CHAPTER XXI
THE JOURNEY TO FAIRY-LAND
Nobody can tell how far the Twins went down the Golden Ladder before they dared to stop. It may have been an hour or two hours before they began to get so tired that it seemed they could go no further, no matter what might happen. They looked up at the Ladder down which they had come, and, to their great surprise, they could no longer see the top of it; the sides of the rocky walls seemed to come together above them, just as they still did below them. It seemed to them that they were in the middle of the world. They did not dare to try to climb back again, for they were too tired. They also feared to go any further down, because that took them further away from their mother and from the only sort of world which they had ever known. As they realized the situation into which their eagerness had brought them, they both began to cry.
This was a very sad situation for the Twins, but it shows how very hard it always is to get into the secret places where the Fairies live. If it is not hard in one way, it always is in another. Just at this time, however, help came to Zuzu and Lulu in a way which they did not expect. The Enchanted Banjo began to play a tune of a very cheerful sort, which ran something like the following words, as nearly as can be told:
THE JEALOUS JUMPING JACK
There was a Jealous Jumping Jack
That told the other Toys:
"None of you has my clever knack—
You're only good for noise."
The Humming Top, the Horn, the Drum,
The Bell, and Talking Doll,
He told: "You screech and clang and hum—
You can not jump at all!"
They looked at him in great surprise
And did not answer back,
And then great rage began to rise
Within the Jumping Jack.
"Now, look at me!" he cried, and humped,
And pulled his legs 'way down,
Then gave a spring and madly jumped
Away, out of Toytown.
The Horn blew loud, the Red Top hummed,
The Talking Doll called: "Stop!"
The Bell rang, and the gay Drum drummed,
But still he would not drop.
The Jumping Jack jumped on and on
Although for him they yearned;
They know not where 'tis he has gone—
He never has returned.