THE GEE-WHIZ SUBMARINE EXPRESS
The Widow Pickle kept studying over matters and things as she combed the
Twins' hair with the blue and green combs. She began to think, as a
great many widows do, that after all her husband had perhaps been a very
wonderful man, and better than she had thought at the time. She wished
very much, as many widows do, that her husband were alive again for a
few moments. She wished to ask him just one more question. We need not
explain what that question would have been, for any one could guess that
it would have been in regard to Chemical Substances.
At last, she arose and went to the glass door of the cupboard and began
looking carefully behind the dishes on the shelves. At length she saw a
little box, which she had not noticed before.
"Aha!" cried the Widow Pickle, "I am sure this is the powder which you
mean. Is it not so, little man?"
The latter refused either to speak or to make any sign.
"I will try it, anyhow," said the Widow Pickle. So she poured some of
the powder from this box upon a plate and began touching a lighted match
to it. To her great surprise, the powder burst out into a cloud of
smoke, and when the smoke had cleared away, she saw, lying upon the
plate, a small but perfect little ship, the like of which she had never
seen before in all her life. It was something like a steamboat, except
that it was covered over entirely with glass. At the stern it had a
large wheel, evidently to make it go, and it had other wheels along the
bottom, like feet upon a sofa. Its bow was curved up and backward
sharply, something like the front of a sled, and its sides were gently
rounded so that it could slip along easily. The deck was quite roofed
over by this curved-glass shield, for what reason the Widow could not
tell. Indeed, although she guessed at once that this was a boat of some
sort, she could not tell what sort it was.
"Well, I'd like to know--" began the Widow Pickle.
"What was it you were about to inquire, my good woman?" asked the
Private Secretary.
"Why, what should I inquire, my good man," replied the Widow, "if not to
ask what is this thing here on the plate?"
"That, madam," said the Private Secretary, "is a boat."
"A boat? A boat?"
The Private Secretary nodded.
"Can't you read the name?" he asked.
So the Widow Pickle peered closely through her glasses and saw that
there was a name printed in small shining letters on one end of the
boat. "The Gee-Whiz Submarine Express!" cried the Widow. "But, alack!
how small it is. Why, it is not as long as my foot, and I was always
thought in my time to have a very small foot, too!"
The Private Secretary smiled in a knowing manner.
"Perhaps, mamma," said Zuzu, "you have overlooked something in some
other box."
"Zuzu, you have a good mind for one so young," said his mother. "I will
look in the cupboard again." So again she began rummaging around, and at
length she found another box, a square one, covered over with dust,
showing that it had not been opened for a long time. The first box had
held a pale-blue powder, but this one was filled nearly to the lid with
a light-green powder. On the top of this box, written in the hand of
Aurelius Pickle, was the inscription, "Magic Powder of Gee-Whiz." When
the Widow Pickle saw this, she gave an exclamation of joy.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]