“Dear me!” cried Cerulia. “If
he’s patched, he never can be Boolooroo.”
“Then he musn’t be patched,” declared
Sapphire. “We must save him from that fate,
girls, and force him to decide among us. Otherwise,
none of us can ever be the Queen.”
This being evident, they proceeded to unbind the long
legs of Ghip-Ghisizzle, leaving his body and arms,
however, tied fast together. Then between them
they got him upon his feet and led him away, paying
no attention to poor Tiggle, who whined to be released
so he could fight in the war. After a hurried
consultation, the Six Snubnosed Princesses decided
to hide the Majordomo in one of their boudoirs, so
they dragged him up the stairs to their reception room
and fell to quarreling as to whose boudoir should be
occupied by their captive. Not being able to
settle the question, they finally locked him up in
a vacant room across the hall and told him he must
stay there until he had decided to marry one of the
Princesses and could make a choice among them.
While this was transpiring in the palace, Cap’n
Bill and the Pinkies had encamped before the principal
gate of the City and a tent had been pitched for Trot
and Button-Bright and Rosalie. The army had been
very fearful and weak-kneed when it first entered the
Blue Country, but perceiving that the Boolooroo and
his people were afraid of them and had locked themselves
up in the City, the Pinkies grew bolder and longed
to make an attack.
One of them, in his curiosity to examine the Blue
City, got a little too near the wall, and a blue soldier
threw his cord-and-weight at him. The cord didn’t
wind around the Pinkie, as he was too far off, but
the weight hit him in the eye and made him howl lustily
as he trotted back to this comrades at full speed.
After this experience, the invaders were careful to
keep a safe distance from the wall.
The Boolooroo, having made all preparations to receive
the enemy, was annoyed because they held back.
He was himself so nervous and excited that he became
desperate, and after an hour of tedious waiting, during
which time he pranced around impatiently, he decided
to attack the hated Pinkies and rid the country of
them.
“Their dreadful color makes me hysterical,”
he said to his soldiers, “so if I am to have
any peace of mind, we must charge the foe and drive
them back into the Fog Bank. But take all the
prisoners you can, my brave men, and tomorrow we will
have a jolly time patching them. Don’t
be afraid; those pink creatures have no blue blood
in their veins, and they’ll run like rabbits
when they see us coming.”
Then he ordered the gate thrown open, and immediately
the Blueskins poured out into the open plain and began
to run toward the Pinkies. The Boolooroo went
out, too, but he kept well behind his people, remembering
the sharp sticks with which the enemy were armed.
