"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." [Illustration: WIGS, WHO WERE PUTTING THE SOLDIERS BACK IN THEIR BOXES] [Illustration: LAPTITZA AND PAPYLICK _Page 59_] [Illustration: 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 shell-fish, but before the review the Wigs had eaten the contents of these beautiful shields lest the shell-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. [Illustration: TO CONDUCT HER BACK TO HER HOUSE, WHICH WAS IN A COSY NOOK IN A GREAT TREE OF CORAL] These Wigs laid the rattles in the wheelbarrows, and everything became quiet once more. Then the Chief Contractor advanced boldly into the full sunshine, and the Wigs, who watched him put one foot in front of the other, prepared also to advance.