Everything round them appeared to be getting smaller and smaller. The Pyramid now seemed only half its original size, and the river looked like a little stream. And before many moments had passed, there was no difference in size between the Pyramid and themselves, and the surrounding country lay stretched beneath them like a map.
“We must be awfully huge!” cried Coppertop, in a high-pitched voice, screwing up her little eyes. “Yet I don’t feel a bit conceited!”
“That’s because there is nobody here but ourselves,” said Tibbs, “and we’re all as large as each other. Wait till we meet some ordinary people—we shall feel like Greek gods then!”
“Why Greek?” asked his sister.
“Why not? Girls always want to argue!”
“I wonder that you have anything to do with us, then,” pouted Coppertop.
“Oh, do stop being so grumbly with each other,” cried Kiddiwee. “See where we’re going. I ’spect we’re nearly at India.”
Miss Smiler had now settled into a long, swinging trot. And when you consider her great size, and that she covered at least half a mile at each stride, you will then have some idea of the rate at which they were travelling.
They had long ago stepped across the Ruby Sea, and were now striding through Shah Land. Here it was that Miss Smiler ate up a few hundred mulberry trees as she passed, and gobbled down some fine carpets. Feeling refreshed, she galloped at an increased speed down on to the plains of Indus.
Although it was early morning, the sun now grew intensely hot. And Tibbs and Kiddiwee were very glad when Miss Smiler knelt down to rest beneath the shade of some tall palm trees. But, owing to their size, it was rather like an elephant trying to shelter beneath a toad-stool.