XXTHE VALLEY OF DANCING LEGS
PETERKIN’S next move, when he had sipped his Water of Bounceability and came flying across into the next valley, was to clap his hands over his ears. He had been deaf awhile ... and now that he could hear again, all the thousand noises of the earth and air frightened and bewildered him.
He was wondering what was wrong withthisvalley. There must besomethingwrong with it, of course. And he did not have to wait very long before he discovered.
A group of fat and puffing people jigged into view. Hop, hop—what could be the trouble with them? Why, they were dancing! Hop, hop—skippetty hop, with never a stop—puffing, panting, groaning with weariness, they danced a crazy path toward Peterkin.
“Hey, hey, stop!” cried he.
“We can’t stop,” grunted the chief of them. “If you want to talk to us, you’ll have to dance along.”
Then, before he could help himself, Peterkin had a dancing man, locked arms, on either side of him—and he was stamping, running, tripping, jigging along with them.
“Oh, heigh, stop! Let go of me—stop, stop!” he commanded, out of breath and red in the face.
“No, that’s just what we can’t do!” sighed the fat old chief. “We must dance on and on and on. Our legs are shot with pain, our lungs are like hot blasts, our feet are blistered and sore—but we cannot stop!”
Peterkin stumbled and fell flat. His two guides yanked him to his feet—then on and on in a breathless dance.
“Once,” went on the hoarse and puffing chief, “we were the happiest of all the Four Kingdoms. We were just plain, sensible, walk-along folk. We loved to rest and doze in the heat of the noon. We loved to lie about and let ourfields grow of themselves with rich wheat and tasselled corn. We were content to take our ease.
“Then, one lazy noon, there came into our midst—I don’t know whence—a toothless man.”
“What a villain this toothless enemy must be!” thought Peterkin, remembering all that had gone before.
“He was a genial farmer, it seemed to us,” continued the breathless chief, as they whirled along the road, uphill, downhill, in their ceaseless jig. “He lay down with us inthe shade of the trees and looked out across our fields and sucked his pipe through his toothless gums.
“‘Ah, this is rare comfort!’ he said in a cheery voice. ‘You seem to be a happy valleyful here.’
“‘Oh, aye,’ I answered him, ‘we love to take our ease.’
“‘Do you love that better than all else?’ he asked me slowly.
“I stretched my arms in sleepy comfort and nodded back with a smile. He looked at me slyly—ah, if I had only known what villainy was behind that twinkle in his eye! He rose slowly to his feet.
“‘I shall show you all a pretty dance,’ he said, baring his gums. ‘Just lie there in comfort—it will amuse you—yes, and givemegreat pleasure, too!’
“Then slowly, gently, he began to shuffle his feet. You would never have thought that he could be so nimble. In and out and round-about he pranced with fancy steps. It was so pleasant to be lying there in the cool shade and watching.... Then it seemed as if he were inviting us to join him. His brawny hands were beckoning; his smile said plainly: ‘Up, up—come along up and dance at my side.’
“First one and then the other of us struggled to his feet, and fell into a merry, jigging step. We laughed at the funof it—not a laggard in the valley but was dancing with him.
“We grew breathless and tired. We wanted to stop.But we couldn’t!When the toothless man saw this, he burst into a cruel roar of laughter:
“‘You would take your ease, eh?’ he mocked. ‘You loved more than all else to loll in the shade, eh? Well, henceforth you shall jig and dance from noon till night and night till noon in a never-ending wandering. Your ease is gone—and so’s your happiness! From now on, until I come again to free you, you shall be known as the Valley of Dancing Legs. Hee hee!’ and he was gone.”
“There came floating toward him in midair”
“There came floating toward him in midair”
“There came floating toward him in midair”