[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

consulted her memory for an instant. She was able to confirm
the implication.  I m sure you re right. I hadn t thought about it
all that much but certainly all is as purple as purple can be at
home. I remember too being startled at how green the District
of Oz looked in contrast, and yet somehow not quite so different
as I think I d expected. A bit more mauvey.
 And will get mauvier, predicted Mombi (I hope not with a
malicious leer).
 What do you mean? demanded Ozma, alarmed.
 As I say, the problem is the most serious along the frontier
with Winkieland but eventually it will gravely affect the Emer-
ald City as well. The purplitude is spreading. Your Augustness
would do well to take measures. I believe these eggs will be of
assistance. 
Provokingly the woman did not say how but with a deep
genuflection backed out of the throne room. Ozma remained
looking thoughtfully after her.
53
THE CROWN OF OZ
C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N
Queen Lurline herself traveled to Gillikinland to see
members of her band settled in.
The region assigned for their residence was a hitherto
underpopulated one between the Backwoods and
Nightingarden. It was chiefly distinguished by its abundant
grape harvests and in the event it may have been an unlucky
choice. Fairies by nature are enthusiastic and ebullient spirits
and the prospect of the upcoming festivities in connection with
princess Ozma s birthday was rendering the sprites scarcely able
to contain their euphoria. If the fairies were not tipsy already
they gave a good imitation of it. A small group, close to royal
Lurline herself, were behaving in the following way:
They lolled among the grape vines and talked of what treats
they expected to enjoy when presently they would all make their
way to the Emerald City. Being ladies they were naturally much
exercised about their appearance. Queen Lurline initiated the
discussion by letting fall this remark:  My hair is ravishingly
golden but I wonder if it would not be improved by putting
some lavender rinse in it.
 My Queen, replied Titania,  you would spoil all your hair s
natural loveliness. You do appreciate that yellow blended with
54
THE CROWN OF OZ
purple produces merely a muddy brown. Such would be too
ordinary a hair tint for one so exceptional.
 Well, it was just an idea I had. Then presently the queen
resumed,  At least I haven t gone to the extreme that some of
you have and put my hair up in blocks.
This was a reference to certain fays determination to keep
abreast of human fashions of the period, when all hair must be
crimped in order to rate consideration as being in style. Even
now a dozen of the sprites were perched on vine poles and leaf
tendrils, enduring the discomfort of the encasement of their locks
in tiny vise-like wooden blocks.
 I don t know how you girls can stand it, Titania seconded
the queen.
 It s actually quite painless, hiccuped Cobweb. Her coiffure
was usually distinguished by an entanglement of webs and tiny
spiders but she had washed those out in the interest of up-to-
date trendiness.  I never worry about it at all, she pursued.
Then she took another sip from a foxglove cup at her side.
 What suffering for beauty, commented the fairy leader,
unconvinced by Cobweb s disclaimer.  But if the results justify
the means... She let her thought die away unresolved.
 I ve just had a wine shampoo, announced Mab.  The claret
seems to have inebriated me slightly right through the scalp.
What an odd effect.
Moth for her part said,  I achieved the same result by using
champagne as hair spray. Quite frankly, I like it. It is so much
more genteel than grossly drinking the beverage.
It became evident that some of the immortals, on taking up
residence in this oinological neighborhood, had not been
content merely to sip at the ripe fruit itself but had also had
recourse to the distilled and fermented products of earlier years
harvests which were stored in abundance its caves and cellars
in the vicinity.
As we have seen, fairies can be of any size from microscopic
up to that of fully grown humans. Rarely do they grow beyond
the latter limit. It is hard to picture fairies as big as whales.
55
THE CROWN OF OZ
For most purposes they preferred the smaller range of sizes.
Provisions simply went that much further when one was tiny.
In the fairyland of grapevines it was the greatest fun to hover
on gossamer wings, stick a sharp-ended grass straw into a ripe
muscadine, and drink the juice direct. Most of the dainty sprites
preferred that form of enjoyment of the grapes over imbibing
aged fluids found in musty barns.
56
THE CROWN OF OZ
C H A P T E R F I F T E E N
The Ugliest Troll lived under the cliffs that barred the Soup
Sea from the land. There, in a cave carpeted with silver slime, he
lay in a pool of many-colored seaweeds and snoozed among
the pearly volumes of many great and learned books.
One stormy night a little fish was pulled up by the strength
of a wave and thrust through the air by the wind into the dreaded
lair of the ugliest troll. The fish landed on his side, slapping the
surface of the pool is which the troll lay asleep, hitherto
undisturbed by the echoes created by the tempest s voice. The
ugliest troll awakened with a start, for the little fish had made
the quietest noise in the cave.
The troll lifted his huge fin-hands out of the pool and brought
them together in a prayer-like fan. Raising his nose from the
water in order to smell what time it was, he discovered the little
fish floating on the surface of the pool between volumes of
Indian poetry and Buddhist logic. The books were finished in
the best skins that the sea could supply.
 How did this little fish get into my grotto? the disturbed
troll said to himself.  Does the wind dare to mock me with
offers of unacceptable food?
You see, this troll, in contradistinction to the burden of
57
THE CROWN OF OZ
legends oft repeated, did not eat his fellow creatures. Instead,
he was a vegetarian and ate only of the seaweed that filled
the pool in which he slept and round which he housed his
enormous library. True, the volumes were bound in the skins of
creatures of the sea, but the troll thought this a humane way of
immortalizing those carefully selected, so he supposed, by the
sea because of merit and delivered to him by the wind which
received them from the sea through the medium of flying spray
and whirling foam.
Pensively the ugliest troll smacked the water in order to
awaken the intruder.  Wake up, wake up, wake up, little fish!
Notwithstanding his many-volumed library and years of hard
study, the troll could sometimes seem remote from reality and
unaware of prime causes. The little fish did not move but lay as
if in death upon the water/soup.
 Wake up, wake up, lazy little fish, reiterated the troll. His
voice was louder than the sound of the tide that sloshed against
the walls of his home. Once again he slapped the soup and
presently the body of the fish drifted towards a small whirlpool
into which the troll had the habit of throwing away the barnacles
that attached themselves to his body when he was slumbering.
Slowly the body of the little fish started to turn in the eddy. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

skierniewice.pev.pl