CHAPTER VIREFRESHMENTS
As soon as the carriage stopped, the Court Crier opened the door and he and the Admiral handed out the two little girls. At the same moment there came running down the steps two rosy-cheeked young women in caps and aprons, white cuffs and turn-down collars, like trained nurses, who courtesied very nicely and said:
"If you will please to come with us, Ladies, we will show you to the refreshment room."
Walking up the steps behind the two little maids, Margaret and Frances were shown into a large, pleasant room, furnished in green and white, with sofas and rocking chairs and everything they could want. Looking about them, the first thing they noticed was a card tacked on the inside of the door, such as they remembered to have seen once in a hotel bedroom, and supposing it to be the rules of the palace, they thought they had better read it. It was not the rules of the palace, but it was somethingjust as important, as Margaret soon discovered, when, pulling forward a chair, she sat down to read it—for the card, being put there for the accommodation of small people like the Floating Islanders, was rather low down on the door.
"What does it say?" asked Frances. "Can you read it?"
"Oh, yes," replied her sister. "This is what it says,"—pointing out each word with her finger as she read it:
"'Laws of the Floating Islands.(1) Be Cheerful.(2) Be Polite.Anyone Disobeying These LawsWill BePut In The CornerAndPainted Blue.'"
"Oh! Sothat'swhy nobody dresses in blue!" cried Frances. "I thought there must be some reason."
"Yes; and what a good thing it was we wore our pink dresses and flowered hair-ribbons today. Well, it is easy enough to learn these laws:—'Be cheerful. Be polite'. I know them already. What is this up here?"
All down one side of the doorway were a number of electric buttons, marked, 'Ice-cream', 'Cookies', 'Candy', 'Oranges', 'Bananas', and so forth, and at the bottom, showing how thoughtful the King was, 'Pepsin'.
"I suppose," said Frances, "if you want any of these things you just press the button. Do you think Mother would let us have a cooky. I'm rather hungry."
"I'm sure she would," replied her elder sister. "And I should like something to drink, too. See! Here are the things to drink on the other door post: 'Lemonade', 'Sherbet', and a lot of other things. What should we ask for? Lemonade?"
"Lemonade is good," remarked Frances. "What else is there?"
"Here's 'Aërated water'," Margaret spelled out. "Would you like that?"
"No," replied Frances. "That's that fizzy stuff. I like it, but it tickles my nose so. I don't think I want that. What's next?"
"'Plain water'," read Margaret.
"Oh, no. We can get plain water at home."
"'Aëro-plane water'" read Margaret. "I wonder what that is."
"I expect it's not so plain as plain water, and notso fizzy as fizzy water," replied Frances. "I think I should like to try it. Suppose you ask for a lemonade and I'll ask for an aëro-plane water, and then we can divide."
"Very well. Then I'll press these two buttons and you press the one marked 'Cookies.'"
They pressed the buttons accordingly, when, almost in no time, it seemed, they heard something gosnick, and turning in that direction they saw that a little cupboard door in the wall had flown open. Inside the cupboard was a tray with a plate of cookies upon it and two glasses, one, a big glass of lemonade with two straws in it, and the other, a smaller glass containing what appeared to be plain water with six round, fat bubbles floating about in it. On the edge of this glass, hanging by a little hook, was a pair of small tweezers.
"Why! What are they for?" exclaimed Frances, as she unhooked them and laid them on the tray. "What did they send us tweezers for?"
"I'm sure I don't know," replied her sister. "Perhaps we shall find out presently. Bring the tray over here, Frances, and put it on this little table. Ah! This lemonade is good! What does your aëro-plane water taste like?"
"Why, it doesn't taste like anything," repliedFrances, in a tone of some disappointment. "It's just plain water. They must have forgotten the 'aëro' part!"
"Perhaps the bubbles are the 'aëro' part," suggested Margaret.
"Oh, perhaps they are. I'll drink one."
But try as she might, she could not catch one of them. Every time she touched one with her lips it bobbed away—the bubbles were so large and so round and so slippery.
"The tweezers!" cried Margaret.
"Oh! Of course!" exclaimed Frances. "That's what the tweezers are for!"
Undoubtedly it was, for, with the help of the tweezers, Frances very soon caught a bubble and popped it into her mouth.
Margaret, watching her, saw her eyes sparkle and a look of pleased surprise come over her face.
"That tastes, does it?" she asked.
For half a minute Frances did not reply; all she said was, "M-m-m," keeping her lips shut tight as though to let none of the taste escape; but presently she opened her mouth and said:
"Yes, that tastes. It's the very nicest thing I ever did taste: like—let me see—like pine-apple and strawberry jam and—and—I can't think what else.Wait till I try another. There are five left. I'll take two more and leave the rest for you."
So saying, she caught two more bubbles and then passed over the glass to Margaret, who, in turn, passed over the half-finished lemonade to her sister. As she did so, she saw an odd expression come over Frances' face.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"I don't know," replied Frances. "I don't think there's anything the matter, but I have such a funny feeling—just as if I didn't weigh anything. I feel as if I wanted to get up and fly."
"Try, then," suggested Margaret. "Perhaps you can if you try. Try."
Frances, rather gingerly, got out of her chair, gave a flap with her arms and a little stamp with both feet, and up to the ceiling she went like a feather. It was a high ceiling, but she went up far enough to touch it with her fingers, when she began gently floating down again, her dress standing out all around like a pink umbrella. She looked so comical, with her elbows tucked into her sides and her fingers spread out, her lips puckered up and her eyebrows raised, that Margaret could not help laughing.
"Oh, what fun!" she cried, seizing the tweezers and the glass of aëro-plane water. "I'm coming too. Can you wait there, Frances?"