Sara distributed handfuls of the beautiful little coins among them andagain they cheered her for her generosity. Sara felt that she reallydid not deserve the cheering, however, as she seemed to have as manyas ever--even after she had filled Mrs. Snimmy's apron and a shoeapiece for each Gunkus.
When the excitement over the money had subsided a little, Pirlapsannounced; "The Banquet is now ready!" and again offering Sara his arm,he led her at the head of another procession three times around thefountain; and the third time, as before, there beside the cake was thebanquet table--all spread and loaded down and glittering. Of course itwas quite a long table, with a good many covers; there had to be onefor each of Avrillia's children and for every one of the Gunki. Thecovers were very thin (being made of cobweb, of course) still, havingso many, spread one on top of the other, made the table quite high, sothat there were step-ladders instead of chairs. As there was astep-ladder for each guest, and as they were made of gold and silver,arranged alternately, the effect was very unique and elaborate.
Sara, being the guest of honor, was assigned the most inconspicuousplace, three step-ladders south of the centre. When they were seated,and Sara's mouth was fairly watering at the sight of all the fairydelicacies the table displayed, Pirlaps, as master of ceremonies, roseand said, "You understand, Sara, that, on occasions like this, theguest of honor eats nothing but Toast."
Now, just imagine how disappointed Sara was! She really was having ahard time to wink back the tears, when Avrillia, who often understoodmore than the others, leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Wait tillyou taste it, Sara!"
Avrillia's eyes sparkled so that Sara was quite reassured; besides,she suddenly remembered the butterfly butter, and how her distress hadbeen turned into rapture on that occasion. And when Avrillia added,"Besides, you have Birdsong wine with it!" she felt as happy as ever,and quite confident that there would be some delightful surprise aboutit.
When Pirlaps announced the first Toast, however, and the firstslice walked heavily out from behind the little screen at thetoastmaster's elbow, Sara again felt a sinking of the heart; for,except that he walked on his lower right-hand corner, as he had beentrained to do, and made a rather awkward and laborious bow when hisname was announced, he looked otherwise so exactly like a plain, brown,fat, every-day-in-the-year piece of breakfast toast that it was hardto be enthusiastic about him--at least in the presence of all theexotic-looking dainties the other guests were to have! However, Saramade a great effort, and settled herself to listen to the Toastspolitely. The name of this Toast was "Sara's Day--Because She is Olderthan the Snoodle," and the Plynck responded to it. The way sheresponded was this: the Toast balanced himself with difficulty on hislower corner, and said, in a throaty voice, "How do you do, MadamePlynck?" and the Plynck bowed (much more gracefully) and responded,"How do you do, Toast?" And then she made a speech on the Toast'ssubject. While she was making the speech (which was lovely--she fairlysoared) the Toast tottered over to Sara's plate and lay down in it,without any further sign of life or animation. Avrillia leaned overand Whispered, "Eat it, Sara," and then Sara did. And she didn't haveany trouble keeping from being disappointed, after that. For, just asAvrillia had hinted, the toast, in spite of its appearance, was reallyAngel Food cake; and as she ate it, Sara found at her elbow a bottlemarked "Birdsong Wine--Bluebird." As the Gunki were all eating, theycouldn't wait on her, so she poured it into her glass herself; andwhen she had taken a sip, it tasted just like April! You may imaginethat, from that time on, Sara had no further anxiety about what shewas to eat, and that her mind was now entirely free to enjoy theToasts. The second Toast was announced, indeed, before she hadrecovered from her first surprise and delight. The subject of thisToast was, "Sara's Dimples--May I Never Get Them"; and of course itwas responded to by the Snimmy. There was no variety either in thelooks or in the performance of the Toasts; I must admit that they werevery heavy, awkward, and short of breath, and were as much alike asthe trained sea-lions at a circus. However, you felt that, like thesea-lions, they were doing very well to perform at all. (Avrilliawhispered to Sara that Pirlaps, as toastmaster, had spent days anddays preparing them; so Sara suspected that Pirlaps, at least, hadknown all along that she was older than the Snoodle.) The speeches, onthe other hand, were marvels of variety and interest. The Snimmy's, ofcourse, was sad--even heartrending; and he was sniffing before he hadfinished saying, "How do you do, Toast?" and shedding gum-drops likehail-stones before he was half through. His Toast, however, wasorange-cake, unusually delicious; and the wine served with it was asparkling cherry-colored beverage marked "Cardinal." It was so headythat it even had a topknot, and it served admirably to counteract thedepressing effect of the Snimmy's speech. The next Toast was respondedto by the First and Second Gunki; and its subject was, "Sara'sTears--May There Be No Mad and Few Sad." The speech was in the form ofa duet, rendered by the Gunki with deep feeling, and accompanied bythe Plynck and her Echo with liquid-sounding arpeggios on their lyres,that were most appropriate. The Toast was old-fashioned jelly-cake,with Robinsong wine. Avrillia responded to a thin slice, whose subjectwas "Nothing"; everybody clapped when this subject was announced, forthey felt that the subject was in the hands of an authority, and wouldbe handled in a masterly manner. Nor were they disappointed;Avrillia's speech was in the form of a long poem, which she recitedfrom memory, looking very wild and lovely. The Toast was silver-cake,with Veerie wine. Pirlaps himself, although he was toastmaster,responded to a Toast called "Sara's Questions--Bless Their Hearts!"and his Toast was chocolate-cake, with Wren wine. The Snoodle was tooyoung to make a speech, but they had taught him to respond to a simplelittle Toast, "On Being Older than Snoodles," and it was very charmingto hear him lisp, "How do you do, Toast?" like the others. His Toastwas a plum-cake; and you should have seen how pleased he was when Saratook out the little silver plum-extractor, and used it like an adept!And the Teacup, having responded to a Toast with the subject, "If OnlyMy Saucer Could Have Known Sara," made a very graceful but agitatedlittle speech that brought out many cobweb pocket-handkerchiefs.
Of course that is not all the Toasts, nor even half of them; they keptit up until it was growing quite late, and at last Pirlaps said,
"Sara, Schlorge did not bring you a present or respond to a Toast,because he has made you an address of welcome. You have spent manyhappy days with us, and will soon be leaving. The time has come atlast for us to bid you welcome. We will not dwell on the naturalsadness of the occasion; rather, let us rejoice in the delights wehave enjoyed together, and hope for a recurrence of these fair andmemorable days. Sehlorge!"
Schlorge, overcome with pride and embarrassment, rose from his seat.He started around the pool with much dignity; then his composuresuddenly gave way. "Where's the stump?" he began to shout wildly."Where's the--where's the--"
"There, there, Schlorge, you're walking right to it," said Pirlaps,soothingly, hastening after him and laying a hand upon his arm. Then,as Schlorge scrambled upon it, Pirlaps raised his hand to commandattention.
"Schlorge wishes me to state," he said, in his pleasant, clear voice,"that the gesture he will now make goes with the first line of hisaddress. He cannot make it at that point because his hands will bealready arranged. But I will request that you all observe it carefully,and hold it in mind until it is needed."
Thereupon Schlorge made a large, deliberate, comprehensive gesture. Itincluded the pool, the Gugollaph-tree, the prose-bush--not only thewhole Garden, in fact, but the lovely amphitheatre beyond it. Moreover,it seemed to Sara to include even more distant things; the RainbowVale and the Butterfly Country, and the colony where lived therelations of Pirlaps, and the Laughter Mountain and Avrillia's houseand the magic toy City of Zinariola.
At last, having concluded his gesture, Schlorge arranged his hands andbegan in a loud voice:
"A little girl's mind is a place like this-- At least, that of one little dear girl is: Full of quaint little thoughts made of sugar and spice,
And queer little notions like little white mice.
"But a little boy's mind is not nearly so neat, And a little boy's fancies are scarcely so sweet: So we'll give you a tale next, if fortune avails, Full of snapses and snailses and puppy-dog's tails."
Then, for the last time, Schlorge went running wildly down the dear,familiar path toward the Dimplesmithy.
"Come again, Sara!" he shouted back, excitedly, over his shoulder."Come again! And bring Jimmy!"
Sara knew that he could not bear to tell her good-by; and, suddenly,she felt the same way about them all. They had been so kind to her! Soshe began to throw kisses to them all, and then, suddenly, slippeddown from her step-ladder. Her dollies jumped down and gathered abouther, and with them all at her heels she went running past thedimple-holder and out through the ivory gates.
And the last thing she saw, when she turned to throw her last kiss,was the Echo, who, overcome by emotion, had at last climbed clear outupon the rim of the pool, where she sat waving her plumes to Sara inplain sight of them all.
The Garden of the Plynck Page 16