CHAPTER V.
WHIZZING THROUGH THE AIR.
"I know just how Edgar Eagle was blinded," said the Prince, as Moon Queen finished telling how birds often dash against bright lights at night. "Your wandstar made me so blind that I couldn't see a thing for a long time. Edgar must have thought that he had bumped into a basketful of stars and all of them flew into his eyes at the same time!"
"But you must remember that you didn't get such an awful bump on your nose, even after you said there were no fairies," reminded Princess Patricia. "I'm sure that Edgar meant no harm to us, and his poor beak may be hurting him now. I feel very sorry for him."
"And so do I," added Laura Lily.
"Bah! I don't feel one bit sorry for Edgar -- I feel sorry for myself!" spoke up Rufus Rose. "He made Caleb Cactus bump into me for the second time, so I don't see anything funny about that. Caleb may be all right, and I want to be friendly with him, but if he doesn't visit the barber and have those stickers trimmed he mustn't stay around in my neighborhood."
"I feel sorry for Edgar Eagle," said the princess
"You must not forget that you have a few stickers yourself," replied Caleb. "True, you haven't them with you now, but back in the garden you often catch hold of anybody's hand that gets too close to your bush. It seems to me that roses who have stickers shouldn't throw barber scissors!" he added with a laugh.
Then the subject was suddenly changed when Nell Nasturtium exclaimed: "Mercy me, I feel very chilly and my face is all wet! Why, it must be raining!"
"Oh, we are only going through a little piece of cloud and Even Steven is trying to play a joke on us by flipping the drops from his wings downward instead of upward or to each side," said Moon Queen. "See, it feels warmer and the drops have stopped falling, but I'm surprised to hear any of the Flower Folks object to a little moisture. Most of you are always thirsty."
"Maybe it wasn't the moisture that Nell was thinking about," chuckled Sweet William. "She might have been afraid that the rain would wash some of the pollen powder from her face."
Everybody joined in the hearty laughs that followed this remark, but the laughing suddenly ceased when Henry Hollyhock looked upward and said: "Something must be wrong with Even Steven -- his big wings have almost stopped buzzing!"
"Oh, goody! perhaps we are going to land!" added Sally Sunflower.
"Or maybe he is tired out and we'll take a nose-dive to the ground!" exclaimed Claude Carnation. "Say, wouldn't it be fun to get a big bump like that?" Then turning to Rufus Rose, he added: "You'd better move away from Caleb Cactus or he may 'tickle' you again if we do hit anything!"
"Now, don't any of you get excited," cautioned Moon Queen. "Sally Sunflower has guessed right, for we are only going to land. Even Steven is merely using his wings as parachutes with which to glide down to the ground. He will land us so easily that we won't know when it happens, so Rufus and Caleb needn't get ready for another argument."
"Yes, I can see the green grass, and, you know, I am very well acquainted with grass," remarked Danny Dandelion. "I must say that I can grow around in the grass or anywhere there is a bit of earth for me to catch hold of. Nobody has to care for me -- I look out for myself, although the Prince and Princess have been very kind to me. You folks are always glad to see me; the cook gathers my leaves to use as greens, and even poets have written beautiful poems about me, but farmers don't like for me to raise up my head in their pastures. They claim that I crowd out the grass. Certainly, I'm a little wild, yet -- "
"Certainly, I'm a little wild," remarked Danny Dandelion.
"Well, don't get so wild that you'll continue telling us Flower Folks everything about yourself, or we'll begin to think that you also want to crowd out all our talk," laughed Allen Aster. "We cheerfully admit that you are wild, but, remember that the French people first gave you the name DENT DE LION, which doesn't sound quite as nice as Dandelion."
"Here we are on the ground once more and nobody seemed to realize when we landed," interrupted Moon Queen at this juncture, but there was no need for her to ask everybody to get out of the Ramble-Along. In less time than it takes to tell it, the entire party had tumbled from the basket and found themselves standing upon the most beautiful grassy spot that they had ever seen. Even by the brilliant light of the fairy's wand-star, just as far as they could see was nothing but grass, grass, grass.
"Why, if there were any trees in sight I'd think that this was the front lawn at Carol Castle," remarked Prince Philip, as he used his hands as an eye-shade while trying to see further in the distance.
"But we happen to be many, many miles from there at this moment, my dear fellow," replied the fairy, as she waved her wand toward the giant Bumblebee slowly moving his wings above them and said:
- "Even Steven, you may go
- To the Land of Sweet and Low,
- For you and your 'carry-all!'"
The Bumblebee's huge wings began to beat the air with a faster motion and the familiar buzzing sound was heard as his body began to move forward. Gradually, this body became smaller and smaller, and the buzzing fainter and fainter, until finally nothing of either could be seen or heard. Even Steven had obeyed his orders and was on his way.
In the meantime, the Prince and Princess and the Flower Folks gathered about the fairy and wondered what would happen next.
