In a twinkling the frogs all turned and made the longest
leaps their powerful legs enabled them to. The
King jumped first of all, and in a panic of fear the
others followed his example. They were out of
sight in an instant, and then the elephant turned its
head and looked at Button-Bright and at once trotted
into the depths of the fog.
“He wants us to follow,” said the boy,
gasping in amazement at this wonderful transformation.
So immediately they began marching through the fog
behind the elephant, and as the great beast advanced
the frogs scrambled out of his way and hid themselves
in the moist banks until he had passed them by.
Cap’n Bill had to mind his wooden leg carefully,
and the old sailor was so excited that he mumbled
queer sentences about “Araby Ann Knights”
and “ding-donged magic” and the “fool
foolishness of fussin’ with witches an’
sich,” until Trot wondered whether her old friend
had gone crazy or was only badly scared.
It was a long journey, and all the Pinkies were dripping
water from their raincoats, and their fat little legs
were tired and aching when the pink glow showing through
the fog at last announced that they were nearing the
Pink Country.
At the very edge of the Fog Bank the elephant halted,
winked at Button-Bright, lowered its head and began
to shrink in size and dwindle away. By the time
the boy came up to it, closely followed by Trot and
Cap’n Bill, the thing was only the well-known
Magic Umbrella, with the carved elephant’s head
for a handle, and it lay motionless upon the ground.
Button-Bright picked it up, and as he examined it
he thought the tiny eyes still twinkled a little, as
if with triumph and pride.
Trot drew a long breath.
“That was some magic, I guess!” she
exclaimed. “Don’t you think so, Rosalie?”
“It was the most wonderful thing I ever saw,”
admitted the Witch. “The fairies who control
Button-Bright’s umbrella must be very powerful
indeed!”
The Pinkies were rejoiced to find themselves again
in their beloved land of sunrises and sunsets.
They sang and shouted with glee, and the Band uncovered
its pink instruments and played the National Pink
Anthem, while the parrot flew from Trot’s shoulder
to Cap’n Bill’s shoulder and back again,
screaming ecstatically,
“Hooray! We’re through the wetful
fogs
Where the elephant scared the fretful frogs!”
There was a magnificent sunset in the sky just then,
and it cheered the Pinkies and gave them renewed strength.
Away they hastened across the pink fields to the Pink
City, where all the Pink people who had been left
behind ran out to welcome them home again.
Trot and Button-Bright, with Cap’n Bill and
Rosalie the Witch, went to the humble palace, where
they had a simple supper of coarse food and slept
upon hard beds. In the houses of the City, however,
there was much feasting and merrymaking, and it seemed
to Trot that the laws of the country which forbade
the Queen from enjoying all the good things the people
did were decidedly wrong and needed changing.
