“Ah, ha!” said the bird, half to itself, and hardly seeming to notice that the bump into the wagon had sent the clown to the grass on his back, “you will do, Diggeldy Dan; you will do.”
In a very twinkling there appeared the most beautiful circus lady one ever laid eyes upon. Page [10].
And, with that, it flew from its perch at the top of the little round pole, while in a very twinkling, there appeared the most beautiful circus lady one ever laid eyes upon—and with her a White-White Horse right out of the sky. So that, when Dan picked himself up, and, lifting one foot, was just about to finish his dance, his red-red lips fell very far apart and his eyes became almost as large as the polka-dot patches that covered his white, baggy suit. Indeed, he presented so comical an appearance—standing there with one foot in the air, and I staring his visitor most out of countenance—that the Lady leaned forward on her White-White Horse and burst into so merry a laugh that it sounded like all the silver tinkle bells in the world.
“Why,” exclaimed Dan, when he had finally found his voice and put down his foot, “you are the Pretty Lady with the Blue-Blue Eyes!”
“Yes, and the blue bird, too; for it was I, all the while. And now, Diggeldy Dan, if you will be so good as to come with me to the very edge of Spangleland, I will tell you the message from Too-Bo-Tan.”
And so the Pretty Lady and the White-White Horse, with Dan walking by their side, passed slowly along between the big and little tents, speaking not at all, while the clown kept wondering what it was he was so soon to hear.
CHAPTER II
IN WHICH DAN HEARS THE MESSAGE FROM TOO-BO-TAN
Now, when the Pretty Lady with the Blue-Blue Eyes had reached the very outer edge of Spangleland, she brought her White-White Horse to a pause. And Diggeldy Dan paused, too. There they stood, forming a picture for all the world like one you must have seen in a story book; only it was much more wonderful than that could ever be. For no artist could ever have quite caught the blue in the Lady’s eyes, or the gold that lay in her hair. For, oddly enough, her yellow curls gleamed, though by this time the twilight had come and the lights of the night begun to blink and to wink, away off in the streets of the town. Then the Pretty Lady began to speak:
“Dan; for now I know you are Diggeldy Dan; what is in this great, white tent that stands so near where we stand?”