CHAPTER XIX.

THE EAST WIND IN A RAGE.

“I can’t see Tibbs anywhere, I can’t!” cried Kiddiwee, after watching a long time for his return, to Coppertop, who was seated on the Camel and laughing heartily at the antics of the Rajah and his attendants, as they rushed madly about, trying to find some means of getting the little White Elephant from under Miss Smiler. But I’m afraid that--

Not all the King’s horses, Nor all the King’s men, Could lift such a Camel As Smiler was then.

“Oh, he’ll be back soon!” cried Coppertop. “Do look at these queer little excited things. They’re too funny for words!” and she laughed until she nearly fell off Miss Smiler’s back.

“Oh, look! LOOK! They’re trying to pull the White Elephant out by her trunk! I shall scream if it stretches and goes back with a bang!”

“’Es, like ’lastic,” cried Kiddiwee.

“Yes! I do hope Miss Smiler isn’t sitting too heavily on her; the East Wind won’t care very much for a squashed wife, will he?”

“We’ll ask for the December day before we give him the Elephant, don’t you think so?” she continued, addressing the Camel.

“Bet your life!” observed Miss Smiler.

“I never bet,” replied Coppertop, with dignity. “Except--well, it isn’t betting exactly--but Daddy always puts me on the Calcutta Sweep,” she added, truthfully.

“Nice for the sweep,” remarked the Camel.

“Oh, you really are stupid,” exclaimed Coppertop. “You don’t understand. It’s not that kind of a sweep. It’s a----”

But before she could utter another word the roar of a rapidly approaching gale drowned all further utterance. The trees of the jungle were bent nearly double, and the next moment the East Wind rushed upon them in a fury, blowing Tibbs helplessly along in front.

The poor boy felt so small at this indignity, that he quickly became so, and running off, hid himself behind a stone by the roadside.

“Where is the creature who has ruined my beautiful Taj Mahal?” roared the East Wind, in a voice of seven hurricanes.

“Where is the Goth who has done this deed? I will blow him off the earth! I will grind him to the dust! The Ganges shall lift its head like a hooded snake, and drown him! He shall be whirled in a hurricane to the highest peak of the Himalayas and left there to freeze!”

“Is that all?” remarked Miss Smiler, smiling broadly. “And who is the lucky person?”

“The Clerk of the Weather told me it was a creature called ‘Smiler’!” cried the East Wind, tearing down the palm trees as he spoke, and whirling them about like straws. “SMILER!” he bellowed, “who has dared to use my Best Beloved as an air cushion!” he roared, blind with rage.

And Smiler smiled no more.

She looked hastily round at the ruined Taj Mahal, and she wept an inward tear of remorse. She glanced down at the little White Elephant struggling beneath her, and she blushed with shame at the way she had treated her.

Now, all this made Miss Smiler feel very small. And, feeling small, she quickly became so!

The White Elephant, feeling the weight on her back grow less--as Miss Smiler grew smaller--scrambled to her feet, and made off into the jungle, trumpeting joyfully.

As for Coppertop, the first rush of the East Wind blew her off the Camel’s back and whirled her up into a tall palm tree. And there she hung--by the leg of her pyjamas--in mid air.

Of course, such an undignified position made her feel very “small,” and she quickly became so in fact.

Then Kiddiwee, left all alone on the ruined Taj Mahal, shrinking with fear, grew so small that he was carried off by the Clerk of the Weather, who was hiding close by, and thrown into the den of an Elderly Spinster Spider, in a crevice of the ruined building.

As for the East Wind, being changeable, as most winds are, he forgot his rage as soon as he caught sight of his beloved White Elephant. Sighing deeply, he made off into the jungle after her.

There they were wed, I think, for the trees still whisper of his tender wooing.

But the three children were in great distress. They were all separated, and were so small that they had little chance of finding each other; for a distance that is only a few paces to a giant, may be several miles to a tiny dwarf.