[Illustration]
Which meant that this was the centre of the Earth.
"But what is he doing that for--shovelling all that coal in the
furnace when it's so hot already we're most roasting!" complained
their little American guest.
His voice was almost lost in the tremendous place. It was strange that
it ever reached the Giant's ear, which was hundreds of feet above
Marmaduke's head, but nevertheless the Giant did hear it, for he
called:--
"Now, you three Chinamen keep your jabbering tongues still," he said,
"and let me have a chance to talk. It's so long since I've seen a boy
from up on the Earth that I'd like to talk a spell myself--to limber
up my old tongue. It's grown pretty stiff all these years."
Then he looked way down at Marmaduke, who was standing there, no
higher than the Giant's great toe.
"Come up," he invited the boy, "and have a seat on my shoulder."
Marmaduke looked up and hesitated, for the distance up to that
shoulder was so great. He might as well have tried to climb a mountain
rising straight up in the air. But the Giant helped him out.
"Don't be scared," he said, "I'll give you a boost."
And he reached down his mighty hand and placed it under the seat of
Marmaduke's trousers. The little boy looked no bigger than the kernel
of a tiny hazelnut rolling around in the big palm. But very gently the
big fingers set him on the tall shoulder, way, way above the bottom of
that pit, but very safe and sound. Marmaduke grabbed tight hold of one
of the hairs of the Giant's beard to keep from falling off. He had
hard work, too, for each hair of that beard was as stout and as thick
as the rope of a ship.
"Kind of cosey perch, ain't it?" asked the Giant.
Now it didn't strike Marmaduke as quite that, when he had such hard
work to hold on, and he was so far from the ground, but nevertheless
he answered,--
"Y-y-yes, s-s-sir."
His lip quivered like the lemon jelly in the spoon, that time he was
so sick. If he had fallen from that shoulder, he would have dropped as
far as if he had been thrown from the top gilt pinnacle of the
Woolworth Building. And so tremendous was the Giant's voice that when
he talked the whole earth seemed to shake, and Marmaduke shook with it
as if he were blown about by a mighty wind.
"Now," the Giant was saying in that great voice like thunder, "you
want to know what I'm heating up this furnace for?"
"Y-y-yes," replied Marmaduke, his lips still trembling like the lemon
jelly.
"You see it's this way," the Giant tried to explain, "my old friend,
Mr. Sun, keeps the outside of the Earth warm, but I keep the inside
nice and comfy."
It seemed strange to hear the Giant use that word, "comfy." It is a
word that always seems to sound small, and the Giant was so huge.
"I haven't seen my chum, Mr. Sun, for quite a spell," the Giant went
on, "let me see--it was the other day when I last saw him."
"What day?" asked Marmaduke, "last Sunday?"
"Oh, no, a little before that. I guess it was about a million years
ago."
"A million! Whew!" Marmaduke whistled. "That was quite a long time."
"Oh, no," responded the Giant, "not as long as you think. No more than
three shakes of a lamb's tail--when you come to look at it right."
"But where do you get all the coal?" was Marmaduke's next question. "I
should think you'd use it all up quick, you put on such big
shovelsful."
"See there," the Giant said, for answer pointing in at the sides of
the pit. Little tunnels ran from the sides into the dark Earth. And in
the tunnels were little gnomes, with stocking caps on their heads, and
they were trundling little wheelbarrows back and forth. The
wheelbarrows were full of coal, and when they had dumped the coal on
the Giant's pile they would hurry back for more. In their foreheads
were little lights, and in the dark tunnels of the Earth these shone
like fireflies or little lost stars.
"Would you like to see a trick?" asked the Giant.
"A card trick?" asked Marmaduke in turn, rather hoping it was.
The Giant laughed and looked down at his fingers. Each one was as big
as a thick flagpole thirty feet long.
"What would these fingers be doing, playing cards?" he said. "Pshaw! I
couldn't play even Old Maid--or Casino."
"I'll show you how," said Marmaduke eagerly, and the Giant put him on
a shelf of the Earth close to his head. Then Marmaduke took from his
pocket a little pack of cards and shuffled them. He explained the
rules very carefully--Old Maid it was--and then dealt them to Ping
Pong, Sing Song and Ah See, for they joined in the game, and to the
Giant. In those thirty-foot fingers the tiny cards looked like little
bits of pink confetti. The Giant seemed to like the game, but
Marmaduke beat the three little Chinamen, and the Giant, too, for all
he was so big.
They had finished the second hand, when the Giant looked at his
furnace.
"There, that's what I get for loafin'," he said, "my furnace is 'most
out."
After he had thrown about a thousand shovelfuls or so on the fire,
which must have taken him all of five minutes, the Giant turned to
Marmaduke.
"I haven't shown you _my_ trick," he said, "how would you like to
see me make a volcano blow up?"
Marmaduke was a little frightened, but it was too good a chance to
miss.
"Yes, thank you," he replied, "that would be rather nice."
"Well, sir, watch then."
And the Giant raised his hands to his mouth and shouted at the little
gnomes:--
"Hurry, more coal now--make it snappy!"
And the gnomes ran back and forth from the coal-piles to the tunnels,
trundling their wheelbarrows, until their legs twinkled under them as
fast as the little lights in their foreheads.
Soon the coal-pile was as high as a black mountain, and the Giant
began to shovel, shovel away, throwing the coal into the mouth of the
furnace which was as high as the Woolworth Tower. Then he closed the
door and watched.
The flames began to leap, and the steam began to hiss, and soon the
great furnace began to shake all over with the steam imprisoned
inside, just like a man with chills and fever. Then all-of-a-sudden,
from somewhere above them on the outside of the Earth, they heard a
great roar.
"There goes old Vesuvius," said the Giant.
There was another great roar.
"And there's Aetna and Cotopaxi," he added, "now for Old Chimborazo!"
Marmaduke remembered enough of his geography to know that the Giant
was calling off the names of the great volcanoes of the world. It was
indeed very thrilling! But he really had hardly time to think, for he
had to hold on so tight to the rope hair of the Giant's beard; and if
the three little Chinamen hadn't kept tight hold, too, of their
flatirons, they would have been blown to the ceiling of the pit, the
furnace and the whole place shook so. As it was they were tossed head
over heels, their feet flying in the air, but their hands held on to
the flatirons like ships to their anchors, and they were saved.
The Giant turned to Marmaduke.
"Have you the time?" he asked, "I've broken the watch my grandfather
gave me."
Marmaduke took out his little Ingersoll with one hand, meanwhile
holding on with the other to the beard.
"It's just twelve," he informed the Giant.
"Noon again--my, how Time does fly!" the Giant exclaimed. "It seems as
if yesterday were the _first_ noon, and yet that was a couple of
million years ago. But we've had only six volcanoes. We must have six
more for a noon whistle, so the little gnomes will know it's time for
lunch."
There were six more gigantic explosions up on the outside of the
earth, then the little gnomes all stopped work, turned up their
wheelbarrows, sat down on them in tailor-fashion, took out their
lunch-pails, and began to eat. Then the three little Chinamen perched
on their irons and took out some bowls and chopsticks. It made the
Giant laugh to see their funny antics.
"Ho! ho!" exclaimed he, but he turned away his head in another
direction before he laughed.
"I'm laughing in _that_ direction," he explained, "because
there's a city full of wicked people up there, on the Earth outside.
When I laugh, it's an Earthquake, you see, and I don't want to shake
up the good people. Now"--he pointed in another direction--"the town
of Five Corners is up about there. You wouldn't want me to try an
Earthquake on _it_, would you?"
Marmaduke thought this was very kind and considerate of the Giant, to
try to spare the people in the town where he went to buy candy and to
see circuses and things. Then he had an idea.
"Couldn't you shake up the ground a mile or two west of that--see," he
pointed his finger at the roof of the pit, "about there. That's where
Fatty lives, over near Wally's Creek, and it would do him good to be
shaken up by a earthquake--just a little one."
"All right," replied the Giant, "I can accommodate you. But you're
running a risk. I might kill your friend Fatty."
"He isn't any friend of mine," Marmaduke interrupted--then he thought
for a moment. After all he didn't really want Fatty killed. He guessed
he'd better not take a chance.
"No," he said, shaking his head, "after all, I 'spose you'd better not
try it."
"All right," the Giant answered, "just as you say. But have you had
any lunch?"
At that question Marmaduke suddenly felt rather faint, and he watched
the Giant hungrily, as he took out of an oven in the furnace a dozen
steers, roasted whole, and ten loaves of bread, each as big as a
house.
It didn't take many gulps for the Giant to swallow the whole lot, but
first he very kindly handed a few crumbs of bread to Marmaduke up on
his shoulder. At least the Giant thought they were crumbs, but they
were really as big as loaves of bread Mother made. And the little
slivers of roasted steer which the Giant reached up to him were as big
as whole steaks. So Marmaduke's hunger was soon satisfied, and, for
once in his life, Wienerwurst's, too.
He wanted to stay a little longer, to talk with the big Giant and ask
him questions, but, looking down, he saw the three little Chinamen
making odd gestures and beckoning to him with their long fingernails.
"We must hully, quickillilly," they said, which, of course, meant, as
you should know, that they had to hurry quickly, or it would be dark
before they reached China.
He told his troubles to the Giant, who said he "didn't see what anyone
wanted to see that heathen land for," but nevertheless he lifted the
little boy down, hundreds of feet to the ground, and Marmaduke curled
up on his iron, and the three little yellow men curled up on theirs,
while Wienerwurst got down on his haunches; and they all said
"goodbye" to the great Giant, and the little gnomes trundling their
wheelbarrows, and the little twinkling lights in their foreheads.
On the other side of the furnace, the hole opened up again, and down
it they scooted on their way to China. It was fortunate that the Giant
had given Marmaduke something to eat, for it was a long trip.
There were many wonderful things there, but as you're all yawning, and
we couldn't make sleepyheads understand, for that you'll have to wait
till another night.