a little
queer in the purple face, and the purple hands, and the purple
expression of Bobolink.

"Why don't you say something?" growled Bobolink, in just the kind of
voice one would expect such a very ugly person to have. "What are you
thinking about, eh? If it's anything about me, you 'd better say so at
once!"

"Well," said Martin, as bravely as he could, "I was thinking that it
must be very odd to be so purple as you are. Of course," he added
politely, "I don't suppose you can help it exactly, because even the
sun is purple here, and perhaps you have got sunpurpled instead of
sunburned."

"May I ask," said Bobolink, rolling his purple eyes about, "if you came
all this way on purpose to make remarks about me?"

"No, I did n't," explained Martin, hurriedly. "I came to ask you the
way to the Wonderful Toymaker, who makes all the toys for Fairyland. I
am going to fetch a new toy for the Princess Petulant."

"And how do you think you are going to get it?" asked Bobolink, with a
chuckle.

"That is exactly what I want you to tell me," said Martin, boldly.

Now, Bobolink, the Purple Enchanter, was used to being visited by
people who wanted to get something out of him, because, as I said
before, Bobolink knows everything. But he had never come across any
one who did not begin by flattering him; and he took a fancy to Martin
from the moment he told him he was sunpurpled. So he smiled as well as
he could,--which was not very well, for he had never done such a thing
before and his jaws were extremely stiff,--and for the moment he hardly
looked ugly at all.

"I like you," he said, nodding at the small figure of the Prime
Minister's son; "and I am going to help you. Of course, I know quite
well where the Wonderful Toymaker lives; but I have promised the pine
dwarfs not to tell, because it is the only secret they possess, and it
would break their hearts if any one were to hear it from me instead of
from them. You see, when a person knows everything he must keep some
of it to himself, or else there would be nothing left for anybody else
to say, and then there would be no more conversation. That is the
worst of knowing everything. But I can show you the way to the pine
dwarfs; and if you keep perfectly quiet and speak in a whisper to them,
they'll tell you all you want to know."

"Why must I keep perfectly quiet and speak in a whisper?" asked Martin.

Bobolink scowled, and became as ugly as ever again.

"Now