e sheltered women!" said Pirlaps. "How an emergency does
bring them out!"

The battle must have raged for nearly an hour; but at the end of that
time there was not so much as a One-Twenty-Second left alive. The
Greatest Common Divisor, as befitted his rank, was the last to succumb;
and when he went down the defenders of the Garden threw down their
weapons and began tossing their shoes into the air and shaking each
others' hands and talking all at once. The Gunki passed the word down
the line to Avrillia, who presently came floating in, with her wild
eyes shining and her pale-gold hair rumpled, and her golden
swan's-quill still in her hand; and everybody fell upon her with
congratulations. But, indeed, everybody was congratulating everybody
else, and calling him or her the hero or heroine of the day. Schlorge
was doubly cordial to Avrillia because he felt that he had
underestimated her; and for the same reason Pirlaps was particularly
delighted with the Teacup and the Snimmy's wife--whom, to tell the
truth, he had always considered very ordinary women. The Teacup
fluttered and laughed nervously, murmuring, whenever anybody praised
her, "If my handle hadn't been so consanguineous--" But the Snimmy's
wife merely smiled grimly, as much as to say that she had always
thought they would all come to their senses sooner or later.

Presently the Snimmy, who had been sniffing about the fallen invaders,
suggested, "What's to be done with the remains, begging everybody's
pardon?"

"Don't make such long speeches, Snimmy," said his wife, "and don't beg
anything. Didn't you blow as hard as any of 'em?"

But Schlorge was already deeply interested in the problem. He began
walking around among them, now and then turning one over with his
foot. Of course there had never been an ounce of flesh and blood among
them; they were as dry as bones--which, indeed, they much resembled.

"I could make them into first-class rules," he said, picking up the
waist-line of an Improper Fraction and snapping it easily across his
knee. "They'd keep the Plynck supplied a whole winter."

The Plynck! In the excitement of victory they had all momentarily
forgotten the Plynck, though, when the fight was hottest, it had been
the sight of her tragic drooping plumes among the blighted leaves that
had nerved them to redoubled effort. Now Avrillia stepped softly under
the tree and called gently, "O Plynck, dear Plynck! They're all dead,
and Schlorge is going to