What a feast they had in honor of their distinguished guest!
“I suppose,” said Grandmother to Uncle Pablôt, “that you have traveled a great distance since last you visited us?”
“Yes, yes,” said Uncle Pablôt, flourishing the wing of a duck. “I have breezed about a bit, here, there, and everywhere. Would you like to hear a little about my travels?”
“Oh, please!” begged Philippe, although the question had not been addressed to him.
“Now there is India,” commenced Uncle Pablôt, “a very hot country, but as gay as a circus——” And over the roast duck he told them many things in his soft and flowing voice, of elephants, their enormous bodies painted brilliantly in curlicues, circles, and zigzags, swaying through narrow streets like clumsy ships of the land, ridden by dark-skinned potentates robed in ivory satin and scarlet brocades, wearing precious jewels more sparkling than broken bits of colored glass ... of softly stepping and treacherous tigers prowling in deep jungles, of lions and leopards, crouching panthers and laughing hyenas and all manner of beasts ... of birds with emerald crests, sapphire wings, breasts of flaming orange, long, sweeping tails and screaming falsetto voices that seemed to shatter the air into sharp and hurtling splinters ... of gorilla fathers with so terrible a power in their long arms that they could uproot a tree as easily as one would pick a dandelion, and gorilla mothers holding babies to their breasts as gently and lovingly as any human mothers ... of chattering pink monkeys shouting in derisive laughter from their hiding places in the tree tops at passers-by. Leaving the wildness of the tropic forests, he told them of queer-shaped temples and pagodas, lifting to the blue of the sky, made of stone carved as beautifully as lace, where lived the leering and laughing gods of the heathen.
By the time Grandmother had put the crisp green lettuces on the table, Uncle Pablôt had carried his little audience to far-away China and, without so much as a “by your leave,” into the gardens of mandarins and emperors where jasmine filled the air with sweetness, and rose and white peonies bowed their heavy heads around the lily ponds. Far away and far away they flew on Uncle Pablôt’s winged words: over snowy mountains tinted with the pink and lavender radiance of the dawn, through the fiery furnace of desert sands where haughty camels plodded their weary course to the beat of Arab drum and the mystical rhythm of Arab song, up broad rivers where crocodiles basked in the sun ... past cities with towers and turrets, through the courtyards of palace and castle, into the riot of crowded markets with their laughter and shouting, buying and selling, into a land where the streets were water, where the buildings had wings that turned and turned, where the men and boys wore tight little jackets of velvet fastened with brass buttons, and trousers as big as two sacks sewn together. “Oh, yes,” said Uncle Pablôt, “and they all wear wooden shoes so that they can walk safely across the streets of water without sinking.”
“Remarkable!” said Grandmother.
“If true,” said Grandfather, but he spoke so low that every one thought that he was merely choking, and paid no attention to him.
“More!” pleaded Philippe.
