Yes, sir, just as true as I'm telling you, a voice singing, right down
under the water. And this is what it sang, in silvery tones, just like the
little bell that tinkles on pussy's neck:
The fairy prince lies deep and dark,
Waiting for the firefly's spark;
If you wish to see him now,
Follow me, and make a bow.
And, all at once, who should appear but Fan Tail, the gold fish. She
popped right out of the water, and when she saw the three duck children
she asked:
"Did you hear me singing?"
"Was that you?" asked Lulu.
"It was," replied Fan. "But why don't you do as I said? If you wish to see
the fairy prince you must bow. He always wants people to do that."
So Lulu and Jimmie bowed once, and Alice bowed three times, and when they
asked why she did that she said you must always do things by threes where
fairies are concerned.
"Now, follow me," called the gold fish; so they swam farther and farther
up the part of the pond where they had never before been. It got smaller
and smaller, until it was like a little brook, with rushes bending over
it, while the water whispered to the green stems.
"The fairy prince lives in there," suddenly said the gold fish, poking her
head up out of the water, so she could speak more plainly, and she pointed
with her fin to a hole in the bank. "He will come out presently. Bow your
prettiest." Well, you can just imagine how excited the duck children were.
Alice fairly trembled, and even Jimmie was interested, as they all bowed.
"All ready now!" went on the gold fish. "Behold the fairy prince. Behold!
Behold!" and she made a booming noise under the water, just like the big
bass drum, when a man in the circus jumps over sixteen elephants and a
quarter all at once.
Then, all of a sudden, oh! maybe in a second and a little more what should
come out of that hole in the side of the bank, just above the water, what,
I say, should come out of that hole--now be careful, take tight hold of
the arms of the chair, and hold your breaths, so as not to be
disappointed, what should come out of the hole but a big, brownish-black,
spotted with red and yellow, wrinkle-legged, hard-shelled, sharp-beaked
mud turtle! There, now!
At first the duck children were so frightened and surprised that they did
not know what to do or say. They had expected something so different. Did
you? Well, I'm awfully sorry, but you know I'm not responsible. I merely
tell what happens.
"Why, that isn't a fairy prince!" cried Jimmie, speaking first.
"Of course not," added Lulu.
Then the gold fish came quite close to them and whispered something.
"Do you know," said Fan Tail, "I have always had my doubts about it
myself. He says he's the fairy prince--insists on it, in fact,--and he has
it engraved on his visiting cards. But I have my doubts, only I don't dare
say so, for you see I work for him, run errands and the like of that; so
far be it from me to say he is not a fairy prince. I have, however, guided
you to him. Behold, the fairy prince!" and she called the last real
loudly, for the mud turtle was looking right at her. Then she added in a
whisper: "But I have my doubts."
"Hush! Oh hush, please!" begged Alice. "Of course he is a fairy prince!
They are always disguised like that--always appearing as something
different from what they really are, you know. Sometimes they are toads,
and sometimes frogs, and sometimes mud turtles, I suppose, though I never
heard of any of the last kind. But of course he is a fairy prince." Then
she bowed again, three times, and said: "Fairy prince, I salute thee."
"Fairy nothing!" grunted Jimmie. "He is no more a fairy than I am."
Then the mud turtle heard them talking, and he stuck his head farther out
of the shell, and he looked around with his snaky neck, and he came a
little more out of the hole, and said:
"Of course I am the fairy prince. Everybody knows that. I've been a fairy
prince for ever and ever so long." And then he sneezed, just to show that,
though he was a fairy prince, he was not proud.
"What shall I do, O fairy prince, to change you back into your own
rightful shape?" asked Alice. "Tell me, and I will do it at once. Dost
thou need three drops of magical water?"
"No," answered the mud turtle, "not any at all, thank you, so much. I am a
fairy prince, but I am satisfied with my shape as I am; and I do not want
to change. I have always been this way, and I always want to stay so.
Please be so kind as to go away. I want to eat my dinner."
So they hurried away, for the gold fish whispered that the mud turtle was
always cross when he ate. Jimmie and Lulu were much disappointed, but
Alice was not, for she insisted that the mud turtle was really wonderful,
and was a fairy prince in disguise. Now what do you think about it? I
leave it to you. But whatever you may think please don't be hasty. Take
plenty of time. Perhaps you had better wait for the story to-morrow night,
which if the cow bell doesn't ring and awaken the doll in the baby
carriage will be about how Grandfather Goosey-Gander got into trouble and
out again.
STORY IX
GRANDFATHER GOOSEY-GANDER IN TROUBLE
On their way home, after having seen the mud turtle fairy prince, Jimmie,
Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, of course, talked of nothing else. They
wished the prince had done something wonderful, instead of merely sending
them away when he ate his dinner, and they hoped he would perform a
magical feat another time. He really did, as I shall tell you about later,
if I do not forget it. The gold fish swam a little way back with the duck
children, as she said the prince always liked to be alone when he ate.
"Well, how did you like him?" asked Fan Tail of the ducks.
"Not very much," replied Lulu. "I never did care for mud turtles."
"Nor I," added Jimmie.
"I don't believe he was really a mud turtle at all," declared Alice. "He
was a real, truly, fairy prince, and he only looked like a mud turtle,
because we did not have the right kind of eyes with which to see him or
else because we had no faith in him. It is always so, in fairy stories.
You must believe, or you can't see the beautiful things."
"Well, I'd rather have some snails to eat," said Jimmie. "You don't care
how they look; it's how they taste. I'm never going to bother with fairies
again."
It was about three days after this that Jimmie and Lulu were walking in
the deep, green woods, under the trees, picking tender leaves and roots to
eat. They were hoping they might meet Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the
squirrels whom they had not seen for some time. Alice stayed home to curl
her feathers.
All at once, as they were walking along, the little boy and girl duck
heard a funny noise.
"What's that?" cried Jimmie.
"I don't know," answered Lulu. "It sounds like some one calling."
And, sure enough, it was. As they stopped to listen they could hear some
one crying: "Help! Help! Oh, help!"
"Let's go and see who it is," suggested Jimmie.
"Maybe it's a dog, or a bad rat, or a fox," objected Lulu.
"No," said her brother, "they would never call for help. Come on."
[Illustration:]
So they walked on, looking this way and that, to see what they could see;
on and on through the woods, until, just as they came from behind a big
oak tree, what should they catch sight of, but poor, Grandfather
Goosey-Gander, caught fast in the middle of a pile of brush.
"Oh dear me! Oh my goodness me sakes alive! Oh, floppy! floppy! floppy!
Oh, a bag of salt and some corn meal!" cried the poor old gentleman duck.
"I am in a terrible state! Help me!"
Then Lulu and Jimmie ran right up to him, and asked him what was the
matter.
"Oh dear," he said, "I really can't say. I've lost my glasses, and I can't
see very well. All I know is that I was walking in the woods, thinking
what a nice day it was, when, all of a sudden, in about a quack and a
half, I found myself caught fast. And the worst part of it is that I can't
get loose!"
"Let me take a look," said Jimmie.
So he went quite close and looked, and he saw that Grandfather
Goosey-Gander's right leg was held in between two sticks. The old
gentleman duck was in great pain.
"Is my leg broken?" he asked Jimmie.
"No," answered the little boy duck, "but some of the skin is scraped off."
"I knew it!" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Now I won't be able to go
fishing next week. Oh, I do seem to have the worst luck; don't I?"
"We will get you out," Lulu said to him, and then she and her brother went
to the aid of the poor old duck. They pushed this way and that way, and
they pulled that way and this way, and they lifted up on the pieces of
sticks, and they pushed down on them, but it was no use. Poor Grandfather
Goosey-Gander was stuck fast there, and I think it was a shame, but it
couldn't be helped. Oh my no, and a bit of peppermint candy besides!
"Well, I guess I will have to stay here and die," said the discouraged old
duck, and he felt so badly that he wept. Lulu and Jimmie cried also, they
felt so sorry. The three of them cried, and their tears were so many that
if they had cried long enough there would have been quite a pond there,
and they could have gone in swimming. That is, of course, all but
Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and he couldn't swim for he was held fast. But
they didn't weep long enough.
"Let's try once more," said Lulu, after a while, and then she and Jimmie
tried harder than ever to get grandfather's leg out. But they couldn't.
"If I only had a saw!" cried Jimmie, "I could get him loose."
"Ha! perhaps I can help you!" suddenly exclaimed a voice.
Then, as quickly as you can break an egg by dropping it on the floor (only
of course you must not do it without permission), who should appear but
Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat. She was out walking with Sammie and
Susie Littletail.
"Oh, somebody do please help me!" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "I've
lost my glasses, my leg is caught, and I have a pain in my back. Oh, oh,
oh!"
"I'll gnaw through those sticks in a jiffy!" cried Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, for a
jiffy is very quick time indeed. Oh, yes, and a broken down couch besides!
So, telling Sammie and Susie Littletail to stand back, and calling to
Jimmie and Lulu to remain with them, the muskrat nurse set to work to free
Grandfather Goosey-Gander. Her teeth were like the chisels the carpenter
uses and in a few seconds the old duck's leg was free. Oh, how glad he
was, and how thankful to Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy! Of course the duck and
rabbit children also were glad.
Then Jane gnawed out a little crutch for grandfather to walk with, as he
was a trifle lame, and what do you think? Why, Susie Littletail found his
glasses for him; and Sammie and Jimmie rubbed his back so nicely that the
pain all went out of that. Now I call that doing something don't you?
Well, Grandfather Goosey-Gander started for home, and Jimmie and Lulu
asked Sammie and Susie to come and play with them. Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy
said they might, and they had a fine time under the trees in the woods,
playing tag of all kinds; cross-tag, wood-tag, dirt-tag, leaf-tag,
stump-tag, and a new kind, called acorn-tag, which I will explain about
later. Then the bunny children went home with their nurse and Jimmie and
Lulu also went home and about two days after that a very funny thing
happened.
What it was you shall hear to-morrow night if the trolley car doesn't get
off the track, but I'll let you know this much--it's going to be about the
rooster trying to swim.
STORY X
THE ROOSTER TRIES TO SWIM
Grandfather Goosey-Gander was quite lame the next day from having been
caught in the brush pile, and could not go very far away from the duck
pen. He did manage to hobble around on the crutch which Nurse Jane
Fuzzy-Wuzzy made for him, and he sat in a sunny corner, reading the
newspaper with his glasses which Susie Littletail found. He was reading
away as Alice, Lulu and Jimmie Wibblewobble were playing about on the edge
of the pond, and the little duck children made so much noise that the old
grandfather could not understand what was in the papers.
"Can't you children play something quiet?" he asked for Papa and Mamma
Wibblewobble had gone visiting, and Grandfather Goosey-Gander was left to
mind the house. "Play some nice, easy game," he suggested.
"Let's play acorn tag," said Lulu.
"All right, you're it," answered Jimmie. So they each took an acorn which
they found in the woods and put it in their bills. Then Lulu had to chase
after Jimmie and Alice, and when she touched either one of them with her
wing she had to call out: "You can't run a little bit, I've tagged you,
and now you're it." Yes, that's what she had to call, and she had to do it
without letting the acorn fall out of her bill. Now, if you think that's a
very easy thing to do, just you try it, that's all.
Lulu didn't have much trouble putting her wing on Jimmie or Alice, but,
every time she tried to call out the little verse the acorn would roll out
of her bill and she'd have to start all over again, or it wouldn't have
been fair. So it was some time before she got over being "it," and then it
was Jimmie's turn.
Well, they played acorn tag for quite a while, and, when they got tired of
that they all went in swimming. They swam around in circles, and
criss-crossed and went in squares, and in triangles and all sorts of queer
figures, including eight, nine, ten, which are very difficult figures,
indeed, for little ducks.
While they were swimming away, having lots of fun, and far enough off so
that Grandfather Goosey-Gander could read his paper in peace, who should
come down to the edge of the pond but the rooster. His name was Mr. Cock
A. Doodle, and he was very proud. He walked right down to the edge of the
water, and looked at the ducks. Then he crowed as loud as he could, and
flapped his wings, just as if he were saying:
"There! I'd like to see any of you do that! Ha! Hum! Oh my, yes, indeed!"
"How do you do, Mr. Cock A. Doodle?" asked Jimmie.
"Ahem! I am pretty well, my young friend," replied the rooster. "And how
may you happen to be to-day? And how are your sisters, Lulu and Alice
Wibblewobble?"
"We are very well," answered Lulu and Alice, and Lulu went on: "Don't you
wish you could swim, Mr. Doodle?"
"I can," said the rooster, and he strutted back and forth at the edge of
the pond. "Certainly I can swim. What put the notion into your heads that
I can't?"
"We never saw you," spoke Jimmie.
"Ahem! Perhaps not. You never saw me stand on one foot and jump over a
barrel, but that doesn't prove that I can't do it," replied Mr. Doodle. "I
can swim if I choose. I have never cared to, that's all."
"Try now," suggested Lulu, for she didn't believe that rooster could swim,
no matter what he said.
"Oh, the water is too cold to go swimming now," said Mr. Doodle. "I never
swim in cold water."
"Why, it's as warm as warm can be," declared Alice, and she splashed a few
drops upon the rooster, so he could feel it.
"Well, er--ahem! The wind is blowing too much," said the rooster, when he
felt the nice, warm water.
"Why, it doesn't blow at all," answered Jimmie.
"Well, I haven't my swimming shoes on," objected Mr. Cock A. Doodle. "I
can't swim without them. You ducks have pieces of skin between your toes,
so the water won't slip through, but I haven't my webbed feet on."
"Oh, that is very easily fixed," said Lulu. "We will take some pieces of
cloth, and tie them over your claws to make them like ours. Do you think
you could swim then?"
"Yes," answered the rooster, "I think I could." You see he had no more
excuses to make. Oh, wasn't he a tricky old rooster, though, eh?
So Lulu and Jimmie got some bits of cloth, and, with long pieces of ribbon
grass, they bound the cloth on the rooster's claws so his feet looked
something like a duck's.
"Now come on and we'll have a swimming race," suggested Jimmie. "Walk
right down into the water as we do. It won't hurt you the least bit, Mr.
Doodle."
"Pooh! Do you think I'm afraid?" inquired Mr. Doodle, and he actually did
walk right into the water, while all the ducks and chickens and geese
looked on in wonder, for they had never seen the rooster swim, and didn't
believe he could. Oh, but Mr. Doodle was proud! He even tried to crow as
he stepped into the water, but, as he wasn't used to it, it made his
breath feel just as if it were choking him when he tried to swallow.
Yes, he tried to crow, but all the noise he could make was a sort of a
gasp and a sigh and a cough and a splutter and a sneeze and choke and a
whimper.
"Ha! Aha! Ahem! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho I will now swim" cried the rooster, and
then the water got so deep that he couldn't wade any more, and he had to
float. He struck out with his feet, and tried to paddle just as he saw
Lulu and Alice and Jimmie doing, but a very funny thing happened.
The rooster went right around in a circle, for he only used one leg at a
time. Then he got dizzy, and went around the other way. Then he had to
stop. Next he flapped his wings and splashed the water all over.
Say, I wish you could have seen him. It was as good as a circus! He got
his tail all wet, and his back got all wet, and, as his feathers weren't
the kind that water runs off from, he was soon as soaked as your umbrella
ever was. That made him heavy and he began to sink. Oh, how he splashed
and spluttered around in that pond! He couldn't swim any more than my
typewriter can, and, all at once, what do you suppose happened?
Why, he felt himself sinking more and more and more. Oh, it was terrible!
"Save me! Oh, save me!" Mr. Doodle cried. "I am going down! Help me,
please! Help! Help! Help!"
Then the duck children felt sorry, and swam to him as fast as they could.
Each one took hold of that poor rooster; Lulu and Alice by a wing, and
Jimmie by the rooster's tail, and they towed him to shore. Oh, but he was
a sorry looking sight! He couldn't even crow, nor flap his wings.
"I thought you said you could swim," spoke Jimmie.
"Hush!" begged Alice, who was very kind-hearted. "Don't be casting up!
Don't make him feel bad."
"Oh, I feel bad enough without that," said Mr. Doodle, sighing. "I guess
the water wasn't right for swimming to-day," and with that he walked off,
and hid himself in some leaves, to get dry, for he hadn't any towels at
his house. But the Wibblewobble children kept on swimming, for they knew
how; and now, let me see; well, how about a story of an enchanted castle
for to-morrow night; eh? that is if the scissors don't cut up too much.
STORY XI
ALICE WIBBLEWOBBLE'S ENCHANTED CASTLE
Alice Wibblewobble had made up her mind to find out more about the fairy
prince. She couldn't believe he was only a mud turtle. She felt sure he
was merely in that form until some one came along, pronounced the magical
words, or sprinkled the magical water on him, or did something else, to
change him back again.
"I think I will have another talk with him," she said. "Perhaps, if I go
all alone, he will tell me what to do. Oh, wouldn't it be perfectly lovely
if I could change him into a king with a golden-diamond-ruby crown. Yes, I
certainly shall go."
So Alice swam off up the pond, in the direction the gold fish had once led
Lulu and Jimmie and her.
Well, Alice went on and on and on, for ever so long, but she couldn't seem
to find the place where the mud turtle fairy prince lived. She saw the
green rushes hanging over the water's edge, she saw the bright ripples,
just like diamonds that might be in a king's crown, and she heard the
birds singing; but there was no mud hole where the fairy prince lived.
"Oh dear!" exclaimed Alice. "I'm afraid I'm lost."
"What? Lost in this beautiful place?" asked a voice just above her head,
and, looking up, Alice saw a dear little yellow bird sitting on a tree
over the water.
"Yes," said Alice, and a tear came into her eye, and ran down her yellow
bill. "I am lost. I can't find the fairy prince."
"Oh, that is too bad," said the little yellow bird. "I don't just know
what a fairy prince is, but it must be dreadful not to be able to find one
when you want to. Do not feel badly, however. I can take you to an
enchanted castle, if that will do."
"Oh, can you?" cried Alice. "That will be lovely. I had almost as soon see
an enchanted castle as a fairy prince. Is it a really, truly one?"
"Oh, yes," answered the bird. "It certainly is. It is the most beautiful
place in all the world. Come, and I will show you."
Then Alice felt delighted, and she walked out of the water, and waddled
along on the land. The bird flew along, going slowly, so as not to get
ahead of Alice. On and on they went, over green fields, and through the
woods, until, pretty soon, they came to a place where the bird stopped.
"We are near the enchanted castle," he said. "But you must be very
careful."
"Why?" asked Alice.
"Oh, because every once in a while a lot of water spouts up out of the
castle, and it might drown you, if you were not careful."
"Oh, I don't mind water," answered Alice.
Then they went on a little farther, and, in a short time, oh, perhaps
about as long as it takes you to peel an orange, and put some salt on it,
they came to a most beautiful place. I wish you could have seen it! At
first Alice thought the rainbow had fallen from the sky, there were so
many colors. There was red and green and blue and orange and violet and
yellow and pink and purple and even some of that skilligimink color, that
once turned Sammie Littletail sky-blue-pink.
Then the little duck girl saw that the colors were all from different
flowers that smelled just like mamma's perfume bottles. Next, as she
walked on a little farther, she saw a great pile of stones high in the
air, and, around the bottom of the pile was a big basin of water, not
quite as large as the pond at the ducks' pen, but nearly, Green vines and
flowers were growing in and out among the stones, and birds were flying
here and there, singing.
"This," said the little yellow bird, "is the enchanted castle. I live here
all summer, and so do all my friends. Sometimes we bathe in the water, and
sometimes we hide under the flowers. Then, when the water spouts up out of
the top of the castle we all fly away."
And just then, what should happen but that some water began to spurt, then
and there, right out of the top of that big pile of stones. Up, up it
went, in a spray, spreading out at the tops like an umbrella in a rain
storm, and the drops fell with a splash into the basin below. Then Alice
Wibblewobble cried out!
"Why, this isn't an enchanted castle at all!"
"No?" asked the yellow bird, putting its head on one side, so as to see
better. "Why, we always call this our enchanted castle; always."
"No," answered Alice. "It is only a fountain in a stone pile in somebody's
flower garden. I've seen one before, near our house."
"Well, it looks like an enchanted castle," said the bird, "and I'm sure
it's just as pretty as one. Isn't it as good as your fairy prince?"
"Well," replied the little duck girl. "I suppose it is. But it's only
water, such as I swim in."
"Oh, do you swim?" asked the bird. "Do please show me how. I've always
wanted to learn."
So, though Alice was disappointed about the enchanted castle, she got in
the little pond at the foot of the fountain, and swam around. The water
spurted up in the air and fell all over her, but she didn't mind that. All
the birds gathered around to watch, and even the flowers nodded their
heads, they were so delighted.
"Oh, I'm sure we never can learn to swim," said the yellow bird, as Alice
went around again. "It is much too difficult."
Then, all of a sudden, something happened. A boy and a girl came running
down the gravel walk to the fountain. The little girl had yellow hair,
just like a daffodil, and as soon as she saw Alice she cried out: "Oh,
Norman! Come quick! Here is a lovely duck! I hope we can keep it!"
That frightened Alice very much, especially as the boy tried to grab her.
So she sprang out of the water and ran and hid under some bushes where the
children couldn't find her, and as soon as she could, she went back the
way she had come, into the pond, and started to swim home.
And on the way a fox chased her and a big hawk tried to swoop down, and
grab her, but she managed to get away. She was all tired out when she got
home, and when Jimmie and Lulu asked her where she had been she told them
all her adventures.
"Well," said Jimmie, when his sister had finished, "I think I would rather
see that enchanted castle than the fairy prince again. Will you take us
there some day, Alice?"
"Perhaps," she said, but before they made that trip something else
happened, which you shall hear about to-morrow night if I find a green
popcorn ball with a pink ribbon on it. It's a story of a visit to Grandpa
Wibblewobble's house.
STORY XII
A VISIT TO GRANDPA WIBBLEWOBBLE