So the Dancing Pearl and the wizard's apprentice decided to get married
as soon as Floo made enough money to support them, and they were so
taken up with their planning that they quite forgot the Hermit of
Hong who had been turned into a lemon. But if they had forgotten about
the Hermit, the Hermit had not forgotten about himself, and the minute
Floo turned him into a lemon he began to turn himself into something
else. Of course what he would have liked to do best would have been to
turn himself back into a hermit, but when you have been transformed
into something, you cannot turn yourself back into what you were first
unless you have attended a college of magic. And as luck would have it,
the Hermit of Hong had never been to college, and what little magic he
knew he had picked up himself. Therefore, the only thing he could do
was to turn himself into something worse than what he was. And as long
as he could not be the Hermit of Hong and have the Dancing Pearl dance
for him, he decided he might as well get even by being transformed
into something that would stand in the way of Floo having the Dancing
Pearl, so he turned himself into a monstrous Grammarsaurus or ancient
Iff, for he knew if anything could stand in the way of a person doing
something he wanted to, an Iff could, because an Iff not only stood in
the way but it had the most disconcerting eyes. Yes, indeed, its eyes
made you so dizzy after you had gazed into them a moment you fell down
in a heap, whereupon the Grammarsaurus devoured you eagerly. But if
you did not look into the creature's eyes you were all right, for the
Grammarsaurus could not eat anything unless it was perfectly still.
You see he had to keep his eyes shut while he was eating, because if
he looked at what he was eating it went around and around, and it is
awfully hard to make a meal of anything that is going around and around.
But of course Floo and the Dancing Pearl knew nothing about ancient
Iffs and their habits. All they knew was that they adored each other
and wanted to get married, and when the Hermit turned himself from a
lemon into an immense creature that half filled the cavern, you may be
sure they were very much startled.
"Oh," cried the Dancing Pearl, as the Grammarsaurus gave a snort that
made the cave tremble, "what's that?"
"What's what?" asked Floo, turning about. And then when _he_ saw the
ancient Iff you can well believe he said "oh" also.
"My gracious," he gasped, "how did that thing get in here? And--and
where is the lemon I made out of the Hermit?"
"That," said the Grammarsaurus, icily, "is a mystery that I can easily
solve. I am the hermit, likewise the lemon, and also something else
beside as you may observe."
"I should say you were," said the Dancing Pearl. "I never saw such a
monster."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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