[CHAPTER XVIII] _Good News_
Ephel and the children now bade the good-natured Queen Bee good-bye,and thanked her for her kindness. The Messenger led them far away toanother place that he called a "suburb," and as they emerged from athick cluster of trees into a second flower garden they found the airfilled with a great assemblage of butterflies, they being both largeand small in size and colored in almost every conceivable manner.
Twinkle and Chubbins had seen many beautiful butterflies, but neversuch magnificent ones as these, nor so many together at one time. Someof them had wings fully as large as those of the Royal Messengerhimself, even when he spread them to their limit, and the markings ofthese big butterfly wings were more exquisite than those found upon thetail-feathers of the proudest peacocks.
The butterflies paid no attention to their visitors, but continued toflutter aimlessly from flower to flower. Chubbins asked one of them aquestion, but got no reply.
"Can't they talk?" he enquired of Ephel.
"Yes," said the Messenger, "they all know how to talk, but when theyspeak they say nothing that is important. They are brainless, sillycreatures, for the most part, and are only interesting because they arebeautiful to look at. The King likes to watch the flashes of color asthey fly about, and so he permits them to live in this place. They arevery happy here, in their way, for there is no one to chase them or tostick pins through them when they are caught."
Just then a chime of bells tinkled far away in the distance, and theRoyal Messenger listened intently and then said:
"It is my summons to his Majesty the King. We must return at once tothe palace."
So they flew into the air again and proceeded to cross the lovelygardens and pass through the avenues of jewelled trees and the fragrantorchards and groves until they came at last to the royal bower of whiteflowers.
The child-larks entered with their guide and found the gorgeous KingBird of Paradise still strutting on his perch on the golden bush andenjoying the admiring glances of his courtiers and the ladies of hisfamily. He turned as the children entered and addressed his Messenger,saying:
"Well, my dear Ephel, have you shown the strangers all the sights ofour lovely land?"
"Most of them, your Majesty," replied Ephel.
"What do you think of us now?" asked the King, turning his eyes uponthe lark-children.
"It must be the prettiest place in all the world!" cried Twinkle, withreal enthusiasm.
His Majesty seemed much pleased. "I am very sorry you cannot live herealways," he said.
"I'm not," declared Chubbins. "It's too pretty. I'd get tired of itsoon."
"He means," said Twinkle, hastily, for she feared the blunt remarkwould displease the kindly King, "that he isn't really a bird, but aboy who has been forced to wear a bird's body. And your Majesty is wiseenough to understand that the sort of life you lead in your fairyparadise would be very different from the life that boys generallylead."
"Of course," replied the King. "A boy's life must be a dreadful one."
"It suits me, all right," said Chubbins.
The King looked at him attentively.
"Would you really prefer to resume your old shape, and cease to be abird?" he asked.
"Yes, if I could," Chubbins replied.
"Then I will tell you how to do it," said the King. "Since you told meyour strange story I have talked with my Royal Necromancer, who knows agood deal about magic, and especially about that same tuxix whowickedly transformed you in the forest. And the Royal Necromancer tellsme that if you can find a tingle-berry, and eat it, you will resumeyour natural form again. For it is the one antidote in all the worldfor the charm the tuxix worked upon you."
"What _is_ a tingle-berry?" asked Twinkle, anxiously, for thisinformation interested her as much as it did Chubbins.
"I do not know," said the King, "for it is a common forest berry, andnever grows in our paradise. But doubtless you will have little troublein finding the bush of the tingle-berry when you return to the outsideworld."
The children were both eager to go at once and seek the tingle-berry;but they could not be so impolite as to run away just then, for theKing announced that he had prepared an entertainment in their honor.
So they sat on a branch of the golden bush beside their friend Ephel,while at a nod from the King a flock of the beautiful Birds of Paradiseflew into the bower and proceeded to execute a most delightful andbewildering set of aerial evolutions. They flew swiftly in circles,spirals, triangles, and solid squares, and all the time that theyperformed sweet music was played by some unseen band. It almost dazzledthe eyes of the child-larks to watch this brilliant flashing of thecolored wings of the birds, but the evolutions only lasted for a fewminutes, and then the birds flew out again in regular ranks.
Then the little brown lady-birds danced gracefully upon the carpet,their dainty feet merely touching the tips of the lovely flowers.Afterward the flowers themselves took part, and sang a delightfulchorus, and when this was finished the King said they would now indulgein some refreshment.
Instantly a row of bell-shaped blossoms appeared upon the golden bush,one for each bird present, and all were filled with a delicious icethat was as cold and refreshing as if it had just been taken from afreezer. Twinkle and Chubbins asked for spoons, and received themquickly; but the others all ate the ices with their bills.
The King seemed to enjoy his as much as any one, and Twinkle noticedthat as fast as a blossom was emptied of its contents it disappearedfrom the branch.
The child-larks now thanked the beautiful but vain King very earnestlyfor all his kindness to them, and especially for telling them about thetingle-berries; and when all the good-byes had been exchanged Ephelflew with them back to the tree where they had left the Guardian of theEntrance and their faithful comrade, Policeman Bluejay.