The Wigs gathered round in a circle, all looking towards the door.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MISTIGRIS]

"You're making a mistake, old man," whispered the Despoiler familiarly.

"The arrangement was that we were going to see a review of your soldiers."

"We are going to hold a council instead," shouted the Chief Contractor, and drops of perspiration, big and pink as strawberries, rolled down his mask.

Suddenly he s.n.a.t.c.hed it off and replaced it with a mask which signified "Anger."

The a.s.sembly trembled. There was a sound as of shuddering macaroni or of dominoes rattling with fear.

"Reckybecky, you are out of line!" cried the Chief Contractor from beneath his mask of saffron and flame colour. "Papylick and Mistigris, pay attention! Is it possible that already the intrusion here of two rascals made of suet is going to corrupt you all and reduce you to anarchy?"

Mistigris and Papylick came running up with a cord, and, each taking an end, they held it in front of the row of Wigs to keep them straight.

Those Wigs whose feet stuck out too far drew them back, and those whose feet did not come out far enough advanced them until every one's toes touched the cord and made a straight line.

"You can roll the cord up," commanded the master; then he turned to Smaly. "Tell the truth," he demanded, "are you made of suet?"

At this moment Papylick and the Young Stork gave a cry of horror. They had discovered that Smaly and Redy had licked the painted landscapes off the insides of the nuts in which they had been transported.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE YOUNG STORK]

Every one uttered cries of indignation, and pressed forward so that their feet had to be brought to order again with the help of the cord.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EVERY ONE UTTERED CRIES OF INDIGNATION]

"The law is clear. These people made of cardboard and suet must be banished at once," said the Despoiler, who did not wear a mask, but could roll his eyes and open his mouth as much as he liked.

"The sun is at its height. It's hot enough to bake tarts," said the Confectioner. "If these two people go out now the sun will melt them, and our beautiful lawns will be covered with fat."

"Horror!" cried several of the Wigs.

"Then they must stay here until the sun has set," decided the Chief Contractor, and putting on a mask called "The Listener" he continued:

[Ill.u.s.tration: "YOU CAN ROLL THE CORD"]

"Now tell me what they want, these disturbing people whom you have brought here. Tell me everything that you know, O Short-Legged Man."

But Smaly and Redy spoke together, and they said:

"We wish to have three girls.

Fine, sweet, pink and good.

They shall have more pudding than they like, And a green, green----"

Here Redy stopped and said:

"... each a green garden."

The Chief Contractor replied, "Won't do."

The Crow added, "Because there aren't any."

"There are the three daughters of the Prisoner," said the Chief Contractor; "but they can't go out of the country."

"Look here," said the Mother of the Crow, who had just been brought in seated in her oyster-sh.e.l.l, "why shouldn't this man and his wife live just behind the wall of the country, then they will be able to look at the Prisoner's daughters."

"That won't do," said the Chief Contractor, "the girls mustn't speak to each other. They don't know, none of them knows, that their father was beheaded, and if they spoke to each other about it they would all know."

"Well, well," said the Mother of the Crow, preparing to be very wise, "they can surround each garden by a wall and keep the girls separate."

So it was decided that the little man and his wife were to be banished after sunset; but they could live beyond the wall, and the girls should each have a green garden surrounded by a wall of its own.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHIEF CONTRACTOR REPLIED]

These walls were to be quite low to suit the stature of the young girls, and each year the walls were to be raised as the girls grew taller.

Thus the girls would not be able to see each other or be able to confide to each other indiscretions on a thousand and one subjects of which they knew nothing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHILDREN WERE BUILT OF MUCH FEWER SLICES OF CAKE THAN THE GROWN-UPS]

Here the Chief Contractor again made a very strong objection.

"It's important," he said, "that every year on their birthdays we should insert a slice of cake in these little girls so that they should grow tall enough to suit their age."

In the somewhat embarra.s.sed silence which followed, Smaly discovered why the Wigs had such short legs and such long bodies.

"Of course, that is it," he said to himself; "each year on their birthdays somebody adds another tart or slice of cake to them, and they grow taller."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THESE CREATURES WILL EAT THE TOP OFF THE WALLS]

He glanced out of the window and saw that this was indeed so, that the children were built of much fewer slices of cake than the grown-ups.

The Chief Contractor now made a second objection.

"But what shall we do," he said, "when the garden wall of the eldest girl grows to be five feet high, for you mustn't forget that that is the height at which the fishes and lizards fly, so the wall will never be able to be higher than five feet, for every night these creatures will eat the top off the walls."

It was again the Mother of the Crow who saved the situation. The dark hole in which she wore her eye when her son was not carrying it round his neck seemed full of intelligence. She placed her finger upon her brow without moving her arm (for the simple reason that she did not possess one), and said:

"When we can no longer make the walls higher, then we will sink the gardens as much as is needful."

All the same the Wigs could not accept this as a solution, for it seemed to them that men grew upwards and not towards the ground, that is to say, from the head and not from the feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANGER]

The Chief Contractor gave the matter due thought.