"It was so huge that little Maud could barely clasp her two hands around its little finger. She made a frantic effort to shake the hand up and down, but there wasn't much shake about it. With a merry smile, Kimbo backed away from the throne, bowed low before his Queen, and, with one mighty hop-skip-and-a-jump, he leaped high over a tall mountain and was gone.
"'Come,' said the Queen, as she turned about and placed her finger against a button on the side of her golden chair, 'we will now have some refreshments and then visit the Village of Hide and Seek.'
"So now, while the Queen and the children are waiting to refresh themselves, let us once again send to the well, that we, likewise, may be refreshed before we go with them into the beautiful village."
With that the Vagabond drew a long breath, for he had been talking rapidly; and, as he sank into silence, the happy children gazed upon him with a feeling of pride that had slowly grown from dread to friendship and almost to love.
CHAPTER X
IN THE VILLAGE OF HIDE AND SEEK
A general burst of applause greeted the ears of the story-teller as he ceased speaking and sank into silence. All the boys now rose with merry faces and surrounding the old oaken bucket, journeyed together to the old well, while the little girls sat gazing intently upon the stranger, as if he were the greatest man in the whole world.
One little girl whispered to another little girl that some day he might be President of the United States, but the other little girl gave it as her honest opinion that he should have been long ago. Many of the others were now almost as much interested in the man as in his wonderful story.
A little girl asked him if Harpers Ferry was very far from there; while another wanted to know if he could call around the next day for she was anxious to introduce him to her father and mother, who, she declared, would be more than delighted to meet him.
The Vagabond's only answer to all was a good-natured smile. When the water arrived, and it had been passed around to the children, the Vagabond helped himself to his heart's content, after which he proceeded to tell the last of his story.