King Bô-gôô-gôô, thinking to pacify his daughter, sent her messengers bearing the most beautiful presents; but she received them with disdain, scattering them on the floor.
Things went on this way for several days.
King Bô-gôô-gôô was horrified to find that the princess had eaten nothing for forty-eight hours, and that she was actually losing her beautifully round shape, for which she had so justly been famous.
Bulger saw plainly that something awful was going on, and he, too, became so worked up that he refused to eat or drink.
I passed most of my time going from his room to the princess Rōlâ-Bōlâ’s, endeavoring to persuade them to take food.
But all in vain.
One morning the King’s daughter met me with demonstrations of the wildest delight, laughing, singing, bounding and rolling about like mad. So beside herself was she that, forgetting her great weight and my puny build, she rolled against me and sent me flying like a little ten-pin struck by a monstrous ball.
By actual measurement I was thrown thirty feet, but, fortunately, struck against a heavy hanging which broke my fall.
Bulger gave a piteous howl.
He seemed to get an idea that Rōlâ-Bōlâ had struck me purposely.