CHAPTER V

THE BEAUTIFUL GIRL TELLS HER STRANGE STORY

As soon as Gran’pa and Gran’ma rolled the stone across the opening they walked back into the cave. It was very dark and they held their hands in front of them so they would not bump their heads if they ran into a wall. By and by Gran’pa came to some steps, and feeling his way with his cane he helped Gran’ma up the long flight. They finally reached the top and walked into a spacious cavern filled with a greenish light. They could not discover where the light came from, but they could see each other quite plainly.

Gran’pa and Gran’ma walked across the cavern until they came to a door over which hung a sign which read, “Stay out! This means you!”

“We may as well go in!” Gran’pa said, “for we cannot get out while the Wolves are at the opening!” So hand in hand they entered the door and followed a narrow passageway as it zigzagged back and forth.

Presently they came to a round room filled with a reddish light, and in the center of this room stood a large pot.

Gran’pa went up to the pot and raised the lid. As he did so the lid sprang from his hands and flew across the room. The pot began popping like a bunch of firecrackers, and white stuff flew from it up to the ceiling and rattled down about the place.

Gran’pa and Gran’ma could not find the entrance to the room again, although they went around the room four or five times.

Gran’pa discovered a hole far above their heads, and as the white stuff flew about them like hail and settled upon the floor, they kept climbing on top of it until they could reach the hole and climb through.

As they crawled into the hole something warm and sticky flowed by them, so they hurried back into the room from which they had just come. It was lucky for them that they did, for the sticky stuff poured from the hole in a stream and mixed with the white stuff which now nearly filled the room.

“It’s molasses!” Gran’pa cried, as he tasted it.

“And the white stuff is popcorn!” Gran’ma cried in turn, as she took up a handful and squeezed it together into a popcorn ball.

The molasses candy continued to pour from the hole until the popcorn was covered with it. Then the room began to sway back and forth, gently at first, then faster and faster, until Gran’pa, popcorn and Gran’ma were shaken up and rolled about much the same as popcorn is in a shaker. Both Gran’pa and Gran’ma were covered with molasses and popcorn when the room ceased shaking.

“Dear me suz!” Gran’ma exclaimed. “The stuff is all in my hair!—This is a mess!”

“Yes, but just taste it, Gran’ma!” Gran’pa said. “It’s fine!”

Again the room began shaking and the air grew much warmer.

“We’d better get out of this!” Gran’pa said. “There must be a fire under the room!”

So they crawled through the hole again and now the molasses candy had grown hard and did not stick to their hands.

“This must be the place the molasses came from,” said Gran’ma, as they came to another room, the sides of which were covered with candy.

There seemed to be no opening at the top for the candy to come in and Gran’pa soon discovered that it came in from the bottom.

Through the hard candy at the side of the room Gran’ma thought she saw a light, and when Gran’pa pried a large piece away with his cane they saw another long, narrow opening.

Through this they crawled until the passageway widened and they could stand up and walk.

After walking down this passageway for five or ten minutes Gran’pa and Gran’ma came to a room filled with purple light, and in the center of this room stood a large Green Jar.

“Well I won’t be foolish enough to look in this one!” Gran’pa said, as he walked right past it and opened a door upon the other side. “Here we are, Gran’ma! I can see daylight, and the steps lead up to the top of the ground.”

“If that is the case, I shall take a peep in this Green Jar!” Gran’ma said.

“Don’t do it, Gran’ma!” Gran’pa cautioned. “Profit by our last experience!”

“Yes, but the other was a pot, and pots are always apt to boil over or do something of the sort,” Gran’ma answered. “I shall look into this Green Jar and you can hold the door wide open, like this, so it won’t take a moment to drop it and hurry up the steps and escape if it begins to blow popcorn or do anything of the kind.”

Gran’ma took the lid from the Green Jar and thick red smoke came whirling up from it.

Gran’ma wished to run, but her knees would not let her, so she sat right down, smack! upon the floor and watched.

When the smoke thinned out Gran’ma saw the hands, then the arms, then the head of a Beautiful Girl appear above the edge of the Green Jar.

She raised her arms above her head and yawned.

When Gran’pa saw what was coming from the Green Jar he came back and helped Gran’ma to her feet.

The Beautiful Girl turned and looked at them. “Who are you?” she asked.

“Gran’ma and Gran’pa Huggins!” Gran’pa said.

“Did you open the Green Jar?” the Beautiful Girl asked.

“Gran’ma did,” Gran’pa answered, “but I advised her not to!”

“Well, seeing that she opened it anyway I shall forgive you, Gran’pa!” the Beautiful Girl laughed.

“Shall we help you out?” Gran’ma asked, as she held out her hands.

“Mercy, how sticky you are!” the Beautiful Girl cried. “We were caught in a popcorn machine!” Gran’pa laughed.

When the Beautiful Girl had been helped from the Green Jar, Gran’pa led the way to the door and up the stairs to the ground above.

Gran’pa, Gran’ma and the Beautiful Girl came right out where Janey and Johnny were hiding. The children flew to the old people and threw their arms around their necks.

“Old Jingles sent the Wolf Pack after us,” Johnny said, “for we saw him flying this way after you two had crawled into the cave!”

“Perhaps he will follow us into the cave!” said Gran’ma.

“I hope he sticks fast in the molasses candy if he does!” said Gran’pa.

“Let us fill the opening here with stones!” Johnny suggested, “so if he does follow you through the cave he will have to go all the way back for his trouble!”

So they all carried sticks and stones and filled up the mouth of the cave. When that was finished Janey asked where they had found the Beautiful Girl.

“Let us travel from here as fast as we can!” said the Beautiful Girl, “and I will tell you the story as we go along!”

As they hurried through the giant mushrooms and bushes the Beautiful Girl told them the following strange story.

“I live in the City of Nite,” she began, “or at least I did live there until I was shut up in the Green Jar. I was out walking one day near the river, and as I stopped on the bank to gather some beautiful flowers growing there I came upon a Queer Horse standing in the water. At first I thought he could not be alive, for he stood so still and he had no head; but as I stood gazing at him in wonderment he switched his tail and knocked some flies from his back, and I heard him say, ‘There now! I hope I switched all of you off!’

“‘Dear me!’ I cried out aloud. ‘A horse without a head talking! Whoever heard of such a thing!’

“At this the Queer Horse came out of the water and sat down upon the bank.

“‘I don’t see how you are able to travel about without a head!’ I said.

“‘Well, it is a handicap,’ the Queer Horse answered, ‘but I have grown used to it!’

“‘Where is your head?’” I asked him.

“‘I ate it off!’ he answered.

“‘Ate it off!’” I exclaimed in wonder.

“‘Yes!’ he replied. ‘You see, I was always a sort of pig when it came to eating, and one day a Strange Man came up to me and hit me with his cane and cried, “If you don’t quit your eating you’ll burst! I believe if you were given all you could eat, you would eat your head off!”’

“‘I should like to have a trial at it!’ I answered the man.

“‘Then,’ he said, ‘You shall have it!’ and he led me to a field where hay and corn and oats grew thick! ‘Now,’ said the Strange Man, ‘Eat!’

“‘So I ate and ate, until I really did eat my head off!’

“And,” continued the Beautiful Girl, “I felt so sorry for the Queer Horse I went up and patted him where his head should have been, and, lo! and behold, his head came into view!

“At this the Queer Horse was very happy, and told me he was very grateful to me. ‘If I can ever be of assistance to you, I shall be very glad!’ he said.

“And as we stood there talking the Strange Man came up to us and said, ‘Why did you pat the Queer Horse where his head wasn’t?’”

“‘I don’t know!’ I replied. ‘I just felt sorry for him and wished to pat him!’

“‘You’ve spoiled my magic!’ the Strange Man said, ‘and as punishment you will have to be shut up in the Green Jar!’ And he struck me with his cane.

“I did not know another thing until you took the lid off the Green Jar,” the Beautiful Girl told Gran’ma, as she ended her tale.

“And you don’t know how long you were in the Green Jar?” asked the children.

“No, I have no recollection of any time at all. It just seems as if I had gone to sleep and just awakened.”

“I never knew such things were possible,” Gran’pa exclaimed, “until we came here, to the Magical Land of Noom!”

“Don’t you live on the Moon?” the Beautiful Girl asked.

“No,” Gran’ma answered, “we just came to the Moon. We live upon the Earth, and we shall be very glad when we can get back there, too, I tell you!”

“Why don’t you return to the Earth?” the Beautiful Girl inquired.

“Old Jingles, the Magician, took our Flying Boat!” said Gran’pa. “And we are trying to escape from him now, or get our Flying Boat back, or do something, so that we can return to the Earth.”

“Listen!” the Beautiful Girl cried suddenly. “What was that?”

“It sounded like thunder,” Janey said. “There comes the storm cloud!”

“Let us hasten!” the Beautiful Girl cried. “Perhaps we may find shelter somewhere!”

So, catching hold of hands, they all ran as hard as they could until they came to a village.

“Here’s a good place!” the girl cried, as she ran in at an open door.

They reached shelter none too soon, for the storm was upon them.