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"I had not thought of it in that way," she answered. "Perhaps I am
wrong, your Majesty; and certainly you are very beautiful."

"Think it over," said the King, graciously. "Learn to be grateful for
every good thing that is yours, and proud that you have been selected
by Nature for adornment. Only in this way may such rare favors be
deserved. And now the royal Messenger will show you the sights of our
Paradise, and try to entertain you pleasantly while you are our
guests."

He turned aside, with these words, and fluttered his waving feathers so
that their changing tints might dazzle the eyes of all observers. But
immediately afterward he paused and cried out:

"Dear me! One of my wing plumes is disarranged. Help me, you ladies!"

At once the small brown birds on the lower branches, who had been
modestly quiet because they had no gay plumage, flew up to the King and
with their bills skillfully dressed his feathers, putting the wing
plume into its place again and arranging it properly, while the other
birds looked on with evident interest.

As the lark-children turned away to follow the Messenger Chubbins
remarked:

"I'm glad
I
haven't got all those giddy feathers."

"Why?" asked Twinkle, who had been rather awed by the King's splendor.

"Because it would take all my time to keep 'em smooth," answered the
boy. "The poor King can't do much more than admire himself, so he don't
get time to have fun."

Chapter XIV - A Real Fairyland
*

As they left the royal arbor of white flowers the Messenger turned to
the left and guided his guests through several bright and charming
avenues to a grove of trees that had bright blue bark and yellow
leaves. Scattered about among the branches were blossoms of a delicate
pink color, shaped like a cup and resembling somewhat the flower of the
morning-glory.

"Are you hungry?" asked Ephel.

"Oh, I could eat something, I guess," said Chubbins.

The Messenger flew to one of the trees and alighted upon a branch where
three of the pink, cup-shaped flowers grew in a row. The children
followed him, and sitting one before each blossom they looked within
the cups and found them filled with an unknown substance that both
looked and smelled delicious and appetizing.

"It is royal amal," said their guide, busily pecking at his cup with
his bill. "Help yourselves, little ones. You will find it very nice
indeed."

"Well," said Twinkle, "I'd be glad to eat it if I could. But it
wouldn't do Chubbins and me a bit of good to stick our noses into these
cups."

Ephel turned to look at them.

"True," he remarked; "it was very careless of me to forget that you
have no bills. How are you accustomed to eat?"

"Why, with spoons, and knives and forks," said the girl.

"You have but to ask for what you need," declared the royal Messenger.

Twinkle hesitated, scarcely knowing what to say. At last she spoke
boldly: "I wish Chub and I had spoons."

Hardly had the words left her lips when two tiny golden spoons appeared
in the flower-cups. Twinkle seized the spoon before her in one claw and
dipped up a portion of the strange food, which resembled charlotte
russe in appearance. When she tasted it she found it delicious; so she
eagerly ate all that the blossom contained.

When she looked around for Chubbins she found he was gone. He had
emptied his cup and carried the golden spoon to another blossom on a
higher limb, where the girl discovered him eating as fast as he could
dip up the food.

"Let us go to another tree," said Ephel. "There are many excellent
things to eat, and a variety of food is much more agreeable than
feasting upon one kind."

"All right," called Chubbins, who had succeeded in emptying the second
cup.

As they flew on Twinkle said to the guide:

"I should think the blossoms would all be emptied in a little while."

"Oh, they fill up again in a few moments," replied Ephel. "Should we go
back even now, I think we would find them all ready to eat again. But
here are the conona bushes. Let us taste these favorite morsels."

The bushes on which they now rested had willow-green branches with
silver balls growing thickly upon them. Ephel tapped lightly upon one
of the balls with his bill and at once it opened by means of a hinge in
the center, the two halves of the ball lying flat, like plates. On one
side Twinkle found tiny round pellets of cake, each one just big enough
to make a mouthful for a bird. On the other side was a thick substance
that looked like jelly.

"The proper thing to do," said their guide, "is to roll one of the
pellets in the jelly, and then eat it."

He showed Twinkle how to do this, and as she had brought her golden
spoon with her it was easy enough. Ephel opened a ball for Chubbins and
then one for himself, and the children thought this food even nicer
than the first they had eaten.

"Now we will have some fruit," declared the Messenger. He escorted his
charges to an orchard where grew many strange and beautiful trees
hanging full of fruits that were all unknown to the lark-children. They
were of many odd shapes and all superbly colored, some gleaming like
silver and gold and others being cherry-red or vivid blue or royal
purple in shade. A few resembled grapes and peaches and cherries; but
they had flavors not only varied and delicious but altogether different
from the fruits that grow outside of the Birds' Paradise.

Another queer thing was, that as fast as the children ate one fruit,
another appeared in its place, and they hopped from branch to branch
and tree to tree, trying this one and that, until Chubbins exclaimed:

"Really, Twink, I can't eat another mouthful."

"I'm afraid we've both been stuffing ourselves, Chub," the girl
replied. "But these things taste so good it is hard to stop at the
right time."

"Would you like to drink?" asked Ephel.

"If you please," Twinkle answered.

"Then follow me," said the guide.

He led them through lovely vistas of wonderful trees, down beautiful
winding avenues that excited their admiration, and past clusters of
flowering plants with leaves as big as umbrellas and as bright as a
painter's palette. The Paradise seemed to have been laid out according
to one exquisite, symmetrical plan, and although the avenues or paths
between the trees and plants led in every direction, the ground beneath
them was everywhere thickly covered with a carpet of magnificent
flowers or richly tinted ferns and grasses. This was because the birds
never walked upon the ground, but always flew through the air.

Often, as they passed by, the flowers would greet them with sweet songs
or choruses and the plants would play delightful music by rubbing or
striking their leaves against one another, so that the children's ears
were constantly filled with harmony, while their eyes were feasted on
the bewildering masses of rich color, and each breath they drew was
fragrant with the delicious odors of the blossoms that abounded on
every side.

"Of all the fairylands I've ever heard of or read about," said Twinkle,
"this certainly is the best."

"It's just a peach of a fairyland," commented Chubbins, approvingly.

"Here is the nectar tree," presently remarked the royal Messenger, and
he paused to allow them to observe it.

The tree was all of silver—silver trunk and branches and leaves—and
from the end of each leaf or branch dripped sparkling drops of a
pink-tinted liquid. These glistened brightly as they fell through the
air and lost themselves in a bed of silver moss that covered all the
ground beneath the tree.

Ephel flew to a branch and held his mouth open so that a drop from
above fell into it. Twinkle and Chubbins followed his example, and
found the pink liquid very delightful to drink. It seemed to quench
their thirst and refresh them at the same time, and when they flew from
the queer dripping tree they were as light-hearted and gay as any two
children so highly favored could possibly have felt.

"Haven't you any water in your paradise?" asked the little girl-lark.

"Yes, of course," Ephel answered. "The fountain-lilies supply what
water we wish to drink, and the Lustrous Lake is large enough for us
all to bathe in. Besides these, we have also the Lake of Dry Water, for
you must know that the Lustrous Lake is composed of wet water."

"I thought all water was wet," said Chubbins.

"It may be so in your country," replied the Royal Messenger, "but in
our Paradise we have both dry and wet water. Would you like to visit
these lakes?"

"If you please," said Twinkle.

Chapter XV - The Lake of Dry Water
*

They flew through the jewelled gardens for quite a way, emerging at
last from among the trees to find before them a pretty sheet of water
of a greenish hue. Upon the shore were rushes that when swayed by the
breeze sang soft strains of music.

"This," announced their guide, "is the Lake of Dry Water."

"It
looks
wet, all right," said Chubbins, in a tone of doubt.

"But it isn't," declared Ephel. "Watch me, if you please."

He hovered over the lake a moment and then dove downward and
disappeared beneath the surface. When he came up again he shook the
drops of water from his plumage and then flew back to rejoin his
guests.

"Look at me," he said. "My feathers are not even damp." They looked,
and saw that he spoke truly. Then Chubbins decided to try a bath in the
dry water, and also plunged into the lake. When he came to the surface
he floated there for a time, and ducked his head again and again; but
when he came back to the others not a hair of his head nor a feather of
his little brown body was in the least moist.

"That's fine water," said the boy-lark. "I suppose you Birds of
Paradise bathe here all the time."

"No," answered Ephel; "for only wet water is cleansing and refreshing.
We always take our daily baths in the Lustrous Lake. But here we
usually sail and disport ourselves, for it is a comfort not to get wet
when you want to play in the water."

"How do you sail?" asked Twinkle, with interest.

"I will show you," replied their guide.

He flew to a tall tree near, that had broad, curling leaves, and
plucked a leaf with his bill. The breeze caught it at once and wafted
it to the lake, so that it fell gently upon the water.

"Get aboard, please," called Ephel, and alighted upon the broad surface
of the floating leaf. Twinkle and Chubbins followed, one sitting in
front of their guide and one behind him. Then Ephel spread out his
wings of white and orange, and the breeze pushed gently against them
and sent the queer boat gliding over the surface of the dry water.

"Sometimes, when the wind is strong," said the Royal Messenger, "these
frail craft upset, and then we are dumped into the water. But we never
mind that, because the water is dry and we are not obliged to dress our
feathers again."

"It is very convenient," observed Twinkle, who was enjoying the sail.
"Could one be drowned in this lake?"

"I suppose an animal, like man, could, for it is as impossible to
breathe beneath dry water as it is beneath wet. But only birds live
here, and they cannot drown, because as soon as they come to the
surface they fly into the air."

"I see," said Twinkle, musingly.

They sailed way across the lake, and because the wind was gentle they
did not upset once. On reaching the farther shore they abandoned the
leaf-boat and again took wing and resumed their flight through the
avenues.

There was a great variety of scenery in the Paradise, and wherever they
went something new and different was sure to meet their view.

At one place the avenue was carpeted with big pansies of every color
one could imagine, some of them, indeed, having several colors blended
together upon their petals. As they passed over the pansies Twinkle
heard a chorus of joyous laughter, and looking downward, she perceived
that the pansies all had faces, and the faces resembled those of happy
children.

"Wait a minute," she cried to Chubbins and the guide, and then she flew
downward until she could see the faces more plainly. They smiled and
nodded to the girl-lark, and laughed their merry laughter; but when she
spoke to them Twinkle found they were unable to answer a single word.

Many of the faces were exceedingly beautiful; but others were bold and
saucy, and a few looked at her with eyes twinkling with mischief. They
seemed very gay and contented in their paradise, so Twinkle merely
kissed one lovely face that smiled upon her and then flew away to rejoin
her companions.

Chapter XVI - The Beauty Dance
*

Before long they came to another and larger sheet of water, and this
Twinkle decided was the most beautiful lake she had ever seen. Its
waters were mostly deep blue in color, although they had a changeable
effect and constantly shifted from one hue to another. Little waves
rippled all over its surface, and the edges of the waves were
glistening jewels which, as they scattered in spray and fell into the
bosom of the lake, glinted and sparkled with a thousand flashing
lights. Here were no rushes upon the shore, but instead of them banks
of gorgeous flowers grew far down to the water's edge, so that the last
ones dipped their petals into the lake itself.

Nestling upon this bank of flowers the Royal Messenger turned to his
companions and said:

"Here let us rest for a time, while I call the friendly fishes to
entertain you."

He ended his speech with a peculiar warble, and at its sound a score of
fishes thrust their heads above the surface of the water. Some of them
were gold-fish and some silver-fish, but others had opal tints that
were very pretty. Their faces were jolly in expression and their eyes,
Chubbins thought, must be diamonds, because they sparkled so brightly.

BOOK: L. Frank Baum
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