THE SAILORMAN’S RETURN.
Next day the witch-queen returned with her army to the city of Ix, to
await the coming of the sailorman with the necktie, and King Bud set
about getting his kingdom into running order again.
The lord high purse-bearer dug up his magic purse, and Bud ordered him
to pay the shopkeepers full value for everything the Roly-Rogues had
destroyed. The merchants were thus enabled to make purchases of new
stocks of goods; and although all travelers had for many days kept away
from Noland, for fear of the monsters, caravans now flocked in vast
numbers to the city of Nole with rich stores of merchandise to sell, so
that soon the entire city looked like a huge bazaar.
Bud also ordered a gold piece given to the head of every family; and
this did no damage to the ever-filled royal purse, while it meant riches
to the poor people who had suffered so much.
Princess Fluff had carried her silver chest back to the palace of her
brother, and in it lay, carefully folded, the magic cloak. Being now
fearful of losing it, she warned Jikki to allow no one to enter the room
in which lay the silver chest, except with her full consent, explaining
to him the value of the cloak.
“And was it this cloak I wore when I wished for half a dozen servants?”
asked the old valet.
“Yes,” answered Fluff; “Aunt Rivette bade you return it to me, and you
were so careless of it that nearly all the high counselors used it
before I found it again.”
“Then,” said Jikki, heedless of the reproof, “will your Highness please
use the cloak to rid me of these stupid servants? They are continually
at my heels, waiting to serve me; and I am so busy myself serving others
that those six young men almost drive me distracted. It wouldn’t be so
bad if they would serve any one else; but they claim they are my
servants alone, and refuse to wait upon even his Majesty the king.”
“Sometime I will try to help you,” answered Fluff; “but I shall not use
the cloak again until the miller’s son returns from his voyage at sea.”
So Jikki was forced to wait as impatiently as the others for the
sailorman, and his servants had now become such a burden upon him that
he grumbled every time he looked around and saw them standing in a stiff
line behind him.
Aunt Rivette again took possession of her rooms at the top of the
palace; and although Bud, grateful for her courage in saving him and his
sister from the Roly-Rogues, would gladly have given her handsomer
apartments, the old woman preferred to be near the roof, where she could
take flight into the air whenever it pleased her to go out.
With her big wings and her power to fly as a bird, she was the envy of
all the old gossips she had known in the days when she worked as a
laundress; and now she would often alight upon the door-step of some
humble friend and tell of the wonderful adventures she had encountered.
This never failed to surround her with an admiring circle of listeners,
and Aunt Rivette derived far more pleasure from her tattle than from
living in a palace with her nephew the king.
The kingdom of Noland soon took on a semblance of its former prosperity,
and the Roly-Rogues were only remembered with shudders of repugnance,
and spoken of in awed whispers.
And so the days wore away until late in the autumn, when, one morning, a
mounted soldier from Queen Zixi dashed into Nole and rode furiously up
to the palace gate.
“The sailorman is found!” he shouted, throwing himself from his horse
and bowing low before little King Bud, who had come out to meet him.
“Good,” remarked Bud.
“The Queen of Ix is even now riding to your Majesty’s city with a large
escort surrounding the sailorman,” continued the soldier.
“And has he the necktie?” asked Bud, eagerly.
“He is wearing it, your Majesty,” answered the man; “but he refuses to
give it to any one but the Princess Fluff.”
“That’s all right,” said the king; and, reëntering the palace, he
ordered Jikki to make preparations to receive the witch-queen and her
retinue.
[Illustration: “‘THE SAILORMAN IS FOUND!’ HE SHOUTED.”]
When Zixi came to the city gates she found General Tollydob, in a
gorgeous new uniform, waiting to escort her to the palace. The houses
were gay with flags and streamers; bands were playing; and on each side
of the street along which the witch-queen rode were lines of soldiers to
keep the way clear of the crowding populace.
Behind the queen came the sailorman, carefully guarded by Zixi’s most
trusted soldiers. He looked uneasy at so great a reception, and rode his
horse as awkwardly as a sailor might.
So the cavalcade came to the palace, which was thronged with courtiers
and ladies in waiting.
Zixi and the sailorman were ushered into the great throne room, where
King Bud, wearing his ermine robe and jeweled crown, sat gravely upon
his throne, with Princess Fluff beside him.
“Your Majesty,” began the witch-queen, bowing prettily, “I have brought
you the sailorman at last. He has just returned from his voyage, and my
soldiers captured him at his mother’s cottage by the mill. But he
refuses to give the necktie to any one except the Princess Fluff.”
“I am the Princess Fluff,” said Meg to the sailor; “and your necktie is
part of my magic cloak. So please give it back to me.”
The sailor shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.
“My mother told me,” he finally said, “that King Bud would give me fifty
gold pieces for it, and the Queen of Ix would give me another fifty gold
pieces, and that your Highness would give me fifty neckties.”
“That is all true,” returned Fluff; “so here are the fifty neckties.”
Tillydib, the lord high purse-bearer, counted out fifty gold pieces, and
Zixi’s treasurer counted out another fifty, and all were given to the
sailorman.
Then the miller’s son unfastened the necktie from about his collar and
handed it to Fluff.
During the murmur of satisfaction that followed, the girl unlocked her
silver chest, which Jikki had brought, and drew out the magic cloak.
Lifting the skirt of the garment, she attempted to fit the sailor’s
necktie into the place it should go; and then, while every one looked on
with breathless interest, the girl lifted a white face to the sailorman
and exclaimed:
“This is not the necktie your mother gave you!”
[Illustration: “‘THIS IS NOT THE NECKTIE YOUR MOTHER GAVE YOU!’”]
For a moment there was silence, while the assemblage glared angrily upon
the sailor. Then the king, rising from his seat, demanded:
“Are you sure, Fluff? Are you sure of that?”
“Of course I’m sure,” said the girl; “it is neither the shape nor the
color of the missing patch.”
Bud turned to the now trembling sailor.
“Why have you tried to deceive us?” he asked sternly.
“Oh, your Majesty!” returned the man, wringing his hands miserably, “I
lost the necktie in a gale at sea, for I knew nothing of its value. And
when I came home my mother told me of all the gold you had offered for
its return, and advised me to deceive you by wearing another necktie.
She said you would never know the difference.”
“Your mother is a foolish woman, as well as dishonest,” answered Bud;
“and you shall both be severely punished. Tellydeb,” he continued,
addressing the lord high executioner, “take this man to prison, and see
that he is fed on bread and water until further orders.”
“Not so!” exclaimed a sweet voice near the king; and then all looked up
to see the beautiful Lulea, queen of the fairies, standing beside the
throne.