On Top of the Earth Again
Afterward they all went into the big drawing-room, where Mrs. Fuzcum
sang a song for them in a very shrill voice, and Mr. Sneezeley and Mrs.
Chatterby danced a graceful minuet that was much admired by all present.
"We ought to be going home," said Twinkle, after this entertainment was
over. "I'm afraid our folks will worry about us."
"We regret to part with you," replied the Mayor; "but, if you really
think you ought to go, we will not be so impolite as to urge you to
stay."
"You'll find we have excellent manners," added Mrs. Puff-Pudgy.
"I want to get big again," said Chubbins.
"Very well; please step this way," said the Mayor.
So they all followed him through a long passage until they began to go
upward, as if climbing a hill. And then a gleam of daylight showed just
ahead of them, and a few more steps brought them to the hole in the
middle of the mound.
The Mayor and Mrs. Puff-Pudgy jumped up first, and then they helped
Twinkle and Chubbins to scramble out. The strong sunlight made them
blink their eyes for a time, but when they were able to look around
they found one or more heads of prairie-dogs sticking from every mound.
[Illustration: "DO YOU THINK WE'VE BEEN ASLEEP?"]
"Now, Mr. Presto Digi," said the Mayor, when all the party were
standing on the ground, "please enlarge our friends to their natural
sizes again."
"That is very easy," said the magician, with a sigh. "I really
wish, Mr. Mayor, that you would find something for me to do that is
difficult."
"I will, some time," promised the Mayor. "Just now, this is all I can
require of you."
So the magician waved his paw and gurgled, much in the same way he had
done before, and Twinkle and Chubbins began to grow and swell out until
they were as large as ever, and the prairie-dogs again seemed very
small beside them.
"Good-bye," said the little girl, "and thank you all, very much, for
your kindness to us."
"Good-bye!" answered a chorus of small voices, and then all the
prairie-dogs popped into their holes and quickly disappeared.
Twinkle and Chubbins found they were sitting on the green bank again,
at the edge of Prairie-Dog Town.
"Do you think we've been asleep, Chub?" asked the girl.
"'Course not," replied Chubbins, with a big yawn. "It's easy 'nough to
know that, Twink, 'cause I'm sleepy now!"
THE END
PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
AND SONS COMPANY, AT THE
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL.
* * * * *
Transcriber's notes
p8 "what they they get by boring deep holes"
changed to "what they get by boring deep holes"
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_
"Prairie-dog Town" is one of six stories in "Twinkle and Chubbins",
available from Project Gutenberg.