_The Eighth Surprise_
THE BRAVERY OF PRINCE JOLLIKIN
There is no country so delightful but that it suffers somedisadvantages, and so it was with the Valley of Mo. At times the goodpeople were obliged to leave their games and sports to defendthemselves against a foe or some threatened disaster. But there was onedanger they never suspected, which at last came upon them verysuddenly.
Away at the eastern end of the Valley was a rough plain, composedentirely of loaf sugar covered with boulders of rock candy which werepiled up in great masses reaching nearly to the foot of the mountains,containing many caves and recesses.
The people seldom came here, as there was nothing to tempt them, therock candy being very hard and difficult to walk on.
In one of the great hollows formed by the rock candy lived a monstrousGigaboo, completely shut in by the walls of its cavern. It had beengrowing and growing for so many years that it had attained an enormoussize.
For fear you may not know what a Gigaboo is I shall describe this one.Its body was round, like that of a turtle, and on its back was a thickshell. From the center of the body rose a long neck, much like that ofa goose, with a most horrible looking head perched on the top of it.This head was round as a ball, and had four mouths on the sides of itand seven eyes set in a circle and projecting several inches from thehead. The Gigaboo walked on ten short but thick legs, and in front ofits body were two long arms, tipped with claws like those of a lobster.So sharp and strong were these claws that the creature could pinch atree in two easily. Its eyes were remarkably bright and glittering, onebeing red in color, another green, and the others yellow, blue, black,purple and crimson.
It was a dreadful monster to see--only no one had yet seen it, for ithad grown up in the confinement of its cave.
But one day the Gigaboo became so big and strong that in turning aroundit broke down the walls of the cavern, and finding itself at liberty,the monster walked out into the lovely Valley of Mo to see how muchevil it could do.
The first thing the Gigaboo came to was a large orchard of preservedapricots, and after eating a great quantity of the preserves itwilfully cut off the trees with its sharp claws and utterly ruinedthem. Why the Gigaboo should have done this I can not tell; butscientists say these creatures are by nature destructive, and love toruin everything they come across.
One of the people, being in the neighborhood, came on the monster andwitnessed its terrible deeds; whereupon he ran in great terror to tellthe King that the Gigaboo was on them and ready to destroy the entirevalley. Although no one had ever before seen a Gigaboo, or even heardof one, the news was so serious that in a short time the King and manyof his people came to the place where the monster was, all havinghastily armed themselves with swords and spears.
But when they saw the Gigaboo they were afraid, and stood gazing at itin alarm, without knowing what to do or how to attack it.
"Who among us can hope to conquer this great beast?" asked the King, indismay. "Yet something must be done, or soon we shall not have a treeleft standing in all the Valley of Mo." The people looked at oneanother in a frightened way, but no one volunteered his services oroffered to advise the monarch what to do.
At length Prince Jollikin, who had been watching the monster earnestly,stepped forward and offered to fight the Gigaboo alone.
"In a matter of this kind," said he, "one man is as good as a dozen. Soyou will all stand back while I see where the beast can best beattacked."
"Is your sword sharp?" asked his father, the King, anxiously.
"It was the sharpest on the tree," replied the Prince. "If I fail tokill the monster, at least it can not kill me, although it may cause mesome annoyance. At any rate, our trees must be saved, so I will do thebest I can."
With this manly speech he walked straight toward the Gigaboo, which,when it saw him approaching, raised and lowered its long neck andtwirled its head around, so that all the seven eyes might get a glimpseof its enemy.
Now you must remember, when you read what follows, that no inhabitantof the Valley of Mo can ever be killed by anything. If one is cut topieces, the pieces still live; and, although this seems strange, youwill find, if you ever go to this queer Valley, that it is true.Perhaps it was the knowledge of this fact that made Prince Jollikin socourageous.
"If I can but manage to cut off that horrible head with my sword,"thought he, "the beast will surely die."
So the Prince rushed forward and made a powerful stroke at its neck;but the blow fell short, and cut off, instead, one of the Gigaboo's tenlegs. Quick as lightning the monster put out a claw and nipped thePrince's arm which held the sword, cutting it from its body. As thesword fell the Prince caught it in his other hand and struck again; butthe blow fell on the beast's shell, and did no harm.
The Gigaboo, now very angry, at once nipped off the Prince's left armwith one of its claws, and his head with the other. The arm fell on theground and the head rolled down a little hill behind some bonbonbushes. The Prince, having lost both arms, and his head as well, nowabandoned the fight and turned to run, knowing it would be folly toresist the monster further. But the Gigaboo gave chase, and so swiftlydid its nine legs carry it that soon it overtook the Prince and nippedoff both his legs.
Then, its seven eyes flashing with anger, the Gigaboo turned toward therest of the people, as if seeking a new enemy; but the brave Men of Mo,seeing the sad plight of their Prince and being afraid of the awfulnippers on the beast's claws, decided to run away; which they did,uttering as they went loud cries of terror.
But had they looked back they might not have gone so fast nor so far;for when the Gigaboo heard their cries it, in turn, became frightened,having been accustomed all its life to silence; so that it rushed backto its cavern of rock candy and hid itself among the boulders.
When Prince Jollikin's head stopped rolling, he opened his eyes andlooked about him, but could see no one; for the people and the Gigaboohad now gone. So, being unable to move, he decided to lie quiet for atime, and this was not a pleasant thing for an active young man likethe Prince to do. To be sure, he could wiggle his ears a bit, and winkhis eyes; but that was the extent of his powers. After a few minutes,because he had a cheerful disposition and wished to keep himselfamused, he began to whistle a popular song; and then, becominginterested in the tune, he whistled it over again with variations.
The Prince's left leg, lying a short distance away, heard his whistle,and, recognizing the variations, at once ran up to the head.
"Well," said the Prince, "here is a part of me, at any rate. I wonderwhere the rest of me can be."
Just then, hearing the sound of his voice, the right leg ran up to thehead. "Where is my body?" asked the Prince. But the legs did not know.
"Pick up my head and place it on top of my legs," continued the Prince;"then, with my eyes and your feet, we can hunt around until we find therest of me."
Obeying this command, the legs took the head and started off; andperhaps you can imagine how funny the Prince's head looked perched onhis legs, with neither body nor arms.
After a careful search they found the body lying upon the ground at thefoot of a shrimp-salad tree. But nothing more could be done without thearms; so they next searched for those, and, having discovered them, thelegs kicked them to where the body lay.
The arms now took the head from the legs and put the legs on the bodywhere they belonged. Then the right arm stuck the left arm in itsplace, after which the left arm picked up the right arm and placed italso where it belonged. Then all that remained was for the Prince toplace his head on his shoulders, and there he was--as good as new!
He picked up his sword, and was feeling himself all over to see if hewas put together right, when he chanced to look up and saw the Gigabooagain coming toward him. The beast had recovered from its fright, and,tempted by its former success, again ventured forth.
But Prince Jollikin did not intend to be cut to pieces a second time.He quickly climbed a tree and hid himself among the branches.
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Presently the Gigaboo came to the tree and reached its head up to eat acranberry tart. Quick as a flash the Prince swung his sword downward,and so true was his stroke that he cut off the monster's head withease.
Then the Gigaboo rolled over on its back and died, for wild andferocious beasts may be killed in Mo as well as in other parts of theworld. Having vanquished his enemy, Prince Jollikin climbed down fromthe tree and went to tell the people that the Gigaboo was dead.
When they heard this joyful news they gave their Prince three cheers,and loved him better than ever for his bravery. The King was so pleasedthat he presented his son with a tin badge, set with diamonds, on theback of which was engraved the picture of a Gigaboo.
Although Prince Jollikin was glad to be the hero of his nation, andenjoyed the triumph of having been able to conquer his ferocious enemy,he did not escape some inconvenience. For, as the result of hisadventure, he found himself very stiff in the joints for several daysafter his fight with the Gigaboo.