I could not see that she was a bit more beautiful than those about her, although she was a royal princess.
True, she was a globe of smaller girth, her face was somewhat less repellent and beneath a long and heavy fringe of lashes, I caught glimpses of a pair of good-natured, roguish eyes, and my perfect knowledge of human and brute nature told me at a glance that if I could but gain the good will of that strange being, Bulger and I would be safe!
“My dear, little round papa,” cried Rōlâ-Bōlâ—for such proved to be her name, “Where did those funny things come from? Are they really alive? Wont they bite or sting? What do they eat? What shall I keep them in? Will you make me a cage for them? Oh, I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so glad!” and she bounded about, now this way, now that, now into the air like an animated rubber ball, drumming like a partridge all the while.
Behold us, then, Bulger and me, prisoners in the land of the Roundbodies, with the Princess Rōlâ-Bōlâ as our keeper!
Hope sank low within our poor hearts.
I dared not breathe a word in opposition to the will of King Bô-gôô-gôô or the caprice of Rōlâ-Bōlâ lest the order should be revoked.
At least, in the keeping of the Princess Rōlâ-Bōlâ, we would be more likely to receive gentle treatment, and, what was almost a matter of life and death, we should have great chances of making our escape from the island of King Bô-gôô-gôô.
We were commanded to follow the Princess.
As Bulger and I started after Rōlâ-Bōlâ, with a brisk gait, the very clouds fairly snapt asunder, so great was the shout of laughter which the Roundbodies sent up.
Seemingly, it had not occurred to them until that moment how ridiculously different our mode of locomotion was from theirs.