The City Curious Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: IT SEEMED TO THEM THAT MEN GREW UPWARDS AND NOT TOWARDS THE GROUND]

"We will place the annual slice of cake exactly in the middle of the girls," he announced, "and thus we will only have to sink the level of the gardens a little, and raise the top of the walls a little."

But since n.o.body seemed quite ready to accept this as a solution, the Chief Contractor again placed upon his face the mask called "Anger," and every one held their tongues from perplexity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME VERY ELEGANT MICE]

Happily at this moment the most charming music was heard upon the air.

One could detect the scent of this music with one's nose, and taste it with one's tongue. One could see it floating out from various little boxes that some very elegant mice were opening and shutting with much delicacy and care.

"It's the review of the troops beginning," exclaimed the Young Stork in a loud voice as he tweaked the hundredth fish-bone out of the insensible back of the Despoiler.

CHAPTER V

Redy and Smaly watch the review of the troops: Smaly and the Mother of the Crow discourse about soldiers: The Chief Contractor distributes the food, and the Wigs pa.s.s through a curious little door: The Soy powder makes the provisions grow.

The Wigs now began to form themselves into a semicircle, the smallest nearest the door, and the others standing behind them so that they could see over their heads.

It was a half-holiday for Lapt.i.tza, the second daughter of the Prisoner, and Papylick brought her in so that she could see the review of the troops.

Lapt.i.tza was shown to a low chair in the midst of the semicircle formed by the Wigs.

Lapt.i.tza was so beautiful that it would not have been possible to have painted her portrait.

The soldiers arrived in Indian file, one behind the other.

"There are a hundred and two of them," announced the Chief Contractor, looking furtively at Smaly. He shot this look through the eyeholes of the mask which he had just slipped on and which appeared to be made in two halves, for while one half expressed severe authority, the other was all gentleness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE HALF EXPRESSED SEVERE AUTHORITY, THE OTHER WAS ALL GENTLENESS]

"One hundred and two," repeated Smaly in a perfectly expressionless voice.

"My brother used to have only one hundred," said the Despoiler, "but I made him understand that they could not possibly march until they had one at the head and one at the tail, and that makes one hundred and two." It was now the Despoiler's turn to look slyly at the two little human beings and see how they took his remark.

The soldiers came on in a straight line towards the great door of the kitchen. They had an extraordinarily complicated method of marching, taking two steps in advance and then one backwards, and this was made all the more difficult for them because discipline enjoined that each man should place his feet accurately in the footsteps of the leader.

This man's feet, by an ingenious arrangement, left white marks in the ground.

When the leading soldier arrived at the door, since it was not permitted him to turn his back upon such an august a.s.sembly, he had to take his departure marching backwards, and so had all those who followed after him. From that moment there were two long lines of soldiers, one going forwards, the other going backwards; but all the soldiers had their noses, their chests, their knees, and their big toes pointing in the same direction--the door of the kitchen.

When the review was over, the Chief Contractor was so pleased that he decided that they must have a similar review every week. He had a fence erected round the traces left by the soldiers' feet, so that they would not be effaced, but could be used again each week.

Just as this was finished Smaly noticed that the eye of the Mother of the Crow was regarding him steadfastly. Suddenly the eye winked as though to signal him to approach. Smaly began to walk towards the eye; but it occurred to him on reflection that it was towards the Mother of the Crow herself that he ought to turn his steps, and not towards her eye, which, after all, was merely hung in a locket round the neck of her son. Therefore he turned and approached the oyster-sh.e.l.l, where the Mother of the Crow was seated.

The Wigs were no longer taking any notice of him; they were eating ices, and chatting together in their mellifluous voices. They had all put on thick gloves, for the warmth of the fresh pastry of which their hands were composed would have melted the ices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HE DECIDED THAT THEY MUST HAVE A SIMILAR REVIEW EVERY WEEK]

"None of them really knows what a soldier is," said the Mother of the Crow in a low voice to Smaly.

"Oh," said Smaly; "but _you_ know, don't you?"

"Certainly I know. Soldiers are beings who cut up the meat that men like you eat, who hack down big trees, who kill the beautiful horned animals for food. You see I know perfectly well what a soldier is, and one can always tell a real soldier because he carries big knives, axes, saws, razors, and scythes."

"H'm! Not at all," contradicted Smaly with the air of one beginning a lecture. "A soldier is a man who fights other soldiers."

"What?" asked the Mother of the Crow. "How is that possible when they are both the same thing?"

"I a.s.sure you that it is so," replied Smaly.

The Mother of the Crow reflected; but catching sight of the Wigs, who were putting the soldiers back in their boxes at the end of the courtyard, she began again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THEY HAD ALL PUT ON THICK GLOVES]

"He," she said, nodding her head towards the Chief Contractor, "has no idea of what a soldier is. He has never seen one excepting in a painting that a cousin sent him. It is a painting that represents a court in full dress. There are several soldiers with knives standing round the cousin, who is the President of the Republic of Pasenipus. They wear breastplates of gold to prevent the blood of the animals they kill soiling their fine coats. The Chief Contractor thought that these breastplates must be eggs, and, as you see, these soldiers are just eggs with legs. The Chief Contractor has had oxeye daisies fastened to their heels, because in the picture there were golden daisies fastened to the boots of the soldiers."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WIGS, WHO WERE PUTTING THE SOLDIERS BACK IN THEIR BOXES]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAPt.i.tZA AND PAPYLICK

_Page 59_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF PASENIPUS]

"Those must have been spurs!" explained Smaly absently, his attention being distracted by a curious rattling noise from afar off.

"I don't know what spurs are," admitted the Mother of the Crow; "but the Chief Contractor doesn't even know what the shield is that each soldier carries to protect his face from the horns of the animals. He doesn't even know that soldiers carry knives," she added, "but has put in his soldiers' hands flowers with long stalks. He doesn't know what a helmet is, for he thought that soldiers must be a sort of bird with a plume on their heads."

Smaly didn't mind. He had very much admired the feathered heads, and, above all, he admired the shields, which were made of pearly sh.e.l.l-fish, but before the review the Wigs had eaten the contents of these beautiful shields lest the sh.e.l.l-fish should all have hidden their faces from fright.

When the Wigs had placed the soldiers in the boxes the Young Stork and Papylick came towards Smaly. The Stork took charge of the Mother of the Crow to conduct her back to her house, which was in a cosy nook in a great tree of coral.

Smaly and Redy now wished to go, but Papylick informed them that neither the sun nor moon having yet set, it was not possible, and so the little husband and wife sat down on their heels in the doorway of the kitchen.

The rattling sound had now come nearer, and the Chief Contractor appeared in the public square surrounded by Wigs pushing wheelbarrows and turning rattles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TO CONDUCT HER BACK TO HER HOUSE, WHICH WAS IN A COSY NOOK IN A GREAT TREE OF CORAL]