The Greatest Adventure Books for Children. Люси Мод Монтгомери

But really I am as much a slave as either of my dear parents."

      "Can't you go out if you want to?" asked Chick.

      "Oh, yes; but the island is small, and there is no one to play with except Pittypat, who is a white rabbit, and Para Bruin, who is a bouncing brown bear."

      "What strange companions!" said John. "I've met Pittypat, and like the white rabbit very much; but a bouncing brown bear must be a dreadful creature."

      "Not at all, I assure you," returned the girl, earnestly. "Just wait until you meet him, and you'll see that he couldn't hurt any one if he would, and wouldn't if he could."

      "That's all right," said Chick.

      "But do the Mifkets ill-treat you in any way?" asked John.

      "Oh, no; until now they have done me no real injury whatever," the Princess answered, "but their tempers are so hateful that I am in constant fear of them. You must meet the Mifkets, of course, since you cannot leave this island; and you must obey them as we all do. But perhaps Mr. Dough, being made of gingerbread, will be treated with more respect than human beings are."

      "Or with less," said John, with a shudder. "Nevertheless, we will meet the Mifkets boldly, and I am not going to make myself unhappy by being afraid of them."

      "Nor I," said Chick. "They're only beasts."

      "Then, if you will please follow me, I will lead you to the king's village," said the girl; "and there you may see my father and mother."

      "Very well," agreed John. "But I must tell you that we have already encountered three of these creatures, and defeated them easily."

      "I pounded 'em like sixty," added the Cherub, with a nod and a laugh.

      THE KING OF THE MIFKETS

      The Princess led them by a path deep into the forest, passing underneath the broad leaves of the plants, which were so thick that they almost shut out the daylight and made the way gloomy and fearsome. But before long a big clearing was reached, in the center of which was a rocky mound with a broad, flat stone at the very top. All around were houses made by bending down the huge leaves of the plants and fastening them to the ground with wooden pegs, thus forming circular rooms. None of these houses seemed quite so handsome as the palace of the Princess; but they were big and of many colors, and when our friends stepped into the clearing a swarm of the Mifket people crowded out of the doorways to surround the strangers and gaze upon them curiously.

      Upon the flat stone in the center of the clearing reclined an aged Mifket, who was lazily sunning himself, and who seemed to pay no attention to the chattering of his fellows. Yet it was toward this stone that the Princess, after a half-frightened look at its occupant, led her new friends; and all the Mifkets, big and little, followed them and formed a circle around them and the aged one.

      "This is the King," whispered the girl. "Be careful not to anger him."

      Then she knelt humbly before the flat stone that served as a throne, and John Dough knelt beside her. But Chick stood upright and laughed at the sight of the lazy Mifket King reclining before them.

      The short, coarse hair that covered the head of the King was white, proving him to be very old; and his raiment was woven of pure white leaves, distinguishing him from all the others of his band. But he was not especially dignified in appearance.

      Hearing the murmur around him the King slowly rolled his fat body over and sat up, rubbing his eyes to clear them of the cobwebs of sleep. Then he looked upon John and Chick and gave a grunt. Immediately a little man rushed out of a dwelling just back of the throne and hurried to the King with a gourd filled with water. This the aged Mifket drank greedily, and while he was thus occupied the Princess grasped the hand of the little man and pressed it affectionately.

      "This is my father," she whispered to John Dough and Chick.

      The little man seemed fussy and nervous, but perhaps this was caused by the fear in which he constantly lived. There was little hair upon his head, but he wore chin whiskers that were bright red in color and luxuriant in growth, and harmonized nicely with his light blue eyes. He wore a faded and ragged suit of blue clothes, to which he had doubtless clung ever since the days when he had been shipwrecked and cast upon this island.

      John Dough was about to express in polite words his pleasure in meeting the father of the Princess, when the King, having finished drinking, suddenly flung the gourd at the little man's head. He ducked to escape it and the gourd struck the forehead of a big Mifket just behind and made a sound like the crack of a whip. At once the big Mifket—who was remarkable for having black hair upon his head instead of the dingy brown that was common to all the Mifkets—uttered a roar of rage and aimed a blow at the bald head of the luckless slave. But the little man ducked this blow also, and then scampered away to the royal dwelling as fast as his thin legs could carry him.

      "Let him go," said the King, speaking sleepily in the Mifket language. Then he turned to the black one and asked: "Who are these creatures, Ooboo? and how came they here?"

      "I don't know," answered Black Ooboo, sulkily; "the girl brought them."

      THE MIFKETS HOWLED WITH DELIGHT

      "Perhaps I can explain," said John Dough, speaking in their language. "My friend Chick and I arrived here but a short time ago in a flying-machine, which unfortunately broke down and prevented us from getting away again."

      The Mifkets looked at the gingerbread man in astonishment. Not because they had any idea what a flying-machine might be, but to hear their own language spoken by so queer a personage, filled them with amazement.

      "Are you one of those miserable creatures called humans?" asked the King, blinking his eyes at the gingerbread man.

      "I cannot, in truth, claim to be precisely human," replied John, "but it is certain that I possess a degree of human wisdom. It comes from the Elixir, you know."

      "What are you made of?" demanded the King, who was certainly puzzled by John's words.

      Now, the gingerbread man realized that if he told the Mifkets he was good to eat he would soon be destroyed; so he answered:

      "I am made of a kind of material known only to civilized men. In fact, I am very different from all the rest of the world."

      The King didn't understand, and when he didn't understand it made him very tired.

      "Oh, well," said he, lying back in the sun, "just make yourself at home here, and see that you don't bother me by getting in my way."

      That might have ended the interview had not Black Ooboo, scowling and angry, stepped forward and said:

      "If the stranger is to live with us he must fight for the right to live in peace. It is our custom, your Majesty."

      "So it is," returned the King, waking up again. "The stranger must fight."

      At this decision all the Mifkets howled with delight, and Chick and the Princess began to be uneasy about their friend. But John said, calmly:

      "I have never fought with any one, your Majesty; but I'll do the best I can. With whom must I fight?"

      "Why, with Black Ooboo, I suppose," said the King; "and if you can manage to give him a sound thrashing I'll be your friend for life."

      Ooboo scowled first at the King and then at John, and all the other Mifkets scowled with him, for the black one was seemingly a great favorite among them.

      "Whatever