Bikey the Skicycle and Other Tales of JimmieboyBangs, John Kendrick
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Bikey the Skicycle and Other Tales of Jimmieboy
Bangs, John Kendrick
Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, American; Fantasy literature; Short stories, American
"I wish I could be one," he said wistfully, after a moment's silence.
"It must be awfully nice to have everything you want."
Jimmieboy thought so, too, but he was too much interested in getting to
Saturn to say anything, so he, too, kept silent and pedalled away as
hard as he could. Together and happily they went on until Jimmieboy
said:--
"Bikey, what's that ahead? Looks like the side of a great gold cheese."
"That," Bikey answered, "is exactly what you think it is. It's the ring
of Saturn, and, as the saying goes, for biking Saturn is quite the
cheese. In two minutes we'll be there."
And in two minutes they were there. In less, in fact, for hardly eight
seconds had passed before a great, blinding light caused Jimmieboy to
close his eyes, and when he had opened them again he and Bikey were
speeding along a most beautiful road, paved with gold.
"I thought so," said Bikey, "we're on the ring. And isn't it smooth?"
"It's like riding on glass," said Jimmieboy. And then they stopped
short.
A peculiar looking creature had stopped them. It was a creature with a
face not unlike that of a man, and a body like a man's, but instead of
legs it had wheels like a bicycle. If you can imagine a Centaur with a
body like a bicycle instead of a horse you will have a perfect mental
picture of this strange creature.
"Excuse me," said the stranger, "but we have to be very particular here.
Where do you come from?"
"Earth," said Bikey.
"All right," said the stranger. "Move on, I'm a Saturn policeman and so
many wheelmen from the Sun and the Moon and Jupiter have caused
disturbances of late that we have had to forbid them coming. You are the
only Earth people who have been here, and of course are not included in
our rules, but I will have to go along with you to see that you do not
break any of them."
"We're very glad to meet you," said Bikey, "and if you'll tell us your
rules we will be very glad to obey them."
"Well," said the creature with wheels instead of legs, "the first rule
is that nobody shall ride a wheel standing on his head. There was a
person over here from Mars last week who actually put his head in the
saddle and wheeled his pedals with his hands."
"How utterly absurd!" said Jimmieboy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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