"The Architect knew quite well," explained the first Rat, "that if the match fell on the liquid Soy it would become hot immediately and everything would start to grow--and only look at our legs and arms!" Smaly began to understand why it was that the Confectioner walked about on high pattens, and why the Rats wore boots. He saw that though all these people owed their pleasant life to Soy because it made everything grow without any trouble, yet they feared it, feared it even more than they feared the flies which used to come when they were asleep and eat the sugar of which their faces and hands were composed. [Illustration: EVEN MORE THAN THEY FEARED THE FLIES] * * * * * The Dwarf had pulled on a pair of boots without any soles, and placed a large pot of flowers on his head, and he now began to imitate the Rats watering the ground, affecting an extreme fear of wetting his feet, for it was because their boots had melted in the hot Soy that the Rats' paws had grown so long. This imitation on the part of the Dwarf was interrupted by the sound of trumpets, for the Rats and the Wigs had already begun to recover from their emotion under the care of the Healer, and seizing hold of little trumpets of chocolate and sugar they had begun to blow upon them. [Illustration: REWARDS] Some seized drums and violins and even bag-pipes, and it was impossible to say whether any one was speaking or not, the noise was so loud. "Take away the mouthpieces and the violin strings," commanded the Chief Contractor. "There aren't any," cried the Rats and the Wigs, hastily eating them all. Then they continued to play their instruments; but these no longer made any noise. * * * * * The Healer was by now attending to the last of the victims. He had poured cordial into their mouths from the page's funnel, and they had all become absolutely drunk. Then he peeled off from their legs the strips of leather which had remained stuck to them, and cooled their little paws with pistachio-nut ice. When he had finished he took out from the sack labelled "Rewards" a little trumpet, a punchinello, a drum, and a paper windmill, and handed them round. [Illustration: THE DWARF HAD PULLED ON A PAIR OF BOOTS] The Chief Contractor, however, refused to allow the noise to begin again, and placing over his face a mask called "Calming Influences," he followed the Healer, and every time when the latter gave as a reward an instrument of music, the Chief Contractor ate it himself. That night the Chief Contractor had a bad attack of indigestion, and it was the poor Confectioner, with his mended leg, who had to make the distribution of provisions. [Illustration] CHAPTER XI The young girls dance for the Rats, then play a curious game of tennis: They fail to understand Smaly's point of view.