"Is it usual to sit in the presence of a king?" retorted the Hooper stiffly. At this all his subjects began whooping faintly, "Bow down to Rollo the Royal, bow down to King Rollo the Worst!" "Oh, roll up!" said Snip scornfully. "You're only a lot of live hoops anyway. Why should we bow?" "Leave the park instantly!" roared Rollo, bouncing up and down with rage. "Let's," said Snip, grinning over at Pajuka. "I'm ready," agreed the goose, "but where's Mombi?" "Here!" spluttered the witch, rolling out of a bonnet bush. "Any more nonsense from these creatures and I'll turn them to breakfast rolls and eat them for supper." "A witch!" whooped the King. "A witch!" coughed all the others and, seizing their toes, the whole company of them whirled off together and disappeared in a cloud of dust. So without further excitement, the three adventurers reached the other side of the Hoopers' park and, opening a small gate in the fence that surrounded it, found themselves again on the zig-zag pathway. A large sign posted on one of the trees immediately attracted Snip's attention. "Fifty leaps to the Corners," announced the sign curiously enough. "Leaps!" gasped Snip, while Mombi pushed back her hat and stood on tip-toe to examine the crooked letters. "Must we leap all the way?" "Better look before we do," chuckled Pajuka, scratching his head with the third toe of his left foot. "I've been in some pretty tight corners in my time, and prefer to go around the rest of them." "We'll go straight on. Who's afraid?" sneered Mombi. Snip, thinking of the way she had hidden in the bonnet bush while he beat off the Hoopers, winked at Pajuka and Pajuka, with a little flutter of his wings, winked back. Then all three started along the narrow path together. CHAPTER 6 In Catty Corners "Suppose the King were a goat, do you think you would still remember him?" asked Snip, as they zig-zagged along the strange pathway. "Certainly!" honked Pajuka, fluttering down. "I'd know him in any shape. But why do you ask? What makes you think the King is a goat? Are there any goats around here?" Shooting out his neck, Pajuka began peering this way and that. "I don't know," admitted Snip frankly. "I was just wondering." "You talk too much," snapped Mombi, stopping to pull up her stocking. "If I could remember my magic I'd turn you to a parrot!" At this several of the trees that edged the pathway burst into loud roars of laughter, shaking all over and clasping themselves about the trunk with their branches. Snip was so astonished that he jumped backward and Pajuka, stepping on his own toes, fell forward on his head. "Oh, my dear Will, these are funny ones," chortled the first tree. "Look at that ridiculous bird and that squidgety old skumpus, and would you count the buttons on the boy's suit. Oh! Oh! I shall die laughing!"