CHAPTER XI
And what do you think happened to the Condor?
Just as they were coming to the city and the bird was looking back, talking to Kernel Cob and the others, and everything looked so happy and bright....
"Look out!" shouted Kernel Cob, but it was too late. Straight ahead was a tall tree, toward which the bird was flying, and from the branches came a puff of smoke and the sharp crack of a gun.
The next instant the Condor stopped flying, and slowly sank to the ground.
"I am done for," she said in a feeble voice. "It is just the way of all birds. I am sorry that I cannot help you more. Good-bye."
By this time she had reached the ground, and Kernel Cob was in a very great rage. He wanted to stay and fight the hunter who would soon come to take the bird, but Sweetclover and the Villain begged him to be prudent and run away, lest they all be captured.
So with great sorrow, they said good-bye to the Condor and hurried away.
From behind a rock, they watched the hunter take up the bird and carry it away.
And our three little friends sat down upon a stone to think.
"I don't know what to do," said Sweetclover. "We have lost our best friend."
"Never mind," said the Villain tenderly, and he put his hand kindly on her shoulder. "It will all come right in the end. It always does, you know."
"Yes, I know," said Sweetclover, "but you have to go through such terrible things first."
"Well, we got along pretty well before we met the bird," said Kernel Cob. "Didn't we get to the Moon and all that?"
"That was because we prayed to the Fairies," said Sweetclover.
"And maybe if we pray now, something will happen to help us."
Sweetclover had a very beautiful faith. She believed, as all good people do, that you must put your faith in something good, and then everything will be for the best, no matter what happens.
So they knelt down by the side of the rock and prayed.
"How do you pray?" whispered the Villain to Sweetclover. "I never prayed before in my life."
"Just say, 'Please good, kind Fairies, I am a poor little Villain, and I need your help, and I'll never be bad any more.'"
So they prayed, and pretty soon along came a team of horses drawing a big wagon packed with boxes of oranges.
And the wagon stopped on the road where they were, and the driver got down to fix the harness of one of the horses.
"I'm glad that buckle got loose," said the horse to his team-mate, "I was getting tired and needed a rest."
"Hello there, Master Horse," shouted Kernel Cob.
"Who are you?" neighed the horse.
"I'm Kernel Cob. Where are you going?"
"We're going to the city to pack these oranges on a train," was the reply.
"Here's our chance!" cried Kernel Cob. "Come, let us hide in one of these boxes, and we'll get a ride on the train."
"Good idea," said the Villain.
So they waited till the man climbed up on his seat again, and shouted, "get up" to the horses; then they ran out and got on one of the spokes of the wheel when it was near the ground, and when the wheel turned and the spoke came up to the top, they sprang off onto the wagon and crawled into a box which is called a crate, and is open a little so the oranges do not get too hot and spoil. And it was perfectly safe and very comfortable.
And they must have fallen asleep; for the next thing they knew they felt a rocking and a rocking and Kernel Cob got out of the crate and crawled along till he came to a stairway, and, climbing this, discovered that they were on a ship.
He hurried back to tell his news to Sweetclover and the Villain.
And Sweetclover began to cry.
"A woman is the crybabiest person in the world," said Kernel Cob.