“Why,” answered the Pretty Lady, as she tripped from the doorway to where Lion stood, “I came in under the wall near the end. I went right past your nose, Kangaroo; in fact, I think you were napping.”
And, at that, you may be sure a certain animal looked very foolish.
“Then,” she continued, “I hid in Giraffe’s house and, after you were seated, began tossing spangles through the window near the top. You see I always carry a bag of them that I may sprinkle the sunset whenever I pass.”
“So you do live at Sunset House,” said Diggeldy Dan.
“Just over the hill, where the sky turns to pink. The balloons and the message came in through my window last night.”
“Goodness! You didn’t forget to bring them back, did you?”
“Monkey!” cried Lion reprovingly, for you might have guessed who had spoken.
But the Lady only laughed at the question.
“Indeed, I did not,” she replied; and with that she gave three quick claps with her hands, while from somewhere in galloped the White-White Horse. And there, clasped to a buckle of his snowy trappings, were the balloons that had gone over the hill. Soon they were taken to where Monkey had found them; but, alas, the next moment the Lady had leaped to her place and was gone down the tent like a shot!
“No, no!” cried all the animals. “Please, please don’t go away.”