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CHAPTER VIII.GOOD MORNING AS LONG AS IT LASTS.Plain talk from Master Cold Soul.WONDERS OF GOGGLELAND.WE ENTER THE CITY OF THE MIKAMENKIS.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF IT.OUR APPROACH TO THE ROYAL PALACE.QUEEN GALAXIA AND HER CRYSTAL THRONE.
MASTER COLD SOUL'S TEARS. I don't think the darkness lasted over three hours.Perhaps it was longer.But Master Cold Soul was obliged to shake me gently ere he could rouse me.Now, little baron.
said he, after he had wished me a good morning with the usual, as long as it lasts, tacked on to it.If thou art quite willing, I'll conduct thee to the court of our gracious mistress, Queen Galaxa.
Our wise men have often discoursed to her concerning the upper world and the terrible sufferings of its people, exposed as they are to be frozen by the pitiless cold, and then burned by the scorching rays of what
that they call their son, and she will no doubt deign to be pleased at sight of thee, although I must warn thee that thou art most uncomely, that thou seem so black and hard to me as scarcely to be human, but rather a bit of living earth or rock.
I greatly fear me that thou wilt make our people extremely vain by comparison.Thy four-footed companion we know well by sight, having often seen his petrified image in the rocks of the dark chambers of our world.
Master Cold Soul, said I, as we walked along, when thou givest to know me better thou wilt find me more comely, and although I shall not be able to show thee my heart, I hope to be able to prove to thee and thine that I have such a thing.
No doubt, no doubt, little Baron," exclaimed Master Cold Soul.But be not offended.It is not more pleasant for me to tell thee these disagreeable things than it is for thee to hear them.But I am paid to do it, and I must earn my wage.
Vanity grows apace in our world. and I prick its bubbles whenever I see them.
To my great wonder I now discovered that the world of the Mikamengkis had its lakes and rivers like our own, only of course they were smaller and mirror-faced, being never visited by the faintest zephyr.
To my question as to whether they were peopled with living things, Master Coldsoul informed me that they literally swarmed with the most delicious fish, both in scales and shells.
But think not, little Baron, he added, that we of Goggleland have no other food than such as we draw from the water.For in our gardens grow many kinds of delicate vegetables springing up in a single night, almost as light as foam and just as white.
But we are small eaters, little baron, and rarely find it necessary to put to death a large shell-fish.We merely lay hold of his great claw, which he obligingly drops into our hand and forthwith sets about growing another.
But tell me, I pray, master cold-soul," said I, "'Where ye find the silk to weave such soft and beautiful stuff as that thy garment is fashioned from?'
In this underworld of ours, Little Baron," replied Master Coldsoul, there are many vast recesses not reached by the River of Light, and in these dark chambers flit about huge night moths, like restless spirits, forever on the wing.
But of course they are not, for we find their eggs glued against the rocky sides of these caverns. and collect them carefully.
The worms that are hatched from them spin huge cocoons so large that one may not be hidden in my hand, and these unwound give unto our looms all the thread they need.
And the beautiful wood," I continued, which I see about me carved and fashioned into so many articles, whence comes it?"From the quarries," answered Master Cold Soul. Quarries?I repeated wonderingly.
Why yes, little baron, said he, for we have quarries of wood as no doubt thou hast quarries of stone.
Our wise men tell us that thousands and thousands of years ago vast forests grown in your world were in the upheavals and falling in of the earth's crust thrust down into ours.
The gigantic trunks wedged closely together and standing bolt upright just as they grew At least so we find them, when we have dug away the hardened clay that has shut them in these many ages.But see, little baron, we are now entering the city.
Yonder is the royal palace.Wilt walk with me, thither?
Ah, dear friends, would that I could make you see this beautiful city of the underworld just as it showed itself to me then, spread out so gloriously beneath the glittering domes and vaulted corridors, from which poured down upon the exquisitely carved
and polished entrances to the living chambers of this happy folk, a flood of white light apparently more dazzling than a noonday sun, so strangely beautiful that many times I paused to gaze upon it, young and old, all clad in the same gracefully flowing garbs of silk, now purple, now royal blue, and now rich vermilion, were hurrying hither and thither, each armed with the inevitable black fan.
and the baby face of each aglow with life and sweet content, while a hundred fountains springing from crystal basins glistened in the dazzling white light, and ten times a hundred flags amid gonfalons hung listless but rich in splendour from invisible wires.
Strange music came floating along, from the gracefully shaped barges with silken awnings which were gliding noiselessly over the surface of the winding river, the oars stirring the waters until the wake seemed a path through molten silver.
As Bulger and I followed Master Cold Soul along the streets of polished marble, it was not long before a crowd of Mikaminkis was at our heels.
whispering all sorts of uncomplimentary things about us, mingled with not a few fits of suppressed laughter.The court depressor reproved them sternly."'Cease your ill-timed mirth,' said he, "'and go about your business.
Must I pause and tell you a gruesome tale to check your foolish gaiety?Know ye not that all silly mirth does quicken your hearts and make them run down just so much sooner?'
At these words of Master Cold Soul they fell back and put an end to their giggling, but it was only for a moment, and by the time we reached the portal of the Royal Palace a still louder and noisier crowd was close behind us.
Master Cold Soul, suddenly halted and drawing forth a huge pocket handkerchief, began to weep furiously.It was not without its effect.
And from that moment I could see that the Mikaminkis were inclined to take a more serious view of my arrival in their city, although it was only Cold Soul's presence that kept them from bursting out into fits of violent laughter.
Above the portals of the Queen's Palace there were large openings hewn in the rock for the purpose of emitting light into the royal apartments.
But these windows, if they may be called such, were hung with silken curtains of delicate colours, so that the light which entered the throne-room was tempered and softened.
The room itself was likewise hung with silken stuffs, which gave it a look of oriental splendour.
But never in my travels among strange peoples of faraway lands had my eyes ever rested upon any work of art that equalled the crystal throne upon which sat Galaxa, Queen of the Micumenkes.
In the upper world, most diligent search had never been able to unearth a piece of rock crystal more than about three feet in diameter.
But here in Queen Galaxia's throne, four glorious columns at least fifteen feet in height and at their base three feet in diameter, shot up in matchless splendor, their lower parts shot in spangles of gold that glittered with ever-varying hues as a different light fell upon them.
The cross pieces and pieces making up the back and arms had been chosen on account of the exquisitely beautiful hair and needle-shaped crystals of other metals which they enclosed.A silken bullishing of rare beauty covered in the throne.
and from its edges dropped heavy cords and tassels of rich colour and the perfection of human handicraft as to the fineness and finish.
At the foot of the throne sat the young princess Kristalina, and standing behind her and engaged in combing her long silken tresses was her favourite waiting-maid, Damoselle Glowstone, while around and about in files and group-wise stood lords and ladies, courtiers and counsellors by the dozen.
As Master Cold Soul advanced to salute the Queen, a throng of the idlers who had followed at our heels crowded into the enter room with loud outbursts of laughter.
The court depressor was greatly incensed and turning upon the throng he began weeping again with wonderful energy, but I noticed that it was nothing but sound.Not a tear fell to obscure the crystal clearness of his eyes.
He began chanting a sort of song which was intended to have a depressing influence on the wild mirth of the Mikaminkys.I can only recollect one verse of this solemn chant of the court depressor.It ran as follows.Weep, Mikaminkys, weep, oh, weep!
For the eyeless man in the City of Light, for the mouthless man in Plenty's Bowers, for the earless man in Music's Realm, for the noseless man in the Kingdom of Flowers.Weep, Mikaminkys, weep, oh, weep!
But they only laughed the louder, crying out, Nay, Master Cold Soul, and we will not weep for them.Weep for them thyself."
At last Queen Galaxa raised the slender golden wand, tipped with a diamond point that lay within her hand, and instantly a hush came upon the whole place while every eye was riveted upon Bulgur and me.End of chapter 8
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