"You can't afford to spend your
time a-rulin' this tucked-up country, Trot."
"Why not?" asked Trot, who was pleased with her new and important
position.
"It'd get pretty tiresome, mate, after you'd had a few quarrels with
the Pinkies, for they expec' their Queen to be as poor as poverty
an' never have any fun in life."
"You wouldn't like it for long, I'm sure," added Button-Bright
seriously.
Trot seemed thoughtful. "No, I don't know's I would," she admitted.
"But as long as we stay here, it seems a pretty good thing to be
Queen. I guess I'm a little proud of it. I wish mother could see me
rulin' the Pinkies, an' Papa Griffith, too. Wouldn't they open their
eyes?"
"They would, mate, but they can't see you," said Cap'n Bill. "So the
question is, what's to be done?"
"We ought to get home," observed the boy. "Our folks will worry
about us, and Earth's the best place to live, after all. If we could
only get hold of my Magic Umbrella, we'd be all right."
"The rose is red, the violet's blue,
But the umbrel's stolen by the Boolooroo!"
screamed the parrot.
"That's it," said Cap'n Bill. "The Boolooroo's got the umbrel, an'
that settles the question."
"Tell me," said Rosalie, "If you had your Magic Umbrella, could you
fly home again in safety?"
"Of course we could," replied Button-Bright.
"And would you prefer to go home to remaining here?"
"We would indeed!"
"Then why do you not get the umbrella?"
"How?" asked Trot eagerly.
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