC BOXING GLOVES, THE WOLVES, AND THE RUBBER RIVER
“The Strange Man is called ‘Jingles the Magician’ because he uses rhymes
to work his magic,” the Faun Boys explained, as they walked from the
house.
They had not gone far before they reached a large field. “This is
queer!” one of the Faun Boys cried. “This field was not here when we
came through a short time ago!”
About half-way across the field was a clump of bushes, and Gran’pa said,
“Perhaps it would be as well to walk around it.” But as they drew nearer
the bushes began moving, and what seemed at first to be a flock of birds
arose and flew towards them.
As the objects came closer Gran’pa saw they were Boxing Gloves; swarms
of them. They flew about the little group and peppered them from all
sides. Gran’pa struck them right and left with his cane, but was finally
forced down. The children, Gran’ma and the Faun Boys ran as fast as they
could across the field, followed by the Boxing Gloves, which swarmed
about their heads like giant bees and hit against their backs and heads.
Gran’pa, still on the ground, struck right and left with his heavy cane
and at each swing he brought down one or two of the Boxing Gloves.
The children, Gran’ma and the Faun Boys by this time had reached the
other side of the field and dashed into the underbrush. For some reason
the Boxing Gloves did not follow, but turned and flew back and began
pelting Gran’pa.
Whenever Gran’pa managed to get to his feet the Boxing Gloves knocked
him down, so he lay on his back and struck right and left and kicked his
heels in the air to keep them from striking him.
When Johnny saw that the Boxing Gloves did not follow into the
underbrush he told Gran’ma and Janey to wait where they were and
breaking off a stout stick Johnny rushed back to Gran’pa’s assistance.
The stick was so long and heavy that he tripped over it, but he didn’t
mind that—just jumped up and ran faster than ever.
[Illustration: Gran’pa struck them right and left with his cane, but was
finally knocked down. (page 50)]
Some of the Boxing Gloves met him half-way and although Johnny knocked
them down by the hundreds, he could not defend himself from all sides
and three or four of the Boxing Gloves, striking him from behind, sent
him flying to the ground.
Johnny rolled over and over, but kept his stout stick thrashing the air
whenever he turned face up.
Gran’pa was still hitting the Boxing Gloves with his cane, but was
getting very tired.
The ground was covered with broken Boxing Gloves, lying where Gran’pa
and Johnny had struck them with their sticks.
Johnny tried to get upon his feet, but was promptly knocked down. The
Faun Boys broke off large sticks and ran back into the field, where they
fought the Boxing Gloves away from Gran’pa and Johnny.
The Faun Boys whipped so many of the Boxing Gloves that soon there were
not enough left to injure Gran’pa and Johnny again, so as the few
remaining Boxing Gloves flew at them Gran’pa and Johnny whipped these,
too.
At last there were only three of the Boxing Gloves left and these were
flying about one of the Faun Boys, trying to find a place to strike him.
Gran’pa ran to his assistance and as he struck at them one flew close
and knocked Gran’pa’s glasses from his nose, so that he could not see.
“Watch for my glasses, boys!” he cried. “Don’t step on them!”
Johnny, running up, cracked one of the Boxing Gloves, but the other two
kept getting behind him. Presently Johnny found himself with his back
towards the Faun Boys, and a Boxing Glove coming to reach the Faun Boy
did not know Johnny was there until Johnny caught it such a whack with
his stick he tore it all to pieces. The Faun Boy finally knocked the
thumb off the last one and the great fight with the Magic Boxing Gloves
was over.
What a sight! There were thousands of torn Boxing Gloves lying about.
One of the Faun Boys found Gran’pa’s glasses and handed them to him.
“That was better than fighting bumble bees when I was a boy!” Gran’pa
laughed. Aside from a black and blue eye, Gran’pa was not hurt in the
least.
“That surely was fun!” Johnny cried, as they reached the place where
they had left Janey and Gran’ma.
“It won’t be as much fun the next time!” a voice cried, and turning,
they saw old Jingles the Magician sail from the Boxing Glove Bushes in
the Flying Boat and disappear in the direction of his house.
“I thought he was responsible for those bushes!” said one of the Faun
Boys. “You must watch out for him every minute, for all he has to do to
change you into an animal is to puff his magic powder on you and say his
rhyme!”
“We will watch out for him!” Gran’ma said.
The Faun Boys invited Gran’ma and Gran’pa and the children to their
place to rest and have something to eat, so they led the way and without
further adventure came to their tiny home.
When the Faun Boys had given Gran’pa and Gran’ma and the children food,
Gran’pa said, “I don’t know how we shall contrive to get the flying boat
away from old Jingles.”
“I should advise you not to try it,” one of the Faun Boys told him, “for
he will only change you into animals if he once gets you separated from
each other! I should advise you to travel in the opposite direction from
his place until you come to the town of Nite. Living in that town you
will find an old Witch who may be able to help you reach the earth
again!”
“Perhaps that will be a wise thing to do!” Gran’ma said. “For if we
should get separated and one of us should be changed to an animal, the
rest of us could not go home without him and we could not take him
home!”
“Yes,” Janey and Johnny said, “let us go to the City of Nite!”
So, thanking the Faun Boys for their hospitality, Gran’ma and Gran’pa
and Janey and Johnny left them and started on their journey.
The Faun Boys had warned them to be careful of old Jingles.
“He may follow you all the way to the City of Nite and try to get each
of you alone so he can say his rhymes,” they said, “but once you are in
the City you are safe, for we have heard that the Witch is very angry at
him and will destroy him some day if she can!”
[Illustration]
After leaving the home of the Faun Boys, Gran’ma with her arm about
Janey and Gran’pa with his arm around Johnny, the travelers walked until
they came to a high cliff above a river. There seemed to be no way
across to the other side of the canyon except by way of a Vine Bridge.
“I can never get across that thing!” Gran’ma cried.
“We’ll have to cross it or walk for miles and miles around!” Gran’pa
said. For as far as they could see in either direction, the canyon was
just as wide and deep as it was there.
“I just know I’d get dizzy and tumble in!” Gran’ma said.
[Illustration]
Johnny walked out upon the vine bridge and bounced it up and down.
“It is strong enough to hold us, Gran’ma!” he called back. “Put your
hands over your eyes and you will be all right.”
“I can’t do it!” Gran’ma replied, as she sat down on the ground.
“If we only had our boat we’d fly across!” Janey said.
“Yes! If we only had our boat we’d fly home!” Gran’ma sighed.
“Maybe, after all, we had best go back to the wicked Jingle’s house
until he goes to bed and then we may be able to get our boat!” Gran’pa
suggested.
“Perhaps we had!” Johnny agreed. So they turned from the canyon and
started to retrace their steps.
Suddenly Gran’pa, who was in the lead, stopped and said, “Listen! What
was that?”
They all held their breaths an instant later. It was the baying of
Wolves.
“They are coming in this direction!” Johnny cried.
The sound grew louder.
“Which way shall we go?” Janey asked.
“Come on everybody!” Gran’ma cried, as she lifted her skirts and ran
towards the Vine Bridge.
“Wait, Gran’ma!” Janey cried. “Let Johnny help you across!” But Gran’ma
kept running.
Just as she reached the edge of the canyon she stumbled and slid over
the cliff.
Gran’pa, Johnny and Janey ran to the edge and looked over, expecting to
see Gran’ma struggling in the river far below, but what was their
surprise to see her sitting upon the top of the water, unharmed.
“Are you hurt?” Gran’pa called.
“Not a speck!” Gran’ma called back. “The river is rubber and all I did
was bounce up and down!”
“Jump over and have a bounce! I wish I were up there so I could do it
again! It was fine!” Gran’ma added, as she jumped up and down and
bounced about like a rubber ball.
Gran’pa had almost forgotten the Wolves coming behind them, but noticing
now how near they seemed, he said, “We haven’t a great deal of time
left, Johnny, we better jump! The Wolves have scented us and are getting
closer every minute!”
“But if we get down there, how will we ever get up again?” Johnny
wondered.
“I don’t know!” Gran’pa exclaimed, “but I know I shall not leave Gran’ma
down there alone!” So with that, Gran’pa jumped from the cliff and
turned over and over before he hit the Rubber River upon his back.
The children thought he never would stop bouncing.
By this time the children could see the Wolves in the distance.
“What shall we do?” Janey cried, wringing her hands. “If we jump down we
may never get up again, if we stay here we shall be caught by the
Wolves, and if we go across they will follow us!”
“We could go across and then, when the Wolves tried to follow, we could
bounce the Vine Bridge and shake them off!” Johnny suggested.
“Yes, and shake them down to Gran’ma and Gran’pa! No, Johnny, that will
never do!”
“Then you cross the Vine Bridge, Sis, and I’ll show you what we’ll do!
Hurry now, before it’s too late!”
Janey ran across the Vine Bridge, and when she had reached the other
side Johnny drew his knife from his pocket and hacked at the vines. The
small, sharp blade soon cut them in two. He was none too quick, for just
as he severed the last strand of the Vine Bridge the Leader of the
Wolves sprang toward Johnny.
[Illustration]
As the Vine Bridge fell Johnny jumped and caught the loose end and went
swinging across the chasm at a dizzy speed. He managed to hold on, even
if he did get quite a bump when the Vine Bridge struck on the other
side.
When the Leader of the Wolves jumped and missed Johnny, he flew headlong
over the cliff. Gran’pa was watching the children, but when he saw the
Wolf light upon the Rubber River he braced himself and brought his stout
cane down upon the Wolf’s head with such force it did not move a muscle
when it had ceased bouncing.
Gran’ma, thinking the whole pack of Wolves would follow their Leader,
ran to the side of the Rubber River and disappeared in a hole in the
cliff.
Gran’pa followed her, and it was well he did, for as soon as Gran’ma and
he started to run the Wolves jumped over the cliff to the Rubber River.
By the time the Wolves had quit bouncing Gran’pa was in the hole beside
Gran’ma, and together they had rolled a large stone across the opening
so the Wolves could not follow.
As for Johnny, he swung to the other side of the canyon, climbed up the
Vine Bridge and finally reached the top where Janey was sitting waiting
for him.
“Oh Johnny,” she cried, “the Wolves jumped over the cliff after Gran’ma
and Gran’pa! Look and see if you can see them anywhere.”
Johnny had been so busy climbing he had known nothing of what had
happened below.
Now he went to the edge and looked over. The Wolves were all at one spot
on the cliff.
“Oh dear!” he cried. “They probably have caught Gran’ma and Gran’pa!”
At this Janey came to the edge and looked. She watched the pack closely
for a few moments.
“No, they have not! See! The Wolves are tearing and digging at that big
stone. Gran’ma and Gran’pa must be behind the stone! There must be a
cave there!”
Johnny caught his sister by the shoulder and drew her hastily away from
the edge of the cliff and into the bushes.
“Old Jingles in the Flying Boat!” he whispered. “I just saw a speck in
the distance, coming this way!”
So the children, crouching low, ran away through the ferns and bushes.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V
THE BEAUTIFUL GIRL TELLS HER STRANGE STORY
As soon as Gran’pa and Gran’ma rolled the stone across the opening they
walked back into the cave. It was very dark and they held their hands in
front of them so they would not bump their heads if they ran into a
wall. By and by Gran’pa came to some steps, and feeling his way with his
cane he helped Gran’ma up the long flight. They finally reached the top
and walked into a spacious cavern filled with a greenish light. They
could not discover where the light came from, but they could see each
other quite plainly.
Gran’pa and Gran’ma walked across the cavern until they came to a door
over which hung a sign which read, “Stay out! This means you!”
“We may as well go in!” Gran’pa said, “for we cannot get out while the
Wolves are at the opening!” So hand in hand they entered the door and
followed a narrow passageway as it zigzagged back and forth.
Presently they came to a round room filled with a reddish light, and in
the center of this room stood a large pot.
Gran’pa went up to the pot and raised the lid. As he did so the lid
sprang from his hands and flew across the room. The pot began popping
like a bunch of firecrackers, and white stuff flew from it up to the
ceiling and rattled down about the place.
Gran’pa and Gran’ma could not find the entrance to the room again,
although they went around the room four or five times.
Gran’pa discovered a hole far above their heads, and as the white stuff
flew about them like hail and settled upon the floor, they kept climbing
on top of it until they could reach the hole and climb through.
As they crawled into the hole something warm and sticky flowed by them,
so they hurried back into the room from which they had just come. It was
lucky for them that they did, for the sticky stuff poured from the hole
in a stream and mixed with the white stuff which now nearly filled the
room.
“It’s molasses!” Gran’pa cried, as he tasted it.
“And the white stuff is popcorn!” Gran’ma cried in turn, as she took up
a handful and squeezed it together into a popcorn ball.
The molasses candy continued to pour from the hole until the popcorn was
covered with it. Then the room began to sway back and forth, gently at
first, then faster and faster, until Gran’pa, popcorn and Gran’ma were
shaken up and rolled about much the same as popcorn is in a shaker. Both
Gran’pa and Gran’ma were covered with molasses and popcorn when the room
ceased shaking.
“Dear me suz!” Gran’ma exclaimed. “The stuff is all in my hair!—This is
a mess!”
“Yes, but just taste it, Gran’ma!” Gran’pa said. “It’s fine!”
Again the room began shaking and the air grew much warmer.
“We’d better get out of this!” Gran’pa said. “There must be a fire under
the room!”
So they crawled through the hole again and now the molasses candy had
grown hard and did not stick to their hands.
“This must be the place the molasses came from,” said Gran’ma, as they
came to another room, the sides of which were covered with candy.
There seemed to be no opening at the top for the candy to come in and
Gran’pa soon discovered that it came in from the bottom.
Through the hard candy at the side of the room Gran’ma thought she saw a
light, and when Gran’pa pried a large piece away with his cane they saw
another long, narrow opening.
[Illustration]
Through this they crawled until the passageway widened and they could
stand up and walk.
After walking down this passageway for five or ten minutes Gran’pa and
Gran’ma came to a room filled with purple light, and in the center of
this room stood a large Green Jar.
“Well I won’t be foolish enough to look in this one!” Gran’pa said, as
he walked right past it and opened a door upon the other side. “Here we
are, Gran’ma! I can see daylight, and the steps lead up to the top of
the ground.”
“If that is the case, I shall take a peep in this Green Jar!” Gran’ma
said.
“Don’t do it, Gran’ma!” Gran’pa cautioned. “Profit by our last
experience!”
“Yes, but the other was a pot, and pots are always apt to boil over or
do something of the sort,” Gran’ma answered. “I shall look into this
Green Jar and you can hold the door wide open, like this, so it won’t
take a moment to drop it and hurry up the steps and escape if it begins
to blow popcorn or do anything of the kind.”
[Illustration: “Did you open the Green Jar?” the Beautiful Girl asked.
(page 65)]
Gran’ma took the lid from the Green Jar and thick red smoke came
whirling up from it.
Gran’ma wished to run, but her knees would not let her, so she sat right
down, smack! upon the floor and watched.
When the smoke thinned out Gran’ma saw the hands, then the arms, then
the head of a Beautiful Girl appear above the edge of the Green Jar.
She raised her arms above her head and yawned.
When Gran’pa saw what was coming from the Green Jar he came back and
helped Gran’ma to her feet.
The Beautiful Girl turned and looked at them. “Who are you?” she asked.
“Gran’ma and Gran’pa Huggins!” Gran’pa said.
“Did you open the Green Jar?” the Beautiful Girl asked.
“Gran’ma did,” Gran’pa answered, “but I advised her not to!”
“Well, seeing that she opened it anyway I shall forgive you, Gran’pa!”
the Beautiful Girl laughed.
“Shall we help you out?” Gran’ma asked, as she held out her hands.
“Mercy, how sticky you are!” the Beautiful Girl cried. “We were caught
in a popcorn machine!” Gran’pa laughed.
When the Beautiful Girl had been helped from the Green Jar, Gran’pa led
the way to the door and up the stairs to the ground above.
Gran’pa, Gran’ma and the Beautiful Girl came right out where Janey and
Johnny were hiding. The children flew to the old people and threw their
arms around their necks.
“Old Jingles sent the Wolf Pack after us,” Johnny said, “for we saw him
flying this way after you two had crawled into the cave!”
“Perhaps he will follow us into the cave!” said Gran’ma.
“I hope he sticks fast in the molasses candy if he does!” said Gran’pa.
“Let us fill the opening here with stones!” Johnny suggested, “so if he
does follow you through the cave he will have to go all the way back for
his trouble!”
So they all carried sticks and stones and filled up the mouth of the
cave. When that was finished Janey asked where they had found the
Beautiful Girl.
“Let us travel from here as fast as we can!” said the Beautiful Girl,
“and I will tell you the story as we go along!”
As they hurried through the giant mushrooms and bushes the Beautiful
Girl told them the following strange story.
“I live in the City of Nite,” she began, “or at least I did live there
until I was shut up in the Green Jar. I was out walking one day near the
river, and as I stopped on the bank to gather some beautiful flowers
growing there I came upon a Queer Horse standing in the water. At first
I thought he could not be alive, for he stood so still and he had no
head; but as I stood gazing at him in wonderment he switched his tail
and knocked some flies from his back, and I heard him say, ‘There now! I
hope I switched all of you off!’
“‘Dear me!’ I cried out aloud. ‘A horse without a head talking! Whoever
heard of such a thing!’
“At this the Queer Horse came out of the water and sat down upon the
bank.
“‘I don’t see how you are able to travel about without a head!’ I said.
“‘Well, it is a handicap,’ the Queer Horse answered, ‘but I have grown
used to it!’
“‘Where is your head?’” I asked him.
“‘I ate it off!’ he answered.
“‘Ate it off!’” I exclaimed in wonder.
“‘Yes!’ he replied. ‘You see, I was always a sort of pig when it came to
eating, and one day a Strange Man came up to me and hit me with his cane
and cried, “If you don’t quit your eating you’ll burst! I believe if you
were given all you could eat, you would eat your head off!”’
“‘I should like to have a trial at it!’ I answered the man.
“‘Then,’ he said, ‘You shall have it!’ and he led me to a field where
hay and corn and oats grew thick! ‘Now,’ said the Strange Man, ‘Eat!’
“‘So I ate and ate, until I really did eat my head off!’
“And,” continued the Beautiful Girl, “I felt so sorry for the Queer
Horse I went up and patted him where his head should have been, and, lo!
and behold, his head came into view!
“At this the Queer Horse was very happy, and told me he was very
grateful to me. ‘If I can ever be of assistance to you, I shall be very
glad!’ he said.
“And as we stood there talking the Strange Man came up to us and said,
‘Why did you pat the Queer Horse where his head wasn’t?’”
[Illustration]
“‘I don’t know!’ I replied. ‘I just felt sorry for him and wished to pat
him!’
“‘You’ve spoiled my magic!’ the Strange Man said, ‘and as punishment you
will have to be shut up in the Green Jar!’ And he struck me with his
cane.
“I did not know another thing until you took the lid off the Green Jar,”
the Beautiful Girl told Gran’ma, as she ended her tale.
“And you don’t know how long you were in the Green Jar?” asked the
children.
“No, I have no recollection of any time at all. It just seems as if I
had gone to sleep and just awakened.”
“I never knew such things were possible,” Gran’pa exclaimed, “until we
came here, to the Magical Land of Noom!”
“Don’t you live on the Moon?” the Beautiful Girl asked.
“No,” Gran’ma answered, “we just came to the Moon. We live upon the
Earth, and we shall be very glad when we can get back there, too, I tell
you!”
[Illustration]
“Why don’t you return to the Earth?” the Beautiful Girl inquired.
“Old Jingles, the Magician, took our Flying Boat!” said Gran’pa. “And we
are trying to escape from him now, or get our Flying Boat back, or do
something, so that we can return to the Earth.”
“Listen!” the Beautiful Girl cried suddenly. “What was that?”
“It sounded like thunder,” Janey said. “There comes the storm cloud!”
“Let us hasten!” the Beautiful Girl cried. “Perhaps we may find shelter
somewhere!”
So, catching hold of hands, they all ran as hard as they could until
they came to a village.
“Here’s a good place!” the girl cried, as she ran in at an open door.
They reached shelter none too soon, for the storm was upon them.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VI
NOW WE COME TO THE LITTLE OLD LADY AND JINGLE’S MAGIC WHISTLE
The wind howled, and the lightning popped and cracked, and everything
grew as black as ink. The rain came down in torrents and the house in
which they had taken shelter rocked and shook.
“I wonder if anyone lives here!” Gran’ma said, as she felt around the
walls and turned on a light.
The room was flooded with brightness, and the Beautiful Girl saw a paper
lying on a table and picked it up.
“Oh dear me!” she cried, as she sat down on a chair and buried her face
in her hands.
Gran’ma ran to her and put her arms around her. “What is the matter, my
dear?” she asked.
“Look at the date on this paper!” wept the Beautiful Girl. Gran’ma read,
“July 24, 339,780.”
“I don’t understand!” said Gran’ma as the others came and stood around
the Beautiful Girl.
“It was in the year 339,700 that I talked to the Queer Horse and the
Strange Man put me in the jar! Oh dear! I have been in that jar for
eighty years!”
“There’s one consolation,” said Gran’pa, gallantly, “you do not look
it!”
“I know it!” the Beautiful Girl replied, “We never change much here. I
did not tell you before, you see, that I am Princess Nidia of Nite, and
that there has been no one to rule the City of Nite in all this time!”
“Oh, yes, there has!” Gran’ma cried. “For the Faun Boys told us there
was an old Witch who ruled things in the City of Nite!”
“Then I am lost!” the Beautiful Girl cried. “For she will never let me
have my throne back again!”
“We will take it away from her!” said Johnny. “It belongs to you and we
will help you get it back! And we shall call you The Princess from now
on!”
“I hope you can get my throne back,” the Princess said, as Gran’ma wiped
the tears from her eyes. “I cannot imagine who this Witch can be!”
[Illustration: “It was in the year 339,700 that I talked to the Queer
Horse and the Strange Man put me in the jar!” (page 72)]
“The Faun Boys told us that the Witch was an enemy of old Jingles, the
wicked Magician,” said Janey, “so perhaps the Witch has just been
holding your throne for you until you return!”
While they had been talking the storm had increased in fury so that the
windows rattled as if they would fall out.
A leak started in the roof and water dripped to the floor, where it
spread on the carpet and made a black spot.
“It is one of our ink rains!” said the Princess.
Gran’ma ran to the kitchen and got a large tub which she placed where it
would catch the ink and save the carpet.
“Thank you very much for doing that!” said a voice from the other side
of the room. “I feel sure anyone kind enough to do and act like that
would not harm a poor Little Old Lady!”
“Indeed we wouldn’t harm you!” Gran’pa said. “But where are you hiding?”
“Up here!” said the Little Old Lady, as she looked out from behind a
picture which covered a window.
“There is a door behind the cabinet there, and if you press the little
button at the side you will see a stairway! Perhaps you would be more
comfortable up here!”
[Illustration]
“Shall we go up?” asked Gran’ma.
“Yes, let’s go up and see her,” the children replied.
So Johnny hunted until he found the tiny button, and the cabinet swung
out from the wall, disclosing the thoroughly scoured stairway.
When they were all on the inside the cabinet swung back into place, and
the little doorway was hidden.
They went up the stairs and came into a very pretty little room with
soft chairs and couches standing about.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” said the Little Old Lady, “while I get
you a bite to eat and a cup of tea!”
From the coziness of the little room the storm could hardly be heard,
and the visitors were happy, watching the Little Old Lady as she worked.
She wore a tiny little poke bonnet and a tight waist with an enormous
overskirt of flowered material. Two cheery eyes full of twinkles looked
out through shiny eyeglasses, and a stray white curl peeped out from
beneath the back of her bonnet.
“When I heard you come running up the path, I hid,” the Little Old Lady
said when the tea was ready, “for no one would suspect that I had a room
up here and nothing would disturb me in my retreat.”
When all had eaten and Gran’ma had cleaned up the crumbs and started to
wash the dishes, they were all startled by a loud thumping down stairs.
“Sh!” whispered the Little Old Lady. “Sit still while I take a peek!”
She turned out the light and went to the picture and peeped through.
Then she closed the picture window and turned on the light.
“Sh!” she whispered again. “Didn’t I hear you talking of a wicked man?
Come and see if it is he; but remember, do not make the slightest noise
or he will discover us!”
When all had peeped through the picture window, and the kind old lady
had closed it again the Princess said, “It is indeed the wicked Strange
Man who put me in the jar!”
“It is old Jingles, the Magician!” whispered the others.
Yes, it was old Jingles, the Magician, but he was a very sorry sight.
His clothes were covered with black mud and the ink rain had soaked
through his hat and had run down over his face so that it was as black
as coal.
He stamped his feet to shake the ink from his clothes, and wiped his
face with his handkerchief; but the more he wiped it the blacker it
grew.
The Little Old Lady again motioned the rest to the window and turned out
the light so that they could watch old Jingles.
“Just wait until I catch them!” he muttered to himself. “I will change
all of them into pigs and never let them see a mud puddle! I should have
been all right if Gran’ma and Gran’pa had not come along! It’s all their
fault, and it was they who rescued the Princess from the Green Jar! Oh,
just wait until I catch them! Then they will be sorry they ever came to
the Magical Land of Noom!”
The wicked creature tried saying some of his magic rhymes to clean the
ink from himself, but he did not succeed.
“I should have had all of them in my power by this time if the ink rain
had not soaked my little Magic Whistle so that I cannot blow it!” And he
took something from out of his pocket and wiped it with his
handkerchief.
It was a Magic Whistle made of pig-skin and had little tassels hanging
from it. Now the pig-skin was soaking wet and the tassels dripping ink.
The more the Magician wiped the whistle, the wetter it seemed to become.
The storm had slackened by this time and old Jingles went to the window.
“They cannot have gone far!” he said as he shook his fist at the black
clouds disappearing in the distance, “and no matter how far they have
gone, I will catch up with them when my Magic Whistle dries! And then
they had better be careful!”
As the rain of ink had now ceased, the Magician went to the door and
looked out. “I hope it will dry up soon,” he said, “so that I can catch
up with them!” And he walked out of the house.
“What had we better do?” Gran’ma asked.
“We had best stay where we are for a while,” Gran’pa replied, “for
evidently the ink rain has covered our tracks and he will not be able to
find us, so he will go on and we can follow him.”
“I must hasten to the City of Nite,” cried the Princess, “and try to
regain my throne. My subjects were so happy when I was there—oh, dear, I
wonder how it will all turn out!”
“Perhaps the Little Old Lady can suggest something for us to do,” Janey
said.
The Little Old Lady thought a while and then said, “I believe it will be
as well for all of you to stay here for a time. That will throw Jingles
off the track. I will run over to my brothers and ask their advice. I
think it would be as well for all of you to stay in this room,
meanwhile, in case the Magician should return!”
Then the Little Old Lady went down a back stairway and out of the door.
“If I had known what trouble we should get into, I should never have
built the Flying Machine!” said Johnny.
“Do not take all the blame, Johnny,” said his sister, “for it was I who
thought of most of it and then we really did not know it would fly!”
[Illustration]
The Little Old Lady was gone for quite a while and as the others sat
talking in the cozy secret room, they again heard stamping downstairs.
Gran’ma went to the picture window and peeped through. Old Jingles had
returned. “I can not find their trail beyond this house!” he cried as he
kicked over a chair. “If my Magic Whistle would only dry so that I could
blow it and discover where they are, I could easily catch up with them
and punish them!”
“Dear me!” Gran’ma whispered to the others who had gathered around the
picture window to listen. “The wicked Magician seems to think we have
done something very mean to him, when we are only trying to escape his
clutches!”
“That is always the case,” said the Princess. “Those who do the most
harm always think they are the most abused when things do not go just as
they wish!”
“I hope his Magic Whistle warps out of shape so that when it blows it
will turn his magic right back on himself!” Johnny whispered.
The more the Magician thought of our friends escaping him the more
injured he felt, and he knocked the furniture about in his anger.
At last he kicked the cabinet and loosened the little button which
opened the door. “Hello!” he cried. “Here is a secret stairway!”
“Quick!” cried Gran’ma. “He has discovered the stairway! He is coming
up! Run down the back way quick!”
They all ran down the back stairs as fast as they could, and of course
they made a lot of noise running. The more quietly they tried to run the
more they tripped and stumbled. The Magician, hearing them, knew in a
moment who it was and sprang up the front stairway in pursuit. Then down
the back stairs he ran too.
As Gran’pa, Gran’ma, the Princess and Janey ran down the street they saw
the Little Old Lady running towards them with her three brothers.
Johnny, bracing himself at the back door, was trying to hold it so the
Magician could not get out and he did succeed in holding him back until
the others got a good start.
When the Magician finally forced the door open, Johnny took to his heels
with the long-legged Magician close behind him. Johnny dodged this way
and that until he almost caught up with the others, who, when they met
the Little Old Lady and her brothers had stood still.
[Illustration]
Just as the Magician was reaching out his hand to catch hold of Johnny’s
collar, Johnny remembered a trick he had learned with other boys and
dropped to his knees, right in front of the Magician.
This tripped up Old Jingles and he went sprawling head over heels. As he
rolled over the three brothers of the Little Old Lady pounced upon him
and held him so he could not move.
The Magician rolled his eyes and started to say a rhyme, but one of the
brothers clapped his hand over Jingles’ mouth.
Then while two of the brothers held the Magician down, the other ran to
the house and came back with ropes. Soon the Magician was tied so that
he could not move a muscle and a handkerchief was tied across his mouth.
By this time many people had gathered about and it was suggested that
Old Jingles be given a seat in the ducking pool.
“Now,” said the Little Old Lady, “you folks had better be on your way!
We will keep the Magician here as long as possible.”
So Gran’pa, Gran’ma, Johnny, Janey and the Princess stayed only long
enough to see the Magician soused up and down in the water two or three
times and then they hastened out of town.
The brothers ducked the wicked Magician up and down in the pond until
they grew tired, then others took their places and they kept this up for
two hours. Then the Magician was placed in the stocks and his hands and
feet firmly padlocked so that he could not get away.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII
THE SOFT-VOICED COW MEETS THE WITCH AND THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE
After leaving the village in which the Magician was a prisoner, Gran’ma,
Gran’pa, the Princess and the children ran until they were tired, and
coming to a quiet shady place they sat down to rest.
“I do not believe I have run so hard since I was a girl,” said Gran’ma
as she fanned herself.
Just then they heard a noise in the bushes and all sprang to their feet,
but sat down again with sighs of relief when a Cow walked up to them.
The Cow wore a pretty bonnet and a velour waist; her skirt was of velvet
with flowers embroidered around the edge.
As she came up to the little group she shook the wrinkles out of her
apron and sat down facing them.
“How do you do, everybody!” the Cow said in a soft voice, as she smiled
at all.
Everybody greeted the Soft-Voiced Cow in a kindly manner.
“I saw you running across the field,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, “and you
looked as if you were running away from something.”
“We were,” Gran’ma said. “We were running away from Old Jingles the
Magician, who wants to change us into animals.”
“Dear me suz!” exclaimed the Soft-Voiced Cow. “Is he that wicked?”
“Yes indeed he is,” Janey said, and she told of their experiences, and
of that of the Princess.
“If he follows you, he may find me when he comes this way,” said the
Soft-Voiced Cow. “So if you do not mind my company, I will go with you
to the City of Nite. I should not care to meet so wicked a Magician.”
“We should be greatly pleased to have your company,” they told the
Soft-Voiced Cow.
When they had rested, Gran’pa said they better begin travel on; so the
Soft-Voiced Cow took Gran’ma and the Princess and Janey on her back and
the little party started on their way.
[Illustration: The Old Woman caught the Soft-Voiced Cow’s tail and began
dragging her back. (Page 83)]
They passed through dense groves of giant mushrooms and at times these
were so thick they had to bend them to one side in order to pass.
When they grew hungry the children told Gran’ma and Gran’pa that the
mushrooms were cake, so they ate of these.
After leaving the forest of mushrooms the path led through very rocky
country and as they turned a cliff the party came upon a spring bubbling
from the rocks and splashing down into a small stream far below.
There were a number of cups near the spring, so the children ran up and
took a drink. “Oh hurry!” they cried, “It’s a soda water spring!”
After drinking all they wished they again set out upon their journey.
When they finally left the rocky country and came upon a level stretch
of road they saw approaching them an Old Woman.
Gran’ma, the Princess and Janey had dismounted from the back of the
Soft-Voiced Cow, for they did not wish to tire her.
When the Old Woman came up to them, she caught the Soft-Voiced Cow by
the tail and began dragging her back the way the party had come.
Gran’pa was for making her let go of the Soft-Voiced Cow’s tail, but the
Soft-Voiced Cow spoke gently and said, “Let her be; she is evidently an
ill mannered person or she would not treat a stranger in this manner!”
However, the Old Woman dragged the Soft-Voiced Cow down the road so fast
the friction of the cow’s feet upon the roadway made them burn.
So the Soft-Voiced Cow turned to the Old Woman and said, “I wish you
would please let go of my tail! I do not care to travel in the direction
you are taking me and besides you are making my feet burn.”
But the Old Woman kept right on and paid no attention to the cow.
When the Soft-Voiced Cow had been dragged back upon the road for about a
mile with the little party following her, the Soft-Voiced Cow turned her
head to the Old Woman and said in her gentle way, “My dear lady, I must
insist that you let go of my tail, for you are delaying our party! We
wish to go in the opposite direction! And if you drag me three more
steps, I shall have to raise my heels and upset you!”
At this, Gran’pa caught the Old Woman’s arm and said, “Why do you drag
the Soft-Voiced Cow in this manner?”
The Old Woman stopped and gazed at Gran’pa for a moment, “Does this Cow
belong to you?” she asked.
“Of course not!” Gran’pa replied.
“Does she belong to anyone in your party?” the Old Woman asked.
“Of course not!” Gran’pa replied.
“Then,” said the Old Woman, “in that case, the Cow does not belong to
you nor anyone else that you know of, so she must be lost. And anything
which is lost belongs to the one who finds it! Therefore, since I found
the Cow she belongs to me, so I will take her home and make ox tail soup
out of her!”
“Did you ever hear the like?” cried the Princess. “Do not let her take
the Soft-Voiced Cow to make soup of!”
The Old Woman again began dragging the Soft-Voiced Cow down the road.
“Stand aside!” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “ONE, TWO, THREE! There!” She
raised her heels in the air and upset the Old Woman. “I promised that I
would do it if you dragged me three more steps!”
The Old Woman scrambled to her feet and shook her fist at Gran’ma. “You
will pay for this!” she cried. “Just wait!”
[Illustration]
And as the travelers and the Soft-Voiced Cow resumed their journey, the
Old Woman followed right behind them muttering in an undertone, “You
will pay for this!”
When they had gone but a little way beyond the place where they had met
the Old Woman, Johnny who was ahead of the others found ten cans. With
these he came running back.
“Here are ten cans of ox tail soup!” he said, as he offered them to the
Old Woman.
“I don’t want them!” the Old Woman cried. “I want the Soft-Voiced Cow
and I will have her if I have to follow you all around the Moon!”
“You are a most unreasonable Old Woman!” said the Princess. “You don’t
try to be happy! When you get what you want it seems to make you
discontented!”
The Old Woman did not answer, but ran around the party and down the road
ahead of them. “You just wait!” she cried again. “You will all be
sorry!”
“Let’s not pay any attention to her any more!” said the Soft-Voiced Cow.
“She is very disagreeable and has delayed us long enough as it is!”
The Old Woman could run very fast and she soon disappeared around the
bend in the road. They heard her clapping and shouting. When the
travelers reached the bend in the road a strange sight met their eyes.
As far as they could see before them and to either side was a great bog.
Gran’pa went up to it and pushed his cane into the edge. It was very
soft.
“We shall have to walk around it,” Gran’pa said, “for we should sink out
of sight if we attempted to cross it!”
When Gran’pa wiped his cane off in the grass, he felt that it was very
sticky, and touching his finger to the bog he tasted it. “Molasses candy
mud!” he cried.
“This is very unfortunate!” said the Princess as she looked about. “We
shall lose a lot of time walking around the molasses candy bog!”
“I told you that you would be sorry!” cried a voice behind them, and
looking around they saw the Old Woman standing on a little hill shaking
her fist at them. “I made it with my magic!” she called, “and you will
never get across it!”
“The unreasonable wicked creature!” Gran’ma cried as she started after
the Old Woman. “I will tweek your nose for you if I catch you!”
The Old Woman did not tarry long, but struck out over the hill with
Gran’ma close behind her. Gran’ma ran after the Old Woman and the others
followed. The Old Woman made for a little house not far away and as she
jumped through the door, she, the house and all disappeared.
“Well!” Gran’pa cried as he came up to Gran’ma. “We are rid of her at
any rate!”
“I hope we shall never see her again,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “Like
most disagreeable people she isn’t satisfied unless everyone else is
uncomfortable, depressed and so unhappy.”
“We may as well start walking around the molasses candy bog,” said the
Princess, “for we are losing so much time old Jingles may catch up with
us!”
“I have a suggestion,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, “which may be helpful.
Let us all walk down to the molasses candy bog, and when we are at the
edge I will take you all on my back and carry you some distance along
the bank, so that you will not leave any footprints. Then when the
Magician comes along he will not be able to track you!”
“That is an excellent idea!” said Gran’pa. “Let us act upon the
Soft-Voiced Cow’s suggestion!” So they all walked down to the molasses
candy bog.
The Soft-Voiced Cow took Gran’ma, Janey and the Princess upon her back
and carried them far down the bank; then she returned and carried
Gran’pa and Johnny to where the others were waiting.
But as they walked the bank gradually curved in until in a short time
they were walking in the direction from which they had just come.
“This will never do,” said Gran’pa coming to a stop, “for we are
returning from whence we came.”
And when they walked back along the bank the same thing happened.
Everything went swinging before them in long, sweeping circles. They
couldn’t make heads or tails of the shore line.
“Let us try walking away from the molasses candy bog,” said Johnny, “and
see what happens then!”
So they turned their backs to the bog and started walking away from it.
Sure enough, when they did this the bog began to fade away, and soon it
disappeared entirely!
“Whee!” cried the children. “We can go ahead!”
The travelers had lost a lot of valuable time, so they hastened across
the fields where the bog had been.
“You see!” said the Princess, “Johnny was right! The Old Woman’s magic
was as contrary as herself, for when the molasses candy bog thought we
did not care whether we crossed it or not, it disappeared.”
As the travelers walked along, they saw numbers of small animals running
about.
“I wonder where these little animals were when the great molasses bog
was here!” Janey said looking at them curiously.
“I’ll ask one of them,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, and she talked to the
strange little beast in animal talk.
[Illustration]
When the little animal answered, the Soft-Voiced Cow rolled over on the
ground with laughter and when at last she could speak she said, “I asked
the animal where it was when the bog was here, and it said there never
had been a bog here. Said it had lived here for years and the ground had
always been as it is now, except after a hard rain, so you see the Old
Woman only made us believe we saw a bog here, when in reality there was
none at all.”
“It’s queer,” exclaimed Gran’pa, “but I certainly tasted molasses candy
on my cane! In fact,” he said, looking at the cane, “there is still some
on it now!”
“Let me taste it!” Gran’ma cried. “Yes,” she said, “it is molasses
candy!”
“Well at any rate we are not troubled with the bog now!” Janey mused.
Across the fields rose high mountains.
“I wonder if we shall be able to find a path through the mountains!”
Gran’pa said.
“I think those are the mountains bordering the City of Nite!” said the
Princess. “And if that is the case we have not very much farther to
travel.”
But the mountains were farther away than the travelers thought, for
after walking for an hour they came to a rise in the ground from which
they looked across miles and miles of beautiful valley country. Gran’ma
and Gran’pa said it was almost as pretty as the country round the farm
back home.
Down in the valley a little way they saw a tiny house and walked in that
direction. When they came to the front gate and called no one answered,
so they walked in and knocked at the door.
As no one answered the knock they walked around to the back door and
looked inside the kitchen, for the door was open. There on the stove
were pots and pans filled with food which was cooking; and as they
watched, one of the pots raised itself from the stove and poured its
contents into another pot. Then another pot moved across the stove and
its lid came off and hung itself in the air, while a large spoon raised
itself from the back of the stove and stirred the contents of the pot.
“Shall we go in?” Janey whispered, as they all hesitated on the step.
Gran’pa raised his cane and knocked three times on the door sill.
“What was that?” cried a man’s voice from the front part of the house.
“Something hammered upon the door!” a woman’s voice in the kitchen
answered. “But I can see nothing outside to cause the noise!”
Gran’pa raised his cane and gave three more knocks.
“Did you ever!” the woman’s voice cried. “I was looking right at the
spot where the noise came from and I could not see a thing!”
Evidently the man had come to the kitchen door and stood near the woman,
for the travelers heard him speak right at the back door.
“What could it have been, Ella?” he said.
Gran’pa turned and winked at the others and again rapped three times
with his cane upon the door sill.
“There! You hear for yourself, Jules! There must be an invisible person
knocking at the door!”
“Is anyone there?” asked the man’s voice.
“We are standing right here in plain sight!” Gran’ma replied.
“Dear me!” the woman’s voice said. “I can see no one, can you, Jules?”
“I can’t see anyone!” Jules answered. “Whoever it is must be invisible!”
“It’s the Princess of Nite, Janey and Johnny, Gran’ma and Gran’pa
Huggins!” Gran’pa said. “We can see ourselves easily, but you are
invisible to us!”
“Had we better ask them in?” Ella inquired of the man.
[Illustration]
“Yes, do come in!” he said in answer, and as Gran’pa was nearest the
door, he walked in first and bumped right into the Invisible Man.
“Please excuse me!” Gran’pa said. “I am sorry, but I did not see you!”
“That’s all right,” the Invisible Man replied in a cheery voice. “I was
standing right in the doorway and I should have moved out of your way!”
His voice now came from the other side of the kitchen. “We will stand
over at this side of the room until all of you have gone into the dining
room. We were about to have dinner, and if you will take pot luck we
shall be pleased to have you dine with us.”
“That is nice of you!” Gran’ma said as she and the others walked into
the dining room and sat down at the table.
“It is strange to hear people speak and not be able to see them!” said
Janey.
[Illustration]
Johnny felt something brush against his leg and when he felt down there
he touched fur. “Here’s a kitten!” he cried, as he picked it up and held
it upon his lap. All could hear the kitten purring as Johnny stroked its
back, but it was invisible too.
There were only two plates upon the table when the visitors entered the
dining room, but now five more plates seemed to place themselves.
“Everybody pull up chairs!” said the Invisible Man, as he caught hold of
Gran’ma’s chair and tried to pull it towards the table. “Please excuse
me,” he laughed when he felt the weight and knew that one of his guests
was in it.
All pulled their chairs up to the table, Ella suggesting that the
visitors be seated first so that she and Jules would know just where
they were.
So all of the party presently were seated at the table and Ella brought
in the food from the kitchen.
It was strange for Gran’pa, Gran’ma, the children and the Princess to
see the dishes of food come floating in from the kitchen, and it seemed
as strange for Jules and Ella to hear the voices of invisible guests and
see their knives and forks rise from the table to cut their food.
When Jules had passed everything and all had helped themselves he asked
where they were traveling and where they had come from.
“It’s a long story,” Gran’pa said.
Then Gran’ma told him of how they had come to the Moon, and why they
were traveling to the City of Nite.
“But the wicked Magician will not be able to see you,” said Jules, “for
you are invisible!”
[Illustration]
“No,” Gran’ma answered, “we are visible to him, but the chances are that
he will not be able to see you!”
“If that is the case, and he should pass here we will do our best to
help you!” said Ella.
When the visitors had finished their dinner they thanked Jules and Ella
and asked if they might be excused.
“We are anxious to get to the City of Nite so that we can assist the
Princess in regaining her throne, and try to get our Flying Boat so that
we can return to the Earth,” they explained.
The Invisible Man and Woman said they understood the visitors’ hurry,
and told them to stop in to see them if they passed that way again.
Just then the Soft-Voiced Cow put her head in at the door and asked if
they were ready to start.
When the Invisible Man and Woman heard the Soft-Voiced Cow speak they
asked if they had forgotten to invite some of the party in to dinner.
“It’s the Soft-Voiced Cow,” explained the Princess. “She has been eating
her dinner of grass out in the back yard!”
“I can scarcely believe there is a Cow there!” said the voice of Ella.
“Would the Cow mind if I touched her to see if I can feel her?”
The Soft-Voiced Cow laughed heartily at this and stood still while Ella
patted her.
After a lot of reaching around in the air, Gran’pa and the rest
succeeded in shaking hands with their invisible friends.
“Funny how pleasant people keep out of sight,” Gran’ma said as her party
started down the walk.
“Thank you so much!” they all cried. “We hope to see you again some
time!”
At this the Invisible Man and Woman laughed and replied, “And we hope to
see you again some time, too!”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VIII
TIPTOE, THE DANCING MASTER, USES HIS MAGIC UMBRELLA
After traveling for a long time the travelers finally came to the
mountains and as they walked up a path amongst the rocks they heard
someone talking.
It proved to be a queer little man, no larger than Johnny.
He was seated near a large stone in the shade of a small umbrella, and
he was talking to himself.
When he heard the footsteps of the party, he arose to his feet and made
a low bow, sweeping the dust from the ground with the top of his high
hat.
“Good afternoon!” he called cheerily.
Then seeing the Princess, who had been walking behind Gran’pa, he rushed
towards her and threw himself at her feet.
“It’s my old Dancing Master, Tiptoe!” cried the Princess as she pulled
the little man to his feet and gave him a hug before introducing him to
Gran’pa and the others.
“What are you doing way out here in the mountains?” the Princess asked
when they had all taken seats around the Dancing Master.
The Dancing Master took out a red handkerchief and wiped his
nose-glasses carefully. “It’s really a long story,” he replied. “Won’t
you tell me where you have been for eighty years first?” he inquired of
the Princess.
The Princess told him of her strange adventure with the Queer Horse and
all that had happened up to the time she was rescued from the Green Jar
by Gran’ma.
When she had finished her story the Dancing Master took Gran’ma’s hand
and kissed it.
“Everyone in the City of Nite owes you a debt of gratitude, Gran’ma,” he
said, “and in some manner or other I, for one, hope to repay you!”
“Oh it wasn’t anything!” Gran’ma cried. “I just saw the Green Jar and
opened it because I was inquisitive. Of course we are very glad that we
rescued the Princess from the Green Jar but we do not deserve any credit
for it!”
Janey, who was anxious to hear the Dancing Master’s story, again asked
Tiptoe how he happened to be in the mountains.
“The day you disappeared,” the Dancing Master said, turning to the
Princess, “I was to have given you a lesson, don’t you remember? And I
was on my way to the Castle when I saw people running in all directions
about the City of Nite. I inquired of one why they were so excited.
‘Don’t you know?’ he answered. ‘The Beautiful Princess has disappeared!
Completely vanished!’”
“When I heard this I ran with all speed to the Castle. I had the right
to enter at any time in the day,” he explained to the children, “so I
ran right up to the ball-room, for I heard voices in loud discord coming
from there!”
“There I found a strange looking woman, with long straggly hair and a
long nose, shaking her walking stick at the Princess’ Ladies in Waiting.
“What is going on here?” I cried as I ran up to the group of ladies.
“‘This strange creature claims to be the Princess and says that a
Magician has transformed her into an old woman,’ the Ladies in Waiting
answered. ‘We do not believe she is telling us the truth!’
“I could not believe it myself,” added the Dancing Master, “but still I
have heard of stranger things, so I said to the Ladies in Waiting,
‘Perhaps she really is the Princess!’
“At first I could not get any of the ladies to agree with me,” the
Little Man went on, “and really, to tell the truth, I could not blame
them much for as the days went by the queer creature who said she had
been changed from our own Beautiful Princess into this ugly woman did
such disagreeable things to the Ladies in Waiting they all moved from
the Castle, and would not have anything to do with her. After a while I
discovered that the old woman was not the Princess.
“You must know that by this time no one ever went near the old woman,
who lived alone and kept herself shut up in a room away in the top of
the Castle tower. One night, as I was passing the Castle, I heard a
window creak far above my head, and looking up I saw the old woman,
seated in an umbrella, fly out of the tower window and go speeding away
out of sight. Then I knew that she was a witch!
“I ran home as fast as I could and told Mrs. Tiptoe what I had seen.
“We were so excited at first we couldn’t think of a thing to say. We
just looked at each other.
“Mrs. Tiptoe was one of the Ladies in Waiting to the Princess!” the
Dancing Master explained to Gran’ma. “Finally my good wife cried, ‘I
knew it all along! It is not our beautiful Princess. Who knows but that
this wicked Witch has taken the Princess and hidden her away somewhere!’
“‘I will go see this Witch and talk to her myself!’ Mrs. Tiptoe cried an
instant later and I could not dissuade her. Although she might have
known it would lead to trouble, she put on her bonnet and ran to the
Castle!
“Of course I followed. We went up the palace steps together and right in
at the door. The Palace was a sight!” exclaimed the Little Man. “No one
ever went there and there were papers and cobwebs all over the place. No
one cleaned any of the rooms, for no one would have anything to do with
that disagreeable old creature! So we went through the Palace until we
came to the rooms the old hag used for her living quarters, and there we
found proof that it indeed was not our beloved Princess!”
Here the poor Dancing Master fell to weeping so violently the Princess
came and placed her arm over his shoulder, and Gran’pa and Gran’ma
looked far across the valley, their eyes swimming in tears.
When the Dancing Master had dried his eyes he continued, “We found many
charms and implements of magic. Rabbit’s feet, and other things of the
kind. Then, too, in corners and upon shelves about the room were jars of
peculiar powder with labels which we could not read pasted upon them. In
the center of the room was an iron kettle and queer designs had been
traced about on the marble floor with black, green and yellow paint.
“‘I knew she was a witch!’ my wife cried. ‘Go call the Guards while I
wait here to see that she does not escape!’
“I ran out of the castle in hopes that I might bring the Guards and
place them in the room before the old witch returned. But try as hard as
I could, I could not find a Guard anywhere; they had all gone to parties
or were off on their vacations, so I ran back to the castle. ‘We will
capture the Witch ourselves!’ I cried as I ran into the Witch’s room.
“I expected to see Mrs. Tiptoe sitting there with a stern expression on
her face, just waiting for the Witch’s return, but what was my surprise
and consternation to see the Witch herself leering at me with her wicked
smile.
“The Witch told me I was the only one who knew for sure she was not the
Princess, so she would send me in search of Mrs. Tiptoe. ‘For,’ said the
wicked creature, ‘by the time you find your wife, you will have learned
better than to tell anyone that I am not the Princess!’
“And,” continued the Dancing Master, “without saying another word she
opened her Magic Umbrella and pointed her crooked cane at me. I was
forced to step into the Magic Umbrella. As I did so it shot out of the
window so fast I could scarcely catch my breath. Over the town of Nite I
flew and over the mountains I soared, until finally the Magic Umbrella
lit upon the ground miles and miles away from everybody. It was days and
days before I met anyone to talk to—awfully lonely life, but since then
I have heard from people in different towns that the wicked creature
still rules the City of Nite!” the Dancing Master finished, “but I have
never ventured back there since she made me fly from the place.”
“And how long is it since you left the City of Nite?” Gran’ma inquired.
[Illustration: “I was forced to step into the Magic Umbrella.” (page
102)]
The Dancing Master looked at the handle of his umbrella. “I have put a
notch on the handle for each year,” he replied, and when he had counted
them he said “Seventy-six years!”
“And you have never been able to find your wife?” asked Gran’pa.
The Dancing Master shook his head sadly.
“If we ever get to the City of Nite I will tweek the nose of that wicked
Witch!” cried Gran’ma, as she snapped her fingers in the air.
“And if I have a good chance,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, who had
wandered up and had listened to the Dancing Master’s story, “I will
raise my heels and upset her!”
“I do not know what to suggest,” said the Dancing Master. “Perhaps it
would be best if we do not return to the City of Nite, for the wicked
creature may work harm to us all!”
“_I_ shall return to the City of Nite,” said the Princess, as she
stamped her foot, “for it is my throne and I will have it back!”
“And I will go with you,” Gran’pa cried, “and help you regain your
throne!”
“We’ll all go!” Gran’ma cried, jumping to her feet and smoothing out her
apron.
“It is a long hard road!” said the Dancing Master doubtfully. “Why not
live here in the mountains where we shall not be troubled, for I myself
have lived here for the last ten years and it is very agreeable!”
They followed the Dancing Master as he led the way up over the rocks
until they came to a level place, at the back of which was a Cave.
The Dancing Master, with timber which he had hewn from the trees, had
made the front part of a tiny Cottage, with a wide piazza to fit the
opening of the Cave.
“This has been my home for ten years!” he said, “and the absence of Mrs.
Tiptoe from it is all that keeps my happiness from being complete!”
When all had entered the little Cottage-Cave, the Dancing Master set the
table and with Gran’ma’s help made tea.
When all were seated about the room (with the exception of the
Soft-Voiced Cow, who was too large to enter the tiny doorway) the
Princess said to Mr. Tiptoe, “Tell me of my father and mother. What did
they think when they heard that I had changed into a wicked looking
Witch?”
“Your dear mother, the Queen, came to the City of Nite at once,” the
Dancing Master answered, “but the Witch who pretended to be you would
not see her, saying that it would not do to see her mother as she was
too ugly; so your mother returned without seeing the wicked creature at
all!”
“I am sure your Mamma would have known it was not you!” said Janey.
During all this time Johnny had been very thoughtful. Presently he
asked, “When you traveled in the Magic Umbrella, how did you guide it?”
“The first time I rode in it,” the Dancing Master answered, “I did not
guide it. I came down without any thought of where I was going, but as
there was not a thing near by, I stepped back into the Magic Umbrella
and wished it would fly to a town, and sure enough it flew there! All
you have to do,” he continued, “is to sit in it and wish it to go
somewhere!”
“Then,” said Johnny, “I have a suggestion! Let us all sit in the
umbrella and wish it to take us to the City of Nite!”
“That’s a fine idea!” cried the Princess, clapping her hands. “Let us go
there immediately!”
The Dancing Master carried the Magic Umbrella out upon the level place
in front of the Cottage-Cave. Then he stood and scratched his head.
“Can we all get into it?” he wondered.
It was scarcely large enough for them all, even if they sat upon the
edges, and while they were all squeezing into the Magic Umbrella the
Soft-Voiced Cow walked up.
[Illustration]
“What about the Soft-Voiced Cow!” cried Janey.
“I shall not leave her behind if we never get to the City of Nite, and
if we never get back our Flying Boat!” cried Gran’ma, as she scrambled
out of the Magic Umbrella.
“Nor I either!” Gran’pa exclaimed as he too hopped from the Magic
Umbrella.
Johnny and Janey followed them, and they all went over to the
Soft-Voiced Cow and sat down on the grass.
“You may spoil everything!” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “Please do not
think of me! Get into the umbrella and go with the Princess to the City
of Nite and I will follow as best I can!”
“Shan’t do it!” said Gran’ma firmly.
“Wouldn’t think of it!” cried Gran’pa.
“I have it!” cried the Dancing Master. “I hate to leave the Soft-Voiced
Cow here, so if the Princess will excuse me, I will journey afoot with
you and she can wish herself in the City of Nite!”
“I believe it would be best for the Princess to wish herself with her
Mamma!” said Janey. “Then her Mamma and Daddy can advise her what to
do!”
“Your advice is good,” said the Princess, and kissing them all good-bye,
she stepped into the Magic Umbrella and flew up over the mountains
leaving the little group of friends watching her with tear-dimmed eyes.
She was such a good, dear, sweet, beautiful Princess that they hated to
see her go.
“I have a few things to pack,” said the Dancing Master, “but I shall
soon catch up with you. Keep to the right on all paths up over the
mountain and I shall soon be along!”
Johnny took the lead, then came Gran’ma, Janey and Gran’pa. Up, up they
toiled; up so high they could look back and see the valley stretched far
below them like a picture map.
At one place they came to a waterfall which dashed straight out of the
solid rock and fell for hundreds of feet in a roar of snow-white water.
The trees about the side of the river had soft green foliage, different
from any trees they had ever seen before.
Presently, as they had traveled far and the climb had been very steep,
they decided it would be well to rest and wait for the Dancing Master to
catch up with them.
“I’m getting hungry!” Gran’ma said, “I didn’t eat much at the Dancing
Master’s house!”
“I wish I had a mince pie in my pocket!” said Gran’pa, winking slyly at
Janey.
Johnny walked over to where the river ran smoothly before it again
plunged down the mountain side.
“Come here!” he cried excitedly. “Look at the strange fish!”
Gran’pa, Janey and Gran’ma came running to the edge of the stream, but
the Soft-Voiced Cow continued eating the velvety grass where she had
first stopped. It was the most delicious grass she had tasted in a long,
long time.
“Perhaps we can catch some,” said Gran’ma, “and fry them for our
supper!”
Johnny felt through his pockets. “I had a fishing line in one of my
pockets!” he said.
[Illustration]
“You used the line on the Flying Machine!” said Janey. “Oh, isn’t that
too bad!”
“Here’s the hook!” said Johnny, as he turned his pocket wrong side out
and showed them the hook fastened in the cloth.
Gran’pa took his pocket knife and cut the hook out of Johnny’s pocket.
“I have some string,” Gran’pa said. “I know it always comes in handy, so
I put a lot in my pocket before Gran’ma and I started up here!”
Gran’pa cut a pole and fixed the line while Johnny found a few worms
under a stone.
At the first cast of the line into the water Gran’pa pulled out a lovely
fish. It had a blue head. The body was white, with a round yellow spot
on each side.
[Illustration]
Gran’pa caught three more like the first and then six brown fish, round
and flat with one side of them a golden yellow.
While Johnny and Gran’pa were building the fire and cutting sticks to
broil the fish on, Janey found some worms and caught five queer fish
with holes right through them.
“Aren’t they queer?” she cried as she put her fingers through the holes
and carried them over to Johnny.
Gran’ma caught four very fat fish which looked more like balls than
fish.
“I don’t believe these are good to eat,” she said as she brought them
over to the fire. “They feel so light and empty and puffy!”
Gran’pa and Johnny had by this time fixed the first fish upon the sticks
and they were beginning to broil.
Gran’ma sniffed the air. “Smells like they might be good, but they don’t
smell like fish!” she said.
When the fish were done, Gran’pa and Johnny turned them over on a clean
white stone. “Eggs!” Johnny shouted.
Indeed the first fish were nothing more nor less than ordinary eggs.
The other brown fish, one side of which was golden yellow, turned out to
be brown bread and butter when it was broiled.
Janey’s fish turned out to be doughnuts, and Gran’ma’s changed to cream
puffs when placed before the fire.
“This is fit for a king!” Gran’ma cried as she sampled the egg fish.
“I wonder why Mr. Tiptoe doesn’t come,” Gran’pa said. “He must have
packed up quite a load! Guess I’ll run down the mountain and help him
along!”
“Indeed you won’t!” cried Gran’ma as she caught his coat tails.
“You don’t know when old Jingles the Magician may catch up with us! I
think now that we have finished our dinners, it would be best if we
hurried on!”
“Yes, let’s go on!” Johnny suggested. “Mr. Tiptoe knows the way and will
soon catch up with us!”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IX
JOHNNY AND JANEY GROW VERY TALL AND HAVE SOME STRANGE ADVENTURES
The path led up over a ledge in the mountain, revealing a pretty little
valley between the high cliffs on either side. The grass under their
feet was soft as velvet as they walked toward a tiny white bridge over a
brook.
“This ought to be good ground for growing potatoes!” said Gran’pa,
stopping to gaze about him at the charming valley.
Gran’ma was ahead and had started across the little bridge when the rest
saw her trip and almost fall. She managed to save herself by catching
the railing, and the others, as they ran toward her, heard a bell
tinkling up one side of the cliff.
“Some mean person stretched a wire across the bridge and I tripped over
it!” Gran’ma cried, as she showed the others the offending wire.
Johnny caught hold of it to pull it loose, but gave a whoop and started
jumping up and down.
The bell up the cliff tinkled each time Johnny jumped.
Janey, wishing to help her brother, caught Johnny’s hands to pull them
from the tiny wire, and with a cry she too began hopping up and down and
shouting for help.
As Gran’ma reached for Janey, Gran’pa pushed her aside. “Don’t touch
them!” he yelled. “It’s an electric wire! Stand back!” And with this
Gran’pa took the crooked handle of his cane and jerked the wire from
Johnny’s hands.
Johnny and Janey sat down with a bump upon the tiny bridge.
“O—oh Brud,” Janey laughed. “Wasn’t that funny!”
“It’s funny, now,” answered her brother, “but it wasn’t pleasant when I
first touched the wire! It felt as if I was being stretched out about
six feet tall!”
“You _are_ getting longer!” Gran’ma cried, as she helped Johnny to his
feet.
“Look at Janey!” he laughed. “Her dress is getting too short for her!
Ha! Ha!”
“I don’t see anything funny about it!” Gran’pa said reprovingly. “In
fact, it may be very serious!”
Johnny sobered up and twisted about to see himself. Both Johnny and
Janey had grown two feet taller and were still growing.
Their clothes were far too short to cover them and they looked
ridiculous. Janey began crying as the Soft-Voiced Cow caught up with
them.
[Illustration: The -Voiced Cow jumped three feet in the air and started
across the valley kicking her heels and mooing. (page 112)]
“Whatever in the world has happened?” she asked as she sat down upon the
wire.
Gran’pa cried “LOOK OUT!” but he was too late. The Soft-Voiced Cow
jumped three feet in the air and started across the valley, kicking her
heels and mooing, while the tiny wire wrapped itself about her tail.
With Gran’pa in the lead, waving his cane, they all ran after the
Soft-Voiced Cow.
“Wait a minute!” Gran’pa shouted. “I’ll pull it off with my cane! WAIT A
MINUTE!”
But the Soft-Voiced Cow continued running until the wire became tangled
in a bush and was pulled from her tail.
When she was free the Soft-Voiced Cow rolled head over heels and turned
a complete somersault before she sat up and looked around wonderingly.
“I do believe I lost my cud!” she exclaimed as Gran’pa and the children
came up to her.
“Your cud!” Janey exclaimed in wonderment.
[Illustration]
“Yes, my chewing gum!” replied the Soft-Voiced Cow. “All cows have cuds
for chewing gum.”
“Perhaps you left it at the Little Man’s house!” Janey suggested.
“No! The Soft-Voiced Cow wasn’t in the house!” Gran’ma said, as she
joined the group.
“Look in all your pockets!” Johnny suggested.
“Maybe you swallowed it,” Gran’pa remarked.
“Oh, maybe I did!” the Soft-Voiced Cow replied. “Sometimes I do when I’m
excited! Yes, here it is!” and with a contented sigh the Soft-Voiced Cow
began chewing.
Johnny and Janey had stopped growing by this time and it was well they
had, for their clothes were now so tight they were very uncomfortable.
“Now, everyone keep away from the wire!” Gran’pa advised, pointing to it
with his stick. “Let us get away from here as fast as we can and watch
our steps from now on!”
“It’s funny the Soft-Voiced Cow doesn’t grow taller!” Johnny said to
Janey as they followed the others across the valley. “She hasn’t grown a
bit!”
“I am glad she hasn’t,” Janey replied, “for it certainly is
uncomfortable to be so tall!”
Janey was a head taller than Gran’ma, and Johnny was still taller than
she was. Their stockings came nowhere near their knees.
“I thought I heard a bell tinkling when we touched the wire!” Gran’ma
said as they walked along.
“So did I,” the Soft-Voiced Cow laughed. “When I did not have the wire
fastened about my tail!”
As the travelers came around the bend of the mountain and left the
little valley, they saw before them a little hut such as one sees at
fair-grounds and pleasure resorts.
A queer little man wearing a stove pipe hat leaned over the counter at
the front of the hut and smiled at them. “Was it you who rang the bell?”
he inquired.
“I guess all of us rang it!” Gran’ma replied, for she saw the little man
was going to be agreeable.
The little man turned and looked at the dial at the side of the hut; the
indicator pointed to four.
“You rang the bell four times,” he said in a matter of fact voice, “so
you get four cigars!” and he handed out four large black cigars.
“I don’t smoke!” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, with a laugh.
“Nor I either!” Gran’ma. Janey and Johnny chimed in together.
“Then this gentleman may have them!” said the man as he handed the four
fat cigars to Gran’pa. “Someone has to have them, you know,” he said,
“for each time the bell rings I have to give someone a cigar!”
Gran’pa put the cigars in his pocket. “I’ll smoke them after a while!”
he said.
“But they’ll melt!” cried the man. “You must eat them right away!”
Gran’pa pulled the cigars from his pocket, then with a smile he handed
one to each of the children and to Gran’ma.
The cigars were made of chocolate candy. “Won’t you have one?” Gran’pa
asked, offering the remaining cigar to the Soft-Voiced Cow.
“No, thanks,” the Soft-Voiced Cow replied, “I hardly ever eat candy!”
“I have some nice buttered popcorn!” the man suggested.
“I might have a basket of popcorn, if you have it to spare!” the
Soft-Voiced Cow laughed.
“You shall have it!” the man replied, as he reached behind the counter
and lifted a basket of popcorn to the Soft-Voiced Cow.
The Soft-Voiced Cow took one mouthful of the popcorn and then blew it
out of her mouth.
Gran’ma looked at her in surprise.
“It has mustard on it!” the Soft-Voiced Cow said, as the tears streamed
out of her eyes and she sneezed two or three times.
“Mustard!” the man at the counter exclaimed, looking at the cow with a
queer expression. “Of course it has mustard on it! I put it on to keep
the popcorn hot!”
Gran’pa winked at Johnny.
“Have you any ice cream cones?” Janey asked.
“Plenty!” the man replied. “What flavor?”
“Strawberry!” Janey said. “Chocolate!” cried Johnny. “Maple!” Gran’ma
said. “Peach!” said Gran’pa.
“Dear me! I haven’t any of those flavors! I never heard of them!” And
the man leaned upon the counter and scratched his head.
“Never heard of chocolate!” exclaimed Johnny.
“What flavors have you?” asked Janey.
“I have Plumpdoodle, Wiggledoos, Kneebud and Lopjiggle!”
“Let me try a Lopjiggle!” said Janey.
“Plumpdoodle!” Gran’ma decided.
“Wiggledoos!” cried Johnny. “They must be fine!”
“I believe I will have a Kneebud!” said Gran’pa.
The man handed out the different ice cream cones, and although the
flavor of each was different from anything they had ever tasted the
travelers thought them fine.
Just then the little bell up on the side of the cliff began tinkling.
“Hello!” said the man. “Someone else gets a cigar!”
They all ran to where they could look down into the little valley and
there they saw old Jingles, the wicked Magician, holding on to the
electric wire and turning flip-flops in his efforts to get free.
The Soft-Voiced Cow began switching her tail nervously.
“It’s Old Jingles, the Magician!” cried all in one voice.
“I have been in hopes I should land him on the wire!” said the man. “Do
you know,” he explained in a confidential tone, “that is the reason I
started this place in the mountains! Here, Gran’pa,” he continued, “you
may have his cigar. All of you help yourselves to anything you wish. I
am through with the business now that old Jingles is on the wire!”
“What do you intend doing?” asked Gran’pa.
“Nothing,” answered the man. “I’m through now, and I’m going back to the
City of Nite!”
The bell kept on tinkling and the indicator on the dial kept whirling
around in a circle.
“Take all the cigars you wish!” the man called to Johnny and Janey, who
were behind the counter. “He’s ringing up quite a lot!”
“I am glad your wire stopped the wicked creature,” said Gran’ma, “for he
was after us and would soon have overtaken us. He took the children’s
Flying Machine and he took Gran’pa’s Flying Boat, and he is the one who
put the Princess of Nite into the Green Jar!”
“Put the lovely Princess in the Green Jar!” the man exclaimed.
“Yes!” Gran’pa answered, as they stood and watched the antics of the
Magician. “And Gran’ma rescued her! The Princess is on her way to the
City of Nite now, in the Dancing Master’s Umbrella!”
[Illustration]
“Not Tiptoe’s Magic Umbrella?” the man asked, in surprise.
“Yes,” answered Gran’pa. “His name is Tiptoe and he was the Princess’
Dancing Master.”
“And my brother!” said the Little Man.
“Sh!” he added in a whisper, as he glanced hastily about as if to see
that no others were listening. “It’s a secret! I was the Chief of
Detectives in the City of Nite when the Princess disappeared, and I had
to leave when I found out that the wicked creature who claimed to be the
Princess really was a Witch! She made it so unpleasant for me that I
decided to go in search of Old Jingles the Magician, to see if he would
help me find the real Princess. Excuse me a moment,” and he went back of
the counter where the children were eating the strange ice creams with
large spoons.
Opening a box with a key which he wore on his watch chain, he studied
the figures on a number of dials; then when he had written the figures
upon a piece of paper, he handed it to Johnny.
“Can you add?” he asked.
Johnny ran his eyes over the figures. “Nine hundred and fifty-eight!” he
said, as he returned the paper to the Chief of Detectives.
“Not half enough!” said the Chief of Detectives, as he pulled six little
levers. There was a steady buzz-buzz that grew louder and louder every
minute.
Johnny watched the hands on the dials climb and climb.
“Fifteen hundred and ninety-eight!” he cried out, presently.
“That’s better!” said the Chief of Detectives. “Give the Soft-Voiced Cow
some of that popcorn in the green box; it has no mustard on it!”
“He’s hopping to beat the band!” Gran’ma cried delightedly, as the Chief
of Detectives came up to where they were watching the Magician.
“I should think he would!” said the man. “I turned on the current twice
as hard!”
Just then they saw the Dancing Master coming over the hill into the
valley.
“Here he comes now!” cried Gran’pa. “It’s your brother, Tiptoe!”
“All stay here!” cried the Chief of Detectives. “Don’t move from this
spot!” And with this he set off at a good speed across the valley to
meet his brother.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER X
THE TIPTOE BROTHERS AND THE SLIDE RAFT
Gran’ma and Gran’pa saw the Tiptoe Brothers throw their arms around each
other’s necks in their joy at meeting, but they walked in a wide circle
around the spot where Jingles the Magician was dancing in his efforts to
free himself from the wire.
“I should have been sooner,” said the Dancing Master to Gran’pa and
Gran’ma, “but just as I started to leave the Cottage-Cave I saw a Flying
Boat coming across the country, and I knew from your story that the
wicked Jingles must be in it.”
“What did he do?” asked the children.
“He left his Flying Boat out in front of the Cottage-Cave and came
inside, and while he was snooping around I slipped out the back way,
went round the Cottage-Cave, and touched a match to his Flying Boat! He
will have to walk from now on!” And the Dancing Master did a graceful
little dance step and snapped his fingers.
“Oh dear!” Gran’ma cried as she sat down hard upon the grass.
“Whatever is the matter?” the Tiptoe Brothers cried, as Gran’pa helped
Gran’ma to her feet.
“It was our Flying Boat!” replied Gran’pa quietly, “and the only way we
had of ever getting back home to the Earth!”
The Dancing Master was crestfallen. “I am always putting my foot into
it!” he exclaimed.
“Please do not worry,” said Gran’ma, seeing how sorry the Dancing Master
felt. “You did just what you thought was best!”
“Indeed I did!” answered the Dancing Master. “But that does not bring
back the Flying Boat.”
“What do you intend doing with the wicked Magician?” asked Gran’pa.
“Nothing!” replied the Chief of Detectives. “He is very well off where
he is, and he will never be able to do any mischief as long as he holds
on to the wire, or,” he added with a sly wink at the Soft-Voiced Cow,
“until the wire lets go of him!”
“I feel sorry for him!” said Janey.
“Well you need not, Sis!” Johnny cried. “Look at me and you will see
about how you look! And it is all the wicked Jingles’ fault!”
“Why, what in the world is the matter?” asked the Dancing Master,
noticing for the first time that Janey and Johnny had grown so much
taller.
“We caught hold of the wire!” replied Johnny.
“And it made you grow so much taller?” cried the Dancing Master in
astonishment.
“Have they grown taller?” asked the Chief of Detectives.
“Certainly!” the Dancing Master answered. “They were only children and
were no taller than myself when they left me three hours ago!”
Without saying a word, the Chief of Detectives motioned to the children
and the others to follow him, and going to the counter he took a small
case from under the counter, and from it a tiny bellows.
He then blew a puff of powder over the children and in a short time they
had resumed their normal size.
Then, putting the case in his pocket, the Chief of Detectives said it
would be best for them to try and reach the City of Nite as soon as
possible.
“We shall have the old Witch to contend with when we reach there,” he
reminded the others, “and perhaps even now the Princess is under the
power of the wicked creature!”
“Let us hasten!” cried Gran’pa.
The road now led down the mountain side. A short distance from the Chief
of Detectives’ hut it wound through a deep forest, which made the
traveling cool and comfortable.
At last they came to a section of the forest where all the trees were of
pine. Here there was a thick carpet of pine needles that had dropped
from the boughs for years.
They were smooth, soft and slippery.
“Let’s get a board and slide down the mountain on the pine needles!”
said Gran’pa, noticing that there was a clear space beneath the trees,
which slanted straight down the mountain side.
“There are no boards about!” said Gran’ma.
“I’ll run back to the hut up the mountain and get some!” the Chief of
Detectives volunteered, and away he started.
“Wait there for me!” he called as he disappeared up the path.
The party sat down to wait the return of the Chief of Detectives.
“It was funny the electric wire did not affect the Soft-Voiced Cow!”
mused Johnny. “It surely made Janey and me grow like weeds!”
“I’ll ask my brother about it when he returns!” replied the Dancing
Master.
It was not long before they heard the Chief of Detectives singing a
yodel song, and soon he came into view over the rocks, carrying a pile
of boards, a hammer, some nails and a long piece of rope.
As Gran’pa was an expert carpenter he offered to fix the sliding boards.
[Illustration: Down, down, the Slide Raft sped, until it was going so
fast that its occupants could not talk. (page 125)]
“Let’s build one big sled!” he suggested, “and then we can all be
together.”
“A good idea!” agreed the Tiptoe Brothers.
So Gran’pa hammered the boards together and tied them in such a manner
that soon he had a fine looking Slide Raft.
“We should have a rudder to guide it with,” Gran’pa said as he stood and
studied his work, “for who knows but that the mountain may take a few
sudden turns farther down!”
So Gran’pa with his jack knife sawed away at a small tree until he had
cut it down, and with the help of the rope and some small pieces of
boards he made a rudder.
They all sat down on the Slide Raft, and with everybody pushing and
shoving the Slide Raft started down the mountain side, gaining momentum
as it went over the slippery needles.
The Soft-Voiced Cow sat in the center of the Slide Raft and the others
about her. Gran’pa stood at the rudder to guide the Slide Raft should
they come to a sudden turn.
It was well that Gran’pa had thought of the rudder, for when they had
slid down the mountain for about a mile, and the Slide Raft was speeding
along at a terrific pace, they came to where the open space beneath the
trees turned sharply to the right.
Gran’pa swung the rudder round as hard as he could and turned the Slide
Raft just in time to escape the trees at the side.
Down, down, the Slide Raft sped, until it was going so fast that its
occupants could not talk. The wind whistled past them like a gale, and
if it had not been for the weight of the Soft-Voiced Cow they would have
been swept from the Slide Raft by the force of the wind.
Just as they were nearing the bottom of the mountain the ground took a
dip. Down this the frail Slide Raft shot suddenly, and up the other
side.
Gran’ma and Janey screamed as the Slide Raft left the ground at the top
of the little mound and plunged straight down for a hundred feet or
more.
As good fortune had it, the path of the Slide Raft seemed to have been
made for just such tobogganing. At the bottom of the fearful drop the
ground fell away in a graceful curve, so, after hitting the ground at
the bottom of the mountain, the Slide Raft went about five hundred feet
out across a small pond at the edge of the pine forest, skipping across
the water like a skipper rock thrown by a boy, and came to rest a short
distance from the opposite bank.
As the Slide Raft stopped, the Soft-Voiced Cow fell over on her side and
closed her eyes.
Gran’pa jumped from the raft and pulled it into shore, while the Tiptoe
Brothers filled their hats with water which they dashed over the head of
the Soft-Voiced Cow.
“She has fainted!” Gran’ma said.
“Let’s get her ashore!” Johnny cried. “Everybody take hold!”
It took a lot of pulling and tugging, but finally they got the
Soft-Voiced Cow up the bank and pulled grass for a pillow.
“I wish I had my smelling salts!” cried Gran’ma.
The water did not seem to help the Soft-Voiced Cow, and she rolled her
eyes in an alarming manner.
“She may start kicking any minute!” Gran’pa warned. “Don’t get too close
to her heels! I had a cow that acted the same way once!”
Sure enough, the Soft-Voiced Cow did begin kicking, and as they drew
away from her she turned her head towards Gran’ma with a pathetic look
in her eyes.
“I’m going to hold her head!” cried Gran’ma, forgetting in her anxiety
that her friend was only a Cow.
Gran’ma’s soft hand smoothed the Soft-Voiced Cow’s forehead, and the
Cow, seeming to feel Gran’ma’s affection, placed one of her front feet
on Gran’ma’s lap. Gran’ma sat holding the Cow’s foot and smoothing her
brow, meanwhile talking to her in a gentle, soothing manner.
The others, who stood by watching, had to brush the tears from their
eyes.
“Why not puff your magic powder on her?” Janey cried to the Chief of
Detectives.
“It will only cure magic!” cried that good little man as he took the
tiny bellows from his pocket.
Johnny jumped forward and blew a generous puff upon the Soft-Voiced
Cow’s head.
The Soft-Voiced Cow seemed to shrink in size and turned a different
color.
“Now, Mister! You _HAVE_ done it!” Janey cried as she stamped her foot
at Johnny.
Johnny stood as if frozen, watching the Soft-Voiced Cow.
“She’s got a HAND!” Gran’ma cried excitedly. “Two of them!”
As the others drew closer they saw that their friend, the Soft-Voiced
Cow, was turning into a woman.
The Tiptoe Brothers uttered glad cries, and the Dancing Master threw his
arms about the woman.
“My wife!” he cried as he kissed her.
“It’s Jenny!” cried the Chief of Detectives, turning a radiant face to
Gran’pa.
“There! You see?” Johnny said, as he and Janey turned their backs on the
reunited pair. “If the magic wire could not make the Soft-Voiced Cow
grow taller it was because she already had been magicked. So I
remembered that the powder cured magic, and there you are!
[Illustration]
“Johnny, you’re a dear!” Janey answered, as she gave him a great hug.
“You always know just what to do, all the time!”
“Ah, shucks!” Johnny replied. “I did it without much thinking!”
“Well, you did it, anyway!” his sister insisted. “To think she was a
lady all this time and we did not know it!”
“She was a very ladylike Cow, at least!” said Johnny.
Mr. and Mrs. Tiptoe came up to Johnny and Janey and thanked them for
what they had done.
“It was Johnny!” said Janey, generously, as the pretty lady kissed her.
“It was Janey who suggested it!” said Johnny as he bashfully received
Mrs. Tiptoe’s reward.
The happy little Dancing Master told his wife all that had happened
since the Princess and she had disappeared, and that now the Princess
was safe at home.
“At least, I hope she is,” he added. “She left us and flew off for the
City of Nite in the Magic Umbrella. Now tell us of your strange
adventure!”
“There is not much to tell,” Mrs. Tiptoe said, as the happy party walked
over the fields. “When you left me in the rooms of the Witch she was
hiding behind a door all the time, and just as you left she pushed me
into the Magic Umbrella and jumped in with me. We flew out of the
window.
“As you now know, it does not take the Magic Umbrella long to get where
you wish it to go, or at least it did not take us long to get to where
it settled to the ground. I could scarcely stand when we got there. The
wicked creature struck me with her cane and said a strange rhyme, and I
did not know a thing until I awakened with my head in Gran’ma’s lap.”
“How does it come that you are here, too?” she asked of the Chief of
Detectives.
“I started to tell Gran’ma and Gran’pa up on the mountain a while ago,”
he replied, “but I got off the subject. Now I will tell the story,
strange as it may seem.”
“Here comes the Magic Umbrella!” cried Gran’ma, as she pointed to a
speck in the air.
“It’s the Princess!” cried the Detective. “No, it isn’t, either,” he
added as the Magic Umbrella drew closer.
It proved to be the General of the Guard, and when he had embraced the
Tiptoe Brothers and Mrs. Tiptoe he was introduced to the rest of the
party.
“The Princess is quite safe!” he exclaimed, as all started to ask after
her, “and she has sent me to try and find you and bring you to the
Castle.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Gran’ma, Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe rode in the Magic Umbrella
and the men rode underneath. (page 131)]
CHAPTER XI
AGAIN WE MEET THE PRINCESS, THE PALACE AND THE MAGICIAN
The General of the Guard took a knapsack from his back and spread a
large piece of silk upon the ground. Then with heavy twine, he fastened
the four corners of the silk to the Magic Umbrella.
“Gran’ma, Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe, you ladies can ride in the Magic
Umbrella and we men will ride underneath,” he directed. And when all had
taken their places, the General of the Guard told Gran’ma to wish the
Magic Umbrella to fly to the Princess’ Castle, and away they started.
The City of Nite was built upon a beautiful island and in the center
stood the wonderful Castle, its tall spires and towers rising high above
all the other buildings.
As they approached the Castle, the Magic Umbrella settled upon one of
the broad terraces. The Princess came running out to meet them as the
party climbed out of the Magic Umbrella.
Mrs. Tiptoe had to tell the Princess of her adventure as they went
inside the Castle.
“And to think you were the Soft-Voiced Cow,” laughed the Princess, “and
that none of us suspected it! My, I am glad we are all safe and sound
and home again!”
“We are very glad too,” Gran’ma said, “but Gran’pa, Janey, Johnny and I
are still very far from home!”
“Oh, you will like it here,” the Princess laughed as she threw her arms
about Gran’ma. “And I shall have you live here with me all the time in
the Castle, for we owe everything to you!”
“You saved the Princess from the Green Jar and charmed away the wicked
magic from Mrs. Tiptoe!” exclaimed the General of the Guard.
“We must keep you with us always,” the Princess said as the party walked
into a great hall. “Now, Gran’pa,” she continued, “I will let Mr. Tiptoe
show you and Johnny to your rooms, and when all have dressed we are
going to have a nice little party all to ourselves. I will take Gran’ma
and Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe to their rooms and we will meet you in the
Banquet Hall very soon.”
The Princess led Gran’ma, Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe to a wonderful room with
ivory and gold beds. Beautiful draperies hung from the windows, and a
merry little fountain tinkled in one corner of the room.
“Here are your clothes,” the Princess said, opening a closet and
displaying rows and rows of wonderful silk and satin dresses.
Janey’s eyes were the size of saucers. Some of the dresses were pink—and
pink was her favorite color!
“I had them all made to fit you and Janey,” she told Gran’ma. “I am so
sorry I did not know that Mrs. Tiptoe was to be with us, but she may
have one of Janey’s dresses, I’m sure!”
“Indeed she may!” Janey cried. “Oh, thank you so much, Your Majesty!”
“Now, see here!” cried the Princess, pretending to be very stern. “Do
not ‘Your Majesty’ me! I am to be plain Nidia to all of you, so you must
begin to get used to calling me that!”
When the Princess, Mrs. Tiptoe, Gran’ma and Janey reached the Banquet
Hall, Gran’pa, Johnny and the Tiptoe Brothers were there waiting for
them.
“Whee! How fine you all look!” Johnny cried, as he saw the beautiful
silk and satin dresses.
“You look fine, too!” Janey exclaimed. “All of you!”
“How did the Princess know our measurements?” Johnny whispered to Janey
as they took their seats at the table.
“I don’t know,” Janey replied, rather puzzled. “Just see Gran’pa! My,
doesn’t he look nice in that purple velvet!”
“We are very anxious to know how you got rid of the wicked Witch when
you returned to the Castle,” Gran’ma said to the Princess.
The Princess laughed a merry laugh and replied, “I am afraid you will be
disappointed with my adventure, for when I left you upon the mountain
side at Mr. Tiptoe’s Cottage-Cave I wished the Magic Umbrella to take me
to my mother, but as I flew over the City of Nite I changed my mind.
“‘No,’ I said to myself, ‘I will go right to the Castle and face the
wicked Witch!’
“And so I wished to go to the Castle instead of to my mother. And when I
climbed out of the Magic Umbrella I ran right into the Castle and it was
empty! I went through all the rooms and found no one; the wicked Witch
was not there at all!”
[Illustration]
“Did you go into the little room at the top of the Blue Tower?” Mr.
Tiptoe asked. “That is where she was the day Mrs. Tiptoe and I found
her.”
“Yes, I went there, too,” the Princess replied, “and cobwebs were all
over everything. I knew the wicked creature had not been there for
months.”
“For years, to be more exact,” interrupted the Chief of Detectives.
“How do you know?” the Princess asked the Chief of Detectives in
surprise.
The Chief of Detectives explained.
“I started to tell of my adventure to Gran’ma and the others on the
mountain side,” he said, “but I was so glad to see my brother coming
across the meadow I forgot what I was saying.”
“Tell us now! Perhaps you can clear up the mystery!” the Princess cried.
“No one in the City of Nite could tell me anything! Please tell us all
you know, and all about your adventure!”
“But you had not finished telling us of your own experience,” the Chief
of Detectives answered.
“There is very little more to tell,” said the Princess. “When I
discovered that the wicked Witch was not in the Castle and that she had
not been here for some time, I rang the Great Bell five times. This, as
you know, is the signal for every one in the City of Nite to have a
holiday. And when the good people heard the Great Bell pealing, they
came running to the Castle and found me! That is all there is to tell,
except that every thing inside the Castle had grown dreadfully musty, so
I had everything cleaned, and new draperies and then I sent the General
of the Guard in the Magic Umbrella to bring you here.”
When the Princess had finished the Chief of Detectives told his story.
“When the Princess disappeared,” he began, “I was away on my vacation
and word did not reach me for four days. But you may rest assured that
when I did hear I hurried back to the City of Nite as fast as possible.
“I asked everyone I met about the strange disappearance of the Princess,
for I could not believe that the Princess had been changed into an old
woman. No one could help me. People just stood around looking at one
another as if they were stunned. At first I thought it unwise to visit
this old Witch for fear she might find out that I distrusted her, but
upon second thought I changed my plans and went to see her.
“I suppose I may tell our good friends of the secret passage?” the Chief
of Detectives interrupted himself to ask the Princess, and being given
permission he went on:
“There are secret passages built in the walls of the Castle which lead
to many of the rooms, and by which anyone who knows how to open the
secret doors may escape. Now I, of course, knew all the doors and all
the buttons that open them, so I went through all the secret passages
and from their peepholes I looked into all the rooms. But I could never
time my visits just right until about a year ago.
“Then one day as I walked through one of the secret passages, I heard
someone talking, so I hastily glued my eyes to the peephole, you may be
sure. But when I looked through, I did not see the Witch in the room!
Instead, there stood a queer man with a tall hat and a crooked stick.
“I could not quite make out what he was saying, for he was only talking
to himself and at times merely mumbled his words, but I learned enough
to know that he had no business there.”
“Jingles the Magician!” cried the Princess, Gran’ma and Janey in one
breath.
“You are right,” continued the Chief of Detectives. “I heard him mutter
something about a book of rhymes, and he played with a queer little
pouch with tassels!”
“The Magic Whistle!” cried Gran’pa and Johnny.
“I don’t know what it was,” said the Chief of Detectives. “But as I
watched the queer man he took off his tall hat and coat and put them in
a closet; then he took out a white wig and a great cloak and bonnet and
put them on. I saw then that he and the Witch were one and the same and
I knew positively that neither was our beloved Princess. I did not know
what to do! At first I thought of calling the people together and
telling them of what I had seen, but then, thought I, ‘Should I do that,
I may never discover what has become of the Princess.’
“So I watched at the secret passage for days and days until once again I
was rewarded. There was the queer man again, sitting and reading a large
book and trying to memorize some verses. Then I watched him until I saw
him put on a pair of spectacles. He stared for a moment for all the
world like a near-sighted person. Then he skipped up and down.
“‘Someone is drinking my lemonade,’ he cried, looking through them.
‘Hooray! Now I will have someone else to work my magic on!’ And with
this, he jumped upon his large book and flew right out of the window!”
“It was Janey who drank at the lemonade spring!” cried Johnny.
“I did not know that, of course,” said the Chief of Detectives.
“However, when the wicked man left, I went into the room and looked
about. In the pocket of the cloak which the Witch had worn, I discovered
the tiny powder puff which Johnny puffed upon the Soft-Voiced Cow, or
upon Mrs. Tiptoe, I should have said! I also found a tiny book of magic
and a few brass buttons and other charms.
“I took the powder puff, the tiny book of magic and the charms; I also
made a drawing of the queer designs upon the floor. Then I left
everything else just as I had found it and went home.
“I studied the book of magic a long time before I finally tested out
some magic myself. First, I copied the designs upon a large white rug
then, following the directions in the little book, I placed the charms
about as directed, then I puffed a bit of powder into a tin cup and
touched a match to it. When the powder puffed up into the room, I went
out of the door as fast as I could. But when I saw the room had cleared,
I ventured back and found written upon the slate—I forgot to mention
that one of the things called for in the book was a slate and
pencil—‘Top of Whippoorwill Mountain. Electric wires strung meadow.
Capture!’
“I puzzled and puzzled over this message, and I tried the magic three
times. The same message always came upon the slate! Then I decided to go
to the top of Whippoorwill Mountain and see the wires, but there were no
wires there!
“‘Perhaps it means that I am to put the wires there,’ I thought. ‘At
least I can try it!’ So I had the Royal Electrician fix up the wires
about the meadow, and then I built the little hut and filled it with ice
cream and popcorn and cigars, so that if I accidentally caught any
innocent persons, I could give them candy cigars and popcorn and ice
cream. And right there I stayed until, as you know, I caught old
Jingles.”
“You have caught old Jingles the Magician!” cried the Princess.
“Yes,” Gran’ma laughed, “and he also caught Janey and Johnny and the
Soft-Voiced Cow and myself!”
“I had forgotten the Princess did not know that I had caught the wicked
creature and that we left him jumping to beat the band and hanging on to
the electric wire,” the Chief of Detectives said. Then, turning to the
Princess, he continued, “I was careful to turn on the current so that he
would have a good dose too!”
“I am truly glad we have all escaped from him,” the Princess said and as
all had finished eating by this time she asked Gran’ma, “How would you
like to ride about the City of Nite and see the sights?”
“Oh, let’s do!” Gran’ma cried, jumping up. “I have always wanted to go
to a City and we never felt we had enough money to do so when we were
upon the Earth!”
“Well, you will find everything in the City of Nite free to all of you,”
laughed the Princess, “for everyone knows all about you and what you
have done for us, so if you are all of the same mind we can start right
now.”
“Let’s walk!” said Gran’ma, when the Princess said something about
carriages. “Then we can all be together and look in the shop windows and
have lots more fun!”
“I often walk about the town, or at least, I used to walk about, before
I was put in the Green Jar,” the Princess replied.
“It’s nice to get up from the table and not have to worry about doing
the dishes,” said Gran’ma. “Let’s start right away. Gran’pa, you’ll have
to buy a bag of peanuts apiece. We always have peanuts when we go to
town,” she explained to the Princess.
“Had we better take an umbrella?” asked Gran’pa. “One usually carries an
umbrella when one goes to town. It might rain.”
“Perhaps it would be as well to take the Magic Umbrella with us,” the
Princess laughed, although she could not understand just why Gran’pa
should wish to carry one, for it very seldom rained in the beautiful
City.
[Illustration]
So the happy visitors walked down the great steps of the Castle with the
Princess and her old friends and into the shopping center of the City of
Nite, where all the kindly faced people bowed to them all as they
passed.
The Princess stopped and talked with the people and gave presents to the
little children whom they met.
At the first store they came to Gran’pa tried to buy some peanuts, but
the shopkeeper would not accept anything for them.
“You couldn’t pay anyhow,” Johnny laughed. “You haven’t any Moon money,
it’s all Earth money in your purse.”
“To be sure it is,” Gran’pa replied. “I had forgotten that!”
The Princess took them into all the ice cream parlors and candy stores
in the City, and when they returned to the Castle all were loaded with
bundles.
As they neared the steps of the Castle, Gran’pa shouted, “Look at the
crowd near the Castle door. It must be people who have come to see you
about something!”
The Princess looked worried. “No,” she replied, “they would never crowd
about the Castle door in such a disorderly manner. Something has
happened!”
Just as they started up the long flight of steps, the crowd separated
and as the people fell back on either side a tall form dashed out of the
doorway waving his crooked stick and shouting hoarsely.
“Old Jingles, the Magician!” the Princess cried as she sank to the
steps.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XII
GRAN’MA TWEAKS OLD JINGLES’ NOSE
Gran’ma, Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe rushed to the Princess and, raising her
between them, they half carried and half dragged her back down the
marble steps.
The Chief of Detectives, the Dancing Master, Johnny and Gran’pa sprang
up the steps to meet the Magician. But the Chief of Detectives and
Johnny caught their feet together and went tumbling to the foot of the
hard stone steps, where they lay dazed.
The Dancing Master, who was very active, sprang up the steps two at a
time and met the Magician on the broad landing and attacked him,
although he scarcely reached to the Magician’s waist.
Old Jingles struck at the Dancing Master with his cane, but the Dancing
Master dodged in under the blow and grappled with the Magician.
The good people of Nite were terror stricken, and stood motionless as
the two struggled together.
Finally the Magician pulled his tiny bellows from his pocket and blew it
toward the Dancing Master’s back, and the Dancing Master fell to the
steps, just as Gran’pa struck the bellows from the Magician’s hand with
his cane.
With a roar of pain and rage the wicked Jingles swung his crooked stick
at Gran’pa’s head. Gran’pa warded off the blow with his own polished
cane and, using it as a sword, he jabbed old Jingles in the stomach.
The Magician swung his large crooked stick again, and Gran’pa again
poked him in the stomach, and then, as the wicked creature backed away,
Gran’pa gave him a smart tap on the head, sending his tall hat spinning
down the steps.
The Princess had recovered and was watching the duel with fascination.
Gran’ma was struggling between Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe.
“Let me go!” she cried. “Let me get to him! I’ll tweak his nose! He
shan’t hurt Gran’pa! Let me go!”
But Janey and Mrs. Tiptoe held her and tried to watch at the same time.
“Why don’t the people help?” Gran’ma cried. “Let me go, I tell you! I’ll
show him, the wicked old thing!”
Gran’pa had just swung his cane at the Magician’s head again hoping to
finish him with one more blow, but the Magician stepped to one side and
struck Gran’pa on the head, sending him to his knees. Gran’pa, however
much the blow hurt, never uttered a groan, and as he struggled dizzily
to his feet he tried to ward off the blows that old Jingles showered
upon him.
Part of the blows Gran’pa received on his left arm, the others slid
harmlessly off his cane.
Gran’pa backed away from the Magician and his face was worried, for the
blow upon his head had made Gran’pa weak in the knees.
But although he dodged and gave ground Gran’pa waited for an opening and
at last, as the Magician missed a swing at Gran’pa’s head, Gran’pa drew
his cane back over his shoulder and brought it down with all his might
upon old Jingles’ crown.
The blow was of such force it would have broken the Magician’s head if
the cane had not split in two, and as it was the wicked man staggered
from the blow.
Gran’pa, with but the handle of his cane in his hand, jumped forward to
strike again, but he missed his footing and went rolling down the stone
steps.
When Gran’pa fell in front of the Magician, the Princess, Janey and Mrs.
Tiptoe started running.
“Run for your lives!” cried the Princess. “He will change all of us into
animals! Run!”
[Illustration: Catching his long nose in her hands she gave it a tweak.
(page 145)]
The Magician staggered after Gran’pa who had rolled clear to the bottom
of the long flight of steps. The Magician in his anger did not see
Johnny or the Chief of Detectives, who still sat in a daze part of the
way down the steps, so as he passed them, Johnny stuck his foot out and
tripped up the Magician.
Down the long flight of steps the Magician fell, his long arms and legs
hitting the steps and his crooked stick flying high in the air as he
turned over and over.
Johnny, though still dazed, got to his feet and started down the steps,
hoping he could get the Magician’s crooked stick.
The Magician rolled to the bottom of the steps and he found Gran’ma
there to meet him; for as soon as the others had started to run, they
had released Gran’ma.
So Gran’ma waited until old Jingles had stopped rolling, then she rushed
at him, and, catching his long nose in her hands, she gave it a tweak.
With one scream of pain, the Magician lay still, and as Johnny raised
the crooked stick to bring it down upon Jingles’ head, Gran’ma stopped
him.
“I said I’d tweak his nose,” Gran’ma cried, “and I’ll tweak it again
just as soon as he awakens!”
Gran’pa sat up and looked around.
“Give me another sack of peanuts,” he said.
The Magician showed signs of awakening, so Gran’ma gave his long nose
another tweak which made him lie still.
The Princess called to the people still standing around the door of the
Castle.
“Call the Guards!” she shouted. “We’ll tie him and keep him chained up
for ever!”
The voice of their Princess seemed to arouse the people from their
numbness and fear and eight Guards came running out from behind the
great doors where they had hidden themselves.
When the Guards came to pick up the Magician to carry him away Gran’ma
pushed them back.
“No you don’t!” she told them. “He stays right here while I tweak his
nose until he never has another speck of magic in him!”
And as the Magician stirred again, Gran’ma gave his long nose another
hard tweek.
“But Gran’ma,” Janey cried, “the Princess must be obeyed! She wants the
wicked creature put in chains and in prison!”
“Now, you let me be!” Gran’ma said. “I’m boss here and here he stays
until I—”
Just as this moment the Dancing Master rushed down the steps and blew a
puff from the magic bellows upon the face of old Jingles. It first
formed a puffy white cloud, then it settled grain by grain. There was a
breathless silence.
Gran’ma did not finish what she was about to say, for as the magic
powder touched the Magician’s face, his long nose disappeared, his
wicked eyes changed and his face took on the appearance of a young man.
And as they all watched in wonder and amazement they saw his long, thin
fingers change into young hands, and the thin form beneath the torn,
dusty clothes alter until a fine young man lay before them.
The Dancing Master blew another puff of the powder upon the prostrate
form and the old torn clothes changed into silk and velvet.
“Dear me!” Gran’ma cried. “Perhaps we have made a mistake! It isn’t old
Jingles!”
And when the Strange Young Man opened his eyes and saw the crowd
standing around him, he ran his hand across his forehead as if trying to
recollect something.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“You are in the City of Nite,” answered the Princess. “Guards, assist
him into the Castle!”
“I believe I can walk,” said the Strange Young Man, “but I cannot
imagine how I got here, for I have never heard of the City of Nite
before.” And with this he stood upon his feet.
“This is indeed strange,” said the Princess. “Let us all go into the
Castle.” And as the people drew aside to let them pass, the Princess,
Mrs. Tiptoe, Gran’ma and Janey went up the steps, followed by the
Strange Young Man, the Tiptoe Brothers, Gran’pa and Johnny.
“My name is David,” the Strange Young Man said, when all had taken
chairs in the Princess’ drawing room and he saw that they looked to him
for an explanation, “and my home is in Dayland, or at least,” he
continued, “it used to be there.”
“Dayland is on the other side of the Moon!” said the Princess. “My
father and mother and I visited there once!”
“If Dayland is on the other side of the Moon,” said David, “this must be
the Land Back of the Moon.”
“It is,” the Princess replied. “If you looked through the Moon you would
see it. It’s the Magical Land of Noom.”
“How strange that I should be here!” and David passed his hand over his
forehead in a puzzled manner. “I faintly remember strange rhymes and
jingles of which I dreamed.”
“You did not dream them,” Gran’ma hastened to explain. “You were old
Jingles the Magician until a few moments ago, then Mr. Tiptoe puffed the
magic powder on you and changed you back to your own self.”
“Dear me,” sighed David. “If this is true tell me how long I have been
in this strange shape, for I speak truly when I tell you that I am
really at a loss to account for the cruel and wicked things which I must
have done while I was not myself.”
“You first came to the City of Nite as a witch and said you were the
Princess,” the Chief of Detectives told him.
“But you will remember,” the Princess said, turning to the Chief of
Detectives, “that I met him first as Old Jingles, when I saw the Queer
Horse who had eaten his head off, and that was over eighty years ago.”
“Dear me,” David sighed. “Then there is no telling how long I have been
old Jingles or the Witch. I’m awfully sorry,” he told the Princess. “I
wouldn’t have harmed you for the world.”
“Isn’t it just like a fairy tale!” Janey cried.
“Perhaps it is,” David smiled, “but it seems like a disagreeable dream
to me and until I get back to my own country, I really cannot explain
how it all came about.”
“What is the last thing you remember?” Johnny asked.
“Let me see! We were having a great ball or something at the Castle and
I had just stepped outside the door to look at the Sun when—when—well,
that is the last thing I can recall, except the queer dreams about
rhymes and jingles.”
“You don’t remember what you did with our Flying Boat, do you?” Johnny
asked.
“No, I can not recall a Flying Boat, at all,” David answered.
[Illustration]
“That was the only way we had of returning to the Earth,” Gran’ma said,
a little sadly, “and I feel that we should return as soon as we can.”
When Gran’pa had told him of the children’s Flying Boat and how he had
made one to follow the children to the Moon, David said, “Perhaps you
could make another and so return to the Earth! Perhaps you could take me
to my home in it, first.”
Gran’pa asked the Princess if he could build another Flying Boat and
although the Princess wished them to stay at the Castle with her always,
she realized that they must be as anxious to return to the Earth as she
had been to return to the City of Nite. So the Princess sent word to the
Royal Carpenter to bring boards and nails to the Castle roof and there
Gran’pa superintended the building of the new Flying Boat.
While this was being built, the Princess took her friends to visit her
father and mother, with whom they spent two happy weeks, seeing the
sights and having dances and dinners given in their honor.
When they returned to the City of Nite, the Flying Boat had been
completed and stood upon the Castle roof all ready to sail. It was a
sturdy, beautifully built machine—quite the nicest one that has ever
been made.
There were tears in the eyes of the Princess and Mrs. Tiptoe as David,
Gran’ma, Gran’pa and the children took their seats in the boat.
“Good-bye! Good-bye!” they cried. “Do not forget that we shall be most
happy to have you visit us again!” And the Princess gave Gran’ma,
Gran’pa, Janey and Johnny each a beautiful ring in which was set a
wonderful Moonstone.
[Illustration]
Then when she had kissed them all good-bye again Gran’pa turned the
little knob marked “Start” and the new Flying Boat rose slowly from the
roof of the Castle and sailed away.
The Princess and the people of Nite watched the Flying Boat until it was
out of sight, and then the Princess and Mrs. Tiptoe and the Tiptoe
Brothers went into the Castle.
“I wished for them to stay,” said the Princess. “Didn’t you love them
all?”
“Indeed I did,” Mrs. Tiptoe answered as she wiped her eyes. “They were
all so kind and unselfish.”
“It is nice to know and love them,” said Mr. Tiptoe, “and while I know
they had many unpleasant experiences in the Magical Land of Noom, I am
so glad they came.”
“Yes,” replied the Princess, “we owe all our present happiness to them
and I hope they will come again to visit us soon.”
“Let’s all write a long letter and send it to them,” the Chief of
Detectives suggested.
“How?” the others inquired.
“Let us write the letter, then address it care of the Earth and puff the
magic powder upon it. They will be sure to receive it!”
“That is an excellent idea!” the Princess cried joyfully. “We will start
it right away.”
So they all set to work on the letter, so as to send it off at once.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XIII
EVERYBODY GOES HOME
When the Flying Boat was out of sight of the City of Nite, Gran’pa
pressed the speed button and the new craft shot through the air like a
comet, passing over the mountains and valleys in a flash. In a very few
moments it had covered a distance that had taken the travelers long
hours to walk.
The new Flying Boat whizzed around the bend in the Moon and flew over
the side which is always turned towards the Earth.
“This must be the Dayland in which you live!” Gran’pa said to David.
“It is!” David answered. “See, there is the Earth!”
By shading their eyes from the Sun, Gran’ma, Gran’pa and the children
could see a blue-green Star winking and blinking in the sky and could
faintly make out the shape of the land and the oceans upon its surface.
As they sped along above the Moon, they watched the wonderful changes in
coloring below them. They saw many cities and villages and looked into
enormous craters of extinct volcanoes.
At last they saw in the distance a city of white with wonderful steeples
and towers on the great building standing in the center. It was a
regular fairy book castle with glistening windows and hanging gardens.
“There it is!” David shouted. “Guide the Flying Boat to the balcony at
the right of the Palace!” And as Gran’pa brought the Flying Boat to rest
as directed, many people rushed out of the Palace, and knelt before
David. “Our King has returned!” they shouted. “Long live the King!” And
they all came and kissed his hand.
When David saw Gran’ma and Gran’pa and Janey and Johnny looking at him
in astonishment he put his arms around them and helped them from the
boat.
“We did not know you were a King!” exclaimed Janey.
The King laughed for the first time and it was such a cheery, pleasant
laugh they almost forgot that he was a King and Gran’ma gave his hand a
squeeze.
[Illustration: “There it is!” David shouted. “Guide the Flying Boat to
the balcony at the right of the Palace!” (page 154)]
As the King led them inside the Palace all the bells in the city began
chiming. “You must at least stay and have dinner with me,” he said.
The King wished them to stay until he had learned how he came to change
characters, but as soon as they had finished dinner, Gran’ma said they
must leave.
“If I can discover just what happened when I walked out to look at the
Sun,” the King laughed as he said good-bye, “I will write to you and try
to find a way to get the letter into your hands.”
“It seems as if you could make a little Flying Boat and put the letter
in it and send it to us,” Johnny said.
“Then you can expect to hear from me,” the King replied, as he waved
good-bye to them.
[Illustration]
Gran’ma and the children took a nap while Gran’pa guided the Flying Boat
on its return trip and when he finally awakened them, the new Flying
Boat stood in the back yard near the kitchen door at Gran’pa’s home.
“Well,” said Gran’ma as she jumped out of the boat, “the Castle of the
Princess was comfortable and beautiful and King David’s Palace was
magnificent, but our little old home is the best of all!”
“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home!” Gran’pa sang as he
helped Janey from the boat.
“I hope the moths haven’t got in the carpets!” Gran’ma said, as she
opened the back door.
[Illustration]
Johnny ran to the chicken shed and came back with six or seven eggs.
Janey helped Gran’ma set the table and Gran’pa built the kitchen fire.
Then Gran’pa went to the smoke-house and brought in a large ham.
“We’ll have some good old ham and eggs!” he said.
Gran’ma made the fluffiest biscuits she had ever baked and they sat down
to a breakfast which they all enjoyed more than they had ever enjoyed a
breakfast before.
“Now that we are back home again, doesn’t it all seem far away and
strange, like a fairy tale one has read a long time ago?” Gran’ma
suggested.
“Yes, and like a real fairy tale, it has turned out very happily,”
Gran’pa smiled.
“I wonder if we shall ever hear from the Princess or from the King,”
Johnny said.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the King should marry the beautiful
Princess, just as all pretty fairy tales end?” mused Gran’ma.
THE END
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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