CHAPTER VII

THE SOFT-VOICED COW MEETS THE WITCH AND THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE

After leaving the village in which the Magician was a prisoner, Gran’ma, Gran’pa, the Princess and the children ran until they were tired, and coming to a quiet shady place they sat down to rest.

“I do not believe I have run so hard since I was a girl,” said Gran’ma as she fanned herself.

Just then they heard a noise in the bushes and all sprang to their feet, but sat down again with sighs of relief when a Cow walked up to them.

The Cow wore a pretty bonnet and a velour waist; her skirt was of velvet with flowers embroidered around the edge.

As she came up to the little group she shook the wrinkles out of her apron and sat down facing them.

“How do you do, everybody!” the Cow said in a soft voice, as she smiled at all.

Everybody greeted the Soft-Voiced Cow in a kindly manner.

“I saw you running across the field,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, “and you looked as if you were running away from something.”

“We were,” Gran’ma said. “We were running away from Old Jingles the Magician, who wants to change us into animals.”

“Dear me suz!” exclaimed the Soft-Voiced Cow. “Is he that wicked?”

“Yes indeed he is,” Janey said, and she told of their experiences, and of that of the Princess.

“If he follows you, he may find me when he comes this way,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “So if you do not mind my company, I will go with you to the City of Nite. I should not care to meet so wicked a Magician.”

“We should be greatly pleased to have your company,” they told the Soft-Voiced Cow.

When they had rested, Gran’pa said they better begin travel on; so the Soft-Voiced Cow took Gran’ma and the Princess and Janey on her back and the little party started on their way.

They passed through dense groves of giant mushrooms and at times these were so thick they had to bend them to one side in order to pass.

When they grew hungry the children told Gran’ma and Gran’pa that the mushrooms were cake, so they ate of these.

After leaving the forest of mushrooms the path led through very rocky country and as they turned a cliff the party came upon a spring bubbling from the rocks and splashing down into a small stream far below.

There were a number of cups near the spring, so the children ran up and took a drink. “Oh hurry!” they cried, “It’s a soda water spring!”

After drinking all they wished they again set out upon their journey. When they finally left the rocky country and came upon a level stretch of road they saw approaching them an Old Woman.

Gran’ma, the Princess and Janey had dismounted from the back of the Soft-Voiced Cow, for they did not wish to tire her.

When the Old Woman came up to them, she caught the Soft-Voiced Cow by the tail and began dragging her back the way the party had come.

Gran’pa was for making her let go of the Soft-Voiced Cow’s tail, but the Soft-Voiced Cow spoke gently and said, “Let her be; she is evidently an ill mannered person or she would not treat a stranger in this manner!”

However, the Old Woman dragged the Soft-Voiced Cow down the road so fast the friction of the cow’s feet upon the roadway made them burn.

So the Soft-Voiced Cow turned to the Old Woman and said, “I wish you would please let go of my tail! I do not care to travel in the direction you are taking me and besides you are making my feet burn.”

But the Old Woman kept right on and paid no attention to the cow.

When the Soft-Voiced Cow had been dragged back upon the road for about a mile with the little party following her, the Soft-Voiced Cow turned her head to the Old Woman and said in her gentle way, “My dear lady, I must insist that you let go of my tail, for you are delaying our party! We wish to go in the opposite direction! And if you drag me three more steps, I shall have to raise my heels and upset you!”

At this, Gran’pa caught the Old Woman’s arm and said, “Why do you drag the Soft-Voiced Cow in this manner?”

The Old Woman stopped and gazed at Gran’pa for a moment, “Does this Cow belong to you?” she asked.

“Of course not!” Gran’pa replied.

“Does she belong to anyone in your party?” the Old Woman asked.

“Of course not!” Gran’pa replied.

“Then,” said the Old Woman, “in that case, the Cow does not belong to you nor anyone else that you know of, so she must be lost. And anything which is lost belongs to the one who finds it! Therefore, since I found the Cow she belongs to me, so I will take her home and make ox tail soup out of her!”

“Did you ever hear the like?” cried the Princess. “Do not let her take the Soft-Voiced Cow to make soup of!”

The Old Woman again began dragging the Soft-Voiced Cow down the road.

“Stand aside!” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “ONE, TWO, THREE! There!” She raised her heels in the air and upset the Old Woman. “I promised that I would do it if you dragged me three more steps!”

The Old Woman scrambled to her feet and shook her fist at Gran’ma. “You will pay for this!” she cried. “Just wait!”

And as the travelers and the Soft-Voiced Cow resumed their journey, the Old Woman followed right behind them muttering in an undertone, “You will pay for this!”

When they had gone but a little way beyond the place where they had met the Old Woman, Johnny who was ahead of the others found ten cans. With these he came running back.

“Here are ten cans of ox tail soup!” he said, as he offered them to the Old Woman.

“I don’t want them!” the Old Woman cried. “I want the Soft-Voiced Cow and I will have her if I have to follow you all around the Moon!”

“You are a most unreasonable Old Woman!” said the Princess. “You don’t try to be happy! When you get what you want it seems to make you discontented!”

The Old Woman did not answer, but ran around the party and down the road ahead of them. “You just wait!” she cried again. “You will all be sorry!”

“Let’s not pay any attention to her any more!” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “She is very disagreeable and has delayed us long enough as it is!”

The Old Woman could run very fast and she soon disappeared around the bend in the road. They heard her clapping and shouting. When the travelers reached the bend in the road a strange sight met their eyes.

As far as they could see before them and to either side was a great bog.

Gran’pa went up to it and pushed his cane into the edge. It was very soft.

“We shall have to walk around it,” Gran’pa said, “for we should sink out of sight if we attempted to cross it!”

When Gran’pa wiped his cane off in the grass, he felt that it was very sticky, and touching his finger to the bog he tasted it. “Molasses candy mud!” he cried.

“This is very unfortunate!” said the Princess as she looked about. “We shall lose a lot of time walking around the molasses candy bog!”

“I told you that you would be sorry!” cried a voice behind them, and looking around they saw the Old Woman standing on a little hill shaking her fist at them. “I made it with my magic!” she called, “and you will never get across it!”

“The unreasonable wicked creature!” Gran’ma cried as she started after the Old Woman. “I will tweek your nose for you if I catch you!”

The Old Woman did not tarry long, but struck out over the hill with Gran’ma close behind her. Gran’ma ran after the Old Woman and the others followed. The Old Woman made for a little house not far away and as she jumped through the door, she, the house and all disappeared.

“Well!” Gran’pa cried as he came up to Gran’ma. “We are rid of her at any rate!”

“I hope we shall never see her again,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow. “Like most disagreeable people she isn’t satisfied unless everyone else is uncomfortable, depressed and so unhappy.”

“We may as well start walking around the molasses candy bog,” said the Princess, “for we are losing so much time old Jingles may catch up with us!”

“I have a suggestion,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, “which may be helpful. Let us all walk down to the molasses candy bog, and when we are at the edge I will take you all on my back and carry you some distance along the bank, so that you will not leave any footprints. Then when the Magician comes along he will not be able to track you!”

“That is an excellent idea!” said Gran’pa. “Let us act upon the Soft-Voiced Cow’s suggestion!” So they all walked down to the molasses candy bog.

The Soft-Voiced Cow took Gran’ma, Janey and the Princess upon her back and carried them far down the bank; then she returned and carried Gran’pa and Johnny to where the others were waiting.

But as they walked the bank gradually curved in until in a short time they were walking in the direction from which they had just come.

“This will never do,” said Gran’pa coming to a stop, “for we are returning from whence we came.”

And when they walked back along the bank the same thing happened. Everything went swinging before them in long, sweeping circles. They couldn’t make heads or tails of the shore line.

“Let us try walking away from the molasses candy bog,” said Johnny, “and see what happens then!”

So they turned their backs to the bog and started walking away from it. Sure enough, when they did this the bog began to fade away, and soon it disappeared entirely!

“Whee!” cried the children. “We can go ahead!”

The travelers had lost a lot of valuable time, so they hastened across the fields where the bog had been.

“You see!” said the Princess, “Johnny was right! The Old Woman’s magic was as contrary as herself, for when the molasses candy bog thought we did not care whether we crossed it or not, it disappeared.”

As the travelers walked along, they saw numbers of small animals running about.

“I wonder where these little animals were when the great molasses bog was here!” Janey said looking at them curiously.

“I’ll ask one of them,” said the Soft-Voiced Cow, and she talked to the strange little beast in animal talk.

When the little animal answered, the Soft-Voiced Cow rolled over on the ground with laughter and when at last she could speak she said, “I asked the animal where it was when the bog was here, and it said there never had been a bog here. Said it had lived here for years and the ground had always been as it is now, except after a hard rain, so you see the Old Woman only made us believe we saw a bog here, when in reality there was none at all.”

“It’s queer,” exclaimed Gran’pa, “but I certainly tasted molasses candy on my cane! In fact,” he said, looking at the cane, “there is still some on it now!”

“Let me taste it!” Gran’ma cried. “Yes,” she said, “it is molasses candy!”

“Well at any rate we are not troubled with the bog now!” Janey mused.

Across the fields rose high mountains.

“I wonder if we shall be able to find a path through the mountains!” Gran’pa said.

“I think those are the mountains bordering the City of Nite!” said the Princess. “And if that is the case we have not very much farther to travel.”

But the mountains were farther away than the travelers thought, for after walking for an hour they came to a rise in the ground from which they looked across miles and miles of beautiful valley country. Gran’ma and Gran’pa said it was almost as pretty as the country round the farm back home.

Down in the valley a little way they saw a tiny house and walked in that direction. When they came to the front gate and called no one answered, so they walked in and knocked at the door.

As no one answered the knock they walked around to the back door and looked inside the kitchen, for the door was open. There on the stove were pots and pans filled with food which was cooking; and as they watched, one of the pots raised itself from the stove and poured its contents into another pot. Then another pot moved across the stove and its lid came off and hung itself in the air, while a large spoon raised itself from the back of the stove and stirred the contents of the pot.

“Shall we go in?” Janey whispered, as they all hesitated on the step.

Gran’pa raised his cane and knocked three times on the door sill.

“What was that?” cried a man’s voice from the front part of the house.

“Something hammered upon the door!” a woman’s voice in the kitchen answered. “But I can see nothing outside to cause the noise!”

Gran’pa raised his cane and gave three more knocks.

“Did you ever!” the woman’s voice cried. “I was looking right at the spot where the noise came from and I could not see a thing!”

Evidently the man had come to the kitchen door and stood near the woman, for the travelers heard him speak right at the back door.

“What could it have been, Ella?” he said.

Gran’pa turned and winked at the others and again rapped three times with his cane upon the door sill.

“There! You hear for yourself, Jules! There must be an invisible person knocking at the door!”

“Is anyone there?” asked the man’s voice.

“We are standing right here in plain sight!” Gran’ma replied.

“Dear me!” the woman’s voice said. “I can see no one, can you, Jules?”

“I can’t see anyone!” Jules answered. “Whoever it is must be invisible!”

“It’s the Princess of Nite, Janey and Johnny, Gran’ma and Gran’pa Huggins!” Gran’pa said. “We can see ourselves easily, but you are invisible to us!”

“Had we better ask them in?” Ella inquired of the man.

“Yes, do come in!” he said in answer, and as Gran’pa was nearest the door, he walked in first and bumped right into the Invisible Man.

“Please excuse me!” Gran’pa said. “I am sorry, but I did not see you!”

“That’s all right,” the Invisible Man replied in a cheery voice. “I was standing right in the doorway and I should have moved out of your way!”

His voice now came from the other side of the kitchen. “We will stand over at this side of the room until all of you have gone into the dining room. We were about to have dinner, and if you will take pot luck we shall be pleased to have you dine with us.”

“That is nice of you!” Gran’ma said as she and the others walked into the dining room and sat down at the table.

“It is strange to hear people speak and not be able to see them!” said Janey.

Johnny felt something brush against his leg and when he felt down there he touched fur. “Here’s a kitten!” he cried, as he picked it up and held it upon his lap. All could hear the kitten purring as Johnny stroked its back, but it was invisible too.

There were only two plates upon the table when the visitors entered the dining room, but now five more plates seemed to place themselves.

“Everybody pull up chairs!” said the Invisible Man, as he caught hold of Gran’ma’s chair and tried to pull it towards the table. “Please excuse me,” he laughed when he felt the weight and knew that one of his guests was in it.

All pulled their chairs up to the table, Ella suggesting that the visitors be seated first so that she and Jules would know just where they were.

So all of the party presently were seated at the table and Ella brought in the food from the kitchen.

It was strange for Gran’pa, Gran’ma, the children and the Princess to see the dishes of food come floating in from the kitchen, and it seemed as strange for Jules and Ella to hear the voices of invisible guests and see their knives and forks rise from the table to cut their food.

When Jules had passed everything and all had helped themselves he asked where they were traveling and where they had come from.

“It’s a long story,” Gran’pa said.

Then Gran’ma told him of how they had come to the Moon, and why they were traveling to the City of Nite.

“But the wicked Magician will not be able to see you,” said Jules, “for you are invisible!”

“No,” Gran’ma answered, “we are visible to him, but the chances are that he will not be able to see you!”

“If that is the case, and he should pass here we will do our best to help you!” said Ella.

When the visitors had finished their dinner they thanked Jules and Ella and asked if they might be excused.

“We are anxious to get to the City of Nite so that we can assist the Princess in regaining her throne, and try to get our Flying Boat so that we can return to the Earth,” they explained.

The Invisible Man and Woman said they understood the visitors’ hurry, and told them to stop in to see them if they passed that way again.

Just then the Soft-Voiced Cow put her head in at the door and asked if they were ready to start.

When the Invisible Man and Woman heard the Soft-Voiced Cow speak they asked if they had forgotten to invite some of the party in to dinner.

“It’s the Soft-Voiced Cow,” explained the Princess. “She has been eating her dinner of grass out in the back yard!”

“I can scarcely believe there is a Cow there!” said the voice of Ella. “Would the Cow mind if I touched her to see if I can feel her?”

The Soft-Voiced Cow laughed heartily at this and stood still while Ella patted her.

After a lot of reaching around in the air, Gran’pa and the rest succeeded in shaking hands with their invisible friends.

“Funny how pleasant people keep out of sight,” Gran’ma said as her party started down the walk.

“Thank you so much!” they all cried. “We hope to see you again some time!”

At this the Invisible Man and Woman laughed and replied, “And we hope to see you again some time, too!”