“Too bad,” he replied, “you can’t have another for a long time. The law is, only one within a year.”
Chapter XXI
Think of it, Maida couldn’t have another wish for a year! “Do you mean to say,” she asked Billy, “that I will have to stay here in Illusia and be a little girl until next New Year’s Day?”
“I’m afraid you will,” replied Billy. And, of course, Maida was deeply disappointed. All her fears revived because she realized she no longer had a protector in the Wishing Post. There was nothing to save her from her enemies in case they attacked her.
“I don’t think it’s safe here,” she said to Billy, “we have all lost our wishes, and the best thing we can do is to try to get back to the flying ship and have the Man with the Growly Voice take us away.” So they all started to make their way through the city of Illusia to the flying ship.
By this time the people had left the Plaza and were going home to dinner, or to supper, or to work, or wherever people go when a big crowd breaks up; and the streets were full of them. The three were jostled and pushed, as people always are in a narrow street when it is crowded. And before she realized what had happened, Maida was separated from Santa Claus and Billy, and swept away in an eddy of the crowd.
She called and called, but no one answered. She was afraid to ask any of the Illusians where she was or how to get anywhere else because they would know she was a stranger; then she would be captured and turned over to the Queen; so she simply wandered about. But oh! she was so tired, and so drowsy; so when she came to a pretty park where there were some nice long benches and the trees cast a deep shadow, she decided to take a nap. She stretched out on the bench and closed her eyes.
The first thing she knew she felt someone tapping her on the soles of the feet with a stick. Did you ever see a policeman wake up a tramp who had gone to sleep on a park bench when he shouldn’t by rapping him on the soles of the feet with his club? Well, that’s exactly what this Illusian policeman did to Maida.
“Come, little girl,” said the policeman, “wake up!” Maida sat up drowsily, rubbing her eyes.