LITMIR.BIZ

      21. How the King Changed His Mind

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      Just then a rabbit band of nearly fifty pieces marched in, playing upon golden instruments and dressed in neat uniforms. Following the band came the nobility of Bunnybury, all richly dressed and hopping along on their rear legs. Both the ladies and the gentlemen wore white gloves upon their paws, with their rings on the outside of the gloves, as this seemed to be the fashion here. Some of the lady rabbits carried lorgnettes, while many of the gentlemen rabbits wore monocles in their left eyes.

      The courtiers and their ladies paraded past the King, who introduced Princess Dorothy to each couple in a very graceful manner. Then the company seated themselves in chairs and on sofas and looked expectantly at their monarch.

      “It is our royal duty, as well as our royal pleasure,” he said, “to provide fitting entertainment for our distinguished guest. We will now present the Royal Band of Whiskered Friskers.”

      As he spoke the musicians, who had arranged themselves in a corner, struck up a dance melody while into the room pranced the Whiskered Friskers. They were eight pretty rabbits dressed only in gauzy purple skirts fastened around their waists with diamond bands. Their whiskers were colored a rich purple, but otherwise they were pure white.

      After bowing before the King and Dorothy the Friskers began their pranks, and these were so comical that Dorothy laughed with real enjoyment. They not only danced together, whirling and gyrating around the room, but they leaped over one another, stood upon their heads and hopped and skipped here and there so nimbly that it was hard work to keep track of them. Finally, they all made double somersaults and turned handsprings out of the room.

      The nobility enthusiastically applauded, and Dorothy applauded with them.

      “They’re fine!” she said to the King.

      “Yes, the Whiskered Friskers are really very clever,” he replied. “I shall hate to part with them when I go away, for they have often amused me when I was very miserable. I wonder if you would ask Glinda—”

      “No, it wouldn’t do at all,” declared Dorothy, positively. “There wouldn’t be room in your hole in the ground for so many rabbits, ‘spec’ly when you get the lily chair and your clothes there. Don’t think of such a thing, your Majesty.”

      The King sighed. Then he stood up and announced to the company:

      “We will now hold a military drill by my picked Bodyguard of Royal Pikemen.”

      Now the band played a march and a company of rabbit soldiers came in. They wore green and gold uniforms and marched very stiffly but in perfect time. Their spears, or pikes, had slender shafts of polished silver with golden heads, and during the drill they handled these weapons with wonderful dexterity.

      “I should think you’d feel pretty safe with such a fine Bodyguard,” remarked Dorothy.

      “I do,” said the King. “They protect me from every harm. I suppose Glinda wouldn’t—”

      “No,” interrupted the girl; “I’m sure she wouldn’t. It’s the King’s own Bodyguard, and when you are no longer King you can’t have ‘em.”

      The King did not reply, but he looked rather sorrowful for a time.

      When the soldiers had marched out he said to the company:

      “The Royal Jugglers will now appear.”

      Dorothy had seen many jugglers in her lifetime, but never any so interesting as these. There were six of them, dressed in black satin embroidered with queer symbols in silver—a costume which contrasted strongly with their snow-white fur.

      First, they pushed in a big red ball and three of the rabbit jugglers stood upon its top and made it roll. Then two of them caught up a third and tossed him into the air, all vanishing, until only the two were left. Then one of these tossed the other upward and remained alone of all his fellows. This last juggler now touched the red ball, which fell apart, being hollow, and the five rabbits who had disappeared in the air scrambled out of the hollow ball.

      Next they all clung together and rolled swiftly upon the floor. When they came to a stop only one fat rabbit juggler was seen, the others seeming to be inside him. This one leaped lightly into the air and when he came down he exploded and separated into the original six. Then four of them rolled themselves into round balls and the other two tossed them around and played ball with them.

      These were but a few of the tricks the rabbit jugglers performed, and they were so skillful that all the nobility and even the King applauded as loudly as did Dorothy.

      “I suppose there are no rabbit jugglers in all the world to compare with these,” remarked the King. “And since I may not have the Whiskers Friskers or my Bodyguard, you might ask Glinda to let me take away just two or three of these jugglers. Will you?”

      “I’ll ask her,” replied Dorothy, doubtfully.

      “Thank you,” said the King; “thank you very much. And now you shall listen to the Winsome Waggish Warblers, who have often cheered me in my moments of anguish.”

      The Winsome Waggish Warblers proved to be a quartette of rabbit singers, two gentlemen and two lady rabbits. The gentlemen Warblers wore full-dress swallowtailed suits of white satin, with pearls for buttons, while the lady Warblers were gowned in white satin dresses with long trails.

      The first song they sang began in this way:

      “When a rabbit gets a habit

      Of living in a city

      And wearing clothes and furbelows

      And jewels rare and pretty,

      He scorns the Bun who has to run

      And burrow in the ground

      And pities those whose watchful foes

      Are man and gun and hound.”

      Dorothy looked at the King when she heard this song and noticed that he seemed disturbed and ill at ease.

      “I don’t like that song,” he said to the Warblers. “Give us something jolly and rollicking.”

      So they sang to a joyous, tinkling melody as follows:

      “Bunnies gay

      Delight

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