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PRINCE VANCE
[Illustration]
PRINCE VANCE
The Story of a Prince with a Court in his Box
BY
ELEANOR PUTNAM and ARLO BATES
_ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK MYRICK_
BOSTON
ROBERTS BROTHERS
1888
_Copyright, 1888_,
BY ARLO BATES.
University Press:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
_TO THE BOY ORIC_
_Dear son, this twisted, tangled web of whims
For you was woven while you scarcely knew
The simplest speech men use; but infant limbs,
That round and smooth in dimpled fairness grew,
Waved for all word in a babe's perfect glee,
So wondrous sweet to see._
_It is not stranger than this world must seem
To one who its vagaries first does scan;
It is less weird than the enchanted dream
Which life may change to ere you be a man.
Such as it is, take it for this alone,--
That it is all your own._
_Those who together wrought its colors gay,
And its fantastic warp and woof entwined,
May not again for you in work or play
Together labor. Yet the loving mind
In which they then were one will still be one
Till life and sense be done._
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
THE FAIRY COPETTA AND THE PRINCE _Frontispiece_
INITIAL: Chapter I 15
INITIAL: Chapter II 20
"'Come,' he said to the Prince, in rather an injured tone" 21
"He picked up the poor tutor, and putting him on the
window-sill laughed at him" 24
TAILPIECE: "'It is in here,' the Blue Wizard said, holding
out a pretty gold bonbon box" 25
INITIAL: Chapter III 26
THE ROYAL TABLE, WITH THE COURT SHRINKING 27
"'Oh, as to that,' the Blue Wizard answered carelessly,
giving the King in turn a bath in the finger-bowl" 31
TAILPIECE: "He seated his royal mother on the top of the
sugar-bowl" 33
INITIAL: Chapter IV 34
TAILPIECE: THE HISSING SWANS 40
INITIAL: Chapter V 41
"The Lord Chancellor, who seemed to be always in trouble,
picked some sort of quarrel with a large green
grasshopper" 44
"He moved from a bunch of thistles which he had carefully
stripped to the next" 46
INITIAL: Chapter VI 50
"'How do you know?' demanded the raven, fixing his
glittering eye on the Prince" 51
"But presently a little window opened in the side of the
tree trunk, from which a wrinkled old face looked out" 56
INITIAL: Chapter VII 59
"'But I want it in my mouth,' sighed the man on the ground" 61
"A second man stood on an overturned bucket and blew into
the mouth of the first with a pair of bellows" 63
"'What's all this?' the Prince asked of one who seemed of
some authority" 66
INITIAL: Chapter VIII 68
The Court on the Fisherman's Table 71
INITIAL: Chapter IX 76
"He stopped in amazement, and no wonder" 77
TAILPIECE: THE GIANT'S CASTLE 81
INITIAL: Chapter X 82
PRINCE VANCE ON THE GIANT'S HAND 83
"'I should not wonder, now,' she said, 'if my husband would
give these things to me; they are too small to be of
any use except as seasoning'" 90
INITIAL: Chapter XI 93
INITIAL: Chapter XII 97
"'There!' she exclaimed, as she held it toward him, 'there
it is; and good enough eating for a royal prince'" 99
"'But,' asked the Prince, 'does nobody know anything? Has
nobody any sense?'" 101
TAILPIECE: "'Why don't you catch me?'" 104
INITIAL: Chapter XIII 105
"Now that at last he was standing still, the Prince
perceived his nose was of a most peculiar and curious
fashion" 107
"'Simply a sort of slow-match; grows in the daytime as much
as it burns away at night'" 110
INITIAL: Chapter XIV 112
At the Funny Man's Table 113
INITIAL: Chapter XV 118
"The monkey, looking up, wiped its eyes upon a small lace
handkerchief, which was already quite damp enough" 121
TAILPIECE: "At this the monkey wept so violently" 125
INITIAL: Chapter XVI 126
"He was a good-natured-looking old man; but his head, body,
arms, and legs, even his features, were twisted" 127
INITIAL: Chapter XVII 130
"The Prince took the spade and began to dig, though not
very hopefully" 134
THE WIZARD MAKING A CAT'S-CRADLE 137
INITIAL: Chapter XVIII 140
"'Don't quibble!' retorted the cat, sharply" 143
INITIAL: Chapter XIX 146
"As the last stroke of twelve ceased, out stepped the Fairy
Copetta" 148
PRINCE VANCE.
I.
It was certainly not strange that Prince Vance was so stupefied with
astonishment that he sat for a full half-hour foolishly staring before
him, without an effort to move a muscle or to stir from his seat.
Indeed, it is probable that any other prince in the same circumstances
would have been equally struck dumb with amazement,--as any one may see
who will attend while I go back to the beginning, and relate what had
happened.
By the beginning is meant the birth of Prince Vance, when the powerful
fairy Copetta had been chosen his godmother, since which time she
certainly had not devoted herself to being agreeable to the Prince. She
had insisted, for instance, that her godson should pay attention to his
lessons; that he should show respect to his tutors; and, what was most
outrageous of all, that he, Prince Vance, only son of his parents and
sole heir to the kingdom, should learn to obey. She had coolly informed
her godson, moreover, that if he did not obey her willingly, it would
certainly be the worse for him; since learn he must, by harsh means, if
no others would move him.
All this seemed to Vance a most unpleasant and unreasonable sort of
talk, and, as may be imagined, it did not increase his love for his
godmother. So things had gone on from bad to worse between them until
Vance was a fine, lusty lad beginning his teens, when one day the Blue
Wizard came to court.
Vance had been having a remarkably unpleasant scene with his godmother
that morning. She had come popping into the school-room, in a
disagreeable way she had of appearing when she was least expected; and,
of course, nothing would do but she must come at the exact moment when
the Prince was engaged in boxing his tutor's ears (without
boxing-gloves), because the poor old man wanted him to learn the
boundaries of what would some day be his own kingdom.
"You shall see the boundaries by travelling over them all on foot," the
fairy had said crossly. "You are growing up idle, selfish, and
disobedient; a shame to your godmother and a disgrace to your family.
You will be associating with the Blue Wizard next, I dare say!"
"Yes, so I will," the Prince answered stubbornly; for though he really
had never heard of the Blue Wizard before, he would have said anything
just then to vex his godmother,--"so I will. I should like to see him. I
really wish he would come this very day!"
"As for me, you evil boy!" Copetta said, more angrily yet, striking her
cane sharply upon the ground, "you shall want me badly enough before you
find me, I promise you; and sorrow shall have made you wiser before you
look upon my face again."
"Not that I shall miss you much, with your scoldings and
fault-findings!" replied the saucy Prince; and as she vanished before
his eyes, according to her startling custom, he began shying his books
at the head of his tutor, to the great discomfort of that unhappy man,
who thought that his lot in life was indeed a sad one, and wished
himself a wood-cutter in the royal forest, or indeed anything rather
than what he was.
When his pile of books was quite gone, and the blackboard erasers, the
bits of crayon, and the pointer had been thrown after them, the Prince
put his hands in his pockets and lounged to the window, whistling a tune
he had caught from a hand-organ. His twelve younger sisters were just
coming into the courtyard, two by two, returning from taking their
morning airing with their governesses. The Princesses were quite as good
as the Prince was bad, and there could certainly have been no prettier
sight than that of the twelve royal little girls walking along so
properly and primly. Each had a green velvet pelisse, a neat Leghorn
bonnet, and a green fringed parasol; each wore nice buff mitts and a
good-tempered smile, and each had a complexion like pink and white
ice-cream, and eyes like pretty blue beads. It was therefore very
naughty indeed of Prince Vance to shout "Boh!" so loudly that each
Princess started and hopped quite one foot from the ground, and even the
governesses put their hands to their hearts. This, however, gave much
joy to the Prince; and after his sisters had disappeared he stood by the
window still whistling, with his hands in his pockets and a wicked grin
on his face.
"Your Royal Highness," began the tutor, meekly, "your Highness really
must not put your Highness's hands in your Highness's trousers pockets,
and whistle that dreadful tune. If her Royal Highness the Queen should
hear you, she would certainly have me beheaded."
"Why should I care for that?" asked the Prince, carelessly; and just at
that moment he caught sight of the Blue Wizard himself coming into the
court below.
II
Whatever else might be said of the Blue Wizard, nobody would ever think
of calling him a beauty. His nose and his chin were long and pointed,
his eyebrows big and bushy, his teeth sharp and protruding from his
mouth; and everything about him--skin, hair, teeth, and dress--was as
blue as a sky on a June afternoon when not a cloud is to be seen. He
had, too, a way of perking his head about, which was most unsettling to
the nerves; twitching and twisting it constantly from side to side, like
a toy mandarin. He came boldly into the courtyard of the palace, quite
as if the whole place belonged to him; and catching sight of Prince
Vance at the window above, he raised one finger, long and skinny and
blue as a larkspur blossom, and beckoned for him to come down.
The Prince hesitated. Certainly the Blue Wizard was not so charming in
his looks as to make one wish to get any nearer to him, but Vance
happened to remember that his godmother had seemed to disapprove most
highly of this very wizard; so with an idea of displeasing Copetta, the
Prince obeyed the beckoning finger and went down.
[Illustration]
At a nearer view the Wizard looked even uglier than from a distance. His
very lips were blue, and when he opened his mouth his tongue was seen to
be blue also.
"Come," he said to the Prince, in rather an injured tone, "you keep me
waiting long enough, I hope, when I only came to teach you a droll
trick."
"That is good," answered Vance, growing interested at once. "I do like
droll tricks. What is it?"
"It is in here," the Blue Wizard said, holding out a pretty gold bonbon
box. "Just make anybody eat one of these, and then you shall see what
you shall see."
The Prince took the box in his hand and opened his lips to ask another
question; but before he could speak a single word the Blue Wizard had
vanished quite away, and he stood alone.
He went slowly and thoughtfully upstairs, wondering what the trick could
be.
"I'll try it on the tutor first," he concluded, "because I'm sure I
don't care what happens to him, and I really must know what the droll
trick is."
So he went smilingly up to his tutor and offered the open box; and the
simple old gentleman, suspecting nothing, bowed and simpered at the
great honor his Royal Highness did him, and quickly swallowed one of
the little bonbons.
And this is what happened. Pouf! The unfortunate tutor shut up like a
crush-hat, and shrunk together until he was as short as a pygmy and as
plump as a mushroom. Really one might just as well have no tutor at all
as to have one so tiny. How Prince Vance did laugh! Of all the wizards
he had ever known--and for one so young his Highness had known a great
many wizards; he almost always met more or less of them when he played
truant by climbing out of a back window and going into the woods
fishing--he thought the Blue Wizard was the most amusing and had
invented the very drollest trick.
"Dear me, your Highness!" said the poor tutor, in so tiny a voice that
it was quite all the Prince could do to hear him. "Dear me! what is the
matter? I certainly feel very queer; I do, indeed."
"You look even queerer than you feel, I fancy," replied the naughty
Prince, chuckling with glee.
[Illustration]
He picked up the poor tutor, and putting him on the window-sill laughed
at him till his sides were fairly sore. Then he began to consider how he
could get the most fun and make the most mischief out of his bonbons,
for there were not a great many of them; and, being a shrewd young
rascal, he at last contrived the plan of putting them into the ice-cream
which was then being frozen for the royal dinner. Then everybody would
be sure to get a taste at least of the magic potion; and slipping down
into the kitchen, the wicked young Prince succeeded in carrying out this
evil and dangerous plan.
[Illustration]
III
Everybody looked at the Prince when at dinner he declined ice-cream. It
was unheard of. Nobody had ever known him to do such a thing before. The
twelve young Princesses, though much too well bred to remark upon it,
stared at their brother with their twenty-four beady blue eyes, and made
their twelve little mouths as round as penny pieces in their surprise.
Now the King, being fond of ice-cream, happened to eat quite steadily
for some moments without stopping; so that when he did look up he beheld
his Queen already shrunk to the size of a teaspoon, and every moment
growing smaller.
"My dear," said he, gravely, "really I don't think you ought,--before
the children too; just consider what a bad example you are setting
them."
[Illustration]
"I'm sure, Sire," replied the Queen, rather crossly, for the sudden
shrinking had given her quite a giddy feeling,--"I'm sure I cannot
imagine what you are talking about. Bad example, indeed! You had better
be looking to your own behavior. What the children will think of you for
growing so very small, I'm sure I cannot imagine."
At this moment the royal pair looked about on their daughters. They were
about the size of lucifer matches! They ran their eyes down the long
table; every person there was a pygmy.
Horror and fear filled every mind save that of Prince Vance. He nearly
went wild with joy over the great success of his trick. He had, it is
true, run out of the dining-hall at first, from his old habit of
starting off whenever he had performed any of his abominable jokes; but
he soon ventured to come back again, and round and round the table he
went, laughing as if he would kill himself at the tiny people sprawling
helplessly in their big chairs.
The Prince helped himself to fruit and cakes and bonbons from the
table. He seated his royal mother on top of the sugar-bowl, and put the
poor old King in the salt-cellar. As for the Lord Chancellor, whom he
especially hated, Vance dumped the bewigged old fop into the pepper-box,
where he would really have sneezed himself to death in another minute,
had not the Blue Wizard fortunately appeared and given the unhappy man a
sudden bath in a finger-bowl.
"It worked well, didn't it?" the Blue Wizard observed with a grin, as he
put the Lord Chancellor, very white and limp, on the window-seat to dry
in the sun.
"Oh, awfully well!" Vance replied briskly, although secretly he was more
than a little afraid of this particular wizard, who seemed to be much
more sudden in his way of appearing and disappearing than the common
sort of wizards to which the Prince was accustomed.
"The worst of it is," remarked the Wizard, thoughtfully, pulling his
bushy eyebrows with his long blue fingers, "you can't change 'em back."
"What!" exclaimed the Prince, in his confusion dropping his father into
the pudding sauce and entirely ruining the royal robes. "Can't change
them back? But you must change them back if I tell you to."
[Illustration]
"Oh, as to that," the Blue Wizard answered carelessly, giving the king
in turn a bath in the finger-bowl, "what you say isn't of the least
consequence any way. In the first place, no wizard is bound to obey
anybody who does not himself know how to obey; and in the second place,
nobody can undo this particular charm but the Crushed Strawberry
Wizard."
"Very well, then," said Vance, imperiously, paying no attention whatever
to the first part of the Blue Wizard's remark; "go and get the Crushed
Strawberry Wizard."
"Get him yourself!" was the answer. "_I_ don't want him. It is nothing
to me, you know; this isn't my family."
"But where does the Crushed Strawberry Wizard live?" asked the Prince,
more humbly.
"I'm sure I've no idea," the Blue Wizard replied lightly; "and now I
think of it, I don't believe I care. I'm sure I don't see why I should."
"But it's all your fault," blubbered Vance, beginning to cry, and
sitting down upon his uncle, the Duke Ogee, without even noticing him
till the Duke wriggled so that Vance jumped up in a fright, thinking he
had sat down upon a frog. "I'm sure you got me into the scrape."
"Now you're getting tiresome," said the Wizard, yawning. "I never liked
tiresome people myself."
"But I don't know what to do-oo!" sobbed the Prince.
At this the Wizard only gave a terrible laugh and vanished quite away
again, leaving the naughty young Prince to get out of his trouble as
best he could.
[Illustration]
IV
For a few moments Prince Vance continued to cry rather noisily, though
it must be confessed that it was more because he was so vexed at the
Blue Wizard than because he was at all sorry for what he had done.
Indeed, he did not even now realize that the trick was likely to turn
out a very serious thing; and after a while he dried his eyes, and
having collected his wits proceeded to collect also all the little
people and put them together at one end of the royal dining-table.
They made such a pretty sight, with their little court robes and tiny
jewels, that Vance was charmed with them and declared them to be more
interesting than white mice or even guinea pigs. He could hear them,
too, if he listened very closely indeed, quarrelling and blaming one
another for what had befallen them; and this was so vastly funny to the
wicked Prince that he rubbed his hands and fairly danced again with
glee. It was only when the palace cat, pouncing upon the Lord Chancellor
as he lay upon the window-sill, snatched him and carried him off in her
mouth, that Vance began to be a little frightened, and to realize that,
having made the whole family unable to protect themselves, it had now
become his duty to care for them and see that they came to no harm. He
just managed to save the Lord Chancellor from the lantern jaws of the
royal cat, and then proceeded at once to set his small family in safe
places for the night. Some he put in the crystal lily-cups of the
chandeliers; others in the crannies of the golden mouldings on the wall;
while for the King and Queen and the twelve little Princesses, he found
a lovely chamber in a pink porcelain shell which hung from the ceiling
by silver chains, and was commonly used for the burning of perfumes and
spices to make the air of the dining-hall sweet and delightful. All this
being attended to, the Prince betook himself to bed; but the palace
seemed very lonely and silent, and the Prince was so dull and so
frightened that he might not have gone to sleep at all, save for the
cheering thought that at least there was no danger of lessons on the
morrow, as the tutor was too small to teach, and his father and mother
far too little to make him obey.
"I will go to the preserve closets," he murmured to himself as he was
dropping off to sleep. "There is now nobody to stop me. I shall begin
with the damsons and the honey in the morning, and I shall have all the
wedding cake and macaroons that I can possibly eat."
But, alas for the Prince! when morning came he found that affairs were
turning out differently indeed from the way in which he had planned.
When he came down to breakfast, with his foolish head full of visions of
ordering the cook to send up pigeon pot-pie, curry of larks, strong
coffee,--which was a forbidden delight to the Prince except upon his
birthdays,--and unlimited buttered toast and jam, what a downfall to all
his hopes was it to find, pacing the dining-hall, the fierce and cruel
General Bopi, who, luckily for himself, had been out hunting the day
before, and so missed the fatal dinner, and was still quite as large as
life if not larger. He had discovered the state of affairs at the
palace; and so far from making himself unhappy about this, he was
evidently in great good spirits, and, to say the least, was disposed to
make the best of matters instead of the worst. He had put on the King's
very best crown which was kept to be worn only on great occasions, and
with a cloak of royal ermine on his shoulders was strutting boldly up
and down, enjoying his new splendors and the feeling of power which they
brought.
How it happened Vance never was quite able to tell, but the first thing
he knew, his dreams of having his own way and ordering the servants
about to his heart's content were shattered, and he found himself
somehow pushed and hustled outside on the palace steps,--himself, the
Prince, and heir to the royal throne, turned away from his own door and
ordered to leave the kingdom on pain of death.
"But my family!" cried Vance; "I hid them from the cat, and now they
will starve. Nobody can find them but me!"
"As for their starving," the General replied indifferently, "I don't
know that I care for that; but I would rather the palace should be rid
of the whole vermin race of them, so you may come in and gather them up.
But be quick about it, or I'll set the royal bloodhounds on you!"
Thus roughly treated, the poor Prince made haste to collect his
scattered family from the nooks and crannies where he had hidden them.
He was cramming them into his pockets with very little thought for their
feelings, when he happened to remember his sister's baby-house, which
not only had parlors, bedrooms, and dining-rooms in plenty, but was well
furnished with everything which the heart of little people could desire.
This he begged very humbly of the new king, and having it granted him he
packed his family into it, making them as comfortable as their reduced
circumstances would allow. A grinning footman strapped the box on the
back of the Prince as an organ-grinder carries his organ; then he
helped him out of the palace with a sudden push which had nearly sent
him headlong down the steps. Laughing pages ran before him, and the
Prince recalled the many times he had tweaked their noses and stuck pins
in the calves of their legs. Everybody seemed heartily glad to see him
go.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish!" quoth the palace hound; "you will never
again put my meat up a tree where I cannot get it."
"Get out with you!" snapped the royal cat. "I'm glad you are turned out
of the house. Let us hope a body can take a nap in comfort now, without
having her tail stepped on or snuff sprinkled in her face."
"Don't trouble yourself ever to come back," screeched the peacock,
hoarsely. "For my part, I'm tired of having my handsomest tail-feathers
snatched out by the handful. I'm sure I trust I shall never set eyes on
you again."
So it was with all the animals in the royal gardens. The deer, the emus,
the gazelles, the swans, the flamingoes, the parrots, even his own
particular white mice and spotted guinea pigs, declared that they were
glad he was going, and hoped he might never come back any more. Not a
creature did anything but rejoice as the royal beggar was tumbled rudely
out from his own father's gardens and left standing alone in the
highway, already heartily sorry for his prank, and quite at his wits'
end as to what to do with the Court which he carried in his baggage.
[Illustration]
V
Considering that Prince Vance had never done anything at all for
himself, not even so much as to tie his own shoe-strings, it was a
pretty hard lot for him to be turned out into the world to get his own
living, and take care of the whole Court besides. At first he was almost
tempted to throw away the box and all his relatives with it; but
although of course he could not be expected to think so much of his
father and mother now that there was so very little of them to be fond
of, still under all his follies Vance had a good sort of heart, and so
he trudged away with the troublesome little Court strapped tightly to
his shoulders. I am not perfectly sure that he did not take some
pleasure in jolting it about, for I have more than once seen little folk
bang and jerk bundles they were made to carry against their wills. At
any rate, the King and the Queen and the Court came very near being
seasick upon dry land, from the jolting and rocking of this new manner
of travelling.
Prince Vance had not the least idea where he was going. He knew, of
course, that he wanted to find the Crushed Strawberry Wizard, but he did
not know where that individual lived, or how to go to work to find him;
so he only made his best pace to get away from the palace as fast as he
could, being afraid that the new king might repent of not having taken
his head from his shoulders, and send somebody after him.
It was about sunset when he came to a beautiful field which lay along
the banks of a wide dark river; and Vance, who by this time was half
starved, was delighted that wild strawberries grew here in great plenty,
making the ground quite red. He first looked about for somebody to pick
them for him, but naturally he found no one; so he set down his luggage
and fell to helping himself, eating very fast and paying very little
attention to the rules of good society.
It was not until he had stuffed himself to the throat that he happened
to think that his travelling companions might also be hungry. He opened
the box and let them out, and found much pleasure in watching their
funny antics as they stumbled over tiny pebbles or became entangled in
the grass and struggled helplessly as if caught in some horrible
thicket. Two or three would seat themselves around one ripe berry, and
dine from it where it was growing; others drank drops of the evening
dew, which already shone in the clover leaves and buttercups; while the
Lord Chancellor, who seemed to be always getting into trouble, picked
some sort of quarrel with a large green grasshopper,--and so terrible
did the battle become that there is no telling who would have come out
of it alive had not Vance gone to the poor Lord's help and frightened
the insect away.
Under all these trying circumstances the poor nobles kept something of
their court manners; and their smiles and stately movements, their
bowings and courtesies, seemed to Prince Vance so droll that he went
into violent fits of laughter and rolled about on the grass.
[Illustration]
As it grew dark he did indeed stop laughing and think longingly of his
soft bed with its silken pillows and down coverings, but in truth he was
so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open at all; and as soon as he
had picked his small relatives and friends out of the damp grass and put
them safely into their box, he lay down under a spreading beech-tree and
fell into a sound and delicious sleep.
The morning found the Prince somewhat refreshed and gave him a fresh
determination. He resolved to set out at once on the search for the
Crushed Strawberry Wizard, leaving no means untried until he discovered
him and prevailed upon him to change the transformed Court to its former
condition. He shouldered his box and started bravely on the road, not
knowing at all where he was going, and already beginning to regret that
he had not paid to his lessons at least sufficient attention to have
learned in which direction his own kingdom extended.
He had walked an hour or two when he saw by the roadside a man engaged
in gathering the down from the tall thistles that grew by the way.
"Hallo!" cried the Prince; "what do you expect to do with that?"
"Beds," answered the man, shortly, and without stopping his work.
"Oh!" Vance said, seating himself on a stone and putting down his box
beside him. "You make beds of it, do you? They must be very soft."
"Dandelion," replied the man.
"Dandelion?" repeated the Prince. "That doesn't mean anything."
[Illustration]
The man nodded his head in a knowing way, but said nothing. He was a
strange-looking individual, with clothing which was made of all sorts of
odds and ends pieced together; while so lean and wizened was he that it
made the Prince hungry only to look at him.
"Do you mean that dandelion down makes better beds?" asked Vance, whose
wits were being sharpened by his travels.
The other nodded.
"Then why in the world couldn't you say so? You are not dumb."
"Breath," returned the little thin man, briefly.
He moved from the bunch of thistles which he had stripped to the next,
turning as he did so and carefully picking up his footprints to use over
again and save himself the trouble of making new ones.
"You are certainly the most economical man I ever saw," declared the
Prince, irritably. "I wouldn't be so mean with my old footprints; nobody
else would bother to pick them up. And as for breath, you might spare a
little more of that; it doesn't cost anything."
The man paid no especial attention to these rather uncivil remarks, but
went on in his work with great diligence.
"Do talk a little!" Vance said, becoming more and more impatient every
moment. "At least you can tell me how to find the Crushed Strawberry
Wizard?"
"Why?" asked the man, with the first show of interest he had displayed.
"I'm going in search of him."
"Wouldn't," was the little man's reply.
"Why not?"
"Dreadfully wearing on shoes," the other answered.
Then he stopped and collected the breath which he had used in this
speech,--for him a very long one,--and went on steadily picking
thistledown.
"But I must find him," Vance persisted, vexed anew at this reply; "where
does he live?"
"Don't know," said the thistledown-gatherer, shortly.
Vance arose from the stone with an impatient flounce, and took up his
box so suddenly that the teeth of all the Court chattered.
"Well," he said snappishly, "you are certainly the stingiest man I ever
saw. You can't even give away a civil word."
"Oh, no!" returned the old man, with an expression of great
astonishment. "Never give anything away. What will you give for your
dolls?"
Now, this question might sound like pure idiocy to some people; but
funnily enough it came into the head of Vance that when he had been
teasing those twelve models of propriety, his sisters, a few days
before, and had made their blue bead-like eyes swim with tears by taking
away their playthings, he had used just those very same words to them.
He hung his head a little; but still, determined to put a bold face on
the matter, he said,--
"Don't talk nonsense! Tell me the way to the Crushed Strawberry Wizard's
this minute!"
But, to his surprise, where the queer old man had stood there was only a
seedy black raven, very battered and ragged, but with a remarkable pair
of glittering red eyes.
VI
"I must say," the raven remarked severely, "that, considering the fact
that nobody invited you to come to this concert at all, and that you
have no check for a reserved seat, it would look better in you to keep
quiet and not disturb the entertainment."
"Concert!" exclaimed Vance, in bewilderment. "There isn't any concert."
"But there is going to be," returned the bird, more severely than
before. "I'm going to sing myself. First, I shall sing a love-song. Be
quiet!"
And without further ado he began, in a terribly hoarse and cracked
voice,--
"Snip-snap, frip-frap,
Bungalee, tee hee lees;
Jip-jap; nip-nap,
Tungatee tinum gee me strap,
Bring me a bottle of cheese."
"Oh, come," exclaimed the Prince, "you must really know that that is
nonsense! It certainly means nothing."
[Illustration]
"How do you know?" demanded the raven, fixing his glittering eye on the
Prince. "Do you understand the language of love?"
"No," said Vance, more humbly; "I must confess that I don't, though I've
always heard it was very silly."
"Speaking of the boundaries of a king--" the raven began easily; but the
Prince interrupted in great haste.
"Nobody _was_ speaking of boundaries," he said sharply; "you made that
up yourself."
"--dom," resumed the raven, calmly, paying no sort of attention to the
interruption of the Prince, but cocking his head on one side and looking
wickedly out of one eye, "they are very useful to know, and there are
various ways of learning them. Some people learn them in the school
room; that's one way: some travel; that's--"
But before he could get any farther Vance had caught up a stone and
flung it at him. With a terrible croaking the raven flew up into the air
in circles higher and higher until he vanished straight overhead.
"Ten to one that was Godmother herself," grumbled Vance, as he picked up
his box and started again along the dusty road.
All the rest of the day he travelled, growing more and more weary, until
at sunset he came to a very old woman sitting beside a great tree upon
the river's bank.
"Hallo!" cried Vance, not too politely.
The wrinkled old creature looked at the river, at the tree, at the
sky,--everywhere, in a word, except at the travel-stained Vance.
"Come!" he said more roughly yet, "why don't you speak when you are
spoken to? Do you know who I am?"
The aged crone wrinkled her forehead and lifted her grizzled eyebrows,
still without looking at him.
"No," she answered coolly, "I don't know that I do. You look like a
boot-black with that box on your shoulders, only that a boot-black would
be more civil-spoken."
An angry retort sprang to the lips of the Prince, but before he could
give vent to it a terrible little shrill sound from the box struck his
ears. In sudden dismay he unslung the baby-house, and opened it to
discover what was the matter with his family.
In the middle of the floor of the largest room of the baby-house were
all the Court, gathered about the old King, who had fallen in a faint
from hunger.
"He is starved!" cried the Queen, in a piercing wee voice of anguish.
"I am starving myself!" roared the Lord Chamberlain, in a keen though
tiny roar.
"We are all starving!" shrieked the whole Court, in voices more or less
audible.
"Well," Vance said, looking at the affliction of the little people, "I
must say this is extremely disagreeable of them all to be starving. They
always are starving."
"Very," the old woman echoed, with a sneering chuckle.
As she spoke, she took from beneath her faded cloak a basket in which
were delicate white cakes, fruits, and honey. These she began to eat
with great relish, apparently not at all interested in the Prince or his
family.
"Come, now," cried he, "give me some of that! My Court is half dead."
"Really?" she returned, coolly munching away.
"Yes," shouted Vance, vainly attempting to snatch something from the
well-filled basket, "and I must have a cake to feed them on."
The old lady made no resistance, but only flitted up like a bird, in
some unaccountable way, to a limb of a tree, where she sat eating as
placidly as ever.
"Goodness!" said poor Vance, startled half out of his wits, "are you
Godmother too? You shy about just like her."
"She is a friend of mine," answered the old woman. "I know all about
you, too, for that matter."
There was nothing left for Vance but to beg for pity, and at last the
strange creature threw him down half a small cake.
"There's plenty for your family."
Vance provided for his little people, and then began humbly to beg for a
few morsels for himself.
"Wait," said the woman on the bough overhead, "till I see what there is
in the pantry."
She disappeared with great suddenness; but presently a little window
opened in the side of the tree trunk, from which the wrinkled old face
looked out.
[Illustration]
"Here are a few dry crusts from the closet," she said. "You may have
them. With a little honey I think they will go very well."
She handed two or three mouldy scraps of bread out as she spoke, which
Vance took with as good grace as he could muster.
"Where is the honey?" he asked, eying his crusts ruefully.
"Oh, I'll eat the honey while you eat the crusts," was the answer. "That
is by far the best way to arrange it."
"You are mean enough, I hope," he exclaimed angrily.
But, alas! at the word the crusts left his grasp and appeared in the
hand of the old woman.
"Oh, very well," she said, "just as you please! You are not obliged to
have them, of course."
Poor Vance was ready to cry with vexation and hunger, and quite broke
down at this last misfortune. He begged so humbly for the crusts that at
last the queer old crone relented and gave them back; and never did
anything taste sweeter to him than these dry and mouldy morsels of
bread.
"You may sleep where you are," the woman said as he finished; and she
closed the window with a slam, leaving it impossible to say where it had
been.
"Oh, by the way," she cried, a moment later, sticking her head through
the bark of the tree, in a way that looked very uncomfortable indeed,
"about those boundaries, you know, and the Crushed Strawberry Wizard, I
was going to say--But, no; on the whole, it's no matter."
And once more she disappeared, not again to be seen.
"I must say," muttered Prince Vance, "strange things happen to me all
the time."
And curling himself up on the moss, he fell fast asleep from weariness.
VII
The morning sun shining into his eyes awakened him; and after looking
about carefully to assure himself that there was nothing to be had to
eat in that place, Vance shouldered his box and trudged along the
river's bank. It was a beautiful bright morning; the birds were singing,
the flowers were opening to the light, and had it not been for a
constantly growing hunger, the young traveller might have enjoyed his
walk greatly. As it was, he soon became so hungry that he could think of
nothing but eating. He went on, however, until about noon, before he
found any food; then to his great joy he came upon a fine tree hanging
full of ripe peaches, rosy and plump as a baby's cheek.
"Now for a feast!" he said eagerly to himself, as he put down his box
and prepared to gather a hatful of the delicious fruit.
Just then he stumbled over something, and looking down saw a man lying
on the grass with his eyes shut and his mouth open.
"Hallo!" exclaimed the Prince. "Who are you? Are you awake or asleep?"
"Awake," answered the man, without stirring.
"Why don't you get up then?" asked Vance. "Are you ill?"
"No," replied the man, briefly.
And indeed he was as stout a fellow as one would meet in a summer's day.
"Then what are you doing?" demanded the Prince, who had lost all
patience and who thought that the other might at least take the trouble
to open his eyes to see who was talking to him.
"Waiting," the man said, opening his eyes at last.
"Waiting for what?"
"For a peach to drop into my mouth."
"One has fallen beside your cheek," said Vance, "and another right in
your hand."
[Illustration]
"But I want it in my mouth," sighed the man on the ground. "I am so
dreadfully hungry."
"So dreadfully lazy, you mean," exclaimed Vance, quite out of patience;
and he began to eat the luscious fruit. "You must certainly be the
laziest man in the world."
"If you think that," was the drawling answer, "you ought to see my
cousin Loto, who lives down the river a mile as the crow flies."
"He'll have to be lazy, indeed, to beat you," the Prince said, as he
once more shouldered his box. "Do you know where the Crushed Strawberry
Wizard lives?"
"I know," returned the man, "but I'm too lazy to tell."
"It wouldn't take you any longer to tell than to say you can't tell,"
cried Vance, hotly.
"Perhaps not," was the cool retort; "but if I told it would be doing
something, and I never do anything."
The Prince started on his way without another word. He did not even stop
to put a peach into the lazy man's open mouth, as he at first had some
thought of doing. He kept along beside the river for some time, and had
nearly forgotten the words of the lazy man about his cousin, when
suddenly he came upon what to his horror he at first supposed to be the
body of some thief hanging from a tree. As he got closer, however, he
found that the man was alive and suspended by a belt which went under
his arms. The man did not seem in the least to mind being hung, but
looked quite calm and peaceful. A second man stood upon an overturned
bucket and blew into the mouth of the first with a pair of bellows.
[Illustration]
"What are you doing?" asked Vance curiously, as he stopped beside them.
"Why," replied the man with the bellows, "this fellow is too lazy to
stand, so we have to hang him up; and he is too lazy to breathe for
himself, so he pays me a groat a day to do it for him with the bellows."
"I saw a man up the river who was too lazy to eat," observed Vance. "I
thought he was bad enough, but this is surely the laziest man alive."
"If you think that," the blower answered, "you should see his cousin
Gobbo, who lives a mile farther down the river as the crow flies."
At this Vance was reminded that nightfall was not very far off, and once
more he started on his way. The man with the bellows jumped down from
his bucket and ran eagerly after him. He was a simple-looking man, with
a large and frog-like mouth.
"It creeps in the family," he whispered hoarsely to the Prince.
"What does?"
"Laziness. If it were anything else, you know, you'd say it _ran_ in the
family. But wait till you see Gobbo!"
Just then he noticed that Loto was growing quite limp and purple in the
face for want of breath; so he hastily scrambled back to his bucket, and
once more began to blow for dear life and a groat a day.
"By the way," asked Vance, halting, "do you know where the Crushed
Strawberry Wizard lives?"
"He knows," replied the blower, "but you can't get it out of him. He's
too lazy to speak; so it's no manner of use fretting about it."
With a sigh of weariness and disgust the royal wayfarer turned away and
went on his journey. Just at dusk he reached a small village, or rather
a group of poor little houses; and as he was about to knock at the door
of one to ask for shelter, he saw a procession coming over the fields.
There were a number of men with flaring torches, one or two with picks
and spades, while in the midst was carried a bier upon which lay a man
with his eyes wide open, staring straight ahead.
[Illustration]
"What's all this?" the Prince asked of one who seemed of some authority
in the company.
"We are going to bury Gobbo," replied the man.
"But he isn't dead yet," exclaimed Vance, quite horrified.
"True," the man returned, in a matter-of-fact tone, "but he does not
care about living. I know, for he's hired me to think for him these ten
years. Now I'm tired of it, and so I think it's best to bury him; and of
course it's all the same as if he thought so himself."
"Well," said Vance, who was beginning to grow badly confused by the odd
people he encountered, "if he doesn't mind I'm sure I don't know why I
should. But perhaps before he is buried he can tell me where to find the
Crushed Strawberry Wizard."
"He won't take the trouble to remember," answered the man, "and I'm sure
I'll do no more thinking for him."
"Well," was the thought with which the unlucky Vance consoled himself,
"it is something to have seen the laziest man on earth."
VIII
He found an empty hut, in which was some mouldy straw; and there he
passed the night, sleeping as soundly as if he had been on his own royal
bed of down in the palace at home. His breakfast was begged at the door
of one of the houses in the village; and all day he followed the river,
until near evening he came to the gray seashore and the huts of the
fisher folk.
"What is the name of the river I have been following?" he asked of a
wrinkled old fisherman who was mending his net in the sunset.
"It is called Laf," the old man answered. "It is the eastern border of
Jolliland, as the coast is the northern."
"Oh, bother boundaries!" Vance exclaimed, "I hate them. Can you give me
something to eat?"
"We are poor folk," said the old man, "but I suppose we can give ye a
bite if ye pays for it."
"Pay for it!" cried Vance, in astonishment. "Do you know who I am?"
"Not rightly," said the fisherman; "but from yer look and from yer box I
take ye for a travelling showman. What have ye got in yer box?"
"My family," answered the Prince, before he thought. "Do you know where
the Crushed Strawberry Wizard lives?"
"Not rightly," the other replied again; "but I think somewhere
alongshore. What sort of a family have ye got? A happy family?"
"I'm sure I hope they're happy," was Vance's response. "I know that I am
not. Perhaps they may like being carried better than I like carrying
them."
"What can they do?" the fisherman persisted. "Can they dance and eat
buns like a bear, or do they fight and knock each other about like Punch
and Judy?"
"They do nothing of the sort," began the Prince, angrily. "It is not a
show at all; it is--"
Then remembering that if he was rude to the fisherman he should
certainly lose all chance of getting a supper, he became more polite,
and ended by saying,--
"They are--I mean they act out a king and queen and their court."
"Truly," cried the fisherman; "that is a rare show indeed! I never saw
the like. Come in and get your supper, and afterward we will have out
the puppets."
Upon this he led the way into his hut, and bade the Prince follow him.
It was a very poor little hut indeed, with rude walls, in which the
cracks were stuffed with seaweed to keep out the wind, and with a small
fire burning on the heap of flat stones which served for a fireplace.
The fisherman's wife, who was old and quite crooked with rheumatism, was
hobbling about getting the supper, which she said was all but ready.
When it was all ready, without the but, they sat down, though the poor
Prince, hungry as he was, found it hard work to swallow the dry red
herring, the rasping oaten cakes, and the brackish water of which the
meal consisted. When he had finished the meal,--which, as you may
suppose, did not take long,--he set his box upon the table and opened
it.
[Illustration]
"First," he said, "let us give them some food, and you shall see how
prettily they can play at eating and drinking."
But if the food was coarse eating to Vance, you may well imagine that it
was quite beyond the power of the tiny teeth of the little people, who
were not able to eat a morsel. This made them wring their hands and weep
upon their tiny pocket-handkerchiefs; and the King even boxed the Lord
Chancellor's ears, so angry was he at being disappointed of his supper.
All this was vastly amusing to the fisherman and his wife, who thought
the whole thing was done as a show, and would not hear of Vance's
closing his box until the darkness quite hid the supposed puppets from
sight.
In the night, as Vance lay trying in vain to sleep upon the hard clay
floor of the cottage, he overheard the fisherman and his wife whispering
together.
"I tell ye, wife," the old man was saying, "I will do it, so there be's
an end to the matter. I tell ye I will have the show for my very own. I
could make more money with the puppets in one day at the fair, than I
make by a year's fishing hereabouts."
"But the boy," asked the old woman, eagerly,--"ye won't hurt the boy,
will ye, good man?"
"Hurt him? No," returned the fisherman, "I won't do him no harm. I'll
sell him for a sailor to the ship that lies in the offing, and then I'll
take his show and travel about the country with it, making money."
As Vance heard this, you may be sure he shivered with horror at the idea
that his family was to be stolen and he himself sold to go as a sailor.
He lay very still, however, till the loud snoring told him that the
fisherman and his wife were both asleep, when he rose softly, and
finding his precious box shouldered his burden, crept quietly from the
cottage, and made all the speed he could in the darkness to leave the
wicked fisherman and his hut far, far behind.
At daybreak he met a man just pushing his boat from the shore, and from
him he asked whither the road along the beach would lead him.
"That's a thing as nobody can't tell ye," said the man, fitting the oars
into his boat, "because nobody don't rightly know. Howsoever, I advise
ye to take it, for it's full as likely to lead somewheres as nowheres."
This advice was of no great value to the Prince, yet he felt obliged to
follow it, as he dared not go back; so he tramped on steadily, though
the sun was high, and the box was heavy, and the Court within buzzed
like a hive of angry bees at being forced to go so long without food.
IX
Near noon the Prince was joined by a jelly-fish, who seemed to be of a
cheerful and lively disposition, and who insisted upon attaching himself
to Vance and going along with him. The boy thought that he already had
quite as many people as he was able to look after, and he told the
creature so plainly.
"Besides," he finished quite crossly, for he was really out of patience,
"to say the truth, you flump so that you make me nervous."