Complete Works of L. Frank Baum

by L. Frank Baum

  But she glanced at him in a haughty manner, and walked away with her nose slightly elevated.

  He followed. He could not do otherwise with those delightful checks shining before him like beacon-lights to urge him on.

  The young lady stepped into a car, which whirled rapidly away. For a moment he was nearly paralyzed at his loss; then he started after the car as fast as he could go, and that was very fast indeed-he being a woggle- bug.

  Somebody cried: “Stop, thief!” and a policeman ran out to arrest him. But the Woggle-Bug used his four hands to push the officer aside, and the astonished man went rolling into the gutter so recklessly that his uniform bore marks of the encounter for many days.

  Still keeping an eye on the car, the Woggle-Bug rushed on. He frightened two dogs, upset a fat gentleman who was crossing the street, leaped over an automobile that shot in front of him, and finally ran plump into the car, which had abruptly stopped to let off a passenger. Breathing hard from his exertions, he jumped upon the rear platform of the car, only to see his charmer step oft’ at the front and walk mincingly up the steps of a house. Despite his fatigue, he flew after her at once, crying out:

  “Stop, my variegated dear-stop! Don’t you know you’re mine?”

  But she slammed the door in his face, and he sat down upon the steps and wiped his forehead with his pink hand- kerchief and fanned himself with his hat and tried to think what he should do next.

  Presently a very angry man came out of the house. He had a revolver in one hand and a carving-knife in the other.

  “What do you mean by insulting my wife?” he demanded.

  “Was that your wife?” asked the Woggle-Bug, in meek astonishment.

  “Of course it is my wife,” answered the man.

  “Oh, I didn’t know,” said the insect, rather humbled. “But I’ll give you seven ninety-three for her. That’s all she’s worth, you know; for I saw it marked on the tag.”

  The man gave a roar of rage and jumped into the air with the intention of falling on the Woggle-Bug and hurting him with the knife and pistol. But the Woggle-Bug was suddenly in a hurry, and didn’t wait to be jumped on. Indeed, he ran so very fast that the mark was content to let him go, especially as the pistol wasn’t loaded and the carving- knife was as dull as such knives usually are.

  But his wife had conceived a great dislike for the Wagnerian check costume that had won for her the Woggle- Bug’s admiration. “I’ll never wear it again!” she said to her husband, when he came in and told her that the Woggle- Bug was gone..

  “Then,” he replied, “you’d better give it to Bridget; for-. she’s been bothering me about her wages lately, and the present will keep her quiet for a. month longer’

  So she called Bridget and presented her with dress, and the delighted servant decided ,to wear it that very, night to Mickey Schwartz’s ball. Now the Poor Woggle-Bug, finding his affections scorned, was feeling very blue and unhappy that evening. When he walked out, dressed (among other things) in a purple-striped shirt, with a yellow necktie and pea- green gloves, he looked a great deal more cheerful than he really was. He had put on another hat, for the Woggle-Bug had a superstition that to change his hat was to change his luck, and luck seemed to have overlooked the fact that he was in existence.

  The hat may really have altered his fortunes, as the Insect shortly met Ikey Swanson, who gave him a ticket to Mickey Schwartz’s ball; for Ikey’s clean dickey had not come home from the laundry, and so he could not go himself.

  The Woggle-Bug, thinking to distract his mind from his dreams of love, attended the ball, and the first thing he saw as he entered the room was Bridget-clothed in that same gorgeous gown of Wagnerian plaid that had so fascinated his bugly heart.

  The dear Bridget had added to her charms by putting seven full-blown imitation roses and three second-hand ostrich- plumes in her red hair; so that her entire person glowed like a sunset in June.

  The Woggle-Bug was enraptured;, and, although the divine Bridget was waltzing with Fritzie Casey, the Insect rushed to her side and, seizing her with all his four arms at once, cried out in his truly educated Bostonian way:

  “Oh, my superlative conglomeration of beauty! I have found you at last!”

  Bridget uttered a shriek, and Fritzie Casey doubled two fists that looked like tombstones, and advanced upon the intruder.

  Still embracing the plaid costume with two arms, the Woggle-Bug tipped Mr. Casey over with the other two. But

  Bridget made a bound and landed her broad heel, which supported 180 pounds, firmly upon the Insect’s toes. He gave a yelp of pain and promptly released the lady, and a moment later he found himself flat upon the floor with a dozen of the dancers piled upon him-all of whom mere pummeling one another with much pleasure and a firm conviction that the diversion had been planned for their special amusement.

  But the Woggle-Bug had the strength of many men, and when he flopped the big wings that were concealed by the tails of his coat, the gentlemen resting upon him were scattered like autumn leaves in a gust of wind.

  The Insect stood up, rearranged his dress, and looked about him. Bridget had run away and gone home, and the others were still fighting among themselves with exceeding cheerfulness. So the Woggle-Bug selected a hat that would fit him (his own having been crushed out of shape) and walked sorrowfully back to his lodgings.

  “Evidently that was not a lucky hat I wore to the ball,” he reflected; “but perhaps this one I now have will bring about a change in my fortunes.”

  Bridget needed money; and as she had worn her brilliant costume once and allowed her friends to see how becoming it was, she carried it next morning to a second- hand dealer and sold it for three dollars in cash.

  Scarcely had she left the shop when a lady of Swedish extraction ‹ -a widow with four small children in her train- entered and asked to look at a gown. The dealer showed her the one he had just bought from Bridget, and its gay coloring so pleased the widow that she immediately purchased it for $3.65.

  “Ay tank ets good deal money, by sure,” she said to herself;’ “but das leedle children mus’ have new Fadder to mak mind un tak care dere murder like, bay yimminy! An’ Ay tank no man look may way in das ole dress Ay been wearing.”

  She took the gown and the four children to her home, where she lost no time in trying on the costume, which fitted her as perfectly as a flour- sack does a peck of potatoes.

  “Das beau ‹ tiful!” she exclaimed, in rapture, as she tried to see herself in a cracked mirror. “Ay go das very afternoon to walk in da park, for das man-folks go craze-like ven he sees may fine frocks!”

  Then she took her green parasol and a hand-bag stuffed with papers (to make it look prosperous and aristocratic) and sallied forth to the park, followed by all her interesting flock.

  The men didn’t fail to look at her, as you may guess; but none looked with yearning until the Woggle-Bug, sauntering gloomily along a path, happened to raise his eyes and see before him his heart’s delight-the very identical Wagnerian plaids which had filled him with such unbounded affection.

  “Aha, my excruciatingly lovely creation!” he cried, running up and kneeling before the widow; “I have found you once again. Do not, I beg of you, treat me with coldness!”

  For he had learned from experience not to unduly startle his charmer at their first moment of meeting; so he made a firm attempt to control himself, that the wearer of the checked gown might not scorn him.

  The widow had no great affection for bugs, having wrestled with the species for many years; but this one was such a big-bug and so handsomely dressed that she saw no harm in encouraging him-especially as the men she had sought to captivate were proving exceedingly shy.

  “So you tank Ay ban lovely?” she asked, with a coy glance at the Insect.

  “I do! With all my heart I do!” protested the Woggle-Bug, placing his four hands, one after another, over that beating organ.

  “Das mak plenty trouble by you. Ay don’d could be yours!”
sighed the widow, indeed regretting her admirer was not an ordinary man.

  “Why not?” asked the Woggle-Bug. “I have still the seven-ninety-three; and as that was the original price, and you are now slightly worn and second-handed, I do not see why I need despair of calling you my own.”

  It is very queer, when we think of it, that the Woggle- Bug could not separate the wearer of his lovely gown from the gown itself. Indeed, he always made love directly to the costume that had so enchanted him, without any regard whatsoever to the person inside it; and the only way we can explain this remarkable fact is to recollect that the Woggle- Bug was only a woggle-bug, and nothing more could be expected of him. The widow did not, of course, understand his speech in the least; but she gathered the fact that the Woggle-Bug had money, so she sighed and hinted that she was very hungry, and that there was a good short-order restaurant just outside the park.

  The Woggle-Bug became thoughtful at this. He hated to squander his money, which he had come to regard as a sort of purchase price with which to secure his divinity. But neither could he allow those darling checks to go hungry; so he said: .

  “If you will come with me to the restaurant, I will gladly supply you with food.”

  The widow accepted the invitation at once, and the Woggle-Bug walked proudly beside her, leading all of the four children at once with his four hands.

  Two such gay costumes as those worn by the widow and the Woggle-Bug are. seldom found together, and the restaurant man was so impressed by the sight that he demanded his, money in advance.

  The .four children; jabbering delightedly in their broken English, clambered upon four stools, and the widow sat upon another. And’ the Woggle-Bug, who was not hungry (being engaged in feasting, his ,eyes upon the checks), laid down a silver dollar as a guarantee of good faith.

  It was wonderful to see so much pie and cake and bread-and-butter and pickles and dough-nuts and sandwiches disappear into the mouths of the tour innocents and their comparatively innocent mother. The Woggle-Bug had to add another quarter to the vanished dollar before the score was finally settled; and no sooner had the tribe trooped out of the restaurant than they turned into the open portals of an Ice-Cream Parlor, where they all attacked huge stacks of pale ice-cream and consumed several plates of lady-lingers and cream-puffs.

  Again the Woggle-Bug reluctantly abandoned a dollar; but the end was not yet. .The dear children wanted candy and nuts; and then they wanted pink lemonade; and then pop-corn and chewing-gum; and always the Woggle-Bug, after a glance at the entrancing costume, found himself unable to resist paying for the treat.

  It was nearly- evening when the widow pleaded fatigue and asked to be taken home. For none of them was able to eat another morsel, and the Woggle-Bug wearied her with his protestations of boundless admiration.

  “Will you permit me to call upon you this evening?” asked the Insect, pleadingly, as he bade the wearer of the gown good-bye on her door- step.

  “Sure like!” she replied, not caring to dismiss him harshly; and the happy Woggle-Bug went home with a light heart, murmuring to himself:

  “At last the lovely plaids are to be my own! The new hat I found at the ball has certainly brought me luck.”

  I am glad our friend the Woggle-Bug had those few happy moments, for he was destined to endure severe disappointments in the near future.

  That evening he carefully brushed his coat, put on a green satin necktie and a purple embroidered waist-coat, and walked briskly towards the house of the widow. But, alas! as he drew near to the dwelling a most horrible stench greeted his nostrils, a sense of great depression came over him, and upon pausing before the house his body began to tremble and his eyes rolled wildly in their sockets.

  For the wily widow, wishing to escape her admirer, had sprinkled the door-step and the front walk with insect Exterminator, and not even the Woggle-Bug’s love for the enchanting checked gown could induce him to linger longer in that vicinity.

  Sick and discouraged, he returned home, where his first act was to smash the luckless hat and replace it with another. But it was some time before he recovered from the horrors of that near approach to extermination, and he passed a very wakeful and unhappy night, indeed.

  Meantime the widow had traded with a friend of hers (who had once been a wash-lady for General Funston) the Wagnerian costume for a crazy quilt and a corset that was nearly as good as new and a pair of silk stockings that were not mates. It was a good bargain for both of them, and the wash-lady being colored-that is, she had a deep mahogany complexion- was delighted with her gorgeous gown and put it on the very next morning when she went to deliver the wash to the brick-layer’s wife.

  Surely it must have been Fate that directed the Woggle-Bug’s steps; for, as he walked disconsolately along, an intuition caused him to raise his eyes, and he saw just ahead of him his affinity-carrying a large clothes- basket.

  “Stop!” he called out, anxiously; “stop, my fair Grenadine, I implore you!”

  The colored lady cast one glance behind her and imagined that Satan had at last arrived to claim her. For she had never before seen the Woggle- Bug, and ,was horrified by his sudden and unusual appearance.

  “Go ‘way, Mars’ Debbil! Go ‘way’an’ lemme ‘lone!” she screeched, and the next minute dropped her empty basket and sped up the street with a swiftness that only fear could have lent her flat-bottomed feet.

  Nevertheless, the Woggle-Bug might have overtaken her had he not stepped into the clothes-basket and fallen headlong, becoming so tangled up in the thing that he rolled over and over several times before he could free himself. Then, when he had picked up his hat, which was utterly ruined, and found his cane, which had flown across the street, his mahogany charmer in the Wagnerian Plaids had disappeared from view.

  With a sigh at his latest misfortune he returned home for another hat, and the agitated wash-lady, imagining that the devil had doubtless been lured by her beautiful gown, made haste to sell it to a Chinaman who lived next door.

  Its bright colors pleased the Chink who ripped it up and made it over into a Chinese robe, with flowing draperies falling to his heels. He dressed himself in his new costume and, being proud of possessing such finery, sat down on a bench outside his door so that everyone passing by could see how magnificent he looked.

  It was here that the wandering Woggle-Bug espied him; and, recognizing at once the pattern and colors of his infatuating idol, he ran up and sat beside the Chinaman, saying in agitated but educated tones:

  “Oh, my prismatic personification of gigantic gorgeous- ness! ‹ again I have found you!”

  “Sure ding,” responded the Chink with composure.

  “Be mine! Only be mine!” continued the enraptured Woggle-Bug.

  The Chinaman did not quite understand.

  “Two dlolla a day,” he answered, cautiously.

  “Oh, joy,” exclaimed the insect in delight; “I can then own you for a day and a half-for I have three dollars left. May I feel of your exquisite texture, my dearest Fabric?”

  “No flabic. No feelee. You too flesh. I man China- man!” returned the Oriental calmly.

  “Never mind that! ‘Tis your beautiful garment I love. Every check in that entrancing dress is a joy and a delight to my heart!”

  While the Woggle-Bug thus raved, the Chinaman’s wife (who was Mattie De Forest before she married him) overheard the conversation, and decided this love affair had gone far enough. So she suddenly appeared with a broom- stick, and with it began pounding the Woggle-Bug as fiercely as possible-and Mattie was no weakling, I assure you.

  The first blow knocked the Insect’s hat so far over his eyes that he was blinded; but, resolving not to be again cheated .out of his darling, he grasped firmly hold of the Wagnerian plaids with all four hands, and tore a goodly portion of it from the frightened Celestial’s body.

  Next moment he was dashing down the street, with the precious cloth tucked securely underneath an arm, and Mattie, being in slight dishabille,
did not think best to follow him.

  The triumphant joy of the Woggle-Bug can well be imagined. No more need he chase the fleeting vision of his love-no more submit to countless disappointments in his efforts to approach the object of his affection. The gorgeous plaids were now his own (or a large part of them, anyway), and upon reaching the quiet room wherein he lodged he spread out the cloth and gloated long and happily over its vivid coloring and violent contrasts of glowing hues. To the eyes of the Woggle-Bug nothing could be more beautiful, and he positively regretted the necessity of ever turning his gaze from this bewitching treasure.

  That he might never in the future be separated from the checks, he folded them, with- many loving caresses, into compact form, and wrapped them in a sheet of stout paper tied with cotton cord that had a love-knot at the end. Wherever he went, thereafter, he carried the parcel underneath his left upper arm, pressed as closely- to his heart as possible. And this sense of possession was so delightful that our Woggle- Bug was happy as the clay was long.

  In the evening his fortunes changed with cruel abruptness.

  He walked out to take the air, and noticing a crowd of people standing in an open space and surrounding a huge brown object, our Woggle-Bug stopped to learn what the excitement was about.

  Pushing his way through the crowd, and hugging his precious parcel, he soon reached the inner circle of spectators and found they had assembled to watch a balloon ascension. The Professor who was to go up with the balloon had not yet arrived; but the balloon itself was fully- inflated and tugging hard at the rope that held it, as if anxious to escape the blended breaths of the people that crowded around. Just below the balloon was a small basket, attached to the netting of the gas-bag, and the Woggle-Bug was bending over the edge of this, to see what it contained, when a warning cry from the crowd caused him to pause and glance over his shoulder.

  Great horrors and crumpled creeps! Springing toward him, with a scowl on his face and a long knife with a zig-zag blade in his uplifted hand, was that very Chinaman from whose body he had torn the Wagnerian plaids!