Kernel Cob And Little Miss Sweetclover Part 12

"You mean to say they can do that?" asked the Villain.

"They sure can," answered Jackie Tar. "And my idea is this: If they can do that, maybe they can show you where Jackie and Peggs'

motheranfather are."

"What makes you so smart, Jackie Tar?" asked the Villain.

"I don't know," said he, "I guess I was just born that way."

"Well, let's go ash.o.r.e and ask one of them to help us," said Kernel Cob.

"Aye, aye, mates," said Jackie Tar.

So they went ash.o.r.e, and walked along the streets until they came to a little house that Jackie Tar said he remembered as being the house where a magician lived.

And they knocked upon the door and it opened. And they went inside and all was quiet and black as night. And they groped their way till they heard a low mumbling sound, and, pulling aside a curtain, they saw an old man with a long white beard, sitting in a room with black furniture and curtains.

And he said something to them in a very strange language which they couldn't understand.

And Jackie Tar stepped forward and said:

"Please, kind magician, we have come to find the motheranfather of Jackie and Peggs. Will you be good enough to help us?" And even as he was speaking a great cloud spread through the room and floated toward the ceiling. In a minute the cloud became thinner, so you could see through it, and at once trees and a house were seen.

"It's Jackie and Peggs' garden," said Sweetclover in a breathless whisper. "Look!"

And sure enough there was the garden just as they left it, and Jackie and Peggs were playing with Kernel Cob and Sweetclover just as they did on that day they were blown away by the storm.

"It's us! It's us!" cried Sweetclover, and as she spoke Peggs came and put the parasol over them and the storm arose that carried them away toward the sky. Then the cloud disappeared, and the vision was gone.

"It's the strangest thing I ever saw," and Kernel Cob rubbed his eyes and pinched himself, but he had to admit that he had not been asleep and dreamed it.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

And the Magician led them into another room through a black curtain, and this new room was blacker than the first one, and they held hands so they wouldn't become separated.

In the middle of the room was a great crystal globe which stood upon a low table, and the Magician went to it, and, waving his hand above it, said something which sounded like "Alla ballaboo." And at once the globe began to glow as though there were a fire inside of it.

Then the light began to fade until the globe looked like a ball of milk.

Again the Magician waved his hand above it and a picture began to show itself upon its surface, like when you develop a photograph plate in a dark room.

First the trees, and then a little hut and snow, lots and lots of snow, and then a man with a shovel and a pick on his shoulder, and then a woman and they were roughly dressed.

And the man in the picture began to pick the ground, and the woman took the shovel, and they worked and worked. Presently, the man stooped down and picked up what seemed to be a stone, and he showed it eagerly to the woman and she trembled with excitement and the stone glowed.

"It must be gold," said Jackie Tar.

"They're gold miners."

"But who are they?"

"I've got it!" cried Kernel Cob. "They're Jackie and Peggs'

motheranfather," and he danced with joy.

But in his excitement he made a great mistake, for in hopping about he b.u.mped into the crystal ball, and knocked it from the little table on which it stood.

The Magician rushed to save the globe from falling, but he was too late.

It came to the floor and crashed into a thousand pieces.

When he saw what was done and who had done it, he turned on Kernel Cob, and it was with great difficulty that Kernel Cob got out of his way.

Out into the street ran Kernel Cob, followed by Sweetclover, the Villain and Jackie Tar, the Magician in hot pursuit, and only that he was a very old man he would have caught them.

But he didn't, thank goodness! and at last they arrived at the raft.

"Well," said Jackie Tar, when they were safely seated, "one thing we know, anyway, and that is that Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather are living somewhere in the snow, and if it hadn't been for Kernel Cob...."

But he didn't finish what he was going to say, for, looking at Kernel Cob, he discovered him doing something that he had never done before--CRYING!

Sweetclover ran to him.

"Oh, Kernel Cob!" she cried, "what is it. Are you hurt?"

"Oh," he sobbed, "if it weren't for me, maybe we would have found out all about Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather, and maybe the Magician would have showed us how to get there," and he cried as if his heart would break.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XVI

And they sat upon the raft and talked it all over, what was to be done, and how they were to do it.

"Well," said Jackie Tar, "the nearest gold mines to us are in Africa."

"Have they got snow around them?" asked Sweetclover.

"Why, no, that's so," said Jackie Tar.

"Where else?" asked the Villain.

"We can go down to the South Pole," said Jackie Tar. At which Kernel Cob began to laugh.

"You don't expect to find any snow at the South Pole, do you?" he asked.