THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE AIR
"Hurry, hurry, mamma!" cried the Twins. "Let us go."
"But how can we go?" asked the Widow Pickle of the Private Secretary, as
she stood holding the second box of powder in her hand.
"I suggest, madam," said the Private Secretary, "that you might put a
little of the first powder, the blue one, in the engine."
The Widow Pickle placed a pinch of the pale-blue powder upon a certain
portion of the little boat, and, to her great surprise, it began to grow
before her eyes.
It grew and it grew, slowly but steadily, until it was large enough for
either of the Twins to get into. In a moment more it would have been too
large to pass out of the window; and as the Widow Pickle saw this, she
was about to brush off the rest of the powder.
"Stop!" cried the Private Secretary. "The window will not make the
slightest difference in the world. Quick, madam! Get in with the second
box, or it will be too late."
Indeed, the engine inside the boat now began to churn, and a strange,
brilliant sort of blue smoke began to hiss at the spouts near the wheel.
The boat, for such it can be called, began to crawl on its feet across
the floor toward the window. The Private Secretary grasped the Enchanted
Banjo and with a bound sprang into the boat. The Widow, holding on to
the remaining box of powder, and grasping the Twins also with the other
hand, sprang aboard quickly. The Private Secretary then snapped down the
glass all around.
To her great surprise, the Widow Pickle found the boat quite large
enough for all four of them, and even as she settled down comfortably in
her seat the boat rose slowly and, with a slight hissing of the strange
blue steam at the wheel, it passed directly out and through the window,
just as though it were not there, and sailed off across the tops of the
tall buildings toward the sea.
"Oh, Mr. Secretary," cried the Widow Pickle, "how very much startled I
am!"
"Madam," replied the Private Secretary, "there is no need to be
startled. It is very well, however, that you got the second box from
among the Chemical Substances of the late Aurelius Pickle."
"Why should that be so?" asked the Widow. "You must remember that I am
in the dark about many of these things. It seems very strange to me to
be thus flying off across the city. For all we know, we may drop
directly into the sea before long."
"That is true," said the Private Secretary, chuckling. "In fact, that is
precisely what we shall do within two minutes. And that is the reason I
am glad you have the green powder with you. That, you must understand,
is our fuel for water travel; for without that we could not possibly get
up any green steam, and surely you must know that with a boat of this
particular kind, blue steam may be all very well for the air, but it is
of no service whatever under the water."
"That," said the Widow Pickle, "seems a most singular thing."
"Many things which now seem strange to you," replied the Private
Secretary, "will presently seem quite natural. You must remember to put
a little of the green powder under the boiler the moment we strike the
water; but whatever you do, you must not put the green powder in before
we reach the water."
"Why, what will happen then?" asked Zuzu.
"You would better not try to find out," said the Private Secretary,
smiling. "But now, madam, first put in a little more of the blue powder.
I see we are passing near the moon, and, if I mistake not, the face of
the moon is unusually clean to-night. I see that little Lucy Green has
been at work. You do not know how that can be? Perhaps the Enchanted
Banjo will tell you. Put it together, my dears, and see if it will not."
So Lulu and Zuzu held the Banjo as before, and to their great surprise
it told them how the moon had its face cleaned.
LITTLE LUCY GREEN
Oh, have you never heard the reason why the moon is clean?
Once on a time there was a girl whose name was Lucy Green;
She saw the moon was dirty and was very far from bright,
She raised her hands in horror, and exclaimed: "My, what a sight!"
And then she got some polish, and a ladder, and she climbed
Till she reached the moon that drifted, spotted, dusty, and begrimed.
UP!
clum'
she
and
clim'
she
Oh,
Then she scoured the moon with polish and she cleaned it of its rust,
And she took a cloth and rubbed it till it hadn't any dust;
And the good old moon grew happy when its face began to shine
And the little girl was merry, and she said: "Now, you look fine!"
Then she took her can of polish, and her cloth, and then she found
That the moonbeams made her ladder seem like gold from sky to ground.
Oh,
she
clim'
and
she
clum'
DOWN!
[Illustration: Sailing by the Moon]
[Illustration]