For a moment the counselor was overcome with fear. The cloak dropped unnoticed from his shoulders and fell upon the graveled walk, while Tellydeb sank upon a bench and shivered.
“It—it was like magic!” he murmured. “I but reached out my hand—so—it went nearly to the top of the tree, and—”
Here he gave a cry of wonder, for again his arm stretched the distance and touched the topmost branches of the tree. He drew it back hastily, and turned to see if any one had observed him. But this part of the garden was deserted, so the old man eagerly tested his new accomplishment.
He plucked a rose from a bush a dozen yards to the right, and having smelled its odor he placed it in a vase that stood twenty feet to his left. Then he noted a fountain far across a hedge, and reaching the distance easily, dipped his hand in the splashing water. It was all very amazing, this sudden power to reach a great distance, and the lord high executioner was so pleased with the faculty that when he discovered old Jikki standing in the palace doorway, he laughingly fetched him a box on the ear that sent the valet scampering away to his room in amazed terror.
Said Tellydeb to himself: “Now I’ll go home and show my wife what a surprising gift I have acquired.”
So he left the garden; and not long afterward old Tallydab, the lord high steward, came walking down the path, followed by his little dog Ruffles. I am not certain whether it was because his coat was so shaggy or his temper so uncertain that Tallydab’s dog was named Ruffles; but the name fitted well both the looks and the disposition of the tiny animal. Nevertheless, the lord high steward was very fond of his dog, which followed him everywhere except to the king’s council-chamber; and often the old man would tell Ruffles his troubles and worries, and talk to the dog just as one would to a person.
To-day, as they came slowly down the garden-walk, Tallydab noticed a splendid cloak lying upon the path.
“How very beautiful!” he exclaimed, as he stooped to pick it up. “I have never seen anything like this since the Princess Fluff first rode into Nole beside her brother the king. Isn’t it a lovely cloak, Ruffles?”
The dog gave a subdued yelp and wagged his stubby tail.
“How do I look in it, Ruffles?” continued the lord high steward, wrapping the folds of the magic cloak about him; “how do I look in such gorgeous apparel?”