Chapter XXI.
THE SEARCH FOR THE MAGIC CLOAK.
The sun had scarcely risen next morning when our friends left the city of Ix in search of the magic cloak. All were mounted on strong horses, with a dozen soldiers riding behind to protect them from harm, while the royal steward of the witch-queen followed with two donkeys laden with hampers of provisions from which to feed the travelers on their way.
It was a long journey to the wide river, but they finally reached it, and engaged the ferryman to take them across. The ferryman did not like to visit the other shore, which was in the kingdom of Noland; for several of the Roly-Rogues had already been seen upon the mountain-top. But the guard of soldiers reassured the man; so he rowed his big boat across with the entire party, and set them safely on the shore. The ferryman’s little daughter was in the boat, but she was not sobbing to-day. On the contrary, her face was all smiles.
“Do you not still wish to be a man?” asked Zixi, patting the child’s head.
“No, indeed!” answered the little maid. “For I have discovered all men must work very hard to support their wives and children, and to buy them food and raiment. So I have changed my mind about becoming a man, especially as that would be impossible.”
It was not far from the ferry to the grove of lilacs, and as they rode along Zixi saw the gray owl sitting contentedly in a tree and pruning its feathers.
“Are you no longer wailing because you cannot swim in the river?” asked the witch-queen, speaking in the owl language.
“No, indeed,” answered the gray owl. “For, as I watched a fish swimming in the water, a man caught it on a sharp hook, and the fish was killed. I believe I’m safer in a tree.”
“I believe so, too,” said Zixi, and rode along more thoughtfully; for she remembered her own desire, and wondered if it would also prove foolish.
Just as they left the river-bank she noticed the old alligator sunning himself happily upon the bank.