FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>  
begged at the door of one of the houses in the village; and all day he followed the river, until near evening he came to the gray seashore and the huts of the fisher folk. "What is the name of the river I have been following?" he asked of a wrinkled old fisherman who was mending his net in the sunset. "It is called Laf," the old man answered. "It is the eastern border of Jolliland, as the coast is the northern." "Oh, bother boundaries!" Vance exclaimed, "I hate them. Can you give me something to eat?" "We are poor folk," said the old man, "but I suppose we can give ye a bite if ye pays for it." "Pay for it!" cried Vance, in astonishment. "Do you know who I am?" "Not rightly," said the fisherman; "but from yer look and from yer box I take ye for a travelling showman. What have ye got in yer box?" "My family," answered the Prince, before he thought. "Do you know where the Crushed Strawberry Wizard lives?" "Not rightly," the other replied again; "but I think somewhere alongshore. What sort of a family have ye got? A happy family?" "I'm sure I hope they're happy," was Vance's response. "I know that I am not. Perhaps they may like being carried better than I like carrying them." "What can they do?" the fisherman persisted. "Can they dance and eat buns like a bear, or do they fight and knock each other about like Punch and Judy?" "They do nothing of the sort," began the Prince, angrily. "It is not a show at all; it is--" Then remembering that if he was rude to the fisherman he should certainly lose all chance of getting a supper, he became more polite, and ended by saying,-- "They are--I mean they act out a king and queen and their court." "Truly," cried the fisherman; "that is a rare show indeed! I never saw the like. Come in and get your supper, and afterward we will have out the puppets." Upon this he led the way into his hut, and bade the Prince follow him. It was a very poor little hut indeed, with rude walls, in which the cracks were stuffed with seaweed to keep out the wind, and with a small fire burning on the heap of flat stones which served for a fireplace. The fisherman's wife, who was old and quite crooked with rheumatism, was hobbling about getting the supper, which she said was all but ready. When it was all ready, without the but, they sat down, though the poor Prince, hungry as he was, found it hard work to swallow the dry red herring, the rasping oaten cakes, and the bracki
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>  



Top keywords:

fisherman

 

Prince

 
supper
 

family

 

rightly

 

answered

 

swallow

 
hungry
 

chance

 

rasping


bracki

 

remembering

 

herring

 
polite
 
cracks
 

stones

 

served

 
fireplace
 

seaweed

 

stuffed


burning
 

puppets

 
hobbling
 

rheumatism

 

crooked

 

follow

 

afterward

 

Jolliland

 

northern

 
border

eastern

 

sunset

 

called

 
bother
 

boundaries

 
suppose
 
exclaimed
 

mending

 

village

 
houses

begged

 
evening
 
wrinkled
 

fisher

 

seashore

 

astonishment

 

carrying

 
persisted
 
carried
 

response