THE KING LOSES HIS SHADOW
The King of Gee-Whiz stepped out into an open space in the forest, and,
to his very great surprise, observed that he could not feel his feet
touch the ground. This was really because he was so full of rubber,
although he himself had no idea of any such thing at all. He was
conscious only of feeling that he had all along been a greater King than
he had had credit for being. So he hummed a tune to himself as he began
to dance.
There was probably never a dance just such as this which the King of
Gee-Whiz now began. Had he himself seen it from a distance, he would
have been sure that it was not the performance of a dignified and
respectable King. He sprang from one foot to the other, and each time he
touched the ground he rebounded into the air a dozen feet, or possibly
even more. He alighted upon both feet, muttering as he did so an
exclamation of delight, for, strange as that may seem, he was enjoying
himself very much. Each time that both his feet struck the ground he
went into the air just twice as far as when only one foot was so
employed. He slapped his arms upon his chest, and as he did this, to his
great surprise, a squeak came out of his mouth exactly similar to that
which comes from the hole in a rubber ball when you squeeze it. This
startled him at first, but he was too busy to think about it long.
He sprang from side to side; and whereas in a common dancing step a King
goes scarcely more than two or three feet at a stride, the King now
would step at least a dozen feet, or, for that matter, perhaps twenty.
There seemed to be no limit to the length of the steps he could take;
and whenever he took a step he bounded high into the air, at times
having difficulty in keeping himself from turning quite over in the air.
Indeed, the temptation to turn hand-springs and somersaults as he had
done when a boy became so strong upon him that only his great kingly
dignity served to prevent his doing that very thing.
"Aha!" cried the King, "this certainly is fine." At least these are the
words which he wished to say, although all that he could hear were
several sharp whistles as the breath came out of his mouth.
The King sprang up and down very hard, anxious to see how high he could
go into the air. To his great surprise, he found that by making several
leaps up and down he could easily bound upward as high as the top of the
tallest palms. This pleased him very much, as in this position he
secured a wider view of his own possessions than he had ever had in his
life before.
"I shall come back here once in a while," said the King to himself, "and
have another drink at that rubber tree, if this dose wears off after a
while. This really is wonderful. It enlarges my outlook upon life
many-fold, and although I have previously to this felt very much of a
King, I now begin to understand how much I have underrated my own
abilities in every line of activity. But, by the way," he added to
himself, "this exercise is affecting the royal appetite. I think I'll
step over and have my breakfast."
So in one or two long strides he walked over to the palace and called
aloud to his Private Secretary and to the Widow Pickle. To his great
surprise, when he called aloud, the King could not speak a word, but
could only whistle. He put up his hand to his face to feel what was the
matter with his voice, but of course he could not feel anything about
his voice. He did, however, observe, very much to his annoyance, that
his royal aquiline nose had quite disappeared, that his mouth now
extended quite across his face, that his ears were small and almost gone
into his head, and that for a forehead nothing remained but a wide,
round expanse, which he could easily dent with his thumb. In short, he
resembled, to the touch at least, although, of course, he could not see
himself, nothing in the world so much as a large, soft, rubber ball,
hollow and inflated, and with legs and arms attached.
When the King realized this and found also that his voice was gone, a
sudden fear fell upon him. "My soul and body!" thought he to himself,
"can this be true? If so, I am in the worst sort of a situation, for no
one will recognize me!" So saying, he sank down upon the ground near the
palace door, and after a number of bounces up and down at last settled
into an attitude of Deep Thought.
After the King had thought for quite a time, he happened to look upon
the ground before him. To his great surprise, there was no shadow
there. He had not known that all along it had been the intention of the
Wicked Fairy to steal his shadow. Such, however, had been the case.
While the King was at the top of one of his highest bounds, the Wicked
Fairy, who had remained upon the ground below, took the opportunity to
remove his shadow from beneath him; so that after that the King cast no
shadow at all. Just how this was done it is hard to say. Perhaps the
Chemist, Aurelius Pickle, who knew many strange things, could have told
how this occurred, but he, being dead, could not be asked. It may be
that as the King was stretched out to thrice his natural height, he was
thrice his natural thinness, and that the shadow also became three times
as thin, and so was easy to take away. In any case, certainly the Wicked
Fairy had removed the King's shadow, and, of course, with it the White
Cricket which had always lived in that shadow. When the King looked down
and saw what had happened, he fell back in a deep swoon of terror.
For a moment all was still; then there came from somewhere off in the
distance, the doleful tones of the Enchanted Banjo.
THE SORROWFUL SONG OF THE SHADOWLESS KING
If you find my shadow, O bring it straight to me!
A shadowless King is compelled to be gloomy;
I sit in the sun and I sob in my sorrow
And wonder if I'll have a shadow to-morrow.
I've lost my shadow;
My heart is sad, O!
I would be glad, O!
If I but had, O!
My shadow.
I look in the corners, I hunt through my palace;
I grieve that my shadow was stolen through malice--
Just think, if you please, of a life sad and hollow!
When I take a walk there's no shadow to follow.
I've lost my shadow;
It is too bad, O!
It makes me mad, O!
To think I had, O!
My shadow.
My shadow was ever a thing of great beauty;
It did all I did, as was its bounden duty;
It echoed my sitting and standing and walking,
My riding and ruling, and all but my talking.
I've lost my shadow;
It makes me sad, O!
I would be glad, O!
If I but had, O!
My shadow.
[Illustration: The King was very proud of his shadow _Page 89_]
[Illustration]