ked, and then he placed a line of
soldiers on the wall to prevent any of the Pinkies from climbing over.
Therefore, when Cap'n Bill's army reached the wall, he was obliged to
halt his ranks until he could find a way to enter the City.

Now when the Boolooroo looked through the blue-steel bars of the main
gate and saw the enemy armed with sharp-pointed sticks, he began to
tremble; and when he thought how painful it would be to have his body
and arms and legs prodded and pricked by such weapons, he groaned aloud
and was very miserable. But the thought occurred to him that if he
could avoid being caught by the Pinkies, they would be unable to harm
him. So he went among his people and reminded them how horrible it
would feel to be punched full of holes by the invaders and urged them
to fight desperately and drive the Pinkies back into the Fog Bank.

Only a few of the Blueskins were soldiers, and these all belonged to
the King's bodyguard, but the citizens realized that they must indeed
fight bravely to save themselves from getting hurt, so they promised
the Boolooroo to do all they could. They armed themselves with long
cords having weights fastened to the ends and practiced throwing these
weights in such a manner that the cords would wind around their
enemies. Also, they assembled in the streets in small groups and told
each other in frightened whispers that all their trouble was due to the
Boolooroo's cruel treatment of the Earth people. If he had received
them as friends instead of making them slaves, they would never have
escaped to the Pinkies and brought an army into the Blue Country that
they might be revenged. The Blueskins had not liked their Boolooroo
before this, and now they began to hate him, forgetting they had also
treated the strangers in a very disagreeable manner.

Meantime, the Six Snubnosed Princesses had seen from their rooms in a
tower of the palace the army of the Pinkies marching upon them, and the
sight had served to excite them greatly. They had been quarreling
bitterly among themselves all morning, and strangely enough this
quarrel was all about which of them should marry Ghip-Ghisizzle. They
knew that some day the Majordomo would become Boolooroo, and each one
of the six had determined to marry him so as to be Queen and thus force
her sisters to obey her commands. They paid no attention to the fact
that Ghip-Ghisizzle did not want to marry any of them, for they had
determined that when it was a