Circus -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy fiction; Mermaids -- Juvenile fiction; War -- Juvenile fiction
“How many women are there among you?” the Queen asked, and Joan
answered:
“Queen Boadicea and Torfrida and I are but three.”
“But we three,” cried Torfrida, “are a match for three hundred of such
women as those. Give us but whips instead of swords, and we will drive
them like dogs to their red and blue cloth-bound kennels.”
“I’m afraid,” said the Queen, “they’d overcome you by sheer weight.
You’ve no idea how heavy they are.” And then Kathleen covered herself
with glory by saying, “Well, but what about Amazons?”
“The very thing,” said Caesar kindly. “Would you mind running back?
You’ll find them in the third book from the corner where the large
purple starfish is; you can’t mistake it.”
The children tore off to the golden gate, rushed through it, and
swam to the spot where, unmistakably, the purplish starfish spread
its violet rays. They knocked on the book, and Cathay, by previous
arrangement, called out—
“Come out, please, Queen of the Amazons, and bring all your fighting
ladies.”
Then out came a very splendid lady in glorious golden armor. “You’d
better get some boats for us,” she said, standing straight and splendid
on a ledge of rock, “enough to reach from here to the gate, or a
bridge. There are all these things in Caesar’s books. I’m sure he
wouldn’t mind your calling them out. We must not swim, I know, because
of getting our bowstrings wet.”
So Francis called out a bridge, and when it was not long enough to
reach the golden gate he called another. And then the Queen called her
ladies, and out came a procession, which seemed as though it would
never end, of tall and beautiful women armed and equipped for war. They
carried bows, and the children noticed that one side of their chests
was flatter than the other. And the procession went on and on, passing
along the bridge and through the golden gate, till Cathay grew quite
dizzy; and at last Mavis said, “Oh, your Majesty, do stop them. I’m
sure there are heaps, and we shall be too late if we wait for any more.”
So the Queen stopped the procession and they went back to the Palace,
where the Queen of the Amazons greeted Joan of Arc and the other ladies
as though they were old acquaintances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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