NEARLY MOON-STRUCK.
Ranulf broke in—“I think you’ve got up too soon this morning. By the bye, did you ever find the way to Norwich?”
The Man in the Moon got quite red with rage at this, opened his other eye, and aimed a blow at Ranulf with a big stick.
“Ha!” said Jaques, “that’s one of the sticks you gathered on Sunday, you villain!”
As his arm made the blow, it came nearer the boys; and the stick, which had looked only like a porridge-stick, got as big as Nelson’s Monument. Ranulf would have been knocked to pieces, but the little man at the back of the bicycle gave a sudden dart to one side; the Man in the Moon overbalanced himself, and if his wife had not caught him by the legs he would have tumbled off the moon altogether. In struggling to get on again his red nightcap fell off, and a breeze of wind carrying it away, left it sticking on one of the moon’s horns.
They were now getting so near the moon that they began to wonder how they were to pass it.
KEEP YOUR SEATS.
“Jump over, to be sure,” said Jaques.
“Oh, that would be a tremendous jump!” replied Ranulf.