“‘WHAT’S THAT?’ HE ASKED, POINTING IN THE AIR.”
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing in the air when they hurried up to him.
They could just discern a little black speck ever and ever so far away.
“I suppose it couldn’t be a plum pudding, could it, your Majesty?” suggested the Wallypug meekly.
“Nonsense,” cried Girlie, “whoever heard of a plum pudding sailing about in the air. No! it’s a balloon,” she decided, after looking at it for some time.
“And so it was. They watched it grow larger and larger as it drifted towards them, and, at last, they could just distinguish some one in the car.
The Crow said he would fly up and see who it was, and presently returned, saying, “It’s all right, it’s the Royal Microscopist come to look for you; I told him that you were here, and he is coming down at once to pick you up.”
The Bathing-machine Woman screamed and said she “was sure she could never go up in one of those nasty, horrid things;” but Girlie thought that she should rather like it.
Meanwhile the balloon was descending rapidly, and they could soon distinguish the Royal Microscopist looking over the side of the car.