Part 2 (1/2)

”But I cannot sleep,” said Nod; ”these weavers chatter so.”

Thumb laughed. ”Thimble sings in his dreams,” he said. ”Why shouldn't the little tailors sing, too?”

”Do you think any leopards will come?” said Nod.

”Think good things, my brother, not bad,” Thumb answered. ”But this we will do--wait a little while awake, and I will sleep, and as soon as sleep begins to come, call me and wake me; then, little brother, you shall sleep in peace till morning.”

He put his head under his arm without waiting for an answer; and soon, even louder and more dismal than Thimble's, rose Thumb's snoring into the Ollaconda-tree.

Nod sat cold and stiff, his eyes stretched open, his ears twitching. And a thin moonlight began to tremble between the leaves. The light cheered his spirits, and he thought, ”Nod will soon feel sleepy now,” when suddenly out of the gloom of the forest burst a sounder or drove of wild pig, scuffling and chuggling beneath the tree. Peeping down, Nod could just see them in the faint moons.h.i.+ne, with their long, black, hairy ears and tufted tails.

And presently, while they were grubbing in the snow, one lifted up its snout and cried in a loud voice: ”Co-older--and colder!”

”Co-older--and colder,” cried another.

”Co-older--and colder,” cried a third. And all silently grubbed on as before.

”The Queen of the Mountains is in the Forest,” began the first again, ”with fingers of frost.”

”And shoulders of snow.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”THE QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAINS IS IN THE FOREST ... WITH FINGERS OF FROST.”]

”And feet of ice,” screamed the third.

”The Queen of the Mountains,” they grunted all together; and went on burrowing, and shouldering, and faintly squeaking.

”Hungrier and hungrier,” cried one in a shrill voice, suddenly lifting its head, so that Nod could see quite clearly its pale green, greedy slits of eyes.

”Leaner and leaner,” answered another.

”All the Sudd hid, all the Ukkas gone, all the b.o.o.bab frozen!”

squealed a third.

”The Queen of the Mountains is in the Forest,” they grunted all together. But the pig that had looked up into the tree was still staring--staring and wrinkling his narrow snout, till at last all the pigs stopped feeding. ”Pigs, my brothers; pigs, my brothers,” he muttered. ”Up in this tree are Mulgar three, which travellers be.... Ho, there!” But Nod thought it best to make no answer. And the pig turned round and beat with his hind-feet against the bole or trunk of the Ollaconda. ”Ho, there, little Mulgar in the sheep-skin coat!”

”If you beat like that, h.o.r.n.y-foot, you'll wake my brothers,” said Nod.

”Brothers!” said the pig angrily. ”What's brothers to Ukka-nuts? What's your names, and where are you going?”

”My brothers' names,” said Nod, ”are Thumma and Thimbulla, and I am Nod.

We are going to the palace of ivory and Azmamogreel that is our Uncle a.s.sasimmon's, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar.” At that all the pigs began muttering together.

”Come down and tell us!” said a lean yellow pig; and as he snapped his jaws Nod saw in the moonbeam the frost-light blinking on his bristles.

”Tell you what?” said Nod.

”About this Prince of Tishnar. Oh, these false-tongued Mulgars!” Nod made no answer.

Then a fat old she-pig began speaking in a soft, pleasant voice. ”You must be very, very rich, Prince Nod, with those great bags of nuts; and, surely, it must be royal Sudd I smell! And a.s.sasimmon his uncle! whose house is more than a thousand pigs'-tails long; and gardens so thick with trees of fruit and honey, one groans to have only one stomach. Come down a little way, Prince Nod, and tell us poor hungry pigs of the royal a.s.sasimmon and the dainty food he eats.”