ten
across the front of it; and as Dorothy appeared he held out one of his
claws and said, "Fare, please," in quite a matter-of-fact way.

Dorothy was positively certain that she hadn't any money, but she put
her hand into the pocket of her apron, partly for the sake of
appearances, and partly because she was a little afraid of the Stork,
and, to her surprise, pulled out a large cake. It was nearly as big as a
saucer, and was marked "ONE BISKER"; and as this seemed to show that it
had some value, she handed it to the ferryman. The Stork turned it over
several times rather suspiciously, and then, taking a large bite out of
it, remarked, "Very good fare," and dropped the rest of it into a little
hole in the wall; and having done this he stared gravely at Dorothy for
a moment, and then said, "What makes your legs bend the wrong way?"

"Why, they don't!" said Dorothy, looking down at them to see if anything
had happened to them.

"They're entirely different from mine, anyhow," said the Stork.

"But, you know," said Dorothy very earnestly, "I couldn't sit down if
they bent the other way."

"Sitting down is all very well," said the Stork, with a solemn shake of
his head, "but you couldn't collect fares with 'em, to save your life,"
and with this he went into the house and shut the door.

[Illustration: "'THEY'RE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FROM MINE, ANYHOW,' SAID THE
STORK."]

"It seems to me this is a very strange adventure," said Dorothy to
herself. "It appears to be mostly about people's legs," and she was
gazing down again in a puzzled way at her little black stockings when
she heard a cough, and looking up she saw that the Stork had his head
out of a small round window in the wall of the house.

"Look here," he said confidentially, "I forgot to ask what your fare was
for." He said this in a sort of husky whisper, and as Dorothy looked up
at him it seemed something like listening to an enormous cuckoo-clock
with a bad cold in its works.

[Illustration: "IT SEEMED LIKE LISTENING TO AN ENORMOUS CUCKOO-CLOCK."]

"I don't think I know exactly _what_ it was for," she said, rather
confusedly.

"Well, it's got to be for _something_, you know, or it won't be fair,"
said the Stork. "I suppose you don't want to go over the ferry?" he
added, cocking his head on one side, and looking down at her,
inquiringly.

"Oh, no indeed!" said Dorothy, very earnestly.

"_That's_ lucky," said the Stork. "It doesn't go anywhere that it eve