 
# THE LAND OF NOW AND LATER

By

Larry Good

"Welcome to you all," spoke with graciousness and authority a pink strawberry right before them, only a short distance out. "Thank you, Meri."

The Tackling Dummy Press

**SMASHWORDS EDITION**

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

**Smashwords Edition, License Notes**

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Cover design by Todd Hebertson.

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*

# Acknowledgement

My daughter Meri made many astute suggestions to improve the text of this Series.

*

"And by the way, I'm made of ink," Wut added. "What do you think punctuation is made of?"
ACROSS THE MISTERCALD Is a Series of Six Books Telling Just One Story:

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

Virginia

Rosemary

Beverly

Ant Ann

O.K.

Whit Jr.

And

Grandmother and Grandaddy

# TO OTHER LANDS ACROSS THE MISTERCALD

Chapter One    The Weather Tree

Chapter Two    The Acorn Earthquake

Chapter Three    The Acorn of Missing

Chapter Four    The Hoop Tree Forest

Chapter Five    The Land of Strawberry Dawn

Chapter Six    A Favor for Sticktight

Chapter Seven    A Warm Wonderful Burst of Enthusiasm

Chapter Eight    The Land of Sky

Chapter Nine    The Roof Hats

Chapter Ten    he Land of Firecracker Hail

Chapter Eleven    The Enormous Thunderworld

Chapter Twelve    Finxi's News

Chapter Thirteen    The HillSlopes

Chapter Fourteen    The Parliament of Now and Later

Chapter Fifteen    Meri

Chapter Sixteen    The Nightgown

# Chapter I: THE WEATHER TREE

The eyes of the visitors began to adjust to the incredibly bright yellow land. Sooner than they would have imagined, they were able to continue into it.

Gradually, they began to see many cute yellow houses and trees. And slowly, they discovered that the trees weren't yellow after all. When near, they were actually the normal green of leaves and the brownish gray of trunks. The grass was also its usual light green---if you bent down close enough to look at it in the brilliant air.

"I see you have a Wrong Kite," said Tatch in a friendly voice, walking close to Meri. Quickly Meri explained what had happened in The Land of Wrong Kites, finding the kite on the border, and that she wanted to return it herself because she was responsible for its flying up and away.

Meri then realized Tatch was also looking observantly at _her_ too. Tatch had noticed, with considerable surprise, that the girl wasn't a yarn or cotton-stuffed dummy.

"I'm sure---although I don't know how it could be—that this little girl is actually flesh and blood," she thought, secretly glancing at Meri again. Like all of the other dummies in The Lands, Tatch had never seen a flesh and blood dummy in their shape. _She hadn't even heard of one_. So she couldn't help but continue to look---and think---with wonder.

Tatch's face became especially interested when Meri said a few words about Leo. The same expression appeared on the faces of the other yellow-loving dummies who were nearby and could hear.

"Did you know Leo is from this land?"

Meri drew in a breath of surprise, but then she understood immediately. It made such real sense! For Leo was a beautifully yellow dummy, although he had the extra designs of the seasons and the sky around his middle. And of course she remembered the superlight peach of his left arm! All of the dummies there, that she could see, had left arms of a superlight color.

"He's the only one of us who was ever stuffed," Tatch explained. "That's always been a delightful difference."

It wasn't hard for Meri to notice the tone of affection in Tatch's voice when she spoke of Leo. "The rest of us are yellow yarn---except for our left arms. He did come through here a little while ago, which fits in exactly with what you said. We were so glad to see him!"

There were murmurs of agreement from the other dummies around them.

"But we won't be completely happy, of course, until he's his beautiful self again." Tatch looked extra sad, and Meri could have cried at the expression on her face. There were no sounds at all from the surrounding dummies who were continuing to listen as well as they could. But Meri caught a sidelong glimpse at the grieving looks on their faces too.

"I know," joined in the Tackling Dummy, who was also listening, with great feeling. "That _has_ to be---he needs to be himself again. Just like I'd like to be _my_ self again." The look on his face was very serious, and everyone listened closely, perceiving that without doubt he understood Leo's predicament better than anyone else there. His own canvas happened to be worse than Leo's, although Aquamarie had done the best job that was possible, because she is such a great seamstress. _But he really needed new canvas._

"I'm still glad he helped---actually saved---those dummies in The Land of Firecracker Hail," Wut commented, to give the positive side of the picture. Of course everyone agreed with him. It was a wonderful thing to have done---and to still be doing.

"We'll see about the canvas," Wut added, bouncing along in the bright yellow air. He was deeply troubled, but he preferred to be optimistic rather than dismal about the future of his two friends. And deep down, he really did believe that everything would turn out okay---although he wasn't sure how long that would take.

"Now we have _two_ dummies to get right," he announced in a way that lifted the spirits of everyone.

At these words, the downcast expression on the Tackling Dummy's face became much less dreary. He _hoped_ that some way _could_ be found to replace his canvas!

They arrived at the special tree in the land that Wut had wanted his traveling friends to see. Tatch and the other yellow-loving dummies stopped around it in a circle which was completed by Meri, Jethro, Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, and Wut, who was bouncing as usual.

"This is The Weather Tree," explained Tatch to Meri, the Tackling Dummy and Perfit, before Wut could, although Wut had already opened his small pink mouth to do so.

"See the rings?" she asked.

Wut loved to explain The Lands, but Tatch had begun first this time. A small look of disappointment appeared on his face.

Glancing up at the new tree, Meri began to realize how important certain trees are in The Lands. The Ticket Tree was, of course, the most important one, since an ancient one had brought her and the Tackling Dummy to The Lands. Then there were the trees of The Autumnforest, which she loved. The Lost N Forest had been an unforgettable adventure on the monkeybars. There was also The One Tree Forest, the line of trees that ended the border on this side of The Yellow Trampoline. She was quite fond of it, too, since they had climbed through it before she had made her huge jump, which had actually been from the very top of that forest. So she had already had adventures involving three forests.

They had passed the KiteStick Forest in The Land of Wrong Kites.

And there was even _another_ forest with special trees that she hadn't seen yet, that excited her imagination because of its name: in The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest. She was already wondering what _those_ trees were like and secretly hoping to see them.

And, not less colorful than any of these, was _another_ tree that was very important to her. It was Sticktight, of course---her friend.

So, standing before this new tree, she wondered, " _Was it going to be unforgettable too?"_

She looked all over it, as well as she could in the yellow air.

It was tall, appearing a little greener than the other trees of the land through the intense yellow light, even though it did seem to have fewer leaves.

More of its trunk and branches therefore showed through these leaves. It had that endearing look---as trees do in the early spring---when their leaves are smaller and fewer. They present a much more appealing, lighter and more delicate shade of green than they do later. It was also like trees in late fall, when there are only a few leaves of magical colors left on each tree, and you can see the trunks and branches better then too.

This tree had both of those looks.

Mainly, however, as Meri and the other travelers examined it more closely, they began to notice---more and more--- _that wooden rings_ on tiny stems were on the branches _of the whole tree_. On each ring was a tiny color or two, or more, which added a _feeling_ of unseen color to all of the tree, giving it a puzzlingly wondrous look. The color seemed to be _felt_ as well as seen, although actually it was there.

Tatch had given them a few moments to just stand there and gaze. "It's sometimes called The Weather Ring Tree," she then continued, pointing with her superlight green left arm, "because tiny rings grow all over it. I'm sure you've been seeing them. They eventually grow to a size that will fit your finger.

"The simplest rings grow closer to the ground, and the more developed rings are near the top."

She went on talking as the visitors, including Wut and Jethro, walked closer to get better looks.

"Please notice," she said especially to Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit, "that on each ring is a tiny moveable pointer, aimed to the far left, at nothing. And also that there's at least one graphic, on the right, which the pointer can be moved to point to."

Meri was immediately curious. _Why point the pointer toward the graphic?_ What happens? She had learned about other lands, so she knew she was about to learn something she had never heard of before.

But Tatch didn't clarify anything right away.

"The rings at the top of the tree may have many graphics," she told them instead, looking up high herself. Everyone else in the circle did too---including Wut and Jethro and the dummies who lived there.

"Each graphic---however many there may be on a single ring---is usually also a color that goes along with the kind of weather the ring will cause, if the pointer is pointed to that graphic."

This was where the _unseen_ , puzzlingly wondrous extra color of the tree was coming from: _from the many tiny graphics all over the rings of the tree!_

Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy then, although slowly, because it was so unusual, began to understand the meaning of her amazing words.

"Yes," Tatch emphasized to Meri and Perfit and the Tackling Dummy especially, since Jethro and Wut already knew about this tree. "If you activate a weather ring by moving the pointer, _it will cause the weather it points to!_

"Let me repeat: _the ring will cause the weather it points to!"_

Meri looked up at the sky. The Tackling Dummy's eyes were becoming brighter, and Perfit was eagerly waiting to see a ring suddenly bring some new weather over them.

Even though she was small, she understood as quickly as the others!

Jethro simply listened with a whimsical look on his face, his eyes closed about two thirds of the way as he relaxed.

"For example," Tatch continued, "most of the lower rings just cause a breeze, and they work just once and for not too long. We let our friends from The Land of Wrong Kites come over here and get some of them on the days when there's not enough wind from The Mistercald to fly their kites well.

"Here's one," Tatch spoke clearly and slowly, reaching up with her superlight green left arm to retrieve a ring hanging down on one of the slender lower branches. Carefully plucking it off, she held it up and said to everyone she could see, even her own fellow dummies: "See the clear wavy line in the middle?"

Since the single wavy line was hard to detect from any distance at all---being only a thin clear line against the brownish gray bark of the ring---almost no one could, except for Meri, Perfit and the Tackling Dummy, who were close beside her. And they were lucky to see it, being new to the land and not used to the rings. They would have missed if they had been by themselves. But it wasn't necessary for the others to see, since they already knew about the tree. Jethro stretched his neck far out toward the ring anyway, and squinted in an exaggerated way.

"Okay," Tatch said again, as if everyone knew what she was talking about---and everyone did. Then she demonstrated by putting the ring on her right hand and moving the tiny pointer with the superlight green fingers of her left hand.

They all heard a little "click!"

Immediately a light breeze arrived, blowing right through The Weather Tree, sounding the leaves and causing the branches to dip and wave gracefully. The grass around them, which really wasn't that high, nevertheless began whispering and bending, and Perfit's hair even began to fly around as the wind became a little stronger. Once, for a full minute, her gorgeous hair stretched straight out behind her and stayed there, straining her balance and popping open the obvious admiration of the yellow-loving dummies, whose eyes shone at the sight of that bright scenery across the yellow air.

"Click!"

Tatch turned the ring off.

"We usually watch the tree very carefully," she continued, casting a sharp eye at Jethro for a moment as she did so. "Once there was a visitor here---a Buffalo Unicorn, in fact---but I'm not going to say who it was---and he---somehow---by reaching up on his hind legs---found a weather ring that---of all things---could cause an earthquake.

"It was an unusual ring, because an earthquake isn't actually weather, although it's close. Now," she went on, glancing over at Jethro, "you wouldn't think that whoever found such a ring would go ahead and move the pointer to _earthquake._ Perhaps he didn't understand the graphic---or perhaps he did--- and moved it anyway." And her eyes wandered questioningly over to Jethro once again, just briefly, but went on. "Anyway, this Buffalo Unicorn---I'm not going to mention his name---somehow figured out how to move the pointer and he moved it right to _earthquake_."

Everyone was as still as an earthquake is not, listening.

Tatch went on. "It was the only earthquake we've ever had here. I've never even seen _earthquake_ on another ring. The only problem is, this Buffalo Unicorn---whoever he is---" and her eyes went right by Jethro without stopping this time---" got to laughing so hard at the shaking ground and at himself shaking that we couldn't get to the ring to shut it off. So everything here got quaked down.

"We had to build up all of our houses again. And many trees were snapped, although not this one, thank The Lands. As for us, we who live here, we were vibrated back and forth and up and down so badly that we couldn't walk straight for three days afterward."

Jethro was biting his lip and scrunching his eyes as hard as he could. But he couldn't prevent the huge laugh that finally escaped. Immediately, though, with great effort he froze his face into a serious and solemn expression as everyone looked at him, although his eyes retained a laugh in each one as he looked out at his friends with a slightly guilty expression on his face.

"So be careful," resumed Tatch, finally taking her sharp stare from the irrepressible Buffalo Unicorn. He was still making a small sound now and then as he unsuccessfully tried to suppress another huge laugh that was trying to get out of him.

"Just turn the ring off, if you get nervous," Tatch concluded, looking at the travelers---all except Jethro. "Go ahead. Try one."

Meri, remembering The Ticket Tree, reached up with her left hand, as she was still holding the Wrong Kite in her right one, and carefully pulled off a ring that looked interesting. It had a little white fluff in the middle. Moving her head close to the ring and squinting her aqua eyes at the graphic, she saw that it looked like a little cloud. Without even looking at the kite, she set it carefully down on the grass.

"Click!" Immediately clouds appeared in the sky, and the yellow light of The Land of Loving Yellow decreased noticeably. The other trees all around instantly became much more visible, and the cute yellow houses just down the very mildly sloping hill became much less vague and even appeared as actual homes---their designs could be seen much better.

Everyone could see better.

The Tackling Dummy reached up as high as he could and picked the ring he had seen and liked. Holding it right in front of his eyes, he clearly saw a line of small white dots going from left to right, from sizes almost unseeable to larger and larger. He moved the delicate pointer to the middle of them.

Immediately hail of a moderate size was falling everywhere, tapping on the leaves of the trees. It bounced off the yarn of all the dummies there, and off of Meri's and Perfit's hair, some of it staying. It cascaded playfully up off of the grass and down off of Jethro's back in a way that looked especially cheerful.

However, it stung Meri's bare arms, and when she unconsciously leaned her upper body over to protect them, the Tackling Dummy turned the weather off with a deft _click!_

The hail had fallen a little more vigorously than he had expected, but he liked it, as he had been kept inside the stadium during almost all of the weathers there, except sunshine. He had seen less weather than anyone else there. The Land of Seasonal Speed and The Land of Snow Stepping had certainly helped, though. So he was still better off than he had ever been.

But he was completely enchanted with the tree. "Could I please come back sometime, to try out all the weathers I can find?" he courteously asked the yellow-loving dummies, mainly Tatch.

"Of course!" they all cried, except Tatch, who smiled at him. But even she was already looking forward to his visit.

I'm sorry about the earthquake," Jethro suddenly and entirely unexpectedly offered in his deep voice, looking around at everyone. He appeared even larger in the yellow air, which was returning now that Meri had quietly moved her ring to the off position.

"But the shaking did make me laugh, and keep me laughing, and the light was so yellow as I was going up and down and from side to side that I just couldn't see everything being shaken up and down. I didn't know what was happening, except to me."

His large friendly eyes looked at Tatch and the other yellow-loving dummies, hoping for understanding. "You know I love being here and your unusual land. Is there anything I can do to be forgiven?" His eyes were quite large, and peaceful, and whimsical. And his unicorn, being so white, stood out in the yellow air.

"Yes," said Tatch, putting a hand on his broad side and forgiving him. "Enjoy the tree." Everyone smiled, because they all loved Jethro. It was so hard to stay upset with him, because he truly never meant any harm to anyone and had a heart that took in everyone. They also enjoyed his disposition to try everything in The Lands, regardless of his size and the fact that he was a Buffalo Unicorn.

Never having experienced an earthquake before, they secretly wondered if, being curious, they might not have made the same mistake of trying it too, as he did when he saw the wobbly graphic on his ring.

"In fact," continued Tatch, raising her yellow right arm to his huge shoulder, with its tan and white hair, marked by black and gold here and there, "you actually helped us, because we built our houses stronger---although we've never been able to test them. So we're a little better off, because we learned our houses weren't quite strong enough for The Weather Tree. And, of course, an earthquake can't easily hurt a dummy, so no one was harmed anyway. After a while, I even enjoyed walking around so weirdly!"

"Hmmm," mused Jethro, thoughtfully, putting his large head affectionately on Tatch's shoulder, causing her eyes to widen. "Thank you for saying that. I feel better now---but I know I shouldn't have moved that pointer to that wobbly graphic. Oh, my turn?"

For, glancing around, he realized everyone was now waiting for him to accept Tatch's invitation to enjoy the tree. Meri was once again holding the beautiful lavender Wrong Kite, this time in both hands, in front of her.

Scrutinizing the lower branches very carefully, and then those a little higher, Jethro backed back a good distance from the trunk and began rocking backwards and forwards in a strange way, eyeing the weather rings about halfway up. Puzzled, everyone wondered.

Then, suddenly shooting forward in his usual uncoordinated way, he gained speed unexpectedly, approached the tree, and hurled himself up higher than anyone had thought he could reach. It was an amazing sight! Thrusting the tip of his white unicorn precisely through the center of the weather ring he had chosen so carefully, he came down with it.

The dummies in The Land of Loving Yellow can move surprisingly fast, perhaps because light is an important part of their land, and they resemble it slightly. Anyway, Tatch, without anyone seeing her move, was suddenly standing by the weather ring about halfway down the sharp unicorn, peeking at the graphics on it before Jethro could see it.

Was she still thinking about the earthquake and suspiciously wondering if the sharp-eyed Buffalo Unicorn had located _another ring_ with that same graphic?

She seemed to relax after a quick glance. Removing the gray and light brown ring from the straight white unicorn with its spiraling form, she courteously placed it right before Jethro's large eyes until he nodded. Then she handed it to Perfit.

"Ready?" asked the pert little dummy to her traveling partner, excited at being the one to activate the ring.

"We'll let this be my turn too," she said agreeably.

Jethro, however, swung his head around and whispered something in her ear first. Her eyes momentarily grew unbelieving. "Okay," he then agreed. "Dense fog is great."

"Whitely perlaceous!" commented the Tackling Dummy, anticipating a weather he had hardly ever seen before. It's impossible to practice football in dense fog, so he had never been out in it.

Perfit clicked the miniature pointer and the dense fog began rolling in. Gradually, the air, which normally is bright yellow, turned whitish gray, and the entire land came to a standstill, since _no one_ could see any longer, not even the dummies who lived there. They learned too what it was like to be temporarily blinded, as so many visitors had when first entering their yellow air.

Soon, the air was almost solid white.

It was difficult even to see The Weather Ring Tree.

So no one could really see Perfit, when the fog was at its densest, raise her flying wand and carefully, expertly, slowly, ascend to the very top of The Weather Tree. No one saw her up there.

Quickly she looked around at the different, more developed, weather rings until evidently she found exactly the one she was looking for. Carefully she pulled it off. It had a large number of graphics to the right of the small pointer. With a hint of a smile on her sprightly young face in the dense fog, she quickly slipped the ring into one of the front pockets of her long dress with the yellow windmills and pink flowers.

And then, still without being seen, she descended carefully through the fog, down beside the tree, as perhaps only she could have done so well with a flying wand. She landed lightly in front of where Jethro was standing with an intensely whimsical look on his face that no one could see in the fog he had chosen. Then she clicked off the weather ring and the thick fog began to separate, but only very slowly.

It was Tatch who created the difference. By feeling only, she reached up to the lowest branches, pulled off the nearest weather ring she could find, and without even looking at the pointer, moved it with the usual _click_.

She had been right. It was one of the _breeze_ rings, which were so plentiful at that level of the tree. Immediately everyone there felt the usual breezes and then the stronger winds. Although everyone had enjoyed the fog---even though it lasted a little long---it was quickly scattered by the light and stronger winds and dissolved away.

Though they had enjoyed the few moments of wonder and silence and individuality in the dense fog, the familiar warm yellow air was a welcome sight, and everyone was glad to be back together again.

"I have a surprise for you," Tatch then said unexpectedly, mainly to Wut and Jethro. "Another tree." A mysterious joy escaped from her eyes and from the corners of her face that she was trying to keep neutral. This expression was unlike her, for she was a dummy of unquestionable self-control. She glanced to her superlight green left toward a small woods in that direction.

"Yes!" in unison said all the other yellow-loving dummies standing there, with eagerness in their voices. They were also looking to Tatch's left, toward where she had just glanced.

"Come on," invited Tatch, starting to walk in that direction. "It's right on your way."

A look of puzzlement appeared on Wut's face.

"How could she surprise me in a meaningful way?" he was thinking to himself. "I know all the trees in this land."

_He couldn't help but notice how enthusiastic they were._

Quite curious, he immediately began bouncing across the grass right behind her. _What could this be?_

Everyone else noisily followed. Wut's fellow travelers were full of curiosity and the yellow dummies were full of growing enthusiasm.

# Chapter II: THE ACORN EARTHQUAKE

Everyone walked toward the surprise except Wut who bounced. Soon the Weather Tree was a comfortable distance behind them.

Looking back for one final glance of appreciation at the now familiar tree in the distance, Meri could still detect that wondrous quality in the air around it which was influenced by the many tiny colors of the graphics. She wished she could have spent a little more time trying out the many rings. They had only gotten to experience four weathers.

She noticed that the color of the Wrong Kite looked especially appealing in the yellow air. "Yellow and lavender go so well together," she thought.

The _Weather Tree_ she was leaving behind then reminded her of _The Ticket Tree,_ which she tried not to think about because she wasn't ready to leave The Lands yet.

_She loved and appreciated them, and her many friends in them, and they loved her. The Lands were like her spirit. She, like the Tackling Dummy, was inexpressibly lucky to have discovered them._

They were passing not far from some of the yellow homes when Jethro inconspicuously moved his head back and forth in a small zigzag. It was a signal to Perfit. A second later the ground beneath all of them jerked in one large jolt, causing everyone to fall down, except Wut, who had been up in the air in mid-bounce at the time, and Jethro, who on four legs was more stable than the others. Even Meri and Perfit and the Tackling Dummy were on the ground, surrounded by many yellow dummies and covered by some of them!

"What was _that?"_ asked Tatch in a stupefied voice, getting up and looking around. She began to brush bits of debris, which had stuck to her from the grass, from her bright yellow dress and legs and then from her back.

She looked at Jethro suspiciously. "Do you have another _earthquake ring_?" she asked point blank. "No, you haven't," she answered before he could, quickly remembering how she had looked at his weather ring herself. Its most interesting graphic had been _fog_ , which he had chosen.

Thinking rapidly, and standing right in front of the giant creature, she asked directly into his eyes, going up on her tiptoes to do so, " _What did you do in that fog?"_

But then she realized immediately that he couldn't have done _anything_ , because the fog was so thick around the lower part of the tree that none of the weather rings could even be seen. Besides, only the simpler rings were on the lower branches. And what kinds of things could _he_ , so big, have been able to do in that fog anyway? He certainly couldn't climb the tree, find a ring, and then climb back down again without their knowing---even if there had been enough time, which there hadn't been! She hadn't _heard_ anything during the fog either.

"Me?" asked Jethro, looking straight at her with his great innocent eyes.

"Look at your homes," he continued, glancing around. "Not a one is down. All of you did a great job of rebuilding them."

Tatch looked unflinchingly into his large brown eyes again. "Don't change the subject!" she ordered.

Staring at him, she was convinced that he was responsible. He had to be! But how?

Everyone grinned at the look of total innocence on his face.

She tried a different approach. Walking over beside him and putting her arm around his neck, she said in especially friendly tones, "Don't you just love earthquakes?"

"Yes, I do," he replied very conversationally," as long as no one gets hurt. They make me laugh, the way everything shakes, and the way _I_ shake. I liked the one I made the day you mentioned---when I made your house fall down, although the shaking went on far too long, I agree, because I couldn't stop laughing. If you had four legs, instead of two, you'd know that an earthquake makes you feel awfully funny if you're standing up while it's going on. It's a very unusual dance."

Tatch could hardly stand it. His answer had been totally frustrating.

She knew he had done _something_. But she couldn't figure out what!

"Did you pick another earthquake ring?" she asked him directly again, knowing that he hadn't, but out of strategies.

Everyone could see that she wasn't going to find out. Jethro was too quick with the right answers. And he looked so casual, so innocent, and so _cooperative_!

"Where is this new tree?" he asked curiously, looking around, pretending he hadn't heard her last question.

"I thought so!" said Tatch, emphatically, but hollowly, because she didn't really know _anything_. She didn't have the slightest idea how excellently Perfit had used her flying wand to get the other ring, and of course she saw nothing herself in the fog. No one did. So she couldn't reasonably be mad at Jethro, when she was uncertain about what actually had happened---if anything.

"Come on," she directed, giving up and continuing to lead everyone to the unknown tree.

Before long they came to a very ordinary-looking one. It seemed to Meri to be an oak---but it was a white one, not unlike some of the different white oaks in the One Tree Forest above the great cliffs. It was standing by itself in a small clearing in one of the several woods of that land.

It was only of medium height, with leaves shaped like bells all over the tree. Part of each leaf, too, looked just like a ringer at the bottom of the bell. But what was so noticeable was that even though the tree wasn't that high, its branches were _jammed_ with acorns all the way around, from the longer branches at the bottom to the shorter branches at the top.

_There really was a huge number of acorns!_

However, its lower branches, and therefore _all_ of the acorns on the tree, were too high to reach from the grass.

"Is this it?" asked Jethro with disappointment, raising up his great head, with its tall white unicorn, to look at the tree that only looked special because it had a lot of acorns. He had seen acorns before!

But still, he felt a quiver of excitement. He was intelligent enough to realize that there was something he hadn't learned about yet. He knew there are some special trees in The Lands, such as The Tree of Ticket Leaves, and The Weather Tree, and he had also noticed how excited Tatch and the other yellow dummies had gotten about this one.

"There's something here that I'm missing," he realized with a mental acuity that many didn't know he had. But he had no idea _what_. And _that_ was exciting!

Tatch was acting strange. Usually so reserved, there was a funny light in her eyes as she looked at the leaves, the central trunk, and, of course, the acorns.

Wut had never seen Tatch excited before!

Meri could tell that the other yellow dummies were happy about something too, for they were actually quivering a little with anticipation, and smiling, as they stood quietly waiting for something to happen!

_They kept looking up at a tree which seemed to be just ordinary except for the number of acorns on it._

It was hard to understand.

Tatch hesitated, choked a moment, which was unusual for her, and then _finally,_ looking up at the acorns jammed among all the branches, began explaining what she and her fellow dummies were so emotional about.

"We have named this tree The Emotion Tree," she began. "It hasn't been here that long---it's not even that big a tree yet---and we found out about it only by accident---only because we love to pick up acorns and throw them at each other sometimes in fun. They're all formed so neat and shiny, with little brownish yellow cups. We like acorns."

"Yes," Meri said in her own mind, too, as, listening, she noticed the acorns in the tree and those scattered about on the grass in a kind of uneven circle beneath the lowest branches. She had always liked acorns.

"The acorn cups _are_ brownish yellow," she noticed when Tatch said so. But she also saw that the acorns, differing greatly from one to another, themselves were from light tan to darker brown. The rest of the tree was normal---with grayish branches coming out of the white-striped bark of the trunk, and light colored leaves of the shiny green bell shapes, with the central ringers at the ends. She remembered there were oak leaves like that in Virginia.

The other visitors, Perfit and the Tackling Dummy, and especially Wut and Jethro, were beginning to grow impatient, waiting to find out more about this mysterious new tree.

"What's different about it?" they kept wondering.

It continued to look like an ordinary tree.

"What does its funny name mean?" they wondered. "Acorns can't have emotions. What _does_ it do?"

At the moment it wasn't doing anything but looking ordinary, although quite attractively, with all of its acorns and its bell-shaped leaves.

Tatch sensed their impatience. Without saying anything else and walking mysteriously under the special tree, she picked up one of the many acorns that had fallen to the grass. Then she did something quite unexpected and extraordinary with it: she threw it at Jethro!

"What?" he muttered, trying to duck, but failing, because he was so big.

_He was a hard target to miss!_

It seemed to Meri there was an extra look of satisfaction in Tatch's eyes as she threw the hard shiny forest seed with the brownish yellow cup at her friend. _Perhaps she was remembering that first earthquake that wouldn't stop!_

The acorn bounced harmlessly off of the curled tan and white and gold fur, with a few black marks, in the middle of Jethro's huge left shoulder. Then it dropped back into the grass among the other acorns. No one could tell any longer the exact one that Tatch had thrown.

Jethro had hardly felt the object hit his fur. But his reaction startled everyone. For as soon as the acorn bounced casually off his back, he began running around the tree in a circle, very lightly on his feet, saying,

"I am so happy! It's such a pleasure to be here! And thank you, Tatch, for not being mad at me anymore! Ohh, I feel such joy in this sunshine---I love the extra yellow, it's so enlightening! Truly, I could just jump up into it!" And he tried, once again rising up higher than anyone expected. "You're right, Tatch," he continued, very joyfully and appreciatively. "It's a wonderful tree! I love it!"

Then Tatch threw another acorn, one with the yellow cup still on. It struck him gently on his left ear, dropped onto his smaller black left side horn, and then disappeared into the grass with the others, like the first one.

Jethro immediately changed. The joyousness left him. Swinging his white unicorn around, at all of them, to force them back---away from the perimeter of the tree all the way around---he kept saying two words: "My _tree_ ," he insisted. " _My tree_. Step back. Don't get any of my acorns. I will say who can come under my tree."

And he stood directly underneath it, leaning affectionately and possessively against its medium-sized trunk with the white strips of bark.

"Go away from my tree," he concluded, when everyone had backed off far enough. "I'll say when you can come back here. This is my tree only. My acorns."

There was a very selfish look in his eyes, different from his usually loveable whimsical look.

The yellow loving dummies were enjoying the effect tremendously. The other guests---Jethro's traveling friends---were wondering what in The Lands was happening!

Tatch, an amused look on her face, then nodded at one of the smaller yellow dummies, an excited little dummy named Xantha with a superlight purple left arm. She picked up one of the few far-out acorns that had reached the grass beyond the regular perimeter of the tree and tossed it at the massive Buffalo Unicorn who had lost all of his lightheartedness to possessiveness.

It struck him right on the unicorn.

Jethro changed again. "Welcome friends," he said, very cordial and generous now. "What was I saying? That you can't share in this delightful tree? Where did I get such a ridiculous idea? Of course you can share in this tree, as far as I'm concerned, because I'm just a guest here myself! My feeling is that I hope you have as much fun with it as you can, although I admit I don't understand it completely yet."

Then he looked down at the grass, and an expression of disappointment appeared on his large face and in his eyes. "But there just aren't enough acorns here for everyone." For there were many dummies all around the tree---several dummies deep---most of them the yellow-loving dummies who lived in the land. Then Jethro looked up, his eyes blinking into brightness. He had gotten an idea. It was very interesting when he said what it was.

"Perfit! Take the weather ring out of your pocket and move the pointer to _earthquake_ again. We'll get some more acorns here for our friends!"

"Ha!" burst out Tatch, finally finding out about the ring that had caused the jolt of the land before. Caught up in that welcome knowledge, however, she didn't have a chance to say "No!" before Perfit activated the ring.

The land shook violently again. Only this time it didn't stop with one jolt.

They---everyone there except Jethro---were all knocked off of their feet and couldn't get up, because the shaking was continuing. Not even Wut was able to get up. One good thing, though, was that they were all standing away from the tree, because Jethro had forced them to back up when he was being possessive.

But he himself was standing directly _under_ The Emotion Tree. Hundreds of emotion acorns began raining down on him and all around him, and each one that rained down on his back produced a different emotion.

All at the same time!

The land was rocking violently, and the other trees, all around The Acorn Emotion Tree, were waving their tops and branches in a sudden burst of motion. The trees became a violent green ocean with leaves. The yellow houses were fanning and springing in all directions.

It was easy to feel dizzy in the middle of all of this! And everyone did!

Finally Perfit was able to turn off the ring, and the shaking stopped. The land they were standing on gradually returned to normal, although the trees continued to sway for a long time.

It was then that everyone noticed Jethro. He had been rained on by _hundreds_ of acorns shaken from the tree, and each one of them had produced an emotion in him. He suddenly was affected by so many emotions, all at the same time, that his behavior became spectacular.

He was genuinely bizarre!

He ran back and forth,

turning somersaults on the grass,

laid on his back pumping his legs up and down,

sat up,

crazily tried to stand on his head although it isn't that easy with a unicorn, got his unicorn stuck in the ground,

jumped up in the air,

ran off into the distance twice as fast as he normally could run,

and then ran back,

while all kinds of light colors: light pinks;

light yellows;

light aquas;

light tans,

browns and caramels;

light blacks;

airy roses;

light blues;

and hundreds of other colors

kept appearing in the air all around him.

_Even his unicorn turned colors._

At the same time, he was yelling: "No! Yes! My tree! Hey! What is going on? Is this me? What? I'm becoming and unbecoming! Mamma! Sorry. Yeah! What a tree! Meri! Wut! Tackling Dummy! Perfit! Tatch! Xantha! Dummies! I love The Lands! I love this land! I love yellow! Here I am! Nope! Yep! I is me!"

Finally he fell down panting, with his head down, in front of the dummies there, who smiled at him and patted him and said, "That's all right" many times---as long as he continued to lie there, breathing so hard and unable to get up because he was utterly exhausted by all of the emotions he had experienced all at once.

The wild, then peaceful and, finally, whimsical looks in his eyes told them that, yes, everything _was_ all right with him. Finally his great brown eyes were only whimsical and appreciative.

And then he was able to stand up again.

"An Earthquake of Emotions Tree," he said smiling, looking up at the tree that he now knew wasn't ordinary at all. No, he wasn't disappointed in _this_ tree!

He would visit it many times in the future, in his travels around The Lands. Every time he came near it, he would never fail to wonder how he could get one of the developed rings from the top of The Weather Tree and bring it to The Emotion Tree.

There was one more thing about this tree. Meri was _sure_ she had heard a tiny brightness in the air when each of the first three acorns had struck Jethro, and _much more of the same_ during the acorn earthquake! A light pleasant jingling---sometimes a jangling---and sometimes a ringing---of the leaves that almost wasn't there at all---but really was.

You had to be paying attention with your spirit.

# Chapter III: THE ACORN OF MISSING

To make the land a little more comfortable while they were all in the bright sunlight and in the intense yellow air at the same time, Perfit took her weather ring out of her dress pocket and privately switched the pointer to _cloudy_. Immediately a set of thick clouds appeared overhead. It was then easier to see, although the land was still noticeably yellow. The effects of the more developed rings tended to last, so the clouds remained as long as the ring was at that setting. Perfit dropped the ring back into the pocket of her long dress.

While Jethro was resting and still catching his breath, and everyone was gathered around him on the light green grass near the shadow of the tree, Meri walked underneath The Emotion Tree for the first time. Still holding the lavender Wrong Kite, she almost tripped trying to walk on the many acorns that had fallen during the earthquake. They rolled especially easily.

Setting the kite down for just a minute, so that she wouldn't trip and fall on it, she tilted her head back with curiosity to look up into the tree.

She wanted to compare The Ticket Tree, The Weather Tree, and this one. She was surprised at the number of acorns still left up there _after so many had fallen in Jethro's earthquake!_ Glancing down again, she noticed that a small woven basket left lying there by the yellow dummies had almost been filled during the shaking.

The other dummies were still talking quietly among themselves while Jethro was resting. Still exploring the tree, Meri casually picked up an acorn from below it and held it directly in front of her eyes, to look at it as closely as possible.

"I wonder what emotion you cause?" she said to it.

Liking the feel of its special round smoothness, she rolled it around her fingers and then in her palm. It was exactly like the larger ones that she had found underneath the oak trees near her home. She also liked the tiny color changes of its surface. It had lost its yellowish brown cup, and she wasn't surprised, because of the recent falling violence.

Thinking curiously, and creatively, slowly and silently she turned her head toward the others, who were still talking around Jethro. They weren't watching her, she noticed.

Then she looked back down at the acorn again.

Softly rubbing the acorn against her cheek, feeling the glide of its cool hard shiny shell, suddenly, with an adventurous light in her eyes and a small smile on her face, she tossed it high into the air exactly above her head and waited for it to come down.

It fell with a clear knocking sound.

It was louder than it felt. But it knocked against her light brown hair, so there was only a little pain. Actually, she didn't even have time to think about it.

_Because suddenly she was feeling an emotion which completely overcame her._ Just by luck, it was the one emotion that had the power to affect her the most.

It was the emotion of _missing._ She thought of her parents, on the ship the _USS Steady_ , now certainly approaching England. A strong surge of missing them came over her like a tidal wave, so that she was almost near tears. All kinds of tender memories swept through her mind and overcame her body.

_She had to get to England!_

But then she thought of her Aunt Amelia, probably worrying herself gray at her continuing absence which was so mysterious, including the phone call.

Picturing her aunt at the kitchen table, raising her face from the stacks of library books around to think of her favorite and only niece and wondering where she was and looking so desperate, Meri became almost ill wanting to re-assure and comfort her that she was all right. She wanted to tell her that she was her irreplaceable favorite aunt and that in fact she adored being in The Lands. She wanted to tell her about _all_ of her many new friends!

But thinking momentarily of all these friends, while missing her aunt, Meri at once became overwhelmed at the thought of missing _them too_ when she would have to leave! Remembering that The Ticket Tree had already taken her to Paris, which was so close to England, she was confident that she would be gone _soon_ , probably never to return.

_She couldn't stand the idea!_

Looking over at _the Tackling Dummy_ , who was speaking to Wut and Jethro, she almost burst into tears. How could she leave him? Yet she knew he had already found a home in The Lands. They were absolutely perfect for him---he had been so very lucky to have come here, and she was so deeply grateful for him.

And _Wut_ , her dear friend, bouncing over there on the grass. _She began missing him too!_

And _Jethro_. "How could I ever be without Jethro?" she thought, looking over at the giant Buffalo Unicorn, now completely recovered on the grass, but still lying down, with another whimsical look in his eyes as he began to look around again. In fact, he was looking quizzically over at _her_ under The Emotion Acorn Tree.

And then she looked at _Perfit_ sitting there. How dearly she loved the little dummy so beloved by all! She couldn't stand the thought of never seeing her again. Her true sister.

She thought of all the others, too: _Picups, Fico, Sylvestra, Ello and her friends who made cake they didn't eat, of Art or Nart, and Sticktight_ \--- _how she missed him already anyway_ , without his ability to talk!

And _Meridia,_ with whom she shared her name. She wished she could hear her say it again! Quickly! And _Smithery_ , too, of course, whom she was already fond of too. And _Minglemint_ and _Globe._

And _of course_ there were _Faye_ , and _Aquamarie!_ And now _Tatch_ and _Xantha_ and _Belikely,_ a friend of Xantha whom Xantha had introduced her to.

And Meri even missed _Pumphrey the Waterspout_ , remembering her long conversation with him. And _Leo J. upP_ , who was sacrificing his canvas, so strikingly beautiful---or had been!

And then Meri, with tears now in her eyes, began to miss different things about The Lands: _The Autumnforest_ and _the many lands she had crossed_ and seen, such as _The Land of Claustrophobic Air_ \---there were too many lands to remember all at once.

And _the monkeybars_ , _The Yellow Trampoline_ , _the scooters_ , _The Sliding Board_ and _the pink windmills_ with their tornadoes. She even, just for a moment, missed _the hanging black jello of soot_ dropped by the croapfs, because it had turned out all right! But she quickly dismissed that! She even already missed _her flying wand_ , which had the fastest speed in all The Lands. She reached up to it momentarily to make sure it was all right, sticking out of the narrow pencil pocket at the top of her chest in the middle.

The effect of all this missing was building up inside her so that she just couldn't contain it any longer! She felt like she either had to explode, to burst out into crying worse than she had ever cried before, or _something_. So she reached down, picked up the woven basket of acorns, almost full after Jethro's earthquake, and threw them up into the air directly above her.

_All_ of them!

In a moment they thundered back down onto her head again.

Immediately she became all the different aspects of herself, _all at once_ , in an explosion of emotions. The effect was the same as on Jethro, when the shaking caused by Perfit's weather ring had covered _him_ with the rain of emotional acorns.

She ran around the tree _ten_ times, crying " _Momma!_ " _"Dad!_ " _"Aunt Amelia!_ " " _Our trip to England!" "The Lands!"_ and other things. Then she ran around her friends who had stopped talking and resting to watch her in amazement. Jethro quickly guessed what she had done.

She gave a hug to each of them, ran off into the distance, ran back, hugged them all again, turned several flips---which she didn't know she could do---climbed partway up the tree, swung back down on a branch so that more acorns fell on her head, shoulders and back.

She called out all sorts of emotional memories, like,

"I'll see you again, Ello!"

"Don't let Jethro fall!"

"Oh, no, cliffs! I'm falling!"

"Aquamarine oranges."

"Black certain."

"Ankle maps."

"It's really a Tornado of Teacups!"

"The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains?"

"Not his canvas!"

"You're already home."

"He just _can't_ not talk anymore!"

and,

"Maybe Pumphrey's just lonely up there."

Three times she jumped all the way over the beautiful lavender Wrong Kite she had left under The Emotion Tree, until finally _she also_ fell lying on the grass, beside Jethro, with one hand on his shoulder, all the others comforting her, the yellow-loving dummies repeating, "That's okay," many times.

Wut was bouncing up and down looking very concerned.

Everyone became silent, or just whispered, out of respect for the emotionally exhausted girl.

After a little while, Meri was surprised at how much better she felt. Soon everyone was laughing at what all those emotion acorns, _all at one time_ , had done to both Meri and Jethro. For no one could deny that they had acted comically! Jethro and Meri each had a good time laughing at themselves!

"What a tree," announced Jethro, standing up and glancing with admiration at the ordinary-looking tree.

Perfit secretly wanted to try an acorn, and the Tackling Dummy was also curious, but so much time had passed already that they didn't have enough to try the tree themselves. They all had to go to deliver the owingstones. These two could come back some other time in the future. Meri might not be able to.

Perfit thought to herself, glancing quickly at her flying wand, with which she was so skillful, "I could be here from The Land of Pink Windmills in several minutes! And be back in several minutes! Yes, I'll be able to try _many_ acorns in the future."

So for the moment, she was satisfied.

But an unwelcome thought kept making a nuisance of itself by coming back into her mind every now and then. "If ever The Land of the Croapfs becomes right again, the flying wands will have to be returned. Then I won't have one. What will I do then?"

And the Tackling Dummy thought with determination, when there wasn't time for him to try an acorn, "I'll be coming back here." He hadn't realized before how many emotions he had missed by doing nothing but being tackled every day. And, at night, being kept a prisoner in a dim locker room under the bleachers.

But now he did. In fact, since he had come to The Lands, he had been experiencing emotions he didn't even know existed! The Emotion Acorn Tree helped him to understand something about himself before a single acorn bounced off of him. It got him to thinking about the importance of emotions. He hadn't thought about their importance before.

"Cholorphylligenously," he re-assured himself with a long word that made him feel better, looking with appreciation at the tree still loaded with acorns---each capable of producing an unexpected emotion.

"We should go," announced Wut, because it was a good time, now that little was being said, and a lot of time had passed. The Emotion Tree tends to make one think, so there had been a lot of silence. No one likes to interrupt meaningful silence, so it tends to endure.

"The Strawberry Patch really isn't that far from here," Wut added with new anticipation, bouncing away.

Hastily running over to regain the pale violet Wrong Kite from under the tree, Meri lost her balance and almost fell _again_ on the many slippery acorns. She walked out carefully.

Tatch, Xantha, Belikely, and every one of the other dummies all accompanied the travelers to the very end of The Land of Loving Yellow.

Perfit took out her weather ring again and chose the graphic, in the row of tiny colors, that was a small yellow circle. At the sound of the _click!_

the thick clouds above the land drifted away, and the air became an intense yellow again. It hurt the travelers' eyes, since the clouds had been protecting them for a little while. But Tatch, Xantha, Belikely, and all the other dummies who lived there obviously loved the brighter yellow.

"Love that yellow," said Belikely, looking around with approving eyes, as the travelers shielded and rubbed theirs for a few seconds.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized hastily, when he noticed what they were doing.

"Me too," said Wut, letting him feel better. He was gently springing up and down on the grass with blinking eyes himself. But he loved all of The Lands, and so he loved the air of every land, even if it was momentarily difficult.

"Will you come back through here?" asked Tatch kindly and hopefully, looking over at Jethro who was watching her with a look that was whimsical, but also mischievous. All of the yellow-loving dummies walking behind her made little murmurs of hope, too, that the travelers would return.

"We have more acorns," Tatch said encouragingly, and then added, "It's the quickest way back to The Land of Pink Windmills and The Ticket Tree, too." She knew about Meri's need to try again to go home, or to England, on one of the tickets of that famous tree. She felt a kinship with that land, since both had famous trees.

"We have these," Wut tactfully reminded her, holding up his flying wand so that he rose slightly above his last bounce. "We could have used them to go straight to The Strawberry Patch, but I wanted our friends to meet you and to find out about The Weather Tree. Guess I brought myself to learn something new, too," he also said, the green eyes in the air on either side of his face looking especially vivid in the yellow light.

"About the _second_ tree, that is. I was definitely glad to learn about that. And you know I didn't have time to try it _myself_ \---so I will be back in the near future to try an emotion."

The brighter color of his green eyes showed he was looking forward to that experience.

"Goodbye!" called Tatch, Belikely, Xantha, and the other yellow-loving dummies, standing one step beyond the edge of the land, where the air was beginning to be mildly yellow. They all looked _more_ yellow in the less radiant air--except for their exceptionally colored superlight left arms.

The travelers walked and bounced on.

"We want to see your yellow hair again!" suddenly called out one of the yellow-loving dummies, when the travelers were almost out of hearing. Thinking about the lands ahead, they hadn't realized that _all_ of the dummies in the previous land were _still_ watching them into the distance.

Perfit stopped, and turned, and when she did, she spun her head around in a quick pert way that swung her hair out into the light. It sent a flash of friendly yellow back to their friends. She grinned, and everyone waved again.

Soon the travelers couldn't tell if the yellow dummies were still standing there in the yellow light or not. But, somehow, they knew they were.

In fact the intense color of the moving Wrong Kite was visible from The Land of Loving Yellow for a long time.

Meri gave one final backward glance before it was too late. She had loved yellow before she came to The Lands. But after her experiences at the cake; and on The Yellow Trampoline; after Perfit's hair, which she adored, as well as the little dummy herself _and_ her dresses; and now after this unforgettable land, she couldn't help but feel an even greater fondness for this loveably bright color!

# Chapter IV: THE HOOP TREE FOREST

By this time the five travelers were well into the next land, only a short distance away from a forest they were approaching.

"It's smaller than The Autumnforest," Meri thought as she looked closely. It was also dimmer between the trunks because the trees were closer together. The Autumnforest is unique because it has a lot of free air. Grass and flowers grow everywhere inside it, unlike normal forests.

Something else was becoming very obvious about this new forest: its foliage seemed to be unusually pleasant. Meri kept looking.

"We need to go through," Wut announced, as it became clear they were walking, and bouncing, straight toward these trees. "It shouldn't take us too long."

Jethro tried to remain silent, but the others heard him laughing quietly to himself. Perfit, who was walking, the Tackling Dummy, and Meri studied the great Buffalo Unicorn to find out what was so amusing.

"Oh, nothing," he replied to their glances, closing his large brown eyes which still showed his quiet laughter. He kept walking along that way, without looking where he was going. Obviously he didn't want to answer any questions. His eyes had been full of a strange and eager expectation before they had closed, however.

_Perfit, Meri, and the Tackling Dummy all looked at each other with an electric certainty!_

All three _knew_ that something else was getting ready to happen!

_They just didn't know what!_

"Don't let me step on any of you," Jethro advised everyone in a friendly way as he walked along contentedly with his eyes closed.

_He only made them more curious, which was what he had intended!_

Meri continued to notice that the branches of the forest seemed light and cheerful in a puzzling way.

She realized that they could have flown over it with their flying wands.

Wut then said, "We could fly over it, but we're so close, we might as well just walk through." Jethro had opened his eyes and looked disappointed for a moment. The look of expectation and eagerness returned to them, however, just before he gently closed them again.

"Also, I'm carrying this," Meri thought to herself, about the Wrong Kite. "It might be a little awkward to try to fly with it." So for the time being she was glad to walk.

Wut didn't say so, but there was _another_ reason that he didn't want them to fly just then. There was something that he especially wanted to show Perfit, Meri, and the Tackling Dummy.

_It was almost time!_

Suddenly Jethro opened both of his eyes, together, as if he needed them open _right then,_ at that point! There was a gleam in them as he glanced toward the forest ahead, and he seemed to be waiting. But he didn't say anything. He just swung his large head around whimsically to include in one whole sweep a look at Wut, his friends, and the forest. The tip of his white unicorn was steadily emitting tiny soft rays that seemed an unusual combination of excitement and peacefulness.

Clearly something was on his mind!

The air of The Lands seemed especially still. Every now and then there was a pleasant bird call from somewhere in the forest.

Jethro made a strange noise. In fact, he was trying not to laugh. Wut looked over at him from an upward bounce. Jethro's personality on the inside was winning in his effort to continue to appear calm on the outside! _But just barely!_

The suspense increased.

Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit knew something was happening---or about to happen---but they didn't have the slightest idea what! Perfit leaned up to whisper to the Tackling Dummy, and he swung her up toward the pretty green saddle again. Whatever was going to happen, she wanted to be up high enough to have a good look!

Just then a light yellow hoop, about two feet across, came flying toward them from the forest. Spinning lyrically, it landed on Jethro's unicorn and hung there reflecting light. Soon a light green hoop, a little smaller, followed it, arriving just above the tip of his unicorn and deftly ringing it too. Both rings dropped down, swinging back and forth till they stopped.

"What is _that_?" blurted out the Tackling Dummy, looking at the two hoops and then looking up and around in the air.

Jethro seemed to ignore the startling lyrical events, and just kept on walking, although the expectant gleam in his eyes was now more evident. He was having an even harder time holding his laughter in.

Meri was looking around too. Perfit leaned forward from the saddle to feel the two dangling hoops.

Then a third hoop, a solid black one, came flying gently and settled down right around the Tackling Dummy's neck. It was about three feet across. The Tackling Dummy had a most unusual look in his eyes---this was a strange experience!

A small silver one, that had been hard to see in the air, suddenly dropped around Perfit's neck, looking exactly like a necklace. It appeared lovely indeed around her so yellow hair. She looked down at it approvingly with her soft light blue eyes.

More and more hoops seemed to be in the air as they kept walking, for Wut had casually continued to bounce onward, and the others had gone along with him.

But now Meri and the Tackling Dummy stopped momentarily.

_They knew they had gotten to The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest, which they had heard about, and they had stopped to absorb this fact!_

"No, no," Wut insisted, bouncing forward with three or four hoops now around his neck and a lavender one on his left arm. As he bounced, however, he was so slender that, from him, they fell harmlessly down to the grass, looking quite lovely there.

"If we stop briefly," he explained with some urgency, "the hoops will simply keep coming and stop us completely. You wouldn't believe the tangle of hoops that could accumulate around us! We _must_ go on, no matter what!"

"This is The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest," he said directly and unnecessarily to Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy. They now had many colorful hoops all over them too. "I wanted to show it to you, and so I thought it might be fun to try to go through it instead of walk around it---or fly over it.

"However, for a little while, it won't be easy! So don't stop _for any reason,_ or the hoops will cover us, and you can't imagine how hard it will be for us to get out. Some dummies get stuck here and have to wait _forever_ for someone to help them out!"

He was exaggerating, of course.

Meri had a wistful desire to see what that would be like---to be bogged down in all of these colorful hoops. It sounded like fun! But she realized immediately that it wouldn't be a good idea at the moment. She didn't have a lot of extra time just then.

There were already numerous hoops around her neck, and she noticed that even her fingers had some small colored hoops on them---like rings! She had barely noticed them slipping on, and she _hadn't_ felt some of them.

She smiled.

Larger hoops were around Jethro's neck, too, by now, and his unicorn was piled high.

Carrying The Wrong Kite, Meri tried to keep hold of it, but so many hoops were flying to it and dangling around it that with disappointment she had to let it go. She didn't want it to be damaged.

_All of the air_ now was filled with the lyrically spinning and settling hoops. The only one of the travelers not almost covered was Wut, whose combination of slimness and bouncing caused them to continue to drop down onto the grass immediately after ringing him. His fingers, however, were covered with hoop rings, as were the fingers of _all_ of them who _had_ fingers.

The Tackling Dummy looked down at the beautiful rings on his shabby fingers. And Perfit loved hers! Of course Jethro's unicorn was piled high!

The flying hoops were coming from the branches of the trees everywhere in The Hoop Tree Forest, which the friends then entered.

It was really a sight!

Everyone had the same spirit of both fun and determination: they were going to try to get through this amazing forest. The hoops increased as they tried to move even farther in, crazying all of the forest air with aerodynamically beautiful motion and wonderfully perfect circles that were so enjoyable just to look at.

The hoops made the air both colorful and playful.

The travelers couldn't help but laugh at the situation they were in. It was so pleasant, so different, and oh so challenging! Jethro's huge laugh finally escaped and went deeply and infectiously throughout the entire forest.

At first Meri looked at each of the hoops, and all around, as they came down and across from all sides. But more and more she had to leave some unobserved, she was trying so hard to stay free and to keep moving---as Wut had said. Soon she didn't really have a _choice_! She was having trouble walking, as the hoops expertly circled her feet and legs as she took each step.

In a part of her mind, she was also still concerned about The Wrong Kite she had just left behind.

It was now _impossible_ for any of them to use a flying wand. The hoops were coming so fast that they couldn't lift their arms or even their hands up. One of the hardest things the Tackling Dummy had to do was to hold onto his, since he was carrying it in his hand, and hoops were building up around it. Meri's, of course, was in her narrow pencil pocket and Perfit's was still dangling from her shoulder by a ribbon. Some hoops had caught onto Meri's and were hanging from it, though, and little ones had gotten onto it.

Slowly, the hoops weighted down Meri and the Tackling Dummy, and especially covered Perfit, who was up on Jethro's back. She was disappearing. The forward motion of Meri and the Tackling Dummy was beginning to cease.

The three newcomers were beginning to wonder if Wut had made the right decision about trying to go through the forest. Their laughter had ceased, although they couldn't help but continue to marvel at the number and sight of the flying hoops.

Wut was mostly unaffected. The hoops just fell right off of him, except for his fingers. And Jethro was too strong to be stopped, although he was carrying a heavy load of the beautiful circles around his neck, from ear to ear and from each ear, and definitely around his unicorn, which was now impossible to see. In addition to the load building up on top of Perfit, too. So Jethro was still laughing.

This was quite an experience!!

Too strong to be bothered, he was enjoying himself immensely!

The hoops couldn't accumulate around his legs, because he was so tall that he just shook them off again when they began to travel up his ankles. He could have gone even faster, but he was unwilling to leave his two friends, Meri and the Tackling Dummy, behind.

Wut was bouncing around critiquing the situation. For some reason, he wasn't really that upset. _That_ was suspicious! Occasionally he was even _smiling!_

Meri and the Tackling Dummy by this time could hardly move. Because they were struggling so hard, almost tripping and falling at times, the hoops had the opportunity to settle down even _more_ upon their shoulders and necks, and what was just as slowing, to expertly slip around their feet and fly up around their knees! It was funny and frustrating at the same time!

Soon they had to stop. They didn't have any choice. Perfit, up on top, was unable to be seen anymore. She was somewhere under a colorful and growing heap of hoops in the middle of Jethro's back---a heap that began to become wobbly and unsteady. As it ascended even higher, it began to tip and sway around.

Wut then nodded to Jethro. _The entire time,_ they had known this was going to happen. And they had known what they were going to do!

Jethro laughed one of his great friendly laughs, and

"Perfit," he called up to his friend on his back, who was struggling to stay on under the growing stack. If she should fall to the ground, it would be a disaster trying to find her among all those hoops! Was there still time to help her? "Perfit," he called again. "Do you think you can climb to my unicorn? If you can get there, put your legs around my head and don't let go of my unicorn for anything!"

There was no response at first. And then, faintly, they all heard her muffled voice say, "I'll try" from under all those hoops. And a slight motion could be seen in the maze of endless circles around and upon her.

The energetic little dummy, pushing them up from around her own delicate neck, skating others off of her arms as she raised them, and dodging other round perimeters that kept coming in all kinds of colors, was able to free her arms and the rest of her enough to scramble---with enjoyable effort---up and over the hoops around Jethro's neck.

Finally, with more entertaining tries, she reached his huge head which was also covered with the hanging rings. Grasping his two black smaller side horns, one with each hand, she pulled herself successfully up to his unicorn.

Keeping her own head low, because the unicorn was piled up and covered with so many hoops, she reached both hands through the maze and clung happily onto the spiral with all of her might.

It looked like she was going to be okay for a while, although she had to keep shaking her head to release arriving hoops. Finally she just kept her head down and the hoops began to build up on top of her long scattered but still beautiful hair. She was all right, though. Her small arms reaching up to the unicorn protected her. Smiling, she began to be covered all over again.

"Good!" said Wut, when he saw that she was situated. "Okay," he then signaled to Jethro with one of his hands.

"Tackling Dummy and Meri," Jethro next said in his deep voice. It was clear that he knew exactly what to do, and that he was enjoying himself doing it! "Take hold of each one of my front legs, and hold on as tightly as you can," he instructed them. "And I'll walk for you. At the same time, your being there will help to keep the hoops from getting on my legs so easily, and I won't have to kick them so hard all the time to get them off---they're slowing me down a little too! I'm going to stop for just a few seconds to give you a chance to catch up. Wut, help each one."

He stopped and Wut energetically flung the hoops up from the Tackling Dummy's arms and shoulders, so that for a brief moment the tattered and patched dummy had the freedom to grasp. The Tackling Dummy then dove for Jethro's left front leg and hung onto his strong shins, above the sturdy foot! At the same time, he was able to shake off a few more hoops from around his neck, but they were quickly replaced.

The air was full of hoops, circling and spinning, many colors coming from all directions. They were descending, and flying around, and covering up what they fell on, like a snow of circles that came from the trees!

Wut then just as quickly shoved up the beautiful hoops around Meri's shoulders and arms, giving her the freedom for a moment to dive toward Jethro's right front leg. She fastened onto the strong shin which was light tan and white and gold with two black patches she could see.

"Now!" yelled Wut, when she was on. "Okay!"

The hoops had piled up even higher on Jethro while he was stopped, but none were able to get on his legs during that time, since all four of his feet had been on the ground. And now, as he pulled forward, they were less able to get onto his front legs anymore, with the Tackling Dummy and Meri hanging onto them and being dragged forward with each powerful step of the gigantic Buffalo Unicorn.

But the hoops even more rapidly accumulated over his face, now that he was moving more slowly. So that he was blinded, and Perfit became completely invisible again. But surely she was holding on tightly somewhere under there!

The bulge of hoops around Jethro's neck and head became completely enormous, so enormous that he too became more than completely covered up down to his shoulders. It was beginning to look like he had an unbelievably long neck growing up into the sky.

_But his head couldn't be found!_

However, with the certainty of unstoppable steps he pulled steadily forward. Hoops also landed on his back, and many remained, piling up into a great heap and spreading out widely! Every now and then there was an avalanche of hoops from him that went sliding in all directions! Sometimes Wut had to duck or bounce especially high to get out of the way!

Although Jethro's head couldn't be seen, his laughter could be heard from deep down inside his cave of hoops. Meri and the Tackling Dummy and Perfit were smiling too. What a forest!

Wut, the only one free of hoops, became Jethro's eyes. "Straight ahead," Meri and the Tacking Dummy, and even Perfit, down among so many many hoops entirely invisible, heard him say as he directed the great Buffalo Unicorn through the trees of The Hoop Tree Forest.

"To the right."

"Good!"

"Now a little to the left to avoid this small tree."

"We're almost there!" they finally heard him say, and before long they had the sensation of fewer hoops when at last, leaving the amazing forest, the hoops began flying back to the trees.

Jethro kept pulling. Soon he had them far enough away from The Hoop Tree Forest, so that none of the hoops could stay.

By a slow process all three holding onto him became free, the bright circles, one by one, and finally many at a time, floating lyrically backwards, spinning through the colorful air to return to their locations.

When they were all gone, except for a few still on their fingers, Perfit gladly jumped off. When Meri and the Tackling Dummy let go, Jethro fell over on his back, with all four legs pointing up.

"Yes!!" he said in his deep whimsical voice, pumping his legs. Then, looking over at his friends, with his head upside down, he added, "I don't usually walk through so slowly. That was invigorating!" Then he collapsed over onto his side, with his head lying flat on the grass, while he thought about it all!

"I enjoyed that pull!" he said. "The next time, you can all ride on my back from the beginning. That would be a different way to get through!"

The others piled on, laughing, crying "Yes!!" too, (even Wut!), pummeling him and hugging him as well as they could, for he was so large it wasn't easy to find a good place to hug!

"I said 'the _next_ time!'" Jethro pleaded good-naturedly, eyeing his friends with bright looks as they fell over him.

"Invigorating," repeated the Tackling Dummy, thinking about the word. "Hmmm. That was the right word, all right, I believe." For he himself felt strangely invigorated by the flying hoops, although being dragged through the forest hadn't helped his canvas any. It now had additional grass stains and a few more small rips. Jethro's surprising use of the word _invigorating_ , however, had touched his mind in an uplifting way, as much as he loved words. But his face momentarily fell as he then thought of his unabridged dictionary and missed it.

At length, after resting a little longer and thinking about what had just happened, they all stood up---except for the one who bounced up---and prepared to start again.

"Wait a moment," Meri suddenly asked them. Taking her flying wand from her high narrow pencil pocket, she surprised everyone by flying quickly back toward The Hoop Tree Forest at considerable speed. The hoops tried to encircle her all over again, Meri could hear them whizzing around and by her. She even flew right through some of them, but they simply couldn't move as fast as her flying wand, the fastest object in The Lands!

Sighting the beautiful lavender Wrong Kite at the edge of the forest, where they had first been handicapped by the hoops, she scooped it up while still flying and sped back to the others, untouched again by the sailing hoops---although they tried. Her flight was more successful than she had imagined it would be!

With The Wrong Kite in her left hand, she landed expertly by Perfit, who was going to walk now, since she understood they were at that time almost to The Strawberry Patch.

"Ready?" Meri asked the others. Then she noticed that she still had several pink and yellow rings and one coffee colored ring on the hand that was holding the kite. They couldn't get off by themselves, and she left them there, looking down at them with an especially pleased smile as the five friends began to walk and bounce the short distance to The Strawberry Patch.

Meri felt so lighthearted that she didn't mind at all that her jeans shorts and coral top weren't as clean now as they had been. She had tried at first to keep them from scraping too much as Jethro had pulled her along the ground. But then she had just relaxed, and Jethro had felt the difference. _What do a few scrapes matter if they let you go through The Hoop Tree Forest?!?_ There were some grass and dirt stains on both of her knees, too. But she would have no problem getting them clean again in The Land of Pink Windmills! She thought fondly of Sylvestra's windmill.

Then things began to happen.

"We'll be where we're going in just one minute!" Wut informed them, eagerly springing high into the air and looking down the hill. At the very top of the bounce, extending his slender black arm with his index finger outstretched, he pointed. They were almost there!

The others, still below on the grass, couldn't see what he was pointing at---but they knew!

Wut was beginning to be excited. There had been a tremor in his voice when he had spoken.

_"The strawberries are going to speak!"_ he was thinking. " _What in The Lands are they going to say?"_

This was an important event in The Lands. _A new era was about to begin for the strawberries!_ He could hardly wait! Coming down from that high bounce, he prepared them by saying, "After we get past those scattered trees ahead, be on the lookout for an immensely wide circle at the bottom.

"And be very careful," he warned them gently. "It's harder to see in the early morning. You don't want to trip and roll down, even though it's grassy and you might even enjoy rolling down. But you wouldn't want to injure any of them."

Jethro shook his head up and down meaningfully, agreeing. He glanced over at Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy knowingly.

"What in The Lands does Wut mean?!" the three others were thinking and wondering. He had said, " _It's harder to see in the early morning."_ But The Lands were _obviously bright_ and pleasant. The sun was especially warm on all of them! Jethro's coat was fairly blazing with all of its colors! It wasn't hard to see at all!

But they knew that Wut liked for them to experience a little of a land first for themselves---before he started explaining it. He always liked to tell them only what they needed to know for their safety, and then wait to see what they found out for themselves.

So they didn't ask what he meant. _Perhaps he had a reason for what he had said!_ They just walked along, continuing to talk normally, while looking very carefully and very eagerly ahead for _whatever_ was going to be.

Meri was glad she was just about to keep her word to Sticktight! And she was wondering too, just like Wut, "What in The Lands will the strawberries say when they receive the owingstones?"

She could hardly wait!

They were all excited! No matter what they were thinking, they all knew one thing: strawberries were in their immediate future!! They were looking forward to seeing them. For everyone, no matter what kind of dummy, loves strawberries.

# Chapter V: THE LAND OF STRAWBERRY DAWN

"There are many different ways to go through The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest," Jethro offered, in his deep voice, to fill in the time as they carefully went down the hill.

_They were almost to where they were going!_

They all had a special feeling of completion and achievement, for they knew they were coming to the end of an unusual and important journey, to deliver the owingstones.

_There was less than a minute left._

But they also, all, had a small feeling of letdown, for it had been a momentous trip. This was the first time the flying wands had flown over this side of The Lands. And they had met Pumphrey and Leo, in dramatic ways.

"You can go straight through, like we did," the great Buffalo Unicorn continued talking in the sun, "but it may take you a long time, as you already know, if you get tangled up in hoops and have to wait for help. I'm surprised that we didn't see any bunches of tangled-up dummies there---I usually see at least one when I visit The Hoop Tree Forest. I've untangled many heaps."

"Remember that you _couldn't see anything_ ," Perfit, holding Meri's hand, laughingly reminded him. "You were covered with hoops!"

She reminded him, because she _herself_ had been covered up completely by the same hoops that were piled up all over his head, blocking his eyes. In fact, her eyes had been near his.

"Oh yeah," realized the Buffalo Unicorn, smiling embarrassedly. "No wonder I didn't see anyone caught. Maybe there were some there."

"I go by regularly and untangle bunches, myself," Wut informed them. Now Meri knew why neither of them had been worried about the hoops! They were both experts at helping those who get tangled!

"It's surprising how long some dummies have to wait in there for help," Wut continued. "It's one of the easiest problems in The Lands to solve," he added, after pausing to think for a moment, a tiny cloud of concern crossing his brow about the problems that were the harder ones!

"It depends on how far you walk into the forest, or which part you go through," Jethro went back to his original subject of different ways to cross the forest. "Sometimes I like to walk on just this side of the edge---not quite in the forest, but where the hoops can reach me. It's fun to have just a few in the air all the time. I try to snag a few with my unicorn as they go by---instead of being caught by them, I try to pull them right out of the air! It can require great skill---if you can imagine---to catch some of the very small ones."

Meri looked down at the littler ones still on her fingers. Then she noticed some on Perfit's tiny fingers, too---and even some on the Tackling Dummy's and Wut's! They had _all_ saved them---like _she had_ , because they liked the land!

"If I feel like being more vigorous, instead of walking a certain distance from the edge, I simply walk along the edge itself, or just inside the forest," Jethro spoke on, more talkative than Meri could remember since she had first met him. But she was fascinated by what he was saying.

"If I _really_ want a challenge," Jethro continued with the fascinating personal picture of how he was when he was by himself sometimes, "I walk into The Hoop Tree Forest and lie down for a nap." The others all gasped in unison at this idea---glancing over at him---and waited in suspense for his next words.

Jethro had noticed their reaction. His large shiny brown eyes, although just as whimsical as always, looked out with extra brightness as he saw himself in his own memories.

"Then when I wake up," he said, looking around at each of them, except Wut, "the hoops may be piled up to the sky on top of me and around in all directions. I guess it's one of the biggest heaps of hoops ever! They completely fill up the openings in the trees and keep going up on top of them. It's all I can do to stand up. Then after thinking about it, and smiling a little bit, or maybe a whole lot, I drag the whole pile---or what's left of it!---out into the open, and the hoops start whirling and spinning back. I start running as fast as I can, and see how far I can carry at least some of them! Sometimes they have to fly back across whole lands to get back! I love to glance back! Then when they're all gone, it's such a relief to be free and myself again. It's so invigorating!"

At the excellent word, the Tackling Dummy's eyes glistened with tiny lights, that no one noticed, because what Jethro had to say was so interesting.

Everyone was thinking about his description of hoops piled up to the sky and all around, and they pondered with renewed admiration his incredible strength. Each was secretly glad he was along, for his power in addition to his good nature, which they had always loved anyway.

As they were walking and bouncing and talking, the light had begun, by unnoticeable degrees, to dim, and the air began, also by only slight changes, to smell sweeter.

Soon, the lessening of the light couldn't be ignored, especially since there were no clouds above any longer.

And then Meri saw, as they went by a line of shadowy trees on their right, a truly surprising sight: just ahead, just above them in the sky, was the largest moon she had ever seen! It was a full moon, very round and very full, and, almost unbelievably, _its color was unexpectedly pink._ As large as it was, _all of it_ was that color! And it didn't seem that far away!

They went on into the increasing dimness, the large pink moon just overhead and seeming to become larger as they walked and bounced. The air gradually became more and more perfect, even though they couldn't _see_ the strawberries yet!

"Why is it getting so dim?" Perfit asked the question in Meri's mind. Perfit knew a lot about The Lands, almost all of which she had never seen for herself. But there was far _more_ that she _didn't_ know, and she hadn't heard the details about this one. Neither had really thought about the importance of the word _Dawn_ in the land's name.

Wut hadn't said anything yet because this particular land of morning, with its dramatic moon, silhouettes of trees around the edges, and the four or five stars above, always made him thoughtful and optimistic. It was a land of belief in the possible, and he liked this feeling about The Lands.

But the _main_ reason he was quiet at this special moment, this time, was the historic event just ahead for the strawberries!

They walked, and bounced, over a small rise and they came into view.

Meri caught her breath. She had looked forward to this for so long, but she hadn't realized there would be so many!

"I should have expected them to look like this!" she suddenly realized. Although she knew she couldn't have.

The air was pure strawberry.

"Are they really going to talk, like Sticktight?!" she asked softly out loud, as the five continued toward the idea of actual strawberry conversaton.

At the thought of Sticktight, she missed once again her good friend in The Autumnforest. Her hand automatically, and slowly, went up to her top small pocket, where she felt the owingstones under the fabric, all five.

Yes, they were still there.

The coolness of the air touched the bare skin of her forearms and lower legs.

_"Are they really going to talk!?"_ She asked herself again under the full pink moon, still hardly daring to believe the preposterous idea.

_But that was the idea! The undeniable evidence was her conversation with Sticktight!_

_And then they reached the edge of the strawberries. They were looking across a totally loveable red and pink land---with unique expectations._

Surprisingly, Meri felt a momentary sensation of sadness, suddenly remembering that after this land she might be leaving The Lands forever. But it quickly went away. She was ready to fulfill her favor to Sticktight!

And just then Wut began to explain the land at last. He was bouncing right on the edge of the pink and red community going up and all around them in a wide circle with the strawberries below the unbelievably large perfect pink moon.

It seemed to come down very low indeed.

"This is The Land of Strawberry Dawn," Wut told them in the perfect dawn air. "It's almost like a conclusion to The Land of Dark, which is always like night, and The Land of Loving Yellow, which is like intense day, although it gets dark there. This land is always an unforgettable morning."

And that was all he said, because of the great event just seconds away. It was his shortest description of a land ever.

"Have you still got the owingstones?" He asked awkwardly, although he knew she did. Because of the suspense, his words weren't coming exactly right.

Meri thought she understood. She was quivering with anticipation herself.

Jethro was standing right behind Meri. His huge head was right beside her right shoulder, and sometimes he rested it right on her shoulder. His head was all they could see of him. He had lowered it on purpose for fun to be only as tall as they were. He also liked being close to Meri. The rest of his incredibly huge body was only a shadow behind them.

Perfit, her hair glowing blondishly pink, was leaning slightly against Meri on the left, and the Tackling Dummy, less shabby in the earlier light, was right behind Perfit, and also beside Meri. They were all very close together. At the moment, Wut was bouncing a little in front of them, right at the very edge of the immense circular land of strawberries. Except for his eyes, he was a little hard to see in the dimness, because of his color.

There was no doubt, though, that he was full equally of both enthusiasm and nervousness. This was one of the most important events in The Lands---when the owingstones are delivered to a new plant or to a new community of plants which would then _all_ gain the ability to talk! He was bouncing unsteadily, he didn't know quite what to do with his hands and arms, and his green eyes were just sparkling in the dim air. In fact, he was almost invisible, and his eyes seemed to be bouncing up and down. It was actually a funny sight!

Meri and the others, watching and waiting for the favor to begin, were almost in the same state that he was. She took a deep breath that the rest of them could hear---and then swallowed, also loudly. The others, so close to her, smiled at the sound of her heavy breath. They knew how she was feeling. Except for Wut. He was so jittery himself that he hardly noticed.

Over behind them, actually not too far, although they couldn't see it, was The Mistercald, for they had doubled back toward it, and it had curved back toward them.

"Let's walk a little closer," Wut prompted just before he began. He was soundlessly bouncing on the grass that went right up to the strawberry land.

It was funny how he spoke in terms of _walking_ , because in fact he _bounced_. But he couldn't say, "Let's _bounce_ a little closer!"

They followed right behind him, all three of the others staying close beside their friend Meri, as before, Perfit and the Tacking Dummy so close that they were touching her. Meri felt Jethro's head come down again and rest gently on her right shoulder. He had an excellent view.

They could see the pink and red strawberries all over, now that their eyes had become fully accustomed to the unique sunrise colors of that land of morning.

Following Wut's suggestion, Meri set The Wrong Kite, which she had been holding in front of her, down. By this time, she already had the owingstones in her right hand, all five of them. Taking them out of her bib pocket, she had been especially careful not to spill them. They would have been hard to find in the grass in the pink light.

When she finished, they gleamed almost with a light of their own as they lay together in her hand. A tiny reflection of the brilliant pink moon overhead could be seen in each one.

Slowly, she held them in front of the eyes of each of her friends. She felt a little sad again at the thought of Sticktight, who had asked her to come here. He had spoken with such exquisite skill and spontaneity. She had never heard anything like it.

Now he couldn't speak at all.

But at the same time, she also felt excited for the strawberries.

It was a strange mixture of emotions.

"Just throw them out, as far as you can," instructed Wut quietly. There was a quiver of wonder in his voice that all five of them were feeling on the inside, too.

"Me?" Meri blurted out respectfully, her heart jumping with a thud in her chest at the thought of being given this important responsibility in The Lands.

"Yes," replied Wut immediately, almost in a whisper, bouncing not very high at all. They were all quite respectful.

"Sticktight asked _you_ to."

She hadn't known what an honor it was when he had, she realized, with a hint of moisture in her eyes.

# Chapter VI: A FAVOR FOR STICKTIGHT

Meri stood at the edge of all the strawberries in the quiet light of the strawberry dawn. The owingstones were in her right hand. She could have thrown them immediately, instantly fulfilling the favor Sticktight had asked of her only several days ago.

But before she did, she stopped for just a moment to think. For the owingstones were now an important part of _her_ life too.

She remembered how they had looked when Sticktight had asked her to take them. The color of translucent light straw repeated five times on her hand, she would never forget her first sight of them.

Sadly, but keeping in mind the result, she remembered the blackening and finally the almost total destruction of The Land of Pink Windmills. Not willingly, she pictured again in her mind the windmills hidden under layers of soot piling up under air that had become a hanging black jello of fine powder. It was one of the worst things imaginable for that land! The terrible effects on the minds and the feelings of the dummies who lived there had been heartbreaking!

_And then the owingstones had saved them!_

_So many_ dummies had benefited because Sticktight had entrusted them to her! She was so appreciative now that he had!

Suppose he hadn't!

The huge invisible target, still up in the air, built so skillfully and rapidly by her friend Fico during that other early dawn, which had been so black and dangerous compared to this one, crossed her mind too. But she smiled at _that_ thought. Wut's plan to construct an owingstone target had worked perfectly, when everyone helped!

Just for a second, before she threw the owingstones out over the strawberries and gave them finally to the land, she squeezed them gently, out of thankfulness and affection for what they had done for a wonderful land---at a time when their help had been so desperately needed---and _so unexpected!_ She didn't squeeze them _too_ hard, though, knowing what would happen if she did.

She felt the air to see if she had. There didn't need to be an owingstone permanently there for future dummies to bump into!

The other four friends were watching her attentively and patiently waiting.

Being left-handed, Meri transferred the five glistening items from her right hand to her left, receiving them down into her expectant palm and closing her fingers and thumb around them securely. She needed them to fly exactly right! And then, stretching her arm all the way behind her and angling it up a little for full power, she flung the owingstones out into the air over the strawberry land as far as she could!

They were gone.

Meri held her breath. There was total quiet. The dawn seemed to grow even a little more peaceful, but perhaps that was because the other four travelers, who had helped Meri bring the owingstones so eventfully to this place, also become intensely still and curious about what was going to happen.

The friends waited. They listened.

And then,

"What?" a tentative pink voice suddenly said in the middle of the land before them.

"Are we speaking?" another plant-sounding voice asked with wonder nearby.

"It's happened---at last!" a young strawberry, with a particularly pleasing shade of pink, yelled. "We're talking!"

A quivery murmuring quickly spread all over. The quivering went right through the five observers.

"We're talking!" could be heard coming from many directions.

"We're TALKING!"

"Hurray!" yelled an especially fat red strawberry not too far away, to their left.

And from the entire land could be heard muted shouts of celebration and wondrous pleasure. Slowly it became animated with many conversations all over, as neighbors began to converse and to express their wonder at this beginning.

"Congratulations!" called out Wut in his own excitement, bouncing a little higher than usual. For he was present---for the _first_ time ever for him!---when the owingstones were being received! "At having the owingstones," he added. "A little girl standing right here named Meri brought them to you---she's a flesh and blood dummy. I came with her; I'm Wut. And Jethro the Buffalo Unicorn is here. And the Tackling Dummy, a wonderful new dummy in The Lands, is here. And Perfit, the youngest dummy in all of The Lands and one of the loveliest. She lives in The Land of Pink Windmills. We're _all_ here with you and for you."

"Welcome to you all," spoke with graciousness and authority a pink strawberry right before them, only a short distance out. "Thank you, Meri."

"Thank you," in small musical and many other tones was spoken from all over.

"You're very welcome," just as graciously Meri answered them, not feeling strange at all about talking to strawberries, after having talked to Sticktight.

"And thank you to the rest of you, for helping her to bring them," spoke out again the gracious authoritative pink strawberry. "It has been a long time."

"They seem to know about The Lands," Meri had the idea from that answer. And she reflected, with an instantaneous longing, that there was so much that _she herself_ didn't know about these Lands that she now held so dear. She wished she knew more about each one. And with that thought, _she suddenly reminded herself of her father,_ who had spent his whole life trying to find out about different lands and other geography. She thought she understood him a little better.

"I'm like _him_ ," she thought.

Meri would have thought more about this similarity, but she was interrupted.

"I don't mean to be ungrateful at this special time, but I wish we did have more light," another strawberry, with pretty features, but not quite enough pink, spoke out. Also, the gold in her design wasn't gold enough. Meri could tell that if she had more of each, she would be a beautiful strawberry. "I think I personally need more," the pale pink speaker continued sincerely. "I know this is a wonderful land, _my land_ , and I love it. But plants need a little more brightness than just dawn. Don't you agree?"

Immediately she was joined by agreements of "Yeah!" from a surprising number of the many who had heard her. The travelers could hear her comment being repeated elsewhere followed by tones of agreement.

They understood the problem, and all five sympathized. You can't blame plants for wanting sunshine! And as much as she liked the beautiful pink moon so large just overhead, Meri was definitely cool in the early light.

"Dawn is a unique time---especially here---but day is definitely desirable---for at least a part of each day---for plants," daintily but firmly agreed a small pink strawberry right at Meri's feet.

Meri was astounded! The plants were so reasonable, and right after first being allowed to talk! She agreed, there _was_ a problem. It hadn't occurred to her, but, "You understand this problem a little more quickly if you're a plant!" she realized. She was disturbed, however. For, having the problem pointed out to her so clearly and reasonably, she now felt sad for the strawberries. For how could you change a whole land?

The Tackling Dummy and Jethro were also clearly disappointed, for it looked like nothing could be done. Wut was wondering how something he had looked forward to for so long could be going wrong so quickly. He was bouncing very low on the grass, for his spirits had fallen.

Perfit, her hair the most visible feature in the land after the moon, was also concerned when she heard these remarks. Shorter than the others, she was standing close to Meri on the left. She continued to lean against her older sister in a way that was comforting. No one could see the thoughtful look on her face. Her expression seemed to be the least troubled.

The small pink strawberry at their feet continued. "Warm beams of light would feel so good---not that I don't enjoy the dawn---please don't misunderstand me. There's no question that the dawn we have is perfect. But warm beams of light would feel so good _after_ dawn. And I agree---we could all grow a little better if we only had a little day, too."

Meri looked at the large exquisitely round wonderfully pink moon. It was truly an astonishing sight, so close! "If only _that_ could be the sun for just a few minutes of each day," she thought. The sky at the moment was silverish. There was a yellow glow around the edge of the top of the slope.

Standing beside her, the Tackling Dummy spoke to the strawberries for the first time, using his vocabulary, "You do have an incomparable moon, right above you. I've never seen anything like it." He had noticed Meri looking up at it, and he wanted to say something positive to help out, if he could.

"We love it," came back eloquently from the small pink strawberry at their feet. Meri bent down to it to pay attention better. "But we would also so love some of the warmth and strength of light."

An unquestionable sadness had crept into the strawberry's tones, because there was an unquestionable _great need_ , as everyone agreed, but no obvious solution.

"But we _do_ appreciate what we have," the small strawberry added wisely. "We are alive, and now we can talk. That's incomparable," she said, using the Tackling Dummy's word, and obtaining him for a firm friend at that exact moment.

"Perhaps I can help," Perfit surprised them all by saying.

She reached into the pocket of her long dress, light rose with small yellow windmills all over it, as well as unending small pink flowers. Her dress was conspicuous in the dawn because of the yellow, which interacted with the pinkish glow of her beautiful long yellow curls. Taking out the weather ring that was still there and holding it up high, she said to the strawberries in a voice much louder than she usually spoke: "Would you all like some sunlight?"

Her friends', and especially Wut's, eyes lit up: they had forgotten about the weather ring which Perfit, at Jethro's secret suggestion, had taken from high up in The Weather Ring Tree!

The word "Light?" echoed all over, as different strawberries wondered and hoped, each knowing they did need a little more of that lifegiving radiance that sparkles out from a star. But only those close to Perfit heard the actual question, to which many of them responded quickly,

"Uh huh."

Yes, they would like some sunlight. And Meri thought she could also see strawberries, all over, bobbing up and down to show the answer was indeed

"Yes!"

Perfit held up the weather ring and turned the pointer directly to the graphic that indicated simple _Bright Sunlight_. It was a little yellow circle, almost impossible to see in that light. But Perfit saw it.

"Click!"

Immediately a bright yellow radiance lit up all of the strawberries. It was day! It was warm in an instant as well!

"OOOhhhh!" came the same response from all over the land, as the red and pink and not-so-pink berries soaked in the warm yellow light. It went right into their leaves and stems too.

To Meri's eyes, the whole land at the same time seemed to become more vigorous, and more green, as the leaves went to work. With the light, she was also more aware of the size of the land, which wasn't small.

The strawberries were beaming with pleasure. The accents of quiet, peaceful, and immensely pleased conversation seemed to animate the entire land. They were enjoying both their new-found opportunity to talk and their unexpected gift of warm sunshine at the same time.

"Do you need some exercise?" Perfit surprised them again by asking; and before they could answer, she turned the tiny pointer on the developed ring to the graphic for _Breeze._

A light wind raced right across the land, and afterwards spontaneously moved through it again, bending the plants in all directions.

"Yes!!!" a number of plants responded, after the fact, as more and more were paying attention to the small dummy helping them so unexpectedly.

"More exercise?" added Perfit, winding the pointer around to the graphic for _Earthquake,_ and the ground began shaking. All over, the berries were bouncing up and down in place.

Every one of the travelers fell down, including Wut this time, who _hadn't_ been in mid-bounce---except Jethro, who, as usual during earthquakes, couldn't help himself and began to laugh and finally fell over anyway thinking about the eqrthquakes in The Land of Loving Yellow and because he was having such a good time!

What surprised all of his friends was that The Strawberries had the same reaction, too. _They_ all began laughing too as they jiggled up and down. It was really something to hear all of those strawberries laughing together!

Pushing the indicator back to sunlight, Perfit got herself back up again, from where she had fallen. The laughter had died down, but every one of the friends could tell, as they also got up, that there was an inexpressible joy all over the land. They hadn't just gotten the opportunity to talk---they seemed to have gotten other _incomparable_ opportunities too!

"Let me make a suggestion," called Perfit to all the strawberries again. Now they _all_ seemed to be paying attention to her. They knew how nice she was---if only they could have seen how _pretty_ she was, too!

Perfit looked over at Wut with a questioning look on her face and made a just barely understandable gesture with her right hand, in which she held the ring. But Wut understood, and nodded.

Perfit then held the ring out to Wut, but he pointed back to her. It was _her_ idea---although a wonderful one and the right one!

The small dummy Perfit, herself out of The Land of Pink Windmills for only the second time, then turned back to the berries confidently and happily.

"What?" the travelers all heard a number of the small round definite fruits already saying. They very much _did_ want to hear her suggestion.

"Strawberries, we're going to _give_ you this weather ring now, from The Weather Tree in The Land of Loving Yellow," she announced. Pausing for a moment, and looking around, she decided on her next words.

"Your land is one of the most loveable of lands, with you all here, and it's also uniquely lovely, with you and that indescribable pink moon, and all the lights and sounds and freshness of early morning all around us.

"But a plant does need a little more than an early morning amount of light. And so whenever you need the sunlight's warmth on your leaves and inside your very hearts, just turn the pointer of this ring to the first click, which is for _Bright Sunlight_. The star of day will radiate energy upon you, softly and helpfully, for as long as you want."

The Tackling Dummy looked at her amazed, at her choice of that beautiful language. Perfit wasn't dumb.

"Next is _Breezes_ , for exercise," she then continued. "And then _Earthquake_. And there are others, which you can have fun with. But you must be very very careful. Because one of the weathers is _Hail,_ and another is _Tornado_ , the last two. Don't ever let those come to The Land of Strawberry Dawn. And if you ever need rain---if dryness ever comes---I think rain would be easy for this ring. It's the _last_ graphic before these two, on the far right.

And she made it rain pleasantly, but only briefly.

"And just one more thing, if you don't mind my suggesting it," she continued to the strawberries which were listening so carefully to the young dummy and not talking among themselves at all. "I suggest that the ring be passed around and that each berry be allowed to cause one weather---whenever it's time for something new. That way, you not only have conversation, warm sunlight, and exercise whenever appropriate, each berry always has something to look forward to: his or her turn with the ring.

The strawberry land seemed to brighten, although it was hard to tell exactly where.

"Here it comes!" little Perfit cried generously, and without waiting flung it far out into the air as far as she could, as she had watched her older sister Meri throw the five sparkling owingstones earlier. She couldn't throw it as far, but it sparkled once brilliantly on its arc in the sunlight before it disappeared into the pink zone of the strawberries.

"Not me first?!" they heard an overjoyed strawberry voice whisper excitedly from down among the roots. "I've got it!"

"Goodbye!" called out Wut happily, giving Perfit a big hug. "Be careful with the ring."

Meri said, "Bye to you all!" She picked up The Wrong Kite, which she had set down on the grass to have her hands free with the owingstones.

The Tackling Dummy parted with, "Talk to you later!"

What did he mean by that?

"It means he's coming back," they all realized.

Perfit in her small voice again said, "Bye friends. _I'll_ be back too."

Jethro, in his deep, most whimsical voice and his large brown eyes full of the future, told the strawberries, "That's all for now---but not for sometime soon. I might ask you for an earthquake. Bye till then. See ya."

"Goodbye!" answered every one of the berries, so that word, and "Thank you" came in appreciative tones toward the travelers for several minutes in a row. The friends stood---Wut was springing up and down---waving, until every strawberry had spoken, and only then did they, waving one more time, turn and slowly begin to re-ascend the hill. Jethro waved with his unicorn.

All of the friends were especially proud of Perfit for her part in providing the weather ring to The Land of Strawberry Dawn. Her idea had been so perfect! And the Tackling Dummy was even a little _more_ proud of her---for it hadn't been long before this that he had taught her the word _appropriate,_ which she had used when talking to the strawberries.

Jethro walked along with an especially satisfied look in his eyes. For his idea to ask Perfit to get the weather ring had helped him to tease Tatch, to enjoy The Emotion Acorn Tree---and just look at what it had done for the strawberries in The Land of Strawberry Dawn! But he didn't say anything. He just thought about it, and smiled.

"We'll take our time now," Wut announced to Meri and to the rest of them, as they walked back up the slope away from the strawberry land, now beautifully pink in full sunlight below them.

And they _did_ take their time, enjoying the warmth and the magical smell in the air, which seemed to be even better at a distance. The huge pink moon was yellowish pink behind them.

"But The Ticket Tree can be next, right after we stop by The Land of Wrong Kites briefly to return the kite," he said, turning his face toward his young flesh and blood dummy friend. She was walking beside him. He looked at her affectionately, and then sadly, as he went up---not very high---and down on the grass. He didn't even try to hide the disappointment---or the crack--- in his voice, as he said gently,

"There's no longer anything to seriously delay you from trying to go home. The owingstones have been delivered---and _quite well_ , too, I must admit."

And then he looked away. The others all looked down. Not a one could bear to look at their special friend just then. It had been a long time since any one of them had thought of her as _temporary_!

Meri's heart suddenly became very heavy. Out of the corner of her eyes she did look at _them_ , at each one, with a different expression on her face as she secretly glanced at each one. How could she leave them behind?

Walking and bouncing upward, they reached the top of the mild slope, with The Land of Strawberry Sunshine spread out below, attractive and pink and round, now easy to see compared to their arrival in the dimness. The Weather Ring was doing its job.

As the travelers momentarily looked, they were startled at the sudden sight of snowflakes falling and sparkling toward the strawberries having fun with the ring already.

The strawberries were going to be all right!

Bouncing along beside his friends, Wut seemed relaxed, now that this special change in The Lands had taken place so successfully---although it almost hadn't. He was so pleased with Perfit, and that they had gone through The Land of Loving Yellow!

They could now see The Hoop Tree Forest again, in the distance ahead of them. Automatically, without a second thought, they aligned themselves toward it.

For in The Lands, it's impossible for a dummy not to go near this forest, once it comes into sight. It's impossible not to walk close enough to tempt hoops playfully out into the air.

That's what this forest does to whoever's near.

# Chapter VII: A WARM WONDROUS BURST OF ENTHUSIASM

"I think I'm ready to take this back now," Meri said to Wut, holding up the Wrong Kite, as they walked and bounced on the grass up the hill toward The Hoop Tree Forest.

"I'm ready to have my hands free again," she admitted, looking up into Wut's green eyes as they went up with the rest of him in a normal bounce.

Wut nodded. This was the main reason he had in mind when he had advised her not to bring the Wrong Kite before.

Immediately he began wondering if they should try to fly with it back to The Land of Wrong Kites. It was made for being up in the air. But that was when it was flying by itself. However, Meri had already successfully carried it through the air once.

Meri could see he was thinking. "I still want to see the hoops of The Hoop Tree Forest one more time," she reminded him.

No different from any other dummy in The Lands, she wanted to see those hoops lyrically flying all around her in the air again!

She had faithfully carried the beautiful lavender Wrong Kite for three lands now, because she was the one who had caused it to fly away in the wind.

"It really hasn't been that much trouble," she reassured Wut, not wanting to be misunderstood. "I'm glad I brought it." She said these words to the others, too. Carrying it had made her feel closer to The Land of Wrong Kites---and to the rest of The Lands too, because of the importance of these kites. Some---in fact a lot---of the time she hadn't even thought that much about it---that is, until she felt those strange sensations in her hands, occasionally going up her arms. And every now and then it even pulled her up on her tiptoes. But when these weren't happening, she was doing other things without even thinking about it and unconsciously making the right adjustments.

Wut looked over at her with sympathetic eyes as he floated up and down. He understood how she felt. He was glad she had brought it too. He had secretly liked the idea of having it with them, although he hadn't told her. He had enjoyed looking at it.

He also agreed about The Hoop Tree Forest.

"Good idea," he answered, glancing confidently across the green grass between them and the forest, as he came down for his next bounce. He was still feeling pleased because everything had gone so well in The Land of Strawberry Dawn.

"We'll be there in a minute."

He had also been watching his flesh and blood friend. Being a sharp observer, he could tell that leaving The Lands was already beginning to weigh heavily on her, as well as on him. He hoped the others hadn't noticed the small changes in her tones and in her usual sprightliness.

Clearly she was a little more subdued than usual. He began to feel bad, too, for her and unquestionably for himself. These feelings gave him an idea that would help both of them.

He surprised her by suggesting, "We can leave for The Land of Wrong Kites any time you wish. But first, would you like to walk, just for a few steps, in _that_ direction?" He was pointing to where The Hoop Tree Forest stretched away toward more lands---in the _opposite_ direction they needed to go. And _beside The Hoop Tree Forest!_

She glanced at him, smiling gratefully. The look in his eyes told her he understood. The look in her eyes told him that she understood that he understood.

And it worked. Her spirits lifted immediately. Even before they turned to the right.

It was that kind of appealing playful forest.

"Yes, I would!" Meri answered brightly.

"Felicific," they all heard the Tackling Dummy whisper almost inaudibly to himself, approvingly. "It's not no time to not see not no hoops." He, Perfit, and Jethro had all been listening closely. They felt the same way about The Hoop Tree Forest. And they were in no hurry for Meri to return.

Wut knew very well what he was doing. He knew what walking beside The Hoop Tree Forest does. It's almost impossible to have low spirits when the hoops start floating so colorfully across the air.

He also thought seeing a few more of The Lands, even from a distance, would lift her spirits.

He had noticed how much she loved each one.

Approaching the friendly comical forest, the travelers smiled as the first colorful hoops came spinning and lofting out in their direction.

Turning to the right, as Wut had offered, they began walking and bouncing carelessly along, with light hearts because they were beside The Hoop Tree Forest, and Meri was there.

Soon the hoops were playfully all around them, in the air. Meri felt more of them slipping on her fingers. Some smaller ones even stayed on top of her head, and on the tops of the heads of the Tackling Dummy and Perfit, too. Jethro, of course, was colorfully being covered up again. He lost collections from his back regularly as they piled up invitingly and then slid crazily down and all around, loosened by his usual uncoordinated walk.

Even so, his unicorn, his large multi-colored ears, the two short black glistening horns on either side of his head, and his green saddle continued to gain more and more additions as the hoops found every place imaginable to dangle down on him or at least to momentarily stop.

The colorful circles slipped deftly over Wut too, but he was so slim they all dropped down onto the grass, where they were left behind as he bounced on. Then they flew back to their trees.

When they had reached the forest, a turn to the left would have pointed them toward The Land of the Pink Windmills as well as back toward The Land of Wrong Kites. At any time, of course, they could have flown up and over The Hoop Tree Forest with their flying wands. But even though Jethro was still wearing the pretty green saddle, fashioned with such skill by Aquamarie, so that they could have gone right up, if they had wanted to, that wouldn't have been what they needed.

They _all_ vaguely felt like they needed _something different_ than a quick return to where they had come from. The forest may have affected them. But it was more than that. And it was in addition to the way Meri was feeling.

Mostly they felt this way because inside them there had been building a slow warm wondrous burst of enthusiasm. It had begun following their success at The Land of Strawberry Dawn. But there was more to it than that.

It included their continuing feelings about saving Jethro when he had been falling after the meeting with Pumphrey. It even went all the way back to The Land of Pink Windmills being all right. Part of it was even that Meri had come to The Lands. And that she was still with them!

And also that they knew the Tackling Dummy would _always_ be with them!

What they needed, which they didn't realize yet---because they didn't realize what was building up inside them---was a way to express this warm wondrous burst of enthusiasm. It was becoming hard to ignore.

Across from The Hoop Tree Forest, to their far right, The Mistercald suddenly appeared to them. Pieces of silvery water were scattered everywhere among the green branches of the trees there. After the five had crossed it, the serene shining river had continued to wind gracefully among The Lands, not far away.

Wut began to have a little trouble bouncing, as the grass alongside The Hoop Tree Forest became uneven with unpredictable small bumpy places, occasional gnarly roots, and a variety of small interesting rocks. These rocks were mostly smooth and rounded; just a few were larger and oblong. But they were difficult to bounce on. The four who were walking began to have problems walking as well. The travelers gradually drifted to a slightly greater distance from the hoop trees to walk upon the smoother grass there.

However, the hoops kept coming, in many sunlit colors, ringing the necks, arms, fingers, and the legs, when they could, of the travelers. And _especially_ Jethro's unicorn, which was so easy to land on, as well as his ears and short black horns. The larger hoops even looped around his whole neck. Every now and then, when enough had accumulated on that end, he swung his great head, sending them flying across the landscape. In short and long beautiful arcs, they slowly turned and came back to the trees.

When he did, Jethro would say, "Go way!" with a pretended impatient expression on his face as he suddenly spun his neck in the great arc. Away the hoops would scatter. He loved all the actions and the pretty busyness of the result, but he felt a little regret every time he did it. It was a thrill to have them hanging and dangling all over him, and he hated to lose them!

But also, he wondered if sending them away like that suggested unfriendliness. That idea, not true, bothered him because he loved the hoops. He loved the air when they were in it! By the time they had gotten all over him, though, and he realized how much fun it would be just to swing his head, he just couldn't resist the temptation!

He was soon almost covered up again!

They were far enough away from the edge of the forest to be playful with the rings, and they were. For the warm wondrous enthusiasm, slowly building up inside them, was very close to playfulness.

Moving along, near the forest like this, was completely different from their earlier trip through it. They were glad they had done _that_ , but now this was a different, less dynamic, softer and more spacious, way to enjoy the land!!

Meri realized they were actually finding out more about the forest. The Tackling Dummy, always liking to learn, was thinking about the differences, too. Perfit was simply glad to be seeing more of The Lands. She was in no hurry to get home to The Land of Pink Windmills! She was finding out what her larger home was like!

Jethro, stepping easily along on the light green grass, was beginning to have fun with the arriving smaller hoops. He was trying his best to catch them on his unicorn as they came along. His movements often appeared ridiculous, and it was enjoyable to watch him. Sometimes he showed great skill. His timing was good.

For the moment he was his usual infinitely happy self: he was in The Lands, going around where he wanted, and he was with his friends. The Hoop Tree Forest was one of his very favorite places to be, either in the forest or near it. Playfully challenging the smaller hoops, he had put out of his mind again that Meri might leave---as they all had.

Because of their lifting spirits following their success at The Land of Strawberry Dawn, and for the other reasons, Wut was experiencing a lighter feeling than he had ever felt before. He didn't quite know what to think of how he was feeling. He was usually so serious, so concerned. But so many things had gone right. His spirit had definitely changed, along with everyone else's. The soft enthusiasm that everyone was beginning to feel lifted him right up.

He startled everyone when suddenly, joyfully bouncing high, he caught a pink hoop as it floated toward them. Turning around skillfully while still considerably up in the air, he unexpectedly whirled it with surprisingly good marksmanship toward Jethro. The light pink circle spun round and round on Jethro's unicorn till it settled down on Jethro's head and became suspended over his left eye.

_Wut had actually done something that was fun!_

_But they were all feeling similarly lighthearted!_

Jethro looked up with a quizzical, whimsical look in that eye. He then surprised everyone himself by whirling the hoop around his horn and suddenly letting it go back toward Wut, who was still floating up high. The hoop shot right toward the black question mark, completely encircling him as it went on by. For a moment he was framed in it, leaving a picture of him that way forever in Meri's mind.

It had been a very accurate toss!

Clearly Jethro had recently been _practicing_ in The Land of the Hoop Tree Forest!

Perfit, who was still walking, also feeling creative, joined the fun by flying up with her flying wand to a light aquamarine hoop going by overhead. Catching it, she sailed it on toward the white unicorn on Jethro's large head as he watched her. She missed. But it snagged his smaller black horn, his right one, spinning around several times and then dangling back and forth on that side.

"Ha! Missed!" called out Jethro to the tiny dummy up in the air, her yellow hair dazzling in the sun. Catching a smaller white one, Perfit then successfully tossed it right onto the unicorn. She got better with practice! Her smile up there was a delight to see.

Jethro, uncertain about trying to frame the tiny dummy, whom everyone protected, with the small white hoop, flipped his unicorn and shot it away from the forest at a low angle. It was traveling quite fast, not too high up over the land, due to his prodigious strength. The little dummy, however, full of spirit, chased it with amazing speed with her wand and flew right through the hoop anyway. She wanted to be treated like everyone else.

To everyone's surprise, the Tackling Dummy next gracefully ascended with his wand, captured a silvery gray hoop and with skill rung the unicorn again. It flew right back at him with a whirl from Jethro, spinning around and around on the Tackling Dummy's right arm, which he had unconsciously left extended when he had surprised himself by being so accurate with his throw.

Meri, the only one left, then rose and caught a large shining black ring, and was able to encircle Jethro's whole head with a careful toss.

"Not bad," blinked the cooperative Buffalo Unicorn, looking up at his flesh and blood friend, gently wafting the hoop back so that it settled easily down around her own neck too. To perform this feat so successfully had required unusual skill, because he had had to deftly manipulate it up from around his own large neck first in a difficult circling movement. He had made it look easy, combining several motions, which included his shoulders and legs, into one.

He _had_ been practicing!

The playful mood that was holding all of them became lighter and even more adventurous when the large Buffalo Unicorn looked up and challenged, with a sparkle of hope in his bright eyes,

"You don't _all_ want to try it _all at once_ , do you?" he asked. It was a challenge that was hard to resist.

_The storm of joy, that had been slowly and quietly building, then burst forth!!_

All four, going up into the air with their flying wands, began catching the flying hoops and sailing them with color and motion and joy down upon Jethro's unicorn and head as fast as they could. Jethro pointed his long spiraling unicorn this way and that, to catch as many as he could and send them back toward the appropriate friends up in the air. The storm intensified, becoming a whirlwind of spectacular joy.

But like all storms, it couldn't last.

Quite skillful and accurate at first, especially for his size, eventually Jethro grew tired and at last good-naturedly gave up. Standing there, he simply closed his eyes.

He just stood there quietly, gradually being covered up by his friends and by the forest, with a quizzical and peaceful expression on his face. The storm of joy was ending, and, having been outside all of his life, Jethro knew how it had to end. He just let the rest of it fall gently down on him.

His four friends had been having so much fun laughing and talking up in the air and trying to outdo each other in playful competition---and sometimes in a frenzy of fun---that they hardly noticed when Jethro decided to rest. His eyes couldn't be seen when he closed them. He had tired first, they being four and he being just one. _You should have seen him keeping up with them at the beginning, though!!_

Eventually they lost _all_ their energy too, _and their accuracy_ , and settled slowly and easily down to the grass to rest.

They _all_ became peaceful and quiet.

Jethro's head was totally unseeable under the rings, as he was standing there. When the noise ceased, and his friends came down to recline on the grass and rest, or he _thought_ that they had, he decided to lie down for a brief nap, too. His storm of great joyous effort required it! He just stretched right out! He was the one closest to the Hoop Tree Forest, and he paid no attention at all as the hoops continued to land upon him. One after another they settled down all over the great Buffalo Unicorn, slowly collecting upward.

It wasn't long before he couldn't be seen under the colorful pile at all. Not _any_ of him! As massive as he was, this had taken _a lot_ of hoops! And more kept coming.

The others hadn't sat or reclined on the grass _to remain_ , though, as Jethro had thought. They were just feeling peaceful and gladly silent after so much joyous activity. Meri was catching her breath. Wut was bouncing almost silently on some thick grass.

"Let's walk _just a little_ ways further, before we go back. There's a land I want to point out to you from a distance," Wut suggested in a soft whisper, when they all realized that Jethro was asleep. "When we come back, we can wake him up," he added. He had used the verb _walk_ again, even though _he didn't_.

He seemed to have regained a little of his seriousness, even though he had been so lighthearted. It was because he knew they were _almost_ to the time _when Meri would have to seriously try again to leave The Lands._

_He was putting that time off for even a little while longer!_

The leaves of The Ticket Tree, back in The Land of Pink Windmills, were shining in the sun at that very moment, Wut knew, and some of them were the ones that Meri would reach for!

"One of them," he thought, "could take her away forever! _"_

The thought made him almost unendurably sad. He loved this dummy. He secretly watched her walking casually for a few seconds.

The four went a little farther, keeping just the right distance from the forest. The hoops continued to please them. Additional lands began to appear to their right.

"That land over there," remarked Wut, pointing to one not too far away, with light blue grass and little blue lanes, "is the one I meant. To me, it's one of the most personally interesting of all of The Lands---and one of the most fun, too, I might add. It's called _The Land of Talking to Yourself."_

They all looked over at the pretty blue land from the pleasant green grass of the land they were in.

"Is it a whole land just for talking to yourself?" Meri asked. "What a novel idea!" she thought. But she knew that couldn't be right.

"Actually, it is," Wut answered, surprising her.

# Chapter VIII: THE LAND OF SKY

"But it's more interesting than that," he continued. "When you go into the land, you don't talk to yourself in your mind, as we all usually do. When you say something to yourself, a dummy appears beside you who _is_ you---but it's another version of you.

Meri was instantly amazed, as any flesh and blood dummy would have been.

" _There are two of you," Wut continued._ "She, or he, walks along with you as you cross the land. Whatever you think or say, the dummy _who is also you_ responds, if an answer is appropriate. Sometimes she---or he---even initiates thoughts! It's fun! You get to look at yourself and hear yourself talking.

_"You get to talk to yourself_! That's why it's The Land of Talking to Yourself!

"It's completely unique. I'm a different color every time I go in there, as well as my usual color. You should see me when I'm aqua! I think you would hardly believe me!

The other three were equally fascinated! Jethro had a special look in his eye.

"But I wonder," Wut said, bouncing in place for a moment looking at Meri, "if in your case the additional you would be a yarn, or a cotton-stuffed dummy---or even a flesh and blood one, as you already are. That's a total mystery to me. It would be fun to know."

Meri could hardly stand her curiosity.

"Now _that_ would really be something," added the Tackling Dummy, who was listening with intensity, "if I could talk to Meri and she were a cotton-stuffed dummy, like I am. I don't know what I'd do." His eyes were marveling. "But I'll always love her, however she is," he finished, looking at his young friend.

"Would myself be identical to me?" piped in Perfit, realizing, as she said the words, how weird they sounded.

"No, not exactly," replied Wut, pleased about all the interest. _Now_ he wasn't sure he should have brought up the land up, since they didn't have the time to go there.

"Your clothes would be different, and the color of your hair would undoubtedly be different. There's no telling what color it would be! It might not even be the same length, though I can't say for sure. But it would be _you_."

Perfit tried to imagine herself in that land. It was fun imagining herself with hair a different color. And a different length! And what her dress might be like. She was fascinated with these thoughts. She wondered what it would be like to look over and see herself---and even say something to her!

"You should see what Jethro looks when he goes in there," said the question mark, reminiscing. "You should see his colors! You wouldn't believe him! And guess how he acts there!"

His green eyes, out in the air, were bright with sincerity, and there was a laugh in them. "He acts like himself, and in ways that are him but we haven't seen yet! And the two of him are acting these ways _together!_ You should see it!"

"Ooohh, I wish we _could_ go there," moaned Meri desperately, moving the kite over to her left hand. She glanced longingly over at the land with the little blue lanes going across it.

"I wish we had time, too," Wut said with regret. It was hard for him not to let a dummy, and especially several, visit one of The Lands, when they wanted to. And especially when they wanted to so _badly!_ But he was thinking they shouldn't stay much longer in this part of The Lands. He had suddenly remembered Leo's canvas in The Land of Wrong Kites!

_He had realized they weren't really that far from where Leo had been damaged!_

He decided that they should turn back immediately, to avoid similar problems for themselves. He couldn't take a chance with these three dummies under his responsibility. He had momentarily forgotten about the problem during their long warm burst of enthusiasm, and because at first he had been thinking so much about mentioning The Land of Talking to Yourself.

He was also aware that Meri had important obligations. She had already put them off for a number of days.

"We ought to go no farther than where the forest juts out into that narrow peninsula of trees," he announced reluctantly but firmly, sorry to disappoint. He was pointing, with his slim black arm and finger, going up and down as he bounced, to a colorful slender arm of trees extending out brightly just in front of them from the main forest. They could see right through it in places.

It _was_ a good place to stop.

"Ooooooooooooohh," moaned Meri aloud again about not being able to visit The Land of Talking to Yourself. She was still eyeing it in the near distance. _She desperately wanted to meet herself_. She wondered again if she would actually be a yarn or cotton-stuffed dummy, like either Perfit or the Tackling Dummy?

Deep inside her, however, she _knew that Wut was right._ They just didn't have the time to go over there.

_It was so hard to go through The Lands with only a little time to see them!_

"Are those blue lanes that I see in the grass over there, for you to walk beside yourself, one in each lane?" she asked. She had to ask one last question about the hauntingly attractive land of blue grass.

"Uh huh," Wut nodded without looking, for he knew the land very well. He was just starting to slow down for the turnaround he had just mentioned.

The peninsula of trees just happened to stretch out to exactly the same distance from the forest that they were walking at the time. Or maybe even a little farther. The lyrically colored and poetically aerial hoops came out to fly around them in greater numbers again, from all the trees in the peninsula.

They looked around the end of it.

A number of additional lands, that had been kept from their vision by the hoop trees jutting out in the slim peninsula, could be seen. Even more lands were visible in the distance. They all looked attractive.

Perfit, Meri, and the Tackling Dummy looked hard in every direction they could before turning back.

"If only I could visit each one," Meri thought sadly. She knew they would probably be the last new lands she would ever see.

One of them, not too far away at all, was a remarkable land that especially seized the attention of everyone. It was dramatic. Everyone kept looking at it. It was unquestionably a _different_ land! The more that Meri looked, the more it made her draw in her breath, and the more it made her open her eyes wider and even wider. Her light turquoise eyes had never seen anything like it before.

_What was so powerful about it was the clouds rising above it!_

Meri had never seen so many colors in one sky before. Or a sky that full! The colors were uncountable, but the one that seemed to be the most noticeable among the others was the many different shades and tints of _plum_. Especially noticeable too, among the others, were shapes of bright raspberry and changing visions of vibrant green! Silvery maize was everywhere, too, with little explosions in it. It was truly an amazing and unforgettable sky!

These colors, and all the movement, surprising in a sky, seized the eyes of Meri and the others who were seeing it for the first time!

They had never seen so many clouds in one sky either, going up and up and up. Meri noticed how _low_ to the land they were. It was the _lowest_ sky she had ever seen! She wondered what it would be like to walk under those clouds so low, so that you could almost reach up to them and touch them?!

And especially touch _those colorful_ clouds!

But as Meri and the others continued to look at the land, they began to have a funny feeling about it. The clouds kept brightening from within, followed by darkening. The more they looked, the more they noticed continuous lightning _all through the clouds._

But the lightning didn't seem exactly normal. "Probably because the clouds aren't," thought Meri with an unusual insight. They didn't _seem_ like normal clouds, and she didn't think they were, but she couldn't tell yet exactly how they might be different from regular ones made of water vapor.

The whole sky was steadily moving---not that far above the grass of the land. It also seemed to be darkening, even among the brightening of the continuous lightning, while still showing its unending colors.

Neither Meri nor Perfit nor the Tackling Dummy had ever seen such a sky before! They didn't know why it was like that, but all three shivered automatically, without understanding why, as it continued to become a little darker, even as its colors remained unquestionably beautiful, and as its steady interior lightning continued.

It was actually _frighteningly beautiful_!

There had been no word of explanation from Wut yet, even though it was obvious that everyone was looking at this one hypnotic land.

_By itself, the land seemed beautiful but frightening at the same time_. Its sky, growing more and more intense, suggested that it was about to explode! It seemed to be building and building and building up power within itself!

Thank The Lands, this mercurial magnetic land, although not really that far away, was at least a re-assuring distance from The Hoop Tree Forest. The travelers could see the playful trees come to an end on the left just ahead, where it widened somewhat.

When the friends tried to look away, their eyes magnetically kept going back to the same land of clouds piled all the way up to the sky, to the land of colors piled all the way up to the top of the sky. Then they began to hear it thundering more loudly in the distance.

Every now and then brilliances of plum, sinister green, and raspberry, vivified the afternoon, and other colors with lightning exploded among its clouds, throwing out sparkles and rains of many tiny colors.

It was a continuing explosive sight.

Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit stood in awe. All three had trembled as they had silently gazed at this land which more and more obviously seemed about to explode.

Thank The Lands they weren't going there!

Meri understood when Perfit, without looking toward her, reached out and found her warm flesh and blood hand with her tiny one and kept it. That was also how the little dummy's other hand found the Tackling Dummy's torn but comforting fingers.

The faces of the three of them flashed with the many exploding lights from the land. They had never seen anything like this before, or had ever expected to. Perfit had heard about the land--- _she had already guessed which one it was._ But _what she was looking at_ was much more fearful than she had ever imagined from the descriptions.

_They all knew by this time which land it was!_

Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy continued to look, and the explosive land reflected changeably on their faces.

If the three of them had been able to take their eyes away, they would have seen more concern on Wut's face than they had ever seen before. It was probably a good thing that they weren't looking right into his green eyes, which actually sagged a little down in the air as he clearly recognized the current weather in _The Land of Firecracker Hail_.

His heart sank. For the sky unquestionably was getting ready to explode. He had never seen it preparing for worse weather.

One of the greatest violences---a time of indescribable violence---in The Lands was about to begin, and they were already close to it! Wut's heart continued to droop with dismay and nervousness.

"Uh oh," was what he murmured at first, but his black face continued to darken purply, in a way that rarely---hardly ever---happened. It had never shown so much concern. Even though he was a mark of punctuation famous for showing concern.

_It was the most concern of which his face was capable!_

Although he loved to explain the different lands, it was in a crackling voice this time---a failing voice hardly above a whisper---that he confided to his friends, "That land--- _I know you know the one I mean_ \---the one with all those piled up thundering colors of clouds---you know what it is!!" And he looked back at it to see if he could tell how soon the hail would actually begin to fall. Once it started, he would feel better. _Much_ better!

"Thank The Lands we're this far away," he shuddered, actually bouncing back a step. "But, awful as it is," he continued, bouncing a little higher, peering down at his friends and then back at the dangerous Land of Sky, "since we're already here, I wish you _could_ see the hugeness of violence and the skyful of colors pouring down all over the land, even from this distance."

Although he was nervous, he couldn't help but be proud even of _this_ dangerous land, just as he had been quite proud of The Land of Geological Speed when they had passed safely beside it on the sparkling monkeybars!

"Even if you saw it, you probably still wouldn't believe the explosiveness, the pouring down of thunder, noise, light, and color, after it gets started! You have to _see_ it, _to not be able to believe it!_ " he said inexplicably, in awe himself from his memories.

"And you have to _hear_ it, too---if you can stand it!

"And I really wish you could see it especially at night, from this distance! You'd never see again such a battering of the dark! It's a terror to witness! But day would be enough---too much, really. It's one of the two most dangerous lands, as you know, and you've seen the other one. Of the two, it's by far the worst dangerous, and you've seen the geological evidence of the first," he added with great meaning.

He had calmed himself somewhat by talking, but he was still visibly upset. For he had thought of Leo again and what that land had done to his beautiful canvas.

He had also thought of what it had done to the dummies Leo _hadn't_ been able to save!

A shiver went all the way up the continuous curve of his question mark. He wished he hadn't _already_ brought his friends this far!

"We'd better go back now," he told his three friends unsettledly, turning.

"You _can_ see the land," spoke a strange but smooth voice out of The Hoop Tree Forest. It came from the hoop trees in the peninsula of trees. The four travelers, already tense at the sight of the explosively dangerous but also beautifully colorful _Land of Firecracker Hail_ , were startled by the voice that at first seemed to come out of nowhere. They jumped.

Wut's jump was to spring up higher.

They had been so intent on the spectacular land in the distance that was obviously getting ready to pour down a hugeness of unending noise and unbelievable violence mixed up with fantastic colors---from what were very strange clouds---that they hadn't paid any attention at all to the peninsula of trees right beside them.

The moving hoops, flying all around them, had even made it difficult to look.

Some dummies were hiding there. They had been watching the travelers the entire time, listening to everything they said. From the sound of his voice, whoever had spoken was only a few steps away, behind a large tree in the middle of the peninsula.

"Who in The Lands said that?" each of the four friends wondered, looking toward the large tree.

And then they saw someone.

# Chapter IX: THE ROOF HATS

First they saw one tall dummy, standing there almost invisible. But, shockingly, about ten different dummies, each with a wide colorful hat in his hands, then stepped out into the open from the trees they had been hiding behind.

They had unusual looks on their faces, as if they weren't sure of themselves, Meri noticed.

Or perhaps _too_ sure.

The first thing they did was to put on their heads the wide hats they were carrying. These were definitely unique.

_Each was a circular hard hat with a circumference of about five feet!_

_It was interesting, and a little comical, since at first they kept bumping into each other, to watch them all try to put on these hats at the same time!_

Without question, these were the _largest_ and _the strangest hats_ Meri had ever seen!

Apparently the eleven dummies had been hiding the entire time in the narrow peninsula jutting out from The Hoop Tree Forest, watching the four friends approach.

Each was a slightly different height, permitting the wide hats, all of different colors, to overlap easily, once they had been put on. The tallest dummy, the one the four friends had seen first, stood to the right. He had stepped out slightly from behind the others and was obviously the leader.

At his signal, the other dummies, the ones with uncertain looks on their faces, quickly surprised the four travelers again by surrounding them. The flying hoops, which had been floating so colorfully and playfully around the friends, then began to have trouble reaching them. They began tapping against and sliding off of the huge colorful hats.

"The Roof Hats," Wut informed his friends as they were circled. His usually bright green eyes, out in the air on either side of his face, became even brighter---with suspicion.

_And no wonder. He suddenly had a reason to suspect who had been responsible for taking innocent dummies to The Land of Firecracker Hail during bad weather!_

With these thoughts, he began to worry about his three friends.

"Why did I bring them this far?" he lamented in his mind, already imagining the terrible things that could happen to them.

But it was too late.

He had been startled when the voice came out of The Hoop Tree Forest, from beside the large tree. When ten additional dummies had stepped into the open, he then became frightened, but not for himself. As he continued to think about his friends, his green eyes, out in the air on either side of his face, began to bounce around a little. Both Meri and the tallest of the Roof Hats noticed.

Then his bounce on his period became wobbly---understandably, because of what he was then imagining. For several moments. But Meri noticed that too.

It was then that she became worried. Because she knew he genuinely was.

H _is two incomparable friends Meri and the Tackling Dummy---and his beloved Perfi--- might be taken to The Land of Firecracker Hail!_

He shuddered.

_And Meri and the Tackling Dummy were only visitors to The Lands!_

_He desperately hoped he was wrong about what he suspected!_

_It wasn't until he looked deep into the especially satisfied eyes of Gozzard, the leader, that he knew he was right!_

Gozzard was a Roof Hat who was more intelligent than the rest of The Roof Hats, who were the least intelligent dummies in The Lands. _Somehow_ Gozzard had received _a lot_ of intelligence. So he naturally had become the leader of the others.

Ordinarily, that would have been a good thing. Not being very smart, The Roof Hats needed a kind and caring leader. They needed someone able and sympathetic.

The problem was that Gozzard was not kind, caring, or sympathetic.

But he was able.

Wut began to remember that Gozzard had always been fascinated by The Land of Firecracker Hail. Although most dummies were in awe of the land, and didn't get too close, Gozzard was in awe of it too---but he always wanted to be very close!

He was able to without harm, because of his wide protective Roof Hat. The Roof Hats were the only dummies in The Lands from two of them: The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest and The Land of Firecracker Hail. Their hats enabled them to be in both without a problem. Their hats were made of the same substance as the hoops.

Gozzard spent a lot of time at _the edge_ of the explosive land, mesmerized by its frightful displays. He had even been spotted going for walks in some of the worst storms. His mauve Roof Hat, the only one that color, was easy to recognize.

Wut had immediately begun _to think_ when Gozzard had spoken, standing under the large Hoop Tree. Wut's job had made him analytical. He remembered a report from long ago, about Gozzard encouraging an inexperienced dummy---who was in a hurry---to cross The Land of Firecracker Hail just _before_ bad weather.

He was very articulate and persuasive. He knew how to talk very smoothly. Especially to inexperienced dummies.

He had persuaded the dummy that there was enough time. But it turned out there wasn't!

_The damage had been horrid._

As he was thinking, Wut also remembered something about Gozzard and The Land of Geological Speed, on the other side of The Lands. Once, long ago, he had been suspected of talking several very young and much loved dummies into going into that land, just for fun.

He denied doing so, afterwards.

The dummies had never been heard from again.

He hadn't seen Gozzard in a long time. He guessed that he had continued to become a better leader, and that that was the reason he seemed to have _complete_ control of the other Roof Hats now, in addition to their lesser intelligence.

Gozzard was not only the most intelligent, he was the tallest of The Roof Hats. His face was narrow, as was his whole body, except that his head became much fuller at the level of his eyes, which were mauve. These engaging eyes were difficult to look at, because clearly Gozzard meant harm, but his eyes were always friendly. The difference was disconcerting, confusing. They were, not by accident, the color of his large hat, which was a beautiful color indeed.

"Why?!" Wut berated himself in his mind, bouncing up and down. "Why in The Lands did I allow my friends to approach so close to The Land of Firecracker Hail?" He was sick with himself. He knew he could have avoided this problem _so easily_ , if he only been as careful as he _ordinarily_ was!

But he had been so full of enthusiasm, along with everyone else, after the successful delivery of the owingstones, and after all the other things had gone so well, that he had become too confident. And his mind had been on telling Meri and the Tackling Dummy about The Land of Talking to Yourself!

Now it was too late.

By this time the sky of The Land of Firecracker Hail was swirling with dazzling intensity and colorful motion in the distance, immeasurably dangerous. Lightning, or something like it, sparkled all through the clouds. Soft minute colors continued to pop and rain down. Deep muffled thunder threatened to break the clouds apart and explode out the dangerous storm which was already within a needle's point of beginning. Confusingly, the soft popping sounds were strangely comforting, as well as the faint smell of explosions reaching them in the soft breezes from that direction.

The land was beautiful, fascinating, and endlessly dangerous. It was immensely attractive even at the approach of inclement weather. _Especially_ at the approach of inclement weather! It was a confusing, mesmerizing land!

Wut continued to feel enormously guilty because of his failure to protect his friends. He was also frightened for them. They had all been feeling so pleasant, he hadn't kept in his mind the terrible stories that he had been hearing lately!

_But he should have!_

He shouldn't have allowed himself to be lulled by pleasantness into forgetfulness. He now realized this sad fact only too painfully.

They had gone on for only a short distance without Jethro. He was so huge, he could have protected them. But evidently, although only a short distance away from him, they were too far. He was sleeping. He didn't know what was happening. He was disappearing under the hoops slowly continuing to build a pleasant mountain over him.

They couldn't depend on help from Jethro now, Wut knew. With desperation, he noticed the disconcertingly friendly mauve eyes of Gozzard glancing with satisfaction at each of the different prisoners including himself.

Gozzard's eyes rested briefly on Meri and then even longer on the Wrong Kite. They didn't seem to be bothered by it, however. They moved easily on to remain on the Tackling Dummy and especially Perfit.

He was pleased.

The spectacularly colorful large hats were of exactly the same material as the hoops of The Hoop Tree Forest. The dummies themselves were made of gray and brown stuffed canvas---the color of the tree trunks of the forest. They also had wide colored circles sewn around their yarn, to imitate the hoops. The combination, of course, was to allow them to remain inconspicuous in The Hoop Tree Forest, resembling both the trees and the hoops at the same time. All of their Hats were of different colors, like the hoops.

"Yes, you _can_ see what's going to happen in The Land of Firecracker Hail," Gozzard repeated, continuing the original conversation he had started from beside the large hoop tree in the peninsula of trees, when he had been unseen.

"We _all_ are."

He looked with satisfaction at the four travelers who were now surrounded. Meri could see his mauve eyes looking at her.

" _Your_ experience, however, will be a little more intimate than ours."

He spoke in a smooth and almost friendly voice, but the four travelers, hearing his friendliness and understanding his meaning, immediately felt ten times the tension and dread they were already feeling.

Gozzard had said they would get to know The Land of Firecracker Hail _intimately!_

_They couldn't help but know what that meant! It could only mean one thing!_

"Gozzard!" said Wut finally to the tall leader of The Roof Hats.

"Yes," said the tall dummy with the beautiful mauve Roof Hat. He spoke in friendly tones.

But before Wut could speak, however, Gozzard turned his eyes toward Meri and said something himself. "Aren't you of flesh and blood?" he asked the girl, pleased. He looked at her with great interest up and down.

"Amazing," he commented in his smooth voice, without waiting for her answer, moving his mauve eyes on to glance down at Perfit. "And perfect!"

Meri didn't answer, but she kept watching him carefully and steadily, not showing the trembling and dread that were beginning to shake her everywhere on the inside.

She now knew that she was going to The Land of Firecracker Hail during its most feared weather! She looked at the land again. It was getting ready to explode!

She trembled and felt sick. Her eyes burned. Her throat was dry. She didn't know quite what to do with her tongue anymore. Her hands and arms seemed to hang uselessly by her sides.

She thought of her parents. She was glad they didn't know what Gozzard planned for her.

Although her body was acting strangely, and her emotions were alarming her, her mind strangely continued to work on its own, as if she were somehow two different people.

It noticed that the hoops that so softly whirled and spun out of The Hoop Tree Forest simply bounced off of the hats of the dummies and retreated to the trees in their poetically floating way.

"Why, The Roof Hats are made perfectly to live in The Hoop Tree Forest," she marveled to herself. "And to be safe in The Land of Firecracker Hail," she then too realized. "During its unimaginable weather!"

She trembled. She had never felt such intimate fright before. And she was _so_ worried about Perfit and Wut and the Tackling Dummy. Bending her knees, she put her arms around the little dummy and held her close, keeping one arm through the kite so that it didn't get away.

"Stay close to me," she whispered. She was already planning to protect the little dummy, her little sister, with her own body, throughout the entire storm---as long as she could---no matter what happened to her.

Raising up, she also put her arm around Wut's single shoulder while at the same time reaching up to put a kiss on the Tackling Dummy's cheek. For from somewhere inside herself she had found some strength, and from her eyes she gave them strength too. They saw it and immediately felt better, without knowing why. They just knew that her eyes and her face had lifted them up a little higher.

"Where's Jethro?" asked Gozzard in his curiously smooth voice, looking back in the direction the four had come.

They noticed with additional alarm that he had no fear at all for the great Buffalo Unicorn. It was disconcerting to them that he seemed to _want_ him there!

Perfit understood that they were in unmeasurable danger. But even so, she didn't realize how truly great it was. Her life so far had been beautiful. She was loved by so many---by everyone who had met her, in fact, up to their arrival at the peninsula of trees.

Now, for the first time, she sensed that she might be harmed. It was a new feeling.

"Jethro's back there. He'll be coming to find us," Perfit answered Gozzard herself, pointing, in order to calm and reassure herself. Her statement was the truth, of course, but truly there was no telling _when_ Jethro would wake up and come that way.

"We hope so," said Eny, the fourth tallest dummy. "We'd _love_ to have Jethro in The Land of Firecracker Hail." His face seemed to have just a little more intelligence than the others. His roof hat, with its diameter of five feet, was bright lemon in color.

"Why?" asked Perfit.

"We've _never_ taken anyone of flesh and blood into The Land of Firecracker Hail before," answered Gozzard himself eagerly, unable to resist breaking into the conversation.

"And we've wanted to for so long. But we may have that pleasure without Jethro," he added, looking closely at Meri again, with rising satisfaction. "Of course," he continued in his smooth and almost friendly voice, "it would be a special treat indeed to have Jethro in there, too---he's so big! With all those firecrackers disintegrating _him,_ he would be a sight to look at!"

The Tackling Dummy was startled at the use of the powerful word, which he normally would have loved to hear.

"What would make him go _there_?" asked Perfit innocently.

"I really don't know" answered Eny uncertainly, before Gozzard could, with a sudden look of sympathy in his lemon colored eyes as he looked at the beautiful little dummy. He suddenly wished that she weren't going to be blown up.

Unlike Gozzard, he had some genuine friendliness in his nature. While talking to Perfit, he was visibly softening toward her. It was obvious. She had that effect on everyone because she was endlessly likeable.

"I think I do," Gozzard interrupted, using the nicest tones of which he was capable. "We're going to take all of you there. Jethro's been sleeping for a long time. That means he'll wake up soon. Then he'll come this way, looking for you. And he'll find you. And you know where you'll be."

So they had been watching them the whole time, even earlier, from inside the trees of The Land of the Hoop Tree Forest!

"We inexorably won't go," said the Tackling Dummy defiantly, setting his jaw and planting his feet firmly. He had used one of his favorite adverbs. He felt better at the sound of the word.

"No, I don't think you will, and that's all right," Gozzard agreed unexpectedly, momentarily confusing them. With his long right arm and hand, however, he scooped Perfit up off of the grass in one motion, knocking her flying wand to the ground. Holding her on his shoulder, just under his beautiful mauve Roof Hat, her mass of bright yellow hair hanging down all around, he then walked toward The Land of Firecracker Hail.

"Okay," he continued, over his other shoulder. "Don't come. But we'll just take this little dummy there." For he had noticed the concerned looks on her friends' faces when she had spoken to both himself and Eny. She was a beloved little dummy, he knew.

And sure enough, Wut, Meri and the Tackling Dummy followed right along behind her, without hesitation. Gozzard had been right! The Roof Hats let them through.

_They weren't about to give Perfit to The Land of Firecracker Hail!_

The remaining Roof Hats then trailed along right behind them in a line.

After just a few paces, Gozzard stopped, turned around and scrutinized the Tackling Dummy. "And by the way, you're stuffed, too, aren't you?" he asked. The Tackling Dummy glared at him.

"It's actually a little hard to tell, in your case," Gozzard continued, eyeing the Tackling Dummy's shabby canvas. "And it may be hard to believe, but we've never had a stuffed dummy under the firecrackers yet either, only yarn ones, who don't last nearly long enough, although it's exciting for a few minutes! Come to think of it, you won't do very well either, with that canvas. But it'll be worth it. You'll make quite a spectacle, for a short time---in fact you should be spectacular, since you're halfway there already! We would have much preferred Leo, though. Yes. But we'll get him, too, eventually."

Eny reached forward from behind and tore a large hole in the Tackling Dummy's canvas. "I just tore part of him without even trying," he announced to Gozzard's back. "I don't know if he'll make it to the good part."

Meri was in agony for him.

"Leave him alone then," called Gozzard without turning his head. "He's good enough to be our _first_ stuffed dummy under the crackers! Later there'll be others."

The Tackling Dummy, as there wasn't anything he could do or say just then, just set his chin stubbornly and walked on quietly. He had had a lot of practice remaining quiet while he was being tackled, and so he used that ability again. He needed all of it, because he was more frustrated at that moment than he had ever been in his life, including on the practice field. His extensive vocabulary was receiving quite a workout in his mind, however.

Meri of course was still carrying the lavender Wrong Kite. Gozzard kept glancing over his shoulder at it. "You won't need that, Dear, in The Land of Firecracker Hail," he said during one of those looks. "It certainly can't help you there---it would just be in your way. If you tried to run with it, it would slow you down. You might as well leave it here."

So he was a little worried about it, after all!

Meri stubbornly held on to the powerful kite. She didn't think anyone was going to try to take it away from her! They would have to touch it to do so, and then they would see what happened!

She was smart enough to know this, and her spirit did the rest.

It even tightened her grip on it. She felt additional little thrills moving through her hands, and up her arms.

Her friends were proud of her.

"Eny, would you take that kite from her," Gozzard asked offhandedly in his easy soothing voice.

The Roof Hats, however, although they weren't smart, did have enough sense not to touch a Wrong Kite. _They knew what they had been doing in The Land of Firecracker Hail!_ Although easily led, Eny made no move to follow Gozzard's gently expressed order. Nor did any of the other Roof Hats.

"Do you think it will work so far from The Land of Wrong Kites?" asked Eny, his face brightening at what he thought was a good question. In fact, it was a good and interesting question that he had actually thought of himself.

Deep in his mind, he wanted to be more intelligent.

"No one I've ever talked to has ever seen one work anywhere around here," answered their tall leader, under his wide round mauve hard hat. He shifted Perfit to his other shoulder. Her mass of yellow curls now hung down even more conspicuously.

"In fact, no one I've ever talked to has ever seen one work anyway. Probably it wouldn't.

"Would it work, Wut?" he asked the pitifully shaken question mark, who was bouncing along behind Perfit and looking supportively into her worried eyes looking backward.

The question obviously was meant to taunt the faithful question mark.

"I understand that one hasn't worked in a long long time," Gozzard continued, hopefully. "Maybe they don't work anymore. You know, some things are going wrong in The Lands. Some lands aren't the same as before."

Even Meri, a visitor, knew this was true.

But Wut wouldn't answer, except to say, "Why don't you try it and find out? I definitely think you would be a good enough test."

The Roof Hats seemed to be amused, before receiving sharp looks from Gozzard.

"No thank you," he answered, forging ahead with longer strides. He jerked Perfit higher on his back.

"We'll see what happens to that kite, and it won't be long from now, either!"

His smooth friendliness returned.

"Come to think of it," he added in a positive way, "I'll be glad to see a Wrong Kite in The Land of Firecracker Hail too, along with a flesh and blood dummy and a cotton-stuffed dummy---each for the first time! I'd be glad to see it blasted to tiny little bits!" His answer obviously was very satisfying as he thought about it. He liked being unbothered by what didn't matter. And he liked anticipating what did.

They reached the edge of the dangerous land without additional conversation.

Meri, knowing she had only minutes of her life left if Gozzard had his way, looked up at the incredibly high and beautifully colored sky.

It began not that far above her head.

Her panic was mingled with admiration.

Little popping sounds and vibrating changing lights were everywhere. Great, lasting, shaking rumblings even made the ground shake. All over the entire land little rains of different colors, not of water, continued to fall lightly and attractively down in a gentle anticipation of the storm.

They fell right into Meri's hair and stayed there.

The soft beauty she was seeing filled her with awe and continuing dread at the same time.

She wondered what was going to happen to her.

And to her beloved friends.

The catastrophe of firecracker hail had been about to happen for some time now. It was ready to fall.

Shivering, she looked up into the dreadful lightstorm. She felt the tiny poetry of paper rain dotting her face and hair, not knowing how attractive she was under all those dots. She heard the enormous rumblings, and, as an accompaniment, the intermittent tiny popping sounds surrounding her. She saw and remembered the unending supply of beautiful clouds, going up and up and unbelievably up, and then up even some more.

Her emotions, bruised and battered by these sensations, nevertheless couldn't prevent the clarity of her mind, and she thought, still gazing up,

"When exploding firecrackers begin to descend in this land as hail, there must be enough in that sky to fall almost forever."

She wondered what they were going to sound like.

# Chapter X: THE LAND OF FIRECRACKER HAIL

Gozzard kept right on walking, farther and heartlessly farther into the dangerous land with Perfit firmly in his arms. She kept looking pitifully back at Meri, Wut, and the Tackling Dummy. One after another, different emotions appeared on her face, from sadness to confusion. At times, she even appeared to be approaching anger, an emotion they had never witnessed in her before.

They wanted to help her, but at the same time there was nothing they could do. So they comforted her as much as they could with their eyes. Once or twice the tiny dummy even tried to smile at her loyal friends.

Meri had been carrying The Wrong Kite in her hands for so long that she had forgotten about it.

As they walked, and Wut bounced, the overhead sky of so many colors came down very low. Sometimes they could almost reach up and touch it. Tiny paper rains were falling down everywhere. Sometimes the popping sounds came faster, sometimes softer, and every now and then a rumble of slightly louder popping sounds passed by just over their heads!

Finally, after what seemed like a walk forever for the three following their friend and sister Perfit, Gozzard stopped, near the very center of the fascinating, incredibly tense, and frighteningly lit land.

When he did, everyone---including The Roof Hats---immediately looked up to see what was happening in the sky. And right after they did, they glanced right around to see if Jethro was coming yet.

But the grass behind them, all the way back to The Hoop Tree Forest, was empty.

The great Buffalo Unicorn was nowhere in sight. But he would be able to see them when he came that way.

"Why do you do this?" asked Wut desperately of the tall dummy with the exquisitely lit mauve round hard hat flickering with the lights from the sky. "Look at these dummies. They're wonderful."

Wut swept his hand by Meri, the Tackling Dummy and Perfit, who was still a captive in Gozzard's arms, describing them in a way that touched all of them as he spoke. Meri looked down at the lavender box Wrong Kite, which she had long ceased to think about. The terrible events that were going on had driven it even further from her conscious mind.

So for a moment she did think about it, and during that moment she felt a sudden hope. She quickly concluded, however, that it would probably be impossible to get any of The Roof Hats to accept it. They were already too alert and too sensitive to it, whether they believed it would work, this far from The Land of Wrong Kites, or not. And anyway, that would be just one Roof Hat.

"I know," Gozzard answered Wut, surprisingly, and for a fraction of a second he seemed to be filled with a sadness of his own. He tilted his head in a winning way, confusingly friendly. "I don't know why I do it. It seems like I just have to. There's something compelling me. Maybe there's something wrong with me, like I've heard about some other dummies."

Meri thought in a flash of The Land of the Croapfs. She was sure Gozzard had meant them.

Gozzard continued to look straight into Wut's eyes, silently, holding his gaze for a few moments. What he said next terrified the four friends. "I just know that it's a beautiful sight to see the violent firecracker hail coming down on a yarn dummy and exploding it to pieces. It's just thrilling!"

Perfit shivered and broke Meri's heart. She was the only yarn dummy there.

"I _have_ to do it," he again said to Wut. "I don't know why I do it, and I don't even want to know why, except for the reason I just mentioned. By the way, what are you made of? You don't seem like you're either yarn or stuffed."

"There _is_ something wrong with you," Wut persisted, bouncing up and down impatiently on the beautiful grass of the land marked with the tiny paper rains of colors. "Don't do this. Look at these wonderful dummies. Maybe you can get right again." Once again, he pointed meaningfully and valuingly at his three friends. Perfit struggled to get down, but wasn't permitted to. Her marvelous hair seemed all out of place on Gozzard's shoulder. It hung down in a lovely way, accented with the tiny paper rains that had blown in from the side.

"And by the way, I'm made of ink," Wut added. "What do you think punctuation is made of?"

The Roof Hats, standing around in their different colored extremely wide hats, were strangely quiet as they also listened and looked. It seemed as if their eyes were listening. Meri wondered what was going on in their minds.

Gozzard looked straight at Wut, thinking hard. He seemed to be considering Wut's words very carefully.

"Will you stop?" asked Wut. Meri noticed that Wut had a way of talking that was especially persuasive. He seemed to know exactly what to say, exactly the right accents and pauses, to be understood. It also meant something, she thought---quite a lot, actually---that he by himself, in himself, represented _all_ of The Lands. He was from _The Lands_ , _all_ of them at one time---not just from one of them like almost all of the other dummies. And _officially representing The Lands_ he was asking Gozzard not to do what he was planning.

The clouds of The Land of Firecracker Hail overhead had become darker in some places but were still beautiful. They never stopped moving. The rains of tiny paper colors continued, and the popping, especially loud in the clouds of silvery maize, but in all of the other clouds as well, could be heard throughout the entire sky. All of it had become noticeably louder.

Meri could see that Gozzard was struggling with Wut's questions and statements. He moved his feet in little meaningless motions on the thick green grass of the land. He adjusted his mauve hard hat. He hesitated for a long time, thinking and feeling and debating within himself. He was still holding Perfit up.

Meri watched with held breath, and Perfit and the Tackling Dummy with extreme nervousness forced themselves to remain still. The Tackling Dummy, protectively, was standing as close as he could to Perfit. He was actually standing _under_ Gozzard's hat, to be close to her. That was surprising---and seemed especially courageous to Meri!

The Roof Hats watched with a strange fascination. They still seemed a little uncertain about everything themselves. They didn't encourage Gozzard either way. And then he gave his answer.

"Will you stop?" Wut repeated, imploring him with the most passion Meri had ever heard from the admirable question mark.

"No," said Gozzard, without any emotion in his own voice.

But he did begin to speak somewhat emotionally when he added, "You know there's nothing wrong with me. And if there is, I choose it. I freely choose it, and to do this. I freely admit that it's wrong, I know it's very wrong, but I choose to do it anyway. You've made me think a little more about myself, and now I know myself a little better. I like to see dummies blown into tiny bits by firecracker hail. It's as simple as that."

He concluded with a confident smile in his eyes and three more very simple statements that were extraordinarily difficult for Wut to hear and still control himself---especially the last one: "And I will _never_ stop. You can be certain there are many more dummies to whom this is going to happen! And I can't wait!!" He added this last sentence in a way that made no mistake about how much he was looking forward to the future.

Adjusting Perfit on his shoulder, he turned resolutely and walked a few more steps to what he thought was the _exact_ center of the land. Her friends followed. They stayed right with Perfit. Gozzard knew that they would.

Gozzard stopped, bringing them all to a halt. From the center of the land, he then looked around approvingly. It spread outward in all directions with especially beautiful and luxuriant grass, but very few trees. Only the toughest had been able to survive in the extremely violent storms. These looked especially battered, but strong and dignified from enduring great stress. Their limbs, with very few of the smaller branches normally seen on trees of that size, had survived _millions and millions_ of explosive moments. Unfortunately, not one of the rare surviving trees was very close. Gozzard had made certain of that.

Meri looked up. Through breaks in the clouds she could sometimes see far inside and sometimes almost all the way up. At that moment they divided, at an angle almost to the top, showing a kind of wild raspberry light with many small explosions everywhere the color of mercury. The storm was continuing to build and to intensify. The clouds were in constant motion.

An acrid smell was beginning to fume throughout the air, developing an immediate expectation of the storm's terrible realities.

"I've been here many times," confided Gozzard with satisfaction under the safety of his protective hard mauve Roof Hat. He looked around, pleased. "I've seen this moment many times. I know exactly when the hail will come, and it will be in about one minute!" he exclaimed.

"I can let you go now," he heartlessly said to the beautiful little dummy on his shoulder. He deftly stood her on her feet in one skillful motion.

"There, little one," Gozzard said to her, almost sadly, as he spoke to the completely vulnerable and helpless, wonderful little dummy. "You're free."

It was a cruel thing to say.

Perfit ran to her friends, who quickly enclosed her in their protective caring arms. She was the youngest dummy in all of The Lands, but her eyes showed defiance as she looked back at him. At the same time they contained a terror at the special destruction about to explode not only on but _through_ her and her friends. Strands of her hair were picked up and blown around by the breezes moving the clouds that were now down almost to them.

An expectant look arose in Gozzard's eyes to replace the sadness, as he looked at the four friends standing unprotected under the ferocity about to begin. He himself would be completely safe, watching.

Perfit clung to the side of her gray tackled friend who lovingly enclosed her in a comforting arm. Her bright hair, and her incomparable niceness, gave quality to his canvas.

"Here he comes!" yelled the shortest Roof Hat dummy, named Betwixen, whose wide hard hat was actually a brilliant white. He had spotted the great Buffalo Unicorn, racing desperately, in his familiar uncoordinated way, toward them.

Meri, Wut, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy quickly turned their heads. He was still frustratingly far away. But he gave them hope.

They were also a little concerned, too, that a yellow figure, a cotton-stuffed dummy, was running right beside him. It was Leo! He was running right into the storm along with Jethro!

"Leo shouldn't be coming," Meri thought protectively. The others were wondering about the wisdom of that. They were worried about Jethro, too. For the problem now, actually, was no longer The Roof Hats. It was the storm---now certainly only seconds away! The minute was almost up!

They were impossibly far from the edge of the land _._ That was why Gozzard had released Perfit. What would happen to Jethro, as well as to Leo, when the firecrackers fell? What good could they do?

Meri shivered at the heartbreaking thought of what was probably going to happen to both of them.

"For nothing," she thought sadly. "It's too late for them to help us!"

"Just in time," announced Gozzard with approving tones, as if he had a perfect plan that was working perfectly.

"They'll be here just in time."

And he held out his hand to see if anything was coming down yet. However, it was an obviously empty gesture, because his mauve Roof Hat extended out much farther than his arm could reach. Then he looked up to watch again the two racing toward them, now much closer.

"Leo and Jethro too," he said softly and approvingly to himself, watching them approach with his mauve colored eyes. "Both of them at the same time, plus the other four. Including two of flesh and blood and two canvas dummies. This is just too good to be true! What have I been doing so right, to deserve all of this?" he asked himself with deepdown satisfaction.

"Hi!" he yelled to both Jethro and Leo, waving one of his long arms. Then taking off his attractive mauve circular hard Roof Hat, he held it vertically like a target, as did the other Roof Hats, to make themselves more conspicuous from a distance. Because of the large circular hats of such vivid colors, they couldn't be missed by the approaching two who had already seen them anyway.

And they had already seen their friends under the enormous coloring and popping sky which was unbelievably low.

"Ha!" exclaimed Gozzard as the first firecracker burst loudly, near his left ear, and he put on his Roof Hat again. Meri and Perfit jumped at the sound of it.

The shorter Roof Hats also put on their wide hats, moving closer together so that their Roof Hats interlocked and formed a thick many-layered shelter above them. This was the way they always stood and watched the dummies they brought to the land, as the hail began to fall.

The bursting clouds now were unbearably close---just above them in fact. They could touch them! Mercury and silver maize were shooting everywhere amid many other beautiful colors. Rains of tiny colored papers were sifting and blowing all around. The popping sounds had risen to a small roar.

Firecrackers started falling and exploding lightly around Meri, Wut, Perfit and the Tackling Dummy. They put the tiny dummy in the middle and bent over her in a kind of circle, to protect her as long as possible!

It was a funny circle, since Wut was still bouncing. He was stretching his arms and hands straight out to shield her.

Forgetting themselves, they had all thought first of her.

But this, in fact, had been only the soft playful beginning of the storm.

Its fierce violence could not even be dreamed of by Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit.

But Wut, Jethro, and Leo knew.

# Chapter XI: THE ENORMOUS THUNDERWORLD

The smaller firecrackers were falling fast. They quickly began to arrive even more plentifully.

They also began to descend more loudly.

Meri had a weird sensation as she watched the exploding hail around her, because the only precipitation she had ever been able to _see_ that well---that slowly---before, was falling snow. Rain was usually impossible to see, except when it fell very hard, and even then she could hardly see the individual drops.

Now she could easily see the many explosions in the air.

Jethro and Leo J. upP were now in the land.

They weren't that far away.

They were running desperately fast.

But seemingly hopelessly.

What could they do when they arrived, when the danger was no longer from the Roof Hats, but from the hail? This was The Land of Firecracker Hail!! Their four friends were too far into the land to run out in time to be saved.

What _could_ they do?

Jethro was a sight to behold, with all his speed, in his uncoordinated way that seemed to work better and better the faster he tried to run. Tears clouded Meri's eyes when she first saw the desperate fright on his face because his friends were in danger---and in fact were being harmed.

And worse, might _even cease to exist_ in the fierce storm now in its early stages. That was the plan, he knew.

He had watched with awe some of these huge violences from the edge of the land before.

The firecracker hail was falling faster and faster, beginning to sting Meri rather painfully, especially when the individual firecrackers fell exploding on her bare skin, for her coral top was short-sleeved and her bib overall jeans shorts stopped halfway down her thighs. So far her hair was protecting her head---somewhat.

At least Wut and the Tackling Dummy, under the same explosive rain, didn't have to feel any pain! Perfit, surrounded by her friends, hadn't been struck yet. Bending over Perfit with them to protect the tiny helpless dummy, Meri could feel the pounding on her back.

But perhaps even more painful to Meri than being struck so far was to see new holes being blown in the Tackling Dummy's canvas, which in so many places could not withstand even the smaller blasts! She was very close to him and could actually see the injuries occurring!

It was an agonizing sight!

The tremendous storm continued.

Meri's ears were ringing, and it was beginning to be difficult to hear anything except the immense thunder.

Larger firecrackers were beginning to fall.

Meri's shoulders were hurting, on either side of her overall straps, and she could feel her hair being knocked and shot in all directions. Luckily, and surprisingly, one of the larger firecrackers hadn't exploded directly against her head yet, but it was only a matter of time, she knew.

In the meantime, holes were being blown in the paper kite she was still doing her best to hold onto. She could see some little bits of lavender paper on the grass below.

The Roof Hats and Gozzard were standing in a line in order to be able to watch. They were also eagerly waiting for Jethro and Leo, who were still coming. The two were racing directly, as best they could, through the loud and terrible chaos falling with _ever more violent intensity!_

But when Gozzard had said to himself satisfiedly, "Just in time," he had underestimated the tremendous worry of Jethro that his friends might be hurt. Therefore he had overestimated the time it would take him to arrive, because of his great size and obviously imperfect coordination.

Jethro, in his huge urgency, as you might expect, had pushed himself even past his limits, surprising even himself, and at that moment ran right up to the small group, with Leo right beside him. Leo was fast, because the dummies from The Land of Loving Yellow were all extraordinarily swift, being only slightly less fast than Fico. That was one reason they were all the color of light.

Meri had never expected to see a look of anger on Jethro's face, but there it was, a gigantic one, as he raced up. It made her feel better, even as larger and larger firecrackers fell more and more thickly around her. Although now fearful for her eyes when the firecrackers were pounding against her face, she continued to watch.

The Roof Hats, also not having expected Jethro to be able to get there that quickly, turned almost to jelly as he, arriving, raced straight at them with his great unicorn lowered. In a moment, all of them, except for Gozzard, who was on the end and stepped aside, turned and fled in many directions. Meri heard their cries as she watched, and in her own increasing pain managed a small smile of thanks to her good friend.

She was surprised, though, at what Leo then did. Being from The Land of Loving Yellow, he was extremely quick and agile---unbelievably fast, as she remembered. He chased the different Roof Hats and tripped them, time and again, one after another, causing them to come under the now almost unbearable rain of the millions of exploding firecrackers, until they finally were able to scramble up and run away again, holding onto their Roof Hats with both hands.

It almost seemed to Meri that Leo was quick enough to be able to dodge falling firecrackers as he darted almost invisibly from one desperately retreating dummy to the other, tripping them into the storm. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to get possession of at least _one_ of the wide protective hats, it didn't matter what color, for his friends.

But he couldn't. Not a one of the less intelligent dummies failed to hold desperately onto his Roof Hat, knowing it was the end if he didn't. Leo couldn't get any of them to release even one, The Roof Hats were so scared now for themselves.

Jethro had run right through where the Roof Hats had been, not hitting Eny, Purp, Betwixen, or the other shorter ones. Turning around, however, he focused on Gozzard, who was still standing by watching with amusement. The look of anger in Jethro's eyes and on his face, which Meri had noticed when he ran up, reminded her of the firecracker storm itself.

However, Gozzard wasn't afraid of the gigantic Buffalo Unicorn, and he spoke to him louder than the noise.

"I think I can dodge you until the exploding fireworks close your eyes," he jeered to the great creature moving with surprising agility toward him.

"Which won't be long from now at all. And even if you did get me, it's still too late for your friends here, and even if you get me, you yourself won't be able to get out of the land. Look at your eyes! They're half closed already! You can hardly see to come after me!"

And he danced around a little, taunting the prodigiously huge---but now becoming helpless---Buffalo Unicorn.

Gozzard was right. Jethro's eyes indeed were already partly closed from the intense banging against those delicate wonderful organs of sight.

Already.

Meri could see that they were. She felt so sorry for her huge helpless friend as he ran at the obnoxious and elusive tall Roof Hat with the mauve circular hard hat that was so wide, protecting him perfectly.

He missed. He lamely missed again as Gozzard agilely stepped to one side.

And then Meri, for the first time in The Lands, _grew angry herself_ at the pitiful plight of her extraordinary friend. She rarely ever got angry, _but she was now!_ She looked down at the lavender Wrong Kite in her hands.

Did it work?

Breaking suddenly from the small group she had formed with Wut and the Tackling Dummy to protect Perfit, she ran straight through the storm of falling firecrackers, bouncing them off of her head and face, toward Gozzard. His back at that moment was toward her because he was facing Jethro, who was now in desperate trouble because he could hardly see any more. Firecrackers were exploding all over him. Two or three were impaled and smoking on his unicorn.

Ignoring the hail of loud firecrackers pounding on her shoulders and the top of her head, which were completely numb by now, Meri stopped right behind Gozzard and deftly tapped him on the right shoulder with her left hand.

"What?" he asked, completely surprised at that particular action just then. He certainly hadn't expected anyone to be tapping on his shoulder at that particular time, in the middle of the storm. Half turning around, he looked puzzledly to see who it was.

"Here!" said Meri, pushing the Wrong Kite into his hands. They automatically rose to take it, since there wasn't time for him to think.

Besides, at that particular moment, all that was on Gozzard's mind was getting his long-held wish---of seeing a canvas dummy (today he had two!) and a flesh and blood creature (today he had two!)---in addition to a yarn dummy---unprotected in the ferocious and disassembling hail which was now pouring down continuously and wonderfully from the sky.

_The most violent time had almost arrived!!_

_Gozzard's eyes suddenly widened as he realized--------he was holding a Wrong Kite!_

" _Does it work after all?"_ suddenly flashed through his mind.

His eyes widened even further as the kite began to rise straight up into the air, into the firecracker storm, taking him immediately up, for he had done far more wrong and more harm in The Lands than could be allowed or forgiven.

_In fact, he had passed that point long ago, having done more wrong than any other dummy in The Lands ever had---more than all of them put together, in fact._

Yes, he had taken hold of a Wrong Kite!!

And yes, it did work!!

Gozzard, still wearing his wide mauve Roof Hat which quickly fell off, slowly rose straight up into the slamming firecrackers of the giant storm, right into the great heart of it.

Making a hole all the way through the incredible exploding center, pounded and banged from all directions, eventually he appeared above the storm and continued to rise higher and higher up into the sky above The Lands.

Eventually, out of sight and unbelievably far up, he stopped. From that point he looked down. And around.

And that's where he stayed.

His roof hat stayed up in the ferocity, where it was steadily knocked in all directions, even upward. It finally fell down to the grass all the way on the other side of the land.

Jethro, in very bad shape because he was hardly able to see any more, moved as well as he was able through the boiling chaos toward his friends. Leo also ran up. In the falling thunder he hadn't retrieved any of the round protective hats from the fleeing Roof Hats. They had successfully clung desperately and lifesavingly to them as they ran.

Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit had almost been struck down by this time by the immensely falling thunder, which, believe it or not, was growing even worse.

It was impossible! _And it had a long way to go!_

This time Jethro took charge.

"Meri, you, Wut, and Perfit, get under me," he told his failing friends as well as he could through the falling noise. He was so hard to hear! "Leo, and Tackling Dummy, walk beside me and bend over. We'll try to walk out."

Two of them still had flying wands. But they wouldn't have been able to hold them out, and hang onto them, in the continuously exploding air! Perfit and Jethro no longer had one, since Perfit's had fallen when she had been scooped up by Gozzard. So _they_ couldn't leave by that method.

They all got into the positions Jethro had said, and all of them, all moving at the same time, began to creep very slowly away from the center of the land. Wut was required to drag himself, since he couldn't bounce in that position. In a way that touched his heart very deeply, the others helped to pull him along as they slowly crawled themselves.

They progressed about twenty feet in this way.

Unfortunately, however, there was just too far to go. And the hailstorm had become so violent that they weren't able to inch along effectively at all. For one thing, Jethro no longer could open his eyes, and even if he could, it was no longer possible for anyone to be able to see which way they were going---to stay headed in any one direction. The falling ocean of firecrackers was so thick that they couldn't see in front of them at all---or in any other direction!

In addition, the pain on Jethro's back was becoming fierce, although he hadn't mentioned it. And the backs of Leo and the Tackling Dummy were being attacked relentlessly, although, mercifully, no one could see it and _they_ couldn't feel it. Leo's beautiful canvas, however, already badly damaged, was now completely ruined. He had thrown off his long coat earlier to be able to run faster. The Tackling Dummy's, much more thin, was, as could be expected, much worse.

There was just no hope at all. The friends simply stopped moving, huddling closer together. For there was no longer anything else they could do.

Meri thought of her parents, on the ocean liner _USS Steady._ They were probably in sight of England at that very minute. And she thought of her dear Aunt Amelia. "Aunt Am," she affectionately said in her mind, feeling comfort simply by repeating her beloved Aunt's name and picturing her. She was probably looking in a book just then or thinking about the universe.

Meri knew she would never see _any_ of them again.

They would be so pitifully sad when she never returned, she knew.

She also felt desperately sorry for her so very dear friends so close beside her now, in the great roar of the storm. The Tackling Dummy's left arm was around her neck from where he was bending over. She was now holding Perfit in both her arms. The tiny dummy had both of her eyes closed, her arms tightly around the neck of her beloved older sister. Wut, slightly behind her, had his arms around her neck and Perfit's at the same time. Leo's hand was on her back from where he was bending over on the other side of Jethro.

They could no longer hear each other. But then, strangely, they did hear something.

Suddenly, they could hear a different sound, a kind of oddly familiar swishing sound, and the storm seemed to lighten just a little. Inexplicably, the cascading fireworks pounding upon them seemed to lessen just slightly their terrible volume, and to the surprise of everyone, a great light appeared overhead as a huge hole opened up in the merciless storm.

The five of them tried to open their eyes.

And then, another surprise, as the intense firecracker hail, which until then had been falling steadily down, began to whirl away in a magnificent circle around them and then lift right up.

Everyone looked up, at the hail of firecrackers then rising up, not falling down so thunderously on them anymore, and there, right above them, was Pumphrey the WaterSpout. Coming to help them, he had absorbed the massive destructive violence, over the _entire land_ , up into his vast swirling currents. There the firecrackers continued to explode, but harmlessly. They even tickled him.

Meri, Wut, and Perfit stepped out weakly and uncertainly, and Jethro tried to open his eyes. Leo and the Tackling Dummy tried to stand up straight. Their backs were smoking. There was some blood on Jethro's back, and his once magnificent unicorn had been smudged mostly black.

The huge WaterSpout, Pumphrey, was right above them, light grayish black, with watery and misty clouds all around following his spin which was in a counter-clockwise direction. However, now, because of the firecracker storm, Pumphrey also was lit with tiny lights all inside him, and animated by the continuous muffled sound of firecrackers going off within his hurricanes. He was colored throughout with streaks and flashes of raspberry, silvery maize, and other lights.

He was the most beautiful Waterspout that had ever been!

"OOOH!! That tickles," said Pumphrey of the exploding hail, continuing to ignite in an enormous thunderworld throughout him. Clearly he was enjoying it.

The dummies on the ground, and Jethro, could see what looked like two large eyes in the gray swirling masses now quite colorful and sparkling with miniature thunder.

"I told you I'd make up for what I did," Pumphrey spoke again, in his familiar gargly, July thundershower, and rain-on-a-wet-tin-roof voice, that now Meri was so overjoyed to hear. "I never did tell you personally, Jethro," he said to his friend the Buffalo Unicorn, now recovering, "but it almost broke my heart that I almost hurt you. Now I hope I have excused my bad behavior somewhat."

"Pumphrey, you saved all of our lives," Wut called up, with great joy, as he jumped up and bounced unevenly on the firecracker-strewn grass.

"I forgive you completely," said Jethro in his deep voice, the light returning to his eyes that had just barely survived the firecracker hail. "In fact, I did at the time. Meri told me what you said then. I didn't want you to worry about your mistake. But now I'm glad you did!"

"I kept looking, to see how all of you were doing," said the gargly July shower tin roof voice from the swirling masses, now almost free of firecrackers. "With my excellent vision, I can see well at a great distance. I became alarmed when suddenly I noticed your terrible danger. I'm used to descending into The Mistercald. But imagine what it was like to descend into The Land of Firecracker Hail! And imagine the combination of all that weather---myself included! It was unforgettable! I'm glad you're safe now."

"We love you," said Meri.

"Thank you," said Perfit, speaking for the first time since being so terrified. She had at last opened her eyes. She was the smallest dummy in The Lands, and he was the largest creature. "I'll see you over the Mistercald, if I can get a flying wand. Will you meet me up there for a visit? I think we should be good friends."

"I would love that," admitted the swirling Spout, an undeniable enthusiasm detectable in his voice. "I shall look forward to seeing you up there!"

"Thanks," they all said as the enormous turning currents, which were making all of them wet, slowly rose back up again. None of them realized that suddenly, in all of that water up there, were a few quick tears---Pumphrey's---at actually being able to make up for almost causing Jethro---and Meri---to lose their lives. Also, he had made up for some---and perhaps even all---of the mischief he had caused to so many dummies in The Lands for so long.

As he rose up into the air above them, he felt the best he ever had, although, after socializing with the friends he had just saved, who were now so small below him, he then felt a little lonely again at being by himself.

For in the light blue sky above The Lands, he had only the birds and clouds---and every now and then a rainbow---to keep him company.

# Chapter XII: FINXI'S NEWS

Wut, Meri, Jethro, Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, and Leo looked around at the amazing sight left by the bad weather.

The Land of Firecracker Hail was covered with millions and millions of exploded firecrackers. Little bits of colored, exploded paper were everywhere! It was difficult to walk.

It was especially hard to bounce.

_Wut was trying---but_ not too successfully.

Jethro was standing by himself, gazing at the fallen storm, thinking about it. His eyes, swollen, were feeling better. But, jubilant at first like the others, he now appeared somewhat downcast.

The smell of exploded firecrackers was strong in the air. Surprisingly, there was something pleasant about it. It reminded the friends that the storm was over, and they had survived it. Above, the light blue sky of The Lands, with, now, only a few small white clouds, was reassuring. Their spirits began to rise again.

Except for Jethro.

The Land of Firecracker Hail produced weather only at intervals, and now it was back to normal again.

Perfit struggled to get to Meri on the uneven grass, choosing her way carefully through the plains and small hills of firecrackers, sometimes sliding, sometimes almost falling.

"May I borrow your flying wand for a moment?" she asked in her small voice, looking up at Meri with the signs of their recent danger still showing in her face. Meri was worried about her. But as she looked down into the face of her little sister, who then smiled up at her, she could tell that the loveable carefreeness and lightness of the little dummy were returning. Her hair was undamaged, thanks to the protection of her friends during the downpouring. It still had a lot of tiny paper rains in it, but it was still as beautiful as before, perhaps even more so.

With Meri's wand, Perfit flew to retrieve her own, which had dropped onto the grass when she had been seized by Gozzard. She rocketed through the air, glad to have a flying wand in her hand again, about five feet above the grass. She held it expertly---even though it was the most powerful one---as Meri had known she would.

"Let me see," said Meri insistently to both the Tackling Dummy and Leo, as they tried to keep their backs from her. But she made them turn around.

She didn't succeed in suppressing the sob, and the moan from deep within her, when she witnessed what all of the explosions had done to her friends. Both of their backs had _huge_ chunks blown out and many smaller gobs were also missing. Canvas and pieces of stuffed cotton dangled heartbreakingly from around the edges. Some of these were singed, the rest deep white holes.

They had willingly taken this damage to protect Jethro and the others, including herself. Meri hugged them both tightly, first individually and then at the same time, not saying anything but "Thanks" continuously, trying not to cry at the thought of their ruined backs, which her hands heartbreakingly touched as she put her arms around them.

Looking over at Jethro, whose back had blood on it, as she hugged the two dummies together, she felt better because his thick fur had helped to protect him where Leo and the Tackling Dummy hadn't been leaning over. He would heal, yet there was no way that anyone knew for Leo and the Tackling Dummy to heal! Leo had been so beautiful, and the thought made Meri wonder how the Tackling Dummy must have looked when he was new.

He must have been so handsome!

Yet now he was not only completely shabby, he was partially destroyed. Most of the new damage was on his back, permitting her to feel a little better when his back was the other way---but not too much better.

The destruction of Leo's back was especially dismaying when she looked, because the beautiful yellow of his canvas contrasted in such a startling way with the ugly damage of the large holes. Because his canvas was much newer than the Tackling Dummy's, the effects looked worse---if that was possible. It was a pitiful comparison. Both he and the Tackling Dummy continued to hold onto her because she just couldn't bear to let them go just yet. They knew.

When she did, she thought of Jethro again. She realized that in reality he must have felt enormous pain in the firecracker hail, because she herself had experienced such sharp blazing torment, not only on her head and shoulders but everywhere else too---until she, Wut and Perfit had been told to get under Jethro.

But Jethro's head had been completely unprotected in the enormous avalanche of noise and power. Leo and the Tackling Dummy weren't able to feel pain---luckily, because of the fierce blasting against their backs. That thought helped her to feel a little better too. But Jethro had met the storm mostly with only his lovely fur, and he could _easily_ feel pain just beneath that.

Walking over to him, she asked, "What's the matter?"

He was standing over by himself, looking downcast, thinking.

"I just wish I had been able to do more, when everyone was in such trouble. I'm very large and strong, but my size and incomparable strength didn't help much. When my eyes were hurt, I was almost helpless---at the time when you needed me the most. I failed everyone," he said. And he looked miserable.

"Jethro," began Meri, bending down in front of him and looking straight up into his large brown eyes, "it was you---your efforts, full of your spirit---who gave me the chance to hand The Wrong Kite to Gozzard. That's what happened! And you chased the other Roof Hats away too. And then, until Pumphrey got here, you protected us from the terrible firecracker hail, so feared, while taking it voluntarily on your own back and head instead. You told us to get under you, and we did, where you sheltered us. You suffered pitifully for us. And that's one of the two reasons that we're all here now. Because of you. No, please don't think you failed. You didn't, at all. You kept us alive. When we needed you the most, you were there, sacrificing yourself, until Pumphrey arrived. If you hadn't, we'd all be lying over there on the grass right now. No, _just as much as Pumphrey_ \--- _you saved us_. You just did your part, and he did his. And we're unendingly grateful to both of you."

Jetho lifted up his head. He thought for a minute. He blinked his eyes. "Yeah," he said. "I think I did do what you just said. Yeah, I think I did. Yes, I did! I guess I was thinking and feeling that I ought to have done it all, I'm so big. But now I see that Pumphrey and I needed to work together. I also realize, now, that if I _had_ done it all, Pumphrey wouldn't be able to be so happy now. And I wouldn't want that. Thanks for helping me to straighten out my thoughts again, Dear. There really will never again be anyone like you." He gently rested his huge head right beside hers, on her right shoulder, and his huge cheek touched hers. It was the best hug the massive Buffalo Unicorn could give her without hurting her! And it was one of the best hugs Meri ever got in her life. Her brown hair fluffed and pulled up on that side as he lifted his great head back up again!

The others had heard their conversation, and were nodding their heads in agreement, as she spoke. Jethro saw the gratitude in their eyes. Nodding his immense head, he said, "It was nothing. It couldn't have been more worth it. Nope! And thanks to Pumphrey, our terrific friend." And saying that, he was himself again, with all of his spirit. Only a whole lot gladder! And perhaps a tiny bit wiser.

Mostly, Meri was glad they were all still themselves and hadn't been _ended_ by The Land of Firecracker Hail, as Gozzard had intended. She gave Wut a grateful hug, too. Thankfully he was unhurt, except on the inside, from the invisible but piercing caring he had felt when the damage was being done to the others. He still hadn't gotten over it---and might not _ever_ get over it. The pain that he felt for his three friends still showed on his face as he bounced softly up and down.

"I was high up in those trees, keeping lookout," said Leo, pointing toward the end of The Hoop Tree Forest, "when I saw what happened."

At that moment Perfit came sailing back through the air with a flying wand in each hand. She was flying with _both_ of them at the same time! You could tell how comfortable she was with them by the way she navigated first with one and then with the other! Landing, she handed Meri's wand back in almost the same movement.

Glad to be back with her friends, she smiled at all of them in a way that lifted up each one. Her refreshing flight had restored much of her lively spirit!

"When I saw what had happened," continued Leo, nodding at Perfit, "I raced with the fastest speed I ever had to wake Jethro up under the hoops, which had built up to well above the forest _. He was under thousands of hoops!_ I was frantic to get to him, to help, but it was almost impossible to reach him quickly. It's a good thing that we from The Land of Loving Yellow are as quick as we are. You should have seen those hoops flying in all directions as I dug my way toward him! And of course I was calling him by his name loudly the whole time.

"When I finally reached him, you should have seen all those hoops lift right up, all at once, when I told him what was going on. I thought it was a marvelous sight at the time, even though I was out of my mind with haste to help all of you before it was too late."

He had.

They all thanked him, trying not to look too closely at his canvas. The Tackling Dummy was the only one who would.

"Now we can _both_ try to get new canvas," he told his friend, patting him on the shoulder. Meri had to bite her lip when she heard those words. She could tell he was recovering from being in the storm, but she also knew that he didn't realize the seriousness of his own injuries. His canvas had been so much thinner than Leo's when the hail had started.

He couldn't last much longer.

They had begun walking and bouncing on the beautiful grass of the land, through the fallen firecracker hail, toward the edge. Finally, they could walk and bounce normally and they left the land behind.

Before they even got there, however, they had been wondering and even marveling.

For they had begun to notice, and more and more they were amazed, to see an uncountable number of dummies, in the fields, on the hills--- _actually in all the open places of the lands around_. It seemed to the friends, too, although they were seeing so many, that all of these dummies were walking in the same direction.

_They certainly seemed to be!_

"Where in The Lands are they coming from, and where in The Lands are they going?" wondered all of the friends at the same time.

None of them---neither Perfit, nor Leo, nor Jethro, and surprisingly, not even Wut--- had ever seen so many dummies at the same time before!

Of course Meri and the Tackling Dummy hadn't!

What made the sight even more unique---it was already amazing to see so many dummies at one time---was that they all looked different. _They were coming from many different lands!_

And even more were coming.

In just a short period of time, there was an _unbelievable_ assortment of moving colors on the landscapes _in every direction!_ It was one of the most amazing sights Meri had ever seen!

_It soon became clear that there was an incredible number of both cotton-stuffed and yarn dummies---and an incredible variety of designs for each!_

Meri wondered how many lands were represented.

With his mouth open, Wut did something he had _never_ done before.

He was so surprised and dumbfounded at the unexpected sight of all these dummies, all at once, increasing all the time--- _that he forgot to bounce!_

He just stopped---all at once---in amazement. And of course you know what happened then. He just fell right over. He just plopped over and landed flat on the grass.

"I don't understand!" he mumbled, totally embarrassed, still dumbfounded. He quickly straightened himself, got up, and began to bounce again, however, while still looking wonderingly out across The Lands. His green eyes, out in the air on either side of his face, were full of major wonder!

" _Where_ could they be going?" he asked himself out loud, forgetting for the moment that he was in company. He was astounded.

"And _why?_ " he continued talking to himself, with all of his friends around him listening. "Something of the greatest importance in The Lands must be happening!! _It has to be!_ Come on!"

He was mesmerized, first by looking, then by racing thoughts---and now by both at the same time! His bright green eyes had little stars of wonder in them.

And even _around_ them! Meri was sure!

Motioning with a kind of mechanical gesture to his friends, _in a way that meant come along with him_ , with his slim black arm, he started to enthusiastically bounce in the same direction the crowd was walking.

It looked like the amassing dummies, coming from so many lands, had intentionally avoided The Land of Firecracker Hail, from long habit. Many were undoubtedly aware of its recent cataclysmic eruption. Whatever, they avoided that dangerous land.

The result was that not one dummy, out of the many they could see, was close enough yet to be asked about what was happening.

This avoidance certainly wasn't necessary at the time because the skies of that land were clear and mostly soft blue, having been emptied temporarily of their terrible contents.

But it certainly was understandable.

Hundreds and hundreds of dummies from many lands were already visible. And the number was growing, as they seemed to be emerging from more and more lands all the time.

It was an incredible sight!

The especially beautiful grass of The Land of Firecracker Hail receded behind them, gradually changing to the more ordinary, although attractive, grass of most of The Lands. The conspicuous hills and drifts of firecracker paper finally could no longer be seen behind them either.

Wut bounced eagerly forward, _desperate_ to learn what was happening. He had never seen anything like this before!

But he didn't leave his friends behind.

He stayed just in front of them. Catching his spirit and his excitement, they walked faster---and almost ran!---themselves. They too were wondering,

_"What in The Lands could be happening?"_

The travelers had not the slightest doubt that something truly momentous was happening in The Lands.

But what?

Having seen many of The Lands, and having been surprised by them, and so unexpectedly, so many times, Meri was sure there was no way she could guess. So she didn't even try, although her mind wanted to. She continued to look around with great curiosity and appreciation at the many dummies and at all of the colors and designs in The Lands.

She continued to be surprised, at this dummy, and at that one---and that one over there!

There were large crowds of dummies walking together, and also smaller groups of many different sizes. The friends themselves were a group of six and probably the _only_ one, among so many, totally unaware of where they were going.

What made the sight more spectacular to Meri was that these dummies could be seen against the interesting backgrounds of the different lands becoming more visible in all directions.

The entire scenery was fascinating!

And in the lands that were visible, even more dummies could be seen coming to join the others, all the time!

At last the six friends progressed close enough to one of the smaller crowds to ask questions. Many had already started waving to Wut and Jethro and to Leo from a distance.

Intensely excited, and becoming more so, Wut began signaling and calling to a very pretty little dummy walking along and talking vivaciously with some of her friends. Her name was Finxi, Meri knew, because that was the name Wut kept calling.

"Finxi," Meri said in her mind. "What a cute name!"

Recognizing him and Leo and Jethro, and curious about Meri and Perfit, she gladly turned and walked toward them. Meri heard her telling her friends over her shoulder she would meet them later. Wearing a blue and beige dress, she was of caramel yarn with short attractive blond yarn hair. Her eyes were vivaciously violet. Wondering which land she was from, Meri liked her immediately.

"Oh hi," she said to all of them, stopping momentarily. "Oh what _happened?!"_ she asked in a shocked and sympathetic way when she got a better look at Leo and the Tackling Dummy, before Wut, desperate to do so, could ask her a single question. They explained as quickly as they could about what had happened in The Land of Firecracker Hail.

"I'm so sorry," she told them sincerely, her face and violet eyes saddening. But then she added quickly and breathlessly, "then you may not yet know what's happening! We've all heard that The Land of Now and Later---you know what's so important about _that land_ \---is blooming! After all of this time! _And all over the land_ , _too!"_ She looked especially convincingly at Wut and Jethro, and even at Perfit.

"How pretty!" Meri thought, looking at her face. At the same time she wondered what was so important about The Land of Now and Later, one she hadn't heard about before.

Wut knew. His head jerked when she spoke. He kept looking at her. His mind obviously had been locked numb by her words. He kept forgetting to bounce, again. With help he managed to keep going up and down on the grass.

"Yeah, it's true!" Finxi resumed, when Wut regained his mental and physical balance. But the question mark was still so struck by what he had just heard that his eyes had a wobbly look in the air. Her words had poured into his mind a tidal wave of meaning. Somehow he kept bouncing.

"Flower petals---you know what I mean?---are _everywhere_ in the air in the land, they're saying!" Finxi added cheerfully.

Meri and the others were listening to her words as hard as they could, because of their obvious effect on Wut!

"The Houses of Parliament?" Wut asked faintly, going down.

"Yes!" Finxi poured out immediately. She was quite cooperative in her vivacious way. It was also clear how much she liked her question mark friend. She was, however, a little concerned about the effect of her words. She looked at him attentively. But she went on, since he had asked.

"Already, it seems, they're there, formed right in the mists of unending floating flower petals---like we've always heard! I can't wait to see them! We've been told how nice they look."

"Did...did you know...that I came from the _last_ Parliament of Now and Later?" Wut then asked, in a low voice that was definitely gaining strength. He was beginning to believe and accept the fantastic news that he was hearing! If _he_ had emerged from the last Parliament, _he was thinking, what_ might be added to The Lands by _this one_?

"No, I didn't," answered Finxi in pleased tones, her lively violet eyes looking at her punctuation friend, incredulous. She definitely found that fact interesting! "Then you must really be excited! And I can see you are. But it's so exciting for all of us! You'd better calm down! Because I believe everything is just about to begin! What will you do later, when everything is happening, if you're this excited now?"

"She is so adorable!" Meri thought.

"I don't know," Wut answered honestly, visibly trying to calm himself because evidently he believed her advice. "You have a point. This is so hard to believe. I don't want to miss anything. I was just wondering, though: did you hear _anything else?"_ He was always curious about what was happening in The Lands---and it's understandable that he would ask more about one of its _most important_ events---one which _occurs so rarely that it almost_ never _does!_

Finxi became silent for a moment, thinking, coaxing her memory. "Yes, I'm so excited, I don't know what I can think of! But I do remember that some graphics have appeared to help this new Parliament of Now and Later. On something called...The Hillslopes?" Her voice trailed away with uncertainty.

"That's it!" interrupted Wut. "Oh, sorry. Please continue. I'm sure you can think of something else." He was beginning to bounce a little higher in his excitement.

She did think of something else, and it was obvious she was surprised that she had.

"As you obviously know, these graphics are supposed to be pictures of the things that most need to be corrected in The Lands. They're really just flowers that grow fast enough, and also small enough to form details. And there are some words too, I've heard! I can't wait to read them! Some might be legible by this time, but none were when I first heard. Everyone has been trying to read them as the printing, or the script, whichever is used, slowly becomes clear."

And then a thought suddenly came into her mind from a conversation. "And I think, now that I remember better, that one of the pictures seems to be about you!" And she pointed unexpectedly at the Tackling Dummy. "Because one, they said, is about a dummy with a solid silver canvas. And you are about the only dummy I know who could look just like that. If your canvas were new, that is. Maybe it _is_ you!"

And she looked directly at the Tackling Dummy with shining eyes.

"M-me?" stuttered the Tackling Dummy, as everyone looked at him. He was just as stunned now as Wut, although his feelings were different. He certainly hadn't expected to be included in whatever was happening!

"I think that's all," Finxi said slowly, obviously trying to think of still more, but without success. So she turned, meaning to veer back toward her friends who still weren't too far ahead of her.

"Oh!" she added, spinning sharply to the Tackling Dummy and Leo, because of what she had just thought about. "This may be coming at just the right time for you," she said spiritedly, first with a vivid hope in her pretty violet eyes as she looked into their faces, and then with an unavoidable sorrow among the violet when she accidentally caught sight of the blown-out canvas of their backs.

"You've always been so perfect, and you need to be again," she said to Leo sympathetically. And then, looking back at the Tackling Dummy, whom of course she was meeting for the first time ever, she said, as kindly as she could, "I don't know what happened to you, but whatever it was, I think it's time for you to be perfect again! I _know_ it! And you know what? You might be, too! You look like you ought to be quite dazzling. I'll be looking forward to seeing both of you---perfect again!"

Meri's heart had already skipped several beats, but then it skipped about five more! Since she had been in The Lands, this was the _first_ time that it had been suggested, by someone with special knowledge, that the Tackling Dummy might _really_ become okay! This sounded like _more than hope_ , she thought! It was _so_ important to her! She could have given little Finxi a very big hug! But her attention was caught by the look on the Tacking Dummy's face after Finxi had spoken. She had never seen his eyes glow like that before!

And now, she was also hopeful for Leo!

Finxi was definitely about to leave a second time. Her friends ahead had stopped to wait for her. She had had such an effect on Wut, though, that she gave him a big hug before she did. He was still bouncing slowly in place, thinking about everything Finxi had said--- _and everything that he could think of about a Parliament of Now and Later_.

His eyes, which had been stunned at first, had changed to astonishment and now they began sparkling! He had an idea what this news might mean to The Lands. For he himself had come into existence himself during the last Parliament!

"I'm glad I was able to help you with all this information," Finxi told Wut, releasing him from the big hug which disheveled her short blond yarn hair. It's rather hard to hug a question mark who must continue to bounce!

"Her caramel yarn looks so attractive," Meri thought.

"But please calm down!" Finxi said to Wut.

"Good luck!" she said to Leo and the Tackling Dummy, tapping each on the shoulder as she walked by them, for they had drifted on by when she was talking to Wut.

"Thanks," they both said to her. She was enormously likeable.

She put her hand on Meri's forearm as she went by her, too, smiling an endearing smile at the same time.

"Hi," she said softly to the flesh and blood dummy that so many dummies in The Lands were talking about. Meri's arm felt warm. With a pang of lingering regret, she wished she had time to talk to the attractive flesh and blood dummy who seemed so friendly and who seemed to want to talk to her, from the look in her pretty eyes of an aqua color she had never seen before. But just too much was going on in The Lands just then!

"Hi," said Meri, feeling the same way.

Stopping beside Jethro for a moment, she also patted him on a black and gold and yellow patch on his huge neck, saying, "I'm ready for another one of those rides on your back across The Yellow Trampoline again. And this time, I promise you, _I'm going to stay on_ \---I'm not going to fall off. You're not going to have _that_ satisfaction again! Just wait!"

Jethro leaned his spiral unicorn down gently for just one second across the blond yarn hair on the top of the little dummy's head. _She had never been able to stay on his back as he bounced all the way across The Yellow Trampoline!_

"Okay. We'll see how long you can hang on, if you want to try again," he said in his deep voice, with a laugh at the same time. The whimsical look in his brown eyes suggested he was definitely looking forward to the challenge. "But you'll have to do something different to stay on, when we get as high as you know _I_ like to go!"

Waving again at Meri, Finxi then walked on because the Parliament was about to begin. Meri was thinking, with several additional darts of disappointment as she watched the adorable dummy walk away,

_"Is there no end to the dummies I'd like to get to know better here?"_

The Tackling Dummy had been pondering something very seriously for some time. Then he spoke. "Parliament? That sounds like England."

Meri was also wondering about that.

"Oh really?" answered Wut. "No, this is the _Parliament of Now and Later_ , which takes place in _The Land of Now and Later_. It's one of the many ways that The Lands can get better---and certainly one of the most important, because of its vast power to change The Lands. But what is especially endearing---and valuable---about it is that the dummies make the final decisions themselves. And so they have to think. It's their lives and the quality of their being. Any change in The Lands obviously involves an awesome responsibility, affecting a few and perhaps many--and for a long long time."

He glanced over at Leo, whom he knew thought a lot about The Lands when he was upP in the trees. Leo's eyes were agreeable. He couldn't have agreed more with what Wut was saying. He was one of the ones who cared the most about The Lands getting better---or at least he was one of the ones who thought about it the most and talked about it the most.

"I myself am an example," Wut added, grinning. And then he added something else that made them think. "Suppose I hadn't been made at the last Parliament? Suppose I weren't here?"

He was just being good-natured. He thought he was making a joke about himself. He certainly wasn't one to praise himself. It was extremely rare for him to be that lighthearted. He was usually too concerned about something going wrong somewhere in The Lands. His mind was occupied with helping. When he spoke so lightheartedly about his presence in The Lands, he showed that he didn't have the slightest idea of his true importance in The Lands and how beloved he was by so many. Thinking always of others, he just never thought about himself.

But Leo knew. And the others knew. In a rare show of emotion, Leo put his arm across the back of his slender black friend and surprised him by answering, "You know, you're the only one in The Lands who isn't from a land. You're the only one who's from _every land_. That's how important you are. And that's how much we care about you. I can't imagine that that Parliament in the past could have had so much wisdom."

When Wut slowly looked up, he was so moved by these words that he was shaken. He was having trouble with his eyes. It didn't help when he saw that the others were all nodding their heads in complete agreement.

Even Meri and the Tackling Dummy, who had been in The Lands only a few days, were nodding.

They already knew the truth of that.

# Chapter XIII: THE HILLSLOPES

Soon the friends were among the crowd of dummies moving in the direction they had noticed earlier. From a great distance Wut could be seen rising up above the others and then falling. He was easy to recognize by so many whom he hadn't seen in too long!

The colors around the six friends, in the yarns of the yarn dummies and the canvases of the stuffed dummies, were universally attractive.

Many of the dummies were taking a special look at Meri, too, the only dummy like them they had ever seen, or even heard about, _who was made of flesh and blood_. There had been much talk about her, across The Lands, and now many dummies were actually getting a chance to see her in person!

There was _a lot_ of looking at Meri, between and around dummies!

Besides greeting Wut and Jethro, many friends were also greeting Leo who, of course, had always kept mostly to himself. But he was very polite and friendly in his answers to those who wanted to speak to him. Some were dummies he had helped in many different situations, in different lands. He was obviously a dummy admired greatly.

Many in the crowd behind him were shocked and hurt at the sight of his back. Conversations could be overheard about it. Not a few were respectfully and sorrowfully asking what had happened to his famous canvas.

"As you well know," Wut said, continuing his explanation mainly to Meri and the Tackling Dummy and Perfit---as best he could among so many dummies trying to greet him---"there are mainly two kinds of dummies in The Lands: yarn and stuffed. These for the most part make up the two houses in the Parliament I told you about.

"The yarn dummies represent the lands with yarn dummies, and the stuffed representatives make up the other half of the Parliament. The numbers are about even. Each house has to approve something for it to pass. You'll see. _We'll_ see," he corrected himself, adding, "I've never actually been present at a Parliament myself."

He was still intensely excited---almost bursting with excitement. But he was trying not to show it. He had calmed himself down enough to regain most of his composure. But his eyes had a special brightness, he was smiling more than usual, and he was looking all around as he spoke. It was surprising how well he was able to bounce through the large crowd. One reason he was able to do it so well was that so many dummies knew him. When they saw him, they automatically made way for his unique method of travel and to have an opportunity to speak to him.

"There it is, just beyond that hill!" he suddenly announced, pointing, when he was above the crowd, at the top of a bounce. By being able to go higher than everyone else, he could see things ahead before they could, especially in this prodigious crowd.

A lot of expectant sounds and conversation spread outward from the dummies who heard him. Many weren't quite sure what he meant, however.

As the crowd progressed, Meri began to see a land emerging ahead, one blazing with the colors of flowering trees. In the air above it was a colorful mist, all over the land. As they drew nearer, and Meri was looking, she realized that what was in the air was a mist of tiny flower petals from the many blooming trees and shrubs all over. It was like an unusually pretty cloud---only it was made of many different colors.

Soon they reached the actual edge of the new land and began to walk through the flowering trees and shrubs of seemingly every color, plentifully spaced apart. It wasn't long before they could see, ahead, that the mist they had been seeing---the flower mist---had taken the shapes of a set of delicate buildings with spires and towers.

_They reminded Meri unquestionably of the Houses of Parliament in England that her father had showed her pictures of so many times!_ But they were smaller, and of course they were assembled of many delicate colors.

Although obviously made of flower petals, they seemed to be holding together rather compactly---still with a floating quality, however.

Meri wondered how long they could stay together.

And the colors kept changing, as the mist of tiny flower petals moved around. The buildings were a beautiful sight, and Meri was amazed at how real they remained, even when dummies walked through the doors.

There were floating doors, and delicate windows, as well as flower-formed towers, spires, and walls, and Meri finally had to conclude that they _were_ real. They were simply real Parliament buildings that happened to be made of a continuously soft haze of the smallest flower petals.

Within the large number of dummies pouring that way, the six friends came to a large cozy square in front of The Houses of Parliament.

When they did, everyone's hair suddenly turned a beautiful light raspberry. Jethro, too, as large as he was, was light raspberry, and was remarkable. Meri had seen him that color before.

He was fantastic!

"Picups!" muttered Wut, looking around, knowing that his friend had to be somewhere near.

And then they saw him. He was right in the middle of the large square, surrounded by many dummies, both yarn and stuffed. In general, though, most of the canvas stuffed dummies around him were to his right, and an equal number of yarn stuffed dummies were to his left.

Remembering what Wut had said, Meri guessed that they were the representatives of The many Lands to the Parliament. All of the dummies in both uneven crowds were talking in many animated conversations. The smaller crowd in the middle, of both types of dummies, were talking to Picups.

All of these dummies looked happy, they looked excited, and they looked purposeful. Obviously they knew the meaning and importance of their being there. They knew full well the importance of the Parliament and of their forthcoming decisions!

The crowd of dummies in which Meri and the others were walking slowed down, drifted to the edge of the square and gradually stopped. Everyone, including Meri, had hair the color of light raspberry.

Catching sight of them, because Jethro was a mountain of light raspberry, Picups waved and then waded through the crowds of his many friends to get to them.

"Looks like I'm going to be the Speaker," he informed them, trying to be heard over so many speaking at once. He too was controlling his excitement, but it showed in his eyes.

"We're just about to start. Have you seen the Hillslopes yet?" he asked them.

Meri had liked his canvas when she had first met him. He was stuffed, like the Tackling Dummy, with equal areas of light violet and light silver, with a yellow star just above his left shoulder, in front. There was a facsimile of the Help Button on the back of his right leg, below the knee. She was glad to see it again. And of course, his hair---not yarn---was long and beautifully of light raspberry---the same color as everyone else's at that moment.

Because his hair was turning everyone else's that color!

Meri wondered just how his hair could do that, but she didn't think she'd ever understand. Tilting and shaking her head, she looked with satisfaction at her own raspberry colored hair as it floated down over her right eye. Then she hopefully looked around for Trutina and Cresco and Nox, her other friends of The Help Button. But she didn't see them yet.

To their left and over to the side, quite prominently blazing with color, was a rounded hill sloping neatly up all the way around. Many dummies were standing and gazing at its sides with considerable interest.

This was obviously The famous Hillslopes. Meri could already see that on it, all the way around it, were many many different kinds of flowers arranged in curiously attractive pictures, some of them including words. These pictures, she recalled from the conversation with Finxi, referred to problems that needed solving in The Lands.

Picups suggested they look at The Hillslopes quickly, before he called The Parliament to order.

They eagerly hurried over. Wut, although he wasn't heavy at all, almost knocked a dummy or two over twice in his haste to get there to see what was represented by these pictures.

"Sorry," he mumbled with embarrassment both times.

Scanning the graphics of the prettily growing flowers, which reminded Meri immensely of her yard at home and of her mother's designs, she caught her breath suddenly.

Her eyes bulged out.

_One of the pictures seemed to be of her!_ Gently, and wonderingly, and as calmly as she could, she walked over to stand directly in front of it. The dummies who were already there gladly stepped to either side to make room for her---for obvious reasons. They knew who she was---the flesh and blood visitor they had been hearing so much about. They also thought the flowers were about her, too!

Looking, Meri saw in flowers of just the right colors a young girl wearing bib overall jeans shorts with a coral top. The girl was very attractive, causing Meri to modestly re-consider for a moment if it actually was she, even though the eyes of the girl were clearly the same color as hers, although flowers.

When she saw the word _England_ in yellow and light lavender petals just below the graphic, she knew for sure who the girl was!

Still with her eyes especially wide, Meri looked over at her friends and at other dummies, who, she discovered, were looking at her pleasantly, and also sadly. For they had all seen the picture and had guessed what it meant. But they didn't want her to leave! Meri was sure she saw a tear in the Tackling Dummy's eye as he looked over at her with sadness for himself but also gladness for her.

Now it looked like Meri herself was going to have a part in The Parliament. She felt inside the same excitement she had already seen in Wut and Picups and in many others. Her interest then _exploded,_ and _she avidly looked around at everything there was to see and all that was going on!_

The friends standing there also saw two other surprising pictures of themselves among the many images.

_There was the Tackling Dummy looking bright with new canvas shown by tiny silver flowers_. Underneath was the flower-written word, in tiny glittering letters, _canvas_. Glancing over at her friend, now standing beside her, Meri was enormously pleased at the look on his worn and battered face. She had never seen him look so radiant!

Leo also, they discovered, was shown, further to the right on the slope. The image of the dummy shown was bright yellow with identical designs around the middle that Meri had seen around Leo, clearly portraying the seasons, and above, space. Beneath this image also were the following words, in letters that seemed to have all of the colors Meri had ever seen in The Lands: "For both upP and down, and with gratitude, canvas."

This was certainly Leo!

Imagine their surprise at seeing yet _another_ picture of the Tackling Dummy, including him in one of The Lands. To Meri, it looked like The Land of the Croapfs, because of the other figures there who looked like croapfs. Meri guessed that this picture meant that the Tackling Dummy was officially going to be accepted and welcomed as one of the dummies of The Lands. And that this special land had been chosen for him to be in! How happy she was for him! And how perfect!

There was even a picture of Perfit with her flying wand, but although they wondered about it, no one could be sure exactly what it meant. The little dummy, so attractive in her light rose and yellow windmill dress with the pink flowers, was very excited the instant she first saw it. Her long hair, not in the picture but on her head, was an incredible light raspberry tint in the sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but she refused to discuss the picture, because of what she hoped so much it meant!

Meri thought she could recognize parts of other flower rectangles, although she wasn't sure about too much. One looked like the Trazots she had seen beside the Mistercald, and another one close by seemed to be of the Htooos, the dummies made of water. One square seemed to include a collection of Wrong Kites, and another a dummy who seemed to be wearing one of the Roof Hats.

Many of these graphics, although quite intriguing, remained simply puzzling. They would have to be figured out in time.

There was one especially interesting picture with a message below it. It was the picture the farthest from the Parliament square and not visible from there. It was, mystifyingly, just a simple picture, framed in a circle of light blue flowers, of a single croapf---the second one showing a member of that land. In tiny peach colored letters, so small that they were almost inconspicuous below it, two single words could just barely be read. The letters seemed to say: right now.

There was also a picture of a Buffalo Unicorn, but it didn't seem to be of Jethro, who was eyeing it very keenly. "I think it's Smithery," Perfit whispered softly to Meri, holding her arm. Looking over at their enormous friend Jethro, Meri could see a faraway whimsical look in his eyes. Tiny rays of light were twinkling in the sunshine around the tip of his long white spiral, and there was a tiny but beautiful cloud of flower petals hovering just above that.

This beautiful little cloud stayed just above Jethro's unicorn the whole time he was in the land. At the moment, as huge as he was, and completely light raspberry because of Picups, he looked quite charming indeed with that tiny multicolored cloud just above him.

He looked over at Meri. "I hope this means there's going to be another visitor at Rose Mountain soon," he said just above a whisper to his friend. Like Perfit, he was afraid to say too much, or anything too loudly, beforehand---until the Parliament had acted! He just hoped it meant what he thought.

"They're starting," swept through the crowd, in many voices.

So everyone who was looking at other things hurried excitedly back to the edge of the large square before The Houses of Parliament, with their colorful towers and spires. The flower petals floated delicately in the shapes of these buildings, remaining steadfast in their impressive designs just behind the square on which The Parliament was to meet.

With her own exquisitely attractive light raspberry colored hair, beside Perfit with her beautifully long also light raspberry hair, beside the amazing light raspberry Buffalo Unicorn, so enormous, and with the Tackling Dummy and Leo and Wut nearby, Meri began trying to spot Picups to see when he was actually going to begin everything. But it was difficult, since everyone's hair was exactly the same color as their friend's!

Meri smiled at the idea! She didn't know this many dummies were in The Lands. And they all had hair exactly the same color! It was quite a sight!

Her heart had begun to beat faster when she had seen the pictures on The Hillslopes. She had been glad and excited to see the one of the Tackling Dummy. The one of her had startled her. But now she was nervous about it, even scared. She was afraid she was about to leave The Lands.

Was she going to have to tell the Tackling Dummy goodbye? It was something she just couldn't do.

A very important part of her didn't want to leave at all. She loved The Lands. All of them. She loved all of her friends. Standing there, she looked at Wut and then at Jethro and then at Perfit, her only sister. And she had been growing especially fond of Leo, who looked over at her.

Her heart was about to burst with love for her friends. And then, she saw some more.

# Chapter XIV: THE PARLIAMENT OF NOW AND LATER

Across the clearing, _whom should Meri see but Sylvestra and Aquamarie, standing there together!_ She was so pleased to see them. They had seen her and the others, _they were all waving frantically_ , but the crowd had become too tightly packed for any of them to navigate through. So, with gestures and smiles, everyone decided to wait until the end of the Parliament, or until a break, to meet and talk to each other.

And then, Faye suddenly arrived. She joined them, squeezing in beside the Tackling Dummy. The two had developed a special friendship after Faye had fallen into The Land of Pink Windmills. He seemed unusually glad to see her.

This was unbelievable!

The colorful floating mist of tiny flower petals from the trees and shrubs, so brightly in bloom all over The Land of Now and Later, was everywhere around them in the air now, just barely noticeable. Most of it had formed the Parliament buildings.

Meri marveled that, except for the Parliament buildings and Jethro, dummies were practically all she could see. She was getting an idea of how many dummies there are in The Lands! A few late ones were still arriving all the time!

She never could have imagined how the dummies looked around her at that time: for they represented almost all of The Lands in their beautiful differences. Many were there from lands she didn't even know about yet. She wondered a lot as she gazed around. They were all designed so perfectly!

There was a lot of talking all over the huge crowd. Evidently the dummies weren't used to this type of gathering: to seeing so many of their fellow dummies at the same place. The excitement would have been hard to measure, but the sounds of the conversations all over everywhere gave an idea. Sometimes Meri, Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, Leo, and Wut, close together at the edge of the square, even had trouble hearing each other! But they didn't mind, because everyone else's excitement was a part of theirs.

Jethro looked splendid. He almost knocked everyone's eyes out with his color and his shape, he was so huge. To look at him, you had to look at an enormous amount of light raspberry light all at once, with the little cloud of flower mist in the air just above his bright white unicorn! He was quite a presence.

But the time had finally come.

"Silence!" called Picups from a raised Speaker's stand, pleasantly decorated in the middle of the square. From the other side the central aisle came down to it, surrounded it like a little island, and then came on toward the friends.

The crowd hushed, the undertone taking a few seconds to fade away. The representatives of The Lands had assembled and were sitting on small seats arranged in curving rows on either side of Picups, facing him. The aisle was in the middle. The yarn dummies were on the left and the cotton-stuffed dummies were on the right.

All eyes were on Picups as he looked around and waited patiently for the silence he had just asked for.

One representative was _not_ sitting in those seats, though. For, at that moment, Jethro and his friends recognized Meridia, Jethro's mother, just arriving at the other end of the aisle separating the two groups of seated representatives.

Obviously she had to remain in the aisle, because she was neither a yarn dummy nor a cotton-stuffed dummy. She couldn't really be with _either_ of these groups. More importantly, there was no seat that could hold _her!_

She had arrived late because she had wanted to get a permanent before appearing in public. Her fur was now beautifully curled and combed, light raspberry in color. She was gorgeous!

Both she and Jethro exchanged expressions above the crowd, which they were able to do because they were so much bigger and taller than everyone else. Jethro's were, of course, whimsical and approving; Meridia's eyes were especially animated.

Meridia then waggled her unicorn and fluttered her ears to respond to the friendly waves of Meri, Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, Faye, and Wut. She mouthed the words, "Glad to see you!" Afterwards she could be seen speaking flamboyantly to many other friends.

But then Meri was enraptured all over again. She _actually saw Ello among the representatives, representing The Land of Lavender Thought!_

And then she saw _Fico in one of the seats, representing The Land of Pink Windmills!_

And then Tatch _was there for The Land of Loving Yellow!_ Meri could hardly believe seeing so many of her friends at once! The importance of the Parliament grew in her mind with every new friend she saw.

But seeing them was also frustrating. She could hardly contain herself: she was jumping up and down in place as she recognized each friend and waving energetically and meaningfully, although the crowd was so close together. The crowd smiled and understood. They knew she couldn't call to anyone because Picups had officially asked for silence. And they knew she was the little girl dummy of flesh and blood, the only one anyone had ever seen.

Although the ceremony was just starting, Meri was already looking forward to its end, so she could see all of her friends!

But she didn't want to hurry it either. It was all so important!

She, and her friends beside her in the crowd, continued to exchange a lot of looks with dummies whom they knew and with Meridia ---and with each other, too, they were all so excited!

And then the Parliament began.

"Stand!" called out Picups to the Representatives, when he was satisfied that the noise had diminished to a respectful level.

"Welcome to The Parliament of Now and Later, which is also officially known as The Parliament of All The Lands," he intoned in an important voice to the Representatives and to everyone from all over The Lands in the massive crowd.

"You will now receive your official wigs," he announced to the Representatives only. "Please file slowly inside."

The Representative dummies, with Meridia last, filed solemnly into the shimmering light aqua (at that moment, for the colors kept changing) left door of the central building. One by one they soon emerged from the right one, each wearing a beautiful official wig of The Parliament of All The Lands, placed as dignifiedly on their heads as possible.

Although all the wigs were of different styles, each was the same color as Picups' hair, as was the hair of every dummy standing all around for quite a distance. It was a wonderful color, and the effect was untiringly pleasing. Meri noticed that although there was quite a large number of delegates seated in the square, the wig of each delegate looked stunning, although each was different from every other one.

That was quite an accomplishment!

Meridia was last, and she looked especially gorgeous in her light raspberry wig, which was quite a large one. Meri then suddenly remembered that when they had been in The Land of Buffalo Unicorns, Meridia, admiring Perfit's always spectacular hair, had surprised everyone by saying that she wanted a wig of precisely the same color and beauty. She had gotten her wish: a beautiful wig, but not exactly the color she had specified.

But it was the same color as Perfit's hair at that particular moment!

"How unusual," Meri thought, observing her friend with intense interest and also with affection, remembering.

There was a look of immense pleasure on Meridia's face as she walked out of the important looking right door, which was a mist of floating petals, like the whole building was. She was the last one to exit, and her smile was bountiful. She, clearly to all present, loved that wig, although not her first color of choice. Luckily there had been a mirror in the hall inside, and she had gotten to see exactly how she looked!!

The official buildings, with their towers and spires, behind the open square changed from a silver rose to a silvery yellow, and then slowly to a silvery combination of the two, with light aqua and a soft lavender beginning to take over. These colors, and the outlines they formed, were a comforting and reassuring background behind the seated Representatives and Picups.

Picups officially rapped a gavel from the light caramel colored Speaker's desk. "I don't think we have any Old Business," he spoke out carefully. "Are we ready to begin our New Business?"

"Mr. Speaker, Point of Order!" surprisingly called out Meridia from her place, in her melodious voice which also contained some excited tones that everyone noticed. There was a low friendly tittering among the crowd.

"Order!!" demanded Picups firmly but respectfully, tapping the gavel again. "Meridia?"

"Mr. Speaker," she said again, "I hope you won't think I'm being disrespectful to you by making this motion. You know I love you, and so I hope you won't mind; and knowing you, I don't think you will. But the truth is, I'm dying to know what the real color of my wig is. So, I move that during these proceedings, we turn off your hair."

Sounds of surprise were heard among the crowd, and some laughter.

"Any discussion?" asked Picups, looking calmly around. He didn't seem to be bothered by the idea. His hair had colored everyone else's hair for so long that he genuinely understood and didn't mind at all. Dummies usually liked the change, but that was when they already knew the color of their hair.

There was no discussion, and the Representatives voted to turn off his hair by a unanimous vote of hands and two white spiral unicorns lifted high up into the air, because that was how Jethro and Meridia voted.

As soon as the affirmative vote was taken, the wigs suddenly returned to their own original colors again, as well as the hair of all the dummies who were standing and watching in the seemingly unending crowd spread all around. It was a splendid and dramatic sudden change of color.

As soon as the change took place, the crowd unthinkingly went, "Oooohhhhhhh," at what they saw.

Jethro, right beside Meri, became his own marvelous colors again. But then Meri saw Meridia. She couldn't believe her eyes!!

Her wig was exactly the same color and beauty as Perfit's hair! There she stood, with long blond curls spilling all over her head and around her. She looked adorable! And, unaccountably, she had gotten her wish!

Meridia's eyes were glowing as she turned them to look at all of her soft curls of light golden yellow hanging down. She couldn't have been happier.

The wig of each of the seated Representatives was a unique color---no two colors were represented.

"And now for our New Business," Picups continued, smiling as he saw what had happened to Meridia. "We've all looked at the Hillslopes. Let's solve some of our problems. If any of you have any suggestions of your own, they are acceptable, too," he reminded the Representatives. He was upholding a tradition that _any_ dummy could be heard in the Parliament.

"Mr. Speaker," spoke up a Representative that Meri couldn't see, except for the top of his wig which was light green.

Immediately the wigs of the delegates and the hair of everyone in the crowd became precisely that same color: light green. Jethro beside Meri was instantaneously an immense light green.

A wave of surprise and awe swept across the dummies surrounding the square, and everyone now realized the value of Meridia's motion about turning off Picups' hair. Some of the dummies even faintly remembered the same changes in earlier Parliaments. By cutting her eyes, Meri noticed with delight the light green of her own hair on either side of her head.

Picups tapped the gavel again, and everyone quickly became used to the change in the coloration of his or her own hair, especially since everyone else's was the same color. Secretly, though, all the dummies present began to wait with interest for a different speaker, to see what would happen to their hair next!

"Mr. Speaker," the unseen delegate with the light green wig repeated, "I move that the Parliament use its power to change whatever is wrong with the croapfs and to make them right again."

There were many many sounds of approval from the crowd, and a lot of dummies actually clapped. Meri noticed that their clapping was different from what she was used to: it was softer.

She guessed that the delegate was from a land near The Land of the Croapfs, and that his land had been suffering from the closeness, just as The Land of Pink Windmills had suffered from the attention of the croapfs for a different reason. She sincerely hoped they hadn't had problems as immense as those which had come to The Land of Pink Windmills!

Picups quickly restored order again with his gavel, the vote was taken, and the croapfs, many lands over, instantaneously became normal again. They had become troubled without knowing why, and now, suddenly they were themselves again. Many smiles appeared in that land, and there was a lot of discussion about what had happened. They also began thinking about flying creative original airplanes (paper) again. But first they had to make them!

The law passed by The Parliament of Now and Later made the change that simply.

"Mr. Speaker," Fico rose, and Meri's heart beat a little faster. His wig had returned to lavender after the vote, and the moment he spoke, everyone's hair turned that precise color. Meri couldn't suppress a quick laugh when Jethro became an immensity of lavender beside her. He calmly laid his eyes on her for a few moments, as if to question why she was laughing when she looked so absurd herself with her own lavender hair! And then he whimsically looked again over at his mother, who was a lovely immensity of lavender on the other side. She kept cutting her eyes with pleasure around at her wig of that color, and then around at her new coat of that color, with great enjoyment. She couldn't have been happier!

"I move," continued Fico, "that the Tackling Dummy's canvas be restored to new again."

Meri's heart began to race within her as the Tackling Dummy, beside her, found her hand, squeezed it, and stepped out of the crowd and into the square.

A moaning sound arose from the onlooking dummy guests when they saw him in his canvas which had recently been through The Land of Firecracker Hail---after it had been in pitiable condition before. Aquamarie had done her best patching him, but his canvas had been in such shreds and had been burnt so badly in the back that the patches hadn't had a chance to hold, especially against the firecracker hail. The looks on the faces of all the dummies there, including the Representatives, continued to be sympathetic, after their first shock at his appearance. What canvas he had was very faded, as well as patched, torn, and blasted.

At the vote, every delegate thrust his or her hand into the air with a vigor that indicated their sympathy and support.

With the sounds of the gavel going down once and the single word "Passed!" by Picups, suddenly the Tackling Dummy stood there brightly in unquestionably new silver gray canvas, looking handsome.

He looked down at himself and seemed to choke at what he saw. His canvas was beautiful. His eyes met Meri's for a moment, and she was so happy for him. Breaking free of the crowd, she rushed out and hugged him, trying to blink back her tears but utterly failing. His canvas had a new feel, a wonderful smoothness and strength which she loved and was so happy about.

"You look perfect," she told him in his ear. He still had a stunned look on his face. And then he smiled. To his surprise, the nearby crowd then poured into the clearing, and he was hugged by all who could get near him, except for Jethro who put his spiral unicorn on the new canvas of his shoulder. In fact, there was a universal hug there for a few moments, as everyone pressed in in a welcoming and glad way toward him. Word had been spreading through the crowd that he had been treated badly somewhere outside of The Lands, and many already knew the story of the recent happenings in The Land of Firecracker Hail. Some even knew that he had saved Meri from the fireballs in The Land of Pink Windmills. And everyone told what they knew.

"Oh, look at your patch," cried Meri, stepping back to look at him again and discovering the new patch on the left front of his chest.

Instead of the British flag, which had originally been on him, a square patch now showed four figures: Meri on the upper left, wearing her overall bib jeans and her coral top, and smiling; Wut bouncing on green grass on the upper right, looking out at whoever was looking at the patch; Perfit with her wonderful hair and special beauty, flying with a flying wand in the picture on the lower left; and Jethro from the side but with his head turned forward, with a whimsical look on his face, on the lower right.

Making sure especially to look at the splendid new canvas on his back, Meri also discovered, just below his right shoulder, a cheerful yellow sentence of just four words: _Reading is a light._

"My own thought," commented the Tackling Dummy approvingly, when he heard of it. But try as hard as he could, he couldn't get a glimpse of the words himself.

"Thank you!" he cried heartfeltly to all the members of the Parliament, who had risen to look at him.

Picups, who knew the Tackling Dummy and so had allowed this minor celebration, now called for order again, rapping.

"May I suggest a vote?" Wut called, bouncing out into the clearing.

Everyone's hair, still lavender, returned to its normal color again since Wut didn't have any hair.

"Could you move The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains, also called The Land of Better Lending, over one land to be beside The Land of the Croapfs, where the Tackling Dummy has suggested that he might want to live? As you know, The Lending Library is in The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains, and the Tackling Dummy will need to have it close by, to have convenient access to its unabridged dictionary and other books. If no one objects, I think this would be a good idea." And then he turned to the Tackling Dummy, who was still, understandably, looking at his fantastic new canvas.

"Is that where you would like to be?" he asked.

"Please," answered the Tacking Dummy, looking up, his voice sounding a little stronger because he was speaking with the new canvas of his face. "And thanks," he added, to his great friend.

No one objected, and the vote passed easily. Meri was amazed. "How could they be more gracious or welcoming," she thought to herself, "than to actually move one of their Lands for him?" She was so appreciative of the spirit of friendliness of the dummies of The Lands. She knew her friend the Tackling Dummy was going to be happy here.

"Thank you again," answered the Tackling Dummy gratefully, still looking down to check his canvas every now and then, it was all so hard to believe. In fact, as Meri had thought, he was quite happy already. Meri noticed that Faye was standing beside him, on the other side, and that she often looked up at him admiringly. Once her hand briefly joined his as he leaned over to whisper something to her.

Next Finxi, the adorable little caramel colored dummy, with the endearing smile, whom they had met beside The Land of Firecracker Hail, got up. She moved to restore Leo's once unmatchable yellow canvas, with its design of the seasons and space. Her wig, a light periwinkle blue, made everyone else's hair that color too the moment she began to speak.

Leo was restored to perfection again, and there was a huge display of affection for him, too, just as for the Tackling Dummy. More dummies knew him, and he always kept himself aloof, but he was very loved because of his actions and his spirit. So they crowded around him, and it was the most he had ever interacted with the other dummies of The Lands in his life. The admiration and respect they had always felt for him, at a distance, just burst forth in affection, and he was genuinely moved.

However, more restrained and private than the Tackling Dummy, Leo conveyed his thanks as graciously, as well as he could, and then, with his great speed, suddenly departed so quickly and with such skill, that almost no one detected that he had gone. Everyone thought he was still somewhere else in the crowd. Only Tatch, also from The Land of Loving Yellow, from the other side of the clearing understood exactly what had happened and silently, in her mind, wished her private longtime friend well. She, and everyone else, would see him again now and then, but not often, in the trees of The Lands, where he loved to be, thinking and helping dummies, and where he preferred to be called upP.

Other votes were taken. Perfit (everyone's hair was tinted light peach) was given her own flying wand, just slightly faster than the fast one Meri had been using. Now that the croapfs were normal again, the regular flying wands needed to be returned to them, for they used them in their own land to test their new creative original paper airplanes.

As part of the vote, Perfit was asked to help ferry dummies across the Mistercald River from time to time. She was elated, and as she was the youngest dummy in all The Lands---and as she was very beautiful and extraordinarily nice---everyone who was there and who hadn't met her yet fell in love with her.

Another vote gave the Roof Hats more intelligence. The motion was offered by a dummy who had a lot of white in her yarn, but whose wig was solid black. And then a funny thing happened. As soon as Picups gaveled the measure "Passed!" the hair of everyone, instead of returning to its original color, as after the other votes, gradually changed from black to a marvelous spirit lifting pink. It remained that way during a brief interval in which everyone was surprised at the difference. Eventually everyone decided that this perhaps had been a kind of mysterious celebration that no more dummies would be blown up so violently in The Land of Firecracker Hail again.

Now the Roof Hats could simply enjoy being in The Land of Firecracker Hail, when the hail comes down, with their protective hats on, as well as in The Land of the Hoop Tree Forest. The Roof Hats are the only dummies in The Lands with two lands.

And then a vote was taken to restore and bring back all the dummies who had been blown to pieces and destroyed by The Land of Firecracker Hail. When Meri saw this happen, this Parliament, already dear to her, became even more so!

Next (everyone's hair turned to bright silver) those dummies being held up by Wrong Kites were allowed to descend, if they were sincerely regretful and had completely changed during their time up in the sky; and the problem with the gradual descent of the kites was fixed.

The result was spectacular. All over the sky, dummies holding onto Wrong Kites of different shapes and colors floated back down. Everyone in the Parliament and all the guests took time out to watch them drift down to The Land of Now and Later---and they could be observed coasting down over all the other nearby lands too. For those who fell into The Land of Now and Later, it was clearly much later---they had been up in the sky over The Lands a long time! The assembled guests welcomed all of them back and congratulated them.

Meri, of course, didn't see Gozzard among them.

The Land of the Trazots, who were not there, was improved so that Trazots who fell in love with Htooos became _dummies of stuffed canvas_ with the bright and realistic coloring of flames. The Land of the Htooos, who also were not there, was similarly improved so that Htooos who fell in love with Trazots became _yarn dummies_ with a beautiful design of aquamarine.

Meri liked these changes, which were also popular with those around her. The Trazots who had been extinguished after falling in love with Htooos, and the Htooos who had cried themselves away to nothing afterwards in tears, were returned among them. Meri liked the new designs, and she enjoyed seeing the dummies in love together again.

After this last vote, everyone's hair slowly but appropriately dissolved from the navy blue of the mover's wig into a grayish aqua reminiscent of water. Then the unique colors of the wigs and the hair of all the dummies came back, as well as the normal appearances of Jethro and Meridia.

During all these changes, the top of Wut's head seemed to glow according to the colors indicated. He looked very happy.

Then Meridia made the hair of everyone, except for Perfit, a bright yellow, by moving that her other son, Smithery, would no longer be prevented from leaving The Land of Buffalo Unicorns. She included in her motion the request that this problem would never occur again to anyone else in The Land of Buffalo Unicorns.

At the moment that the law was passed, it so happened that Smithery was trying one more time to leave The Land of Buffalo Unicorns. As usual, he was trying on the side that had the view of Rose Mountain, which he had wanted for so long to climb and then to coast down for eight minutes on one of the little cars. To his surprise, and delightfully shattering his usual hopelessness, he ran right out of the land on this try. But he was so used to being prevented each time he tried that he lost his balance looking back to verify that he had at last succeeded. There was a small slope there, and he ridiculously rolled over and over all the way to the bottom, laughing and saying the word "O _ut!"_ in as many happy ways as he could think of.

He was free!

Another thing that had happened was that his legs just hadn't expected to be able to keep on running once he got to the end of the land, and they got confused when nothing stopped them!

When he ran out of happy ways to say the word "Out!" they became unconfused, and he began running!

Reaching the beautiful rose colored Eight Minute Mountain, he galloped right to the top, on feet made especially light and nimble by long suppressed eagerness. Soon he was descending playfully and joyously in the cart that had been made especially for him---just as he had daydreamed himself doing so many times.

It took him exactly eight minutes.

His smile, going down, was also an eight minute smile. And then it lasted longer than that even.

Back in the Parliament, there followed a long discussion about whether to change The Land of Dark, also known as The Land of Too Shy Izzits. It was eventually decided not to, because the Izzits were already working hard to overcome their shyness. The Teacup Tornado, which came through regularly, was a great help. Listening, Meri thought affectionately of her friend Art/Nart and wondered what he was doing then. Of course there was no Representative there from The Land of Dark, for the obvious reason.

These easy decisions had been made. There were other problems in The Lands that remained to be solved---some of them quite difficult---when the assembled Parliament, and the alert crowd, next heard Picups say, "Meri, would you please step forward?"

Meri's heart almost stopped beating when she heard that sentence. She looked across the square---at Picups, who nodded his head up and down in a friendly encouraging way---and then at her friends around her. Her face was expressionless.

The crowd of hundreds and hundreds of dummies, from all around The Lands, murmured expectantly and curiously as the only flesh and blood dummy they had ever seen walked forward nervously, with many emotions, to the middle of the Parliament. Up the aisle, between the yarn delegates on the left, and the stuffed cotton representatives on the right, among so many official wigs, she slowly made her way.

Stopping uncertainly a few feet from the Speaker's platform, she looked up at Picups. He had spoken, but because his hair had been turned off, everyone's hair remained its own color. Hers was light brown.

Meri was standing in the center of dummies from all over The Lands. There was an uncountable number, in every direction except for the Parliament buildings. The colors she could see in every direction were unimaginable. For a few brief seconds she turned her head slowly around to look back at everyone. Every dummy there was staring kindly at her, including so many that she didn't even know! She had the feeling that they wanted to be friends with her, though.

And among them all she saw many of the special friends that she _did_ know _,_ from the lands she had been in _._ The caring on their faces for their flesh and blood friend was obvious. Seeing them made this moment so much better---and also so much harder---for her!

So many thoughts, as she remembered everything she had done in The Lands, were racing through her mind. And her emotions were confusing her by pulling her in _so_ many directions as she thought! Her heart, however, which had pounded so when she was called up, now helped her by starting to slow down as she and Picups patiently waited for the quiet conversation of the interested and spirited and caring crowd to diminish to the right level again, so that The Parliament could continue.

There was no question that Meri loved these dummies, who were all around her. And Jethro and Meridia, too, of course. And also dear Wut, whom she knew was bouncing up and down on the sidelines not too far behind her, with her other daily friends. They were all watching her carefully, she knew. She turned to look at them especially, and smiled at these unbelievably dear friends.

She loved being in The Lands. Some of them could be seen in the distance, and she wondered what made _them_ unique.

The Parliament of Now and Later, the Representatives sitting all around her, clearly had the power to do whatever it truly thought was best for the present and the future. And now, there they were, about to consider what would be the best for _her_. Then they would pass the appropriate law. She now knew how the Parliament worked, how it brought changes to The Lands!

But what would they do about her? Certainly no one desired for her to leave. Just the opposite!

As her heart settled down a little, sadly she understood clearly what they were going to do---even before they decided. For she knew that the time had finally come for her to leave.

She knew that no matter how much she loved all these dummies, and no matter how much they loved her, and no matter how much she loved The Lands and being in them, she had to go where they had loved her first. That _had to be_ the decision, not because she was a flesh and blood dummy, but because she was a visitor. She had a father, and a mother, and an aunt, whom she also loved dearly, and another life, where she was greatly cared for by many many people. It was waiting for her. And she needed to go there.

But she would never stop loving these friends here either!

As she stood there, thinking these thoughts, convinced she was leaving, tears started to come into her eyes.

And then she thought of something _she_ wanted to say!

# Chapter XV: MERI

"Are you ready to go to England?" Picups asked Meri gently, looking down at her from his podium, before she had a chance to say anything.

Meri looked up into his sympathetic eyes. Her own aqua eyes were now more steady. She was gaining more control.

"No, not right now," she said honestly, as her many feelings continued to pull her this way and that. She glanced around quickly at her friends, the dummies whom she cared so much about, at Jethro and Meridia, and at the rest of the dummies there.

Many sounds of surprise came from the crowd, at her answer.

"What?" someone asked, incredulous.

"What did she say?" was heard in another direction.

And there were many other expressions of surprise at her words.

"But I know I have to" Meri added sadly, as she became calmer. "Is it all right if I say something first?"

"Of course, my dear," replied Picups kindly, relaxing for the moment. He laid the gavel down carefully and rested his hand beside it. He was ready to pick it up again when he needed to, as he enjoyed being the Speaker.

"Go ahead."

Meri thought for a moment as all eyes, so many, were focused on her. She cleared her throat nervously.

"I know I'm not a citizen of The Lands," she began.

"Stop right there!" interrupted Picups, picking up his gavel again. "Did you hear that?" he asked the Parliament and everyone in the surrounding crowd.

"We did," replied many of the seated members, with their wigs on, and there were other affirmations.

Ello then stood up. Her wig was light hazel which happened to be exactly the color of Meri's eyes; and everyone's hair, including Jethro and Meridia, became exactly that color as soon as she spoke.

"Yes, we heard her say it," she replied. "And if you don't mind my interrupting just now, Mr. Speaker, I want to make a motion. I move, on the basis of everything Meri has done for The Lands, but mainly just because we love her, that she be made a citizen of The Lands forever. I think that she should always be one of us wherever she might happen to be. Not an honorary citizen---a real one. And we know she has made herself one anyway."

Tears began in Meri's eyes as she looked over at her friend Ello, who was looking back at her friend. Because Meri's own hair was the color of her eyes, she appeared remarkable.

"Yes!"

"Quite right!"

"Perfect!"

and

"Only right, agreed many of the members.

Almost everyone by this time had heard about how she had made a practically impossible jump, when she was afraid, from the huge Tower Tree to help The Land of Pink Windmills;

about how Sticktight had trusted her to carry the owingstones all the way across The Lands and that she had done so after first helping to save The Land of Pink Windmills with them;

about how she had helped save Jethro falling from the sky and about her talk with Pumphrey;

about her discovery in The Land of Haystack Swinging which had changed that land forever;

about her carrying the Wrong Kite to return it to The Land of Wrong Kites, being battered terrifically in The Land of Firecracker Hail and about, during that painful and devastating downpouring, her quick thinking and courage to remove Gozzard from hurting any more dummies in The Lands.

They had heard about how unfailingly nice she always is. And many other things about her, all positive.

Gaveling lightly, Picups asked everyone,

"All in favor?"

in the official voice he used as Speaker, and the hands of all of the Parliament members went up abruptly. Meri looked out at the crowd and saw that _all of their hands were up too_. Every one. She could hardly stand what she was feeling.

"Passed!" announced Picups with one tap, and not just the members of the Parliament, but everyone in the huge crowd there began to clap for the new citizen of The Lands.

"Thank you," began Meri, but all she could do was stand there for a few moments because all she could see was a huge blur made up of millions of colors. And she kept choking with emotions as she tried to speak. The crowd waited patiently and with anticipation for her to say what she had asked to say, but kept clapping.

Finally, as Picups gaveled them down, Meri composed herself and then spoke to everyone, excitedly, and with tears still in her eyes.

"When I first came here," she told them, "I never knew I was coming home. It's such an honor---and I will always be happy---to be one of _you_. That is so very very important to me! And I shall always try to be the best dummy that I possibly can be. I have to go away now, as you all know, but I _will_ be back. And I hope I can visit every one of you and get to know you when I do. Thank you again from all of my heart. You will always be there. I love you."

The dummies of The Lands, and Jethro and Meridia, were so touched by Meri's words and the emotion quivering in her voice that they remained in a soft silence, watching and waiting.

"What I was going to say at first," Meri continued, surprising them when she continued, for they hadn't realized she had something _else_ to say, "before you made me a dummy of The Lands, was that I was hoping you would let me make three suggestions. And now that I'm officially one of you, may I go ahead?"

"Please continue," invited Picups, gently laying down his gavel again and his hand right next to it. The crowd and the Representatives were listening intently.

"First," Meri said, her voice stronger now, "I don't know if the members of the Parliament will get to keep their wigs or not. But my friend Meridia whom you all know---Jethro's mother---had wanted a beautiful wig exactly the color of the one she has, the same color as Perfit's hair." Meri saw Perfit smile in the crowd.

"Ohhhhhhh," Meridia was heard to say from her place near the beautiful mist building, "I love that child. She is so sweet."

"So," Meri finished her motion, "could Meridia be allowed to keep her wig?"

The measure passed easily. A laugh had passed through the assembled crowd when Meridia, by raising her unicorn high, had voted especially energetically to keep her wig.

"Thank you" Meridia whispered loudly during the voting. "And from now on, please remember to look closely---because Perfit and I have practically become twins. And thank you again." She then cut her eyes sharply over to the side to look at her golden curls spilling down her shoulder.

"Second," resumed Meri, smiling, "I met Sticktight the Apple Tree when I went to The Autumnforest from The Ticket Tree one time. It seems that no one can talk like Sticktight." Here there were many voices of agreement, from those who had passed by where he was talking to himself or playing the game he and Meri had played together so well. Many had had their own memorable conversations with him.

"It seems," Meri continued, "like such a shame and so sad for such a wonderful talker to suddenly have to become so totally silent, and probably for so long. He has so much ability and he is such an interesting part of The Lands, I think. I know we took the owingstones to The Strawberry Patch, which is talking now, but do you think it would be possible to pass a law to give Sticktight a Talking License---that would let him talk whenever he wants to? We would gain as much as he would."

Meri liked so much saying, " _We_."

"An excellent idea," someone said, and everyone seemed to agree. A vote was taken, and in The Autumnforest, as Picups gaveled "Passed!" Sticktight the Apple Tree suddenly said,

"Happy pin adjectives. _I can talk!_ I know, because I'm talking! I need to know how this happened---because I know I don't have the owingstones anymore, Meri kindly took them when I asked her for the favor, so what can it be? Daisy wallets. I wonder where Meri is, by the way, I need to talk to her again...for a long long time, yes.

"Meri!" he called out playfully and hopefully through The Autumnforest, but there was no answer, for Meri at that moment was at the Parliament.

"I need an explanation," he continued, puzzled, "but I'm not questioning it. No, not at all. Thank you. Shiny bronze arguments and an absolutely adorable Talking License, if there is such a thing---it's like I _did_ get one from somewhere! But how could I have?

_"I'm talking without the owingstones!!_ " he suddenly yelled joyfully to the many beautiful trees of The Autumnforest, although they couldn't hear him. "I'll find out _some day_ , but what an absolutely marvelous day _today_ is! As certain as black certain is convincingly certain in this nice sunshine! There are clear words in the air of The Autumnforest today, at least here where I am, and I thank you for that and I thank you for my Talking License! It, if that's what it is, works perfectly! Did my new friend Meri have anything to do with this? I have an idea! Please come by again sometime, my dear friend! We need to talk!"

"Thank you all," Meri told the Parliament gratefully, having no idea her words were echoing the words of her friend Sticktight just then, whom she had helped so immensely by her thoughtfulness and her idea. In a flash of imagination, however, she saw Sticktight standing there in his clearing in The Autumnforest, with the yellow apples everywhere, suddenly finding he could talk again, and she deeply wished she could be a part of his conversation. It was too bad she couldn't have heard his first words!

"And finally," Meri got to her third idea, "Pumphrey the Water Spout saved Jethro, Wut, the Tackling Dummy, Leo, Perfit, and myself in The Land of Firecracker Hail. I think most of you have heard the story by now. I thought about it, and I was wondering if he does so much mischief because he's so lonely up there. There are so many of us dummies down here, and it's wonderful for us, because we can talk to each other and be with each other, and so many of you are so absolutely fantastic! _But there's only one of him,_ and he's up there _._ And he's so friendly! Think of him by himself up in the sky all the time, with no one to talk to most of the time. Do you think it would be a good idea if there were just _one more water spout_ in The Lands? I don't think two would be too many, and just think what a difference it would make to Pumphrey!"

"Why didn't we think of that?" someone said.

"I wouldn't want to be lonely," another voice commented.

And someone else added, "I would never want to be just one. Yes, he is up there all by himself. It must be hard. I know he's mischievous, but I never thought of him that way before---up there so high, with no one to talk to much, and mischievous to get someone to talk to. I think there's something to her idea."

After more discussion, they voted a new water spout, named Dian, in honor of Meri. She began her existence at that moment in the air of The Lands above The Autumnforest.

This was another reason for Meri to want to return to The Lands---as if she needed another one!

"Dian!" Meri thought, thrilled. "What will you be like?"

While they were passing the law, Pumphrey wasn't too far up in the air, looking at himself in the reflective water beside the one bridge over The Mistercald. There is a nice round place in the river before you get to the bridge, and he had gone there to remove the tons of firecracker debris out of himself after saving his friends at The Land of Firecracker Hail. In the process, he had added even more water to his swirling vaporous masses. As he looked down, he could see the shimmering, beautiful gray that was himself in the sunshine under the light blue sky. Slowly he ascended, wondering why no dummies were in sight at the moment, on either side of the river. He didn't see a single one.

"That's strange," he thought.

At that moment there was a movement in the air high over The Autumnforest. A beautiful light aqua waterspout, new to The Lands, was spinning around, just high enough to swirl the leaves in the tops of the trees slightly. Her large eyes were just barely visible. She hadn't spoken yet, but when she did, her voice would be as clear as the sun-filled air of The Lands, in contrast to Pumphrey's, which is sometimes gargly, sometimes like a July thundershower, and sometimes like rain on a wet tin roof---but mostly like all of them at once!

She was floating in the direction of The Mistercald, and at that moment Pumphrey, who hadn't been above The Autumnforest lately, decided to wander _toward the great forest_. He liked looking down from above, every now and then, at the colorful pattern of The Autumnforest. It was his favorite forest.

Both waterspouts flew directly towards each other, not expecting the other at all. And then Pumphrey saw something, above The Land of Lost N Lightning! With lightning and lighting flashing everywhere below, the two waterspouts met there for the first time.

This last law having been passed, Meri now stood alone in the middle of the Parliament. The moment had come, both desired and dreaded:

_It was time for her to go to England_.

There wasn't a single eye there that wasn't on her. The silence was perfect. However, there was a tremendous amount of thought going on, at the moment all of it unspoken. The flesh and blood dummy was leaving, and most of the dummies were feeling regret at not having had a chance to meet her personally. But even though they hadn't, most of them felt that they knew her, at least a little.

"Are you ready?" Picups was holding his gavel up again, although he hadn't especially wanted to pick it up this time. He had asked the question in a low official voice that didn't sound that official or happy. He didn't explain what he meant by _ready_.

_Everyone knew_.

There was a short silence. Meri looked around at what she knew now were hundreds and hundreds of friends. A desperate look was on her face.

"Not yet," everyone then suddenly heard Wut cry out, and he and Jethro and the Tackling Dummy and Perfit rushed and bounced out to her from the edge of the dummies surrounding the Parliament.

Meri's heart felt like it was going to burst when she saw them coming.

"I don't know how to tell you goodbye," she sobbed, from deep inside her, smiling and crying and hugging them all at once. And then, in the middle of all four, she couldn't do anything but just cry as she held desperately onto each one in turn. The entire crowd of dummies then surged right out into the Parliament, joining the Representatives, to give her a universal hug from all of The Lands. One after another, she got to hold tightly onto Ello, Aquamarie, Fico, Picups, Finxi, Fay, Nuggety, and many others, including Little Ray and Big Ray with their baking hats still on, and even Knickknackatory. During Aquamarie's warm hug, she felt the seamstress slip something into her right back pocket.

And then, without even gaveling, Picups himself said unhappily, "If Meri promises to come back to The Lands, can she go to England now? Can this be a law?"

It wasn't exactly the proper way to bring up a law, but it must have been okay to ask for it like that, because even though Picups' hair had been turned off temporarily, everyone's hair, including Meri's, instantly became a beautiful shade of light raspberry. _His hair did work that one time_ , like that of all of the other delegates when they spoke.

With tear-stained eyes, light raspberry hair, holding onto her friends and in the middle of a universal hug, Meri slowly shook her head up and down, promising to come back.

The delegates, in imperfect unison, voted by saying, "Yes,"

"Okay,"

"That's a good condition,"

"I like that,"

"That way we can get to see her again,"

and

"Yes, The Lands won't be quite the same until she comes back."

Until every one of them had voted. Picups hesitated, and then, with great reluctance, he just barely touched his gavel down on the podium.

"Passed," he heard himself whisper.

And then the little girl, waiting, held by her friends and by many others---the only flesh and blood dummy ever to be in The Lands--- suddenly wasn't there any longer.

She was gone---to wherever England was.

The remaining dummies, and Jethro and Meridia, looked around for her--- sadly because they knew she was gone---but they looked around anyway.

_No, Meri wasn't with them any longer_.

Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, Wut, and Jethro, who had all loved her so much, and still did, held onto each other, and were held up by others.

The Tackling Dummy, in his beautiful canvas, said out loud, to no one in particular, "She made it. We both...." And then he smiled, with tears in his eyes, thinking of his best friend Meri.

"Thanks, meridian," he said to her, across all of the distance to wherever she was. "Thanks for helping me to find the perfect place to be."

Meri would have loved to hear him say the second half of that sentence. But even if she didn't hear it, she knew it. She knew there was no better place anywhere for him to be than in The Lands. This thought would never fail to make her happy, wherever she was and whatever she was doing. It was incredible! By some of the most imaginable good luck ever, he had found The Lands!

"I need my beautiful little flesh and blood dummy back. And quickly," sobbed Meridia quietly and gently to herself, lowering her head to regret the tininess of the amount of time she had spent with her friend. There was one thing especially that did make her feel better, though. The lovely yellow gold wig, which she loved, was like a splash of cheerful light that never failed to remind her of Meri. Afterwards, remembering The Parliament, she wasn't wrong when she thought of it as a thoughtful present from the little girl who almost had her name.

"She'll be back," Perfit whispered, with tears in her own eyes. Stunned, she had crumpled down to the grass with the finality of Meri's going. Looking up at Meridia, Wut, Jethro, and the Tackling Dummy, and the others standing around her, she said, "I know she'll be back. She's my big sister."

# Chapter XVI: THE NIGHTGOWN

Meri looked around. She was a little dazed.

She could see a river, a large one.

There were many familiar looking buildings on both sides.

_From the pictures her father had shown her so many times, she believed she was in England!_

The deep vibrating sound of a tugboat came from nearby. The small pert vessel came into sight from the left, moving powerfully, not pulling or pushing anything at the moment. Soon it was gone.

Hearing a few distinct liquid water syllables, Meri became aware of the great silence of all the water in a river moving. Two gulls steered their shadows over it.

The river she was near was covered with a comforting sheen in the late afternoon haze. There was a quietness to the peaceful beginnings of the end of the day. A few small craft in the distance were approaching the edges of the large reflecting surface full of sky.

The many buildings on both sides of the river seemed to become even more familiar.

Meri's emotions were a strange combination. She was missing The Lands terribly already. But she was also feeling the beginnings and hints of a great excitement. She might be able to meet her parents after all!

Looking to her left, and up high, she caught her breath as she recognized a structure. It was London Bridge, so famous, with cars zipping across it in both directions.

Closer by, to her right, several ships, rocking gently, were pulled up. There didn't seem to be too much activity around them. Just a little closer, however, to the right of where she was standing on a flat loading area, was a well-designed compact white passenger vessel which evidently had just eased in. Having been secured to the dock, it was now unloading its passengers.

It was an especially pretty ship, of medium size, and swaying ever so slowly on the great water mostly beyond it. It was also strangely familiar. Meri began to look at it more closely.

Her heart suddenly began beating faster. She caught her breath. Could it really be? She had only seen it in pictures, but she had looked at them so many times! Yes---it was--- _unquestionably_!--- _just like the ship she and her parents had planned to sail to England on!_

Looking up to the bow, she read with mounting excitement the heart-stopping and unbelievably clear letters: USS STEADY!

It _was_ the ship!

Little prickles of sensations rushed up her back to her neck. Her eyes began opening wider as an unbelievable sparkling realization was dawning upon her! _She was there, near her parents' ship, as they were arriving!_

After all!

A thought, coming almost imperceptibly, crossed her mind. She nodded her head softly. "Yes, The Parliament would definitely have sent me to the exact place I needed to be."

Her eyes were searching.

There! There on the gangplank, coming down with the other passengers---now in the middle of it---were both her parents! They looked so familiar, and yet so strange at the same time, as they walked down into England. She had never seen them anywhere before except in Virginia! Of course they didn't know she was waiting for them. She was almost uncontrollably overjoyed to see them!

And then Meri's heart almost broke. All of the other people disembarking were talking excitedly and looking around, as you would expect of visitors arriving in a foreign country after a long voyage filled with expectation.

Her parents ( _and she with them)_ had been similarly excited at home, for months, before even beginning the voyage!

But now, in contrast to the other parting passengers, her parents looked sad and worn. They didn't look excited at all. In fact, instead of talking with animation, they seemed barely able to form words to each other. They looked like they would be grateful if their hearts could just get them to the end of the gangplank.

Meri's heart was breaking. "I'm so sorry I did this to you!" she called out to them in her mind as she started to run. Joy was starting to rise in her chest.

As she ran, out of the corner of her eye, further out on the water, Meri caught sight of another tug going by, a gray and white one with a large pink and black smokestack. The letters VIRGINIA were on the bow.

What a coincidence! She was also keenly aware of many other nautical sounds, such as the tug's engine, the loud vibrations of a horn farther off, and the cries of gulls over the water. There were quite a few of them. It was surprising she was aware of all of this, because her parents were just reaching the end of the gangplank.

She didn't like the way her mother had to lean on the railing.

When she was almost there, she suddenly stopped and started walking straight toward them. Tear began to come into her eyes. She was looking straight at them.

Her mother glanced up first and her face, previously ashen, instantly became alive with an incredible joy.

"Meri!" she cried, dropping a small bag and her purse, and running unstoppably over to hug her little girl, who was running to her. She held onto her desperately. "Oh Meri, oh my little girl!" she cried, holding her almost as if she would crush her. Her eyes were full of tears and gladness in a way that brought tears to the eyes of many of the other passengers.

Meri at last looked up into the blurry image of her father, who gave her a long, warm, and desperately loving hug.

"Hi meridian," he whispered to his special girl, and then finally, when he was able to say any more words at all, he asked in a voice he wasn't controlling well, "How could you possibly have gotten here?"

She had never seen her father's face like that before. It looked like it had the weight of the whole world lifted from it.

Both were overwhelmed with emotion to see her, each taking one of her hands after hugging her a second time, and not being able to take their eyes from her. Feeling something strange, they looked down and noticed all of the colored rings that were still on the fingers of both of her hands---from The Land of the Hoop Tree Forest. Meri had continued to refuse to take them off.

A kind person brought her mother's fallen items over to her and gently laid them down beside the small re-united family.

Another tugboat horn sounded loudly from not far away, and then another one answered in the distance. A large red and white ship with black smokestacks releasing funnels of dark smoke slowly made its way down the middle of the river from the right, sailing toward the bridge.

"How?" her parents finally asked, both at the same time, when they had convinced themselves that she was with them again and safe and sound. They continued to be amazed, but wonderfully happy, that she had somehow gotten to England.

"Where did you get all of these rings?" asked her mother, holding up her daughter's fingers.

Meri slowly looked at them, remembering the forest fondly. "It's a long story," she said. "It's going to take some time to tell you about it, and you may not believe everything I have to say---at first that is. But to begin with, I've been in a place called _The Lands_." Her father's eyes lighted up. "That's where the rings came from---from _The Land of the Hoop Tree Forest_."

Carefully, but also a little reluctantly, taking a pretty light aquamarine ring off of her left index finger, Meri surprised her parents by tossing it gently into the air. Their eyes widened considerably when, instead of falling, it began floating away, lightly, like the hoops do, out across the air and on over the river. Meri knew where it was going.

Feeling something in the back right pocket of her bib overall jeans shorts, she reached to see what it was. She remembered that Aquamarie had almost inconspicuously given her something in that pocket, without mentioning what it was, when she was telling her goodbye at The Parliament.

She hadn't had a chance to look at it yet.

A nightgown, similar to the ones she had slept in every night in the unforgettable round bed at the top of Sylvestra's windmill, softly spilled open in the sunlight.

Meri caught her breath. On the front were realistically sewn pictures of the Tackling Dummy, Jethro, Wut, and Perfit. She had a hard time taking her eyes away from them to turn the nightgown over to the back. When she did, she couldn't have been happier: for there were the faces of many of her _other_ friends in The Lands.

It even included a picture of Sticktight.

The End

Until Meri returns to The Lands

# About the Author

The writing career of Larry Good began when he was in the fifth grade, although he didn't know it. One day he was sitting in Miss Pearson's class, in the second seat of the second row from the door, writing dull repetitive sentences to fulfill a language assignment. Suddenly he became bored and dissatisfied with his efforts. So he wrote, "The gold was hidden in the back of the stagecoach," inspired by the cowboy movies he liked to see on Saturday afternoons. His succeeding sentences likewise benefited from his new motivation.

One day when he was sitting at his desk in Miss Maxey's class in the sixth grade, he wrote a poem about moonlight---as far as he knows, his first poem. Two of the lines were, "I can't get to sleep when moonlight's not near, Because nothing to me do I hold so dear." He showed it to Meriwether, in the desk just in front of him. Thinking it deserved recognition, his friend surprisingly got up, walked to the front of the room and showed it to Miss Maxey! She commented, rightly, that Larry shouldn't be writing poems when he was supposed to be paying attention in class!

The author's family always owned a Pontiac. After the poem about moonlight, eventually he was inspired to write one about that type of car. One of the lines was, "A Pontiac car is fit for a czar." He was told it was printed in the high school literary magazine.

As the Sports Editor for his high school newspaper and also a player on the football team, he was sometimes in the odd position of writing about himself in the column. He played offensive (as well as defensive) end and was thrown a lot of passes. After one game in which he had scored two touchdowns, he condensed writing about himself by stating that Good had scored "a pair" of them.

These beginnings, and a lot of words in between, ultimately brought his daughter Meri to The Land of Now and Later.

Larry Good is still writing in Crewe, Virginia.
