THE WALLYPUG RECOVERS HIS CROWN.
HIS Majesty and myself stared at each other in dismay. Our position was
growing more and more uncomfortable every moment, and, added to this, I
had a growing impression that the rods to which we were attached would
sooner or later break with our weight.
“Well! I do think that they might have helped us off the hooks, at any
rate,” grumbled his Majesty, discontentedly.
“So do I,” I rejoined, and was about to add something else when my
attention was attracted to the peculiar behavior of the two blue birds
which we had previously noticed circling about over our heads.
They were wheeling round and round in a most eccentric manner, and as
they drew closer we could see that they were as singular in appearance
as they were in their manner.
“Why, they’ve got ever so many wings!” cried his Majesty in surprise.
“Go away!” he shouted, as one of them fluttered past his face. The
birds, however, were not to be got rid of so easily, and, uttering
shrill little cries, they hovered about over his Majesty’s head, every
now and then making a vicious dart at the sandwich which he still held
in one hand.
“Oh! take them away!—take them away!” he shouted, dropping his
carpet-bag in alarm, and evidently forgetting that I was as incapable
as he was of driving them off.
“Throw your sandwich away!” I shouted; “it’s that they are after, I
believe.”
His Majesty did so, and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing the
birds squabbling over it on the bank at the side of the shute.
[Illustration: “GO AWAY!” SHOUTED HIS MAJESTY.]
“Fortunate I tied my bag to the string of my cloak, wasn’t it?”
remarked the Wallypug, when they had gone. “I should have lost it else.
Oh, look! What’s that coming down the shute?” he cried, as something
suddenly came rolling and bounding down the steep incline.
“O—o—o—h!” he continued delightedly, as it stopped, caught in the
mouth of the carpet-bag which, attached to the cord of his Majesty’s
cloak, dangled down the shute. “Why, it’s my crown! They must have
thought that I wanted it, and sent it down after me. How very kind of
them. Wasn’t it?”
I had my own opinions on the subject, and held my peace, for I felt
quite sure that it was not through any intentional kindness that the
crown had found its way to its proper owner.
His Majesty very carefully drew up the carpet-bag with its precious
burden, and soon had the intense satisfaction of putting the crown of
Why on his royal head once more.
“Oh!” he cried with a little sigh of satisfaction, “it does seem nice
to have it on again. I’m afraid that I should soon have caught a cold
in my head, like A. Fish, Esq., if I had gone without it much longer.”
[Illustration: A LONG LINE OF CREATURES WAS COMING DOWN THE SHUTE.]
“Gracious!” he cried, pointing excitedly towards the top of the shute,
“there’s something else coming down! Why it’s the Doctor-in-Law and
Madame. Oh!—and the Cockatoo—and—the Rabbit and the Mole. Bless me!
if the whole of Why isn’t coming along.”
It was quite true; attached to a strong rope a long line of creatures
was coming down the shute, the Doctor-in-Law leading the way.
He soon caught sight of us dangling at the end of our rods, and calling
out “Halt!” in a loud voice, he pulled at the rope as a sign that they
were to stop. This signal was passed along by the others, and the
Cockatoo, who was attached to the rope in a very uncomfortable manner,
gave a loud “squ-a-a-k” as the sudden jerk caused it to tighten about
her neck.
The signal, however, managed somehow to reach those at the other end,
for the procession suddenly came to a standstill.
“Oh, there you are then!” called out the Doctor-in-Law in a severe
voice. “Thought you had escaped us, I suppose.”
The Cockatoo, in a voice choking with rage, and the tightened rope,
shrieked out, “Down with the traitors!” while the Rabbit passed the
word along, “It’s all right. We’ve found them.”
“Just you come down and tie yourself to this rope at once!” called out
Madame, glaring fiercely at the Wallypug.
“Shan’t!” shouted his Majesty defiantly, pushing his crown further on
to his head.
“What!” screamed the good lady, in a terrible passion. “Do you dare to
rebel?”
“Yes, I do,” called out his Majesty bravely. “I don’t believe you are
my sister-in-law at all, and I’m not going back to Why to be snubbed
and ill-treated for you or any one else—so there. You can’t get at me,
hanging up here, and I don’t mean to get down till you’re gone. Yah!”
“Oh, we’ll soon see all about that,” called out the Doctor-in-Law,
working himself to the edge of the shute, and trying to climb up the
steep sides of the bank.
We watched his endeavors with considerable anxiety, for if he did
succeed in getting on to the bank, it would be an easy matter for him
to get at us, by means of the bridge. The rope, however, by which he
was attached to the Sister-in-Law was not sufficiently long to enable
him to do this, and while he was unfastening it there was a sudden cry
in the direction of the tunnel, and a moment afterwards, screaming,
kicking, and struggling, the whole party rapidly disappeared down the
shute.
The rope had given way!
“He, he, he! Ha, ha!” laughed his Majesty, as the huddled mass vanished
in the distance. “What a lark! Oh what a muddle they will be in when
they reach the bottom.”
I tried to imagine what would be the result, and came to the conclusion
that, uncomfortable as I was in my present position, I would rather be
where I was than attached to the rope with the others.
In the meantime the little blue people, their curiosity evidently
aroused by the noise, were hurrying towards us as quickly as possible,
bringing with them a very stout blue person, who was waddling along,
being alternately pushed and pulled by the others in their eagerness to
reach us.
“See, there they are!” cried the little lady whose name we afterwards
found out was Gra-Shus. “Oh my! Aren’t they a funny color?”
“Shall we get them down?” asked the other, whose name was Mi-Hy.
The little fat man regarded us critically, and said nothing for a
moment or two, then he nodded his head violently.
“You’re sure you won’t bite?” said Mi-Hy, looking up into my face.
“No, of course not. Don’t be silly,” I replied.
Thereupon, after a great deal of pulling and pushing on the part of
Mi-Hy and Gra-Shus, the rods to which we were attached were swung
around, and the Wallypug and myself alighted, one on either side of the
bank.
His Majesty smoothed his rumpled garments, and, adjusting his crown to
a more becoming angle, positively swaggered across the bridge to where
the three little blue people stood in a line to receive us.
“This is Ho-Lor,” said Mi-Hy, pushing the little fat man forward, while
Gra-Shus bashfully hid behind the ample folds of his gorgeous blue
skirts.
“How do you do?” asked his Majesty graciously.
“Do what?” asked Ho-Lor, smilingly.
“I mean, how are you?” explained the Wallypug.
“You mean _what_ am I, I suppose?” said the little man, putting on a
puzzled expression.
“No, I don’t,” said the Wallypug. “I mean just what I say—How are you?”
“But I don’t understand,” replied Ho-Lor. “How am I what?”
“His Majesty the Wallypug of Why,” I explained, “wishes to say, that he
hopes you are quite well.”
[Illustration: His Majesty swaggered across the bridge to where the
three little blue people stood in a line to receive us.—Page 112.
_Wallypugland._]
“Oh! I beg your pardon” said Ho-Lor. “How very stupid of me. But
you know, the fact is, we get such a lot of foreigners down here,
and they do ask such funny questions. A Frenchman we caught the
other day actually asked me how I carried myself. Wasn’t it rude of
him—considering my weight too?”
“You’re a Wallypug, too, aren’t you?” asked Gra-Shus, looking smilingly
up into my face.
“Oh, no!” I replied; “I am only his Majesty’s guest.”
“His Majesty! Do you mean that?” said Mi-Hy, pointing to the Wallypug.
The Wallypug drew himself up with an air of offended dignity.
“I am not a ‘that’; I’m a kind of a king,” he explained, in a tone of
remonstrance.
“O-ooh!” exclaimed the little blue people, falling down on their knees
and bowing their foreheads to the ground, with their hands stretched
out before them. “Pray forgive us, Majestuous Wallypug, we thought you
were only an ordinary person. You see we’ve never caught a king before.
Oh! don’t chop our heads off, will you?”
[Illustration: “PRAY FORGIVE US,” EXCLAIMED THE BLUE PEOPLE.]
“Of course not,” said his Majesty, kindly.
“But kings always chop off people’s heads, don’t they?” cried the
little people, anxiously.
“Oh dear no,” said the Wallypug.
“Get up; or you’ll spoil your clothes. Could we have a cup of tea,
please? We are rather fatigued with our long journey.”
The little blue people immediately jumped up and led the way to
where behind a clump of curious blue trees the quaintest little boat
you could possibly imagine was moored against the bank. A blue lake
stretched as far as the eye could reach, and a number of little islands
were dotted about it. On one, a little larger than the rest, a quaint
little blue pagoda could be seen.