"I wish the Sea-Troll would mind his own business!" said the little brown man vindictively. "He's always distracting us from our State business with all sorts of messages."
"Are you working for the State?" enquired Sidigunda.
"Of course! I thought every oyster knew that," replied the brown Troll.
"Are they particularly uneducated, then?" asked the Princess.
"Why they're babies!" said the brown Troll. "You can see them any day in their beds by the side of the road, if you have eyes in your head."
"What a place to keep babies in!" thought the Princess, but she said nothing, for she saw that the old Troll's disposition was very irritable.
"Would you tell me one thing," she began. "I do so much want to know why I saw no one in the streets as I came along. Where have all the people gone to?"
"Well, of all the idi——" commenced the brown Troll, then checked himself with an effort. "Of course you can't know how foolish your questions sound," he said. "When you're two or three hundred years old I daresay you'll be more sensible. Why all the people are asleep—you don't suppose it's the same as in your country!"
"Do they sleep all the time?" asked the Princess.
"Not all the time, of course. In this town it's two weeks at a stretch. In other places more, or less. By this arrangement we always have half the population asleep, and half awake—much pleasanter and less crowding. I can't think why it's not done in other places!"