KING CALCIUM AND STERRY OPTICAN.
What a dazzling sight was the town of Aurora Borealis when it broke
on Billy's vision! Sparkling blue, red, and golden houses cut out of
solid icebergs. Even the poorest huts shone with all the colors of the
rainbow in the wavering, flickering light that rose and fell on them.
When Billy alighted in the streets he stood amazed at the beauty
surrounding him, but when he saw the magnificent ice palace that stood
directly in front of him, he had eyes for nothing else.
Higher than the highest office building he had ever seen in the City,
wider than the longest block he had ever walked, and more brilliant in
its changing colors than any kaleidoscope he had ever looked into.
"Phew!" he said, with a great sigh of enjoyment, "that _is_ a beauty,
sure enough."
"Not bad, is it?" said a voice at his elbow. Looking around Billy saw a
funny little chap with sharp, bright eyes--a short, pinched blue little
nose, and long, tapering fingers. In one hand he carried an artist's
maulstick and in the other a palette and brushes.
"It is beautiful," said Billy, "can you tell me what place it is?"
"The Ice Palace--I built it."
"Are you a contractor?" asked Billy.
"No, I'm an expander."
"A what?"
"An expander--frost expands--I'm Jack Frost: Architect, Artist and Ice
Bridge Builder."
"You must enjoy the work."
"Yes, I'm fond of water colors--I suppose you've seen some of my
pictures window-framed and hung in your own house?"
"Yes, sir--you must be a lightning sketch artist."
"Never have been out when it lightened--I'm afraid of thunder."
"I didn't mean that--" began Billy.
"You must learn to say what you mean," interrupted Jack Frost, "because
if you should get the habit of not meaning what you say, no one could
say what you meant whether you meant it or not--that's clear, isn't it?"
"Not exactly," said Billy.
"Perhaps you'll understand this better. Seeing is believing, but
believing is not seeing, unless you believe you see; and, so seeing,
believe what you see. How's that?"
"I suppose it's very true, indeed," answered Billy politely, but he was
certainly at sea as to what Jack Frost was talking about.
"Not a bit of it! What's the good of telling the truth when an untruth
is more interesting?"
"I don't agree with you," said Billy.
"No sun ever does; I suppose you _are_ somebody's son?"
"Yes, sir--I'm my mother's son."
At this Jack Frost wept little icicles, saying: "Poor me--poor me--I'm
an orphan."
"An orphan?" said Billy. "That is too bad; how old are you?"
"Only a million years. Mother died when I was born, and I sometimes
feel so young and helpless without a mother to spank me."
Billy thought this rather silly, but did not like to say so, for Jack
Frost seemed to take it all very seriously.
"Now that's over," said Jack suddenly. Looking up in Billy's face and
smiling, "I just wanted to show you that I was a man of sentiment.
Suppose we go into the Ice Palace and have a little light refreshment."
"That would be nice," said Billy.
"A little ice-cream, for instance."
"That sounds cold."
"It tastes colder," said Jack Frost, putting his arm through Billy's.
"Come along, and if that's not enough you can have a glass of
ice-water."
"Ugh!" how the thought of the cold things made Billy shiver, and how
like a cake of ice Jack Frost's arm was!
"I--I thank you very much," he faltered, "but if you'd just as soon----"
"Sooner," said Jack Frost; "what is it?"
"I don't think I care for anything to eat."
"Oh! but you must have something to cool you up; you'll take your death
of warmness if you go into the heat without a cup of cold coffee to
keep out the warm."
And Billy allowed himself to be dragged along for fear that if he
refused further, Jack Frost would think of something colder to give him.
"Are you allowed to enter the palace whenever you wish?" asked Billy.
"I don't have to wish--I just go in."
"Who lives here?"
"The Calcium King and his daughter Sterry Optican: she's an actress."
"An actress?" exclaimed Billy.
"Yes--she's a cold, proud beauty--but the King rules us with a light
hand--here we are," and Jack Frost led Billy through the Ice Palace
gates.
"Who are those men?" asked Billy pointing to two tall, soldierly
looking men who stood at either side of the gate with huge ice-picks in
their hands.
"The Ice Guard," whispered Jack Frost, "all picked men; let me
introduce you to Calcium King."
Billy looked about him, but could see no one but an old man seated at
the window behind a great reflector and two boiler-like things, such
as they have at the theatre to throw a bright light on the stage. The
machine was buzzing and sizzing away, and the old man was turning the
light this way and that out over the streets and houses. And whichever
way it turned a thousand flames of golden light shone in the heavens
and made the houses sparkle and sparkle again with brilliant colors.
Billy knew then where the Northern Lights came from.
"Where's the King?" whispered Billy.
"That's he," answered Jack, pointing to the old man. "The Lord High
Master of the Lime Lights is sick in bed with a warm in his head, and
the King is attending to things himself;" then aloud, "Hello, King!"
"Good midnight," answered the King, without turning around.
"I want you to meet my friend," said Jack Frost.
"Where do you want me to meet him?" asked the King; "don't make it very
far away, because I can't trust the machine to anyone else."
[Illustration: _"Me feyther," cried she, in a tragic voice, "the light,
the light."_--Page 187.]
"He is here," said Jack.
"Oh! well then, I'll meet him half way," and jumping quickly up, the
King ran to Billy, shook his hand, murmured, "How de do," and trotted
back to his machine.
"Glad to know you, King," said Billy.
"You don't know me," replied the King. "I don't even know myself; so
how could a fat boy, who has just shaken my hand, expect to know me?"
"I don't know," said Billy.
"That's better. Where is my daughter, Jack?"
"I don't know, Your Calciumness," answered Jack Frost. But even as he
spoke a tall, handsome young woman with raven-black hair and large blue
eyes came slowly into the room.
"Me feyther," cried she, in a tragic voice, "the light, the light."
And immediately the King turned a small calcium light directly on her.
Bowing and kissing her hand, she turned to Billy.
"Whither goest thou, fair sir, and whence comest thou? Answer, I
prithee."
"Ma'am?" was all Billy could say in his amazement.
"She means where are you going and where did you come from," whispered
Jack in Billy's ear.
"Why couldn't she say so, then?" grumbled Billy.
"Goest thou henceford or thenceford, fair sir? Fain would I know--or
wilt thou tarry awhile and let me pour into thine ear--"
Billy put his hands over his ears and stepped back in a hurry. "Please
don't pour anything into my ears."
"She means she wants to talk to you," whispered Jack again; "that's
stage talk."
"Ay, such is indeed the truth," said Sterry Optican, moving forward,
followed closely by the light.
This time Billy stood his ground and she took his hand in hers, saying
sadly--
"Would thou wert not so fat, fair sir, else could I learn, ay! gladly
learn to love you--but hold, villain--unhand me!" and she flung Billy's
hand away from her and burst into sobs.
"Jack Frost," said Billy wildly, "for goodness sake pinch me--I don't
know whether I'm asleep or crazy."
"Nay, nay--curfew _shall_ not ring to-night," cried Sterry Optican,
seizing Billy by his hair and dragging him up and down the room. While
she did this the King and Jack Frost clapped their hands loudly and
cried, "Bravo, bravo!"
"You do it better every day," cried Jack. "My, my, won't people stare
when you really do go on the stage!"
"And to think that she's my daughter," said the King proudly.
"Oh! was that just play?" asked Billy, relieved, but very sore about
the scalp, for Sterry had not been gentle.
"Yes, wasn't it grand?" said she sitting down. "I'd have been on the
stage long ago--I mean really on the stage, you know, and acting for
real stage money, but there's so much jealousy in the profession that I
can't seem to get a hearing."
"That's too bad," said Billy sympathetically. "What do theatre managers
say to your acting?"
"Just what you said--that it's too bad; but my friends all say I'm just
grand, and by all means should go on the stage. Father, you may turn
off the light now; I'm through."
"Thank goodness," murmured Billy to himself.
"What did you say?" whispered Jack Frost.
"I was talking to myself," said Billy.
"That's a waste of time; though I suppose you're more interested in
your conversation than any one else."
"That's sarcastic."
"No, it's true," said Jack. "Don't you think I'm clever?"
"You're what I would call a sharp Frost," said Billy laughing.
"Stop talking for a minute," interrupted King Calcium.
"I'm not talking," said Sterry Optican; "I'm thinking, and it's much
harder to think than to talk."
"It is for some people," said Jack. "Now as for me----"
"Be silent," cried the King; "Nickel Plate is trying to signal me."
"Nickel Plate!" exclaimed Billy rising to his feet.
"Yes," said the King, "do you know him?"
"I've met him," said Billy; "but excuse me, good day----"
"Night, you mean; it won't be day for six months," interrupted Jack
Frost.
"Good night, then; I really must be going."
"Not until you've carved your initials on the North Pole," said Sterry
Optican. "It's my autograph album, you know, and I have the names and
initials of many famous people on it. Why, even my own is there."
"Thank you very much," said Billy, nervously, "but I really can't spare
the time."
"That's all you know about the North Pole," said Jack. "You could stay
there a year and not be spending a minute."
"What do you mean?" asked Billy in surprise.
"Just what I say, this time--how are days, hours, minutes and seconds
measured? Answer me that."
"By the length of time it takes a given point to completely revolve
about the earth's axis," answered Billy, not quite sure that this was
the exact definition, but thinking it was near enough.
"Right," said Jack; "and so, if you are on the axis, the North Pole,
that is, you can't revolve around it, can you?"
"No," said Billy.
"And if you can't revolve around it you can't measure time, can you?"
"No."
"And if you can't measure time, then there is no time: so you see you
can't waste time or spend time when you're on the North Pole. I hope
you understand that."
"Yes sir," answered Billy dubiously.
"Then come along and cut your initials in the pole."
"Please do," pleaded Sterry.
And Billy was just about to yield--indeed, he had taken two steps
toward the door when King Calcium suddenly exclaimed:
"Hold! Jack, lock the doors; Billy Bounce, you are discovered."
"What! Billy Bounce in our mongst?" cried Jack, blowing on the doors
and freezing them tight shut.
"Not the real Billy," cried Sterry, walking over to a sofa and
preparing to faint.
"Yes," cried the King, "it is indeed he--Nickel Plate has just
wigwagged me that he is in this room."
"I am undone!" screamed Sterry, throwing herself carefully onto the
sofa.
"Seize him, Jack!" cried the King.
"Seize him yourself," said Jack, dancing away out of Billy's reach;
"remember I'm a nervous child."
"I will," cried the King, tottering over to Billy and laying his hand
on his collar. "Jack, call the ice guard."
"Ice guard, ahoy!" shouted Jack.
"Lemme go," cried Billy, "or I'll----"
"No you won't," panted the King, clinging desperately to Billy.
"You'll see," said Billy, and began to drag the King over to the window
where the calcium was burning brightly.
"Help me, help me, Jack!" called the King, trying to sit down on the
floor. But Billy kept him from doing so, and finally reached the
window. Quick as a flash he turned the entire Northern Light right into
the room, and with a sizzle, splash--puff the ice doors went up in
steam. The next moment he found the lever that controlled the lamp, and
zip the light was out.
My, my, my but how dark it got--darker than a thousand nights--blacker
than a million hats. The King let go of Billy's collar and commenced
wildly to grope for the machine.
"Now to escape," cried Billy. "Barker, lead me out by scent," and
quickly he pulled Barker out of his pocket, tied a string to his collar
and turned him loose.
Barker gave one little yelp, and then darted for the doorway with Billy
hot after him. Out they ran into the open air, and picking Barker up in
his arms, up jumped Billy away from Aurora Borealis.