But the angry inhabitant of this blue place would not permit them to
look around them in peace, for as soon as Cap'n Bill rolled off his toes
he began dancing around in an excited way and saying very disrespectful
things of his visitors.
"You brutes! you apes! you miserable white-skinned creatures! How dare
you come into my garden and knock me on the head with that awful basket
and then fall on my toes and cause me pain and suffering? How dare you,
I say? Don't you know you will be punished for your impudence? Don't you
know the Boolooroo of the Blues will have revenge? I can have you
patched for this insult, and I will--just as sure as I'm the Royal
Boolooroo of Sky Island!"
"Oh, is this Sky Island, then?" asked Trot.
"Of course it's Sky Island. What else could it be? And I'm its
Ruler--its King--its sole Royal Potentate and Dictator. Behold in the
Personage you have injured the Mighty Quitey Righty Boolooroo of the
Blues!" Here he strutted around in a very pompous manner and wagged his
little head contemptuously at them.
"Glad to meet you, sir," said Cap'n Bill. "I allus had a likin' for
kings, bein' as they're summat unusual. Please 'scuse me for a-sittin'
on your royal toes, not knowin' as your toes were there."
"I won't excuse you!" roared the Boolooroo. "But I'll punish you. You
may depend upon that."
"Seems to me," said Trot, "you're actin' rather imperlite to strangers.
If anyone comes to our country to visit us, we always treat 'em decent."
"_Your_ country!" exclaimed the Boolooroo, looking at them more
carefully and seeming interested in their appearance. "Where in the Sky
did you come from, then, and where is your country located?"
"We live on the Earth, when we're at home," replied the girl.
"The Earth? Nonsense! I've heard of the Earth, my child, but it isn't
inhabited. No one can live there because it's just a round, cold, barren
ball of mud and water," declared the Blueskin.
"Oh, you're wrong about that," said Button-Bright.
"You surely are," added Cap'n Bill.
"Why, we live there ourselves," cried Trot.
"I don't believe it. I believe you are living in Sky Island, where you
have no right to be, with your horrid white skins. And you've intruded
into the private garden of the palace of the Greatly Stately Irately
Boolooroo, which is a criminal offense; and you've bumped my head with
your basket and smashed my toes with your boards and bodies, which is a
crime unparalleled in all the history of Sky Island! Aren't you sorry
for yourselves?"
"I'm sorry for you," replied Trot, "'cause you don't seem to know the
proper way to treat visitors. But we won't stay long. We'll go home,
pretty soon."
"Not until you have been punished!" exclaimed the Boolooroo, sternly.
"You are my prisoners."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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