CHAPTER V
PRINCE FLORIMEL MEETS THE BROWNIES
Prince Florimel gave a great shudder of fright when the gift of hisex-fairy godmother so utterly failed him in that moment of terribledanger. As the savage beasts, screaming for his blood, came toward him,he turned and fled, without relaxing his hold upon the treacherous bow.He made a frantic leap for the trunk of the tree, and grasping one ofthe low branches pulled himself up with desperate haste as far as hecould.
The beasts with thunderous roars and sharp teeth showing sprang up athim, and a lion with knife-like claws just grazed the skin of one of hislegs, and tore off a portion of his garment.
Florimel climbed up further, and still further, for safety, while theanimals roaring their defeat continued to hurl themselves at the treeuntil it shook and shook again.
Finally they took to fighting among themselves, with outcries that wereterrible, and finished by slinking or limping away discomfited.
The eaglets disturbed by all this clamor perched on the edges of theirnest as though deliberating upon the hazard of trying for the firsttime their wings in the dizzy space of blue. High overhead their angryparents soared screaming their protests at what seemed to them anunwarrantable intrusion.
Still retaining the bow, Florimel climbed out toward the nest, intendingto usurp possession of it, and with timid flaps of their untried wingsthe eaglets essayed flight. Finding they could fly, they soon gainedconfidence, and joined the parent-birds who led them a mad aerial chase.
Soon Florimel was the sole tenant of the nest, and, after he hadestablished himself comfortably in his new quarters, he set about torepair the damage to the bow.
He tied the broken cord securely, and drew it taut, pulling it back asfar as he could repeatedly, but he did not waste in a trial one of theremaining arrows in his quiver. For, though it had already brought tohim one grievous disappointment, he still had faith in his ex-fairygodmother's gift.
The eagles resenting his possession of their home kept flyingthreateningly at him, but every time they came near he menaced themwith the bow and drove them away. Finally they alighted on anotherlimb of the tree, where they all sat in a row viewing him with silentmoody protest.
Worn by fatigue and excitement Florimel closed his eyes in sleep, withan arm bared to the elbow hanging from the nest. When at last he wasawakened by a confused babel of voices from below, dusk had fallen, anda crescent moon hung low in the sky.
The eagles young and old in agitated manner once more were circling thedarkening sky, and leaning over the nest and looking down Florimel wasastounded by what he saw.
And no less astounded than he was were a band of little people who hadcaught a glimpse of that rounded human arm sticking from an eagles' nestwith consequent and complete mystification to all.
In a ring and with characteristic postures they stood gabbling amongthemselves and pointing up--a queer, very queer race, all males, withround fat little pot-bellies, thin, spindling shanks, long, taperingfeet, and babyish-looking heads set on their shoulders apparentlywithout connecting necks. And these heads had large ears, wide mouths,and pop eyes--a combination that ordinarily would make the possessor ofthem ugly, but which in their case contributed general results that madethem unusually winning and attractive.
As Florimel looked down he could note that there were many of onetype--tiny fellows who wore the same kinds of caps and jackets.But there were others too--one of each kind--a Policeman with aclub, a Sailor with a spy-glass, an Indian, a Cowboy, and a singlerepresentative from every country of importance in the world. England,Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Austria,Italy, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Portugal, China, Japan, the UnitedStates, Canada, and other lands had their delegates whom Florimel coulddistinguish by means of a strange human picture-book in the museumof the kingdom from which he had flown, and which often he had beenpermitted to see. And, while he marveled and wondered thereat, his keeneye alighted on another too--a tiny chap with high-topped, bell-crownedhat, black clothes with swallow-tail, a wide expanse of spotless whiteshirt-bosom, spats, and glistening patent-leather shoes--a pompous,vain, conceited, immaculate-looking little fellow who carried a canethat seemed a part of him, and who wore a round piece of glass over oneof his eyes.
In order to obtain a better view Florimel leaned further over, and sodisturbed the architecture of the nest, from which the sticks began tofall, until he felt the whole foundation going. But so suddenly did thisoccur that he did not have a chance to grasp a saving branch, and in atrice plunged through the bottomless structure down--down--down--
He closed his dizzy frightened eyes, struck the waters of the lake, thendisappeared from sight.
The curious band watching him were quick to realize his predicament.Without loss of time they ran to a shelf of rock that over-hung thelake, and one and all jumped in after him.
Ker-splash! ker-splash! resounded on all sides until the water wasdotted with bobbing heads.
As Florimel came to the surface, blinded and choking, someone quicklygrasped him, and, while the rest formed a living chain, he was passed onfrom one to another, until the last dragged him safely to shore.
Soon they were all gathered about in a ring, with Florimel in thecentre, and, while the soft wind dried their dripping clothes, theylooked at him, and he at them, with wonder and surprise on all theirfaces.
"Avast there, messmates!" said the Sailor to the rest. "What did I tellyou? He can see us!"
And the cry was taken up all around the ring:
"He can see us! He can see us!"
"Why shouldn't I be able to see you?" said Florimel, rather impatiently."I have eyes."
"Yes," said one who wore a long black gown, and who had a tasseledmortarboard on his head, "but so have other people. It takes secondsight to see the Brownies."
The Brownies! Florimel's heart gave a sudden bound.
"Much am I beholden to you all," he said, "for having rescued me. If youhad not saved me I should have been obliged to save myself."
"Can you swim?" asked the Sailor, while all looked much chagrined.
"Like any duck!" was Florimel's response. "But are you mortal?"questioned the Uncle Sam Brownie. "No mortal eye has ever yet beheldus."
"My ex-fairy godmother at my christening bestowed on me the gift ofsecond sight," explained Florimel, "so that I have always been able tosee things no one else could."
"Ah, that accounts for it," said the Irish Brownie, while the faces ofall the others showed that a great mystery had suddenly been clearedaway. "You must have supernatural powers."
"Of that I am not sure," said Florimel, "but of this much I am, thatright gladly would I be one of you, to work and toil while wearyhouseholds sleep, to delight in harmless pranks and helpful deeds, andnever be seen by mortal eye."
They looked at each other, evidently embarrassed by so bold a hint, andthe Brownie Dude voiced the thought that was in all minds when hefervently remarked:
"I wish King Stanislaus were here!"
"But you are not a Brownie!" said the Chinaman to Florimel in a mostdecided tone. "How could you join the band? You don't look like aBrownie. What have you ever done?"
"Nothing, I fear," confessed Florimel. "It is not what I have not done,but what I hope to do, that makes me so presumptuous as to beg the honorto be one of you. And, if I were fortunate enough to be taken in by you,I would ever strive to be helpful, faithful, and true, like a Brownie."
These words, delivered with earnest, manly spirit, created theirimpression.
"It may be you have supernatural powers, as the Irishman remarked," saidthe Student Brownie doubtfully. "Have you ever tried to put them to atest?" Prince Florimel sighed.
What could he do to gain the confidence and esteem of these littlepeople whom already he was beginning to love? How could he make them allhis friends?
In his doubt and uncertainty his eye strayed to the bow in his hand.A sudden thought came to him. In this extremity it might be of aid.
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p; But it had failed him once--would it fail him again?
Without a word he took an arrow from the quiver and placed it to thebow. The Brownies watched his every movement with the keenest interest.
He gazed about seeking some difficult target at which to aim. With theirpop eyes the Brownies gazed where he did.
He saw the crescent moon hanging low in the deepening sky, like ahunter's horn, and pointed the arrow at it.
He pulled back the cord with all his strength, and to his great reliefit held. The arrow whistled away in its swift flight, and was lost inthe violet atmosphere.
But almost the next moment a great cry of surprise went up from all theBrownies. The arrow that Florimel had shot was sticking through themoon!