Chapter 6
Ruggedo’s History In Six Rocks
On the same night that Prince Pompa and Kabumpo had disappeared from Pumperdink, a little gray gnome crouched in a deep chamber, tunneled under the Emerald City, laboriously carving letters on a big rock. It was Ruggedo, the old Gnome King, carving and grumbling and grumbling and carving, and pausing every few minutes to light his pipe with a hot coal which he kept in his pocket for that purpose. A big emerald lamp cast a green glow over the strange cavern and made the gnome look like a bad green goblin, which he was.
“Wag!” screamed the gnome, suddenly throwing down his chisel. “Where are you, you long-eared villain?” There was a slight stir at the back of the cave and a rabbit, of about the same size as the gnome, shuffled slowly forward.
“What you want?” he asked, rubbing one eye with his paw.
“Bring me a cup of melted mud, idiot!” roared the gnome, pounding on the rock. “And serve it to me on my throne at once!”
“Now, see here,” the rabbit twitched his nose rapidly, “I’ll get you a cup of melted mud, but don’t you call me an idiot. I don’t mind working for one, nor digging for one and listening to his foolishness, but nobody can call me an idiot—not even a make-believe King!”
“Oh, you make me tired!” fumed the gnome.
“Then go to sleep,” advised the rabbit with a yawn. “What’s the use of trying to pretend you’re a King, Rug? Ho, ho! King over one wooden doll, six rocks and twenty-seven sofa cushions! You may have been a King once, but now you’re just a plain gnome and nothing else, and if you go and sit quietly in your plain rocking chair I’ll bring you a cup of plain mud.”
With a chuckle, the rabbit retired, and Ruggedo, spluttering with fury, flounced into a doll’s broken rocker that was set in the exact center of the cave.