 
# THE LAND OF WALKING THROUGH CAKE

by

LARRY GOOD

Then Meri noticed some steps, around the side of the cake, leading up to the top of the cake---and above it.

The Tackling Dummy Press

**SMASHWORDS EDITION**

**Copyright © 2013 by Larry Good, All Rights Reserved.**

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-----The Tackling Dummy
ACROSS THE MISTERCALD is a series of six books:

Book One: The Tree of Ticket Leaves

_BOOK TWO: THE LAND OF WALKING THROUGH CAKE_

Book Three: A Favor for Sticktight

Book Four: The Flying Buffalo Unicorn

Book Five: Pumphrey The WaterSpout

Book Six: The Land of Now and Later
This book is dedicated to my Buffalo Unicorn son----who else but

JASON?!!?

("You did say a dedication, didn't you?")

(Burrrp!)

("Oh please. I don't deserve all that.")

Hi Jason!!

# ACROSS THE LANDS

Chapter One    The Silvery Monkeybars

Chapter Two    A Prize of Trying

Chapter Three    The Land of Geological Speed

Chapter Four    The Land of Lavender Thought

Chapter Five    New Friends

Chapter Six    The Solid Night of the Cake

Chapter Seven    A Conversation in Cake

Chapter Eight    Ello Ray

Chapter Nine    The Land of Lost N Lightning

Chapter Ten    The Land of Yellow Transportation

Chapter Eleven    The Scooters!

Chapter Twelve    The Not Small Surprise

Chapter Thirteen    The Sliding Board

Chapter Fourteen    Private Tornadoes

# Chapter I: _THE SILVERY MONKEYBARS_

"Did you see their canvas?" asked the Tackling Dummy wistfully, standing with his friends. His eyes were bright with that thought as they prepared to go on in the mild sunshine.

His own looked even shabbier---now that he had seen theirs. He didn't know yet that being dropped on his head so many times by the croapfs, and being body-blocked mercilessly, had made his canvas even worse than he thought. His head had several small splits now and a tear behind his left ear that Meri _knew_ hadn't been there before.

"It was unbelievable," she admitted, and didn't say any more because she didn't want to hurt his feelings by continuing to talk about how wonderful _their_ canvas was---when his was so bad. But she _had_ been impressed by the extraordinary shining canvas of the four bowlers.

"If only _he_ could get that," she dreamed to herself for him, walking along. She was careful not to say it aloud, though.

From being a vibrant light raspberry color, Jethro was back to his normal look again: tan and white and yellow and brown and gold, with some black here and there, which included his two shorter black horns. They were on either side of his large head. He was gold mainly on one side. The tip of his long white unicorn was emitting tiny soft rays as the four of them prepared to continue down the center of the border like Amelia, as before---only this time at a normal pace.

Behind them, some of the dummies from The Land of Fields were picking up the paper airplanes left scattered all over the border.

Strangely, there was still one croapf lying near the line of trees, not too far away. He was the one who had been hit and carried away so abruptly by the first bowling ball arriving so unexpectedly through the air. He had already started to walk home, but had collapsed again, still on the border.

Something looked odd about him. As they continued to gaze, the travelers realized what it was: he looked _normal_. The disturbing intensity was gone from his face.

While continuing to lie there, he had been watching them too. He now stood up, brushed himself off slightly, and began walking over to Wut and the others. Apparently he was much better. They waited for him.

This croapf's hair was almost gold in color. "Nuggety, is that you?" asked the question mark, tilting his head and purposely re-focusing his green eyes, surprised. I hadn't recognized you when you were chasing us. You all looked so different. What's going on?" he asked, echoing the Tackling Dummy's simple question earlier. His tone was astonishingly gentle, Meri thought, as he questioned the croapf.

"I think something's gone wrong with us," replied the croapf in a sad and forlorn way. His eyes looked especially dark---there was a deep and obvious pain in them. As Meri looked and listened, she felt herself feeling sorry for the desolate croapf, and she understood Wut's gentleness better. He had known them long before this problem began, she remembered. He had known them before something had gone wrong with their land.

"But you know what?" Nuggety continued more positively, giving the results of some of his thoughts as he had been lying by himself at the edge of the border. "I think the force of that boomerang bowling ball knocked me back _right_ again. It certainly surprised---and shocked---me." With one hand he rubbed his chest and with the other he felt his head, which had banged noticeably hard against a tree limb as he had flown backward through the air.

"I wish we could hit _all of you_ with light raspberry boomerang bowling balls," Wut immediately replied, bouncing up and down on the grass. Nuggety's eyes widened. But then he smiled and shook his head in agreement.

Meri noticed how attractive and nice Nuggety was. His words seemed to confirm the little bit Wut had said about The Land of the Croapfs. She remembered he had said that the croapfs were especially nice. This was the first time she had had a chance to think so herself.

Seeing what the croapfs were actually like---without something being wrong with them---Meri and the Tackling Dummy began to forgive them. This was really generous of the Tackling Dummy, who had suffered permanent damage to his canvas from their wild treatment.

"I want to tell you that I'm inexpressibly sorry," Nuggety said sincerely to Meri and the Tackling Dummy, "for myself and the others, and I hope beyond hope that we do nothing _else_ to you---although I can't promise you that. To be perfectly frank, we probably _will_ do something else to you---although not me, of course. I've been knocked back right again." He looked very downcast and regretful as he made this apology.

But he looked back up again after he finished these words.

The Tackling Dummy forgave him completely as soon as he used the word "inexpressibly." He loved adverbs. He also liked Nuggety and thought that he was sincere.

"Don't worry," said Wut astonishingly gently again, bouncing easily on the grass of the border. He laid his small black hand comfortingly around Nuggety's shoulder. "At least _one_ of you is back right now---that's a start. And maybe you can help the others."

"I'll do that," Nuggety replied eagerly. "I mean, I'll _try_ ," he said, immediately turning away and starting to walk in the direction of The Land of the Croapfs---to his left.

But then he added, less enthusiastically, over his right shoulder as he walked and thought about it, "But I think it's going to take more than me. Please also do what _you_ can, too, Wut, if you can think of anything. You know we need _you, especially_ _now_. We're going to be _so_ embarrassed when all of this is over, and in the meantime, _please_ , we don't want to do any more damage to anyone." He looked meaningfully at the Tackling Dummy. His voice was a mixture of a little hope and a lot of worry.

Waving once again from the other side of the border, he continued walking with his head hung down with embarrassment and worry. He was thinking _very_ hard.

Meri hated to see his head hung down like that.

"It's sad," said Wut, bouncing higher to see Nuggety one more time. The croapf's head was still bent over. Wut's face was sympathetic when he turned back to his friends.

"Out of _all_ the croapfs, he is probably the _only_ one who is _right_ , right now," he said. "He's on his way back to try to help the others who are obviously extremely difficult to help. Look what it took to help _him_! I can understand his concern. Right now the weight of the whole land is on his shoulders."

Wut started to think about The Lands again. But then he unexpectedly added, "Something's got to be done. But unfortunately I don't know what it is." His tones indicated his genuine frustration. He said nothing more and instead, surprising the others, turned and bounced directly toward the land on the other side of the border. They were going to leave the border and cross _another_ land, the one _next_ _to_ , or to the left of, the land entered by the bowlers not that long ago.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy felt helpless about the problems they were hearing about. There was nothing they could do. And they didn't completely understand, since they hadn't been in The Lands that long. Following along behind the thoughtful question mark, they naturally began to look around again.

Jethro was walking hugely and also thoughtfully on their right. It wasn't like him to say so little. Meri wondered about him.

Now that there was an opportunity, she had something special to say to her friend the Tackling Dummy. It was a good time, because he was even more discouraged about his canvas. There were definitely new tears and holes in it!

The croapfs had not been gentle!

Walking along, and thinking, the Tackling Dummy remembered that he had set out on this trip to _improve_ his canvas. But it was getting _worse_! At the same time, unselfishly he also was feeling sorry for Wut. He had noticed the contrast between the beautiful lands and the anxiety of his new friend. Wut was so obviously good that he unquestionably deserved better.

Meri could see that the Tackling Dummy was troubled. She was glad about what she needed to say.

"Thank you for your cross-body block back there," she said, reaching over to put her hand on his thready shoulder. "It was so important. And you did it absolutely perfectly! I don't think it could have been done any better! I can't thank you enough for being so selfless, and I'd give anything if you hadn't had to sacrifice some of your precious self to try to help me. It was one of the most generous things I've ever seen." Stopping her friend for a moment, she gave him a big hug and held onto him meaningfully.

"You'll get it fixed," she assured him in a low but caring and determined voice in his ear. She had seen him looking at the damage.

"I wish it _had_ been _important_ ," he responded gently, stepping back to look down into her eyes. He was obviously doubtful about her choice of that word, thinking that he had failed. He didn't want to contradict her, but it had been frustrating and even embarrassing to him that the croapfs had humiliated him so badly following his effort.

"The croapfs caught you anyway," he said sadly, adding, "and I was almost _nothing_ to them. I really couldn't help." And he looked away for a moment.

Meri gave him another quick hug and looked up into his face. "Don't you _know_?" she asked, with affection and approving laughter in her voice, looking directly at him. " _You_ saved us, too! Not just the bowlers!"

"I did?"

"Yes," said Meri, certain. "Your cross-body block allowed me to slow down, catch my breath, and then to run farther than I _ever_ would have been able to, if you hadn't. If you hadn't made that block, they would have caught me long before we reached The Help Button. And then we wouldn't have been saved by Picups, Cresco, Nox, and Trutina. We would never have seen those wonderful bowling balls or met the four of them! Although they saved us, you made it _possible_ for them to save us! That was _very_ important. Thank you, my friend, and I'm so sorry about the extra tears in your canvas. You don't look too much worse." She wouldn't look too hard, though.

"And just think of what might have happened to _me_ ," she added. "I'm not quite as soft as you are, and I might really have been hurt. _I 'm_ so much more fragile than you! _You_ _probably saved my life! "_

The Tackling Dummy thought for a moment. Had he really helped save them? He went back over what happened in his mind, remembering how carefully he had thrown the block. He had been so mistreated by the croapfs after he had knocked them all down that he hadn't been able to see Meri able to catch her breath and to run farther before being caught. Finally, a small smile crossed his face.

"Yeah," he admitted softly. "I _did_ get to help. Thanks," he said to Meri, looking meaningfully into the eyes of his young flesh and blood friend. "And don't worry about the canvas. It was worth it if you're not hurt."

"That _was_ a good block," commented the question mark, who had noticed that his friends had slowed down to talk, and bounced back to them.

With the Tackling Dummy in much better spirits, they continued again, crossing the edge of the border into the land on that side.

Jethro had been listening carefully to all the accounts of what had happened. Meri noticed that he too was much less talkative than usual as he walked enormously beside her. He too seemed troubled.

Finally he spoke. "I should have stayed with you all," he said in his deep voice. He was the least whimsical that Meri had seen him since they had first met in The Autumnforest. There was genuine regret---even a hint of guilt---in his eyes.

Clearly he believed he had let his friends down by leaving them.

"If I had been there, if I didn't always wander away like I like to do, I could have tossed them away like nothing," he mentioned sorrowfully, meaning the croapfs. Meri noticed just the slightest hint of pride in his voice, at his great strength. It was strange to hear him suggest that he might do something violent, when he was the most whimsical, and probably the gentlest creature that she had ever met.

She didn't think that he ever could have hurt the croapfs. For how could he have permanently damaged dummies made out of yarn, with a unicorn---however long and sharp---or a hoof? He would probably have solved the problem by just scaring them away, with his massive size and dangerous appearance.

He was feeling very bad, though, about his absence. Although he was so huge, he had sensitive feelings. At that moment, with his unicorn he playfully and gently drew a circle in the air around some butterflies that were flying by. He was very careful not to hit them, though. Then, wrinkling his forehead with dissatisfaction, he continued to walk along, with his head lowered a little.

Although Jethro had spoken to all three of them, Meri was the one who answered, after thinking about what he had said.

"We all know how much you care about us," she said to her huge friend. "It means quite a lot to each of us that you do. And you love to wander around, visiting the neighboring lands in The Lands. Who wouldn't love to do that? You always have, and it's made you happy, so it must be a good thing. Please don't blame yourself. It wouldn't be reasonable for you to give that up, on just the _possibility_ that something might happen. We wouldn't want you to. We want you to be happy. And think of the _good_ things in what happened, as I told the Tackling Dummy. If we hadn't found The Help Button, we---the Tackling Dummy and I---wouldn't have met Picups and Trutina and Cresco and Nox, and we're so glad we did! We wouldn't have seen how they looked in their surprising canvas, or have had the unforgettable sight of the boomerang bowling balls in the air. I wouldn't have gotten a chance to see The Help Button almost hidden in the grass and to find out about it. So you see, you don't have to feel bad or to blame yourself---it worked out for the best. And you certainly deserve to be yourself, because you are one of the finest of anybody I ever knew."

Jethro glanced over at her with his large brown eyes, which for just a moment became a little misty. For the first time in his life, he truly didn't know what to say. He just blinked.

"And I got a chance to throw my cross-body block," enthusiastically added in the Tackling Dummy, who was listening closely.

"Yes," said Meri.

With all these words, Jethro quickly became himself again. The whimsical look returned to his eyes. Wut, who was listening, agreed with Meri, but he kept his head bent down because he was worrying about The Lands.

They walked by the base of another little hill, going around it on the right, and then climbed right to the top of another one that was directly on their way. Reaching the summit, they stopped, because it was high enough to give them a better view of The Lands in all directions. There were a lot of small pleasant hills in this land.

It was the best view Meri and the Tackling Dummy had had of The Lands so far. They were _everywhere,_ and the Tackling Dummy and Meri were still seeing only some of them!

So far, however, they hadn't seen anything unusual about _this_ particular land. Meri wondered about it, looking around. Then she saw something shiny in the distance. Something sparkling softly, and sometimes more brightly, in the sunshine.

It was near a small hill.

They were walking directly toward whatever it was . Of course Wut was bouncing, not walking.

Their progress was a little slow because Wut was thinking so hard. He was leading and thinking at the same time! Meri Dian took the opportunity to look all around her at the pretty vistas of The Lands when they reached the top of each small hill---because they had started walking _over_ each one, instead of around them.

But her eyes kept coming back to the shiny object she had seen. Wut seemed to be leading them toward it on purpose. She still couldn't figure out what it was. They were looking at it mostly from an _end_ view, she decided. What she needed was a _side_ view.

The closer they came, the more intensely curious she became!

Looking over at Jethro, she caught his eye, but he just shrugged and looked away whimsically---although there was _another_ little light in both of his large brown eyes that she might have paid more attention to if she had known him better.

She should have remembered how _playful_ he is! He won't give away anything in advance, if he can remain just quiet and let someone be surprised---like he likes to be! The Tackling Dummy, also curious about the shiny object, kept looking at it and wondering too. He couldn't figure out what it was either.

Jethro then whimsically closed _both_ of his eyes as he walked. He wasn't going to talk about it---the shiny object---even though Meri kept looking at him quizzically. Then Wut, still thinking deeply while bouncing, led them to the right around the base of a very wide hill, instead of over it, although it wasn't high at all. He knew what he was doing! Because when they came around the side of the hill out into the open again, their change of direction allowed them to see the shiny object _from the side_ for the first time!

And they were closer!

Clearly standing on the grass, not far away, was _a silvery monkeybars!_

It was the usual wide upsidedown U with crossbars on the top to swing on.

Standing in the sun, it released both bright and soft moments of silver to the eyes of the travelers, although Jethro still had his closed. He _was_ secretly trying to see through his eyelids, though. Wut wasn't paying attention either. He was looking almost straight down at the grass in front of his bouncing black period. His mind was traveling to different places in The Lands where, unfortunately, there were problems that he was worrying about.

Meri had always loved monkeybars. And by this time she had gotten back _all_ of her energy after running so hard from the croapfs down the center of the border that looks like Amelia. Loving to run, and wanting to again after her long run before, suddenly she zipped forward, straight toward the sparkling spectacle. The gentle downwardness of the slope there enabled her to approach it very swiftly.

Apparently her sudden departure startled Wut into looking up. But in her eagerness to be on the sparkling bars---she had never seen any _so_ _bright or so unusual_ before---Meri paid little attention when he called out an offer, "Want to let me explain something about this land first, Dear?"

There was a _very special tone_ in his voice that suggested she might want to think about what she was doing before she continued.

But she just ignored it, too eager about the monkeybars. She didn't see any reason for an explanation just when she had almost reached the inviting upright on the nearest end. She was too excited. He could tell her in a minute! After all, she was just going to swing across once---and probably back too. Then she would be right there for him to say to her anything he wanted. In her mind, it seemed like a reasonable plan.

"Perhaps there _is_ something different about this land after all," she thought. "That we haven't noticed yet."

She was definitely interested.

But first, she couldn't resist these sparkling monkeybars! She had never seen any shining and sparking like these before!

Reaching the hard glistening round steps, quickly she climbed up and, skipping the first two rungs, swung outward into space.

As always, the first few bars pulled at her hands more than she was expecting. They were unused to carrying such weight. But, as always, too, they adjusted. She liked sailing across on her own arms. Surprisingly, her arms didn't immediately feel tired, as they usually did---too quickly. Rather than slow down halfway across, in fact, as usual, she was actually able _to pick up speed_. At that height, the light colors of The Lands swirled by the corners of her eyes. She felt very light herself and very good.

About three fourths of the way across, however, she finally paid more attention to the swirling of the colors of The Lands by her eyes as she reached up to grasp each bar. It shouldn't have been _that_ much, she thought. She was just going across a monkeybars! Then with a great shock she noticed the grass below. It was swirling by below her, too!

" _This monkeybars is moving! "_ she exclaimed.

It was sailing along on the grass which was _almost a blur_ below. In astonishment, she stopped swinging and just hung straight down. The sparkling monkeybars continued to move until it glided smoothly to another sparkling standstill on the grass. The light from the sky seemed to love coming down to it. Then it simply stood motionless in the air again.

Meri quickly released her hands and dropped. Standing below, she suspiciously glanced up at the shining bars overhead and the silvery upposts at either end. The monkeybars looked solid. Everything was absolutely motionless, and it seemed impossible that _any_ part of it could _ever_ have moved.

After all, a monkeybars _never_ moves!

She looked at it again, doubting what had just happened.

But when she looked back, she saw that her friends were _away in the distance_! And _small_ , although running and bouncing toward her!

With his long bounces, Wut was much closer than the others. About halfway back again, Jethro was running toward her in an uncoordinated way that nevertheless seemed to work. His legs and feet were flying out in unexpected directions. The Tackling Dummy had lost some of his speed because of the cotton he had recently lost again, but he was able to keep up with Jethro.

Wut came bouncing up in surprisingly long arcs. Slowing down almost to a stop near the end of the monkeybars, he didn't stop, but bounced right up to the crossbars in the middle of the silvery island, took hold---and began swinging.

Meri drew her breath in sharply as the wide upsidedown U sped away, rapidly. Wut was a blur in the air, reaching for bar after bar. With her mouth open, Meri stood and watched the spectacle of silvery motion that she had unknowingly set off herself before.

Traveling around in a wide circle, Wut expertly brought back the shining vehicle, which, gliding silently and gently to a stop, stood shinily again near the speechless girl.

Needless to say, she had never witnessed a monkeybars like _this_ before!

As she stood close to it again, looking at it with a small smile on her face, a new appreciation of this obviously very special monkeybars developed in her eyes. She also felt a little awkward and even somewhat embarrassed, however, realizing that in her haste and ignorance she had done something completely _out of control_. When she had swung on the monkeybars, _she had had no idea what she was doing!_

"I'd better be more careful in the future---and I _mean_ it," she prodded herself quietly, as her appreciation of the monkeybars continued to grow. Realizing even more how _right_ that idea was, she then added, still whispering to herself, "You're learning." This was a phrase that her Aunt Am often said to her. She had always liked it, but she had never thought she would be saying it to herself.

There _was_ a lot to learn about in The Lands!

"You see," said Wut, who had dropped down and was now bouncing under the middle, "This is no ordinary monkeybars."

The Tackling Dummy was just walking up with Jethro.

Wut's statement, clearly, was absolutely unnecessary. But he liked to explain, and he liked to be thorough, so he continued.

"When you swing on it, it flows effortlessly along the ground, taking you wherever you want to go. When I hinted back in The Autumnforest that we might get to The Land of Pink Windmills faster than might be expected, and when later I suggested that we might be lucky, I was thinking of this. But I didn't want to say any more, because usually the monkeybars isn't even here in _The Land of the Monkeybars_ ---it's often in some other land where someone has left it, or on its way back. When someone uses it and leaves it behind, it slowly travels back here---a little distance at a time, each night. Several days might be required for it to return. And in the meantime, those in other lands, the lands it's crossing, have the opportunity to use it too. So there was a good chance that it wouldn't be here. We _were_ lucky."

Meri nodded, looking questioningly again at the monkeybars, trying to absorb what Wut had just said. It was beautifully luminous in the light---and perfectly still.

"Get on," Wut invited, bouncing up and taking hold again. He looked unusual like that, with his period suspended below, in mid-air. Also his curve was stretched out a little.

"I'll swing first. Now, we'll make _much_ better time." He was clearly pleased---and _everyone_ was glad something had happened to make him stop worrying so much.

Meri once more ascended one end of the glittering equipment. But she climbed up to the top this time, followed by the Tackling Dummy.

"What about me?" asked Jethro, still on the grass, looking just a little disappointed and feeling completely left out as the others climbed up. Everyone was now on the monkeybars but him.

"What _about_ you?" Wut replied, looking over his shoulder at his enormous and obviously envious friend. "Let me see. I think that depends on how fast you can run. I think it depends on which is faster, you or this monkeybars. Do you agree to _a short race_ , to find out? And also to answer your question, 'What about me?'?"

It was a challenge---a friendly one. And a surprising one, to Meri and the Tackling Dummy listening above.

The monkeybars _had_ obviously lifted Wut's spirits!

Jethro never turned down a challenge. Wut had known he wouldn't.

And he loved to race, as Wut knew he did.

"I do think I'm getting faster," replied the great Buffalo Unicorn, with confidence, hinting at perhaps a marvelous change in himself---that yes, perhaps, he just _might_ now be able to outrun the monkeybars, known in The Lands for its silver streaking speed.

There was something else, important to him. He was never able to resist the idea of trying to do something that others didn't think he could do. He liked that challenge. _Clearly he was sincerely prepared to outrace the shining spectacle_ that had just given two impressive samples of its glittering speed.

Or to sincerely try to, anyway.

His spiraling white unicorn was emitting tiny rays around the very end, as it usually did in the daytime. Ordinarily, when he wasn't excited, they could hardly be noticed. Now the tip was almost aglow, matching his eyes, which also had an intentionally steely look.

He loved a race.

That was why his large eyes also continued to have that whimsical look, too, no matter how hard he tried to look fiercely competitive. He just loved to be in a race, no matter how impossible.

And he always tried to win.

"I just hope you won't be too disappointed," he said to his punctuated friend hanging down. They had been good friends in The Lands for longer than either could remember.

"Let's go, then!" countered Wut, sailing out with enthusiasm. The Tackling Dummy and Meri, sitting on top, felt the sensation of motion as the monkeybars suddenly glided softly forward. Both smiled at the feeling and at the unexpected and novel idea _of actually riding on a monkeybars!_

Below, although he wasn't that coordinated, Jethro surprised them by darting out like a shot ahead. The look on his face, the way he was biting his lip, suggested a driving determination to be surprisingly fast.

And he was, for the moment.

As for the question mark, he had a tolerant, affectionate look in his green eyes, out in space on either side of his face. He already knew there was _no way_ Jethro could win. All over The Lands, everyone knows that the fastest speed across the surface of The Lands is the speed of the monkeybars. And that the _second_ fastest belongs to one of the dummies in The Land of Pink Windmills---where the travelers were going.

Jethro was probably the only one, other than this especially fast dummy, who was audacious enough to seriously try to exceed the speed of the monkeybars!

The monkeybars rushed soundlessly forward across the grass behind Jethro. Already running at full speed, and faster than he had ever run in his life, he was a sight to behold! His huge mass was full of uncoordinated motion! His legs were flying in all directions, in a ball!

He was going unpredictably fast!

The monkeybars, with Meri and the Tackling Dummy watching on top, and the question mark swinging energetically below, was also a sight to behold!

Releasing bright moments of silver into the surrounding landscapes, the warm silvery rectangle crossed the grass with an ease that continued to surprise and delight the two passengers sitting above. Colors began to swirl by the outside corners of their eyes.

Meanwhile, ahead, Jethro darted a glance back and congratulated himself that he was winning.

# Chapter II: _A PRIZE OF TRYING_

Sitting on top, with both legs hanging over the left side, the Tacking Dummy leaned slightly forward, with a hand on each of the two long sidebars. Meri was sitting on the right, facing the Tackling Dummy, her legs dangling through two of the shorter crossbars. Sometimes she didn't even hold on, knowing her feet would catch her if she fell backwards.

They were enjoying the amusing sight of Jethro trying to run _faster_ than he actually could.

He would need to if he were to outrace the silvery monkeybars!

Uncoordinated, the motion of his body was shooting in all directions as he ran. He was definitely fun to look at. Urging himself extraordinarily fast over the top of another small hill ahead, he disappeared from view.

Meri noticed that Wut hadn't tried to accelerate very fast when Jethro had launched ahead. He just took his time. But the monkeybars quickly accelerated as Wut began to swing faster and faster.

She also noticed something else very unusual about the monkeybars. _Wut never seemed to be able to reach the end._ There just always seemed to be more bars ahead of him.

"That's what lets him keep swinging," she realized.

She carefully observed, too, that he guided the monkeybars by swinging either on the left or to the right side of the small crossbars his hands were reaching for. To go straight ahead, he simply swung straight down the middle, and the monkeybars flew forward in a perfect line.

As the shining silvery steps, bent into an upside U, passed the top of the small hill they had seen Jethro cross, they could see their huge friend flying across the middle of a green area of grass ahead, struggling harder than ever to extract more speed from his flying feet.

But it was no use. The monkeybars skimmed lightly, effortlessly, with glistening silver motion that was actually quite wonderful, over the grass behind him. It came up to and easily overtook the panting and suffering immense Buffalo Unicorn. He knew what had happened when he and the grass around him were suddenly coated with bars of flashing silver light.

And then he saw it go on by.

At his defeat, Jethro simply collapsed into a great heap.

The monkeybars had attained so much speed by this time that Wut had trouble slowing it down. But with expert swinging---as Meri had noticed---he went around in quite an unforgettable circle and returned to Jethro.

The great Buffalo Unicorn was lying stretched out on his back and panting loudly when they got there. His legs and feet were straight up in the air. There were momentary looks of disappointment and defeat in his eyes as the gleaming bars came silently to a halt beside him.

Meri noticed also, however, a look of whimsical triumph in his eyes.

"Why?" she wondered.

"I didn't do it," he admitted between pants as the two on top climbed down and Wut dropped down, bouncing. All three stood beside him---if Wut's bouncing can be called _standing_.

You couldn't help but love this great Buffalo Unicorn lying there recovering from trying the impossible, feeling both defeat and disappointment that he had failed, but also enjoying the emotional surge of having tried a difficult thing. He also simply liked being with his friends, whom he knew were with him in his efforts---however ridiculous.

But in fact he _was_ a little disappointed---he didn't like to fail. Because of his great good nature, however, you couldn't tell exactly how disappointed he really was. After all, he had known in advance how fast the monkeybars can go. All that he would say was, "I didn't do it. I tried my very best, but I didn't do it."

His whimsical nature seemed to be trying to come forward, but his spirit of adventure was causing him to be a little downcast---if only for the moment. Meri and the Tackling Dummy were beginning to learn that all over The Lands, Jethro tried everything he could, in spite of his great size and weight. He often actually succeeded, too, in unexpected and zany ways. And even when he _didn 't_ succeed, after he thought about it he often _was satisfied_ because of the adventure of _trying._

He had a great spirit of trying.

"That's right, you didn't do it," said Wut, smiling. He was springing up and down rhythmically on the grass, beside the unbelievable volume of his friend. "But you did win a prize."

Jethro's eyes looked around, interested, although he kept his large head on the soft ground after his momentous effort.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "How did I win a prize? What prize?"

"How many would even have _tried_ to outrun the monkeybars, which everyone already knows has---by far---the fastest speed across the surface of The Lands?

"But _you_ did," he continued. " _You_ had _the spirit of trying_. You tried the impossible, although you knew you were trying what no one has ever done, or even thought anyone---except possibly Fico---could ever do. And you genuinely tried your very best, as you admitted yourself. And even more than that, _you exceeded yourself, you tried so hard_. That's quite an accomplishment in itself. And so, I believe you deserve a prize."

"Oh please," interrupted Jethro, becoming embarrassed. "I don't deserve all that." A whimsical look was beginning to return to his eyes, however, as he looked curiously at his friend to figure out what he was trying to do to him. He didn't see any prize.

"A prize?" he repeated, to keep the conversation going.

"I call it _A Prize of Trying_ ," Wut explained, bouncing up and down on the grass with a---so far--- _inscrutable_ expression on his face, "although it's really a prize of spirit. No one could doubt it took unusual spirit to challenge the monkeybars, and to follow through like you did, doing your very best, when the chance of success was so overwhelmingly against you."

"Oh, please," interjected the Buffalo Unicorn, squirming a little with embarrassment. Then he added, looking around again for it,

"You did say _a prize_ , didn't you?"

"Yes," answered Wut. "Get up." And Wut bounced under the bars again, obviously getting ready to spring up and swing again.

Jethro was caught off guard.

"' _Get up? '"_ he repeated, quickly unsprawling himself, gathering himself quickly on his feet, and looking around.

"What do you mean?"

" _Get up_ ," repeated the question mark, pointing up to the top of the gleaming monkeybars. "That's your prize. For all the spirit that you've always had---all over The Lands---and for trying the impossible, so hard, this one time. _A Prize of Trying_. You get to ride on top."

Jethro looked up. Tears almost came to his eyes---or they did, and he quickly blinked them away. _He had never ridden on the monkeybars before!_ And he had _always_ wanted to---secretly.

Embarrassed because of his great size and the seeming absurdity of anyone as large as himself riding on the top of it, and hesitant to ask favors anyway, since he liked to do things for himself, he had _never_ asked anyone going by on the shining vehicle to take him for a ride. He had ridden it many times in his imagination when he had seen others going by on it---but now---this time---it looked like the secret wish that he had withheld from everyone for so long was going to come true!

Beaming, he walked hugely right around to one of the boarding ends and raised his great front right hoof to the first hard silvery crossbar.

"Be careful," prompted Meri, as the huge Buffalo Unicorn cautiously, step by step, awkwardly, holding onto the sides of the monkeybars in any way he could, slowly ascended.

He used his feet, and even his unicorn, in unaccustomed ways, and finally, _somehow_ , _managed to get himself up on top._

He was immense up there!

The others clapped when he settled down on the end and glanced around, with an unforgettable look on his face. He appeared outlandishly funny up there, too. The Tackling Dummy and Meri climbed over him, laughing, to regain their own places.

"Ready?" asked Wut, rising up on a higher bounce and taking hold. Assured by the others, he began swinging, and the sparkling rectangle glided forward again, this time with Jethro on top with the others.

His great weight didn't seem to bother the monkeybars at all.

Jethro had never been that high before when he was going through The Lands, and he looked around with supreme enjoyment as the varied scenery began to flow by again. Meri and the Tackling Dummy also looked with intense interest as they moved with what seemed effortless silvery motion through each new land.

Of course, effort _was_ required. From Wut. But not much.

Meri began to feel much much better _: they were now, at last,_ moving rapidly through The different Lands toward The Land of Pink Windmills and The Tree of Ticket Leaves, which was at that very moment standing somewhere, in the sunshine, inside that very land. They were beginning to move so fast, in fact, that Meri hopefully thought that---perhaps---Aunt Am wouldn't have to be worried for too long after all.

Perhaps she could even get back that day! she still hoped.

That was _still_ her secret wish. They were obviously covering an enormous distance.

The landscapes began to be hard to see. Then they became nothing but a continuous blur which became lighter and lighter as their speed continued to increase. Wut's arms were swinging crazily, Meri saw as she looked down in wonder. She and the Tackling Dummy grasped the hard silvery sides harder and harder to maintain their balance on top in the rushing air.

"Ha!" said Jethro, a bright look in each of his large brown eyes. He was enjoying the unbelievable speed. His fur was being swept straight backwards, as was Meri's hair.

"Don't worry," shouted Wut from below. "Just wanted to give you an idea of the possible speed of the monkeybars. That's enough, though. I think you have an idea. The way was clear back there, but not as much from now on. Back to normal speed."

By just hanging on a single crossbar for an appropriate number of moments, he let the monkeybars glide for a long distance on its own motion only, and it gradually slowed down.

The scenery around them turned back into colors and shapes and numerous objects which were visible again, and the passengers turned their attention back to watching it go by.

Jethro enjoyed waving to many passersby, who seemed to appreciate, both at a distance and close by, the humorous novelty of his greatness being up on top of the monkeybars. Many laughed as they waved. Meri and the Tackling Dummy liked looking at the different lands and the dummies, too, as everything was new to them.

Having been curious all this time about something, Meri at last had an opportunity to ask the Tackling Dummy.

"Remember your long word in The Land of Handwriting Speech?" Meri asked her nearby canvas friend. "Polycotyledonous, I think it was. I liked the sound of it, and I like to say it in my mind. When I think of it, it seems like a small song by itself, although it's just one word. A small song. _Polycotyledonous_. But what does it mean?"

The question pleased him. It made him remember his confinement in the locker room for so long, which was not that good a memory. However, he had now escaped. It also brought to mind his unabridged dictionary there, which was a very good memory.

"A small song," he repeated. "I like that." A thinking look had appeared in his eyes for a moment, along with the liking look, which suggested that he wanted to remember that idea.

"It's about a seed," he willingly explained, the passing air playing with the edges of the rips in his canvas. "It means that when a seed with that description is planted, and comes up, it will have _many_ tiny leaves, instead of just one or two. At least three."

"I think I might have heard about that!" Meri replied, recalling a long ago conversation with her mother. "I thought the word sounded a little familiar when you said it, and now I know why. My mother knows a lot about plants, and I think she used it one day. She's been teaching me."

"Successfully?" asked her friend, his canvas looking more shabby than ever, now that Meri was so close and could hardly help looking at it. Also, they were up in the light on top of the spectacular monkeybars.

His question showed that he had read her tones and facial expressions correctly.

"I'll try to listen better _the next time_ ," she confided, sincerely wishing she had been more interested in her mother's efforts. _Especially_ since thinking about her mother at that moment made her miss her desperately. She might not see her for a long long time, and perhaps _never_ again in person. She had to face the truth, she made herself realize painfully, remembering where she was as the scenery of so many of The Lands continued to flow by.

"How could there possibly be so many of them?" she wondered in the back of her mind.

She thought about her mother's many plants around the house, always carefully tended, and her designs in flowers so memorably across the grass. More cheerfully, she wondered what her mother might plant about The Lands, if Meri did somehow get back and told her about them. It was fun to think about it! Closing her eyes, she briefly thought wistfully of her home and her mother.

"Do you have another favorite long word that you like?" she asked, opening her eyes, suddenly realizing the Tackling Dummy was still looking at her.

He became thoughtful for a number of seconds. Then he said hesitatingly, "It's really hard to choose. But _one_ I like is _autodidactor_." He spoke hesitatingly because he didn't expect anyone else to like the words he liked, or, if they did, to appreciate them as much.

But, "Oh, I like that one too," Meri answered right away, liking the tiny spirit of the word---to her, it wasn't a shy word. "It's like a small song, too, not quite as pretty, but different---a little stronger. Could you use it in a sentence?"

"You know," said the Tackling Dummy, "I'm a little glad you said that. There's something I've been meaning to mention to you, but we've been so busy. I've wanted to ask you if it happens to you. Sometimes when I'm thinking, which I like to do, interesting sentences---usually very short---start coming spontaneously into my mind. They come just right---I mean, I already like the way they sound---although sometimes I do make small changes. I've memorized many of them. When I get my new canvas, I'm going to write them all down."

Meri looked at him with new respect. She was definitely intrigued. Sentences _didn 't_ spontaneously come into _her_ mind. She noticed that the more she learned about the Tackling Dummy, the more interesting he was.

"Like?" she prompted.

The Tackling Dummy hesitated another second, as he had before saying the second long word, and then he replied, "My favorite is, _Reading is a light_. I think it's my favorite because I taught myself to read, and I know what it's done for me. Anyway, one day that thought just suddenly came into my mind."

"' _Reading is a light_ ,'" Meri repeated, looking directly at him, now _more_ intrigued. _It did sound just right!_

In fact, it was perfect. And only four words. "How did you think of _that_?" she asked, impressed. "It sounds exactly perfect to me. And I also think it's pretty."

"Pretty?" echoed her friend, opening his eyes and his mind a little wider. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I was just hanging out in the practice field one day, thinking about reading, when I looked at the sun at the same time, and the thought suddenly came into my mind. It seemed so right to me that I hardly noticed being tackled that day. I've thought of it many times since, and it cheers me up every time.

"In fact, I think that's a new one right there--- _Reading cheers me up_. I'm going to try to remember that too!"

"' _Reading is a light_ ,'" pondered Meri. "Yes, I think it is. _Reading cheers me up._ Me too." She immediately began to think of reading in those ways.

Becoming interested, she asked thoughtfully, "Have you thought of any other sentences about reading?"

"Yes, in fact I did," he replied, searching his mind. "At least one other one that I can remember now. It's, _Unsheathe your bookmark_. I think I thought of that because I'm against violence. I'd rather fight against what I don't know with a bookmark than against someone."

"That is so neat," she responded laughing. "I'd like to see a bookmark carried like that!"

"Can you say another one," she asked after a moment or two thinking about that funny idea.

" _You are the frontier_ ," he said.

"I am?" asked Meri. "Yes, I am," she stated, before he could answer. She knew what he meant. "Another?" she requested, although she really wanted to think more about each one. But she was too curious to wait. It was fun hearing these. But how could they come straight into his mind without thinking?

" _Now is the perfect moment_."

That one was easy to like, too, and she nodded, to say so. Once again she wanted to think about it, but instead said, "Another?"

" _Leaves lift trees_."

"That's simply perfect," she responded, thinking of her mother again and how much she would like that extremely short statement. "And just three words," she added. "Another?"

" _Eyes are the feet of distant knowing_. I thought of this because I was a prisoner," he explained. "And it refers to reading, too."

That one seemed right, too, _for her eyes did let her know things that were at a distance!_ She wanted to think more about that statement of just seven words, too, but she would have to do it later, she decided.

"Two more?" she inquired.

" _Sunbeams are streams of revenue for plants_ ," he said first,

  and then

" _Night is a background for wonder_."

Meri was immediately sorry she had asked for two at a time, because each one competed with the other in her mind for attention.

"You _do_ think interesting thoughts," she said to him after these two very short sentences turned her mind into completely different and opposite directions.

And then she thought of something that was still in her mind.

"Remember you said something about leaves, near that first forest in Amelia, and then in the Autumnforest. Was that one of your sentences, too? I remember liking it. What was it exactly?"

The Tackling Dummy smiled and then repeated, " _It 's not no time to not watch not no leaves_."

"Yes! That's it!" remembered the girl. The Lands were flowing by. "'It's not no time to not watch not no leaves.' That's so much fun to say! And it's another one about plants, too. It's about liking leaves." And she thought of her mother again.

"You don't have another one, about the night sky, do you?" she asked, thinking of her Aunt Am.

He thought for a moment, and then said,

" _You live around a star_."

Meri was breathless and genuinely speechless for a moment, at the appropriateness of the words. One hand slipped off of the silvery side of the monkeybars. Luckily, though, she caught herself with her feet as she fell backwards.

"I just wish my Aunt Am could hear those words," she told him in tones that were very moving to him. In her mind, she reminded herself to hold on better.

"What about _autodidactor_?" she then reminded him.

"Oh, yes! You did ask me to use it in a sentence, which led to this conversation. One day I was suddenly unexpectedly thinking, _Never forget to be the great autodidactor in your life_."

"What does it mean?" asked the girl, liking the sound of this one too and counting ten words this time. It was certainly a new thought to think of herself as an _autodidactor_! The motion of the monkeybars and a breeze blew her light brown hair up easily and softly in front.

"It simply means, _Be in charge of your own becoming_ ," he said, using another of his unexpected sentences without saying so. "It's something that I _had_ to do, spending all of my time either being tackled on a rope or confined in a dim locker room."

Meri sat quietly, and thought for a while as the scenery continued to move softly by. "I hope I can think of thoughts like that one day," she admitted to her friend.

"By the way," she added, with enthusiasm, remembering her game, "I think I already _do_ think _some_ things that are unusual---a little like you do, but not exactly." And she told him about her game of _Suddenly!_ He was interested right away.

"Ankle maps and aquamarine oranges," he repeated, very slowly, because they _were_ unusual ideas and also had good sounds. It was his turn to be surprised by words. "I'd like to try _that_ game sometime," he said earnestly.

They couldn't play it at the moment, though, he realized, because of the amazing land beginning to appear on their left. He had already caught glimpses of it.

Before he turned his head fully, however, he glanced over at Meri one more time. As much as he already liked her, he looked at her a little differently now---after their conversation. As unlike as the two of them seemed to be on the outside, he realized that they were very similar in important ways on the inside.

And she was not only his first friend. He noticed that she always listened carefully and respectfully to whatever he said, although others, he thought, might think what he was saying was weird. He knew he was different. But Meri had quite an open mind, and she knew his value without even having to think about it.

"She's really quite a special little dummy," he thought to himself, using the language of The Lands.

And then, before turning his attention to the incredible sight opening up on their left, he let another of his favorite sentences come into his mind:

"A word is a little track

of sound and meaning

for eyes to cross

and for heads to cross

on the incredible journey

of what to think."

It was a thought that had come to him on the rope one afternoon, just after being struck in the head by a sailing football. He had been dazed at the time, but suddenly the thought had come to him---unexpectedly, like the football. He didn't know _where_ it had come from.

Quite a few of the football players had laughed at his humiliation. And then some others had thrown more footballs at him. It wasn't so bad when he was _expecting_ to be hit. After all, that was what he had been put there for. It did help, though, thinking about that sentence. In his situation, he desperately needed a way to take a journey.

Later, in the locker room, he began his habit of opening the unabridged dictionary every day---for all the journeys it offered.

# Chapter III: _THE LAND OF GEOLOGICAL SPEED_

The monkeybars enhanced each land it softly glided across. There were unending interesting sights for Meri and the Tackling Dummy to look at. Jethro was glad to see many of The Lands he had seen before, since he didn't get to all the individual lands often enough. Also, he learned a few things he didn't know, because Wut, swinging down below, couldn't help adding extra information to the conversations he heard above.

The loaded vehicle was pleasant to dummies who saw it passing, too, because of the unexpected presence of _Jethro_ on top! But many more were _also_ interested in the _other_ two strange dummies on the silvery monkeybars!

At this time, it began to approach and make visible a spectacular land which obviously wasn't safe to cross. They were moving directly toward it. The more they looked forward, the more Meri and the Tackling Dummy were shocked and amazed.

Carefully slowing the silvery rectangle, Wut at first stopped at a safe distance. Then he approached cautiously, moving closer with the utmost care, so that he didn't accidentally enter the land. Very slowly, he turned right. Becoming more confident, he then began to zip the sparkling equipment expertly over the grass _only about a foot_ from the precarious beginning of the land!

He approached so close that each of the passengers on top became concerned!

Meri shivered as she looked, they were so close to so much danger! Then, glancing over at her friend to see how he was reacting, to her amazement she noticed the Tackling Dummy _also_ shiver at the prodigious sight. It was strange to see a Tackling Dummy _shiver_ , she thought, since he was made of canvas.

Or was it? She now knew it wasn't.

Neither could stop looking at the wonderful new land on their left.

It was a land of inexpressible power and motion. Beautiful violence everywhere easily captured and held the attention of all four of the passengers riding on the monkeybars---even the question mark as he was swinging along below.

It was _The Land of Geological Speed!_

Wut had already said it was one of the _two_ most dangerous lands in The Lands---adding loyally that it actually _wasn 't_ dangerous--- _it just needed to be looked at from the outside!_

Meri had been introduced to it briefly in _The Land of Learning Feet,_ which had allowed information about it to pass into her toes, up through the bottoms of her feet, through her ankles and legs, beside her intestines and heart and lungs, and to her brain.

_Now it was completely awesome to see this land as it actually was_! In person!! The Land of Upside Learning had left a lot undescribed!

In The Land of Geological Speed, all of the geological processes are vastly speeded up. Wut didn't bother to say so, because it was so obvious.

He began to swing a little more slowly, because he himself was always fascinated when he was near this particular land--- _as many times as he had bounced by it in the past!_

The speed of the floating silver rectangle therefore slowed. The individual blades of the grass below became more visible, but the travelers weren't _looking down!_

All four, including Jethro, had become quiet at the sight of the constant incredible motion of the land.

_Over just several minutes_ , the four could see rivers forming, flooding, and dramatically changing course.

Even more unbelievably, right in front of their eyes, mountains majestically and gracefully arose up into the sky.

They fell into gigantic geologic pieces and then lifted up yet again poetically and slowly and beautifully, the ground rising with them.

Some mountains achieved height with magnificent speed!

Others blew up, creating beautifully fragmented falling skies.

Whole ranges erupted, their peaks disintegrating with measured slowness or breathtaking rapidity amid all kinds of picturesque weathers and fires.

This was incredible!

A volcano in the distance, with orange creeks dripping hotly and glowingly down its sides, was showering a reddish orange rain upward, along with tons and tons of black and gray smoke, some of which came rolling downward and outward, while the rest went mushrooming and spreading up into an unendingly picturesque and violent sky of red and purple.

The ground shook noticeably, briefly alarming Meri and the Tackling Dummy, because they were right _at the very edge of the beautifully changing land!_

A huge chasm also opened up nearby. Its sides suddenly lifted up _right beside them,_ close enough to be touched, colossally falling apart and almost hitting the monkeybars as they fell. One of them continued rising to form a high cliff just above the silenced four.

The passengers on the light moonsilver monkeybars, gliding so effortlessly and lyrically beside these prodigious and frightening changes, constantly felt the tremors from these events. Three of them---all except Wut---had tremors of their own--- _in their insides!_ And even Wut did sometimes!

The three on top were already, unnecessarily, holding on extra tightly at the awesome spectacles unfolding beside and beyond them, although there was no danger of falling off. You may be thinking that Jethro, with his hoofs, couldn't really hold on that well. Fortunately, his massive weight kept him safely on the end of the monkeybars.

The travelers probably were in no danger. Still, at these spectacular sights and the shivers passing through them, _Jethro was attentively holding on for safety anyway_ , pressing with his hoofs firmly against the pale gleaming metal!

The sights were that breathtaking, even to the Buffalo Unicorn who wanted to experience everything in The Lands!

At the last moment, Wut, swinging below and having no doubts about the agility and speed of the monkeybars, shocked the passengers again by _cutting across_ just a tiny corner of _The Land of Geological Speed_ , zipping over a white sliver of glacier that was moving rapidly. It was a daring thing to do---very unusual for Wut.

However, it was a very small corner of a large field of white.

Meri shivered as the cold air came tingling up through her arms, which she pressed tightly to her chest, right against her rose colored top with its short sleeves which for the first time felt thin. Her right hand unknowingly covered part of the dark green stain that had discolored the fabric when she had fallen badly and slid on the grass before finding The Help Button, in the border that looks like Amelia. Her legs, which were bare below her bib overall jeans shorts, prickled into goose bumps at the sudden arctic chill. She reached down with her left hand to cover her exposed left thigh for a moment, but immediately felt the extreme cold again around her chest and neck. It was hard to know where to try to keep warm!

Looking down, she noticed a scrape on her left knee, which she hadn't seen yet, probably also from her long sliding fall in the border.

Even Jethro, as the white ice glistened and gleamed and crackled underneath, suddenly shivered and went "Brrr!" in a very low tone. But when Meri looked at him to see how cold he really was, she recognized the familiar whimsical look in his eyes. He was actually _enjoying_ the brief but sheer drop in temperature! With his curly white and yellow and brown and tan and gold fur, marked with black and darker brown here and there, he was actually completely warm.

The cold was just as quickly over, and they started across a pleasant land of especially light green grass with a large population of mostly yellow and light pink and light blue flowers all around. In fact, they had already been passing _beside_ this land on their right before they turned directly into it. But The Land of Geological Speed understandably had occupied their complete attention.

_Once noticeably into the new land, however, Meri and the Tackling Dummy gradually became aware of a mysterious pleasantness they couldn 't quite identify at first._

The expressions on their faces changed to reflect this pleasantness, even without their understanding.

_Wut and Jethro knew why!_ They were secretly watching the Tackling Dummy and Meri to see their reactions to what was beginning to occur. Wut couldn't watch as well as Jethro who was eyeing them very inconspicuously. However, he did try to glance up, quite casually sometimes, over his right shoulder, and sometimes over his left. He had learned to appreciate Meri's and the Tackling Dummy's reactions to the new lands they were just finding out about. Jethro had, too---when he was present!

As The Land of Geological Speed became smaller in the distance, the identity of the new land slowly began to emerge.

Meri was the first to recognize what was truly unique and distinctive about it---in addition to the general pleasantness of its many flowers and light green grass.

More and more, she realized _, she was smelling cake!_

She knew she wasn't wrong, because the warm wonderful magic of freshly baked cake began to dominate the air more and more!

_Somewhere_ , nearby, _there was a cake!_

She _knew_ what it was, because her Aunt Am _frequently_ made the air magical with freshly baked cakes!

But Meri had never smelled cake exactly like this before!! The warm layers of this cake, wherever it was, were already irresistible!

Besides knowing there was a cake _somewhere_ in this land, she also realized it had to be _a very large one_ --- _a gigantic one! ---_to influence the air like this from so far away!

Because there was no cake in sight! She breathed in deeply, steadily, through her nose.

And Meri was also thinking hard.

And that's why the land then gave her a big smile. She couldn't help it.

And then a big laugh! The others looked at her.

What was so funny to her was the thought of dummies made of yarn or stuffed with cotton---baking cake!

"It would be just like The Lands!" she thought, "for dummies to make wonderful cake that they are unable to eat!"

She had learned to try not to predict The Lands, but she couldn't free her mind from this hilarious idea!

She wondered if they were? Baking cake, that is?

And if they were, _why_ were they?

Why would dummies be baking cake?

_She couldn 't stop her mind!_ It was laughing, too, _at these thoughts!_ Was she right? She _hoped_ she was!

She definitely wanted to meet these dummies!

And since she was also hungry by this time, she wanted to meet the cake!

# Chapter IV: _THE LAND OF LAVENDER THOUGHT_

The monkeybars was navigating at a moderate speed through fields of especially pleasant flowers rising only an inch or two into the air of the land.

So far, neither Wut nor Jethro had offered a single word of explanation about what was ahead, although that was the _only_ subject on the minds of the Tackling Dummy and Meri! However these two secretly expected to be disappointed, because they thought _no_ land could compete with what they had already seen!

The air of the land itself was giving them unmistakeable hints!

Meri realized from the unforgettable air she was experiencing that _if dummies were making cakes_ _in this land_ ---for _whatever_ their reasons--- _they knew how to make inimitable ones!_

Aunt Am's cakes were always decorated with skies and planets and stars, Meri remembered, smiling at the sudden happy memory of her aunt.

"What will _this_ cake---the one I _know_ is somewhere in this land!---look like?" she wondered, as the vivid but endearingly short flowers continued to flow by on all sides of the monkeybars.

Although she was a person who loved to imagine, she had already learned not to try to guess _too much_ about The Lands! They're unpredictable in ways you never can imagine.

But of course she tried anyway.

She laughed _again_ softly to herself _!_

"What an outrageous and funny idea!" she thought.

Continuing lightly and curiously and excitedly in her mind, she had the following conversation with herself:

" _I have an undeniable feeling ---that I'm just about to meet more dummies!---the ones of this land---and probably in several minutes from now! I wonder what their colors will be, what their names will be, what they will say, and how they will act!?!"_

Her exciting thoughts were magnified by the unavoidable enchanting smell of the cake!

She remembered the surprising effect of Picups' hair on everyone.

Then she considered an important question.

" _What are these dummies going to think of me ---a flesh and blood dummy?"_

She looked down at herself as she did. She wasn't made of yarn or stuffed with cotton.

Then she unexpectedly began to see _another_ land, with gray trees, in the distance, a little to the left. A storm seemed to be going on there---she could see interesting flashes all over it, although the air of the land they were still entering was yellow with sunshine.

In fact there was something unusual about this sunshine. Meri thought the air looked a little different simply because there was a truly gigantic cake nearby, and it was affecting vision in the air too. But there was _another_ surprising reason that she was just about to learn!

She noticed that _a variety_ of warm flavors kept arriving, absolutely heavenly to breathe. She wanted each one to continue, but the monkeybars kept bringing new ones. It was a delightful way to be disappointed!

She could hear thunder, too, in the land in the distance, to the left, with its rainy looking trees and continuing flashes.

Finally, breathing in deeply, Meri began to relax, slipping farther down into the openings in the metal.

She closed her eyes. "I really don't mind not seeing the gigantic cake just yet," she decided. She knew she was going to. Because the air was truly magical.

She kept her eyes closed.

It had to be truly sensational, to temporarily overcome her strong curiosity!

"What is so wonderful about this land?" Meri in her trance then heard the Tackling Dummy ask. For just a moment, she raised her head and looked at him thoughtfully, wondering about the question, because the Tackling Dummy didn't breathe. But then she quickly thought a little more about it. If he could _see_ , and if he could _think_ such interesting ideas, and _talk_ , and _walk_ , and even want a life for himself, then it certainly shouldn't be unusual for him to be able to _smell!_

No one noticed, but even Wut swinging along below was enjoying the wonderful warm aromas that were floating everywhere through this land.

"A cake!" answered Jethro with an especially long and loud inhalation.

He had been enjoying watching Meri and the Tackling Dummy wake up to this special land. They hadn't been aware how closely their faces were being watched! Jethro had pretended to have his eyes closed, but had been watching anyway through his long curly lashes.

"I go through this land all the time," he continued. " _You don 't know how much I love to smell the many many cakes everywhere!_

"Stop!" he unexpectedly called out to Wut.

Meri was struck by what he had said! He had mentioned _many many cakes,_ but there weren't _any_ in sight so far! She began to wonder again what she was going to find out about this land!

The bars gradually coasted to a silvery standstill in a pool of light under some trees. Then it just stood there---as if it had always been in that position.

Dropping down, Wut bounced out from below, unstiffening his fingers. The three riders climbed down for a break after sitting on the hard metal for so long.

_It was a sight to see Jethro climbing down again!_ Meri had thought he was seriously challenged when he had first climbed _up_ the monkeybars---and he _had_ been. But now he was carefully climbing _down_ again--- _backwards!_ This was the _opposite_ of that first challenge, and much harder! At last he succeeded, with a satisfied look on his face, which suggested to everyone as he looked up,

"There wasn't any doubt at all that I could do it, was there?!"

The sunshine was turning his unicorn attractively yellow in places as he turned his head around.

Meri was glad to be able to walk again as soon as her feet touched the land. She was a little stiff at first, but the sensation almost immediately disappeared when she noticed that the wonderful cake smells of the land were even more delicious when they weren't moving so rapidly through it.

A sudden feeling of gladness lifted her spirits to the sky.

"One of the names of this land is The Land of Lavender Thought," Wut then announced, bouncing on the green flowery surface, unable to delay explaining the land any longer.

He loved to explain The Lands!

He had heard Meri and the Tackling Dummy and Jethro talking above, when he had been swinging, and it had been almost impossible for him to resist beginning to explain the land then, but he had somehow managed to. Now he was ready.

"What?" said Meri and the Tackling Dummy in unison, surprised.

"Lavender thought?" they both said again together, looking at each other and laughing. After thinking so much about cake, they hadn't expected that name!

"What is _that? "_ asked the Tackling Dummy, for both of them.

A pleasant green light came into both of Wut's eyes as he looked around at the land and bounced up and down on the grass with flowers not very tall. It was clear that he loved this land.

In his excitement, Wut bounced a little higher, and for a moment his eyes became a little lower than his face as he went up. Then they caught up again as he leveled off and tried to answer the question.

"Some think the dummies here have lavender yarn in their heads, and that's why they have lavender thought," he began. "And by the way, they're yarn dummies. But nobody knows for sure if they do actually have lavender yarn in their heads."

"So I _am_ going to meet some dummies here!" Meri hoped.

The Tackling Dummy was a little disappointed because the dummies were going to be made of yarn instead of being stuffed with cotton. But it really wasn't a problem.

"The main thing is, when they think, the air turns slightly lavender around their heads," Wut told them.

The Tackling Dummy and Meri became especially interested at these words. They were actually going to have physical evidence of someone thinking! After the incredible lands they had already seen, they realized they were in another one after all!

But they couldn't possibly have predicted what Wut said next.

"The air also smells exactly like cake when a dummy in this land is thinking. The only problem is, you usually can't tell, unless you talk to one outside of the land, because they bake so many cakes here. The land smells like cake anyway."

He went right on. "Some dummies from other lands believe this land, at least partly, got its name because the dummies here have such unusual ideas. That isn't surprising, either, is it, if they are thinking with _lavender yarn and their thought smells like cake? "_

That sounded true!

"It is an odd idea, too," he continued, "in a way, in case you haven't noticed, that they're dummies and they make _cake_. They certainly can't eat it," he added, looking at Meri strangely.

"In fact," he elaborated, "they've always wished they could _see_ someone eat it, but they never have."

Meri's eyes became quite round. Now she knew why Wut had just looked so strangely at her!

She could eat that cake! For the first time, the dummies in this land were going to see someone eat cake!

If she were offered some, that is.

Bouncing moderately on the grass, Wut looked especially black amid the vivid colors of the land.

"It makes a lot of sense for the yarn dummies in this land to bake cakes, if you stop and think about it," the loyal question mark, bouncing in just one place on the grass but trying to miss the flowers, went on to his two visiting friends.

Jethro, standing nearby, was also listening quietly.

"The dummies here love everything about cake, except eating it---and they even love the _idea_ of eating it, although they can't. The air of their land would be just ordinary air if they didn't bake cakes! It wouldn't smell like cake! Luckily, even when they're in another land---all they have to do is begin to think---and they can _still_ smell cake, which they love to do!

_After they bake the cakes, then they love to decorate them!_ You'll see what I mean! And then what happens?---after they decorate them, _they love to look at them!_ These seem to me to be excellent reasons for yarn dummies to bake cakes."

It was, indeed, hard to disagree with Wut's reasons.

The Tackling Dummy and Meri, listening carefully, even nodded when Wut finished. Yes, they thought, these were _definitely_ good reasons for yarn dummies to make cake.

But the reason that Meri still liked the best was that it was so totally unexpected for _yarn dummies_ to spend so much of their time baking cakes---when they couldn't eat them! She kept thinking about how pleasantly ridiculous that idea is!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy had thought that Wut was finished explaining the land. But he not only continued, he spoke words _exploding with imagination!_

"Of course, there are some _other_ reasons, too, that they make cake," he began.

"They bake cake sculptures and cake towers and put them _all over_ the land in marvelous designs and colors," he began. "It's fun to bounce around and look at all of them. You should see the land then!"

Meri and the Tackling Dummy _each_ had very large round eyes as these words came out.

" _Cake towers!_ " they both thought, wondering. " _Cake sculptures_!"

And there was more. _They were just beginning to learn about The Land of Lavender Thought!_

"And you ought to be here at night, too, because there's something else I haven't told you yet."

Bouncing up into the bright air of the land, he strangely looked at the light of the sky and then back at his friends.

"You may not have noticed it yet, because it's day, but the light in this land is different from the light in the rest of The Lands," he said. " _I don 't know exactly how to say it, but---it clings._ It doesn't just shine on you and go away. _It stays_ _where it lands_ , and slowly---slowly---it steadily accumulates. You don't even know it's happening. When the sun has been shining on the cake towers all day, they glow in the dark when night begins, because the light is still embedded in their icing. Can you imagine?!"

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were trying to. Their minds, in fact, were being challenged by this land.

"Lots of lands have more than one name," Wut continued, bouncing a little higher because he was excited. "Some as many as three. This one is also called _The Land of Clinging Light_.

"And by the way, as you may have guessed, the grass and trees and flowers all glow at night, too, in especially charming ways. _And so do you_ , if you've been in the land all day---and in the sun. You actually glow at night! Even I do, but I glow black, so no one can tell. But you can tell by my eyes and my mouth!

"There's really nothing like this land. Maybe you can understand a little better now why the dummies here like to make their cakes. It goes along with the light they have. They're beautiful at night. So baking cake here _does_ make a lot of sense after all," he pronounced triumphantly.

"There's something else that they do here too that's similar and that's very special," Wut continued, his enthusiasm rising.

"Once the dummies here in The Land of Lavender Thought made a lighthouse all of cake and placed it in the center of the land. I remember it was pink with a glowing green door and a few yellow stars on the sides and a big circle at the top that was especially brilliant. All of it glowed at night, and it was so appropriate because it actually was a lighthouse! Now sometimes they have glowing lighthouses at night all over the land, helping those dummies who are still out to find their lands at night. You should see them all over! For those few nights everyone temporarily and rightly calls this _The Land of Lighthouse Nights._ It's just too beautiful. And _The Land of Lighthouse Nights_ is also a beautiful name for it."

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were overwhelmed by these ideas. The Tackling Dummy also noted with approval Wut's use of the adverb _temporarily_.

He especially loved adverbs. He also highly approved of this land---based on what he had just heard.

Wut continued, "Towards morning the lighthouses, when they're here, and the grass and the trees, have lost almost all of their light. But you should see them looking so pale. They're almost as attractive as when they're brightly glowing!"

These ideas so vividly absorbed the mind of Meri that, closing her eyes, she tried to imagine a land with just one lighthouse in the middle, and then one with lighthouses _everywhere_ around it glowing at night. Her soft light brown hair changed its position steadily as she turned her head around on her neck, looking at the land in her imagination, with her eyes still closed.

When she opened them again, she still thought the land was funny, although obviously extraordinarily imaginative.

"A whole land of cake," she laughed to herself. "A whole land of almost solid cake. And lighthouses in which _the whole house is the light_ , instead of just one light at the top." This land also made her feel lighthearted, because it was imaginatively magnificent, while at the same time so pleasantly zany!

The Tackling Dummy and Meri were already quite fond of this land, even though they hadn't yet seen a thing of what Wut had just described! _But because they were normally curious, each was still a little puzzled_. They could understand now, they thought, why the dummies in the land loved to bake cakes. They were sure the cakes were spectacular and that they would love them too, _if only they could see them!_

But they couldn't forget that the dummies in The Lands were made of yarn or stuffed with cotton.

None of them could eat any of the cake of this land!

For some reason, both Meri and the Tackling Dummy had a nagging feeling that there was _something else_. And at the same time, each was also wondering, _" What finally happens to so much cake?_ What do they do with them when it's time to bake _more_?"

There was certainly a lot that was interesting and also puzzling about this land!

"What do they _do_ with the cake?" the Tackling Dummy finally asked outright.

Wut was at the top of a bounce in the pleasant air of the land, and so his eyebrows were about as high as they could go, because the Tackling Dummy's question had caused them to rise. He looked down at Meri and the Tackling Dummy with an extra tiny humorous green light in each of his eyes.

"They love to do the things I said," he answered, looking mysteriously at both of his friends as gravity brought him down right beside them on the grass again.

" _You 'll see what else they do with the cake_," he added, even more mysteriously, as he elastically returned up into the air. "They celebrate their love of cakes in yet another special way. It gives their land _one more name_ that you will want to find out for yourself. In the meantime, I believe the dummies who live here are creating a totally new series of cakes for all over the land, as they do from time to time, and that's why you don't see any cakes yet."

After those words, he wouldn't say any more about the land, although he clearly wanted to.

"We have to go now," he insisted gently, looking especially at Meri, who realized that he was thinking of her need to reach The Tree of Ticket Leaves in The Land of Pink Windmills reasonably soon---or at least as soon as possible. "This stop _was_ a good idea, though," he added, "because now you'll be rested and totally yourselves when you meet the dummies here---and when they meet you, which is just as important!"

He then effortlessly bounced up to the monkeybars, took hold of a crossbar with both hands, and, hanging patiently stretched out, waited for them to ascend.

"I'll run ahead!" said Jethro, who had been planning to all along. That was in fact the reason he had asked Wut to stop in the first place.

So far he had been quietly enjoying the conversation and watching the changes in the faces and the eyes of his two new friends as they listened to Wut about this remarkable land.

He looked splendid and large in the yellow air. He was a large target for the sunshine that was beginning to cling! Taking a deep breath, he shot off in the same direction they had been traveling, an eager whimsical expression on his face. They all noticed his unusual uncoordinated run again. It was funny, as so much about him was.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy watched him and then looked at each other and smiled. They had never expected to meet a creature like him!

Climbing nimbly back up onto the top, each looked expectantly in the direction they were about to go, to see as soon as possible some of what Wut had talked about.

Wut began to swing, and the monkeybars suddenly was moving smoothly on the grass and by the flowers not that tall. Its first motion, after being still, was always so exciting, because a monkeybars usually doesn't move! The beautiful aromas of the cake began to change more quickly again, too.

As the silver equipment flowed smoothly, they suddenly came to some orchards of fruit and nut trees. The silvery motion immediately slowed again and ceased altogether, _twice_ , as Wut stopped at each kind of tree for Meri. He knew that she was a flesh and blood dummy and periodically needed food.

Climbing partway down and jumping the rest of the way each time, the girl gathered some fruits at the first stop and some pockets of nuts at the second. She still had the phone card, she was glad to discover, in her jeans shorts pocket, though she knew she wouldn't have a chance to use it in The Lands!

She was genuinely grateful that Wut had stopped, though. She was enormously hungry! It was well past time for lunch, and she hadn't had any yet, after being in The Lands for several demanding hours.

The Tackling Dummy tried not to show it, but he was clearly fascinated as Meri ate. He didn't need to, himself, being stuffed with cotton, but he never failed to be curious, and he watched her closely. She smiled at his curiosity as, one by one, she cracked the nuts, that were like pecans, on the long silvery side bars of the vehicle, and lifted the enjoyable pieces to her mouth, where they made a pleasant crunching sound.

These naturally occurring fruits and nuts prompted Meri to remember her mother, who would have loved their different shapes and colors and the trees they came from. Once again Meri hoped---but it was too late now, she knew---that by coming to The Lands she wasn't going to cause her mother and father too much pain. She was too honest to be willing to fool herself, however. _They were going to have to be told she was missing!_

_MISSING!_ That was a hard word in her mind as she pictured her parents being told by Aunt Am on the telephone. She swallowed.

_" I'm really not," she insisted firmly to herself, almost as if she were telling them from a distance._

_She_ knew where she was!

But no one at home or out on the ocean did.

She felt so sorry for her Aunt Am and her parents. "It must be unbearable," she understood for the first time, "when someone you love is missing, and all you can do is wonder and imagine."

She felt a little better about her parents when in her mind she pictured them on their trip to England. "They probably won't be told that I'm missing right away, in the hope that I'll be found at any moment safe and sound."

She still hadn't been gone that long yet.

After all, Aunt Am knew she loved the forests around her home! Everyone who knew her well was quite aware that she loved the countryside around Amelia.

"Everyone will think---at least temporarily---that I've just taken too long on a walk!" she comforted herself.

These thoughts helped, encouraging her---along with the speed of the monkeybars---to hope that she could get to The Land of Pink Windmills that very day after all. If so, perhaps everything could be back right again soon!

"I thank The Lands that it was there," she thought, up on top, remembering her very first sight of the monkeybars. As she did so, it sailed rapidly forward, decreasing the final distance they had to go to The Tree of Ticket Leaves by inches, feet, yards, and---one by one---lands!

"But what's it going to be like---to just appear somewhere---out of _nowhere_?" she wondered, thinking of the remarkable tree she was depending on to help her. "That's what one of its leaves does to you."

And then she remembered that she already had---appeared out of nowhere!

That had been quite an experience, suddenly being in front of Jethro in The Autumnforest! She began to realize that The Ticket Tree, as she was beginning to call it in her mind, was going to be another extraordinary experience---when she could get there!! Her game of Suddenly! was only of sudden ideas---but The Ticket Tree was about _sudden location_ ---and it wasn't a game _!_ She began looking forward to it---already with a feeling of suspense.

She had to change her thoughts almost immediately, however, because just then she and the Tackling Dummy saw a bright yellowness ahead. A lighter yellow radiance rose above it, up into the sky. Other colors, such as soft lavender, began to join the bright yellow that they were sure was going to be a huge cake!

The silvery monkeybars speeded up, but neither of the occupants looked down to see Wut beginning to swing wildly now that they were almost there!

Soon they saw that it WAS a gigantic cake! It sat in the middle of a beautiful green meadow that was also round. In the background, there were tall attractive trees, spaced evenly and generously far apart, with thick, lighter trunks. Their leaves weren't dark green at all, but were light and small and the perfect number on the limbs to allow the sun to shine through easily with a special uplifting gentleness and greenness.

Meri's eyes became very round as they rapidly approached a magnificent cake actually much higher and wider than the house she lived in, although the cake was round and her house was square.

Its color was mainly a beautiful yellow, with many alluring accents and designs disappearing around the curving sides in less conspicuous colors. She eagerly wanted to look at each one though! There was an almost imperceptible radiance in the air, unquestionably enhancing the impression of how the cake was going to taste!

_" I wonder how many layers it is?!" Meri thought, slowly raising her eyes and marveling at its height._

Then she wondered what the layers were like on the inside!

_But what then quickly captivated Meri 's attention_ was the sight of the many attractive dummies working around the sides of the cake, some elevated on platforms and others simply standing on the grass, bent at different postures to carefully make needed additions to what already seemed like perfection to Meri. She also thought she could tell they were made of yarn!

Her whole body trembled with excitement when she realized she was just about to actually meet and talk to these dummies!

"We got here at just the right time," Wut announced with satisfaction. He could tell that the cake was just about finished. His two green eyes, out in the air on either side of his face, became very active, eagerly looking at the dummies of the land, some of whom he waved to, and at the cake.

He spotted Jethro.

To the amazement of his two friends still on top, Wut then suddenly dropped down from the monkeybars!

Bouncing on the grass, he watched the silvery unit continue by itself toward the massive cake. He even touched it affectionately with a hand as it went by.

It looked especially pretty as it continued to glide across the grass without any control whatsoever.

# Chapter V: _NEW FRIENDS_

The silvery monkeybars was heading straight toward the enormous yellow cake---with no one at all swinging---because Wut had dropped down!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were wondering if they were going right into the side of the cake!

It did look like the sunwarmed rectangle was going to plough right in, with its two passengers still on top. But-----it didn't. It coasted straight toward the beautifully decorated icing, slowing as it went, and then, very gradually, completely stopped---with one inch left!

Wut watched with satisfaction as the sparkling silver object stopped exactly where he had wanted it to. His judgement had been perfect!

With almost unbelieving eyes looking up and around, Meri, smiling, remembered that this cake hadn't even been made to eat!

The Tackling Dummy had never seen a cake before at all. The first cake he ever saw was this magnificent one!

This close, its aroma was even more intense!

Pointing straight toward its center, the monkeybars---one of the most attractive objects in all of The Lands---stood still again in the sunshine.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy climbed down excitedly.

The air was unforgettable!

Wearing chefs' aprons, the dummies of the land were looking with interest and even excitement at the two strange new visitors!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were looking back at them in the same way.

Meri's heart was beating fast.

For she was just about to meet these dummies that looked so loveable!

There were so many!

She already liked the expressions on their faces. There _was_ a suggestion of lavender in the air around many of their heads---as they were thinking and wondering about Meri and the Tackling Dummy. This color in the air was a funny and fascinating characteristic of the land!

Momentarily taking her eyes away, Meri glanced quickly up at the cake again, which she could now see so much better. All at once she was treated to glimpses of light aqua and light gold and white and hints of other colors among outlines of sculptural figures on a light yellow background. Above the lower ones was a wide circumference of lavender going all around, with figures on it too. She recognized some of them-----because they were of _Wut! In different colors!_ And there, on the edge of the cake at the very top, was a large sculpture of the question mark in his own color.

Meri glanced over at her friend Wut to see if he had looked closely at the cake yet.

He hadn't.

Because, as he had dropped down and bounced out onto the grass, away from the monkeybars which then went on by him, the dummies of the land, who were his friends, had crowded all around, patting him on the back and hugging him, obviously glad to see him again.

Jethro, the huge Buffalo Unicorn, evidently had already received the same welcome, for he was standing nearby, too, with dummies all over him. It was hard to see him at all, because the dummies seemed to appreciate him so much they had climbed all over his back and neck and head---most sitting but some even standing.

_There was even one holding onto his unicorn_.

Wut didn't have any dummies on this back, but he did have to stop bouncing for a while because so many of his friends were crowding around him. They were holding him up.

There was a lot of soft lavender light changing and moving in the air all around these dummies!

As well as they could in the excitement, Wut and Jethro finally introduced the Tackling Dummy and Meri to everyone. Most of the dummies _had already_ realized, _with almost unbelief_ , _that Meri was a flesh and blood dummy!_

_They had never seen one before!_ There were many low amazed sounds as more and more dummies, crowding around, were able to see her more closely.

The air became intensely lavender.

"Is she what I think she is?" Meri actually heard one nearby dummy asking another. "I don't believe it!"

Meri listened for the answer.

"Yes, she's got to _be a flesh and blood dummy_. And you're right. I don't believe it either!"

Meri was flesh and blood like Jethro, only in the shape of a dummy!

There must have been something _else_ about her that they all liked immediately, too, because not long after she climbed down from the monkeybars, many dummies crowded around _her_ too and gave _her_ hugs of welcome.

Meri couldn't help but like them. They were so friendly. It was hard for anyone to move for a while, it was so crowded where the monkeybars had almost entered the huge cake.

As well as he could, Wut explained to the crowd around the Tackling Dummy that he needed new canvas, and the dummies of Lavender Thought, looking and nodding, welcomed him with concern as well as with gladness and friendliness.

"What in The Lands happened?"

and

"Too very bad."

and

"Can't something be done?"

some of them could be heard saying, and other similarly kind remarks. They gave him many pats on his canvas, but they were careful to place them on the good areas between the shreds and the tears. And the hugs that he received, although many and genuine, were delivered gently and slowly.

The Tackling Dummy quickly got over his embarrassment at the unexpected attention to his canvas, he felt so appreciated.

All of the dummies in this land were made of light aqua and light yellow yarn, with here and there a sculptural figure that might also be seen on a cake, in silver, or gold, or caramel, or some other appropriate color. Their hair in most cases was light strawberry yarn in an attractive pigtail in the back, or two. They were almost all wearing white chef's aprons.

"What have we here?" asked Wut about the immense cake, as he, Jethro, Meri, and the Tackling Dummy bounced and stood in the middle of all these dummies in The Land of Lavender Thought. The greetings being over, they had all begun to look up at it.

Besides being enormous and light yellow, the cake had fluffy white piping circling around the edge at the top, and 23 pictures and diagrams of smaller cakes going around the sides for decorations, in light colors.

It was obviously a beautiful cake.

Then, in all the commotion of looking and greeting and talking, the surprises that Meri had first noticed on the cake slowly became the focus of everyone's attention.

They all looked.

On the very top of the cake, at the edge, standing upright in the middle of some pink and yellow and light lavender icing flowers with light green stems and leaves, _was an oversized sculpture of Wut_ in his own color. Here and there around the sides of the great cake, also, were a number of other representations in different sizes of the beloved black question mark---not any of them black.

Looking at these, Wut got to see himself in light blue, light green, silver and light gold and in many other colors. They looked just like him.

"We didn't know you were coming," said Little Ray, one of the two main bakers of The Land of Lavender Thought. Little Ray, however, was very large. There were lots of cakes all over his great apron, which almost swallowed him. Only one of them was light violet. His very neat hair, in a ponytail, was yellow with light green flecks. Little Ray was in charge of all the low heats in the baking of the cakes.

The air was definitely lavender around his head as he spoke. "This is quite a funny land," Meri kept thinking, but she didn't laugh out loud. She just appreciated it all on the inside.

"And it was lucky for us that you did," said Big Ray, the other chief baker, who was in charge of the bigger, or warmer heats, in the baking of the cakes. He was a very small chef with a baker's cap covered with light yellow suns and mint green rabbits. His hair was the usual light strawberry yarn with tiny strands, woven together, of the very lightest of aqua and yellow. There was no lavender on him, but the air was, as he spoke.

"In fact," he commented, "this is some of the most luck we have ever had. Imagine you showing up here at this particular time. Mostly, whom we put on cakes just hears about it later, but didn't get to see it. This is a day." And he thought some more about this wonderful coincidence.

Wut was obviously surprised and immensely touched. He hadn't expected _this_. "I am so honored," he said a little awkwardly but with obvious sincerity to all around him. He was finding the honor hard to believe---it was so unexpected.

He just never thought that much about himself. He was always too busy thinking about helping others.

His bounce was a little shaky and his eyes were a little misty as he looked more carefully at all the designs of himself all along the sides of the cake, both above and below. He was deeply touched at this appreciation of him, but he didn't know quite how to say how much he was.

"I like myself in all those colors," he said modestly, pleased to see himself in so many ways.

He did look good in other colors.

"I wish I could try them," he told them. "Thank you for being so nice to me. I don't believe I deserve this honor---"

"Oh yes you do," many said, firmly, overlapping each other.

"---but if there is anything I can ever do to deserve it, I'll try to---

"You already have," many insisted again.

"---and I will always have a spark of happiness that will come to me when I remember the different ways you thought these colors were me," he said quite movingly to everyone in the crowd. He had finally thought of the right words. Meri saw that the lavender dummies were watching and listening to him closely, and also that some of them were glancing back and forth to check for accuracy the many versions of him on the cake. They had had to re-create him from memory.

Meri gave him a kiss on the cheek as he bounced up.

It took coordination to kiss a question mark in midbounce! She already had a high opinion of him---from the beginning of the very short time that she had known him.

"You can bounce into the cake now, if you want to," unexpectedly called out one of the dummies, with a hopeful tone in his voice, and others from the crowd seemed to agree. There was a look of keen anticipation on the faces of the dummies around him.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were dumbfounded. Because at first they had thought the dummy wasn't really being serious. They quickly realized he was!

Meri was about to laugh.

"Yes!" shouted another dummy from farther back. "This cake already has a lot of Wuts on the outside. What could be more perfect than having a real Wut on the inside?!!"

Many agreed.

"No, no, thank you so much," Wut declined, bouncing on the grass. "I've had enough honor here. But I can do this for you."

He purposely bounced up high enough to appear right beside a picture of himself in light gold. And then he bounced up to be, just for a second, right beside the oversized statue of himself on top. It was a startling and pleasant double.

"Now I'd rather look at your so kind pictures of me," he announced, coming down again and bouncing at his normal height. "I haven't been all the way around the cake yet."

The dummies were pleased.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were listening closely and wondering.

"What a land!" they were thinking.

Big Ray took this time to say a few words to his two completely new guests who had never been there before. He had been watching the amazed and bemused expressions on their faces.

"Sometimes, we do not a round or square cake, but just a sculpture of a famous happening in The Lands," he explained to Meri and the Tackling Dummy. "But mostly large cakes. Everyone bakes a part of the cake. The flavorings come from the fruit and nut trees you may have seen on the way in, and from some other special gardens that we have. We get some of flour from The Land of Fields, if you came through that land too."

Meri nodded, and the Tackling Dummy remembered the cotton they had borrowed from that land to help replace the enormous amount he had lost being tackled.

"If we do a cake, we always put at least one sculpture on the top, of someone of whom it's always a great honor to be made a sculpture of. But I can't believe this coincidence---no one ever came by here before, like this, on the same day, and saw his or her own sculpture. This is a new day, which probably won't be repeated in much ever."

"We don't eat the cake," explained Ello Ray, the niece of both Big and Little Ray, a small vivacious dummy Meri's age, mostly of light yellow and light strawberry yarn, with aqua ankles and feet and elbows. She also had freckles.

Meri liked her instantly.

"But _you_ can," she added, looking carefully and respectfully at Meri, who was the only flesh and blood dummy she had ever seen.

"Would you like to _taste_ it?" she asked eagerly, anticipating Meri's actually _being able to eat and taste the cake_ , which she couldn't do herself, even though she had helped bake so many. It was an exciting idea, and she put her hands over her eyes as the excitement of the possibility overcame her.

All the other dummies were immediately eager to see someone, who was a dummy, _eat some of their cake for the very first time_.

"Not yet," insisted Little Ray, with undeniable, but kind and gentle, authority in his voice. "You must have patience." He was speaking to his small niece Ello and to everyone else. "You know what we always do first."

"Right," admitted Ello Ray, her eyes sparkling. "But maybe Meri can go first, and do both at the same time."

Meri wasn't sure exactly what they meant, but she thought it would be all right to say, sociably, since Ello and everyone wanted her to taste the cake, and since she wanted to taste it, too, "You know, actually, although I've eaten, _I haven 't had dessert yet_. I did have some lunch from your trees on the way here. Thank you."

All of the dummies standing there listening and watching, with their yarn so attractive in the sun, murmured various phrases, such as,

"You're welcome,"

and,

"Well done,"

and

"Glad you did,"

and

"Anytime,"

since Meri had looked toward them when she spoke. Their graciousness, and also their obvious curiosity about her eating, did make her feel welcome to the fruit and nuts she had already eaten without their permission.

Dummies all over The Lands are always very glad when someone comes for a visit. But besides that, these dummies had taken a special liking to the little girl whom they recognized as a flesh and blood dummy almost exactly like them but not quite.

Meri wanted to please them and Ello, who was just her height and who seemed to have so much life in her face and eyes.

Glancing again at the huge cake nearby, she already knew it was incomparably delicious, even though it was not even made to be eaten. She knew, because it was continuing to surround everyone there with a drifting magic of wholesome warm aromas from deep inside and exquisite sweet delicate scents from its glistening icings. The yet warm ovens behind it were also still releasing heavenly odors that were impossible to ignore, mixing in with the rest of the air.

And there was another reason that Meri was willing to eat the cake.

When she glanced at it, she realized something else. Although she had had something to eat, she was still hungry. She had been very active all that day, including quite a long, tiring, and wearing run down the middle of the border that looks like Amelia.

The fruits and nuts had tasted good, but they hadn't been nearly enough!

Being hungry of course was a very good reason for wanting a piece of cake. It was an especially good one. But there was another reason, too.

She was normal.

_Any normal little girl full of adventure would have wanted a piece of that marvelous gigantic light yellow cake_ , especially with that mild yellow radiance around it that made the monkeybars look almost completely light yellow too!

The cake was irresistible!

The monkeybars was still sparkling on the grass, but it was now almost completely yellow from the colors in the air!

They were beginning to cling. The monkeybars seemed to be absorbing the light at an especially fast rate!

And the warm radiance from the cake, an unseen shower of yellow, seemed to be making the whole land brighter.

Meri wanted to please these dummies. At the same time, she began to feel herself becoming _unbelievably hungry_ , probably from continuing to breathe the wonderful air of the land and from standing so close to so many imaginative icings that seemed to be inviting her to taste them.

And from thinking about the inside of that huge cake, too!

She was dreamily wondering how _the interior_ of the cake would taste!

About the dummies of the land, too, she knew what it was like to be curious about something, because she had been curious about The Lands the whole time since she had arrived! So she genuinely sympathized with their wanting to see someone eat some of their cake.

They had been waiting _an incredibly long time!_

"If I were a yarn dummy, I'd be just as curious," she thought.

But mostly, like a normal girl, she just wanted a big piece of cake!

"Good idea, to let her be the first," said Big Ray, smiling at Ello. "You thought very fast. You know, you're quite special." Ello grinned at this praise from her uncle.

Ello then looked at Meri with enthusiasm she was obviously having trouble controlling. Her eyes were remarkably happy. "You're going to be the one to jump first!" she told her new friend, touching her meaningfully on the shoulder, and then holding her fingers, on both hands, spread out wide in front of her, as if she weren't quite sure what to do with them or her overwhelming enthusiasm.

_" Jump?"_ repeated Meri, suddenly puzzled. She thought they had just been talking about _her_ _eating some of the cake!_

"But wait," she reminded herself. "Little Ray had said, _' You know what we always do first.'"_

He hadn't actually said what it was. She didn't know he had been talking about jumping into anything!

And then she recalled wondering earlier, herself, if the dummies of the land do anything with their cakes besides just looking at them and letting them glow at night to help other dummies. After all, they can't eat them.

She kept having a feeling, for some reason, that there ought to be _something else!_ Not that she knew that much about The Lands. But because of her thinking mind, she had that funny feeling just the same. She just couldn't explain it.

And she had also wondered what eventually happened to the cakes.

Thinking about what had just been said, she realized she was getting closer to the answers to these puzzlements! But what did it really all mean?

Suddenly she jerked her head toward the cake.

Her eyes began to widen a little as she thought again about Ello's words. And about her enthusiasm.

Of course Ello didn't mean she wanted her to jump into---what she was now thinking Ello meant!

The cake was a total vision of loveliness, standing there on a round base covered with silver foil.

Then Meri noticed some steps, around the side of the cake, leading up to the top of the cake---and above it. She had overlooked them at first.

The steps went quite high up. There was a decorated attractive little platform at the top. And then a beautiful little walkway that actually went out over the cake.

It reminded her of a diving board.

Her eyes had become very large.

Meri looked back into Ello's eyes in unbelief. She was laughing on the inside. "No, it just couldn't be!" she said. But she was in The Lands, and so she knew it could easily be.

The excited little dummy, Ello, with her freckles, shook her head slowly up and down with a lot of meaning. Without saying a word, her eyes and her head communicated to Meri, " _Yes! You 're supposed to jump into that cake! You get to be first. And you get to be the very first dummy in this land and in The Lands ever to eat cake!"_

# Chapter VI: THE SOLID NIGHT OF THE CAKE

Reminding herself that Meri was a visitor, Ello put the message that had been so clear in her eyes into words. However, this time she included more details.

"What we do," she eagerly said to Meri, the bright sun lighting up all the yellow in her yarn, "is first make the cake or sculptural scene, which we have a lot of fun doing. We've become quite good at it. We love to smell the cake," she continued. Turning her face toward an exquisite small light pink cake in icing on the side of the gigantic cake, she seemed to take a whiff of it with her yarn nose. Once again, Meri didn't quite understand how that worked.

"We love to do the baking and the decorating," Ello went on, not knowing Meri's thoughts. "We have some wonderful sculptors, too, who know how to choose the right colors."

"Do you really want me to jump into that beautiful cake?" asked Meri, interrupting, pointing toward the steps going up beside it. The beating of her heart indicated that she already knew the answer!

They had been walking around the side of the cake, as they talked, toward the high steps. Everyone else was following along. There was a lot of spirited talking in the crowd behind them. Big Ray and Little Ray were there, followed by Wut, the Tackling Dummy, Jethro, and almost all of the other dummies of The Land of Lavender Thought.

"I was getting to that," continued Ello patiently, glancing over at her new friend. "Since we can't _taste_ cake, and since we can't _eat_ cake, what we do with our first cake is the next best thing: we go up high and _jump in!_

"But today, because you're a flesh and blood dummy, the first one ever, because you can actually eat cake, and because we like you so much, we want _you_ to have the honor of being first."

Realizing she had spoken a little hastily before, Meri waited as quietly as she could during Ello's speech to hear the last part.

But what a strange way to enjoy cake! It definitely was unusual for dummies to make a cake at all. But to jump into it, instead of eating it? The humor of it hit her.

And she began to laugh. She would _never_ get used to being in The Lands, she knew! She was also laughing because she was imagining yarn dummies covered from head to foot with cake and icing! Using the language of The Lands, she wondered,

"How in The Lands did they get it off of themselves afterwards?!?

Ello was laughing too. She knew her land was funny.

"I'm sorry I'm laughing," laughed Meri. "Please excuse me. It's just that it's all so interesting and _so different_. But thank you, _all of you_ ," she repeated, a little more loudly, turning around and speaking to the dummies of the land as well as she could, "for this honor. I like you too. Very much already."

There was a general pleasantness on all of their faces. The air around their heads turned a noticeable lavender as they approved of the agreeable idea of Meri jumping into their cake! They accepted her as a dummy just like them---a flesh and blood dummy!

The steps for approaching the _inside_ of the cake were coming into view better as they walked. They were on wheels, and at the moment were being adjusted by dummies close to the side of the high cake without actually touching the beautiful icing.

Looking up, Meri began to see a high silvery platform. It was obviously a place to stand just before jumping into the large cake.

It was covered with attractive silver paper. A small pointed roof of very light maroon foil rose above it, a shield to the yellow sunshine of the sky which was coming down and mingling with the yellowness being reflected into the air from the light yellow of all of the immense cake below. A beautiful walkway covered with decorated silvery paper extended from the platform into the air over the top of the cake.

Somewhat in awe, and walking slowly, Meri approached the glistening yellow and silver foil-covered steps leading up to the high platform. They were wide enough for two dummies to ascend at one time.

The cheerful railings were covered with yellow paper enhanced with graphics of rose and silver colored flowers representing the many real flowers throughout the grass of this land. The Land of Lavender Thought was conspicuous for them, a fact often forgotten because the rest of the land is so unusual.

Under the platform, and holding it up, were four tall uprights covered with silver foil reflecting the cake. These were additionally wrapped, starting halfway up, with delicate pink streamers made of crepe paper which showed the silver through at intervals.

"You first," said Ello courteously, as they arrived at the yellow and silver steps slanting up.

Meri's eyes were full of wonder. "I'm going to _jump_ into this big cake!" she said in her mind, still not quite believing. It was an engaging idea! Again she wondered exactly how many layers it had to have to be so high.

The dummies of the land, below her---for by this time Meri had risen up several of the steps---laughed at the expression on Meri's face when she looked down at them. Because they, like Ello, knew that their land was funny.

"Do you really think she should?" suddenly interrupted Wut from below, looking from Little Ray to Big Ray, a familiar look of concern on his rising and falling face.

"You know she's made of flesh and blood and obviously heavier than we are. She might fall down through the cake too fast. We shouldn't take a chance on her being hurt against the base by coming down too quickly from so high and perhaps spraining her ankle or even breaking her leg."

No one else had thought about this. In The Lands, it was Wut's job to offer advice in advance as well as to help solve problems afterwards. Everyone stopped where they were.

A startled and disappointed look appeared on the faces of Ello and many other dummies.

"What do you think?" Meri asked her friend the Tackling Dummy, who was standing just below Meri with one foot parked on the first step, which was covered with yellow foil.

The second had silver foil. The rest of the decorations were equally cheerful going on up.

The big cake stood deliciously nearby, its unforgettable decorations presenting themselves here and there in the sun as the air and the sky changed. Irresistible scents were drifting around, including those leaving the still cooling ovens somewhere behind the cake.

The Tackling Dummy understood the dilemma. Clearly it would be a special treat to everyone for Meri to jump into the cake. In fact he knew it would be historic. On the other hand, everyone wanted her to be safe.

After everything the Tackling Dummy had told her about his special thoughts and himself, Meri respected his opinion. Obviously he had a lot of mind. The dummies of the land, noticing her respect, patiently waited for what he would say. Whatever he said would be all right, because they were all beginning to have a high opinion of him too, just as Meri so quickly had when she had first met him.

Meri had given him a serious responsibility. It was the first time that his mental ability had been shown so much respect, and he was determined to be worthy of it.

He went up several more steps, passing Meri, to study the cake better. Then he scrutinized Meri carefully, considering her height and weight.

He was especially careful for another reason. He knew that if he made the wrong decision, his first---and his best---friend could be hurt. She meant a lot to him.

For a few moments, he stood by himself, looking up into the air, calculating. The suspense was building as everyone watched him and waited respectfully. A look of relief came onto his face just before he announced his conclusions. Standing halfway up the steps, he announced, "In my opinion, she'll be all right."

Everyone seemed visibly relieved.

"You probably won't quite reach the bottom," he said to Meri. "But it'll be close. I've gone over everything twice in my mind."

The oversized cake was resting on a large irregular base with silver foil all the way around, with several intervals of gold foil. It was very pretty.

Then the Tackling Dummy demonstrated his mental ability by suddenly suggesting a very unusual idea, to help make everyone feel more comfortable, because Meri was so valued.

" _I could walk into the side of the cake and catch her as she comes falling down_ ," he offered. "To make _sure_ she's okay."

Every dummy who lived there in that land looked startled for a moment. They had certainly never heard of anything like that before, since they were such light dummies themselves. They were made of yarn. But it was such a different idea, like their own lavender thought, that they were immediately pleased.

Wut nodded his head in approval, and everyone shouted, many jumping _up_ in approval.

"Okay," agreed Meri, immediately liking their energy, and smiling at such wonderful problem solving. Now everything would be even _more_ fun! She had been right to ask the Tackling Dummy.

"Good," said Ello, pleased that Wut's concern had been settled in a way that made everyone including herself so satisfied.

"Of course, you'll have to judge _exactly_ where to stand," she unnecessarily reminded the Tackling Dummy.

But he was already up on the glistening yellow and silver foil covered steps again, looking and estimating. For a moment he even ascended on the steps to just above the upper surface of the beautifully immense cake with all of its decorations on top, and looked down at it. He looked all around at the land, too. It was a unique sight.

Then he hurried down, walked around the cake, and with everyone following and watching, finally stopped, directly facing the icing, and only a few inches from it. To the cheering of everyone, with only a second's hesitation he walked straight into the light, fluffy, and delicious icings at the point he had chosen---between a silvery Wut and a large light lavender and yellow facsimile of the cake itself.

Disappearing, as best he could he began to navigate through the blackness of the interior of the cake.

"This isn't easy!" he immediately discovered. He found that he couldn't just walk! All kinds of unlikely motions were necessary to be able to move upright through the moist interior! It was actually like swimming standing up, in solid black!

"This is totally bizarre," he said out loud in a kind of garbled cake language that no one else could have understood, since cake was right against his face and his ears. "Let's see, where am I?"

But of course, he couldn't see.

After traveling so far on the silvery monkeybars, he wasn't surprised to suddenly find himself in this new type of motion.

"I'm walking through cake," he said to himself lightheartedly.

"Okay," he finally said to himself hopefully, stopping. "I'm here. This is where I think she'll come down." His mind had never had to work as hard before.

He stood there, in the solid night of the cake, waiting.

# Chapter VII: _A CONVERSATION IN CAKE_

Now that The Tackling Dummy was inside, with mounting excitement---hers, and that of all the watchers too---Meri climbed up the rest of the high steps, holding onto the cheerful yellow railings with rose colored and silver flowers---more tightly as she rose higher. Ello followed eagerly right behind her.

Another large cheer went up, all around, as the girls appeared on the platform and looked out over the beautiful cake and through the yellow air above. There were a number of decorations visible up there that couldn't be seen from the grass. One of them, in the exact center of the top of the cake, in a large, light blue circle, was yet another excellent representation of Wut in caramel and light silver. To the left of this was the statue of Wut in actual colors that stood up near the edge so that it could be seen from below. His face, with its small pink mouth and light green eyes, was appropriately looking out across The Lands.

"MMMMM," smelled Ello, standing just behind Meri on the platform. "Uhmh! Wish I could take a bite myself." She was enjoying being with her new friend Meri---to the point of fantasizing about eating cake.

"I'll take an extra big one," promised Meri obligingly, "big enough for _both_ of us!"

She liked the light yellow of Ello's yarn in the sunshine. And she liked Ello. There was a lot of yellow on the platform, reflecting up from the cake, making Ello seem _especially_ bright. In friendliness, Meri reached back and put her arm around her new friend's shoulders. It was a gesture appreciated by the dummies in the land, watching down below.

Ello smiled. "Better go," she whispered. She was trying to look calm, but the lavender around her head was the most intense Meri had seen above any dummy's head so far.

Walking out to the very edge on the walkway shining with silver paper, Meri stopped. Looking down at all the dummies gazing up at her with smiles of anticipation on their faces, she nodded to many of them and also to Jethro and Wut, now far below.

Then she glanced back at Ello, who was thinking of the historic nature of the event about to occur---a flesh and blood dummy jumping directly into their cake for the first time! And such a nice dummy! Ello was quite elated at the idea. Then she realized how happy she was about having her for a friend, too. A new part of her life had begun, she somehow thought.

Meri was ready. She tried to imagine the Tackling Dummy down below her in the cake somewhere. Setting her legs to get the most from them, and hoping the Tackling Dummy had figured out the right spot, _and had had enough time to get there,_ she jumped out and up. As far as she could.

And as high as she could.

Up she went.

And out she went.

And then she descended into the beautiful icing.

She was in the cake!

Falling through the cake's immensity, through layer after layer, down, down, down, down, easily floating through sections of icing and then of cake, one after another, she counted the layers she passed: "33--34--35--36...."

Wut had been right. She did travel effortlessly through the cake. She kept counting layers. And finally, approaching the round base, she fell right into the Tackling Dummy's arms.

He had thought, rightly, that she would leap straight out and that her legs would slowly drift forward in her downward flight. In the cake, by the time she reached him, _she came down onto his outstretched arms_ with only a little motion left. Although she already loved her friend and had a very high opinion of him, that opinion rose even higher when she discovered that he was perfectly in place to receive her. _She had stopped right in his arms!_

He had been right. It occurred to her how much more ability he had than just to be used for tackling!

"Hi," she said, after a moment, when she realized her friend had caught her, as planned. It took her a moment because the cake was totally black on the inside.

"Hello," he replied. Their voices sounded muffled, traveling through the fluffy baked interior. And Meri had plenty of cake in her ears.

The Tackling Dummy wanted to celebrate Meri's joyful descent into the cake by saying something appropriate _._ He would have been very glad to see her there in front of him, if he could see _anything_! But he couldn't. So he couldn't say that he was glad to see her. He thought for a moment and said, "I'm glad you're here. It was really good of you to drop in like this. Are you hungry? There's cake."

It was the most lighthearted and witty thing the Tackling Dummy had said since she had met him. Meri was glad The Lands had taken away so much of his anxiety.

" _Yes! "_ she said enthusiastically, with a smile that was lost in the cake, and then she laughed at how they both sounded.

Her hunger had become especially noticeable.

"Thank you for the invitation. I've been waiting for this!"

They were speaking in blind and muffled cake language.

Meri loved cake. But since she was completely in the dark, and since there was no plate or knife, and since no one could see, she served it to herself in _a very special way_.

Reaching out with both arms and hands, she guiltlessly pulled a truly huge amount straight into her face and even around her face, laughing on the inside the whole time and eating! She had never eaten cake that way before and probably never would again! She would never have the same opportunity again, she knew.

She was secretly glad that her nearby friend couldn't see her new method of eating cake!

And she was sure she had _never_ had her mouth open _that wide ever before!_

She didn't realize it, but she was also, unconsciously, celebrating how much she liked being in The Lands!

Inside, everything smelled even more heavenly than on the outside. The temperature was quite pleasant. And the taste was the best she had ever tasted, even better than Aunt Am's.

"But it should be," she thought, "since the dummies of The Land of Lavender Thought make cake every day!"

Meri's face was covered with different icings she had collected on the way down. These became a part of every bite she took, adding to the flavors.

" _What_ are we going to look like when we step out into the sunshine, in front of everybody?" she wondered out loud, laughing, when she had finished the huge armful with great satisfaction.

"Will anyone recognize us? And will we _ever_ be clean again?" She could feel icing all over her bare arms and legs. She knew it was all over her face. _And what about her clothes? She couldn 't wait to see how she was going to look!_

"I've been thinking about that," the Tackling Dummy unexpectedly replied. "There's something that we don't know yet.

"Did you notice that although these dummies make cake _all the time_ , and jump into it all the time, they look perfectly clean? Imagine getting icing all over their yarn---and _into_ their yarn--- _all the time_ ---yet looking just fine! There's something that we haven't learned yet, I know. _They must have a special way of getting the cake and icing off._ They must!! And my guess is that we're going to be surprised by whatever it is. I don't think it's going to be anything we would ever think of. To tell you the truth, I'm looking forward to finding out how they stay so clean."

His last tones were full of wondering---not wonder, but just wondering. He was well aware that very little in The Lands is predictable. So they kept him curiously wondering all the time!

Meri was thinking about what he had just said. She began to be intrigued too about how they got clean. She hadn't had an opportunity to think about it before. But now she began to realize that, yes, it was going to be another treat in this land to find out what the dummies do to look so perfect after doing frequently what she had just done and was now doing! She began to look forward to getting clean like the dummies there do!

"I won't try to guess what it is," she suggested as she jumped in slow motion out of the Tackling Dummy's arms. "But we can probably safely say they don't wash it off in the rain." But as soon as she said those words, she regretted them. Because although it did seem unlikely that The Lands would wash the cake and icing off of dummies in the rain---it just seemed a far off idea---she already knew better than to be _that sure_ about _anything_ in The Lands!

Her face and body and feet gently pushed away yielding cake as she slowly descended, until she was standing, like the Tackling Dummy.

"Let's find out!" she said, excited.

# Chapter VIII: _ELLO RAY_

Side by side, the Tackling Dummy and Meri started working their way through the inside of the cake. Luckily they found the soft tunnel made by the Tackling Dummy on his way in, and before they knew it, they burst right out into the sunshine!

A huge cheer went up when they did. For, unknown to the two in the cake, the suspense of watching had been steadily building among those waiting outside.

The monkeybars was sparkling with a silver and yellow intensity right in front of them. In fact, it made their eyes hurt! Ello Ray, her hair bright yellow with bits of pink here and there, was standing eagerly beside it.

It was evident from the opening in the cake that it was made of many many layers. And each two layers were separated by icing, so that Meri and the Tackling Dummy were completely covered with colored icings and cake when they came out.

Neither was recognizable.

Meri's hair was solid aqua with icing.

"The taste of your cake is exquisite," was the first thing Meri said to her yarn friend Ello, who rushed forward to help them keep their balance as they struggled and half fell out. Keeping one's balance in cake is different from doing it in air, especially if your eyes suddenly enter an explosion of light of many colors!

At first, Meri and Ello had trouble recognizing each other. Meri had cherry icing over one eye, orange-yellow over the other, and white, mulberry and other icings over the rest of her face---along with her aqua hair.

And Ello was seen through a kind of icing vision.

The Tackling Dummy, behind Meri, noted approvingly her use of the word _exquisite_.

Reaching back to the cake, Meri dislodged another enormous piece and began eating it slowly and enjoyably in front of Ello's wide open eyes.

"I can't believe it," Ello kept muttering, her easy flow of words slowed down for the time being, as she watched, between parted fingers over her eyes, the strange event of a dummy who looked very much like her _actually eating cake!_ The other dummies of The Land of Lavender Thought crowded around, too, to watch the strange and fascinating spectacle.

As many times as they had made cakes, it was the first time they had ever seen a dummy actually take a bite of one!

Soon the high steps were being used by the dummies of the land diving into the cake, which eventually became an avalanching mountain. Large sides of cake slid down and tipped over onto unsuspecting dummies walking around, often with decorations---and chunks---of cake already all over themselves. Even Jethro sauntered through the dessert and came back looking like a vision of cake and icing. On his white unicorn was the black period from the topmost sculpture of Wut, and he wore this proudly until it finally dropped off later.

Everyone there was a reminder of cake.

"How do you clean up?" asked Meri with intense interest when she had an opportunity. She remembered the intriguing conversation she and the Tackling Dummy had had about that subject inside the cake. She was now quite curious about it.

Considering how she looked, she needed to be!

Ello had been standing nearby during Meri's many conversations with the other dummies of the land. So many had wanted to meet her that Meri hadn't had time to think of much else! And they had all been so unbelievably friendly.

In fact, Ello was the only dummy in the whole land who hadn't ascended the steps and jumped into the cake---because she had been staying so close to Meri, with whom she had already become good friends. But even Ello had been bumped into and been brushed against so many times by the cake-covered crowd, that she, like everyone else, by this time resembled a walking cake.

Looking at her friend, Ello understood perfectly why Meri had asked the question. She couldn't go back on the monkeybars looking like that!

"That's easy," she answered with friendly familiarity. "We simply go over to the edge of The Land of Lost N Lightning, which is right over there." She pointed toward the gray cloud-covered land Meri had been looking at earlier from the monkeybars.

"It's often raining there, so we just rinse off thoroughly in the rain that falls across the border. We don't go into the land because of the lightning! Oh, maybe we do, but only a foot or two," she admitted.

"Then, when we're fresh and new again, we just come back here to dry off and think about our new cakes. If we want to, we can use the heat from our ovens to dry back to normal even more quickly. That's one of the benefits of what we do! It doesn't take long." She squeezed one of her aqua elbows as if to show dryness.

"We need to go there now," she added, glancing at her arms and stomach and over her shoulder at her back. "I'm turning into a statue," she said. The sun was beginning to dry the cake on everyone.

"The Land of Lost N Lightning?" repeated Meri _,_ already interested, behind her cake mask. She was also remembering her earlier remark in the cake. _She had been wrong_ by assuming, much too quickly, that the dummies of the land don't get clean in the rain! Apparently that's exactly what they do! The Lands were teaching her to be especially careful about what she said!

"I wonder what's going to be unusual about this new land?" she then asked herself.

Something _always was_.

" _How can lightning lose an N? " she wondered._

She guessed she was going to find out!

She certainly couldn't tell too much by the name---except, of course, that the land seemed to have _lightning_ in it _._ That should be interesting. And Ello had already mentioned the _rain_. But the part about the Lost N completely baffled her.

She didn't ask any more questions because she knew she was just about to find out the answers.

"Ready to go?" called Wut from nearby, bouncing toward the familiar monkeybars, standing there like a yellow and silver friend. He also was covered with cake, and he looked just as funny as everyone else. He hadn't climbed up the steps, because he had had his own way of going high. He just retreated from the cake, bounced toward it, springing higher each time, until he came down in the _exact_ center of the top, to considerable cheering.

However, since he couldn't bounce out of the cake, he had had to be rescued, among much laughter and celebration. After all, it was a cake honoring him, their old friend. When he had begun bouncing again, the cake had continued to cling fancifully all over him as to everyone else.

Bouncing beside the monkeybars, still standing where an avalanche of cake had fallen rather colorfully across one end, he waited patiently for Meri and the Tackling Dummy to climb up. They had to climb especially carefully, because of the icing on their hands. Ello also climbed excitedly to the top of the silvery and yellow cake-covered spectacle, to travel with them as far as The Land of Lost N Lightning.

Jethro wasn't coming right away. There were tiny wheels under the base on which the cake rested, and after the cleanup he was going to help pull it away. Already the cleanup was beginning. Many of the dummies were working on it, all around, and the rest were walking slowly in the same direction to be taken by the monkeybars, to get clean again.

They were heading toward _The Land of Lost N Lightning_.

Taking hold, Wut swung quite gently to avoid getting ahead of everyone.

He stayed right with the crowd in a friendly way, and many dummies climbed on. Soon it was covered all over with dummies from The Land of Lavender Thought.

On top, Ello explained, after first marveling at the initial smooth motion of the sparkling equipment: "After we jump into a cake, or sculpture, we take what's left to The Land of Geological Speed. You might have noticed it on the way in." Meri nodded her icinged head, easily remembering the magnificent violence.

_It would be hard to forget a whole land in motion!_

"That's where Jethro will be pulling the base," Ello continued. "We just drop everything off into that land, and it's never seen again. It's fun to think, though, that part of those huge dangers, so frightening and so lovely at the same time, is actually cake."

The Tackling Dummy, as Ello was explaining, was looking down at his canvas, which was covered with cake, as they all were. In _his_ case, however, it made him look less shabby, because some of his rips and tears were covered with icing, and icing looks better than he did. His good canvas---where his patch of the British Isles had been, on the left front of his chest--- was showing, however, being in a more protected place.

"I hope you can get some new canvas," said Ello thoughtfully, noticing the Tackling Dummy's examination of his fabric. He smiled gratefully back at her.

"Jethro should join us before long," she continued. "Did you notice how excited he was, about pulling the large cake base and about everything else? He comes by from time to time to see what we're doing, and he always helps us. We love to see him. And of course we love _him_ , as everyone does all over The Lands! One of these days, he's going to come by here, and sculptures of _him_ will be all over the cake. I can't wait! If he should, that would be only the _second_ time---after today, of course---that someone honored by a cake actually saw it!"

Meri wondered if it would ever happen. And what Jethro would do if it did! But she didn't have time to think about it.

Because they were coming to the end of the land which had been so special in so many ways. How could Meri _ever_ forget that cake?! And it was the _first_ land in which she and the Tackling Dummy had gotten to meet the dummies who lived in that land. All that was left before them now was a small area of light green grass with the usual flowers that grow close to the soil all over this particular land.

There was the usual border and beyond that, The Land of Lost N Lightning. It was already coming into view much more clearly.

Meri was almost disappointed. It was simply another open forest, with trees somewhat apart, reminding her of The Autumnforest. But it was also misty and gray, with low clouds down into the trees in many places. At the same time it was both dark and light and even strangely vivid in the places where there was light. She even thought she saw some hints of color!

As they approached, Meri began to hear loud crashes of thunder. However, so close to the trees now, she was able to glimpse less of the strange lightning that had seemed so vivid and unusual from a distance.

She was beginning to be even more curious about this different kind of land, where her new friends were able to lose all the traces of cake and icing from their yarn. At that very moment, however, she was just glad to be there, because her skin had already become stiff and itchy, especially on the monkeybars, where the movement through the air dried her skin even more. Her hair was heavy and clunky.

She would have given a lot to see herself!

There were gray clouds right overhead near the edge of the land, and the monkeybars, although still shimmering in the lesser light, was losing some of its yellow look, though it was still pale yellow. Leaning over, Meri could see herself in it---a bent and funny picture of herself on one of the two long overhead bars.

She and the Tackling Dummy had become quite quiet at the nearness of a land so dramatically different from _the bright lands_ they had seen so far. They weren't disappointed, but they _were_ surprised. This land was almost the _opposite_! They looked as far as they could into the trees at the edge and wondered. What were they going to learn if they went inside?

"It all depends on the N, whether it's lost or not," Ello suddenly said, watching the faces of her two new friends. She knew how different it must seem to them, from the preceding ones!

Meri hadn't been thinking about the N at that particular moment, but _now_ she began to. Maybe it was the key to the understanding she was looking for.

"It _is_ the main part of the land's name," she said to herself.

"For example," Ello continued, "sometimes it's simply The Land of Lighting, if that first N is missing in lightning. Then the land can be very pretty. The lights are nice. But if the N is there, it's The Land of Lightning, which is dangerous, although not usually at the edge, as I said, where we go. It rains a lot into our land, but lightning usually doesn't strike too close to the edge, so we are safe when we get close to wash ourselves off.

"Sometimes," she went on, her two aqua ankles stuck over the same side of the long shiny parallels, "it's The Land of Pink _Lightning_ , which I wish you could see. It's lovely. It's more dramatic but not quite as delicate and soft as The Land of Pink _Lighting_ , which has no rain and no lightning. They're both so nice! But you have to remember not to be careless, and to pay attention, because one is incredibly dangerous---if you should happen to be lulled into straying too far into the edge. The other, The Land of Pink _Lighting_ , is always completely harmless. But they can change so quickly!"

The monkeybars slowed down considerably as Wut stopped swinging altogether. Covered with dummies, it glided to a standstill near the first showers of the drifting rain.

Meri had been thinking hard, listening to Ello's brief remarks. "Did something go wrong with this land too?" She asked quite perceptively, thinking of The Land of the Croapfs. "Is something wrong because the N keeps getting lost?"

"Actually, _yes_ ---or _no_ ," answered Ello, looking at the flashing land they were about to approach on foot. In the changing light she glanced over at her cakey friend, more than a little surprised that Meri was able to ask such an appropriate question.

She went on with her explanation with a slightly higher opinion of her friend. "It used to be _The Land of Violent Violet Lightning_ , which was---and still can be---one of the most dangerous of The Lands. But then, something went wrong, as you said--or _right_ , if you think about it--- because sometimes it started to become just The Land of _Violet Lighting_ , which was nice. And sometimes just The Land of _Violet Lightning_ , which was dangerous, but not as much as The Land of _Violent Violet Lightning_."

Meri realized she had to listen _very very_ closely to follow these changes. But it was interesting. "What an odd land," she thought.

Ello went right on, enjoying this unique visit on top of the sparkling monkeybars. "Then pink slipped in, and other colors, and sometimes it became simply _The Land of Lighting_ , as I said, which is really quite pretty if all the lights start coming on at once. There's no rain then, but if we're just watching, we still have to remember to stay fairly close to the edge, because if we should forget where we are, and perhaps wander in too far, the N will suddenly slip in, perhaps even twice, and the lightning could be right there on us at any time. Can you imagine what would happen to a dummy if struck--- even if by very pretty lightning? There would be nothing left!

"We always have to be careful, but especially of _violet_ , because _violet_ can change to _violent_ at any moment, and The Land of _Violent Violet Lightning_ is a terrible thing to be in. When it begins, we don't even stay at the edge! We step back, away from the land, and watch. It's a terrible sight, of light violet violence, even if you're not inside, especially with all that thunder. Sometimes the N drops out of the thunder too, and then there simply isn't any of that either. We get to watch all of it silently, but it's still spectacular, and even more awesome in a different way---all of that tremendous violence deafeningly quiet in front of our eyes."

"So you wouldn't want this land fixed, even if it could be?" asked the Tackling Dummy.

"Oh no, _I_ wouldn't want it to go back to The Land of _Violent Violet Lightning_ at all," emphasized the light yellow yarn dummy approximately Meri's age. Her large brown eyes, beneath her pink hair in the lesser light, were definite. "Because then we couldn't use it to wash the cake off anymore. We don't go near when it's The Land of _Violent Violet Lightning_ , as I said. That would change everything. In fact, when it first began to change, that's when we started making cake."

The land began flashing pink, and Wut dropped down. Evidently at that moment it became The Land of Pink _Lighting_. Everyone began climbing down from the palely gleaming monkeybars, which were reflecting the pink lights flashing all over the land.

The edge nearby was dark at this time, although light in other places, and the pink flashings unquestionably were pleasant. The Tackling Dummy thought so, anyway. Then they turned to mint green, and he was fascinated. Ello hadn't specifically mentioned green.

As the lighting flashed, they could see trees here and there in the dimness, and in the lights farther on.

The dummies from The Land of Lavender Thought walked into the edge of The Land of Mint Green _Lighting_. Suddenly it changed into The Land of Mint Green _Lightning_ , as the N was found. There was an abrupt, extremely loud crash of thunder, which startled Meri so that she almost fell off the monkeybars, especially with icing on her fingers, and it began to rain in the land, including right up to the edge. In the flashes she could see the dummies getting the cake off.

"How extremely unusual," she thought. "But how convenient!"

This was also a different kind of land.

She and Ello and the Tackling Dummy walked under the rain at the edge. Immediately they felt the warm pelting rain beginning to dissolve the icings all over them and to wash away the clinging cake.

Meri hadn't expected it to feel so nice!

Her hair and face began to reappear, and the others began to look like themselves again. She liked the feel of the water softly beating at her hair and dripping down her face as it brought back her features. She even liked the feel of it running down the back of her neck! Standing there agreeably in the warm rain, she looked around with a soft smile on her wet face illuminated by the soft green flashings.

Wut didn't come in, and Meri wondered why. He had simply dropped down, and was bouncing relaxedly beside the monkeybars flashing mint green, watching them and looking around to see who else was coming.

After a while, when several different colored storms had come up and stayed briefly, Wut brought the monkeybars _right into_ The Land of Lost N Lightning!

This was another big surprise!

"Ready to go?" he asked Meri and the Tackling Dummy, now completely free of cake again. Rain was dripping freely from all over both of them.

"Through _here? "_ asked the Tackling Dummy and Meri both at once, because it seemed Wut intended to go straight through the forest, lightnings and all.

"Oh yes," answered the question mark casually. "You see, obviously the monkeybars are metal, and they do conduct electricity---or lightning---when they're standing still. But when they're moving, and not connected to the ground, there can't be a current. Lightning can't flow through it---so it can't flow though us! It can't hurt us. Although it might scare us," he added with a smile.

"He's right," chimed in the Tackling Dummy. "I read about that in a science book somebody left in the locker room. There has to be a current."

"Goodbye," said Meri to Ello, giving her a warm hug and not letting go of her new friend too quickly. She stepped back. "It doesn't seem right to tell you goodbye so quickly after meeting you. But I hope I see you again. I wish I didn't have to go." But she knew she had to, for urgent reasons. At the same time she realized how fond of the little dummy she had become. Because it was raining, she was the only one who knew that her eyes were wet with more than just rain.

"Me too," said Ello, the raindrops going down her face looking just like tears too. "Bye." And she hid her face in her hands, but then she came out again, gave Meri another warm hug, affectionately hugged the Tackling Dummy and Wut, and stood by while they climbed up again. She kept removing the water from her eyes. Wut bounced up and caught hold.

Many of the other dummies, including Little Ray and Big Ray, had walked toward the monkeybars, to say goodbye, when Wut had brought it just inside the land. Now they were standing all around it, perhaps a little too far inside. A peach colored light was flashing softly nearby.

"Goodbye," they called up to the two on top and to the swinger. "Good luck, Tackling Dummy," they told him encouragingly. "Good luck, Meri. We know you'll both succeed. We'll be sad if we never see you again---please see that we do. We know we'll see you soon, Wut. Goodbye!" They were just about clean again in the softly falling rains that had been coming by.

The monkeybars and its passengers moved slowly away into the trees. Ello sank her face into her hands and silently sobbed at the departure of her two new friends.

# Chapter IX: _THE LAND OF LOST N LIGHTNING_

Meri's heart began to beat excitedly as the silvery radiance of the monkeybars began to light up some of the dark places in The Land of Lost N Lightning. She was in a new land which was entirely a forest of grayish trees with very low clouds. Sometimes the clouds were so low they went through them!

Because the trees were far apart, both Meri and the Tackling Dummy could see green grass beneath the shiny parallels as they moved over it.

Besides low clouds, Wut needed to navigate through _fog_ in many cases. Sometimes it was impossible to tell if they were traveling through fog or clouds. Often the vapor was all the way down to the grass, revealing the trees only in shadowy forms.

Obviously, it was the enormous numbers of clouds that made the continuing storms possible.

The Tackling Dummy, as well as Meri, was looking around with curious eyes. It was an unusual forest to be in, he knew, because at any moment a jagged streak of lightning---of any possible color whatsoever!---might come down in the air around them.

It was a forest that made you pay attention!

He also tried to prepare himself for the noise that could come at any moment.

As the monkeybars went on with many turns and maneuverings through trees, he and Meri were looking around and wondering and waiting expectantly for the next colorful storm to begin. The Tackling Dummy kept turning his head vigilantly when they passed something. Each knew a storm could happen at any minute! And each knew that regardless of when, _it was going to happen_ ---sooner or later!

Meri wondered what Ello was thinking as she walked back and if she would ever see her again.

She was full of interest to see lightning up close that was different from the color it _always_ was in Amelia---white. She also wondered if they would see any _violent violet lightning_ ---the most dangerous kind! As they traveled along, she didn't know if she wanted to see any of _that_ or not. She guessed she did, she nervously admitted to herself.

There was something else that came into her mind too. Since the land seemed to be changing, according to Ello, would they see something that even Wut didn't know was there yet?!

It was a very good question, although she didn't know it.

The Land of Lost N Lightning was a land completely of grass and trees, which kept appearing and disappearing in the clouds and fog. They dodged them, zipped right beside them, and, sometimes, traveled in long curves around places where the forest was especially thick.

At other times, but only rarely, there were quite lovely open places of the sun flashing through brilliant and warm moments of raindrops hanging softly in the air. These were inspiring. But mostly, the unending vaporous gray and white clouds covered and filled up almost the entire forest, often to the ground. Wut had to navigate with sharp eyesight, careful attention, and quick agility. The grayish trees kept appearing abruptly.

But they hadn't met any storms yet.

"Why no storms?" Meri called down to her swinging friend.

"I've been avoiding them," he shouted back over his small black shoulder, not turning his head from what he was doing.

"I thought so," the Tackling Dummy said knowingly. "I knew something was going on when we didn't see any lightning in a land of lightning."

"I wanted to get you used to the land---and to the idea of the land--- ahead of time," the question mark added with a cautious tone from below.

He was very agile at directing the monkeybars, and on purpose he had kept it going through warm shower after warm shower instead of anything more dangerous. He wanted to get them thoroughly used to being on the monkeybars when it was wet, because lightning can be startling, and he didn't want them to slip or fall off during real lightning. It was unquestionably a wise thing to do. His job was to help, either before or after, and he was _always_ thinking about what _could_ happen.

Floating through these warm showers, Meri began to enjoy being pelted by the soft warm drops, being soaked and sailing, dripping and comfortable. She was completely clean again---though dripping all over her skin. The Tackling Dummy was more absorbent.

With Wut's guidance, the reflecting and beaming monkeybars continued through the dark and light land, skimming by trees, rocketing and shimmering through open places, through black and gray rains, dripping silverly, throwing drops around corners.

There were always flickering lights in the near distance, but because of the way Wut was guiding the monkeybars, they weren't seeing any lightning.

Meri began to feel disappointed. She was beginning to think that perhaps Wut had decided just to avoid the lightning completely---perhaps because of her. She knew how cautious he always was.

She was glad to be safe.

But she was disappointed.

Perhaps he had brought the monkeybars into this land because he knew he could avoid the lightning!

But there was a lot that she didn't know yet about Wut. He loved The Lands, and he wasn't about to allow one to remain unseen and unappreciated.

So when he thought Meri and the Tackling Dummy were ready, he turned the monkeybars straight into a line of dancing and beautiful thunderstorms!!

All at once lightning was striking all around them---over the entire land, it seemed. Meri almost fell off the monkeybars when it began, with unbelievable noise! But it was beautiful, as the sky all of a sudden seemed to be full of lightning!

To help herself feel less nervous amid the crashing thunder and the streams of dangerous light often brilliantly close, Meri began to call out the colors of the lightning. She didn't even think about it: because the lightning and thunder were so overwhelming, she just found herself doing it.

"The Land of Plum Lightning,"

she said of a broken pattern of nearby lightning that was the color of plums, following that with

"The Land of Sky Blue Lightning,"

as lightning the color of the sky in summer came down close to her hand. Her skin tingled and was singed as the powerful light went right by and dug up the ground below them in an instant, spattering soil across her and the Tackling Dummy with a tremendous and frightening crash of thunder!

The rain had to go right back to work cleaning them again!

"The Land of Lemon Yellow Lightning,"

contributed the Tackling Dummy, hearing Meri and joining in, as a bright yellow blast came down not far away. He wasn't as nervous as Meri, thinking that, being stuffed with cotton, he wasn't in quite as much danger as she was. But mainly, he was sure that Wut's description of the monkeybars was accurate. He thought that a bolt of lightning striking them could not go right through to the ground---and therefore would not hurt them.

The lightning intensified! It flashed violently through the sky to the right and left of them, before and behind them, and all around. Meri and the Tackling Dummy never knew where it would be next! Down below, there was a smile on Wut's face as he continued to swing.

"What a land!" he was thinking.

"The Land of Sea Green Lightning,"

continued Meri, as the light changed and struck behind them. Briefly in the great noise she thought of the ocean, and her parents on it. She hoped they wouldn't face a storm such as _this_ on their pretty white ship!

"The Land of Spring Green Lightning,"

uttered the Tackling Dummy, as the light of the land continued to be green.

"The Land of Mint Green Lightning,"

continued the girl, as that land came back with a jagged streak practically filling the sky in front of them. They had seen this same pleasant color before when Ello had been with them. At that time they had had no idea they would be going through it again like this!

Meri was proud of her ability to distinguish each different thunderstorm. Briefly she thought with appreciation of her Aunt Amelia. A bolt of combined pain and frustration shot through her chest as she remembered that her Aunt Am didn't know where she was. Her Aunt Am was especially fond of colors, and especially of light colors, and she had tried to teach Meri to appreciate _all of them_ and to be able to distinguish them. This was why Meri didn't have _one_ favorite color!

She was in the right land for noticing the differences!

"The Land of Lavender Lightning,"

expressed the Tackling Dummy, as the color changed from green, and five especially noisy and frightening streaks struck all around them, one after another, in what seemed like an unending series unable to harm them.

"The Land of Rose Pink Lightning,"

called Wut from below, as a tremendous blinding bolt struck just inches in front of him and the monkeybars moving forward. He had been listening with enjoyment to Meri and the Tackling Dummy. For an instant the bars glowed rose pink in the dimness, perhaps as some of the lightning traveled all the way around the normally pale metal. Meri felt a tingling in her hands as she held on especially tightly in the midst of such gigantic explosions. A tickling sensation traveled through the rest of her body as well.

"That's what I was going to say," added Meri, pleased, and also to calm herself. It was true, though.

"Excuse me, wasn't it just _carnation_ pink?" disagreed the Tackling Dummy, but he didn't get a chance to hear an answer as another huge blast of lavender lightning, surrounded by deafening thunder, crossed just above the moving bentdown bars, which reflected that color.

The lightning seemed to be becoming a little more violent, and a little more violet---since lavender is actually a lighter form of violet. Meri felt a coldness inside her like cold metal as she noticed this subtle change. She remembered what Ello had said about violet lightning.

But then she felt relieved when the next lands became not violet at all, but

"The Land of Maize Lightning,"

as identified by Meri

and

"The Land of Peach Light Lightning,"

accurately and enjoyably described by the Tackling Dummy

and

"Goldenrod!"

and

"Mulberry!"

blurted out by Wut as the strikes, almost simultaneously, entered the ground on each side of his swinging figure propelling the glimmering vehicle along through the storms.

The warm rain was steady now through all of them.

Then, however, unexpectedly, along came

The Land of Red Violet Lightning,

which battered the air with color and noise.

And this was just as surely followed by

The Land of Violet Red Lightning,

which was a little more _violet_ and little more violent.

Then this was ominously succeeded by

The Land of Violent Red Violet Lightning,

with crashes so loud in the blazing color that Meri became truly frightened. The violence increased so much in just instants that both she and the Tackling Dummy, completely startled and absorbed by the amazing changes, failed to call out the colors and didn't realize that they hadn't! Both of them, also without noticing, bent very close to each other in the exact middle of the top of the monkeybars, for comfort from the closely approaching lightning.

"Hold on!" warned Wut at the first sight of the dreaded color---which was, at first, just

_The Land of Violet Lighting_.

It was perfectly harmless. But it was an indication of what was to follow, and it did:

_The Land of Violet Lightning_.

And then, at last, came the most dreaded land of all:

The Land of Violent Violet Lightning!

There was complete chaos as the bolts, _dread_ violet, came down, filling the air almost solid with lightning of that dangerous color, but beautiful. As Meri ducked, she thought that it appeared to be everywhere! The crashing thunder, right on her shoulders and on top of her head, was continuous and deafening.

A brilliant bolt hit the monkeybars, instantly covering Wut, the Tackling Dummy, and Meri in a glimmering violet sparkling that remained just a moment and then dissolved, for the monkeybars did in fact stubbornly refuse to accept the colorful energizing electricity.

Meri took a deep breath.

"The Land of Violent Violet Lightning,"

she then spoke out bravely in the midst of the turmoil, forcing herself to push her emotions back and to face the elements so enlivened around her.

"Yeah," softly agreed the Tackling Dummy, leaning against her while looking out.

When Meri did say it, a mysterious exhilaration began to build up inside her as she looked a little more closely at the beautiful violence storming so magnificently around her---although still enormously frightening and dangerous. In every direction the land was blazing and thundering almost beyond endurance.

At this moment the monkeybars sailed out of the land and into peaceful and scarcely believable light yellow sunshine, across light green grass which it skimmed with almost a floating sensation because of the intensity of the last several minutes. Hanging but not swinging, Wut let the monkeybars coast by itself to a halt. Still in a daze, they all dropped off.

Meri immediately tried to catch her breath. She realized she had hardly been breathing during the amazing lightning. All three sat and leaned against the twin uprights of the sparkling bars and looked back at the still blazing and tumultuous land.

The Land of Lost N Lightning!

Because it was a short distance away, it wasn't quite as loud as it had been, and the three enjoyed watching it more peacefully.

They were soaked!

"It's changed," commented Wut, as they regained their calmness. His own eyes were sparkling. " _So much more intense_. _So many more colors. "_

"What a magnificent land," pronounced the Tackling Dummy, looking back with both admiration and respect. "If it's changing, I'd say it has lost nothing---it must have gained."

"Do you want to go through it again?" questioned the curved mark, pleased with the Tackling Dummy's reaction. He cared about each land that much, that he would have been happy to experience the lightning one more time!

"Yes, I would---the next time," said his friend with assurance. He knew they needed to continue. Meri looked at him. She was interested in how he was responding to The Lands. She realized that he _really did_ want to go through it again some time in the future. That told her something about him.

Taking her eyes from the blazing land, Meri began to look around. "What's that?" she asked Wut, startled, pointing to the next land, which was within easy walking distance in the direction they were going.

It was a completely yellow land, almost totally flat. However it did have little changes in its surface, in places.

Wut sprang up onto his period again that showed he was always ready to explain something about The Lands. Doing so often made him excited, and he always liked to be bouncing when he was excited. The land he had been asked about was especially close to his heart.

"That's _The Land of The Yellow Trampoline_ ," he answered, bouncing softly on the grass, looking wistfully toward it. There was a special glow in his eyes. "That's too much to say, so everyone just calls it _The Yellow Trampoline_. We're going on it, by the way. We'll be leaving the monkeybars behind. You're going to find out what it's like to be me now!"

Meri couldn't believe her ears. A whole land that was a yellow trampoline! She looked more carefully. It kept going, into the distance, everywhere!

"Want to?" Wut asked the Tackling Dummy with a black nod of his head towards the monkeybars. Needing a break from swinging, he nonchalantly began to bounce slowly across the grass toward the yellow land. The Tackling Dummy's eyes widened as he stood up and looked appreciatively at the gleaming bars, standing there so quietly.

He was going to be able to guide it himself now! It was an honor, and it came so suddenly!

Still dripping, and her coral top clinging to her skin, Meri ran to catch up with Wut, quite glad to be walking and running freely again after being on the monkeybars so long.

The monkeybars is very special in The Lands, she now knew. She herself was already quite fond of the unusual and useful vehicle. Briefly she thought back to her first unknowing entry into The Land of the Monkeybars. She remembered her first sight of it. It had sparkled so mysteriously, bridging the grass at the foot of that small hill!

Suppose it hadn't been there when they had arrived?

She now knew how lucky they had been.

She felt a little sad: leaving the monkeybars behind after it had carried them so far. It had helped her immensely, because she needed to get back home quickly! Looking over her shoulder at the moonsilver piece of equipment, and remembering their adventures on it, she hated leaving it behind. She realized that she would probably never see it again, never climb up on those familiar silver uprights again.

These thoughts were unquestionably painful to her.

She looked back to where it was standingl. Nothing suggested how fast it could go or the special joyful motion you feel when it begins to cross the grass!

The Tackling Dummy walked up under the bent ladders. With a grin on his face that Meri and Wut could both see, he jumped up from below, like the question mark always did. He was a little heavier than usual because of the moisture inside him from The Land of Lost N Lightning, which had soaked into his canvas, but he was able to catch hold easily with both hands on the first try anyway. Without hesitation, he began swinging.

It was a little harder than it looked. Although he swung awkwardly at first, just noticeably, the sparkling upsidedown U moved forward smoothly, a spectacle across the warm yellow sunshine. Effortlessly sailing on top of the grass, the Tackling Dummy waved with a nod of his head and a sidewise grin as he went by the walking girl and the bouncing question mark.

It didn't take him long at all to reach the edge of the spreading yellow land. They watched him turn, learning how to make it go in circles---and then anywhere he wanted it to.

He was having a lot of fun!

Wut became serious. And then he said something surprising. "You know, Meri, we're almost there---to The Land of Pink Windmills, I mean."

Meri knew the monkeybars had helped them, but she hadn't realized how much, she thought. They had covered so many lands!

They walked and bounced toward the Tackling Dummy's sparkling silver geometry in motion ahead.

The two of them, Meri and Wut, had already been through a lot together, and the punctuation mark now felt surprisingly close to the flesh and blood dummy at his side. Looking over at her sadly with his green eyes out in the air on both sides of his face, he was genuinely sorry that she would soon be trying to leave---and might succeed.

"We get to The Land of Pink Windmills right after we cross The Yellow Trampoline," he told her. There was both pleasure and disappointment in his eyes: he had helped her get to her destination, but she might soon be leaving them entirely and going back home or to England.

"So we're almost there!" Meri learned with excitement.

When she said it, however, she wasn't thinking about leaving The Lands. She was thinking about finding out about the _new_ land with its pink windmills, about trying out The Ticket Tree, about successfully ending their long trip across The Lands!

She didn't notice the painful expression in his eyes of already missing her.

She was also thinking enthusiastically about the idea right in front of her mind.

"We get to bounce across a whole land?" she blurted out happily. "One that pretty?" Her pleasure was obvious, lifting his spirits back up again in spite of his disappointment.

"You get to be a lot like me," he responded playfully, mentioning the connection between himself and this land again. "Some of the dummies even call it _The Land of Being Wut_. But it's really not. I'm not from just one land."

Although it was now getting later, the still warm sunshine was beginning to dry Meri's clothes and her skin. She liked the change. And she liked the soft yellow radiance in the air above the yellow land which truly went everywhere.

A spark of appreciation appeared in Meri's pretty eyes as she thought of the absurdity of it all. She had just gotten used to the monkeybars as a form of transportation. It had definitely been a unique idea at first!--- _actually, absurd!_ However it had worked very well! And now here was another form of transportation in The Lands that was absurd---perhaps even more so, because it was so huge!

More appreciation gleamed in Meri's two lively eyes as she noticed a large number of dummies already on it, bouncing effectively and colorfully in all directions, toward wherever they wanted to go.

She felt a wave of affection for this new and different land that she hadn't even been on yet.

She was looking forward to traveling across a land just like Wut!

# Chapter X: THE LAND OF YELLOW TRANSPORTATION

"What was that?" Wut asked, suddenly stopping. He kept bouncing, of course.

"I didn't hear anything," replied Meri, who also had stopped.

"Polycotlydenous!" they both heard in a faint but familiar voice.

Looking around, they recognized Jethro far behind them. He had seen them first. The two waited, and soon Jethro, with his unique in-all-directions-run, caught up with them.

Then they waited again for him to catch his breath.

"Thanks," said the massive Buffalo Unicorn, breathing more normally, his shorter black horns glinting as his white unicorn seemed to send off rays of its own into the light air.

"That was quite a run. Glad I found you. Are you ready to go on The Yellow Trampoline?" he asked Meri, noticing the look in her eyes. He looked at the yellow land. " _I_ am! Where are the Tackling Dummy and the monkeybars?" he suddenly asked, realizing their absence and looking around for them.

"Right there," motioned Wut, pointing to a small silver sparkle beside the edge of The Yellow Trampoline in the far distance, to their right.

"Guess I'll have to walk, then," Jethro said in a low disappointed voice, hanging his head. However, Meri detected a gleam in his eye. He was kidding. He hardly ever let anything get him down. But sometimes he loved to play that it did. Actually he didn't mind at all walking to The Yellow Trampoline, which he loved. He was looking forward very much to stepping onto it again.

By this time they were _all_ moving toward the trampoline: the girl, the great Buffalo Unicorn, and the rising and falling question mark. Meri was very eager to see the yellow surface up close. But she also couldn't help looking at some of the dummies on it in various places.

As they reached the colorful edge, the Tackling Dummy was just bringing the monkeybars back. Expertly he swung to the left and then came around in a circle swinging right. The gleaming equipment approached the edge of The Yellow Trampoline and gradually stopped, right where it was supposed to. The Tacking Dummy dropped down only after a moment, obviously reluctant to leave behind his new ability.

Standing in a line beside each other, the four of them looked fondly out at The Yellow Trampoline spreading yellowly away in all directions. Here and there dummies were bouncing across it toward their destinations.

Meri had a small smile on her face that wouldn't leave.

"A whole land that's a yellow trampoline," she repeated to herself in her mind. "Unbelievable!" She loved yellow, especially light yellow, the most cheerful kind, like this. _It was more yellow than anyone could ever have hoped to see at one time!_

The monkeybars sparkled softly, at the edge.

Each of the dummies they could see was bouncing with an easy elastic spring, making good progress. They all looked like Wut---like Wut traveling, that is. Meri wished with painful curiosity that she knew more about each one of them---where they were going to and what they did.

It was getting later. The Yellow Trampoline looked several hours earlier, it reflected the light so beautifully. But it was actually early evening. They had crossed many of The Lands. Thinking about their trip, Meri and the Tackling Dummy eventually realized that it's not that easy to cross The Lands in a hurry--- even with the help of the monkeybars. Each one is inviting and interesting. They just take time to cross.

All of the light left in the day was maximized by The Yellow Trampoline.

"This is our last land before The Land of Pink Windmills," Wut said again, perhaps because he hadn't told the Tackling Dummy yet, and perhaps because the unending yellow land they were looking at seemed so vast. The end could not be seen in the distance. But his words were unnecessary. His three friends weren't worried about the size of the land! They were too eager to begin on it!

Known only to him, so was he. There was a special affection in his pleasant green eyes, out in the air on either side of his face, as he looked out at the inviting yellow surface. There was even a hint of a smile on his small pink mouth. He looked more relaxed than he had in a long time.

He was very fond of his yellow trampoline, which allowed everyone to travel like him. Everyone was Wut on The Yellow Trampoline!

"I need to get this right, now," Jethro muttered to himself uncertainly before he stepped out. He couldn't run effectively, and bouncing correctly required even more coordination! Getting the right rhythms always took him a few tries at first.

Meri looked over one more time at the monkeybars which had carried them so far and so eventfully. She had the habit of getting attached to things. It was sparkling easily in the sun as a bee flew underneath its arch.

She kept looking at it. It had been like a friend.

The others were waiting for her to turn back around.

Then she said something they definitely hadn't expected to hear.

"I need one more trip on the monkeybars," she told them.

They all looked at her, puzzled.

"What?" said Wut, incredulous.

" _Now_?" they all asked.

Running back, Meri climbed up the warm, palely gleaming metal of the pretty bars. But instead of launching out, she climbed all the way up to the top again, stood up, and walked carefully across to the end. Standing there, she looked around for a few moments, including down at her friends who were watching her with grins on their faces. They had just realized what she was going to do!

Then, bending down to get the most spring, she released herself out into the air, as high as she could and as far out as she could!

Even coming down onto The Yellow Trampoline from that distance, she was surprised at how high it sent her back up. Everyone else was too, but they had a tendency to forget that she was a flesh and blood dummy, and not made of yarn or stuffed with cotton. She was heavier than they were, and she floated right up.

"I need one more trip on the monkeybars," echoed the Tackling Dummy then, climbing up and flying out just as Meri had. He too was reflected up surprisingly high.

Then they were bouncing in place, awaiting the others. The yellow surface threw them up effortlessly, elastically. Meri easily bounced as high as she wanted, and she could have gone even higher!

Each of them, the Tacking Dummy and Meri, springing up and down rhythmically, then thought of Wut. They were starting to understand what it was like to bounce _everywhere_ one went.

They were starting to learn what it is like to be Wut!

"Not I," said Jethro, hanging his head wearily and acting again as if he were worn out from his long run---although it had been over for a while now. Meri and the Tackling Dummy assumed that it was just too difficult for him, a gigantic Buffalo Unicorn, to climb up _and_ _then stand_ _up_ on the top of the monkeybars---as they had---and after that, to _walk across_ it. It wasn't easy for _anyone_ --- _much less an immense Buffalo Unicorn!_

"Just kidding," Jethro announced, as they were expecting him to jump on out.

"I need one more trip on the monkeybars!" he shouted out happily. Trotting around to the end, he climbed up carefully, one more time, to the top.

And then, extra cautiously, he actually stood up, up there, on top of the monkeybars, and began walking across to the end that looked out over The Yellow Land. Meri held her breath. For his hooves were slippery, and so was the whole top of the silvery monkeybars!

Jethro paused at the very end, hesitated, and then asked the Tackling Dummy, who was bouncing below and watching, like Meri, "Do you suppose I could borrow another word, another fairly long one?"

Pleased, the Tackling Dummy, bouncing in place, thought seriously for a moment, and then suggested, "How about _begoniaceous? "_

"Good!" said the Buffalo Unicorn, his great brown eyes alight with approval. "I like that---in fact, it's perfect. You'll see what I mean. It's time to--- _Begoniaceous! "_ and he jumped out from the top of the monkeybars with all his might as he shouted the word.

His great form seemed to hang in the air for a second or two, before he came down with all four feet on the Yellow Trampoline, with a lighted look in his eyes. Down he sank. Down, down. Then he was tossed up in an _incredible_ bounce, much higher than Meri's and the Tackling Dummy's heads.

The thrust sent _them_ up too, ruining their balance, which they lost again when he came down a _second_ time. Each time they almost fell. In fact, they only regained their balance when Jethro, not in control of his own motion at all, bounced a short distance away in hops. When he did, each of his four legs shot up awkwardly to a different height.

He looked genuinely funny.

He couldn't get started bouncing.

"Stop, and start all over again!" called out Wut, bouncing up high in place and suddenly lifting out. When he came down on the springy yellow surface, he began bouncing along. Expertly. He was the only one who hadn't begun by launching out from the monkeybars, which were now behind them by a short distance. Clearly he had been on The Yellow Trampoline many times, and his skill was revealed all the more when anyone remembered that _he_ had to control _two_ bounces at the same time: his own and the trampoline's.

He did so masterfully.

The others began to bounce slowly, waiting for Jethro, who, finally, after a number of tries, developed a regular up and down rhythm.

The only way for everyone to be able to bounce effectively was for Jethro to bounce a little to one side, either to the left, or to the right, or even in front, of the others. Obviously, this was because of his great weight. If they all bounced close together and came down at precisely the same moment when he came down, he would cause them to fly up uncontrollably--- _very high_. Then, because they were sent up to different heights, when they came down again, they would come down completely out of rhythm with each other.

This was fun. There were lots of falls and floppy bounces at the beginning---and laughter!

Even the three bouncing together had to bounce in unison. For if one came down while another was bouncing up, the effect was canceled for each, sometimes causing them simply to fall over onto the elastic yellow surface. Upward motion was lost in both cases, except for perhaps a little hop which felt awkward and ridiculous. The forward flow of motion was lost too, and had to be restored---and then, whoever it was also had to hurry to catch up. They were looking around so much that sometimes they just drifted away from each other, too, and so lost, in that simple way, the needed unison of their movements.

It was actually a hilarious time!

With much laughing and many accidents, they worked out what they discovered was the best way to go: Jethro to one side and the other three bouncing up and down at the same time.

In truth, even by himself it was difficult for Jethro to remain in rhythm for very long. For he bounced the way he ran---a little bit out of control all the time.

And then, there was his sense of humor: _he seemed to actually enjoy his awkwardness!_ He seemed to eagerly expect what funny awkwardness his great mass would produce next. When Meri looked over at him---when sometimes the bouncing took her closer to him than usual---she noticed an unforgettable joyful look on his face and in his eyes as he experienced himself on The Yellow Trampoline.

They passed many dummies along the way, of many different colors and designs---interesting and often pretty to look at, Meri thought. They spoke and were friendly to all of them---and were spoken to. Meri received many stares, and of course everyone was glad to see Wut and Jethro. The Tackling Dummy noticed both cotton-stuffed and yarn inhabitants of The Lands. He was always especially happy to see the cotton-stuffed ones, but he was embarrassed, because their canvas was always just right.

All of the dummies they met were also thrown out of rhythm if they got too close to Jethro, and some were thrown off their feet. Sometimes there was a spilling and a scattering of what they were carrying, too. At these times, of course, the Tackling Dummy, Meri, and Wut always stopped to help. Jethro didn't, because he just couldn't stop quickly enough. By the time he could get turned around---and he _tried_ several times---everything was done and his friends were on their way again---and _then_ he had trouble turning himself around _again_!

"Sorry," Jethro always called, as his momentum carried him by each mishap. Part of the problem was that the dummies they met _never_ wanted to avoid Jethro, as big as he was. Because of his wandering ways, and his gentle and whimsically adventurous disposition, he had friends all over The Lands who were dearly glad to see him. They all wanted to speak to him if they met him anywhere, and to pass by close to him.

As time went by, and they crossed the yellow land, the light began to change. The sun over The Autumnforest, far behind them, began to drop behind it on a very colorful parachute.

And then Meri noticed that Jethro's bouncing also began to change. He was bouncing with more control. Finally, he had attained a rhythm that worked for him.

Then something else happened.

As much as he loved The Yellow Trampoline, Jethro began to be a little bored. For one thing, it was necessary for him to bounce over to the side, all by himself, because of his great weight. He wasn't able to talk to his friends very well. For another, he was slowly bouncing better and better. There were fewer accidents to keep him interested. So the combination of _continuing uneventful bouncing_ ---up and down, up and down, up and down--- _and his separation from the others_ began to make him feel a little restless.

Continuing to make very high upside down capital U's across The Yellow Trampoline, he began to wish, on his way up into the air each time, _that something would happen to make the trip a little more interesting_.

"Just a _little_ something," he thought to himself. He didn't want to trouble the others or any of the dummies they were meeting.

He had been in this situation _many_ times before, in many lands. He was _always_ looking for something interesting to happen and especially for something interesting to happen to him. That was why he wandered all over The Lands all the time.

As a Buffalo Unicorn, he had been rather lucky. Whenever he wished something interesting would happen, it almost always did. One of the reasons was that, with his size, with all his colors, and his whimsical disposition, he attracted so much attention. He seemed to attract things to happen. Another was that he had so many friends. Yes, he had been quite lucky. Like when he had been just standing there in The Autumnforest, and Meri and the Tackling Dummy had suddenly appeared before him. That had been _real_ luck!

Actually, he wasn't lucky _every_ time he wished that something would happen. No, just _most_ of the time.

_But this was one of the times that he was_.

Because when he looked around at all the dummies on The Yellow Trampoline, silently wishing that something interesting would happen, just a _little_ something,

a little something did!

# Chapter XI: _THE SCOOTERS!_

SHERRROOooooooooooooooooooooooowOOOOOSH!

A streak of violetsilver rolled by Meri's foot like a shot.

"What was that?!" she asked, almost falling to the yellow substance when it happened so unexpectedly.

Looking around for the strange object that had come by, she didn't see anything. Whatever it was, was now gone.

If she had looked into Wut's and Jethro's eyes just then, though, she probably would have seen certain expressions of recognition. She was just about to, when another one, whatever it was, came by.

SHERROOOoooooooooooooooowOOOOSSSH!!

A caramelsilver streak shot just under the feet of The Tackling Dummy as he was going up, and

SHHEERROOoooooooowooooossssh!

A coffeesilver one rolled out from under his feet as he was floating down for his next bounce, and had almost reached The Yellow Trampoline.

"What!?" he interjected awkwardly, startled into wakefulness. He had been thinking about some of his favorite words.

Then SHHEEERROOooooooooowwooooshh!

SHEERRROOOwooooooooooowooooooossssh!

WWWHoooooooossssssh!

Three of them---whatever they were---one goldsilver, one lemonsilver, and a redbudsilver, hit right against the broad side of Jethro and bounced off. They then sped away like light, followed by

WWWHHHOOOOooooooosssshh!

WHEWWHEWwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooossssssssh!

wswswswwwwwswwwwwwswwwwwwwwwswwwwsswwsw!

and WHOOOOOOooooooooosssssssssssssssssssh!

four streaks: of aquamarinesilver, watersilver, melonsilver, and blacksilver, which shot beneath him, the first and last shooting under his huge hooves just before they could be crushed---blacksilver just barely making it before Jethro's weight reached The Yellow Trampoline and depressed it.

_Now_ he was no longer bored!

A little something interesting _was_ happening!

"The scooters!" cried Wut toward Meri and the Tackling Dummy.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were both looking around wide-eyed at what had become a very strange Yellow Trampoline.

"What in The Lands are the scooters?" Meri asked.

Wut liked very much the way she asked the question.

"They're dummies," he began. Meri and the Tackling Dummy nodded, with amazed looks still on their faces. They didn't understand.

How could what they had seen---or _almost_ seen!---be _dummies_?

"They're the inhabitants of The Land of The Yellow Trampoline," Wut continued, bouncing a little ahead of them and just slightly turning back towards them to speak. He was almost bouncing backwards.

"The scooters have lived on The Yellow Trampoline, which is just about flat, as you can see, for as long as I can remember. No one remembers when they weren't on it. At some mysterious time long long ago in the past, evidently they discovered they could _roll_ wherever they wanted to go much faster than they could _bounce._

"Eventually they became extraordinarily able to ball themselves up and roll at great speeds with amazing accuracy. You see what they're like! Or maybe you see because you don't see. Anyway they're just having fun in---and on---their beloved land when we see them like we did today. They're not going anyplace special. They just found us and are enjoying our company. They're glad to have us on their land and to cross it.

"In addition," the floating question mark continued, as a lilacsilver streak bounced right off of the middle of Jethro's white forehead, just below the unicorn, "although they love to roll, they can also move in three other ways, too, if they wish: if they unroll, they can _bounce_ on their feet, like you and like everyone else, except me; or they can _walk_ on their feet, like you and everyone else, except me; and finally, not only can _they_ roll as balls, they can also _bounce_ as balls. And when they do, they're the closest to being just like me."

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were startled by this new information, coming all at once _. Here was another land they had to get used to in unexpected ways!_

"I never thought there would be inhabitants on this land," the Tackling Dummy thought, still surprised. Meri realized she would _never_ get used to all the ways that The Lands are different.

"And that's a big reason that I love them so much," she said to herself quietly, remembering many she had seen. And feeling glad that there were so many that she hadn't!

The four of them continued to bounce along.

Jethro had been watching the scooters with amusement, as they shot playfully by him, through his legs, and even over his back sometimes. They seemed to be teasing him. All of the dummies in The Lands know how whimsical he is.

In response, he began to bounce higher and higher. And each time he came down from a greater height, a scooter, or two or even more, shot just under his hooves in the millisecond before they came down to depress the trampoline. They flew under just in time!

Sometimes three or four and _more_ just in time!

They could roll that fast!

It was obvious to Wut, to the Tackling Dummy, and to Meri that they were trying to see just how long they could wait before rolling between his descending hooves and the yellow beneath them. Meri was sure one was going to get crushed, but they seemed to be judging their motion correctly.

"I see what you mean by _amazing accuracy_ ," she commented to Wut. "I wish we could talk to them, though." Her curiosity was haunting her. "What would they be like?" she wondered.

"What would they say?

"Some interesting things," she believed!

"We have to go _this way_ ," Wut guided Meri and the TD, as Jethro began to drift aimlessly off to the left, thinking only of the game he was playing with the scooters. Rising higher and higher as he bounced, he looked down curiously and whimsically each time as the scooters continued to decrease the time left to clear his hooves.

Meri and the others could see the little blurred puffs of color explode out with speed every time and streak away with joy across The Yellow Trampoline.

Soon Jethro was rising to an _immense_ height with each bounce. He was getting quite good at going up---into the air above The Yellow Trampoline! _It was so like him to want to challenge The Yellow Trampoline to the very utmost!_ Meri would _never have believed_ he could rise that high! His distance upward was more interesting to the scooters, too, of course.

The three of them left behind by the Buffalo Unicorn and his friends watched the spectacle moving away from them as they themselves continued to travel forward.

Then Meri began to notice an unusually long line of trees far ahead in the distance. She could already tell that they mostly had green leaves and gray bark. A few had black bark. They went right across the horizon straight ahead---all the way from the far left to all the way to the far right. Although still not clear, they were only a single line of trees, Meri believed.

"It's not a forest," she said to herself. The Tackling Dummy was looking too.

Then Meri and the Tackling Dummy began to be able to make out the different colors of the leaves of the trees, although they were all green.

"Each tree is different," they realized.

As they bounced even closer, Meri's heart began to beat with increasing suspense and excitement. Wut had said that The Yellow Trampoline was the _last_ land they had to cross before _The Land of Pink Windmills!_

"The Yellow Trampoline must end when it gets to those trees!" she said to the Tackling Dummy. He agreed.

They each looked at the question mark bouncing beside them, but Wut didn't say a word. Although he was listening to them, he simply continued to bounce along quietly with a small smile on this face.

Mysteriously, no pink windmills were to be seen anywhere.

It was especially difficult to see through the long line of trees ahead of them, too, because they were growing so close together.

The light above them was continuing to dim. There were high white clouds all over the sky. Looking back over her left shoulder, Meri could see the sun descending toward The Autumnforest on a very colorful parachute. It was almost there. Of course The Autumnforest itself couldn't be seen from where they were.

It was obviously getting quite late. With considerable disappointment, Meri realized that she probably wasn't going to be able to try The Ticket Tree before dark. It definitely looked like they were running out of day.

And they weren't quite there yet.

But she refused to give the idea up completely. Too many people were already worrying about her by this time, she knew.

"Perhaps in the very last part of the evening, I can try it, and get back today," she forced herself to hope as she continued to bounce along. They were now even closer to the long line of trees in front of them.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were both disappointed that they couldn't see the scooters any more. Jethro, lackadaisically bouncing, had drifted far to their left, taking them away. They could still see him, though not well---but not the scooters. The diminishing light was mellowing and diffusing, turning The Yellow Trampoline different colors in different places. The great Buffalo Unicorn was also beginning to blend in with it.

However it _was_ still possible to see in the distance how unbelievably _high_ Jethro was bouncing by this time. He was going an amazing distance up! The scooters were no longer visible, but Meri had no doubt they were still spinning crazily out from under his feet as he plummeted down towards them at _an incredible_ speed.

_Actually, though, they weren 't_.

Knowing The Yellow Trampoline as well as they did, the scooters had recognized a safety hazard.

Jethro's height had become so great that, before he came down each time, there was time for someone, a bouncing dummy, to unwittingly come along and to be _beneath_ him as he came hurtling down!

NO ONE wanted a dummy to be badly crushed!

So the scooters were now bouncing up and down as colorful balls, in a safety circle around the area of Jethro's descent. They were now as close to being like Wut as any dummy could be. And they looked very pretty, because their colors were even more visible. It was too bad Meri and the Tackling Dummy couldn't see them like that.

They were protecting _Jethro_ , too, of course, so that he wouldn't feel bad by crushing someone.

Then a great shout arose from that location. Squinting, the three travelers could just make out a yellow figure there in the distance. Even from that far way, they could see what color he was. He was even a little yellower than the yellow trampoline.

"I'd like to see him in person," Meri thought. "He must be a beautiful color."

Apparently the figure had seen Jethro, who was obviously trying to descend from his great height as fast as he could. He looked frustrated as he helplessly kept bouncing back high up into the air again. But that's what a trampoline does.

Still looking hard into the distance, Meri and the Tackling Dummy were suddenly startled at Wut's reaction close beside them.

"Oh!" he broke out excitedly, ascending higher.

"OH! It's Leo! I think! Yes. It is! It's Leo!---Leo J. upP! I've just got to go over there for a minute. I've just _got_ to talk with him for a minute. Do you mind? He does a lot of what I do in The Lands. Only _he_ does it voluntarily, while _it 's my job_. I don't get to see him that often. He's hard to find. There are some things we _must_ say!"

He said all this as quickly as he could, because he evidently wanted to leave in a hurry, while Leo J. upP was still over there on the trampoline beside Jethro.

Before he left, however, a serious expression appeared on his face, and it was clear he had something to say that was important enough to delay him, even when he was in such a hurry.

"Do you see those two trees up there, the two noticeably higher than the others?" he asked both Meri and the Tackling Dummy, pointing. The tones in his voice were unmistakably serious.

With his small black hand and small black index finger, both bouncing up and down with him, he was pointing to where two especially high trees could be seen to be curiously higher than the others. They weren't really too far away. The line of smaller trees stretched away from them in both directions.

Looking, both the Tackling Dummy and Meri nodded quickly and firmly. Sensing Wut's urgency, they both cooperatively wanted to give him an opportunity to go while his friend was still there.

"Well," Wut emphasized, trying not to bounce so high in his excitement, but not succeeding, " _It 's important that you wait right there for me_---on _this_ side of those two trees. _I 've been saving a surprise for you_, and it's very important _that you not go through_ until I get back." A small smile appeared on his face, which was immediately replaced by his urgent expression. In fact, the replacement ocurred so fast it was even funny!

"Meri, it's imperative that you grant me this favor," he insisted, surprising them by going on about it. "And you, too, _please_ , Tackling Dummy. _There 's something important that I haven't told you about yet_. Those two trees are very well known in The Lands. They're the way for most dummies in The Lands to enter The Land of Pink Windmills. We are just about there, and we're still going through them. But not until I get back. There's a little information about those trees that you especially need to know before you enter that land.

He smiled again. "About the surprise---it's not small," he said mysteriously.

"So I want to be there. Will you wait for me before going through? I must have your agreement before I can leave, even if I'm gone only several minutes. It's that important." He seemed to be anxious about it.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were, of course, absolutely mystified by Wut's dramatic words. And especially by his obvious determination! They hadn't seen this side of him yet. Their curiosity was utterly bursting inside them!

But of course they both agreed.

"Of course," promised Meri quickly, wondering.

"Absolutely," followed the Tackling Dummy, his mind whirling.

They would gladly have done _much more_ for the loveable question mark, if only they had had the chance. They cared about him that much.

But they couldn't help being dumbfounded by his determined words and anxious manner!

Meri could hardly wait to see the pink windmills! She had already guessed that they were the homes of the dummies who lived there, and she wanted to find out for sure. And she was so looking forward to meeting the dummies who lived in windmills, if they did---and even if they didn't! The land was strongly attracting her. Her excitement had steadily been building as they had been bouncing toward the trees.

She was so excited, in fact, that to Wut she immediately added, "Yes, I believe I can last several more minutes!" She wanted to calm herself down.

"I'll be right back, then," said the question mark, immensely relieved and pleased.

Turning, he rocketed toward the strange yellow dummy standing beside Jethro on the trampoline in the distance. They had each stopped bouncing, probably to talk better. However, Wut could be seen to be still going up and down, once he got there.

# Chapter XII: _THE NOT SMALL SURPRISE_

Watching him go, Meri and the Tackling Dummy immediately began bouncing much more slowly. There was no need to hurry. _For the first time that day_ , they were able to relax.

It was also the first opportunity the two of them had to talk alone together since they had arrived at The Autumnforest.

Bouncing easily along, they looked over at each other meaningfully before either said anything. So much had happened to them since that morning. The Practice Field seemed like such a long time ago and a long way away.

Unbelievably, they had _first_ _met_ only that very morning!

And now, they were crossing The Yellow Trampoline together.

Their minds were full. And for the first time, they had a good chance to think about what their minds were full of. The softness of the light also made them more thoughtful. There was a peaceful, mild glow all over The Yellow Trampoline.

Seeing Wut talking to his friend in the distance, and feeling so quiet, they slowed down to bounce _even more_ _slowly than before._

Meri was especially glad of this opportunity to be alone with the Tackling Dummy. There was something she had been wanting to say to him for several hours. She had thought a lot about it---during the scattered minutes when she had had a chance to think!

"I don't know what you're thinking and feeling now," she said to him softly and affectionately, looking over at him. "But to me, you've had the most good luck that ever could have happened to you, after all that bad luck. _You came to The Lands!_ The people here are just like you, and you're like them. You're perfect to be here, and here is a perfect place for you to be. I don't think you need to go to England at all now. Do you? You were so lucky to get here. Now I think you should stay. Haven't you, in a way, come home?"

The Tackling Dummy smiled a smile that only she was able to understand completely---since she had seen the opposite expressions on his face on the Practice Field. She had seen him at his saddest---at the lowest points of his existence. And now he was in The Lands.

He was deeply moved.

"Yep," he said to his dear friend, with the same meaningful smile again. " _Yep_ is enough. No large words are required. I've been thinking a lot about it too. You're right. This is where I need to be. This is where I belong, and where I want to be. If only they'll accept me here."

This was obviously a very important discussion. It was his whole future.

"They will," she encouraged him, and she had no doubt they would. "Everyone who's met you so far loves you, including me. Just be patient. In the meantime, you're here." They both looked out at the calming appearance of The vast Yellow Trampoline. Meri imagined the monkeybars glimmering inconspicuously on the other side, where they had left it---and then she realized that a dummy crossing The Yellow Trampoline probably had already taken advantage of its presence there to reach her or his destination more quickly. She wondered if at that moment it was moving through the same lands they had crossed---but in the opposite direction. "It may be!" she exclaimed to herself, fond of the unusual vehicle. Then she thought of all the _other_ lands it could be in---the ones over there that they hadn't crossed but were nearby! Her mind then gladly considered the many _other_ lands that were ahead of them too, from what Wut and Jethro had said.

"This is a wonderful place to be," she assured the Tackling Dummy, judging by what they had learned so far.

"Thanks, _meridian_ ," he responded. He said a lot just by using her special name.

"I did have good luck," he then continued, "the best good luck I ever could have had was when you walked onto the Practice Field this morning---exactly when I got knocked down for the last time. I'll _never_ have a better friend than you."

Meri smiled and looked over at her friend. "I'm glad I had a chance to be your friend," she said through blurred eyes. She doubted if any girl her age had ever had three such wonderful and different friends as the Tackling Dummy, Jethro, and Wut. She felt immeasurably lucky herself.

Finally reaching the end of The Yellow Trampoline, they stopped to wait for Wut in front of the two especially large trees that he had said were the way that dummies in The Lands enter The Land of Pink Windmills. They looked incredulously up at the two huge gray trunks with their canopies of green leaves spreading widely right out over The Yellow Trampoline. It was weird to Meri to see tree limbs so far over the trampoline! And she had never seen such large oaks! Of course, the Tackling Dummy, who had been deprived of trees all of his life, never had either!

They were enormously high!

And yes---they were oaks!

While she was looking, Meri suddenly began thinking about another tree too---The Ticket Tree. And where it would take her. The Tackling Dummy, strangely, had begun thinking about it too.

These trees, through which the dummies of The Lands usually entered The Land of Pink Windmills, had reminded them both that they were now not very far from The Tree of Ticket Leaves, the reason for their trip across The Lands. It was right in the next land.

Meri wondered if she would be able to see it if the long line of trees weren't there. She began to imagine what it might look like.

The Tackling Dummy, however, became sad. He wanted Meri to be happy, but he realized that The Ticket Tree, which was now so close, could easily, before too much longer, take her a great distance away and forever.

It was a very difficult thought.

They continued to bounce, tentatively, under the many spreading limbs. Unable to keep from looking up again from time to time, they couldn't see far because of the unending branches going up, many quite huge. They could see the lower limbs, though, and that the bark was quite rough all the way up, on them, and especially on the trunk.

Wut was still a tiny black figure, far away in the distance to their left.

He was still talking to Jethro and to his friend whom he had called Leo J. upP. Leo was bright yellow, even from a distance. Meri could tell that all three were now bouncing. "Wut will probably soon be coming back," she thought.

The long line of trees on either side was something else to look at as they waited. Each one seemed to be a different kind of oak! They went on indefinitely in both directions---only one tree thick. It was a very unusual kind of forest! They were so close together and so thick with branches down low to the ground that nothing could be seen through them.

_The only opening_ that could be seen was between the two large trees where they were waiting. It was clear now why they had been bouncing toward them. They seemed to be the only way to the next land!

Looking around gladly, Meri was happy to see, for the first time in The Lands, trees looking exactly like trees she had always known.

The longer she waited, however, the stronger her curiosity became. She noticed something strange. She noticed that The Yellow Trampoline continued to the two larger oaks and then even went right between them! But it conspicuously ended in a neat line everywhere else, followed by grass up to the line of trees.

She realized that if she had wanted to---and she did want to---it was possible to bounce right between them and surely right into The Land of Pink Windmills!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy could also just tell that the continuing yellow path turned slightly downhill a little before it went between the two trunks. But that was all they could see. The light was fading.

Meri desperately wanted to have her first look at the pink windmills! Especially while there was still some light!

"They are right on the other side of those trees!" she exclaimed, in her mind.

She could almost see them, in her vivid imagination!

She had no doubt she was going to love the way the windmills looked. She also desperately wanted to find out for sure if the dummies _live_ in them, as she guessed. Perhaps she would even get to walk inside one. She wondered what they looked like on the inside!

It had been a long, exciting, and definitely unique day. The two friends had discovered The Lands and had seen some wonderfully fascinating ones. They were both ready for the day to come to an end in the final one, which they both believed was also going to be unforgettable! Meri had a feeling that it was going to be the perfect conclusion to everything they had already seen.

But neither Meri nor the Tackling Dummy was willing to peep through at the land they had traveled through so many other lands to reach. They were tempted. But Wut had said he was saving a surprise for them, and they didn't want to disappoint him. They also didn't want _him_ to be disappointed in _them_. So although they were almost unbearably curious, they kept their word to Wut.

He had said about the two trees right in front of them and above them, _" There's something important that I haven't told you about yet."_

Standing very close to the twisting and misshapen bark of the two enormous gray trunks, Meri and the Tackling Dummy didn't even try to _accidentally_ catch just a glimpse of the surprise, about which Wut had mysteriously said,

"It's not small."

They waited for _him,_ although they were unendingly and almost unendurably _curious!_

The sun behind them had finally dropped into The Autumnforest, continuing to light up the sky above it with its colorful parachute! The Lands were dimmer. The line of shorter trees on either side of them had become quite shadowy! It was getting harder to see, except just above the trampoline itself, still illuminated by a soft afterglow.

There was something else, too. It's true that Meri and the Tackling Dummy each wanted to be reliable and to keep her word and his word. _Each was sure about that._ But each had _also_ learned, in addition, about _surprises_ in The Lands. Wut had actually used the word _surprise_. They already loved The Lands, but they had learned _quite well_ how utterly unpredictable The Lands are! They didn't want to find out about the surprise _in a way that they wished they hadn 't!_ They had learned that, in The Lands, it's better to let surprises happen on their own.

They kept noticing, though---they couldn't help but notice---the way The Yellow Trampoline _strangely_ continued _between_ the two huge trees, although it came to an end before the smaller trees, in a straight neat line.

" _Why does it go on like that? "_ they wondered to each other. The light gleamed palely from the elastic surface, that, even more curiously, seemed to go---yes, it definitely angled--- _a little downhill_ as it went toward the two skyfilling trees.

They continued to wonder about that.

Although almost bursting inside with wonder and curiosity and trying to be patient with the delay, they forced themselves to wait! They wanted to be loyal to Wut; they had given their word. But the more time that passed, the greater their curiosity became.

It was becoming impossible to endure!

They were in a unique situation, having to wait _only feet away_ from the satisfaction of their enormous curiosity!

Finally, reaching an ultimate point, they had to either explode or laugh at their predicament. Looking at each other, they realized how amusing they actually were, because of their curiosity. And so they laughed.

Their laughter gave them a little more time to wait patiently.

Without thinking too much about it, they sat down on the bulky base of the larger tree on the left. Looking out over the dimming softness of The Yellow Trampoline, they relaxed and enjoyed the remaining light. No dummies could be seen any longer bouncing toward their different lands. All they could see was a vacant flat softening yellow, slowly gathering shadows across maize and gold.

The gone yellow sun, having fallen behind The distant Autumnforest and continuing to fall, slowly pulled more colors out of the yet retreating day.

Presently the small black figure of Wut appeared on their right, bouncing thoughtfully toward them. He smiled when he saw them sitting there, waiting for him on the base of the tree. As he came closer, the green of his eyes, in the air on either side of his face, and the pink of his small mouth, could just barely be seen. Meri and the Tackling Dummy guessed, correctly, that he had to be thinking about the not small surprise he had promised.

His eyes lighted up.

"You didn't look, did you?" he asked as he bounced up with his double bounce on the soft yellow surface.

They shook their heads.

"Good!" he shouted out.

It was clear he was terribly excited himself!

"You're going to be surprised! Ready?"

"Uh huh," answered the Tackling Dummy, stepping down from the base of the tree. "Been." He could use words of few syllables when he wanted to, as well as the longer ones that he loved so much. But he was actually quite excited inside.

Meri's heart began to beat faster as she stood up. Finally! Regardless of the surprise, mainly she just wanted to be in The Land of Pink Windmills! She wanted to see what they looked like! And to find out what the land was like! Yes, she had come here by accident because of a ticket from a Ticket Tree. Now, in this land, perhaps she could go back home, or perhaps even to England, _by intention_ ---with a ticket from _that same tree_ ---or the newest version of it. But right now, mainly, she just wanted to see this new land!

Her imagination was making the best pink windmills she could!

But since she was always so full of curiosity, she hadn't forgotten about Wut's promised surprise either. Looking at him, in a spirit of fun she asked, "Is this _more_ of a surprise than what we've already seen in The Lands today? Or _less_?" It was certainly an interesting question, considering all the times they had been surprised that day.

Bouncing in place, Wut thought for a moment, perplexed by the unusual question. "That's a _very_ good question," he replied, thinking about it. He answered as if he liked to hear and to answer _questions_ , being a question mark. He also liked her spirit. He was so fond already of this small flesh and blood dummy!

"But it's neither," he answered, smiling that they had been thinking of his surprise. "In fact, it's not a genuine surprise at all, like you ordinarily see in The Lands."

Meri's face dropped a little, with obvious disappointment. The Tackling Dummy wrinkled his brow.

"What I mean is," the question mark continued, his eyes moving between lively and thoughtful, is that it's a surprise that could be _anywhere,_ not just in The Lands. It's a surprise of _geography_."

Now the Tackling Dummy and Meri were even more curious, if that was possible. Their faces were amusing to look at.

" _Geography_ ," Meri repeated, thinking of her father. She was glad to be reminded of him and of it. She wondered how he was going to feel about all the _geography_ that she had covered _that_ day!

"But now that I think about it," Wut went right on, as if he were teasing, "there _is_ _another_ surprise that goes along with the surprise of geography. I had forgotten all about that! Or did I? _I don 't think so!_ And it _is_ a genuine surprise of The Lands!"

Meri and the Tackling Dummy looked at him with mouths open. Where was all this going? It just seemed to go on and on.

"It's right there, on the other side of these trees," he added, pointing to the path. "Right there!" They couldn't see _anything_. It was clear he was teasing them _mercilessly_!

Then he told them something else mysterious. He was speaking to Meri. "I'm afraid you can't bounce through normally. No, this path was made for yarn and cotton-stuffed dummies to come bouncing straight through without slowing down. But since you're made of flesh and blood, I think you ought to walk through first so you can see what happens before it happens to you."

Now _this_ was _really_ mysterious!

"You'll see," he said simply, ignoring the looks on their faces. "Walk slowly behind me and hold onto the sides of the tree, like this." He was bouncing with very short carefully controlled bounces. "Good thing it's so shaggy." He was steadying his balance by keeping his hand on the broad trunk of the left tree as he carefully went by it.

"By the way," he added, as he led them, "this is The One Tree Forest, the third forest in The Lands that you've seen. Counting The Lost N Forest. But this one is only one tree thick. These two trees, that we're going through, are the thickest and obviously the highest of them all. And they're the only time when two of the same type of oak tree grow side by side. In every other case, the oaks side by side are different."

The bark of the left tree was grayish white, and the bark of the other one was whitish gray.

The Tackling Dummy and Meri followed the question mark slowly through the shadowy passageway, with The Yellow Trampoline still below them, although they were now _walking_ tentatively on it instead of bouncing, as Wut had asked.

"What??" they wondered with anticipation, maneuvering between the two bases of the amazingly huge trees. The rough contours of the overgrown bark helped them considerably to keep their balance on the bouncy yielding surface. There wasn't a lot of room in the very middle, where the trees bulged out the most.

There was plenty of room, however, for yarn and cotton stuffed dummies to bounce right through.

Everything that they did in The Lands seemed to be different from what they expected! They certainly didn't have the slightest idea _even what to expect_ at this particular moment!

"Now, as we come out, keep your left hand on the left tree as long as you can, and then just walk on around here to the left," Wut continued, instructing them carefully and patiently. They walked back out into the light, which was considerably less than on the other side.

Meri sucked in her breath in amazement, and the Tackling Dummy's eyes opened extraordinarily wide.

They were on the edge of a huge cliff which looked out over the _second_ half of The Lands. These lands could vaguely be seen below and in little shapes of colors far into the distance.

It was an immense, still beautiful vista!

Had they bounced right through the two trees without stopping, they would have bounced right over the cliff!! Surprise!!

They were over a mile above the first land below, which was The Land of Pink Windmills.

But apparently there was more to the surprise, because Wut went on to say, "Now continue to walk around here, holding onto this little wooden railing, and look down." He was bouncing along quite carefully himself.

It was then that they saw the _real_ surprise---the one that wasn't _a surprise of geography._

Below them was the longest and most incredible Sliding Board that Meri had ever seen, going all the way down to the land at the bottom in many loops and whirls. At the bottom was their first view of _The Land of Pink Windmills._ The tiny pink windmills could just be seen in the dusk down there, with their reflecting blades turning easily and invitingly.

The twists and turns of the unbelievable Sliding Board seemed to be impossible, they were so extraordinary. It started out with an extremely steep section that easily provided all the speed needed for anyone to go through the loops and circles on the way down.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy saw that the board was especially wide just below the edge of the cliff. It seemed to be made so that no dummy could fly out over the cliff _without landing on The Sliding Board on the way down!_

Gradually narrowing to a width just wider than one slider, The Sliding Board then continued rapidly toward the miraculous loops and twirls.

Meri realized, with relief, that had she and the Tackling Dummy bounced through the trees anyway, they probably would have been collected by the board, just like any other dummy, and safe.

Wut let them marvel appropriately at The Sliding Board and at The Lands below and in the distance, and then explained:

"It's made for dummies to come bouncing through from The Yellow Trampoline without stopping. That's why The Yellow Trampoline continues through. They---or _we_ , since I come over too---after getting a final spring from the trampoline at the edge, go flying out into space, and land sliding. It's very convenient. And a dummy _can 't_ get hurt on it.

"This is one of the two main ways from up here to The Land of Pink Windmills, which you can see down there at the bottom. The other way is to go around, by The Pass, which is not far from where Jethro was when you last saw him. I assume that he'll go down that way. At least I hope he does! He's always threatening to come down on The Sliding Board itself sometime! But I've told him that's impossible."

Glancing back briefly, to see if anyone was coming, he then turned his head around again and gazed affectionately at the wide view of the second half of The Lands. It was clear how much he cared about them too.

And then he looked enjoyably at Meri and the Tackling Dummy, who obviously were still struck with wonder at where they were and the novel way to get down. They were trying to calm down again after their magnificent surprises.

Wut could tell, so he said slowly and encouragingly, "You've been on the monkeybars and The Yellow Trampoline today. The Lands definitely has some unusual ways to travel, as you're beginning to find out. I hope you experience some of the others! But now it's time for one of the handiest ones---and definitely the zippiest: _The Sliding Board_. Are you ready to go down it? At the bottom is The Land of Pink Windmills, which we've been coming toward all this day. We're almost there!"

Looking down at the sparkling curvature and then back up again, the eyes of Meri and the Tackling Dummy glowed in the low light. They couldn't believe they were going down to their final destination _like that!_

When they indicated they were ready, Wut said," Since it's dusk, and since it's the first time, you can both start right here. The Sliding Board comes up to the cliff in just this one place for dummies who are already on this side of the trees. All you have to do is just sit down and let go. It's definitely better for you, Meri, since you're neither yarn nor stuffed with cotton."

But Meri hesitated. She stood there, not saying anything, thinking about Wut's words. She seemed to be absorbed in the still beautiful view of The Lands in the distance in the failing light.

After a minute the Tackling Dummy assumed that she hadn't heard Wut's suggestion. He was about to gently repeat it.

But Meri had heard it perfectly. She was remembering that in The Lands she was the only flesh and blood dummy ever. She had loved the dummies in The Land of Lavender Thought, and she loved Wut and the Tackling Dummy. Wut had said she was _just like them_. She was a dummy too, and she was proud to be one.

And so, with her heart beating wildly, she said the bravest thing she had ever said in her life.

"No," she said firmly, deciding. "I need to go down The Sliding Board just like any other dummy in The Lands. Please wait right here. And I'll be right back."

"Me, too," echoed the Tackling Dummy, following his friend and marveling at her decision.

Meri carefully maneuvered her way back through the two trunks again. On The wide Yellow Trampoline, which she hadn't thought she would see again so quickly, she bounced backwards a short distance.

The Tackling Dummy was bouncing beside her. He could see the determined and also nervous look her face, and he smiled to himself, thinking about her courage. He was so lucky she was his friend!

She wasn't trying to hide how nervous she was. He was nervous, too. But the difference was that he knew he could probably survive that long fall.

Meri's heart began to beat even faster as, bouncing up a little higher, she went over the next few moments in her mind. She was heavier than the ordinary dummy, so she decided to spring up as high as she could, so that she wouldn't accidentally go out too far.

With a shiver she imagined herself out in space with over a mile of air below her!

And, of course, thankfully, The Sliding Board!

Back beside the edge of the cliff, Wut was stunned. He had admired Meri's spirit the whole day, but he hadn't expected _this much spirit_ from his new friend! He knew it couldn't be easy for a flesh and blood dummy to intentionally jump over a cliff, especially one that high, and he wondered that she could even think about doing it!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy had been surprised all day.

Now it was _his_ turn to be surprised! He had seen the determined look on her face, so he knew he couldn't talk her out of it. He waited. And the more he waited, the more his eyes, turned toward the opening between the two trees, drooped.

To calm himself, he kept thinking about his unusual confidence in the young girl, gained from that day.

And then he thought of something else.

# Chapter XIII: _THE SLIDING BOARD_

"Wait a minute!" Wut suddenly called out, shooting up from where he was waiting and thinking and hurriedly springing back up the path. Meri and the Tackling Dummy were a short distance out on The Yellow Trampoline. A strange look was on Meri's face as she prepared for the jump of her lifetime.

"I just thought of something," he said thoughtfully, in calming tones, reaching them quickly.

"I think I'll go first. That way I can explain who you are and that you're just about to arrive. It's getting a little later, and many of the dummies may already be in their windmills. They're very friendly, and I know they'll want to welcome you."

What he had said sounded reasonable. Wut could see the excitement in Meri's eyes at being in The Land of Pink Windmills. The Tackling Dummy nodded immediately at the good suggestion.

Having obtained their agreement, Wut turned, bouncing rapidly back toward the two towering trees, two absolutely gigantic shadows in the sky. However, the opening between them was still visible, except when he went through, when it disappeared for a moment.

The two watching and bouncing softly on The Yellow Trampoline imagined him lofting out into high space.

And that's exactly what he was doing!

And then they imagined him sliding.

And that's exactly what he was doing!

"Ready?" Meri then asked in a wavery voice. She knew unquestionably that it was her turn.

Her heart was almost beating out of her chest. Her legs had become strangely wobbly, and she wasn't bouncing well anymore. Her insides were also going wild. They were nervous about going over the cliff and also more than a little excited about meeting the new dummies below! They had quite a combination of feelings!

At the very last second, she said quietly, just barely out loud so that only she could hear, "I know The Sliding Board will work exactly as Wut described."

Hearing those words in the air made her feel just a little better than her mind was allowing her to feel. She was still absolutely determined that she wanted to arrive in the land, to meet the dummies below _, just like any other dummy._

"Yes, I am," replied the Tackling Dummy, finally answering her question. He was less nervous than she was. But he wasn't a flesh and blood dummy about to jump into the sky.

"Are you?"

He knew she was nervous. Her breathing was different, and he could see her face.

She suddenly made up her mind.

"See you there!" was her answer.

Taking a deep breath and fixing her eyes straight ahead, she bounced as steadily as she could across The Yellow Trampoline, through the middle of the two massive trees, and down the yellow path on the other side. It was quite surprisingly elastic. And it went downhill a little all the way to the edge. Once that far, it was impossible to change a mind! But no dummy had ever wanted to!

Coming down the last time, when she reached the edge, her eyes widened. It was too late!

The next moment she was flying up into space.

She had closed her eyes. When she opened them again, suddenly she smiled, without knowing why.

She was still going up. At the top of her jump, she could vaguely see a number of small interesting lands like barely separated puzzle pieces in the distance. She knew what they were, and she was curious about them, even up that high. She also saw, through the early evening, a river that appeared small from where she was. It really wasn't that far away across the land below.

Out she went, in air!

Her heart was almost breaking her ribs, it was beating so hard.

She was flying.

But then she began dropping.

It seemed like forever.

And then,

she felt something.

Much more smoothly than she would have believed, she came down onto The Sliding Board and was going so fast that she was already in an extremely rapid descent toward the loops and spirals just ahead.

The Sliding Board worked that well. Even for a flesh and blood dummy! She smiled about that!

It was only then that she looked _straight down._

Below, the whole board was shining with a watery silver light throughout all its twists and turns. It was completely lovely, even in the lesser light beneath the cliffs.

Some distance below, she was able to detect Wut skimming quite speedily along.

Now that she was safe, she laughed. She had done it!

And then, becoming more relaxed, she laughed again, at the unusual way Wut was sliding---on his back. It was necessary because of the way he was made.

She was feeling so much better!

Tilting his head, Wut called back up to her good-naturedly, "Don't laugh."

"Aquamarine apples!" the Tackling Dummy called out from above, as he rose up from the energetic trampoline at the end of the cliff. He had remembered Meri's description of her game, and, especially liking that particular phrase, he shot out into space. Landing approximately where Meri had landed, soon he also was slipping silently down the gleaming path of metal, down into the light of early evening.

Below, Meri smiled again, hearing him. _Aquamarine_ , reminding her of the ocean, also reminded her of her father and mother. "They don't realize how close I might be getting," she said to herself hopefully---thinking that she _might_ get to England from The Lands---even to England!---if The Ticket Tree would _only_ give her _that_ trip.

"Of course, it _might_ take me back to Virginia instead," she realized, being realistic.

"But that would be all right too," she said out loud, in the spirit of how good she was feeling. Further down, Wut heard her vaguely speaking and wondered whom she was talking to.

Since she was an honest person, however, she had to add, co _mpletely_ realistically, "If it takes me to _either_ place! It might not. I might have to _always_ stay in The Lands!"

But she didn't dwell on that thought.

Looking down to the pleasantly dim land still far below, she tried to imagine The Tree of Ticket Leaves. "It's out there somewhere," she thought, as she hopelessly peered into the evening shadows beyond the windmills. For fun she looked all over the land, but it was just too large and too dim to see a tree that she didn't even know how to recognize. She didn't know what it looked like yet!

At the same time, a beautiful vista of windmills slowly emerged into view. Lights were on in many windows, allowing Meri to see glimpses of pink in gleams and hints of the uplifting color everywhere as she descended. Practically all of the great arms of the windmills, facing different directions, were turning perceptibly.

Understandably, the evening was far more advanced at the bottom of the cliffs.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy, not that far apart, began to go even faster as they continued to descend almost straight down. Meri's heart began to beat more calmly, although she was becoming more excited again!

She took another deep breath and breathed it out. This day was obviously hard to believe! Her light brown hair was flying up and all around on her head.

"What next?" she asked herself out loud, gathering even more speed. It seemed like things just kept happening in The Lands! Her face was more relaxed, but still very alert. "And I wonder what's going to happen in _this_ land?"

"I don't know about the land, but I do know what's next---the rest of The Sliding Board!" replied the Tackling Dummy, overhearing her and answering her good-naturedly. He wasn't that far behind her.

" _This_ is quite enough for a while," he added, seeing just beyond Meri the spins and loops they were approaching. It _was_ an incredible way to enter a land!

But whatever the Tackling Dummy's good intentions, he hadn't been correct that The Sliding Board was all they needed to think about for the moment. No, he had probably been as incorrect as he could have been. For quite regrettably, _something else_ was definitely, and ominously, starting to happen just at the very moment that he had spoken.

For as the two began to accelerate even more rapidly down The Board in the declining light, there had appeared above them, from the shadows of the oak trees at the top of the cliffs, a number of just barely seeable croapfs! They had been watching there all along.

Extremely efficient, even though something was wrong with them, they acted quickly. And what they did was almost unbelievable!

A giant fireball began its way down The immense Sliding Board!

Soon there were many more coming down!

As Meri shot through the first series of fantastic loops, from upside down she saw the gigantic fireballs coming behind them. Upside down, she drew in a sharp breath.

It didn't take long for the Tackling Dummy to also view the sunlike balls, for the croapfs kept dropping them. He also was able to spot some of the croapfs far above, from sideways and upsidedown, as he circled around in the first loop.

The croapfs were easy to see because of the light colors of their yarn, mainly aquamarine, and because they were being illuminated by the glowing balls that were so large as they started down.

When the Tacking Dummy had called out, "Aquamarine apples!" _oddly he was naming a color that was hiding among the trees at that very moment_. The croapfs have a lot of aquamarine in their yarn. But he hadn't seen them.

The scene quickly became quite spectacular as a rollercoaster of fireballs rapidly descended down The Sliding Board in the dimness.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy, spiraling around, looked back with growing nervousness at the parade behind them. It was an awesome sight. But they didn't yet know if they were in danger.

They had started down first, before the fireballs, but the problem was that the balls were _rolling_ , whereas the Tackling Dummy and Meri were _sliding_. The balls kept gaining speed---faster than the Tackling Dummy and the girl. Since they were rolling, there was no friction for them. Additionally, Meri had on white tennis shoes, and the Tackling Dummy had feet, which dragged and slowed them both down.

Although they were traveling at a blurring speed, they were going much less fast than the skylighting enormous balls shooting down after them.

The balls were gaining!

"A minute ago I saw some croapfs on the cliffs above," the Tackling Dummy hoarsely explained, in a whisper---although he didn't know why he was whispering---as he came up behind Meri. He was sliding just a little faster than she, because of her tennis shoes. Also, she was wearing overall jeans shorts, which meant that the skin of her lower legs was sliding on the metal of The Sliding Board, and, as everyone knows, skin doesn't slide as fast as fabric.

Meri glanced back as the Tackling Dummy spoke. She felt better because he was now so close behind her. Because his speed was just a little bit faster than hers, every now and then she felt his feet push her in the middle of her back.

These little nudges helped her to realize her tennis shoes were slowing her down. At first she tried lifting them up. That didn't work, though, because lifting them up threw her onto her back, and she couldn't lean correctly around the curves any more or take full advantage of twists and loops to maximize her speed down. So she stopped trying, reached down, as quickly as possible slipped her shoes off and dropped them over the side where they fell down to the land.

She kept going in her white socks!

It worked! Her speed increased ever so slightly, and rushing down, she accelerated a little ahead of the Tackling Dummy zooming down just behind her.

The enormous rolling balls were still gaining, however. Against the darkness of the cliffs, their beautiful spinning motions accelerated rapidly down the long steep descent. With incredible streaks and showers they whirled out loops, twists, spirals and unexpected turns in huge hot pastels against the deepening twilight.

Descending, the streaming balls seemed to be becoming even hotter as their downward flight rolled them through fresh supplies of oxygen. The increasing heat flew out in strange and distracting colors. Meri and the Tackling Dummy began to feel the temperatures glowing warmly behind them.

The enormous night was full of fiery balls!

And then the _first_ fireball rose up over their shoulders, behind them. The huge silhouette appeared in the corners of their eyes, like a sun, and the heat became enormous. It wasn't that far away! There was a lot of light from _all_ of the balls, and it quickly became _blinding_ to turn their heads even the slightest amount because of the one so close.

Usually it didn't take that long to get down The Sliding Board, but this trip for Meri and her canvas friend now seemed to be lasting forever, because the danger had accelerated so quickly.

Both of their faces now had desperate looks.

Suddenly, they weren't that far from the end! It looked like, _if they were lucky_ , they might just be able to spring from The Board at the last moment.

They had only one final series of loops, turns, and spirals left. Looking ahead searchingly, however, for the first time they were able to see how The Sliding Board was formed at the very end.

"Oh no!" mumbled Meri starkly when she saw it.

"I know," whispered the Tackling Dummy sympathetically from close behind her. He had whispered, but actually he had spoken with almost no voice at all because the sight of the end of The Sliding Board was so devastating.

For at the very end, it suddenly leveled out for a considerable distance _with almost no angle at all_. The purpose clearly was to slow sliders tremendously before they reached the bottom, so they wouldn't shoot off the end too fast or hit the ground too hard.

But being slowed was the last thing that Meri and the Tackling Dummy needed!

With the fireball right behind them.

And still gaining!

When they reached that sudden leveling, they would come almost to a stop _._ They might have just enough speed to barely reach the end. But it didn't matter, because the fireball would reach them long before then.

_Still skimming downward extremely fast, they approached the beginning of the final, almost level, section. They could see it was disappointingly, dangerously, long!_

For them, anyway.

And then they were on it.

It decreased their speed dramatically!

As it was supposed to do!

Their hearts fell and their faces showed unseen dismay as they looked back into blinding light and unexpected heat. The immense ball of beautiful fire was behind them already!

They hadn't realized how huge it actually was!

And it was heartbreakingly close!

The radiating heat was unbearable!

As dangerous as their situation was, something else happened to make it even worse, if that was possible.

Even before they had reached the final, almost level, part, they had become aware of a strong wind blowing toward them---a powerful wind.

It became so forceful that it was actually beginning _to slow them down_!

Just when they needed to go forward as fast as they could, _for only a short distance longer_ , an unexpected wind began to push them back!

They despaired. The ball was directly behind them!

The heat was becoming painful for Meri. It was everywhere.

"No---no---no!" the Tackling Dummy zanily spoke directly to the unseen wind, as its air pushed them in the wrong direction, back toward the fireball.

"NO. NOT NOW!" He was in agony because of Meri. Meri couldn't see his face, and his breaking heart was visible on it. Because of his friend.

As the ball approached, it lighted up the edge of the pink windmill village, and the two about to be overwhelmed by the sunball could see dummies everywhere watching them with horror on their faces.

They also suddenly found out where the strong wind that was working against them was coming from. Because in the flying lights and shadows they saw something truly weird: the blades of all of the windmills were spinning crazily.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy instantly thought they understood what the dummies there were trying to do _. "They're trying to blow the_ fireballs back with the wind from the windmills," they thought.

The only trouble was, it was blowing _them_ back too!

If that was the plan, _it wasn 't working_!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were each aiding their speed---to try to get themselves down in time---by desperately pulling as hard as they could on the sides of The Sliding Board. Their hands were moving desperately.

But now because of the new wind, they _unquestionably_ weren't going to be able to make it in time.

Meri couldn't raise up and suddenly jump over the edge because the great heat of the immense fireball was already too painful for her to accept any more. It easily penetrated through her clothes, and she tried her best, by bunching over forward, as far as she could, to protect the vulnerable bare skin of her arms and legs. She noticed the acrid smell of her own singeing hair. The ends were curling up.

The Tackling Dummy leaned forward over Meri, forcing her forward and downward almost to the metal surface, to protect her from the unbelievable heat. But the temperature was almost unstoppable as the ball came even closer! In terrible distress from the blinding light as well as the stunning heat, and in great danger herself, Meri suddenly thought unselfishly of someone else.

She thought about her friend behind her.

"Oh, his back is being ruined!" she realized with a groan that was almost a cry. And then, in a flash of insight, she realized the obvious terrible truth:

"He's protecting _me_ with his back! Oh my poor wonderful friend, I'm so sorry!" she blurted out to him, while grabbing his two hands which had surrounded her to protect her.

The pain from the heat, distress because of their situation, and agonizing sympathy for her friend were all mixed up together in a maze of emotional turmoil and flashing light.

"Come on!" the Tackling Dummy desperately urged The Sliding Board, bringing his arms even tighter down around Meri. He had spoken to the wind, and now he was speaking to The Sliding Board. In the worst of dangers, he was becoming quite creative. He would even have been funny if the situation had been less pitiful.

But nothing helped, because their speed at that moment dwindled down to zero on the level board. Heartbreakingly, _the two of them stopped moving altogether_ in the frustrating wind blowing straight toward them.

With no motion at all, they were left sitting there helplessly with the ball coming. Heartbreakingly, they were only six feet away from the end of the board!

Only six feet from safety. The intense heat radiating from the ball prevented Meri from moving away from the protection of the Tackling Dummy.

Meri could still see the many dummies of the land watching them, through wavery patterns of heat and light that made everything seem to float around. The faces she saw were full of sympathy and caring. She blinked back some tears at the thought that she wasn't going to get to meet them now.

They had stopped near the end of The Sliding Board. But the gigantic fireball was now almost at the end too.

Like a huge glowing sun, of pink and gold and yellow and goldorange, its outer edge touched the Tackling Dummy's back. It seemed to stop for a moment. But not quite.

The terrific wind was strong and getting stronger. But the gigantic fireball seemed to have just a little motion left after all. Slowly, it started to tip over the trapped two. A few more feet and it would cover them. The forceful wind wasn't quite strong enough yet to stop it.

The Tackling Dummy leaned down as far as he could to protect his friend. His face was protecting her head.

"I'm here," he said.

# Chapter XIV: _PRIVATE TORNADOES_

By this time the windmill blades were spinning absolutely dizzily. Their wind was making funny sounds as it went around Meri's head and ears. Fiery lines on the fireball were rushing back, with a zooming roar.

Behind the first great fireball, other balls like great suns also were beginning to arrive. Whereas the first was primarily amber, gold, pink, and goldorange, with heat visible in those colors, the second was blueish yellow, the third whitish yellow with small irregular spots around its middle; and the fourth, probably the largest, was glowing up into the night and all around with an unbelievable rose color.

The heat had increased all over, because of the approach of these additional suns.

Because the ball was now right above them, the Tackling Dummy gave Meri a final hug. Both of his arms were tight around her anyway to keep the heat away as much as possible and to protect her.

Meri closed her eyes. Neither she nor the Tackling Dummy knew of anything which could possibly save them anymore. Meri's mind wandered to her parents on the ocean, which was especially cool to think about just then. Thinking about the cool ocean, as well as her parents, helped her to feel better as the heat grew even greater.

And then she could hardly think anymore at all, there was so much heat. It was funny, though, because she was aware she could still smell the odd aromas from her hair singeing and curling in places.

The ball above began to move over them. And behind, it was about to be bumped by others.

Just at that moment, the tremendous wind, which needed to be _greater_ to blow the ball back, grew _less_ around the seemingly lost and hopeless pair near the end of The Sliding Board. The same wind, growing darker, suddenly coalesced into a long spinning black funnel with a whizzing cylindrical sound, a private tornado, which reached right out to the enormous fireball and exploded it into a spectacular circus of sparks!

They floated wonderfully away into space, disappearing and dying into darkness.

The pink windmill closest to The Sliding Board, that second having finally reached tornado speed, had destroyed the fireball just in time with an amazing cylinder of dark wind, created from the center of its pink blades which were now only a faint blur of intense speed. The wind from it then began to cool Meri and her canvas friend.

It felt SO good!

Then the other windmills, which could move on their bases for greater accuracy, reached tornado speed as well. Bursts of the whirling noise broke out one by one, all over the village, from the crazily spinning mills of wind. With slight adjustments, as they needed to turn just a little this way or that, they reached out long black incredibly twisting cylindrical funnels to the many fireballs still coming down on different parts of the board.

There followed the most brilliant explosions, one after another, and sometimes all at the same time, as the tornadoes created by the pink windmills succeeded. There were lightbursts and lightbursts and lightbursts and incredible noise from the many tornadoes all at once. The highly ascending board for a few moments blossomed into an immense firework, the huge flashes continually showing the nearby cliffs, until finally it was unlighted once again, except for the few remaining sparks falling through the air and the faintly silver outline of its remarkable geometry.

Most of the windmills slowed immediately, and the rest followed, creating many different sounds as moving air decreased at slightly different speeds all over the village.

Then the dummies who had been crowding and waiting around the end of The Sliding Board, watching horrified and wringing themselves with fear and despair, and hope, ran to help, climbing up all together. Wut, who had been watching frantically, bounced up too.

Meri was stunned---only a small fraction of her mind was still able to function. She gave Wut a faint smile, feebly taking one of his hands in both of hers.

"It's okay," she reassured him weakly, seeing how upset he was. "Not your fault," she barely mumbled.

Hardly alive, she was thinking of _him!_

She was drifting away. Surrounded by dummies, many with their arms around her, she retained enough of herself, however, to walk, with their help, over to where the Tackling Dummy was also surrounded by a large number of dummies who were both comforting him and meeting him with short friendly conversations.

Without saying a word, Meri simply reached up to him and gave him a long hug, which he meaningfully returned. He had saved her life. In fact, all of the dummies, whom Meri could not tell apart individually---except for one, her good friend Wut---put their arms around both of them, and for a long sympathetic time there was just a mass of dummies with one little girl inside.

"Thank you," she said to the Tackling Dummy. "I love you so much." He was so moved that he didn't know what to say. And that was okay, because he was _unable_ to say anything anyway.

"And we thank all of you so much, too," she said to all the dummies around her, as she regained her ability to put sentences together. "I love your windmills," she added, realizing for the first time that these windmills---their windmills---were not ordinary at all---for they created _their own_ wind, instead of waiting for the wind to turn them. They could actually create wind as strong as tornadoes! That was so different---and what had saved them. She would have to think about that, she realized. Hardly able to stand up, though, all she said aloud was, "They make their own wind, don't they? That's so neat."

At the time she didn't realize just how neat they were!

"Let me see your back," she said to her friend, finally releasing her hug. She was incredibly worried, and she tried to prepare herself.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh," said many dummies, spontaneously in dismay, as the Tackling Dummy turned around into the light from the nearest windmill. Its front door was open.

His back had been mostly ruined by the great fireball. There were deep black holes.

When she saw it, just for a second, Meri was shocked back into a daze again. At the sight, she drew her breath so fast she startled some of the dummies closest to her, who weren't used to hearing breathing sounds from other dummies. Her knees felt weak. All that was left in her to do was to desperately take hold of his right arm, the one closest to her, wrap her own arms around it, and begin crying on it.

She just couldn't stop crying. No one could help her, because she had seen his back.

He had sacrificed it to save her.

"We'll do everything we can," reassured a dummy named Sylvestra, who was mostly yellow with soft pink also in her yarn, Meri could tell in the meager light from the windmills through the blurs in her eyes. She also had tidy light green hair of a pleasing color.

Taking Meri's own arm comfortingly, "We'll help him," she continued in a soft but very reassuring voice, as the Tackling Dummy was led away, not really wanting all the fuss to be made over him. But deep down he enjoyed it, because he already liked all of these dummies. Luckily he hadn't seen his own back. Wut went along with him.

Meri watched, still in her shocked daze.

"You can stay with me," said Sylvestra softly but also with a soothing finality, taking charge of Meri, as they led her friend caringly away. "Over here," she prompted the pitifully stricken girl. They walked to her pink windmill, which was fairly close by, followed sympathetically by the rest of the crowd.

"Goodnight," they called to her softly, as Sylvestra led her inside. By this time, Meri could hardly stay awake. Sylvestra, seeing her falling face and flickering eyelids, and the continuing tears, immediately led her to the uppermost room of her windmill.

It was an exquisitely _neat_ room.

In the exact middle was a round nice bed. It had a light blue round bedspread on it, almost to the floor. In its center had been sewn a large cheerful picture of the windmill they were in. And standing in front of the windmill was a picture of Sylvestra herself holding out, in her outstretched arms, a small pillow. But it was a real pillow lying on the bed. Diagonally crossing lines of light pink and light yellow on the small blue pillowcase made it look quite cheerful to sleep on.

It was a pretty room. The other furniture was a dresser with a mirror; a desk; and a chest of drawers, all of which were neatly arranged around the curving wall. And there was an easy chair closer to the bed.

Five round windows were spaced at exactly equal distances from each other, so that one could see out in all directions. Other windmills were visible. One window was open, with fresh air gently blowing in. It was the only one with curtains, and the extremely fragile light yellow fabric was moving playfully in the mild currents. The arms of the windmill, gliding by slowly and comfortingly just outside the room, could be seen through several of the round windows.

Approaching the round blue bed, Meri sat down on the edge of it. The pleasantness of the room began to have a small comforting effect on her worrying spirit.

"This is so exquisite," she had no choice but to think, looking around briefly. She decided to put her head down and close her eyes for just one second. She didn't even try to reach the pillow with her head. After that one second of rest, she wanted to think some more about what could be done for the Tackling Dummy.

But she was asleep even before her hair reached the welcoming surface of the bed.

"Where in The Lands are her shoes?" wondered Sylvestra, as she got one of her own nightgowns out of the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers and gently began putting the sleeping girl to bed. Her considerate attentions weren't nearly enough to wake her back up again after such a day.

"I'm sure we'll find out in the morning," Sylvestra said in an undertone, both to herself and to her sleeping friend. She cut out the light and stepped out into the short hall.

"She's a flesh and blood dummy," she had heard someone say earlier, and she could tell that she was. She was something completely new to The Lands.

Quietly pondering this fact and thinking about her special guest for a few minutes, she just stood by herself in the hall outside her room, not quite able to go down yet.

"How did she come to The Lands?" she wondered.

"I like her," was another one of her thoughts. "She was so nice, so very nice. Even right after that terrible experience, she took time to thank us."

Finally, she said to herself, "I can't wait to get to know her in the morning!"

And then she went back down the gently circular steps of her windmill, past the second floor, to the first one again. Not long afterwards, she went to bed herself, in another round bed.

The blades of the windmill continued to go slowly by the window across from the sleeping girl upstairs, with a steady, peaceful, reassuring rhythm.

Meri didn't quite know it yet, but she was about to find out that there's _no better place_ to sleep _anywhere,_ than in the middle of a round bed, in the center of a round room, at the top of a pink windmill. She was in The Land of Pink Windmills, which is in the middle of The Lands.

There might be a place just as good somewhere.

But none better.

***

Meri visits The Tree of Ticket Leaves during her first day in The Land of Pink Windmills, which, incidentally, is right beside The Mistercald River. One of the tickets---or leaves---on The Tree of Ticket Leaves allows her to meet the unforgettable Sticktight, who asks an unusual favor.

The next book is A Favor for Sticktight.

# About the Author

Larry Good liked sentences so he majored in English at the University of Virginia. As an English teacher for six years, he learned even more about sentences. He's been writing them ever since.

He has four fantastic children, two girls and two boys. The youngest girl is Meri, who went to The Lands, as described in this and the other five books. One of them is The Land of Lavender Thought. She described her adventures. He wrote the sentences.

Speaking of sentences, notice that one of the characters is a question mark. He adds punctuation to the story. He tries to think of ways to help The Lands. Another character loves unabridged dictionaries, and whole sentences come automatically into his mind.
