CHAPTER IV
Smaly and Redy are not well received: They are thought to be made of painted cardboard: How the Despoiler fell into the water and left a foot behind him: Mistigris sticks a fish-bone into the back of the Despoiler: Judgment is passed on the two strangers: They will be banished at nightfall: The walls of the three gardens are discussed.
The two rulers of this country were the Chief Contractor and the Despoiler. On arriving at the town where the rulers lived, Redy and Smaly could hear a hundred bells ringing out crystal chimes. These bells were made of coloured sugar and were hung in campaniles of barley-sugar, whose domes were made of gilded crusts.
When the bells left off ringing, a beautiful song arose, and each person who sang it had a voice as sweet as that of the Short-Legged Man or of Papylick.
"We must have arrived for the midday prayer of the Wigs," said Smaly and Redy to themselves in their nuts.
Before very long Papylick and the Short-Legged Man arrived at the house where the Chief Contractor lived and went into the great kitchen.
"Well," said the Chief Contractor, coming forward to meet them, "what have you brought me?"