Both Tribes acknowledged Tourmaline their Queen and obeyed the laws
of the country, and just at this time there was peace in the land,
and all the inhabitants of the east and west were friendly. But they
had been known, Coralie said, to fight one another fiercely with
their sharp sticks, at which times a good many were sure to get
hurt.
"Why do they call this an Island?" asked Button-Bright. "There isn't
any water around it, is there?"
"No, but there is sky all around it," answered Coralie. "And if one
should step off the edge, he would go tumbling into the great sky
and never be heard of again."
"Is there a fence around the edge?" asked Trot.
"Only a few places are fenced," was the reply. "Usually there are
rows of thick bushes set close to the edge to prevent people from
falling off. Once there was a King of the Pinkies who was cruel and
overbearing and imagined he was superior to the people he ruled, so
one day his subjects carried him to the edge of the island and threw
him over the bushes."
"Goodness me!" said Trot. "He might have hit someone on the Earth."
"Guess he skipped it, though," added Cap'n Bill, "for I never heard
of a Pinky till I came here."
"And I have never heard of the Earth," retorted Coralie. "Of course,
there must be such a place, because you came from there, but the
Earth is never visible in our sky.
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