Knowing that at last they were free to roam according to their desire,
the travelers rode gaily along the paths, taking but scant heed of
their way.
"Our faces are set toward new adventures," remarked the prince. "Let
us hope they will prove more pleasant than the last."
"To be sure!" responded Nerle. "Let us hope, at any rate, that we
shall suffer more privations and encounter more trouble than we did in
that mountainous Kingdom of Spor." Then he added: "For one reason, I
regret you are my master."
"What is that reason?" asked the prince, turning to smile upon his
esquire.
"You have a way of overcoming all difficulties without any trouble
whatsoever, and that deprives me of any chance of coming to harm while
in your company."
"Cheer up, my boy!" cried Marvel. "Did I not say there are new
adventures before us? We may not come through them so easily as we
came through the others."
"That is true," replied Nerle; "it is always best to hope." And then he
inquired: "Why do you stop here, in the middle of the path?"
"Because the path has ended rather suddenly," answered Marvel. "Here
is a thick hedge of prickly briers barring our way."
Nerle looked over his master's shoulder and saw that a great hedge,
high and exceedingly thick, cut off all prospect of their advancing.
"This is pleasant," said he; "but I might try to force our way through
the hedge. The briers would probably prick me severely, and that would
be delightful."
"Try it!" the prince returned, with twinkling eyes.
Nerle sprang from his horse to obey, but at the first contact with the
briers he uttered a howl of pain and held up his hands, which were
bleeding in a dozen places from the wounds of the thorns.
"Ah, that will content you for a time, I trust," said Marvel. "Now
follow me, and we will ride along beside the hedge until we find an
opening. For either it will come to an end or there will prove to be a
way through it to the other side."
So they rode alongside the hedge for hour after hour; yet it did not
end, nor could they espy any way to get through the thickly matted
briers. By and by night fell, and they tethered their horses to some
shrubs, where there were a few scanty blades of grass for them to crop,
and then laid themselves down upon the ground, with bare rocks for
pillows, where they managed to sleep soundly until morning.
They had brought a supply of food in their pouches, and on this they
breakfasted, afterward continuing their journey beside the hedge.
At noon Prince Marvel uttered an exclamation of surprise and stopped
his horse.
"What is it?" asked Nerle.
"I have found the handkerchief with which you wiped the blood from your
hands yesterday morning, and then carelessly dropped," replied the
prince. "This proves that we have made a complete circle around this
hedge without finding a way to pass through it."
"In that case," said Nerle, "we had better leave the hedge and go in
another direction."
"Not so," declared Marvel. "The hedge incloses some unknown country,
and I am curious to find out what it is."
"But there is no opening," remonstrated Nerle.
"Then we must make one. Wouldn't you like to enjoy a little more pain?"
"Thank you," answered Nerle, "my hands are still smarting very
comfortably from the pricks of yesterday."
"Therefore I must make the attempt myself," said the prince, and
drawing his sword he whispered a queer word to it, and straightway
began slashing at the hedge.
The brambles fell fast before his blade, and when he had cut a big heap
of branches from the hedge Nerle dragged them to one side, and the
prince began again.
It was marvelous how thick the hedge proved. Only a magic sword could
have done this work and remained sharp, and only a fairy arm could have
proved strong enough to hew through the tough wood. But the magic
sword and fairy arm were at work, and naught could resist them.
After a time the last branches were severed and dragged from the path,
and then the travelers rode their horses through the gap into the
unknown country beyond.
They saw at first glance that it was a land of great beauty; but after
that one look both Prince Marvel and Nerle paused and rubbed their
eyes, to assure themselves that their vision was not blurred.
Before them were two trees, exactly alike. And underneath the trees
two cows were grazing--each a perfect likeness of the other. At their
left were two cottages, with every door and window and chimney the
exact counterpart of another. Before these houses two little boys were
playing, evidently twins, for they not only looked alike and dressed
alike, but every motion one made was also made by the other at the same
time and in precisely the same way. When one laughed the other
laughed, and when one stubbed his toe and fell down, the other did
likewise, and then they both sat up and cried lustily at the same time.
At this two women--it was impossible to tell one from the other--rushed
out of the two houses, caught up the two boys, shook and dusted them in
precisely the same way, and led them by their ears back into the houses.
Again the astonished travelers rubbed their eyes, and then Prince
Marvel looked at Nerle and said:
"I thought at first that I saw everything double, but there seems to be
only one of YOU."
"And of you," answered the boy. "But see! there are two hills ahead of
us, and two paths lead from the houses over the hills! How strange it
all is!"
Just then two birds flew by, close together and perfect mates; and the
cows raised their heads and "mooed" at the same time; and two men--also
twins--came over the two hills along the two paths with two
dinner-pails in their hands and entered the two houses. They were met
at the doors by the two women, who kissed them exactly at the same time
and helped them off with their coats with the same motions, and closed
the two doors with two slams at the same instant.
Nerle laughed. "What sort of country have we got into?" he asked.
"Let us find out," replied the prince, and riding up to one of the
houses he knocked on the door with the hilt of his sword.
Instantly the doors of both houses flew open, and both men appeared in
the doorways. Both started back in amazement at sight of the
strangers, and both women shrieked and both little boys began to cry.
Both mothers boxed the children's ears, and both men gasped out:
"Who--who are you?"
Their voices were exactly alike, and their words were spoken in unison.
Prince Marvel replied, courteously:
"We are two strangers who have strayed into your country. But I do not
understand why our appearance should so terrify you."
"Why--you are singular! There is only half of each of you!" exclaimed
the two men, together.
"Not so," said the prince, trying hard not to laugh in their faces.
"We may be single, while you appear to be double; but each of us is
perfect, nevertheless."
"Perfect! And only half of you!" cried the men. And again the two
women, who were looking over their husbands' shoulders, screamed at
sight of the strangers; and again the two boys, who were clinging to
their mothers' dresses in the same positions, began to cry.
"We did not know such strange people existed!" said the two men, both
staring at the strangers and then wiping the beads of perspiration from
their two brows with two faded yellow handkerchiefs.
"Nor did we!" retorted the prince. "I assure you we are as much
surprised as you are."
Nerle laughed again at this, and to hear only one of the strangers
speak and the other only laugh seemed to terrify the double people
anew. So Prince Marvel quickly asked:
"Please tell us what country this is?"
"The Land of Twi," answered both men, together.
"Oh! the Land of Twi. And why is the light here so dim?" continued the
prince.
"Dim?" repeated the men, as if surprised; "why, this is twilight, of
course."
"Of course," said Nerle. "I hadn't thought of that. We are in the
long hidden Land of Twi, which all men have heard of, but no man has
found before."
"And who may you be?" questioned the prince, looking from one man to
the other, curiously.
"We are Twis," they answered.
"Twice?"
"Twis--inhabitants of Twi."
"It's the same thing," laughed Nerle. "You see everything twice in
this land."
"Are none of your people single?" asked Prince Marvel.
"Single," returned the men, as if perplexed. "We don't understand."
"Are you all double?--or are some of you just one?" said the prince,
who found it difficult to put his question plainly.
"What does 'one' mean?" asked the men. "There is no such word as 'one'
in our language."
"They have no need of such a word," declared Nerle.
"We are only poor laborers," explained the men. "But over the hills
lie the cities of Twi, where the Ki and the Ki-Ki dwell, and also the
High Ki."
"Ah!" said Marvel, "I've heard of your High Ki. Who is he?"
The men shook their heads, together and with the same motion.
"We have never seen the glorious High Ki," they answered. "The sight
of their faces is forbidden. None but the Ki and the Ki-Ki has seen
the Supreme Rulers and High Ki."
"I'm getting mixed," said Nerle. "All this about the Ki and the Ki-Ki
and the High Ki makes me dizzy. Let's go on to the city and explore
it."
"That is a good suggestion," replied the prince. "Good by, my
friends," he added, addressing the men.
They both bowed, and although they still seemed somewhat frightened
they answered him civilly and in the same words, and closed their doors
at the same time.
So Prince Marvel and Nerle rode up the double path to the hills, and
the two cows became frightened and ran away with the same swinging
step, keeping an exact space apart. And when they were a safe distance
they both stopped, looked over their right shoulders, and "mooed" at
the same instant.