"That," said the King, with a long breath, "was the most remarkable delicacy I ever ate in all my life. My dear madam, I am very much pleased that I have heard of it, very much pleased, I assure you. Indeed, I welcome you to our Island." [Illustration: The King was pleased] "But hurry, your Majesty," cried the Widow Pickle, "or the Waffle will get cold!" Whereupon the King, still smiling with comfort and joy, fell to, and presently the first Waffle was quite gone. Another followed, and yet another. "More!" cried the King, as though he were a little boy. So the Widow Pickle, very warm and very happy, baked Waffles until she quite forgot to count them any more. "You may have a throne made for the lady also, Jiji," said the King carelessly to his Private Secretary, after a while, "for I have concluded neither to banish her nor behead her. She shall be made the Royal Waffle Baker, with a permanent salary." The Widow Pickle was delighted, for although she had baked many a Waffle before, she had never done so with a gold Waffle-iron, and had never been so well rewarded for what to her seemed a very ordinary accomplishment. Later, for the entertainment of Lulu and Zuzu, the Enchanted Banjo sang this little song, which, it said, contained a very helpful moral lesson: IF YOU WERE A WAFFLE You think that things go wrong If you should stub your toes; If, when you run along, You fall and bump your nose; You sometimes wail and cry Because you may not wear The things that please your eye; You do not like your hair! But-- Wouldn't it be awful If you were a waffle? Puckered, brown, and round and flat-- Would you only think of that! If you were a waffle Wouldn't it be awful? Sometimes you sigh--you do, Because you are yourself! What would you think if you Were on a pantry shelf? If you were set away Because you had grown cold-- Left from but yesterday And now, alas! too old! Oh-- Wouldn't it be awful If you were a waffle? Hot and brown, and made to wait On somebody's breakfast plate-- If you were a waffle, Wouldn't it be awful? [Illustration: If you Were a Waffle] [Illustration] CHAPTER XIII THE FAIRY TELEPHONE