Bikey the Skicycle and Other Tales of JimmieboyBangs, John Kendrick
General
Bikey the Skicycle and Other Tales of Jimmieboy
Bangs, John Kendrick
Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, American; Fantasy literature; Short stories, American
"Oh no," returned the Imp. "It isn't so at all. Kings really have a very
hard time. They have to be dressed up all the time in their best
clothes, and never get a chance, as you do, for instance, to play in the
snow, or in summer in the sand at the seashore. They can eat between
meals if they want to, but they can't have the nice things you have. It
would never do for a King to like ginger-snaps and cookies, because the
people would murmur and say, 'Here--he is not of royal birth, for even
we, the common people, eat ginger-snaps and cookies between meals; were
he the true King he would call for green peas in wintertime, and boned
turkey, and other rich stuffs that cost much money, and are hard to get;
he is an impostor; come, let us overthrow him.' That's the hard part of
it, you see. He has to eat things that make him ill just to keep the
people thinking he is royal and not like them."
"Then what did Pixyweevil become?" asked Jimmieboy.
"A poet," said the Imp. "He became the poet of everyday things, and of
course that made him a great poet. He'd write about plain and ordinary
good-natured puppy-dogs, and snow-shovels, and other things like that,
instead of trying to get the whole moon into a four-line poem, or to
describe some mysterious thing that he didn't know much about in a
ten-page poem that made it more mysterious than ever, and showed how
little he really did know about it."
"I wish I could have heard some of Pixyweevil's poems," said Jimmieboy.
"I liked him, and sometimes I like poems."
"Well, sit down there before the fire, and I'll see if we can't find a
button to press that will enable you to hear them. They're most of 'em
nonsense poems, but as they are perfect nonsense they're good nonsense.
"It is some time since I've used the library," the Imp continued, gazing
about him as if in search of some particular object. "For that reason I
have forgotten where everything is. However, we can hunt for what we
want until we find it. Perhaps this is it," he added, grasping a wire
and fastening it to the battery. "I'll turn on the current and let her
go."
The crank was turned, and the two little fellows listened very intently,
but there came no sound whatever.
"That's very strange," said the Imp. "I don't hear a thing."
"Neither do I," observed Jimmieboy, in a tone of disappointment.
"Perhaps the library is out of order, or the battery may be."
"I'll have to take the wire and follow it along until I come to the book
it is attached to," said the Imp, stopping the current and loosening
the wire. "If the library is out of order it's going to be a very
serious matter getting it all right again, because we have all the books
in the world here, and that's a good many, you know--more'n a hundred by
several millions. Ah! Here is the book this wire worked. Now let's see
what was the matter."
In a moment the whole room rang with the Imp's laughter.
[Illustration: "NO WONDER IT WOULDN'T SAY ANYTHING," HE CRIED.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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