 
# PUMPHREY THE WATERSPOUT

by

Larry Good

When the friends finally opened their eyes and looked down, they were directly above a huge, wide, majestic, dizzyingly frightful whirlpool, its steep sides gleaming in descending circles of rapidly spinning water.

The Tackling Dummy Press

**SMASHWORDS EDITION**

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

**Smashwords Edition, License Notes**

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Cover Designer: Todd Hebertson

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Reading is a light.

\---The Tackling Dummy
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

# DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my SPECTACULAR daughter

Meri

These are her adventures

As told to me.

"Good thing I travel with my own sunshine!!"

Hi Meri!

# IN OTHER LANDS ACROSS THE MISTERCALD

Chapter One | The Land of Seasonal Speed  
---|---  
Chapter Two | The Land of Haystack Swinging  
Chapter Three | Almost Home  
Chapter Four | The Land of Stopping Flowers  
Chapter Five | The Land of Falling You  
Chapter Six | The Land of Get Better Bells  
Chapter Seven | The Land of Buffalo Unicorns  
Chapter Eight | The Mistercald  
Chapter Nine | Pumphrey  
Chapter Ten | Yep  
Chapter Eleven | A Talk with Pumphrey  
Chapter Twelve | The Land of Wrong Kites  
Chapter Thirteen | The Extraordinary Dummy  
Chapter Fourteen | Leo  
Chapter Fifteen | The Land of Loving Yellow

# Chapter I: THE LAND OF SEASONAL SPEED

"Follow me," said Wut, with his short arm stretched out and his small black fingers confidently holding his wand forward. The Land of Pink Windmills, tiny in the distance behind them, with all of the windmills pleasantly turning, soon became almost impossible to see.

The travelers, facing the opposite way, never noticed when it faded into the landscape.

The sun was painting the waters of the river with a warming silver. There was very little wind, judging from the flatness of the wide reflecting surface below, on which could be seen a small boat of dummies drifting along enjoying the early river.

These dummies hadn't expected the sky to be a significant part of their scenery.

When the fliers were halfway across, and the angle became right, a brilliant shimmering pathway of the sun appeared on the water, moving right along with them. Here and there a gull, acting as if there was nothing at all unusual about these other fliers, floated right along beside them, or met them.

Perfit's hair, lifted by the moving air rising from the warming river, was as pretty as ever. She was navigating perfectly from high on Aquamarie's saddle across the wide back of the Buffalo Unicorn, who was continuing to smile softly to himself and to mutter "Yep" to no one in particular as he looked everywhere he could. His large brown eyes, whimsical as always, continued to have a starriness of first flight in them.

"Are you okay?" asked Perfit considerately from above, feeling responsible for her great friend, since she was holding the wand that was carrying him across the river and moving him about. She understood that what happened to him depended almost entirely on her.

She had a lot of responsibility!

"Yep," he answered quite casually, glancing straight up the river, noticing some of The Lands which made so colorful its eastern side.

"Never been better. And you?"

"Perfect," said the tiny little girl dummy. He was quite relaxed, but her answer reassured him nevertheless.

Up in the sky, of course, she could keep her other hand on the saddle horn, and she did, since it gave her a place to rest it. She really didn't need anything to hold onto, she was so comfortable. She also had an interesting view whenever she looked down, since looking down for her always included part of Jethro as well as what she could see beyond.

But she liked being up there on the saddle atop her friend, where she felt even higher than the others as they all flew along, because Jethro was so large. As you might have expected, she and Jethro began to develop a closeness from working together and also from just _being_ together.

"Is there anything that could go wrong?" Meri, flying close to Wut, who was just a little in front, asked about Perfit and Jethro. It was an unusual question in a way, since _he_ was the one who usually expressed concern---often a little more than the others thought was actually necessary.

_But_ , there was a special reason for the question; for, being flesh and blood herself, she was sensitive to the very real danger of Jethro being up so high. She wanted to make sure he would be all right. She loved Perfit too---she would always be her irreplaceable little sister---but she thought that Perfit would survive a fall from that high up.

Jethro couldn't.

"There's always a chance," he replied thoughtfully, after hesitating for a minute, because concern came readily to him, "but up in the air like this there's almost no chance at all. If something happens---if something _should_ go wrong---it would have to be _incredibly weird and completely unexpected."_

He waited to let that idea sink in. And then he continued.

"I'm sure you'll agree there's almost no chance at all for something incredibly weird and completely unexpected to happen up here. And we won't even be up here long, so you can relax. We're going down now."

They were over land.

Putting his other hand over the end of the flying wand, and holding the wand straight up and down, he began drifting slowly and casually down. The others, watching him, did exactly the same.

The Tackling Dummy was the only one who didn't do it perfectly---but he was learning.

They were floating down into a land that looked more like spring than any place Meri had ever seen. Flowers were everywhere---the delicate flowers of spring---giving a special light and lyrical collection of colors to the entire land rising up to meet them. One of the most beautiful things ever: flowering trees, fruit and other kinds, were everywhere, and the grass was a light green---maybe even a slightly lighter green than they were used to.

The five travelers lighted safely among the grass and flowers and flowering trees and looked around at the unbelievable soft beauty of this land. _There was something else, too_ , about this land that was different. But it was hard to tell what it was at first.

S _omething_ seemed to be happening, but it was happening so minutely that not one of the travelers was aware of it---except for Wut, of course. He was already bouncing softly on the grass among the spring flowers, and between the trees that hurt the visitors' eyes, each one was so pretty. Jethro was so lost in the idea of flying that he wasn't being that observant.

Jethro had been there before, but it had been long ago, because it wasn't that easy to get to this side of The Mistercald. He didn't even remember the exact name of the land. He began trying his best to, however. Looking around, he _did_ remember that it was near another land that was especially important to him. He began to feel some important emotions.

And a little guilt.

"Listen, everybody!" Wut said, bouncing. "I want to tell you what we're doing." He was going up and down beside a fruit tree of medium height with light green petals among only slightly darker leaves, so perfect that everyone's attention became fixed on it---until they happened to glance at _another_ painfully beautiful tree with mild rose petals, and then _another_ nearby, all of which had the same effect.

"We've got to travel up beside The Mistercald, to get to where we're going, so I thought we might as well travel part of the way on this side of the river. We could have just stayed on the other side, but I thought coming over here for part of the way would give Meri and Perfit a better idea of The Lands. They can also say now that they've been on both sides of The Mistercald.

"I also thought it might be extra helpful to the Tackling Dummy, who I know is thinking of staying in The Lands, to see some of The Lands over here."

"Thanks," said the battered and torn silver gray Tackling Dummy, cheerfully. He looked especially worn and shabby standing in this particularly perfect land.

"There isn't any new canvas over here, is there?"

By this time he had realized, of course, that he needed more than just new canvas---he needed to be re-made. Aquamarie could make new clothes, and she could repair canvas and yarn, but she couldn't do as much as he needed. The Tackling Dummy was in such bad shape, after being tackled so violently so many times, and after the hot violence of the fireball, that he needed to be made _new_ again. And that was different from sewing.

The Tackling Dummy, realizing this more and more, was feeling less hope, but he was trying to remain cheerful just the same.

Wut seemed to have a hint of his friend's feelings as he himself bounced so perfectly up and down on the bright grass.

"Not that I know of," he answered reluctantly. "But don't you dare give up hope--- _you can never predict_ what will happen in The Lands, as I think you and Meri have definitely found out by this time."

"Yep. That's the truth if anything is, in The Lands," answered Jethro thoughtfully for everyone, in his deep voice. His eyes were still very bright from his recent flight. In fact, he wouldn't have minded going up into the air again, at that very minute, for a minute or two more.

But Wut disappointed him for the time being. "We'll just walk through a few lands here," he continued, bouncing casually up and down in the air of this vibrant land, "and then cross back over and perhaps walk through even a few more lands on the other side. That way we'll get a nice balance."

He hesitated a moment, looking around, to make sure that everyone agreed with his plan. Everyone seemed to, and there was no objection---Jethro politely didn't say anything, although he really wanted to fly up again for a little while.

Wut loved to talk about The Lands. With a glance to the side, he said somewhat pointedly to Perfit, Meri, and the Tackling Dummy, "I'm sure you've been wondering about _this_ land. Remember The Land of Geological Speed on the other side of The Lands? Well, this is The Land of _Seasonal_ Speed.

"It's like the other land, but without too much danger at all---although I'm not saying there isn't _any_. Here, only the _seasons_ are speeded up. It doesn't go nearly as fast as the other land, which covers _ages_ in just a few minutes, but it _is_ fast. Each season lasts only about 15 minutes, and obviously it's spring now.

"In fact," he added, "I've never actually seen it look like this before---so special. Or maybe it's just that I've missed it. Even _I_ don't get to this side of The Mistercald as much as I want to---and need to."

He took a moment to glance appreciatively around.

As they watched, however, the grass began to turn a darker green, and the air became warmer. The blossoms fell from the flowering trees in lavender, white, pink, and yellow rains, and in rains of other colors.

On the ground, the lighter more delicate flowers slowly began to disappear and to be replaced by flowers of more pronounced hues, equally beautiful although not as numerous. At the same time, the leaves of the many larger surrounding trees---you had to look closely or you wouldn't see it---happened to be turning a slightly darker green.

It began to be hot, and summer was upon them. At the same time they began walking and bouncing across the land.

"Whew!" said Jethro, of the heat. But his hat, with the large brim over his eyes, helped. Perfit was now walking. She had popped down into the arms of the Tackling Dummy, who had held them up to her, to suggest that she might want to walk while they were down from the air. She did. Her long light pink dress with the yellow windmills all over it made her feel the heat a little more too, up on the Buffalo Unicorn, as well as her long yellow curls. She was much cooler walking on the grass.

Soon the summer flowers were gone, and the heat too, to the relief of the travelers. Even fewer autumn flowers appeared, but the most remarkable change was occurring in the larger trees, where fall colors were dramatically appearing.

"Look!" said Perfit, pointing to the changes. There weren't that many trees in The Land of Pink Windmills, which was one reason she had been so awed by The Autumnforest. Now she was getting to see autumn trees all over again. The orange, yellow, brown, deep red, plum colored and gold leaves reminded Meri of The Autumnforest, which was so special to her, but she marveled at this land as well, with its especially remarkable spring and other changes.

But she hadn't seen winter yet!

And then the leaves began to fall, first slowly, lightly, inconspicuously, and then pleasantly, until finally there was a steady, continuous fall that was irresistibly attractive to the travelers because it was so soothing, so peaceful, so colorful, and yet so dramatic.

"It's not no time to not watch not no leaves," murmured the Tackling Dummy to himself, as one of his sentences came into his mind. Meri had heard it before and was glad to hear the catchy syllables again. Not ever having seen trees up close before he had escaped from the stadium, the Tackling Dummy was getting his fill of trees in The Lands. He appreciated every moment of it.

By this time the travelers were in the middle of The Land of Seasonal Speed, and it began to get colder. The trees became bare, and to the discomfort of all five, a chilly rain began to fall. Mists flew here and there in the winds that somehow began to blow, while clouds suddenly became worrisomely thick and lowering overhead, blotting out the sun and whatever warmth had been coming from it.

Meri shivered, unconsciously walking a little faster. The others, not as subject to increasing cold, speeded up with her anyway, noticing how she wrapped her arms around herself and was trembling. They began to worry about her.

The air slowly became noticeably heavier. Meri knew something was about to happen, and she didn't have any doubts at all about what it was, having lived in Amelia County in Virginia. She had seen many snowstorms! All five travelers knew the meaning of winter, and there was only one season left, and so they _all_ looked up at the busy sky, expectant.

Suddenly white flakes began floating and drifting down upon them, falling in a way that was lovely and became more so as the snow continued to descend.

"Oh!" said Perfit, her hair sparkling with a few flakes and flakes spaced in the air around her. It didn't snow in her own land, which was protected by the steep cliffs beside it, and winter in The Lands often doesn't even come. She was the only one who had never seen snow before, _although of course she had heard of it._

"Snow," she repeated in a magic tone, holding her face upward and her mouth open, her soft blue eyes looking upward, her face full of life. The flakes fell beautifully and stuck all over her face and all over her massive curls, for she spread out her hair on her left arm to receive the falling flakes all over without interference.

The snow, in fact, was sticking all over _all of them_ and was beginning to fall faster. _And then it fell even faster!_ The ground quickly was covered. Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and especially Perfit, began to have trouble walking.

Not Jethro, though. His gigantic weight allowed him to step right through the whiteness of the season with no trouble whatsoever, and he liked the novelty of it. In fact, walking ahead of the others with Wut bouncing easily through the snow beside him, he actually wanted it to snow _deeper_. He kept looking up at the beautiful falling, and around at the increasingly white and beautiful land.

"Yep," he kept saying to the flakes.

Now he remembered the land.

Meri noticed at the same time the interesting contrast of the white spots in the air around the black question mark who sailed up into them.

Excited by the wonderful snow, Meri wasn't feeling as cold anymore. She had always loved snow, and she had seen a lot of it, although never more beautiful. In fact, looking around at the bewitching air and the land, she began to feel inspired. Picking up a handful, she carefully formed it into a snowball and, at the right moment, lightly wafted it up ahead so that it came down right on the top of the bill of Jethro's cap, flattening it on his face. It was all she could do to hold in her laughter when he looked around with a puzzled expression on his face. Perfit wasn't that successful, her eyes filled with merriment. Still, Jethro couldn't figure out who had gently lofted the snowball, if someone had.

Next Perfit secretly formed a slightly smaller one and arched it up into the air ahead, where it landed on Jethro's right ear. And since she was so agile, she also had another one on the way before he could turn around to look. This second one was spiked by his white unicorn.

At the same time Meri's next snowball softly disintegrated over the eye he turned around to look at them, covering it, so that in fact he had only a fraction of a glance backward at them before his eye was blinded shut for a moment. His large eyelashes quickly cleared his vision for sight, and by this time Perfit was completely out of control, her suppressed laughter bursting out, and she fell over into the snow laughing, all of the yellow colors about her looking lovely in the thick soft white.

It was all Meri could do to control herself with Perfit so out of control, but she was able to, although the merriment leaking out of the corners of her eyes told Jethro all he needed to know. His eyes took on a mysterious wait-and-see expression.

He simply turned his head around to the front again and continued walking, as if nothing had happened. But then, as he passed over where the low currents of air had amassed an especially large drift of white, he suddenly kicked backward with both of his huge hind feet at once, propelling a great flurry of snow over both Meri and Perfit. In fact, although he didn't mean to, he completely covered the little one. But Meri could hear her still almost uncontrollable laughter under the snow.

Everyone waited while Meri, white with snow now herself, dug Perfit out. Jethro had the most whimsical expression on his face as he watched. And then they all continued on with merriment amid the changing and even disappearing scenery, as the two girls, trying not to look at each other, brushed themselves off.

The snow was falling even more rapidly, so that Meri, and especially Perfit, were beginning to have _significant_ problems walking through it, as it came up thicker and thicker around them. Meri was also beginning to be chilled again. Her arms and legs especially where they were bare were becoming painfully uncomfortable.

At that moment everyone, as if by some unseen signal, started running, including Jethro with his bouncing run, toward what they thought was the end of the land. The snow was becoming simply too much, and they needed to escape!

The Mistercald was to their left, although they couldn't see it. Wut bounced faster to keep up with them, and once or twice, coming down wrong because he couldn't see the ground, went shooting away across the landscape on his side, with Meri and Perfit laughing, in spite of themselves, and chasing after to help him up.

The Tackling Dummy, temporarily forgetting his canvas, was also enjoying his run, every now and then calling out one of his strange adjectives. In fact he was the happiest Meri had ever seen him. He had seen snow before, and it had even briefly fallen on him---when he was on the rope. Now he could _enjoy_ its magic for the first time!

Jethro was bouncing all around, sometimes in circles. The snow elated him, and the deeper it got, the more elastic he became. He became so full of spirit that every now and then he surprised the others by jumping straight up, as high as he could, into the snowfall of descending flakes.

Twice even, running quite fast ahead of them in his un-coordinated way, he surprised them by actually springing over into a somersault and rolling over and over on his side.

"Yep!" he called out comically each time his face re-appeared.

Perfit and Meri and even the Tackling Dummy could hardly hold themselves up, from laughing, in the whitened bare landscape blurred by the still thickly falling weather that they were trying to wade out of. Only Wut retained his dignity, although he smiled knowingly with them.

In both cases when Jethro rolled over, the light green satin saddle sewn by Aquamarie became significantly flattened, but, surprisingly, came out of the rolling somersaults still attached and apparently still useable.

_But the snow kept coming_. Winter didn't end and turn into spring. Finally they couldn't run anymore, not even Jethro, although with his great strength and weight, he had no trouble walking.

At last it was so hard to move, while still the end of the land wasn't in sight, that all five of the visitors secretly became worried. Why wasn't this season changing as fast as the others? Then suddenly Meri stopped trying so hard, called out, "Stop!" and fell over into the snow herself, laughing. The others couldn't understand why.

She explained, as she brushed herself off with finality. Still out of breath from the attempted run and then her laughter, she said, "I think we all forgot something. _We don't have to run_ to get out of the snow. It came down upon us, so completely occupying our attention, that we forgot all about the flying wands. We can fly out!"

Pulling hers out of its small loop on the side of her bib overall jeans, and holding it exactly right as always, she ascended a little into the snowstorm and flew in the direction they had been running. She was followed quickly by the others, after the Tackling Dummy threw Perfit up onto the western saddle that didn't feel quite as smooth to her as before. Jethro was quite pleased at rising into the swirling snowstorm. He even asked Perfit to go up a little higher than was necessary.

When he and Perfit in a few minutes descended to the bright sunshine falling into the border of the next land, where the others were waiting and wondering about them, they were especially white---whereas the others had brushed off all of their snow, were partially dry, and were almost comfortable again. The rays of the sun were coming down twice as thickly as the snow had been falling in the previous land, and the air was yellow and warm all over again.

"Yep," Jethro commented in his deep whimsical voice as the others marveled at his completely white form, which now matched his always white unicorn. And there was another treat: Perfit with crystallized hair. She looked strange, too, being white as well, with her hair a mass of white and sparkling crystals with a little yellow showing through. But she was beautiful as always! It was impossible for Perfit not to look adorable!

It wasn't long, however, before Jethro's coat showed though again, especially since he was flesh and blood and therefore already warm anyway. And Perfit re-appeared soon again too, her long pink dress drying quickly and her yellow curls coming out again like always.

"Sometimes one of the seasons is a little longer than the others," explained Wut as they looked back at the white land with winter still all over it. "The seasons are actually different every time, and _never_ perfectly equal. Sometimes one is amazingly short. I think this winter set a record for length, though."

The five travelers, in very good spirits, now that they were warm again and could walk freely if they chose, continued to rest briefly where they were. They wanted to watch spring slowly emerge beautifully again in The Land of Seasonal Speed. They wanted to see if the spring they had seen before had also set a record, for incomparable beauty.

The seasonal change didn't take long, as it had already been a long winter. In the growing warmth of spring, the snow disappeared rapidly and quickly became a fond memory.

And no, the first spring hadn't been a record at all. This one was definitely as appealing, delicate and soft in a mildly colorful way. It made Meri and Perfit and the Tackling Dummy want to go back.

# Chapter II: THE LAND OF HAYSTACK SWINGING

Once they turned around, however, they realized that something truly unusual was before them.

Meri couldn't remember _ever having seen so much vivid color._

"This is The Land of Haystack Swinging," announced Wut casually, bouncing into the land, followed by the others who were all looking around with wide eyes.

Wut let them look for a moment, and then he said, in a tone that showed how much he appreciated the land, "Here they love three things most of all. They love hay. They love haystacks---hey, that makes sense, doesn't it---since they love hay? And they love to swing on vines." The travelers, except Jethro, looked puzzled at this last love.

_They didn't see any vines!_ They just saw a land of beautifully colored haystacks.

But Wut went on.

"There were never many trees in this land, but the dummies living here always had _a strange feeling that they wanted to swing on long vines!_

"They were embarrassed at this feeling, because there weren't any vines at all in the land, much less long ones. And few trees to swing from, if there had been any vines. For a long time some of the dummies from other lands were amused at them for having such a strange yearning.

"Always wanting to swing, but not being able to, the dummies began making higher and higher haystacks of the hay that they also loved, and then climbing to the top, where they could look out and imagine swinging from one haystack to another.

"When they got high enough, however, to their unending surprise they discovered vines up in the air that swung from haystack to haystack. For some reason you can't see them from below _. They had been there all the time!"_

The travelers stopped for a moment to look again at the land, now that they had passed some of the few trees that Wut had mentioned.

The color in this land was almost unbearable.

"Well, color me purple," said Jethro in awe, looking at one of the haystacks. "Hey! No! Color me _all_ of those colors!" He added, looking at all of them.

And that was just how _all_ of the other travelers felt!

There were small fields of different colored hay all over! Each field was a different color. And all the way across the land were haystacks, too, each a different color of hay. There were even several _hay mountains_ of bright colors---in reality stacks of hay which were much higher and wider than the already high ones.

The different colors of the haystacks banged against each other in the air! Meri's eyes had never absorbed so much color before!

As they continued to walk into the land, they began to see dummies swinging from haystack to haystack! _Although, as Wut had said, the vines couldn't be seen_. The dummies just seemed to be swinging on their imaginations! It was truly a strange and interesting land!

"Awesomely splendidious! Completely qualifiable!" said the Tackling Dummy, at the moment, not being able to think of even larger and more impressive words for the unique sight of all these vivid haystacks and the oddly swinging dummies.

"Yep!" agreed Jethro, his eyes blazing as he looked. Because he wanted to swing on the vines too! "Color me light gold. Why don't I come here more often?!" He asked himself this question whimsically. But Perfit noticed another unusual emotion in his voice, too, almost like guilt, so she said,

"Remember? You and Wut both said it's a little hard to get across The Mistercald on _this end_ of The Lands. Because---isn't there only _one_ bridge---at the _other end_ of The Lands?"

Jethro, fanning his large eyelashes very fast and whimsically, turned his massive head in an especially friendly way to look at his small friend, his partner in flight. He put his face right up against hers. "Too bad, isn't it?" he answered sincerely. "Yep, you're exactly right, as usual. Something needs to be _done_ about this. _Some_ of us need to get over here more often." The travelers understood why there were several tones of real regret in his voice, but---all except Wut---they were puzzled at hearing what actually sounded like a little guilt, too. They couldn't quite understand.

Then the land absorbed their attention again as they arrived at the first haystack. It was a very high one of purple hay. There was a ladder neatly propped up on the side of it, going all the way to the top, where the hay appeared to be somewhat flattened out. At least, that's the way it looked from the bottom---standing on the grass and looking up.

Too curious to resist, and not even thinking about it, the Tackling Dummy immediately started climbing up. Meri and Perfit went right up behind him. No one there doubted that it was the right thing to do.

It was the _only_ thing to do!

Looking up, Meri smiled at the sight of the end of the tiny little girl dummy's beautiful hair, almost right in front of her face, as she went up behind her friend.

"Wait a minute!" called Wut from below. He was bouncing beside Jethro who was looking up with a kind of dejected and disappointed look on his face. How he wanted to get on top of that huge purple haystack, that he had imagined himself the color of! He knew exactly what his friends were going to do up there, having been in the land before a long time ago. He had never seen a vine from below on the grass, however.

The three hesitated halfway up the ladder at Wut's firmly spoken words. They looked down questioningly at the question mark bouncing below, looking up. He was waiting for their attention. Somehow, they could tell an explanation was coming, because Wut loved to introduce each land, and he still had that look on his face.

"When you get up, of course you want to look around at this special land. There's nothing like how it looks, with so many vivid colors knocking on your eyes to come in. But remember what I said about the vines?

"When you get up to the top, a vine will come swinging your way, and you need to know what to do. Especially Meri, who is a flesh and blood dummy and always needs to be careful whenever she's up high in The Lands. Grab hold of it---firmly of course---especially you, Meri---and push out. Hold on tight, because you'll be going fast, first dazzlingly down and then rushing up---through what may at first seem to be confusing colors.

"As you go up, land on the haystack you come to. And if you want to keep right on going, you can---in exactly the same way with the next vine that arrives. You'll learn."

Reaching the top, the three looked out at all the fields of colored hay, which drenched their eyes with their hues. And of course they looked at all the haystacks, too, surprisingly high, and the several hay mountains.

Soon a vine, one a pretty salmon color, came swinging right up to the top of the haystack, where they were, and hung invitingly in the air for just a moment. But each one of them, Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy, waiting for the other, and being just a little uncertain, let it swing away again. And they laughed at themselves.

"I'll show you," Wut called up, "be careful---I'm coming up! Bouncing higher and higher, suddenly he sprang right up and landed among them. The top of the purple haystack hardly depressed under his light weight as he arrived and tried to keep bouncing. The hay wouldn't let him bounce very well, though. It was too soft. It was funny to see him trying to bounce on hay. He laughed about it himself.

"Like this!" he suddenly announced, grabbing a light green vine that came up invitingly, and swung out over the land in what looked like a long thrilling swing! Some distance away he let go on the top of another huge haystack---of lavender colored hay---where he could be seen springing up and down in his usual way, though not too high off the hay which was so soft. He began waving both arms, to show that he was all right and that they should come ahead.

"After you," the Tackling Dummy said courteously to Perfit, who courageously sailed out on a pink vine that came up to her. Its color reminded her of the windmill she lived in, and so it helped her to relax a little. Because she was doing, for the first time, something _completely_ new and strange. Once she floated out and down, though, she had a wonderful feeling, because swinging is such a purely ecstatic thing to do for everyone! This swing was a long one, through a slowly changing swirl of colors.

After hanging down from a rope in the practice field for so long, in such difficult conditions, the Tackling Dummy was looking forward to hanging down from something else--- _by choice_ , and in a way that would be _fun_ \---exactly the opposite of what he had endured for so long on that field! He had a look of special anticipation on his face, in advance, because of his past.

Seeing that expression, and thinking she understood, Meri urged him, "Go ahead," when the next pale yellow vine came offeringly up toward them. Down he jetted in a long sweeping curve, rapidly rising up to a beautiful haystack of blue aquamarine, where he dropped down, quite happy, and looked back. He waved to Meri.

Meri let the next vine come and go without seizing it.

Instead, looking down, she said to the sad Buffalo Unicorn standing far below, gazing down at the grass. "What are you doing down there?"

"I don't have hands," he replied sadly. "All I can do is munch on some of this purple hay, and on some of the other haystacks. Actually, they have wonderful flavors!" But he looked up sadly again, because what he really wanted to do was swing! Like everyone else.

"You climbed up the ladder on the monkeybars, didn't you?" Meri reminded him.

"Yes, I did. But without hands I couldn't take hold of a vine, even if I did get up there," he replied, wistfully. Clearly he did want to see if he could climb up---as he _always_ wanted to try whatever there was to do in The Lands. If he could be safe. And he remembered the monkeybars.

"I _can_ make it up," he said in his usual defiantly confident way. "But what would I do up there---just watch everyone else and be disappointed because I can't do it myself?"

"You have teeth, don't you?" Meri asked simply.

Suddenly the disappointed look was gone from Jethro's eyes, and a startled look took over his whole face for a moment. And then a large grin slowly spread over it.

"Yeah," he answered softly. "Yep, I do. Color me burgundy." And he walked over to the ladder. It was much easier to ascend than he had expected, because of his previous practice on the monkeybars. Sooner than either of them had anticipated, he was right on top of the purple haystack, too, looking out over the spectacular land.

Jethro was quiet and thoughtful and appreciative for a moment. "As many lands as I've been over," he commented, "I've never seen so many colors before. As many places as I've been, I didn't know there was anything like this view in The Lands."

A sky blue vine came swinging up. Meri looked expectantly into Jethro's eyes. A hint of wonder was in his. "Go ahead," she motioned, nodding her head and giving him full encouragement with her aquamarine eyes. "But better hold on tight. You're probably a little heavier than most." They both grinned.

He took the vine firmly in strong white teeth and swung out over the land, his eyes blazing again with even one more new experience.

And this one was an especially easy one to love!

Over on the lavender haystack, Wut couldn't believe his eyes! "I don't believe my eyes!" he blurted out as soon as he perceived the huge Buffalo Unicorn sailing down and up in a beautiful swinging motion.

"Here comes Jethro!"

It was truly a unique sight.

His enormous friend dropped gently although quite heavily onto a nearby haystack of lemon yellow hay. The entire haystack shook at first, but immediately settled down, a little lower than it had been, becoming still again.

Jethro just stood looking out again, on top of The Lands! Meri could see the tip of his long white unicorn twinkling like mad! Then he couldn't resist swinging out again when a solid black vine flew up through the air and hung invitingly within distance of his strong white teeth.

On a light peach vine, Meri then at last followed, flying down gracefully in a long sweeping curve and then up again and over a pink haystack, where she let go, hung in the air for a moment, and dropped safely down into the springy pink hay.

She loved soaring through the colorful air of this land!

Once again she looked around.

# Chapter III: ALMOST HOME

As the five friends continued in dizzyingly colorful swings across The Land of Haystack Swinging, they noticed that some of the haystacks contained homes at the bottoms. It seemed that the dummies in the land lived in round houses in the first stories of the haystacks. The hay of a special color was simply piled on top, and whoever lived in that home managed the haystack above.

The edges of short round rooves were visible around these haystacks, about a third of the way up, so it was easy to tell which ones were inhabited and which ones weren't. The dummies who lived in these haystacks raised hay in their own hayfields, of their own special colors, adding it to their haystacks at the right times. Each dummy took a lot of pride in the overall appearance of his or her lovely rising tower of color.

In some ways, this land reminded Meri of The Land of Pink Windmills. And once again, she wished she could get to know the inhabitants of a land.

There were a number of other dummies swinging from haystack to haystack besides Wut, Meri, Perfit, Jethro, and the Tackling Dummy. Apparently the vines were also a way of _just crossing_ the land to get somewhere else, just as The Yellow Trampoline was a helpful way to get somewhere else in The Lands.

So also was the monkeybars _one of the means of transportation in The Lands!_ There were many of them, it seemed!

For those going in even _another_ direction, toward the upper end of The Lands, The Mistercald was another way, especially interesting, to go through The Lands.

"I'm going on to that scarlet haystack over there," Wut said to himself while swinging, picking out his next destination. Holding tightly onto his vine during his dazzling swing, as well as he could he watched his good friends crossing successfully. They were all whirling in approximately the right direction. They would have no trouble at all finding each other on the other side, once they got there. Soon they would all be across, he noted with satisfaction, remembering the need to conserve time.

"Meri has to try to leave again at The Ticket Tree," he noted sadly.

He himself also wanted to cross the land as soon as possible because lighting on the tops of haystacks wasn't that convenient for him. He didn't enjoy bouncing on hay.

Meri was watching him from her pink haystack, and she was surprised to see him catch an approaching vine, that came up to the scarlet haystack just as he did, _without even landing on the scarlet hay!_ He just went on, toward an orangelight mountain of hay---not a haystack, but one of the special large mountains of hay here and there in the land. It was a light, it was so beautifully bright. This time he decided to drop down to the color. He rose back up only pathetically, but he was lucky because a silver colored vine was just arriving. On it he disappeared down the other side of the mountain on one of the dramatically longer swings.

Everyone continued to cross The Land of Haystack Swinging.

Meri landed right on top of the periwinkle hay of a different large mountain, and stood there for a little while, just looking around, watching others beginning and completing their beautiful swings, until her friends had all disappeared away.

Then she followed too, waving to the dummies on the ground when she passed by overhead, and also to those she met coming from various other directions.

It was amazing that they all didn't bump into each other! And sometimes it _was_ close!

Some of the dummies swinging there---although Meri couldn't tell which was which---weren't traveling.

_They had come from other lands just to swing!_

Meri waved to these too when their beautiful arcs came close enough to hers.

Again, as she was swinging, Meri wished she could talk to, and get to know, the many friendly dummies that she was seeing as she passed through this land. It seemed like in most of the places she went to, _there just wasn't enough time_ to do what she wanted to do.

"This is because I came here by accident," she reminded herself. _"_ It probably wouldn't be that way if I had come here on purpose."

_"I'm lucky even to be here," she thought. "But I can't stay much longer."_

And so she made herself a promise. "If I _ever_ come back to The Lands," she promised herself, "I'm going to make sure I have enough time. _Lots of time_ ," she added. "I need it to visit all the lands I want to. _And I'm going to come back here and go down into this land for a visit---not just go over it."_

That was how she had felt about _all_ of The Lands she had seen so far and hadn't been able to visit, except for The Land of Geological Speed. She even wanted to see _that_ beautifully moving but extremely dangerous land _again_ \---from a safe but nearby distance.

When the five of them were all together on the other side, with the land blazing with color behind them, Wut was ready to lead them to even another land. But Meri had a funny feeling that she didn't understand at first.

_For a reason that she didn't understand at all at first,_ she didn't want to start walking when the others began moving.

"Could you---could you wait just a minute?" she asked uncertainly, as she stood there looking around, including _up_ , trying to understand why she felt as she did. The others were looking at her with puzzled expressions on their different faces.

"Something's not right," Meri finally mumbled to her friends, looking awkwardly and apologetically at them. She _knew_ something---yet she didn't quite know yet what it was that she _knew!_

From up in the air, when on the vines, she had noticed that the land was perfectly round: it was a circle. And now, on the grass, she noticed how the pleasant round border went all the way around its curving edges, making a space around it. It was this space around the edge of the land that she was having funny feelings about.

"I'm having funny feelings about space!" she suddenly said to herself, realizing how ridiculous it was.

But then, "Something is _missing_ ," she just as suddenly knew. She was still troubled, not realizing what was happening in her mind. But she _at least_ knew that much: "Something was missing." She didn't know what, though. She was very puzzled at herself. She hadn't ever felt this way before!

And then, suddenly again, her aqua eyes widened considerably. She smiled excitedly. It had hit her!

"No! It _isn't_ something that's missing _!_ _It just seems that way!_ _It's something that's already there!"_

The others began to worry about her. They didn't have the slightest idea what she was talking about. They were sure she was speaking nonsense. Perhaps it was because she had been away from home for a while, was in a strange place, and an unbelievable number of things had just happened to her, they thought. Concerned expressions appeared on all their faces. They didn't quite know what to say.

"Wut!" called Meri, a little too loudly. She was quite excited--- _that_ was clear to everyone, worrying them even more. She kept looking up, and they didn't know why. _They_ looked up too, but saw nothing but air in the border around the land they had just come through.

It was the only _round_ border they had seen!

"I know this is going to sound crazy," she said to her question mark friend. "But would you please do me a favor? I know how high you can bounce. Would you just bounce right here, right here in the middle of this border, and go up as high as you can?"

Energetically, she pointed down to the exact spot on the grass where he should bounce.

Worried about his good friend, but also highly respecting her, after getting to know her, Wut thought he should do as she asked. After all, she had already significantly helped The Lands in unexpected ways.

"What could it hurt?" he thought. "She _might_ even be right about something _this time too_. Just as in the past!" So he did bounce on the spot she had indicated, going higher and higher.

"Higher!" Meri kept urging. "Just a little higher."

The question mark rose up and up, higher and higher. All of the friends and other dummies there began to be surprised that he could go that high.

"Oh my Lands!" those below suddenly heard him say.

"Are they there?" Meri called up, never having been more excited. The look on her face was something.

"They're here!" he called down joyfully. Glancing down at her briefly with those large green eyes in which were now enormous diamonds of learning, he asked,

"How in The Lands did you know?"

And, just then, he reached out, grabbing a beautiful silver gray vine that came toward him in the middle of the border, high up, and began swinging in dazzling arcs all the way around the land, letting go of one vine just as another one came up.

The travelers all watched with eyes that couldn't have opened any wider with amazement, as he went all the way around the land.

Then Meri, trembling with excitement about this discovery still only seconds old, said to Jethro as he watched Wut, "Dear, would you please stand right here?" She pointed to another spot on the grass, just inside the border.

"And would you mind standing on his back, right in the middle?" she said to the Tackling Dummy. "And can I stand on your shoulders too?"

The others, understanding her discovery, now knew why she was so excited. For they were _too_ now---almost as much as she was! _What a difference forever for The Land of Haystack Swinging!_

"Me too!!" pleaded Meri's little girl dummy beautiful sister, holding up her yarn arms to Meri to be lifted up. So Meri popped her up onto Jethro's back, where there was room, in front of where the Tackling Dummy was standing on the saddle. Then she stood near Jethro's head, holding onto his unicorn with her hand, and with a sudden shrug he swung her backwards up to where the Tackling Dummy caught her.

Meri managed to climb up onto the Tackling Dummy's shoulders, where she stood up. And then she helped Perfit up to stand on _her_ shoulders!

It got to be quite a pyramid!

"It's going to work!" shouted Perfit, as a goldenrod colored vine came offeringly up to her, and she took it, colorfully following Wut around the land.

Meri didn't know if she were quite high enough, but a melon colored vine swung up, and off she went, crossing to a lavender colored vine and then to many others as she swung in a beautifully rushing up and down circle, all the way around the land. By this time the actual inhabitants of the land had all stopped what they were doing and were watching:

_Totally flabbergastipated!!_

This was one of the most important moments _ever_ in their land: the day The Land of Haystack Swinging found out about the vines around _the border_ of their land, enabling them to swing all the way around it in magnificent circles! _Second only to their discovery of the vines in the first place!_

These vines, like the others between the haystacks, also are unable to be seen until you get up to them.

"I'll find a way," Jethro told the Tackling Dummy, as they wistfully watched their friends. "You can be sure they'll have a haystack in the border before long, and then, you'll see---around _I'll_ go, too! And if you don't see me, I'll _tell_ you about it."

He had a hopeful look in his eyes, but he realized that this time, he had to have patience. Patience had worked for him very well in The Lands---he had been patient, and _especially lately_ , some of his fondest dreams had come true.

"Color me there too, _also_ going around," said the Tackling Dummy, agreeing, equally disappointed, but thinking about another time in the future, too. Then he smiled. "I'm going to stay in The Lands, if they'll have me," he assured his friend. "I'll be able to come back here many times!"

_The thrill at the idea of living in The Lands was taking hold of him more and more!_

The two unselfishly and patiently watched for their friends to appear from the other direction. It wasn't long before the three came swinging around and let the vines drop them softly back down onto the grass again. All they had to do was lower their feet.

"How did you know?" Wut asked Meri again, with gleaming eyes and even more respect, giving her a warm hug as she took those first uncertain steps on the grass after sailing around the land high in the air. Rising up and zooming down on so many vines, one after another, affects your balance when you finally come down.

Wut knew more about The Lands than anyone, and he was _just finding out_ something new and important about one of them, that _no one_ had ever known before until Meri came to The Lands!

"How in The Lands did you get that idea, I want to know?"

"I don't understand, myself," she answered doubtfully, looking especially thoughtful and definitely uncertain. A breeze from someone swinging on a nearby vine blew her soft brown hair. She flattened her lips in an inquisitive way, and then, narrowing her eyes, she started thinking back to the seconds just before her discovery.

"As I was looking around at everything here at the edge of the border, I had a strange feeling. It was like I felt it all over my whole mind _!_ It had something to do with the land being completely round. I didn't understand why. And I just wanted to know why. I thought there ought to be a reason. An odd feeling, a kind of tingling feeling, came all over me. It was a kind of _waiting feeling_. I knew something was missing, and I was waiting to find out what! And then, looking at the rest of the land, the idea just popped into my head. Suddenly I knew what was missing to complete this land. And when I thought about it, it seemed so right that I just knew it couldn't _not_ be true! That's when I asked you to bounce up and look."

"Awfully glad you did," replied Wut, in a kind of choking voice, looking back at the colorful circle which was now so much more than it had ever seemed to be before. Thanks to his friend Meri.

"Thanks," he said to her, "on behalf of _all_ of The Lands."

Then he added, almost casually, bouncing around to look at the next land, "You have such a good sense of being here. It's almost like you're from The Lands."

Meri had smiled and nodded when he had unexpectedly thanked her on behalf of all The Lands, not knowing quite what to say to such a magnificent idea _. That all The Lands were thanking her!_

"Anyway, someone would have made the discovery sooner or later," she modestly thought.

Or would they have?

But _even more_ , she didn't know what to say when, with his back casually turning toward her to look at the next land, he had said that she was _almost_ from The Lands!

He didn't know how much that statement meant to her, because she already loved The Lands so much. She loved being _almost_ from them. The thought made a happy circuit around and around and through her mind.

And even if she weren't _really_ from them, she knew they were, unquestionably, _her second home_. _All of The Lands_ were now a second home to her.

She was almost home.

# Chapter IV: THE LAND OF STOPPING FLOWERS

Looking around, Meri glanced at the new land which they were walking and bouncing toward. She immediately appreciated it.

Then her appreciation got mixed up with her continuing excitement about her part in what had just happened to The Land of Haystack Swinging, and Wut's comment.

She was still wondering about herself. Had _she_ actually discovered something new about The Land of Haystack Swinging? Her father had always said that she had good ideas, she recalled. Such as after she had thought up her game _Suddenly!_ and explained it to him. She hadn't taken him that seriously, though.

"Can _I_ think of good ideas?" she now wondered, looking down at herself and seeing her coral top, the overall bib jeans shorts, her white tennis shoes, and her arms and legs.

Then she remembered the one and only rule she had made up for herself when she had begun playing her game of new ideas. Talking to herself after some early tries that hadn't worked very well, she had realized, "I have to keep my mind absolutely free for _anything_ I might think of. That's the only way different ideas will come along freely and join together into a new one that I might like." After that she had played the game better.

"I think keeping my mind free and open _did_ help me in The Land of Haystack Swinging," she suddenly realized, turning her attention seriously toward the _next_ land for the first time, while her back still seemed to be aware of The Land of Haystack Swinging. "My game of Suddenly! _did_ help me, I think. I didn't know it was going to do that."

And then she thought of something else, too: it occurred to her that having a free mind must have helped her when she had met the Tackling Dummy for the first time! It had certainly required a free mind to meet him without being too bewildered, when it had been so strange for him to begin walking around and talking like that!

"Now I think I understand why I was able to stay calm enough to meet him," she realized. "I had a free mind."

She liked thinking about herself and trying to find out more things about herself.

She was meeting herself. And she remembered Sticktight.

By this time they had walked and bounced right up to an immense field of flowers that was absolutely stopping. The flowers were so exquisitely pleasant to look at that one _had to stop_ and look at them, when first seeing them, before doing anything else.

They were perfect on their light green stems, at different heights, at the beginning of the land. Their colors and exquisite shapes came through the air with an undeniability that _made you stop_ and start looking at them. Part of their attraction was that each one seemed to be just as lovely as the next.

Not willing to go forward, the travelers gradually walked closer and closer to the edge, continuing to look at one flower after another. There were no trees in this land. It was simply an immense patch of flowers, with no place to walk across them, unless you stepped on one, which no one was willing to do.

"We can't crush any," Perfit protested protectively, looking out, even though Wut hadn't said to go ahead. And even though she was such a light creature, that she probably wouldn't have damaged one by walking on it anyway.

"We won't," Wut assured them, bouncing softly up to a moderate height to look over the beautiful land. He had a strange smile on his face.

"We can't," he added with unusual finality, so that everyone wondered.

"This is The Land of Stopping Flowers," Wut explained. "I'm sure you can guess why the flowers are stopping ones. They stop everyone, they're so lovely. But don't worry about stepping on them. We couldn't hurt them, even if we tried---which none of us ever would, of course, like Perfit said. But we're stopped anyway. You'll see what I mean. Go ahead, Perfit. Take a step."

"Can't we just walk around?" the tiny little girl dummy suggested, not having listened _precisely_ to Wut's words, or not daring to believe he had meant _exactly_ what he had said. Everyone noticed that she looked _twice_ as beautiful as usual, if that was even possible, because she was standing in front of that field of exquisite flowers.

In fact, they all looked different. The appearances of Wut, Meri, Jethro, and Perfit were all considerably enhanced by all the soft natural beauty. It seemed to spread right onto them. Regrettably, however, the opposite effect occurred to the Tackling Dummy. His canvas looked even worse.

"No," said Wut firmly, smiling and answering Perfit's question. "You don't need to worry.'"

But Perfit stubbornly, although politely, still hesitated.

"I'll carry you," pronounced the Tackling Dummy, to settle things. "Then you won't have to crush one yourself." Apparently he also hadn't listened carefully enough to Wut, who had said that they _couldn't_ damage the flowers even if they tried.

Wut didn't say anything. He just continued to bounce and watched, smiling mysteriously.

The Tackling Dummy gently picked up Perfit and, holding her up with one arm, stepped gingerly out toward the blossoms, trying to miss them. When he did, though, he didn't bend a single stem of a flower or crush a single exquisite petal under the canvas of his foot that cotton was showing through in little holes.

No, because amazingly, he slowly began to coast out into the air _just above the flowers_. The leg and foot he had stretched out simply went on up, followed by the other one. And from there he began floating and drifting peacefully toward the other side, above the flowers.

"What?!" blurted out the Tackling Dummy, almost tripping, but he couldn't exactly do that, being up in the air like he was.

"Oh yes, guess I forgot to tell you," Wut added, with his strange little smile a little larger. "This land is also sometimes called The Land of Slow Floating, and even more often, The Land of Complete Peace. Remember I said w _e can't hurt them?_ Well, this is why. No one can. The land not only stops you, it stops that. To cross, you just float over the blossoms, and that way you get to look at them, for as long as you like, you get to avoid hurting them, and you get an unusual experience.

"Just as important, as I said, it's a peaceful and relaxing land. I think it follows The Land of Seasonal Speed and The Land of Haystack Swinging, lands where you may act vigorously, on purpose. You get to float carefreely and to rest completely, above something you love. It's a small but special land.

"Ready?" he asked the others, bouncing up to a slow float and drifting aimlessly across toward the other side, not far behind Perfit and the Tackling Dummy, who had by now released his small friend. She was floating on by herself in an enviable way.

Both Meri and Jethro stepped onto the land and rose softly into the air above the flowers, coasting mildly and enjoyably. The smile on Jethro's face was his most whimsical as he took his first step and drifted on up into the air. It was a very low kind of flying. He hadn't understood the land before.

By this time Perfit had discovered that by small swimming motions you can affect your movement, if you want to. When she wanted to see a certain enchanting flower a little more closely, she gently dove, and guided, and coaxed, with her hands and arms, to get there. Floating like a small cloud perfectly in that direction, under control and almost effortlessly, she arrived at the matchless flower.

"Oh, forgot to tell you," added Wut, hanging serenely in the air and watching Perfit and his other friends with affectionate looks, "this land is also sometimes called The Land of Swimming Through Air. You can see why.

"But it's a totally relaxing and peaceful land if you want it to be. All you have to do is just let go completely, and you'll drift over in the same direction you started in, without further effort. If you want to relax, you can look up at the sky, or in any direction you want, and you can think about anything you want."

Meri was _especially_ pleased with the land, because her arms had gotten a little tired in The Land of Haystack Swinging. Especially after her swing around the entire land following her discovery.

What her friends Perfit and the Tackling Dummy still didn't realize very well was that sometimes, as a flesh and blood dummy, she became tired from extended activity, and her arms and legs sometimes ached. The Tackling Dummy understood better, because he had watched so many practices. But here in The Lands, he tended to forget, because he intentionally avoided thinking about all that, so difficult and frustrating for him personally, especially when he was being tackled.

With their cotton-stuffed and yarn arms, the Tackling Dummy and Perfit _never_ became tired. Wut did seem to understand Meri's difference to a degree, because of his wide experience, but he also had never been tired before.

So The Land of Complete Peace was _especially_ wonderful to Meri, because she not only got to rest her body in the air, the peaceful flowers seemed to add a restfulness of their own, even to Perfit and the Tackling Dummy and Wut. And of course Meri also got _to look at them_ too whenever she chose to coast and drift facing _downward_!

The scents of the flowers drifted up.

It _was_ The Land of Stopping Flowers. For Meri had stopped completely while looking at the flowers, but she got to keep on going too! It was a perfect solution. She smiled to herself as she drifted on, looking around at the light blue sky, the clouds, the flowers, and sometimes inside at some of her thoughts.

She had to smile when she looked back at Jethro, crossing on his back, upside down and backwards with his green saddle still on, his four legs sticking straight up in the air. He was looking up at the clouds.

But he didn't totally ignore the flowers. Occasionally, to check, he bent his head back and looked straight down backwards at the changing exquisite blossoms going by below, sometimes so neatly and sometimes bewitchingly unexpectedly below him. He was floating mainly upsidedown because he was thinking about going up into the sky again. The flowers and the drifting reminded him of his joy at being up there.

As she rested and serenely wafted over the unusual land, with her eyes closed some of the time, Meri wondered if the flowers below were ever going to get the owingstones, and if so, _what they would say?_ _She really wished she knew!_

She then wondered, as she had many times before, what the strawberry plants of The Strawberry Patch would say when they received the owingstones!? She was going to find out soon!

Reaching her hand up to the small pocket at the top of her bib overalls jeans shorts, she checked even one more time to make sure the straw colored stones were still there, that she hadn't lost any, especially being up in the air so much as she was, with the flying wand and sometimes upsidedown in this land.

She was glad and reassured to feel all five of the small forms through the fabric.

"One two three four five," she counted with satisfaction.

Soon they wouldn't be there anymore!

Since she was already thinking about The Strawberry Patch, and since she was above and slowly crossing a land of flowers that was called The Land of Stopping Flowers, she wondered what the land, where the strawberries were, was going to be called?

So she asked Wut, drifting ahead.

"I doubt if you ever could have guessed its real name," he replied, coasting flatly on his right side and looking quite content. "It's _The Land of Strawberry Dawn."_ He was pleased for a change to have motion like everyone else.

"What a pretty name," thought Meri, liking the sound of it. She was going to ask what it meant, but at that very moment she reached the other side of the land. The air very gently dropped her down onto her feet on the grass again.

For a moment she liked being on her own two feet again. But as she was facing away from The Land of Stopping Flowers, she couldn't help but look that way.

To everyone's right was another land in which snow was falling. There was something unusual about it, Meri knew at first glance. To their left was another land of beautiful colors, and they were all green. They were the most beautiful greens Meri had ever seen.

The two lands were a violent contrast.

They were both mysterious. Meri could see into the green one better, because it was clear and still. The other one was full of moving white weather, hard to see through. A border of clear air went right between this violent contrast, and since Meri was curious about both lands, she was glad when Wut led that way.

She especially wanted to find out what was different about the snow!

# Chapter V: _THE LAND OF FALLING YOU_

The Land of Turnip Snow

The Land of Raining Faces

They began down the middle of the new border.

Snow was falling to their right. Meri noticed again that it was different. So did the Tackling Dummy and Perfit. It was falling _slowly_. When they looked again, they noticed something else: there seemed to be _shapes_ inside the falling snow.

Wut was watching them looking.

"That's probably the _most unexplored land_ we have," he told them. "It's The Land of Snowflake Stepping. If you look closely, you'll see that sometimes the slowly falling snow is in _the shape of steps_. You can actually run up those steps, too, jump to other steps that are a little higher, and so on, until you're tired of going up---or nervous about where you are---and then you can simply stop moving and ride The Snowflake Steps down. I haven't been up too many times, and there may even be other places up there. It's quite a lot of fun, and very unique. You can't imagine what it's like to be up in the middle of a slowly falling snowstorm. Very white, very still. And very thought-provoking."

"I'd like that," muttered the Tackling Dummy, looking over yearningly at the slow snow which even then had a few shapes in it.

They had all stopped for a moment to look. "You've got to be careful, though," cautioned the friendly mark, bouncing up and down blackly near the falling white land. "Because it's also called The Land of Geometrical Snow. Sometimes the shapes get out of hand: _other_ shapes begin to fall. Sometimes whole floors of houses come down, and then whole houses, too, sometimes in interesting colors. They just flatten right to the ground. And sometimes snow in the shapes of different types of trees, all upright, float gracefully right down and flatten out. And this is what I'm getting to: sometimes even snow in _your_ shape falls, whoever's going by. I have heard the land called _The Land of Falling You_."

"Ohh!" said Meri, looking harder for a moment.

"I'd love to see me!" exclaimed Perfit. "Would I have my yellow hair?" she asked earnestly, looking up, and Wut nodded his head.

"Oh yes."

"Look out if I'm coming down!" exclaimed Jethro, and they all laughed at the thought.

The Tackling Dummy was wondering what his canvas would be like on his snow self, and his face looked extra worn for a moment at the worrisome thought. "If my canvas is going to be shabby," he thought privately, "I'd just as soon not see myself coming down."

"A lot of times it snows turnips," Wut added surprisingly, looking over at the land he was describing. "The land surprisingly seems to like turnips. Turnips of all different shapes and colors. In fact, so much so that the land is even sometimes called _The Land of Turnip Snow_."

"If you have time, the land's a lot of fun to watch, and it would be challenging for the adventurous to go up into it. But regrettably, we don't have the time for that right now, if anyone wanted to. Oh, one more thing---sometimes the snowflakes slowly begin to get bigger and bigger until they're truly _gigantic_ coming down. They're a sight to see!"

Jethro looked over at the slowly falling snow with shapes, with a certain look in his eye, but Wut went on to say something else. "Just beyond, where you can't see right now, is The Land of Raining Faces. When it rains there, and it's always raining in a different part of the land, the faces of those in The Lands appear, made by the raindrops coming down. Sometimes the faces are quite large. I've seen yours recently, Jethro."

"Really??!" asked the Buffalo Unicorn, all interest, taking a few steps in that direction.

"Not now," reminded Wut. "Can you come back later?"

At the suggestion, Jethro took several more steps, as if he couldn't wait, but he turned around, at the last moment, before entering The Land of Falling You. The pull of being with his friends was too great at the moment. There was a special whimsical look on his face as he came back, though, including a mischievous smile.

They all turned to look at the green grass of the land to their left. Just as they did, however, the land to their right began to snow various step patterns up into the falling snow, and so they all looked back. The steps were very intriguing and inviting.

All around these, then, Perfits began to fall everywhere, including her yellow hair. It was an amazing sight. Perfit was enchanted. The others were mesmerized. Then turnips of all sizes and colors appeared to be coming down, and then houses in different designs, and even single flakes, not all white, that were as large as hills. They fell slowly and were a delight to see, blending and flattening into the land and disappearing. Their designs were intricate and fascinating.

Then Meris came down, in many sizes, and the travelers all stopped again to look. Meri was breathless.

Right after they had gone by, Tackling Dummies too came down, all with perfect canvas, and then Jethros, in a truly magnificent snow, and then even Wuts, but the travelers didn't see them. The Wuts coming down in such numbers would have been interesting to see, for black snow fell in _The Land of Falling You_ only when Wut was nearby.

"These next two lands I have to prepare you for," Wut said in his gentlest tones, when he was pulling their attention away from that land and to the land on the left again as they proceeded.

"Because you're going to see something else here in The Lands that has gone more than a little wrong. Like in The Land of the Croapfs. Only here, these two lands are even sadder. That's why I have to prepare you.

Again he said, as if once weren't enough, "Please try not to be too sad at what I say and at what you might see, because _hopefully_ \--- _some way_ \---what's gone wrong here will be made right again---just as we hope it will be in The Land of the Croapfs."

They were walking beside the land of unexpectedly beautiful greens. It was the greenest land Meri had ever seen, and very pretty to see. There were greens of all colors everywhere.

The sky over The Lands was a light blue, with a few small clouds here and there and one huge one to the southwest---toward The Land of Pink Windmills.

"In just a few of The Lands," Wut continued as they moved slowly along, "the dummies aren't made of either stuffed cotton or yarn, like the Tackling Dummy and Perfit." He turned his head at just a tiny angle to look over at Jethro, who was his example. "Like Jethro. He's made of flesh and blood, like Meri."

Jethro looked over at Meri then, and they silently recognized the bond between them.

"As I said, there are only several lands like this, and we're at one. We're almost to another.

"This is The Land of the _Htooos_ ," he went on, nodding toward the pretty green land they were walking beside. "The dummies here are made of _water_. Everything's so green here because there are so many springs. But there's a problem."

No one noticed, but at that moment Jethro had an especially sad look on his face. He was sad because he already knew the problem. It wasn't often that anyone saw a sad look on his face, much less a very sad one, and none of the other travelers saw it this time. They were paying close attention to Wut.

Wut went on, even noticeably sadder himself now. "The problem is, the next land to it is The Land of the _Trazots_. The dummies there are made of _fire_. The problem is that the Htooos and the Trazots keep falling in love with each other."

At this time they were coming to the difference between the two lands just mentioned. The contrast was dramatic: it had already been visible for several minutes now. For The Land of the Htooos was so pleasantly and beautifully green, while The Land of the Trazots was blackened, scorched, and smoking.

"There's a Htoo!" cried Meri excitedly, seeing a lovely young Htoo maiden appear walking toward The Land of the Trazots. She was obviously quite attractive, while clear.

"Uh oh!" groaned Wut. "Oh no! It's going to happen!" He was in genuine pain, they could all tell. But they didn't know just why yet. He now regretted bringing them by at this time.

Jethro was quiet. There was a hurt expression on his huge face, and a tear already in his eye. But no one noticed.

"And there's a Trazot!" cried out Perfit in her soft voice, pointing.

"I knew it!" mumbled Wut, especially painfully.

A Trazot young man, quite well formed and nice looking, was walking toward the Htoo maiden. Somewhat golden in color, he was clearly made of fire.

"Don't!" called out Wut desperately, trying to warn and protect the two. But it was no use.

Meri wasn't sure what was going to happen, but quickly she realized that perhaps water and fire were about to come together. Instantly knowing the danger, she too became alarmed.

At Wut's call, the Htoo young woman and the young Trazot man looked their way, saw the travelers, smiled and waved, and then looked back at each other.

It was evident to one and all that they were in love with each other.

For a moment they hesitated, looking into each other's eyes with appreciation and value, and then they walked gently into each other's arms for a caring hug.

And then it was too late.

For the water of the Htoo maiden immediately put out the fire that her Trazot was made of. There was a sudden flash, a puff of smoke, and he was gone.

The scene was almost impossible to watch. In a gesture of indescribable sadness, the lovely young maiden put her hands to her eyes and began to sob, not violently, but so pitifully.

"Remember that she's made of water," Wut gently reminded the others, whose eyes reminded themselves of the Htoo maiden at that moment. "She won't stop crying until she has cried herself away. She will disappear in tears."

At those words Meri turned her face into Jethro's large tan and golden side, holding it there and sobbing quietly.

Jethro lifted his head all the way down, picking up Perfit with it and lifting her up, where she sobbed against his neck. And large tears were also seen to fall from the Buffalo Unicorn's eyes toward the grass. The Tackling Dummy put a hand on both Meri's and Perfit's backs and just stood between them, looking over Jethro's shoulder into the distance with a look of infinite sadness---and a mist of tears---over his own eyes.

Wut, hardly controlling himself, but he had to, gave them a few moments and then bounced slowly on, thinking they might all feel better if they were walking and if he himself were bouncing.

He also knew the many tiny soft feelings of the next land might help.

# Chapter VI: THE LAND OF GET BETTER BELLS

The next land, somewhat to the left, was immediately attractive to the travelers. It was a land of welcoming light green grass.

As they approached, they saw that placed invitingly all over the entire land on the welcoming light green grass were glass handbells of all colors and shapes.

The handles of the bells were twinkling, rising out of the rounded musical ends they were resting on. Shining softly and splendidly through all the colors at the same time, the sun made _a land of cheerfully glowing grass_ , already a beautiful light green.

"This is The Land of Get Better Bells," said Wut softly, letting them look for a few seconds, and looking himself at the land with simple affection as he bounced to a low comfortable height up from the grass.

"It's also simply, _The Land of Getting Better_."

Meri and Perfit and the Tackling Dummy wondered he meant.

" _Wherever_ one is in this land," Wut continued, "it's possible to pick up a bell or even more than one. If you have a choice, you may not be able to decide, they are all so attractive. If you do, for a few moments you may disturb the exquisite way they all look together in the light. But that's not a real problem. Their new look will please you just as much.

"The tiniest little quake will discover the unique sound of that special bell!

"And then one can't help but feel better. The sounds discover and release tiny positive feelings hidden in everyone."

The bells were soon softly vibrating.

So was the whole land, softly, at times. It almost _visibly_ vibrated with pleasantness.

Each bell the friends tried made them smile, including the ones they heard their friends trying.

The bells help to solve the problem of forgetting wonder. The eyes of Meri and Jethro, of flesh and blood, brightened at these remembrances. So did those of Perfit and the Tackling Dummy, she of yarn and he a creature of canvas stuffed with cotton. Wut, made of ink, had always been aware of these values.

Others of the bells peal softly with different qualities of kindness, caring, and reminders of continuing wisdom.

Some of the bells can be tiny mental adventures.

Suddenly one may think someone else's thought. There may be a dizzying flight inside one's mind. Sometimes it's possible to go right up to an idea and look around inside. One of the truths about stars seemed to be at Meri's left elbow. Then she felt an explosion of joy in her right shoulder, then in her left heel. Suddenly she seemed to be better acquainted with her toes. The structures of air and light momentarily became fascinatingly visible.

Looks of awe at times came into the eyes of all of them.

Some think that hearing the bells are the closest one gets to The Lands. Some think that actually _every_ land offers that opportunity.

It's a delightful land, but there usually isn't much talking there. There's too much to miss.

Each bell had a little catch, made right into the glass handle, to hang onto a thread. There weren't many trees in the land, but the dummies who lived there sometimes hung them in some of the larger trees near the edge.

So some of the bells were also up in the light.

These large trees glow unusually by day with warm and spirit-lifting summer lights. Every now and then a breeze announces what a bell has to say.

The land never looks the same.

The unusual bells helped the travelers to slowly recover after witnessing the disaster of The Land of The Trazots and The Land of The Htooos.

With their increasingly potent mental activity they realized even more poignantly the similar disaster that had taken place in The Land of the Croapfs and was causing the problems there. They also knew that something else had been going wrong in The Land of Lost N Lightning, although the changes there had resulted in improvements. _They realized that, generally, there was a larger problem in The Lands of things going wrong._

The friends, including Jethro, soon loved this small land of getting better.

When Jethro wanted to hear a bell, he picked it up very slowly with his teeth. It was then fun to watch him shake his enormous head with just enough motion to produce its unique sounds. It was also fun to watch him walking. He was carefully controlling his great strength and size in a place where it was almost an impossible challenge _for him_ , because of the bells, to move without breaking something important. He didn't want to. Although he knew this special land would certainly have understood.

When he had finally crossed the entire land, he was happy that the land was still perfect!

From time to time Meri noticed tiny intriguing scenes of The Lands on some bells that seemed to have the colors of their sounds and the sounds of their colors. These were especially interesting to look at and to listen to _at the same time_. They were also mental bells, and they made her think differently. She avidly wanted to see _those same scenes in the real lands!_

The Land of Get Better Bells is a loveable land of continuously getting better.

Each of the five friends was.

As they walked under the summer lights of one of the large trees at the edge, they turned for a final grateful look at the land that had helped them all.

"Jethro!" suddenly cried a loud, excited, strangely familiar voice from the next land which was on the other side of a small border.

"It's _The Land of Buffalo Unicorns!_ " Meri suddenly realized with excitement, because of what she unexpectedly saw.

The voice was that of Jethro's mother.

# Chapter VII: THE LAND OF BUFFALO UNICORNS

"Mama!" cried Jethro, sprinting toward his mother who had already begun running toward the travelers. Jethro put his neck across his mother's neck, as she put hers across his, in a warm hug. Then they looked at each other with immensely pleased eyes.

"Oh, it's been so long!" exclaimed Meridia, stepping back and eyeing her son. It wasn't hard to eye him, because he was a little larger than she.

Jethro's mother was a beautiful Buffalo Unicorn, resembling Jethro very closely except that she was just a little whiter across the sides. Her face was broad with exceptionally curling white hair and a long white unicorn projecting from the middle of her forehead. She had solid black smaller side horns, which sparkled, like Jethro's, and the same markings of black, tan, yellow and gold at random around her massive body. But whereas Jethro was more golden tan along the sides, especially one of them, she was more white and gold.

She was also wearing a large rose colored hat, which had a picture of a black and white polka dotted hat on the front of it, and on the front of this hat was a picture of another hat, which also had a tiny sewing of a hat, and so on, until you couldn't see the tiny hats any more.

"Love your hat," Meridia gushed, enviously looking at her son's and inspecting it more closely. "You know how I love hats!"

"Yep," replied Jethro, looking with amusement at her present one, which by itself represented many of her past hats. _It would have been impossible to forget her love of putting things on her head_.

"And your present hat's a big winner, too---like always," he said, complimenting her in a way that he knew she would like. But truly, he had missed his mother's hats more than he had known, he now realized, because he had missed his mother.

"So you like my hat, too? Well, it's yours, Mama. Meri, could you help me, please?" He thought Meri, being a girl, would be a good one to ask.

"Could you help me take my hat off and give it to Mama---Mama, this is Meri, a good friend of mine, and that's Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, and Wut, whom you already know, all being my special friends. This is my mother Meridia," he said to them.

"Why, hello Dears," Meridia replied to all of them. "What a beautiful child," she said of Meri, "such wonderful eyes," and "What another beautiful child," she spoke of Perfit, looking down and smiling at the two. "And hello Wut, my old friend," she cried, "come over here and give me a big hug, quickly! I've missed you." With a great smile on his face, and his eyes especially lighted on either side of his head, the bouncing mark crossed the grass quickly to the huge Buffalo Unicorn---so beautiful herself and so unstoppingly friendly. He bounced up, caught her around her neck, and held on in a lasting hug.

"And Tackling Dummy, Dear, what in The Lands happened? We need to get you fixed. Oh, I'm so glad to meet you. But don't just stand there. I need a big hug from you too, quickly!"

And the Tackling Dummy, feeling right at home and, in fact, very pleased, strolled over and gave her a long warm hug, although he was just meeting her.

"Meri and Perfit, Dears, give me a just a little hug around my neck," Meridia continued, returning her attention to Meri and Perfit and leaning her head very low to receive the hugs from the two girls. "Did I say _a little hug?"_ she said. "How could I have made such a mistake? I meant to say two _big_ ones. Could I have the other one now?" And they willingly and affectionately gave her another one, this time both at the same time, as they liked her so much already.

She then raised her head just a little to look down carefully at the two girls standing there in front of her, quite pleased at how they both looked. Then she looked a little harder at Meri.

"Oh, my, you're not a dummy!" she suddenly said, her eyes growing wider, and she already had _large_ warm gray eyes with little brown stars around the centers. "I mean, not stuffed with cotton or made of yarn. You're flesh and blood, like I am! The only dummy I've ever seen like you! I'll have to find out more---when I can, of course, Dear."

Meri still had Jethro's hat in her hand, so she asked, holding it up, "Would you like it on now?"

"Of course, sweet child," she replied and so Meri carefully made the exchange, adjusting the new hat to look very smart on her new friend.

"And I want to point out," continued Meridia, as the helpful girl was fixing the new hat on her head, "that you and I share the same name. The first four letters of my name are the first four letters of yours: Meri. I've even thought of using _Meri_ sometimes, but now I won't, so that all the dummies can tell us apart. But now that I think of it, I might, after all---maybe just once in a while every now and then---to remind me of you. Thank you, Dear. How do I Iook?" she asked everyone when the hat was perfectly in place.

"Emancipated and superfine," remarked the Tackling Dummy, not being able to resist using a little vocabulary. And, in fact, she did look exceptionally stunning. It was appropriate, too, that her new hat had a picture of her son on it.

"Lovely," said Wut, honestly. "Good."

"Perfect," added Perfit, looking up, and Meridia tilted her large head down for a moment for the littlest dummy to see her a little better.

"What a delightful child!" murmured Meridia to herself.

"Whimsically better on you," was Jethro's reply to how her hat looked. He was glad to have his head free again. It felt lighter, and he liked the way the breeze was blowing airily and refreshingly around where the hat had pressed his fur down around his unicorn.

"Whimsically?" repeated Meridia, looking at Jethro. "And why _whimsically?"_ she asked, with a glint of humor in her eyes, at her own self. "And by the way, don't you think it's been a little long since you came to see me? You need to see your mother."

She said these words with evident caring about her son, whom she obviously adored. His absences in fact hadn't been easy.

Jethro looked glum, and Meri now thought she understood that hint of guilt she thought she had seen in his eyes a little while ago---which she hadn't been able to understand then, not knowing The Land of Buffalo Unicorns was nearby. But Jethro did.

"I didn't mean to be gone this long," he said apologetically and honestly. "You know I wanted to see you. But there's so much to see and do in The Lands, and I keep getting interested. You know how I am. You'd be amazed at the things I've seen and the things I've done." A soft look of pride, and also of understanding, appeared in Meridia's eyes, in spite of herself. Yes, she knew her child.

"And you know how far it is, all the way up there to the only bridge across The Mistercald," he added. She did, and it was true: there was only one bridge across The Mistercald, and it was too far up the river---in a land too far away.

"We do need a better way across The Mistercald," Meridia admitted. "That's what we all need. I need one to go to see Aquamarie, whom I've heard so much about, to teach me how to make my own hats. And speaking of The Mistercald, I'll have to go look in it, to see this new hat with your picture on it. Oh, here's Smithery and some of our other friends."

Having noticed the visitors from a distance, a number of other Buffalo Unicorns were arriving, including Jethro's younger brother Smithery.

"Here's Jethro!" called out Meridia to the arrivals, "and his special friends Meri, Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, and Wut."

The Buffalo Unicorns all rushed up to greet Jethro and his friends, and there was quite a noisy gathering for a few minutes.

"It's been too long," Meri heard a number of them say to Jethro,

and,

"We've missed you,"

and,

"We've been worried about you."

Meri especially liked a colorful and independent looking Buffalo Unicorn named Minglemint, who was only a little smaller than Jethro. But she was colored quite differently---pink and yellow and white. She was quite lovely, actually. She had broad areas of color, but she was mostly pink.

And Meri's eye was also quickly caught by Globe, a small plump Buffalo Unicorn who---also very differently---had a _map_ of The Lands right in her fur. _It was all over her_. She was _all_ color, in small areas, except around her legs and underneath, which was a contrasting white. Meri wanted to go up to her back and look at all The Lands, but she didn't want to be too impolite or too forward, especially at first, so she didn't.

Her father had always shown her globes, all her life, and seeing this Globe---although she was a Buffalo Unicorn---she thought of her father and missed him. Standing there missing her father then made her want to talk to Globe, who, she saw, was also looking curiously at her.

When Jethro greeted Smithery, they each held up a front hoof, and then the other one, and then the first one again, and so on, faster, until, moving really fast, they finally missed and fell on their knees laughing. They had done this all their lives.

"You might as well know," Smithery began in a quavery voice, when he could be serious again, looking up at his big brother, who was just a shade larger, "that I've got a big problem."

Jethro's eyes quickly became alarmed.

"But don't worry, it's not something that's wrong with me, something's wrong with the land," he added quickly. "But it affects me in a big way." Smithery looked rather sad.

"What's that?" asked Jethro, concerned, his eyes not at all whimsical now. Wut, Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy crowded closer, wondering what the matter could be. The other Buffalo Unicorns, also crowding in, already knew, of course. But they waited for Smithery to explain.

"Yes, it's a shame," chimed in Meridia, standing there listening, in a voice that wasn't as low as Jethro's. In fact it was a little musical. "And we certainly don't understand why. Perhaps in your travels you can find some way to help."

Smithery was smaller than Jethro, but he was still growing. His head was a little wider, and his unicorn was just a little higher on his forehead, although not quite as long. In fact, however, he and Meridia and Jethro looked very much alike in their markings. They were mostly beige, or gold, and tan and brown and yellow and black and white. They were all quite handsome creatures, with Jethro actually being the largest of all the Buffalo Unicorns in the land, as well as the most whimsical and the one most inclined to wander.

"Well," began Smithery, "speaking concisely, the land won't let me out."

The Tackling Dummy liked the adverb as soon as he heard it. "Concisely," he repeated softly to himself, glancing up at the light blue sky of The Lands.

"I've always wanted to follow after you, to see what you were doing, and to do some of it with you, if it was all right with you, but when I was finally ready to go, and Mama had---after my unending requests---given her permission, the land just wouldn't let me out."

"No, it surely wouldn't," chimed in Meridia. "It stopped him, quickly."

"What do you mean?" asked Wut, not quite understanding, before Jethro could, for he needed to know what The Lands were doing. In fact, the travelers were all bursting with curiosity as well as with sympathy for Smithery. For although they didn't quite understand yet, they could see that he was deeply unhappy about what was happening to him.

"Come over here," directed Smithery, walking toward the edge of the land again, in the opposite direction the travelers had come.

"Watch this!"

He ran as fast as he could toward the edge, but when he reached it, it was as if he had run into a giant bubble, because he was popped right back into the land again. He wasn't hurt. He was just popped right back into the land again.

"Well, I'll be pluviometrical," remarked the Tackling Dummy, using an expression none of his friends had heard yet. The Buffalo Unicorns standing around raised their eyebrows when they heard it, not being used to the Tackling Dummy's love of vocabulary yet.

"Well, I'll be---myself," commented the soft voice of Perfit, imitating the Tackling Dummy, although not able to pronounce the word. She was genuinely surprised, as they all were, at what had happened.

"Could I see that again?" asked Wut, bouncing and looking perplexed. He had never seen anything like it before.

Smithery obligingly backed back again, even farther this time, and the same thing happened again.

"He can't become himself like that," began Meridia in a distressed voice. "He knows what _you're_ like, Jethro, and now he wants to find out what _he's_ like. He's tried hard to overcome this. You wouldn't believe how hard he's run toward the edge of the land, all the way around.

"But there's not a place that will let him out. He just can't get out. It always pops him back, unhurt. He's been so disappointed. He's always wanted to be like you, Jethro, and definitely to be _himself_ , but he's had the worst time getting started. He's the only one affected."

And she walked easily out of the land and right back in again, while Smithery watched, obviously frustrated.

All the eyes around him showed sympathy, including those of his everyday friends, the other Buffalo Unicorns standing there.

"We do have some serious problems in The Lands," admitted Wut, bouncing softly up a little higher. He wanted to help Smithery feel better, but he didn't see how he could. He was dismayed that something had gone wrong with even another land.

His true feelings would have made Smithery feel even worse.

But then he did think of something. "Although I know you're disappointed," he began, "you have a very special and interesting problem. Something has gone wrong with every croapf in The Land of the Croapfs, as you probably know. The dummies in The Land of Pink Windmills would have suffered intensely, too, if not for Meri's visit."

Meri was embarrassed, and blushed at the attention. Wut wouldn't let her object when she tried.

He simply went on to remind everyone of the pitifully sad problem in The Lands of the Htooos and The Trazots, which weren't too far away.

"Yes, I know." responded Meridia, lowering her eyes gently toward the grass for a moment.

And then Wut brought up the izzits. "They can't get out of their land either, because of their extremely painful shyness. It's not easy to be that way."

Meri remembered.

"But in your case," Wut went on, bouncing lower on the grass now, and more softly, and speaking directly to Smithery, "out of all the ones I've just mentioned, you are _the only one_ who has been affected _whimsically_. Your problem is actually ridiculous. It's even almost funny. In the future you're probably going to laugh at it, and be glad it happened, and that you were the only one. You're disappointed now. But you're all right. And you have your family, including your incomparable mother. You have your friends. And a happy home. I advise you to just wait a little longer. Unexpected things have a way of happening in The Lands."

Smithery blinked. He was someone who listened, and he had listened closely. He knew Wut was right. He did have the _least_ problem of them all. And he hadn't thought of it before as a _whimsical_ problem! That made him feel a lot closer to Jethro! He decided to be patient a little longer, and even to see the humor of his problem.

Meridia deeply appreciated Wut's remarks, which had been so appropriate. Wut was surprised at himself, too. He hadn't realized he was going to make such good sense.

He and Meridia began to speak privately as Smithery began to talk more positively to his own friends and to Jethro, Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy.

"He desperately wants to go up Eight Minute Mountain," Meridia confided. "The continuous sight of it keeps reminding him what he can't do."

Meri liked the way Jethro's hat looked on her. She had fixed it at just the right smart angle.

"That's the next land over," Smithery explained to Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy, overhearing only those three words spoken by Meridia. "It's that large mountain over there, covered with rose colored grass and many rose colored flowers and other ones too. It's got another name, too: Rose Mountain. It's one of the main landmarks in all of The Lands. It's actually the main landmark on this side of the river."

"Let's walk away from the trees," suggested Meridia, leading the way to the left, so that the rose colored mountain emerged large and clear in the distance.

"Wow!" said the Tackling Dummy, forgetting his huge vocabulary for a moment.

"It's actually a mountain with _several_ colors up close," Smithery went on enthusiastically, "making different its four main slopes:

"There's the slope of tiny pink and white flowers, _the easy_.

"The one with tiny light green and pink flowers is called _the moderate_.

"Then there's the slope of tiny light gold and pink flowers, _the creative_ , which goes over water, through a tunnel, swings you around on a little derrick, takes you through a shooting gallery where you are the target of bubbles coming at you in streams of different sizes and unusual colors from unexpected directions, behind a waterfall, and among other adventurous and enjoyable experiences before you rejoin the pink and white slope near the bottom.

"And finally there's the slope outlined with tiny purple flowers mixed in with even smaller pink ones. It's the _dangerous one_.

"From a distance, with the rose colored grass and so many pink flowers too, the whole mountain takes on a pink, or rose, look.

"You roll down those slopes on racers and coasters that the dummies of the land, called Eight Minute Mounties, love to build and take up to the top for you. No matter which slope you choose, it takes eight minutes to get to the bottom. That's why it's called Eight Minute Mountain. I had been wanting to go down it all my life. But on the day that I was finally allowed to go, I lost my freedom."

"I've enjoyed having him here with me," Meridia went on whispering fairly loudly to Wut. "But I'm _glad_ he's never accepted his captivity. I wouldn't want him to be any other way. It's been hard on me, but that's not important. What's important is what is in him to be, and becoming that and no less. He needs his freedom to become himself. Thank you for helping him to last a little longer. What you said was wise, exactly right, and he's a good listener. He'll be all right for a little while. I just hope it doesn't take too long!"

Wut realized that, in a way, she was just as distressed for Smithery as he was for himself, perhaps even more so. She was a wonderful mother, as well as a wonderful Buffalo Unicorn! He was glad he had thought of the right things to say.

But he was more worried than ever about The Lands! He had helped _them_ , but now _he_ was worse off! Here was _another_ land in which something had gone wrong! And his advice would be good for only a little while! And then, suppose Smithery still didn't get out?! What could he say then? He was definitely worried.

They had all spontaneously, as if with a mutual wish, started walking toward a light blue and chrome telescope, mounted on a nearby stand and pointed toward Eight Minute Mountain. If Smithery couldn't go there, at least he could look!

Meri was secretly amused at the thought of a Buffalo Unicorn standing and looking through a telescope!

The visiting friends were pleased with the sudden closeness, through the lens, of the pink grass and the four slopes! They could see actual blades of pink grass and the tiny lesser flowers.

In the place of honor at the bottom of the great landmark was a large colorful and happy coaster which had been built by the Eight Minute Mounties especially for Smithery, for the day when he would become free.

It was an adventurous one, on which Smithery would stand, of four colors: pink and white, light green, light gold, and purple, with flags and ribbons of these colors and yellow on four posters to unfurl as he races down, whenever that special day comes.

Meri liked the telescope. Looking carefully, she noticed how the Eight Minute Mounties were made: lavender with medium colored blond yarn hair, with five patches each somewhere on their bodies---of light pink and white, light green, light gold, and purple, and on each one somewhere was also a patch of a rose mountain under a light blue sky.

Wut reluctantly signaled.

"I'm sorry we have to go now, Mama," Jethro told his mother, but I promise you that I'll come right back after we help Meri deliver the owingstones to The Strawberry Patch." He quickly explained about the owingstones, including Meri's unexpected visit to The Lands and therefore her need to return either home to her aunt or to her parents who were on a trip.

"Do you mean to say that I may never see my new friend Meri again?" asked Meridia, downhearted, when she heard the part about Meri returning. "I can't stand it. Give me another hug, child. Quickly." Meri gave her a big warm hug. She was already beginning to love this huge, loving Buffalo Unicorn.

"I'll always remember," promised Meri, looking at her second friend who was a Buffalo Unicorn, "that you and I have the same name. I'm happy about that. If I never get back, I'll think of you often."

"Oh, child, don't even say it like that, like I did," replied the large Buffalo Unicorn, blinking her eyes. "I was wrong. I know I'll see you again." And her eyes weren't quite right.

"We all will," Meri's other friends joined in, pressing close to her. "You know that, Meri."

Meri blinked her eyes, too. This was the most difficult moment for her since she had been in The Lands.

"Two things," continued Meridia, turning to Jethro, purposely changing the subject away from Meri leaving, "somewhere in your travels, I wonder if you could get me a wig just like her hair?" She turned her large gray eyes, so soft with the brown stars in the centers, toward Perfit, who was standing there and looking just about perfect, with her long beautiful curly hair. "Do you think you could? Give me a hug, child. Quickly." And she held her head down for the delightful small dummy to give her a big warm hug.

"Maybe I'll get to see you again, too," whispered the small face beneath the mass of light blond curls.

"You know you have to," Meridia stated without hesitation, still blinking.

"And second," she continued to Jethro. "I haven't yet mentioned that saddle. It's beautiful. But I didn't raise you to be a beast of burden. What's going on?"

Jethro laughed. " _I'm_ the burden," he replied. And he explained about the flying wands, and how, because of Perfit's skill, he had been able to come along.

Meridia was thoughtful. "You know, somehow I knew it would be all right. But I just wanted to hear an explanation. You know how I believe in asking simple questions, to be sure. I'd also like to have that saddle myself one day, or one just like it, if that would ever be possible---to match one of my hats, which I don't have either yet, but I'd love to have one that color and of that material too. Did you say Aquamarie made it? Oh, I just have to meet her!! But are you really going up into the air? Please, please, be careful, my boy." And she gave him a long hug by putting her neck over his, this time not wanting to let go at the thought of his getting hurt.

"But I'll be back soon," he promised finally, standing so that the Tackling Dummy could easily lift Perfit back up into the skillfully made and decorated green velvety saddle, where she settled down, right at home again, ready to ascend. Her flying wand she temporarily continued to leave dangling from the ribbon from her tiny shoulder, though.

Everyone said goodbye all around.

"Please come back," Minglemint surprised Meri by saying, walking up to stand closer to the flesh and blood dummy. Her mostly pink colors were so beautiful. Meri wished she could get to know her better right then, instead of having to wait---and perhaps _never._

"Yes," said Globe, who had come up beside Minglemint. "I want to walk around The Lands to check my map. I think it would especially be fun if you were along, and I think I'd feel safe, too." There was something about this flesh and blood dummy that she liked and trusted. She looked up into Meri's aqua eyes with a true sadness. She wanted very much to get to know her better, but Meri obviously had to leave, and in only a few moments.

Their visit had been _so_ disappointingly short!

Hearing these words was a real compliment to Meri. She liked Globe, who kept making her think of her father. There was nothing she would like better than to check the accuracy of her fur! She and Minglemint were both so nice. Surely Minglemint would have to go along on such a trip too! She gave each of these two special Buffalo Unicorns a meaningful hug.

"Love your fur," she whispered where Globe's and Minglemint's ears almost touched, to both of them at the same time.

"Goodbye!" Meri called to the other Buffalo Unicorns standing kindly all around. They were all quite colorful. One even had a lot of lavender, and she wondered what her name was.

"I wish I could have gotten to know all of you better. There just isn't time, right now."

"Me too," chimed in Perfit, from high on Jethro. "But I may see you again. As you know, I live in The Land of Pink Windmills."

"I may too," said the Tacking Dummy. And then he said something truly surprising. "I'm going to pick one of The Lands to live in." His eyes and Meri's met, meaningfully. This was the first time she had heard him say definitely he was going to stay, even though it had been obvious. For The Lands are unquestionably perfect for him. He had been so incredibly lucky to arrive there.

"Welcome!" said Meridia, in her smart baseball cap with the picture of Jethro on the front, to the newest resident of The Lands when she heard these words. "You are so welcome. And in celebration, I need a big hug. Quickly!"

But there were tears in her eyes, too, because they were all going away so quickly again---her son, and her old friend Wut---and Meri, and the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit. And she had only just met the last three!

Jethro and Smithery said a long private goodbye. "I'll be back," Jethro promised his brother. "And you _are_ going to get out of this land and go around The Lands, if that's what you want to do."

Smithery felt better and worse at the same time.

The travelers then slowly rose up into the air on their flying wands.

"We're going back over The Mistercald now," called Wut, from above.

"I forgot to give you a goodbye hug!" lamented Meridia, looking up at Wut rising and trotting beneath him.

"I know, and I missed it, shouted the question mark from too high to come back, holding his flying wand up at the right angle. "And that's why I'm throwing you this kiss now. And I'll be back, too. Quickly!"

And he threw her a kiss with his free hand as the travelers acquired just enough height to see The Mistercald's silver and light in the distance.

Meridia turned her face to the side to catch the kiss as it came down to her cheek, and her eyes then continued to blink as she watched them all, including her son, become so small in the high distance.

She missed them all, already---too quickly. As the fliers became too small to see, she felt forlorn.

But then she realized that she hadn't expected to see Jethro at all that morning. _And she had!_ And she not only had gotten to see Jethro, unexpectedly, she had just as unexpectedly gotten to see Wut _and also to make some unforgettable and already dear new friends!_

She missed them. But she began to have another feeling too. She began to feel _unexpected joy_.

_She hadn't expected any of what had just happened!_

Swinging her eyes around again, she noticed the incredibly beautiful morning.

"Yeah," she said softly to herself, smiling inwardly, while continuing to look around outwardly.

"And there's also my name," she quietly mused as she thought about the memorable visit. "She and I have always had the same name, and didn't even know it. I like that. Now I'll always be wondering where she is, and what she's doing, too, just like Jethro. But wherever she is, and whatever she's doing, I know she'll have _my name_ , just as if she were my daughter. And I'll have _hers._ So we'll _always_ be just _a little bit together_. I like that."

Looking up, she couldn't see anything at all in the sky any more in the direction they all had gone.

Her long eyelashes closed for a long moment over her large soft gray eyes. As positive an attitude as she had, and was trying to have, a pain went through her heart as she wondered when she would ever see _any_ of them in person again.

# Chapter VIII: THE MISTERCALD

_The Land of Light Volcanoes_

Under a soft hazy blue sky, the unusual five up in the air flew over a few lands and then out over the wide shining waters of The Mistercald River. It was a delight to see it. A little hard to look at in places where it was reflecting brightly, overall it looked serene, and even playful from the high view of the fliers, who had ascended especially far above it for a little while to get a better look.

The later morning was shimmering in a reflective path to their left as they flew. Rose Mountain was still clearly visible if they cared to look back over their right shoulders, and they did sometimes. However, it was getting smaller.

"Let's turn here," Wut called out to all of them when they reached the middle of the wide river. They were far above it. "We need to go downstream for a while, and we might as well see The Mistercald from what is undoubtedly one of the best places to---from up here, high over the very center."

The other travelers liked the idea. They all turned to the right where Wut had said, and flew straight down The Mistercald at that height. The view was truly superb, with lands on either side.

The comfortable air streamed past them. Perfit's hair lifted out again behind her when they increased their speed. Everyone except Jethro was leaning forward a little, from the natural pull of the flying wands. Jethro didn't have a flying wand, so he was able to look down in all directions a little better than the others.

They were all having a good time and in high spirits.

The lands were flowing by on either side, into each other, often changing dramatically, making the travelers steadily curious. But they were too high and too far away for Wut to try to explain or describe any of them. So they just floated peacefully along and watched the changing colors and whatever else they could see.

However, as they flew, Wut led them in a long slow beautiful descent, so that the farther they went, the closer they were to the river, and the better they could see the lands on either side. The long slow descent was suspenseful too, because of the approaching water, which was startlingly beautiful, and because the travelers knew that the end of the descent would be Meri's delivery of the owingstones, which they were all looking forward to with growing excitement.

At any moment that they were flying along, they could hardly tell that they were descending, however, the angle was so long.

Boats of various sizes and designs were on the water, usually not very far from the edge, with dummies in them enjoying being out.

"The river can be surprising sometimes, and we don't swim, so we don't cross too much in boats," commented Wut, a little ahead of the others, leading. "That's why one bridge across the river really isn't enough. We won't see it, it's too far up there," he said, pointing ahead to the unseen bridge.

They saw more boats. Needless to say, there were upturned heads and wondering eyes as the strange crew sailed by overhead. There was a lot of friendly waving from both directions.

Meri wondered what the dummies in the boats were thinking as they looked up and what lands they were from. One thing she _knew_ they were thinking: they were _also_ wondering about _them_! It wasn't the usual sight to see a Buffalo Unicorn and a question mark flying through the air!

It also occurred to Meri that the flying wands probably didn't usually travel to this part of The Lands, so distant from The Land of the Croapfs. Especially all five of them at one time! So the dummies in the boats were definitely seeing something new and strange.

The slowly descending travelers covered a lot of the river's length as it floated peacefully north with silvery and even brighter reflections. Several times the river spread out breathtakingly into beautiful special shapes of millions of little cutup pieces of brightness. Air, light, and water can be incredibly playful and dazzling and pleasing. There were many lovely smaller places, all near lands of often unusual colors and designs.

When the great river bent abruptly towards the east, they turned slowly to the right, right along with it, up in the air.

The slow turn was also fun.

Here was an important geographical feature in The Lands: the sudden changing of direction of The Mistercald.

"It won't be long now," the flying question mark confidently called backwards, quickly glancing around at everyone. Then he turned forward again, looking to his left. All of the fliers noticed an oxbow there looping peacefully around to the northwest again before the river continued on its journey eastward.

They began to see their reflections skimming across the water below them.

Flying in this easterly direction now, instead of north, with lands on either side spreading out in all directions, the travelers at one point encountered a large number of mostly white birds that were like seagulls.

They were flying flat, like a sheet of paper, and at first it looked like they were going to fly straight into the three dummies---of which one was flesh and blood---and the black question mark and the Buffalo Unicorn still unexpectedly high in the air. But they didn't. Luckily they passed just below them, like a moving floor.

It was a good time for the Tackling Dummy, who was enjoying himself immensely as he learned more and more about The Lands, to ask,

_"Which land will we be coming down in?"_

It was a natural question, one which had been on _all_ of their minds. But they had been enjoying their long slow curious descent so much, looking around, and at the river, that it had taken this long for one of them to ask. The appearance of the birds provided an opportunity.

The Mistercald continued in the distance with its reflective pleasantness and random sheets of silver and bordering lands. The travelers were vaguely and contentedly aware of its peacefulness. The moving floor of birds, a surprising number that seemed to keep coming, at that moment was obscuring the river beneath them. They made expected sounds, however, and the travelers were aware when suddenly they flew on away.

Wut looked back. He saw that the others, including Jethro, had all turned their faces toward him to hear the answer to the Tackling Dummy's question.

"I really haven't decided," he replied. "I've just been thinking about it. There are a couple of other lands that I want you and Meri and Perfit to see. We can talk about them in a minute. But right now, I can't wait any longer to tell you about a land that's just coming up on the left. It's one of the most dramatic of The Lands, and we're going to fly right through the dramatic part."

It was so easy for him to say those simple words.

The sky ahead was truly amazing.

"It's called The Land of Light Volcanoes," Wut continued. He was moving his flying wand and himself all around to get better looks, because pieces of brilliant light, large and small, and of every color imaginable, were floating all over the sky ahead.

And then they were flying in among the pieces of brilliant floating light.

_It was an unbelievable place to be!_

"It's also known as The Land of Floating Light," Wut continued, not believing what he was seeing himself. He had never been up in the sky of the land before. He had only bounced across its surface and looked upward.

"There are four of them, I mean Light Volcanoes, in the land, which is a level one with beautiful green grass. Each volcano may erupt at any time with pure light from its crater.

"One erupts with red light, one with green light, and the other with blue light. They're beautiful by themselves. But when the light goes floating around and begins to mix with other light, it develops every other color imaginable, until sometimes the sky is so beautiful one can hardly stand it. The fourth volcano pours out different colors at the same time.

"Often there are colorstorms," Wut add unexpectedly.

"Colorstorms?" repeated the Tackling Dummy. He had never heard of such a thing.

"Look!" Wut was pointing. "There's The Volcano of Green Light, over there! You can see that it's mixing with The Volcano of Blue Light farther over to produce that remarkable yellow!"

They could see The Volcano of Red Light farther north, issuing marvelous light in a remarkable plume. Then all four volcanoes for some reason, erupted massively at the same time, pouring upward huge quantities of brilliant light, filling the sky immediately with a breathtaking colorstorm.

The fliers were mesmerized. They were right in the middle of it.

Wut wasn't able to say much more, he was so affected, but he was able to add, just barely, "This land, or what it does, isn't usually seen from up here where we are. I've never been up here before!"

Obviously the sky went over The Mistercald. Sometimes it even changed the colors of The Mistercald, as it was now doing. But the travelers didn't see that below them the river was a translucent light pink, they were so charmed and awed by The Sky of Floating Light, by the sight of the four dramatic volcanoes. Sometimes they poured out light gently, producing only the lightest colors. These skies were dreamily beautiful, so light, so gentle and refreshing to one's spirit. The fourth volcano, of _all_ light, changed the patterns remarkably.

The friends, continuing to fly through the sky, kept looking all around, and to their left, until finally they passed the last floating colors. They needed to close their eyes, to rest them, and when they did, the colors continued to whirl, as they drifted silently for a few moments.

"What a land," they were thinking. Each appreciated going directly _through_ The Sky of Floating Light, which were of pieces small to gigantic, and often even flying directly _through these pieces while they were changing color_ s.

When they opened their eyes, they were still in a mild daze, still recovering from the unique experience of almost being light themselves.

When they looked down, however, they were instantly shocked back awake!

They hadn't been watching The Mistercald!

With their eyes closed, floating in a kind of mindless daze past the beauty of the land they so much appreciated, they had unknowingly, without seeing it, drifted over _one of the most fearsome sights that anyone can ever be above!_

_When they opened their eyes and saw it, they almost dropped their flying wands!_

# Chapter IX: PUMPHREY

The Flying Whirlpool

When the friends finally opened their eyes and looked down, they were directly above a huge, wide, majestic, dizzyingly frightful whirlpool, its steep sides gleaming in descending circles of rapidly spinning water.

_They had missed seeing the prodigious whirlpool until they were directly above it!_

They were lucky to hold onto their flying wands!

At the immensity, novelty, great energy, and terrifying danger, the travelers, including Wut, were enormously shocked and stunned.

_The Lands continued to be full of surprises! This was by far the biggest one!_

Tiny above the majestic circles, Perfit became faint; Meri felt weak throughout her entire flesh and blood body; Wut's back lost some of its curve; and the Tackling Dummy felt as if he had just been tackled again. He noted at the same time in a part of his mind that was still working, however, that the unbelievable whirlpool, although so tremendous, was a great marvel of geometry. No excellent word from his extensive vocabulary came into his boggled mind to help him fly above it, though.

They instantly lost control of their flying wands. Each friend began drifting downward at a dangerous angle because, in their shocked state, they ceased to guide themselves with their hands properly, relaxing them instead. The wands sagged downward, ever so slightly, taking everyone in that direction, toward the whirling water.

Jethro was the only calm one. He was so whimsical that he thought they were descending into the center of the surrounding mountainous walls on purpose. His whimsical feeling, however, became mixed with awe at the huge ascending circles spread out below him and now even rising a little above him.

He smiled at the magnificent whirling.

"Many Yeps!!" he muttered in appreciation, as they continued downward, so that everyone heard him say,

"Can you believe this?!"

His relaxed words were so sprightly that they brought everyone else back to their senses. They corrected their errors and began rising again, to Jethro's disappointment.

_He wanted to go farther down. But down_ was _the last place_ the others wanted to go!

The danger wasn't over yet, though.

"What in The Lands?" Wut blurted out, looking at the shiny whirling with his green eyes out in space on either side of his face. His eyes had never been _that_ big before! He did manage, though, to say to everyone, now that he was back in control again,

"Stay calm! We're going to be all right!"

Even Wut, as much as he knew about The Lands, hadn't seen a whirlpool in The Mistercald before. He couldn't know everything about The Lands. There was still a lot even for him to learn.

Although he was trying to calm the others, he wasn't completely calm himself. The whirlpool was shockingly new!

His fellow travelers weren't looking at him just then, though. The gigantic whirlpool was beginning to have a different effect on them---probably because of all the differently spinning circles!

It was beginning to hypnotize them!

For a moment taking his eyes off of the dangerously spinning hollow mountain of water below him, Wut looked worriedly at his friends. Their eyes were focused on the unbelievable watery hugeness, power, and symmetry around them!

Their initial shock was yielding to a hypnotizing awe!

Perfit's face was as taut as her light yellow curls were relaxed behind her. Her speed was very slow and her forward direction uncertain. Meri was looking down, her face completely white. Because she was looking down and not where she was going, she crashed into the Tackling Dummy. She almost dropped her wand again. This time it almost fell.

It was a very dangerous moment.

"Fly up and to your left!" yelled Wut as loudly as he could, seizing the attention of his friends at just the right moment. "Let's cross to the other side of The Mistercald right here. Right now! Don't look down anymore. We can make it, and we'll be across before you know it!"

It was exactly the right leadership. The travelers were jerked back into reality by Wut, they became able to think again at the precise moment when they most needed to. Their flight stabilized, they flew up above the sides of the water and began to go toward the left side of The Mistercald.

It looked like they were going to be all right. Wut felt a surge of relief.

_The only problem, though, was that something absolutely and totally unexpected happened behind them just then:_

The whirlpool began to rise right out of the water!

It rose up and _began to follow them!_

"What is it?" Perfit choked out, now frightened, her beautiful light blue eyes quivering, as she glanced backwards.

"A _flying whirlpool?"_ Meri answered creatively, just describing what she saw behind her. She knew about whirlpools, but this rising one wasn't anything at all like she had ever heard about!

"But whirlpools aren't supposed to come out of the water!" she added factually to Perfit. She was worried about how her small friend was acting. She was the youngest dummy in The Lands and needed help.

"Stay steady!" she cautioned her. "You know how fast our flying wands react. Don't lose your control! Remember that Jethro is flesh and blood! You have to take care of him." In this last remark she was inspired by her memory of Fico's continuing comments in the great tree. She was now seriously worried about the arrangements they had made for Jethro to come along on the trip.

She was disturbed about Perfit's reactions! _But who could blame the small dummy if she faltered?!_

The huge water revolution continued to ascend behind them, actually _increasing_ in size and appearing even _more_ dangerous and frightening as it did so.

Flying along, Wut, usually the most calm of all of them, now was becoming visibly nervous himself as the gigantic spinning continued to rise up out of the water. Water shooting out and away from it in all directions created enormous billows of vapor which greatly increased its size and noise.

Wut knew it was imperative that he take charge of himself at that very moment, before a disaster occurred simply because he had understandably become nervous. He was the leader!

He found within himself, for the second time, what he needed.

"Go up!" he shouted with sudden authority, forcing his voice. Everyone else rose up. They were experienced enough with the flying wands to operate them automatically, without having to think too much.

The crazy whirlpool followed right along behind them, shooting and splashing water out in all directions and spreading out to become even more massive all the time. The rushing wind and water sounds, as the flying water-mountain edged closer, made communication between the travelers difficult.

"This is crazy!" thought Meri.

A huge gray wind-driven sound was in all of their ears.

"Now head for land!" Wut called out excitedly again above the swirling hurricane. The expanding watery storm did the same. But just then a small idea began in the back of Wut's mind. He had caught a small glimpse of something familiar in the mountain of water in the air.

"What did I recognize?" he urged himself in a calm part of the back of his mind as he tried his best in the front part to respond to the emergency.

In wobbly lines, the fliers took off a little faster to their left, toward the side of The Mistercald that they had _first_ come from, with the floating gigantic watery mass of wind and air following along right behind them.

All of a sudden, Wut and the others heard what sounded like a huge watery grin which was a combination of a gargly July thundershower and rain on a wet tin roof.

Immediately Wut knew what he had already vaguely begun to realize.

"Pumphrey!" he reacted, knowing that sound anywhere. He looked back.

"What are you doing here? Stay back!"

But the huge waterspout, which was what it was, continued its friendly chase of the friends flying toward land. And the friends made a serious mistake. They slowed down a little. They did, because Wut had suddenly acted _as if he knew_ the great object following them. _He had even spoken to it!_

At the same time, they kept their wands pointed upward, because the waterspout was forcing them to go up to stay out of its way.

It just kept coming!

And it was huge!

They were gradually getting quite high, with the determined waterspout right behind them.

"Pumphrey! No!" Wut cried out desperately, trying again to halt the thoughtless waterspout.

The fliers heard the large grin again in response, a grin like an immense gargly July thundershower mixed with the suggestion of rain on a wet tin roof. This mixture would have been fairly pleasant to their ears if they hadn't begun to realize the danger from the approaching winds. And if they hadn't gradually been rising higher and higher at the same time. It was beginning to be too late about the height---they were now _enormously high_ above The Lands, which were minute below.

They hadn't been a tenth this high before!

Looking down at the _awesomely large spinning mass of wet vapor and winds,_ Meri thought she could see two large agreeable eyes in the middle. She had heard Wut call this creature _Pumphrey,_ and she wanted to see what he was talking about.

Pumphrey the Waterspout was a prodigious mass below her of swirling winds holding an unbelievable amount of spinning water which was already partly spun out into huge billowing clouds of vapor. He was an enormity of motion and water and space in the sky.

Not flying efficiently because they were nervous about being chased by a waterspout, the travelers finally reached the air over land.

_But they were unbelievably high above the ground!_

It was _just at this time_ that the first _strong_ winds of Pumphrey finally reached them!

Pumphrey hadn't listened. He hadn't held back as he was asked---in desperate tones. The uncertain friends had unthinkingly slowed down a little at the very moment when they should have jetted straight up with the wands and out of danger effortlessly.

But now the danger reached them.

The first powerful winds sent them tumbling in _all_ directions, whirling and sailing about.

Worst of all, Perfit, light as she was, was quickly blown right out of the saddle---Aquamarie's light green beautiful satiny saddle up in the sky. It was empty.

_Perfit and Jethro had become separated!_

_There was no longer a flying wand to keep Jethro up in the air!_

_He was on his own---and incredibly high up!!_

And what had to happen, happened: he began falling, falling toward The Lands far below, spinning around and tumbling end over end.

The longer he fell, the faster he fell.

He became a blur.

"Oops!" said Pumphrey, looking down with his large central eyes at the dreadful accident he had just caused. He hadn't wanted to hurt anyone. He was simply always more mischievous than he should be. His favorite activity, which he was guilty of frequently, was to pick up a dummy from anywhere in The Lands and to take him or her _far away_ to a different land. There he would set the dummy down, gently and safely, on a nice spot, and take off again, gargly chuckling in his watery way as he rose up over The Lands.

_He just couldn't help being mischievous!_

However, this time his mischief had turned into one of the worst series of moments ever in The Lands. For Jethro, one of its most beloved inhabitants, was a flesh and blood creature. And now Jethro was falling, whirling end over end over end, at an enormously fast speed, straight down toward one of those lands!

He had only seconds left!!

# Chapter X: YEP

Pumphrey wasn't gargly chuckling now. Extremely upset, he hung limply in the air nearby to watch. Descending slightly, sadly, he even approached a little nearer as Jethro, at that moment still alive, accelerated helplessly toward the ground.

"I just wanted to get refreshed," Pumphrey muttered to himself in a gargly, July thundershower kind of way. "All I did was dip down into the cool Mistercald, which I do often, to come up twice as large again. And look what happened! No, Pumphrey, say it right: look what _I_ did---look what Pumphrey the Waterspout did! By trying to be mischievous and not thinking or listening, _look what I did_."

Sorrowfully, he refused to avert his gaze as Jethro continued to fall.

In fact, he was especially fond of Jethro, who wandered around The Lands on the grass as _he_ did up in the air. He had seen Jethro below many times, but he had never tried to lift _him_ up, as he wasn't a dummy, and he was _obviously extremely heavy._

Meanwhile, blown away, out of control and flying backwards up in the air herself, Meri had been horrified to see Perfit rocketed off of Jethro's back by the strong winds of Pumphrey as he mischievously and heedlessly tried to approach the fliers!

She was terrified when she looked down and saw Jethro wheeling end over end, plummeting toward the hard ground below! Flesh and blood herself, not a cotton-stuffed or yarn dummy, she was acutely aware---more than anyone else there, in fact---of the mortal danger he was in as he began to descend so rapidly!

A great cry came out of her chest and into her face, but she shook it off instantly! Although she felt that tremendous cry _trying_ to come, she just didn't have the time! Her mouth stayed open, but she wouldn't let anything come out.

Not waiting a second, she spun herself around with the flying wand and shot down at full speed toward the falling Buffalo Unicorn spinning dizzyingly as he fell. Never had that flying wand flown so fast---although it was the fastest of them all and had the fastest speed of _anything_ in The Lands! _It had never gone so fast before!_ And so in several seconds---in a blur---she was able to reach a spot below Jethro as he and she continued shooting downwards.

The mighty Buffalo Unicorn was turning so fast, and was so large, that she tried several times, but she just couldn't get a grip on his left front leg in order to slow his descent. Several times she was even kicked away---by accident, of course. "Sorry," she heard him mutter, in mid flight. It turned her heart to hear his voice!

But she came right back each time. And even though she was so terrified, noticing in the whirl of colors the green grass coming up to meet them---in an odd reverse kind of way---she was able to talk to her heartbreakingly endangered friend.

"Don't worry!" she called out, "we're going to help!"

She said this even though she didn't know where the others were. But she hoped they were watching, and she knew that if they were, they were also desperately on the way.

"Thanks," she heard Jethro answer, in a tone that tried to make her feel better. He could tell how upset she was as she flew around and kept getting knocked away and he kept turning end over end while also spinning the other way. And the grass in a colorful whirl kept coming up closer and closer!

"Here!" he tried desperately as she made one last try, extending, as far out as he could, his left front leg, which she had been trying to grasp.

This time she was able to catch it and hold on, while clutching the flying wand at the same time, both whirling.

Waiting until she thought she was below him, suddenly she activated the wand to push upward, and---thank The Lands!---she was able to slow him down and reduce his spinning.

"Wow!" she heard Jethro mutter. "Wow. You did that right."

But large as he was, he was still descending at a great rate of speed, and the grass was enormously close as they continued downward.

"Don't think we can make it, looks like," Meri was devastated to hear her great friend say, "but it's not your fault. You've been great. I never could have had a better friend than you. We just needed some more time."

But just at that point, Wut shot under Jethro's _right_ hind leg and, attaching himself like glue, used his own wand, with all of his might, against Jethro's downward flight.

It definitely helped. But there _still_ wasn't going to be enough time. The land below them was becoming even more green, very fast.

Then the Tackling Dummy, who had been blown quite a distance away, flying backwards through the air at a very great distance up, finally got back and quickly caught Jethro's _left_ hind leg, slowing him down even more.

It helped.

Jethro was now floating downward in an upright position, and much more slowly than before, but a serious jolt, with his weight, would probably break his legs, even his back, maybe his neck, and probably injure him in other ways, too.

To be safe, he just couldn't strike against the ground _at all_ , at any speed, because he was flesh and blood and so immense. He had bones. He was still traveling downward at a noticeable speed, with almost no distance left.

"Here we come," announced Jethro to his friends, as the ground came up. They couldn't push upward any harder, but still they all did. Jethro could see dummies running below toward the site of the expected crash. Him.

Strangely, a tremendous number of kites of various colors drifted by them through the air at that moment, at the same second that Perfit, who, so small she had been rocketed farther away than anyone, finally got back to them herself, attaching her tiny hands to Jethro's _right_ front foreleg and immediately boosting him upward with all that was in her and more.

The great Buffalo Unicorn slowed noticeably. But it _still_ wasn't going to be enough. There were only about two seconds left, and he was still going fast. Then Perfit, in a dazzling thought, brilliantly correct, suddenly realized that the flying wands, although working, and almost stopping Jethro, didn't work as well _pushing_ as well as _simply flying_. Their purpose wasn't _to push_ , as they were now all doing. It was _to fly_. She remembered that her flying wand had taken Jethro _right up_ , by itself, when she had first gotten into the saddle earlier that morning and Wut had asked her to rise.

So, with dizzying dexterity, her mass of yellow hair whirling in the air, she let go of Jethro's foreleg, shot up to his unicorn, grasped it as tightly as she could, and holding the wand with her other hand as close to the handle end as possible to maximize it, she pointed it straight up, _to fly_ , with all the authority she could!

Jethro immediately, _almost instantaneously_ , coasted to a complete stop in mid air, one inch from the light green grass and the hard ground beneath him. _He then went up an inch!_

He was saved!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!​!

Believing they couldn't stop him in time, Jethro had closed his eyes to think one last thought. But when he felt a tremendous pull on his unicorn, didn't feel a crash, and suddenly heard loud cheering, he wondered why.

So he opened one eye and looked around. Perfit and the others, manipulating the wands, were relaxing him carefully down to the grass. He hadn't hit it at all!

He was now standing on it!

Jethro opened the other eye, and his whimsical expression returned. He was still himself, perfectly! His four friends gave him desperately loving and thankful---and then celebrating---hugs. Perfit hugged him outrageously and joyously right around his head, where she was still holding onto his unicorn.

Jethro didn't know she had that much strength! But he hugged her back by lifting her up into the air.

"Yep," he then said, to no one and to everyone. He was still stunned. _He was unable to say any other word just then!_ It hadn't been easy, falling from so high up like that! He appreciated still being whole. He appreciated still being himself. He loved who he was. But most of all, he just wanted to look at each of his friends.

He didn't know exactly what to say to Meri and Wut and the Tackling Dummy and Perfit when his voice slowly started to come back. He kept hearing himself just saying "yep" over and over, in wonder. They had done everything they could, as fast as they possibly could, when it had seemed impossible for them to do anything! And they had succeeded! _They had simply refused to let him not be safe!_

He couldn't think of anything else to say about his friends that was so profoundly simple and sincere as "yep," so that's what he kept saying. Looking meaningfully into the eyes of the dummies now crowding around, he said to them that one word, "yep." But they knew what he meant. They had seen what had happened. They smiled, and nodded.

*     *     *

"I see where we are," Jethro declared when he was finally able to, looking around at the crowd that had steadily been gathering and noticing all the kites in the air.

# Chapter XI: A TALK WITH PUMPHREY

The crowd of dummies that had gathered around them was noisily happy about the saving of their beloved friend, Jethro. The excitement had been like a gift from the sky. Most of them had been watching from the beginning, since the dummies in this land are almost always looking up.

"Jethro! Jethro!" many were calling joyfully to him, immensely pleased that his terrible danger had ended so softly. An equal number, as the crowd was building, and it had gotten a little hard to move, were calling and waving to Wut in friendly ways, trying to get the attention of the familiar question mark bouncing on the grass beside his longtime gigantic friend, who would now continue to be.

They were also wondering with friendly glances about the other three strangers, one a yarn dummy, one a cotton-stuffed dummy with badly damaged pitiable canvas, and the other a dummy who almost looked like she was made of flesh and blood.

The dummies who lived there were very soft looking, Meri noticed. They were all of yarn of a soft light green color, and on each was, somewhere, a soft light patch of yellow for the sun. Soft threads of yellow spread around it, for its shine.

And somewhere---they were located differently on each dummy---there was a soft patch of light blue for the sky, and a soft, especially light blue string coming down from it---as if it were a kite. And there was also a soft patch of white for the moon, with another soft string, as white as a moonbeam, extending down from it.

And also, somewhere on each dummy, was a building, dome-shaped, up in the light green air like a kite, with a string of a personal color coming down from that. And somewhere, on each soft light green dummy, could always be found---a little bit larger---the patch of a colorful and unique _personal kite_ , designed by the dummy herself or himself. The string from this kite, of a matching color, wound around the dummy, right in its yarn, and stopped somewhere in the yarn at a patch that was a ball of twine of exactly the same color.

Meri could see many kites---not only on each dummy, but up in the sky of the land as well.

She, and the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit, soon found out they were in The Land of Wrong Kites. In this land, everyone loves to fly kites, and they do. All over the air, in every direction, the travelers saw the most original kites, of extraordinary colors and unpredictably happy shapes, uplifting into the air again. Many had been allowed to come down when the five travelers had been entering the land in such an extraordinary way.

The dummies were very friendly. They congratulated all five of their guests, not just Jethro, welcoming them with many friendly words and soft green arms around Jethro, and all of the others, too, and many friendly pats as well.

Meri already liked the land, without knowing that much about it yet, and was starting to talk to many of the dummies there. But standing beside Jethro, out of the corner of her eye she suddenly caught sight of Pumphrey again, high up in the air and not that far off, facing them and staring curiously and even longingly, Meri thought, down at the land. Slowly, however, he began to back away, gradually drifting higher at the same time. Meri could see his large eyes a little better from that distance.

"Just a minute," she said hastily to her four friends and to the soft green dummies she was just beginning to meet and talk to---many of whom were holding kites in their arms. She quickly flew up into the air with her flying wand, which she aimed directly at the now departing waterspout.

Pumphrey, having caught sight of the suddenly rising girl, increased his speed, a huge gray puff of swirling water and winds passing over many of The Lands below.

But Meri had the flying wand that had the fastest speed in all The Lands---on the surface or in the air. She was also by this time very expert at using it, as she had just shown when Jethro had been tumbling down impossibly through the air.

And she was _determined._

She _easily_ caught up with the departing waterspout.

"Wait!" she called with authority and with some impatience, flying around the huge waterspout and turning to face him to stop his departure. She could see his large eyes just below, in the swirling mass, cowering a little.

"Why did you do that!?" she demanded, her frustration and fear and grief about Jethro, during her effort to save him, suddenly bursting forth. Her chest was pounding with emotion, and she could feel her cheeks tingling a little and her eyes burning ever so slightly, even in the circling winds and flying moisture.

She blinked all of this back. Pumphrey was coming to a slow stop, high over The Lands. Meri was holding the flying wand just right, to keep herself directly in front of the unbelievably massive, blowing around and flyingly wet, gray waterspout.

"Don't you know Jethro could have been killed? And he almost was! And then what would we all have been, without him? Don't you know how much we love him? And what about all of Jethro's life, that wouldn't have been, for him to go around enjoying The Lands like he likes to do? What were you thinking?"

She was tiny in front of this huge waterspout of The Lands. But all of her pent up emotion, her previous fear for Jethro, her frustration, her impatience, were pouring out with her thoughts and words, and her eyes were misting, as she now had more time to think about what could have happened to her Buffalo Unicorn friend. She was raising her voice to be heard above the circling sounding winds---and because of her intense emotions---so that her words had a moving effect _on her_ as she spoke them, as well as on the waterspout.

The flying girl was surprised to see his large eyes seem to appear larger, and to have a grievous look in them.

"Oh no!" he suddenly burst forth, knocking Meri backwards with the wind of his words. "Not Jethro! I _couldn't_ have done that to Jethro! Not my friend Jethro! But what if I had?! I _could_ have done it, like you said! Why do you do things like that, Pumphrey? _Look_ what you could have done---and almost did! His voice was a combination of a July thundershower and rain on a wet tin roof, with an added gargly note that this time had an extra choking sound in it, because of his sincere regret.

Meri, expertly holding herself steady, in front of him, even though the winds and gusts of his voice sometimes came with unexpected force, was surprised at the intensity of his outburst. In spite of her impatience and dissatisfaction, she also noticed that his voice was somewhat pleasant to hear, it was so different, even though at the moment it was tinged with remorseful sadness.

_"_ You see," he continued guiltily, "I have a bad habit. I'm too mischievous. I always have been. I know it's okay to be mischievous sometimes, but I'm _too_ mischievous. I can't seem to help myself. I get this sudden surge of enjoyment at the mischief that I'm thinking about---or doing---and that's all I think about. I forget about the dummy that I'm being mischievous to.

"Mostly I just pick up some unsuspecting dummy somewhere in The Lands and take him, or her, somewhere far away and put them down in a strange land. I do it carefully, even though it's hard to hurt dummies stuffed with cotton or made of yarn, but I know it's very inconvenient, and that's why it's fun. Then I just fly away, laughing my gargly laugh to myself as I drift along over The Lands. Oh, I have enjoyed being mischievous!

"I've never hurt anyone before, or even come close. Truly, I have been so careful! I just like to have fun.

"As for Jethro, he's _my_ friend too. I've seen him many times in The Lands, and talked to him. He's so gentle and strong, and whimsical, so loveable. I wouldn't hurt him for The Lands! I've never tried to pick him up because we're such good friends, and also because he's so big and heavy. It would really take an effort, even for me!"

Meri didn't get a chance to speak, the gargly, July thundershower, wet tin roof words were gushing from Pumphrey so naturally.

He continued, as they both held themselves aloft above The Lands, "Sometimes when I'm beginning to feel dry, I just lower myself into The Mistercald and get filled up again. Oh, I get so much larger! Or maybe it's just that _I feel_ that I am. Anyway, I was doing that when it was time to ascend back up over The Lands again. You don't know how much I love being up here, seeing everything spread out so nicely! All The Lands!

"I didn't see all of you at first, but when I did, I was surprised. I usually don't have company, and I wanted to come closer. But I guess I wanted to tease you some, too. That was my mischief coming out. So when you rose a little, I did too, without saying anything just yet, since I was still rising out of the river. I was delighted at the idea of getting a chance to be mischievous to someone in the air!

"I never thought about your flying wands, or how Jethro was staying up. Actually it was the most surprising and tricky sight I'd ever seen---just imagine how it looked to me: Jethro, a huge Buffalo Unicorn, flying up in the sky, as large as he is, with a beautiful little dummy with sailing yellow hair on his back on a pretty light green saddle! Imagine how that looked! And the rest of you!

"I saw you and thought you were a dummy and wondered who you were. To me you looked perfect too, because I realized after a while that _you are a flesh and blood dummy_ , the only one I've ever seen! Overall, I was so delighted that I just had to be mischievous!

"I guess I really failed, though," he added dismally with a slightly deeper gargly sound and less of a July shower. His eyes looked downcast a little. "Look what I almost did. Do you call that careful, like I said I always was? No. I wouldn't have been anything ever again if I had hurt my friend. I really want to thank all of you so much. I watched how you all worked together. It was so heartful to see. You'll never know how much I was hoping for all of you to save him. You saved me too---but the most important thing is that you saved _him_. Thank you."

Meri didn't know what to say. She had felt such exasperation, such impatience---almost anger---that she was left hanging in the air for a moment, realizing how hard he was being on himself.

"What are you going to do?" she asked finally.

"I promise you, I'm going to do better. And I promise you, that I'll make it up to The Lands---for what I almost did. Don't believe me. I know these are just words, and aren't really good enough after my carelessness and how much I almost cost The Lands and everyone in them, because of the unique value of Jethro. But please, _wait and see_ \---I _will_ find a way to make up for this---as much as I can, anyway. And I _will_ do better."

"You know," said Meri, after listening very closely to him, "I want you to know something. Even after what you did, I like you. I see that you do have a problem. Please keep your word."

"I will," promised the huge mass of twirling winds and water, in his most sincere gargly, July, and tin roof tones. Meri believed him.

"And please, tell Jethro and the others what I said. Everything."

It was Meri's turn to say, "I will." And he believed her.

"I like you too," he said. "And thank you for saying that about me. You didn't have to. What's your name?"

"I'm Meri---Meri Dian," replied the girl, handling the flying wand expertly, as Pumphrey unthinkingly had come a little closer, increasing the force and effect of his winds. Meri was struck by even more mist and also steadily by occasional drops.

"And you were right" she continued, with a glance down at herself. "I _am_ a flesh and blood dummy. Luckily I was able to hold onto my wand when you came up and blew us around. Otherwise---" but she preferred to leave that sentence unfinished, and Pumphrey with a sudden start realized only too well what she meant: _she_ had been in special danger too, being so high up _and being flesh and blood_. And if something had happened to her, Jethro wouldn't have been saved!

"Oh noooo," he mourned again, even _more_ remorseful. "I hadn't thought of that. You too! I could have done the same to you as to Jethro! And you seem as nice as he is!"

It was one of the nicest compliments Meri had ever received, or ever hoped to receive, and she was filled with emotion.

"I'll be," Pumphrey said lamely, realizing he had done _even worse_ than he had thought at first---twice as worse. He seemed to lose some of his wind at the thought.

"I _am_ sorry, Meri. And you don't know how glad I am to meet you. Thanks for coming to say what I needed to hear. And I hope---I hope so much---that we _will_ meet again---in fact, _many more times_ in the future."

With a pang of regret which she didn't mention, Meri was doubtful about _ever_ being able to see him again at any time in the future---although she passionately wanted to.

"I do too," was all she said, truthfully, and "Goodbye." And she flew through the outer part of him, in a gesture of friendship, as she returned.

"Goodbye, Meri Dian," she heard him say with a gargly choke.

Coming back down among her waiting friends and the dummies of the land with their kites, she described, as well as she could remember, her meeting with Pumphrey the Waterspout.

Jethro's smile and look of affection, as Meri told all of this, showed that he liked and easily forgave his upper friend.

"I guess I _was_ something, up in the air like that, a flying Buffalo Unicorn," he mused, his eyes as whimsical as ever, as he tried to imagine the sight of him up in the air as Pumphrey had seen him.

"I wish I could see me!"

In the distance, a small puff of moisture and winds could be observed floating away across The Lands, getting smaller all the time. Finally, almost impossible to see, Pumphrey ducked down and disappeared into a rainstorm that was turning that corner of The Lands gray.

It seemed a natural thing for him to do.

# Chapter XII: The LAND OF WRONG KITES

_The Land of Our Sky_

As Pumphrey disappeared into the far-off storm, Meri turned back to renew her conversations with the dummies of the land, whom she was just meeting. Her eyes quickly traveled approvingly over their attractive yarn. In almost every case it was a soft light green and included patches for the sun, moon, a dome-shaped building, a personal kite, and a ball of twine. Many were holding kites in their arms.

Before she said her first word, however, an insight unexpectedly popped into her mind.

Suddenly, without even thinking about Pumphrey, she found herself thinking, " _Perhaps Pumphrey is so mischievous because he's lonely_.

"Perhaps he picks up dummies and carries them to other parts of The Lands because he wants someone to talk to, and to be with, if only for a little while. Perhaps he does these things because there's only one of him, while there are so many of us."

She was silent for several seconds while she thought about Pumphrey. She even felt a little sorry for him.

"Oh!" she said, looking down, startling her friends and the dummies of the land.

"I'm all wet."

The front of her coral top was a much deeper coral because it was full of moisture. Her bib overall jeans shorts were equally darker in front, soaked. She had overlooked being so wet from talking to Pumphrey so close to him. But now she was shivering. Drops of water were still traveling down from her clinging short sleeves. Her legs were damp from her jeans to her white socks, which had fallen around her ankles.

Her hair still had wet ringlets which everyone had noticed immediately when she came back, thinking them neat.

"Please stand back!" requested Wut, bouncing on the grass. "Let the sun get to her."

The dummies of the land, still in a crowd around the friends, had raised their kites back up into the air and were flying them as they talked. But they were blocking some of the especially warm yellow sunlight coming down with their kites, and Meri needed it.

Turning toward the sun in her little island of sunlight, she even raised her arms temporarily. The dummies of the land could then see a little better that she was perhaps the most unusual dummy of all---of flesh and blood---not of yarn, or canvas stuffed with cotton.

When Meri was ready to walk along again, they came too, pulling their colorful kites through the air. The strings were all of different colors, and the effect was of a colorful rain coming down, the kites like clouds sending it.

Everyone, including Meri, was actually following Wut. He was bouncing toward the center of the land where there was something that he wanted his friends to see better.

They could already see it in the distance.

It was an impressive dome-shaped building there on a small hill. Rising pleasantly in the bright sunshine, it was a very light aqua among all the colors of the kites. A strange large object, metallic gray and gleaming somewhat, was stuck in its roof.

The soft green dummies with so many patches on their yarn walked right along with them, flying their kites. It was a beautiful day for having kites in the air.

Everyone already knew by this time what had caused Jethro to fall down out of the sky. Living near The Mistercald, they were used to seeing Pumphrey descend into it and rise out of it again much larger. They kept looking up at their colorful kites as they talked, with adept hands easily keeping them apart and never allowing the strings to get tangled, although there were so many of them. They knew how to manage kites, and they should have, because they flew them every day.

Meri was thoroughly enjoying looking up and seeing all the different kites. She had never seen so many at one time! The sky above them was quite interesting!

" _You_ are flesh and blood," one of the inhabitants of the land, looking closely, said abruptly but cheerfully to Meri. Meri, everyone could tell, by the way the attractive visitor looked at them, and talked to her friends, was obviously very approachable.

"How can that be?" she continued, looking into Meri's face. Her name was Flora.

Many in the crowd had also noticed the startling fact, and, having been wondering about the visitor the whole time, were glad when Flora asked the question. They kept looking at Meri. Some had already been discussing her. She looked strange to them, but in an appealing way. Meri heard many of their comments.

"Yes, I am a flesh and blood dummy," the friendly girl replied, smiling. "I've only been here a few days." She then explained how she and the Tackling Dummy had found a ticket to The Lands from a Ticket Tree that had lived a long time ago. Somehow it had gotten to where she lived, and they had been lucky enough to find it.

"We bumped heads when we both reached for it, accidentally tearing it in half, and it brought us to The Lands. To The Autumnforest. You probably know how The Tree of Ticket Leaves works. And by the way, my name's Meri." She said this loudly enough for all of the other dummies nearby to hear, too. She had met some of them briefly already.

A lot of "Ooohh's" sounded from the crowd, because they were all listening as they flew their kites. Now they understood better how someone so strange could be in The Lands. They liked her very much, as she had already been noticeably friendly since she had arrived. In fact, they had liked her before they ever met her---since they had watched her desperately and determinedly trying to save Jethro up in the air, when he was tumbling down.

"Can you stay?" suddenly asked the abrupt and curious dummy named Flora, smiling, and a number of other dummies asked the same question at the same time. Seeing that Meri was obviously so friendly, Flora didn't think she would mind if she reached over and experimentally felt her flesh and blood arm. She turned and nodded back to some of her friends when she did so.

"You're quite warm," she said to the little girl, loud enough for her friends to hear.

Meri nodded, too, smiling to herself. "Yes, I am, now that I'm just about dry. It's really nice down here under the sun and under all these kites. No, I can't stay for too long, thank you all, I've got to go back very soon, because, as I said, I came here unexpectedly. I'm sure I've already caused a lot of worry by leaving where I was so suddenly. But I'd like to come back again _sometime_ ," she added positively at the end of her answer.

Flora was wearing a dress of pale and blue caramel with out-of-focus stars all over it in even paler colors. That's what Meri thought they looked like, anyway, remembering all the times she had looked up at the sky through her Aunt's telescope in her back yard in the country. There were other tinier stars of dark blue between some of these. From shoulder to shoulder, however, among the stars, was a necklace sewn right into the dress of pretty small kites.

It was a pretty dress, and could have been designed and sewn by Aquamarie.

Flora had a wide comfortable face with hair the color of light coffee. Her personal kite, on her soft green yarn shoulder, was of faint aquamarine, light coffee, and white.

"I wish I could," Meri suddenly added wistfully to her answer, as she thought some more about how much she wanted to come back. Being in The Lands definitely made her think. She couldn't help but love them and the dummies who lived in them.

There were now kites in the air all over the land, as a large number had gone back up after the excitement. Many had simply stayed up the whole time. In some places above the land, it was hard to see the sky.

Wut, bouncing in front, didn't interrupt his fellow travelers as they walked comfortably along and looked around, talking to the interesting dummies with so many lively patches on their light green yarn.

It was pleasant to be able to relax in this land with so many kites in the air, after their trip _down to it_ had been so frightening.

But eventually, when Meri was dry again and obviously enjoying herself in the yellowy sunshine, he decided to tell her and the others a little about the land. They were all getting back to being their normal selves again after the danger.

Glancing at his friends Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy before he spoke, Wut smiled. He had no doubt that each of them thought this was just a land where they loved kites. _They had no idea how important and unique this land was!_ But they were about to find out!

"As I think you already know, this is The Land of Wrong Kites," Wut said again, pronouncing the land's name officially. Meri had been wondering, the whole time, how any kite could be _wrong_!

Jethro, walking hugely and pleasantly along, knew all about the land. But he listened carefully anyway, having discovered that Wut knew a lot more than anyone else about each of The Lands. Often he learned something he hadn't known. Sometimes it occurred to him that if Wut knew the most, then he was probably _second_. And that was the same as being first, to him.

"You might have guessed _this is a land of kites_ ," Wut went on, bouncing more slowly to let the others catch up, so they could hear him better, "but it's so much more interesting than that. Here they do love kites, as you can see. They love to fly them, and they fly them every day. They even make them, superbly. This land might remind you of The Land of the Croapfs. _There_ , it's a land of creative original airplanes (paper). _Here_ , it's a land of kites. Both lands love to fly what they make. But they don't need flying wands here. The breezes are just right coming off of The Mistercald nearby," he said, halfway down from a bounce, pointing to the great river far to his right.

Wut bounced a little more slowly as everyone looked around the land with approval. The dummies who lived there, walking along with the visitors, looked around with appreciation of their own land. Wut had made an interesting point by comparing it to The Land of the Croapfs.

Wut suddenly bounced high, to look ahead at where they were going. The dome-shaped building on the small hill was a little closer now. Then he settled down to springing a normal height above the grass again. "But there's nothing wrong with this beautiful land, as you might wonder, from its unusual name. No, just the opposite---everything's just right! This is the land, of all The Lands, that helps to keep everything just right. Because the system of justice of The Lands is here. This land can do something special on those rare occasions when someone commits a wrong in The Lands. That's why it's called The Land of _Wrong_ Kites. But as I said, that type of thing just doesn't happen very often in The Lands."

Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy were listening avidly. They were already trying their best to figure out the special thing the land did when a wrong was rarely committed. But they couldn't, just as Wut had known when he started to talk. It was just too different.

Perfit thought she remembered hearing something about this land, but there were so many lands, and she had heard so much about them, that there was too much for her to remember. This time it was different, though. She knew she'd _never_ forget the lands that she was visiting on this trip!

This was a particularly pleasant one, with plenty of light green grass and flowers and no trees out in the open---since kites and trees don't mingle very well. But there _were_ two small forests on either side of the land, which the dummies mined when they needed kite sticks. They were called, together, _The Kitestick Forest_. The trees in them were very much like poplar, only their wood was tougher. They were excellent for kite sticks.

What was so _extra_ pleasant about this land, though, was the sky. It was always so attractive and cheerful with its many kites in the air at any time during the day---even when it was raining. And sometimes even during bright moonlit nights.

"Just as some of the other lands have two, and sometimes even three, names, this one has more than one," Wut explained. "The dummies who live here call it _The Land of Our Sky._

"Because they have so much to do with how the sky always looks. In fact, sometimes they almost pave the entire sky overhead with kites. When they do, it's a sight to see! And it's very difficult to do, too, because of the wind."

"Wrong Kites?" asked the Tackling Dummy, unable to hold his curiosity back any longer, as Perfit expertly flipped her flying wand to sit back up upon Jethro again. She had been having trouble seeing clearly, walking beside the great Buffalo Unicorn who was so tall. She missed seeing a lot _whenever_ she was beside him---but that's true of _anyone_ in The Lands---except the other Buffalo Unicorns and Wut.

"It looks like The Land of Right Kites to me," she commented, before Wut could answer, her beautiful hair swinging out as she twirled her head around to look at this attractive kite and that creative one, now that she had a better point of view from which to look at them. In fact she now had the best view of anyone.

"And I love the string!" she told the others from above, somewhat exuberant now that she was on an equal basis with everyone again---even more than equal. "I wish Aquamarie could see it!"

What she meant was that the endless strings going up to the kites were so attractive themselves, usually of lighter colors than the kites, and unvaryingly different, such as mauve, light yellow, pale blueberry, light pink, coffee with a lot of cream, mild copper, almost unseeable sea green, soft lavender, sunfilled apricot---and on and on and on across the land. Turning one's eyes around quickly, one has the impression of a colorful light rain coming down on everyone. And the kites are the clouds.

"She would love it, definitely," agreed the Tackling Dummy, thinking of his good friend Aquamarie who had helped him so much. He was also thinking, of course, as was Perfit, that Aquamarie would see all of this colorful string as larger thread to sew with. He was sure she would just love to have some of it!

"Has she ever been here before?" Jethro asked Wut in his deep voice. Wut was the one who would know, if anyone.

But he didn't. "I really don't know for sure," Wut replied slowly and thoughtfully, taking three black bounces to answer, "but I don't think she has. She stays so busy sewing for all who come to see her, that she never gets to see any of The Lands they come from, although she hears a lot about them. The thing to do," he added with brightening eyes, as they continued to move through the land, "is to bring her here. Sometime in the future. We need to _make_ her take a vacation, since she works so hard for everyone else that she rarely thinks of herself. If _anyone_ can _make_ Aquamarie do anything, that is. But we can try. Want to?"

Of course they all did, and they all---except Meri---began to look forward to another trip, with Aquamarie, sometime in the future. Sometime after this one. Even Meri began to imagine how much fun it would be. Aquamarie would certainly bring her own point of view to any trip, as well as many other sharp points.

Suddenly Meri missed Aquamarie. And then she missed her very good friend Sylvestra, who was so dear. And then Fico. And all of The Land of Pink Windmills. Once started, her mind began to wander fondly. She thought about her other friends in The Lands, the ones she had made while traveling. Picups, who had made her own hair so much fun to look at. And she laughed, remembering how Jethro had looked when he was that color! Trutina, Nox and Cresco, with such beautifully shiny canvas. Ello, so funny and so wonderful. Little Ray, Big Ray. Sticktight, the dizzyingly verbal tree. Nuggety, Faye. Of course, Meridia, so personable! Globe and Minglemint. And most recently, her new friend Pumphrey, the sky inhabitant.

She thought about the many fascinating lands she had been in, too, and she missed them too.

She recalled all of them, the dummies and the unusual lands, fondly in her reverie both happy and sad.

It was sad because the present conversation---about everyone else's interesting future in The Lands---reminded her that she wouldn't be a part of that future. She would be leaving quite soon---or trying to. And she thought she would probably be successful, because she had already left once and returned of her own free will. She had such a high opinion of The Lands that she was unable to believe she would be forced to remain forever.

These thoughts made her very sad. It wasn't going to be easy to leave The Lands.

The more she thought, the more distressed she became about it.

"It's called The Land of Wrong Kites because of a special kind of kite," Wut interrupted her thoughts and feelings by finally responding to the Tackling Dummy's curiosity _._

They were now just reaching the light aquamarine dome-shaped building they had been walking and bouncing toward all this time. When they had first caught sight of it, some minutes ago, it had appeared to be simply a pleasant building with an unusual shape, on a little hill.

"Why, it's a telescope!" exclaimed Meri, seeing it from the side. The gleaming gray metallic end of a large telescope was pointing at an angle out of the top! This building suddenly became much more interesting!

The Tackling Dummy looked pleased.

"Do they like to look up at the sky and the stars here?" asked Meri, excitedly thinking about how much her Aunt Am would love this.

"Yes, they definitely do," replied the black mark, floating up in the air in the middle of a bounce. "Looking up is quite natural to them. They're always looking up."

For a few seconds they all glanced appreciatively at the beautiful aquamarine dome-shaped building, with the large telescope pointing up at a curious angle. Every one of the travelers was thinking of the skies above The Lands at night.

"But wait a minute!" Wut exclaimed good-naturedly, landing on the grass with emphasis and automatically shooting up higher. He laughed. "I keep getting off the subject! Before we talk about _that,_ there's something _else_ I've been trying to tell you. I need to explain about _Wrong Kites!_ "

"Yes," they all thought, still wonderng about the name.

"Go ahead," they said, becoming intentionally and respectfully quiet.

The dummies of the land were all listening with interest too. They liked hearing what others said about their land.

"Do you see that small platform, the one in that pretty flower garden at the front of the entrance to The Observatory?" Wut asked. "And on top of the platform, sitting up on that flat star on its side, do you see that beautiful lavender box kite?"

They all looked, nodding, even the dummies who lived in the land.

"That's an example of a Wrong Kite," Wut said.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy looked puzzled, but Jethro kept that whimsical look in his eyes as he listened and looked around knowingly. Perfit was trying hard to guess what Wut meant, from what she could remember, before he explained even more. But she was too late.

"Any kite of this land put on that special platform is a Wrong Kite," Wut continued. As the friends glanced that way again, they suddenly noticed a small crowd that was struggling and moving toward the Wrong Kite from their right---from the direction of The Mistercald. The same crowd was getting larger as dummies kept running up to see what was happening.

There were fewer kites in the air.

Wut was alert. _He_ was immediately curious about the crowd, too, and becoming more and more curious all the time. He kept looking that way. But he was in the middle of an important explanation, so he continued. At the same time, however, he began bouncing very slowly toward the crowd and the Wrong Kite himself. Everyone with him was eager to do the same and moved cooperatively along at his pace. They were all curious too about what was happening.

To speed things up, Wut quickly made the dazzling statements that suddenly electrified the attention of Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit, who then remembered.

"If a dummy has done too much wrong in The Lands, more than can be overlooked or forgiven, and picks up a Wrong Kite, either accidentally or on purpose, it takes him or her straight up into the sky. I don't know how high, but it's high. I'll say more about that in a minute. The Wrong Kite then keeps the dummy up there until he or she is sincerely sorry and truly has changed. In the meantime, they can't hurt anyone else up there, and because they're dummies, they're okay up in the sky. They just can't come down.

"This is the way justice works in The Lands.

"There's no telling how many dummies are up there by now, and not just over this land. They're over some other lands too. And that's the reason for the telescope. Many of the dummies can be seen high up in the sky, because if one of them begins to experience true regret, he or she descends little by little. Descending in small amounts is an encouragement for them to improve even more, as they think.

"Of course the more wrong he or she may have done, the higher the Wrong Kite takes them up in the first place. They can come _back down_ again to The Lands sometime in the future only if they completely change up there---sincerely. From The Observatory, we can tell their progress. It's interesting and fun to watch them, especially the ones farthest down, because sometimes, being close, they suddenly descend the rest of the way all at once!

"That is an exciting event!

"Frankly we're a little concerned right now. _Not a single dummy_ has descended _all the way back down to The Lands_ in a long time now! We're wondering if something has gone wrong with this land, too.

"Maybe not, though," he added, hastily looking around the beautiful kite-filled land, his green eyes loyal. "This land is probably just like it's always been. There may be some other reason for what we've noticed. There's still a lot that I haven't learned yet about The Lands."

Clearly he was reluctant to say anything was wrong with a land, unless he absolutely _had_ to! And he didn't have to, in this case. Not yet, anyway.

Meri, Perfit, the Tackling Dummy, and even Jethro, and even the dummies who lived there, looked up at the sky with awed eyes.

"What an odd, wonderful, _and appropriate_ system of justice!?!?!?!" Meri and the Tackling Dummy were thinking.

Putting dummies up into the sky until they had genuinely bettered themselves seemed like such a preposterous yet effective idea!

This land was getting more and more interesting all the time, if one could judge by the looks on the faces of _everyone there._

Wut seemed genuinely sincere about his last statement.

The Tackling Dummy looked at him with admiration. "He probably knows _ten_ , _a hundred!_ times more about The Lands than any other dummy," he said to himself. "But instead of reminding us of _that_ , he's reminding us that there's still a lot _that he doesn't yet know_."

His opinion of the question mark had been rising the whole time he had known him.

Meri was still thinking about the system of justice he had just explained. It was just _amazing_ to her!

So outrageously different, yet so fitting!

She looked up at the sky even again, wondering how many dummies were up there, out of sight, holding onto Wrong Kites. But of course she could see nothing but the light blue sky of The Lands---except for a few small clouds in the direction Pumphrey had flown. She wondered if Pumphrey had ever seen any of the Wrong Kites with their dummies, as he was floating around. _He certainly had a better opportunity to see them than anyone else without a telescope!_

"The dummies here love to look up at the stars, too," Wut returned to the subject, looking down at Meri on his way up, having noticed her keen interest. "They spend a lot of time doing just that. But they mainly want to keep track of their Wrong Kites, as well as the dummies up there. They're fond of _all_ their kites, even if they've been away a long time."

"If none have come down in a long time," Perfit suggested from high up, "probably _a lot of them_ are _ready_ to."

"You're right," replied Wut, bouncing up high to be on the exact level of her face. He smiled at the little dummy. "It would be something if more than one came down at the same time. I'd like to see that. And do you know what? _It could be at any time!"_

They all looked up briefly.

As Wut had been explaining about the land, the small commotion, with some scuffling, had gotten to the beautiful Wrong Kite sitting upright on the small star-shaped platform. A box kite, it was an exquisite lavender that charmed one's eyes. Placed right in the middle of a pretty and neat flower garden in front of the domed building, a little walk of square gray stones led up to it.

It wasn't clear what the commotion was all about, because so many dummies had already crowded in front.

However, these dummies readily separated when they saw Wut and Jethro coming, including the adorable little dummy with so much lovely blond hair, the strange unknown dummy with something wrong with his canvas, and, not least at all, the unbelievable dummy of flesh and blood, who looked almost exactly like them!

They had been hearing so much about her!

Many looks confirmed that she actually was flesh and blood.

Yes, she was the one!

Meri missed most of these glances because she was still thinking about what Wut had said. Tilting her head up again briefly, she noticed all of the kites making so colorful the soft blue sky above them, in an almost unending second sky going out in all directions. This was the _second_ time she had seen _a second sky_ in The Lands! She liked this one much better!

Truly, it was _their_ sky.

"What's up there?" she wondered, looking straight up again at the higher sky, imagining dummies at great heights holding onto Wrong Kites. She couldn't take her mind off of the novel system of justice in The Lands.

"This is the weirdest land yet," she said in her mind.

But she quickly reconsidered _that_ thought.

"Is it really?" she rightly asked herself searchingly, remembering all the _other_ lands.

In fact, they were _all_ so unique!

"I think one thing I meant," she confirmed in her mind, "is that it's probably the unlikeliest justice anyone could ever think of. But it's perfect for here. And it's weird. It's too weird and too funny at the same time. Imagine dummies waiting up in the sky until they sincerely become better."

She smiled. And then she laughed. She felt truly uplifted by this land.

As these thoughts, one by one, were entering her mind, the crowd was slowly letting the five unusual friends through the rest of the way to the front. Many made room quickly and respectfully when they saw that she was actually the flesh and blood dummy they had been hearing about. Meri thanked them self-consciously, not wanting to inconvenience them simply because she was different. When she got to the edge, she discovered what could assemble a large crowd _so quickly_ in this particular land.

_A dummy was being led toward a Wrong Kite!_ Meri realized she was witnessing something more unique than she could ever have imagined. She was about to see the unique justice of The Lands.

"I wonder what he could have done?" she thought, looking at the extraordinary dummy.

# Chapter XIII: THE EXTRAORDINARY DUMMY

He was difficult to see. Not because of the crowd, they were in front. The _main_ reason was the extraordinary coat and hat he was wearing _._

They were different from anything Meri had ever seen in The Lands.

The dummy was taller than anyone else in the crowd, and the incredible hat he was wearing made him even much taller. His _explosively_ bright long coat had a high collar that covered most of his face.

Meri looked incredulously at the odd hat. It was _the color of air_ : round, tall, and pointed at the top, with little especially convincing colorful explosions sticking out all over it on prongs of different lengths.

_The hat itself amazed Meri, so she wondered about the dummy!_

Its front brim dipped down extremely low over his forehead and eyes, so that he couldn't be recognized at all, since his collar came up so high from below.

Obviously, he chose to remain unknown.

_Yet here he was in the middle of a huge crowd which was getting even larger!_

_A big reason it was growing so large was his explosive appearance!_

Meri looked more closely at the long coat. Its background was solid white mixed with dark plum, and on this background were convincing representations of small and large colorful violent explosions. It was a beautiful coat, but disturbing. Its many vivid explosions echoed and reinforced those on the hat.

_The mysterious dummy had surrounded himself with beautiful---and disturbing---explosions!_

"Why?" Meri wondered.

The crowd kept growing and became uncomfortable as more and more dummies arrived and, softly maneuvering, tried to find better places to stand. There was even some gentle but distracting pushing against the five friends. The Tackling Dummy, with his agile mind, realized Jethro's back would offer an excellent view. He asked his friend. Nodding agreeably, Jethro bent his head down and easily sailed him right up behind him. With Jethro's easy power, the Tackling Dummy sailed up much higher than he needed. But he landed right.

Once up, he then leaned down to help Meri, Perfit, and even Wut up onto their great friend. Perfit sat in front; Meri right behind her, with her arms around her little sister's waist; and the Tackling Dummy was third, with Wut up on his own right shoulder. They could all see perfectly, one right above the other, Jethro being the lowest.

The brilliant lavender Wrong Kite stood on the pedestal nearby, vivid in the sunlight. The continuing breezes from The Mistercald, maintaining the many regular kites on their long strings high up in the air, every now and then unsettled the dramatic Wrong Kite, causing a stir of excitement. Sometimes it leaned over, sometimes it even tilted up on a corner, and once it even raised a very short distance up into the air. But each time it settled back onto the pedestal again, ready to provide justice in The Lands.

The extraordinary dummy's behavior had been uncooperative, but suddenly he changed. Meri noticed right way. He stopped struggling. His behavior turned to confidence in front of the power of the Wrong Kite. He didn't act worried. _He didn't seem guilty of anything!!_ In fact he kept looking at the Wrong Kite, which was turning the air lavender all around it, _as if he appreciated it!_

Meri had a feeling that he did!

But from the way he kept moving after that, Meri sensed a deep and unhappy frustration. He kept looking away, in the same direction every time. It was clear to her and to everyone else there that he felt an agonizing urgency to be somewhere else.

Jethro, and those on him, had the advantage of catching glimpses of part of his face now and then.

The dummies around him, the ones who had brought him, seemed to be from several different lands. They had differing colors and designs of yarn. One was cotton-stuffed like the Tackling Dummy. Aware of the same transformation that Meri had noticed, they were obviously now puzzled.

They had been sure of themselves when he was resisting their efforts! His resistance had made him seem guilty. Now they were glancing furtively at him from time to time, looking around uncertainly and sometimes at each other as if questioning their decision to bring him.

Meri was watching closely. She had an idea that since the hidden dummy had already been forced to the land, and had come that far, he had decided to make the best of the situation with words. If that were true, he definitely didn't appear to be guilty! "He may have been resisting for a _different_ reason," she thought.

He remained there reluctantly, she continued to realize. He kept looking off into the distance. She could sense pain in these looks. He was worried about something. She felt a little sorry for him. But she didn't know if she should.

One of those who had brought the extraordinary prisoner stepped forward. The crowd immediately became quiet.

"Some dummies, as you know, have recently been forced out into the bad weather of our extremely dangerous and spectacular land, The Land of Firecracker Hail. I'm not asking you to imagine the results."

But clearly _he_ had. Or he had actually _seen_ them. He became anguished when he said the words.

"This dummy was seen there lately, very skillfully trying to hide his presence. But remaining unseen there is very difficult, since few trees grow where firecracker hail falls. There are wide spaces. He was noticed."

The speaking dummy's yarn was geometrical: bright cherry, purple, and white, in a pronounced design, on a background partly of pale green. Meri wondered what beautiful land he was from. She was sure that it was, from his yarn.

Then she heard a sound that made her bite her lip. The crowd was responding in a way that almost made her heart break. It was a long sorrowful moan that seemed like one sound and was almost like the dummies in the crowd were all crying at once. They were very moved by what had happened, only recently, to the dummies who had been blown to pieces. The moan just went on and on grievingly, as everyone thought of those unwillingly and desperately out in the open when the firecrackers began to fall.

The sound obviously was made up of the many individual reactions to the speaking dummy's words. Meri could hear separate accents of great sympathy and anguish and even fear in that long moan.

The dummies in the crowd knew what happened when another dummy was accidentally caught in the weather of that extremely powerful land. Some of their friends in the past had met that same fate. The results had been devastating, unforgettably pitiful.

Actually there is very little _ever_ to fear in The Lands. And there's no need to fear _The Land of Firecracker Hail_ if the simple rule is followed. The rule is, and the dummies in The Lands are always reminding each other: _Never go into the land when any weather at all is in the sky. And that's usually always._

Talk and murmuring began all through the crowd. Yes, they had heard of these terrible recent events. The dangerous land was only several lands away from them, in fact. However, no one present knew _exactly_ what had happened or who was responsible.

Thank The Lands, no dummy from The Land of Wrong Kites had been among the victims.

In the past, those who had gotten caught in The Land of Firecracker Hail had foolishly allowed themselves to be there at the wrong time. They had neglected the simple rule. What was so terrible about these new events was that dummies had actually _been forced into the falling hail._

_And probably by another dummy, although no one knew for sure._

This had never happened before.

At this time everyone in the crowd turned their eyes back to the tall dummy in the extraordinary threads.

"We forced him to come here," the speaker continued. "He wouldn't come on his own. We brought him, not only because he was seen trying to remain out of sight near _The Land of Firecracker Hail_ , but because of his unlandly appearance.

"We're desperate about what's been happening."

The speaking dummy paused for a moment nervously before he spoke the following surprising words. "But now I wonder if maybe we were a little too hasty. He just _looks_ guilty. _But we didn't actually see him do anything wrong._ Maybe there's some other explanation."

He glanced at the dummy, who, listening carefully, nodded his head noticeably that, yes, _there was another explanation_.

But he didn't say what it was.

However, the crowd had been so upset that not everyone was satisfied with the idea that the stranger should now be released.

"I think you were _right_ to bring him," someone far back stated loudly. "Why else would anyone want to look like _The Land of Firecracker Hail_ , if not to fool dummies into thinking there was no one there during falling hail?"

This was stated so convincingly that the crowd seemed to agree.

"For goodness sakes, pick up the Wrong Kite, and go up into the sky!" someone else demanded.

_The tall dummy stood silent, listening._

Then he did something that the friends on the great Buffalo Unicorn didn't expect. Suddenly, he turned his head, very slowly, and looked up high, all the way up to the question mark on the Tackling Dummy's shoulder. For the first time, the question mark got a good look at his face. This was because, from Wut's height---he was the highest of anyone there---the tall dummy's high collar wasn't in the way when he lifted his head up. And the brim of his hat was tilted up too.

Wut's eyes widened at the face that he saw. The stranger, with the tiniest movement of his own eyes, indicated, "No."

No one else in the crowd, not being up high like the five friends, was able to see this exchange. Jethro, Meri, Perfit, and the Tackling Dummy did, however. And they wondered what Wut now knew.

A few in the crowd were still quite dissatisfied.

"Look at him!" someone in the crowd yelled bitterly. "Look at that firecracker hail! It's not blowing _him_ up!"

The crowd looked.

"I can't think of _any_ good reason," a dummy called out emotionally, that someone would want to look like _you do!"_

They were upset after being reminded of what had happened to dummies exactly like them, not very long ago, and literally not very far away. Nothing as disturbing had ever occurred in The Lands before. They weren't upset because of anything they _knew_ the hidden stranger had done.

"Do you think I should pick up this Wrong Kite?" the extraordinary stranger suddenly said and startled the crowd, looking all around and nodding toward the brilliant kite with his high hat. "Would that satisfy you?"

He had surprised _everyone._ They had gotten used to his not saying anything.

"Do you think it would be fair to ask me," he added, "when he just said I wasn't observed doing anything wrong?"

It was the right question. And he had asked it both positively and cooperatively.

"What did he _really_ do?" someone in the back of the crowd was heard to ask.

"Nothing," someone else answered.

"Do you have _any convincing reason at all_ to think I have harmed _anyone?"_ the unknown dummy asked powerfully again, broadening his defense, in the same positive tones. "If you do, I'll pick up this kite. You can see if I go up. But if I don't go up, what will you think about yourselves and your fairness?"

No one answered. He was asking them to evaluate _their own justice_. _In The Land of Justice_.

And they were evaluating it.

Some began to wonder if another danger of the recent terrible series of events was to be less fair. Were they lowering their standards, for him, because everyone was so upset and so worried, and perhaps even, some were thinking, even because he looked so preposterous at the same time?

"That's all it would take to find out the truth," the stranger continued calmly.

"Is this what you want me to do?" he asked, receiving no response from the now stunned, thoughtful crowd.

Without waiting any longer, he reached for the nearest kitestick of the imaginatively constructed box kite.

The canvas of his left hand became visible for the first time. It was a beautiful superlight peach color. Sunshine shone right through the lavender paper, turning part of his hand that color as it approached.

When the stranger suddenly reached for the kite that way, the crowd unexpectedly jumped back, to protect themselves, some dummies knocking over others behind them. The ones surrounding the stranger, the very ones who had brought him, shied backward vigorously themselves, to be away if the stranger suddenly shot up into the sky.

Everyone was that much in awe of the Wrong Kite.

It was truly a beautiful kite there in the dancing yellow light of the afternoon. Clearly there was no telling what it was about to do. No one knew. Except, of course, the hidden dummy. He knew if he had harmed anyone. Meri thought that Wut knew, too, because of the interaction she had observed.

As hard as she was thinking, and as carefully as she was observing, Meri, with her good sense of humor, couldn't help but laugh at the comic movements of the dummies getting out of the way and some falling. They were funny. A few in the tense crowd also recognized the humor and likewise laughed, too, relaxing.

These sudden movements had another result. _When the stranger was distracted, his canvas fingers understandably stopped moving toward the kitestick!_

_They never got there!_

_He didn't pick up the Wrong Kite!_

And then there was no need for him to. The humor had helped to clear everyone's mind. Almost everyone seemed to agree that a mistake had been made. Most had been coming to that conclusion anyway. The dummies of The Land of Wrong Kites were immensely proud of their great system of justice. They wanted to be equal to it, both to it then and to its past.

From the crowd noises, and from the expressions on their faces, the encircled dummy realized it.

He relaxed too, but only a few realized it, because he was mostly hidden.

"Thanks," he said, quickly raising his hand in a friendly wave, obviously ready to depart. He had been waiting for this moment.

The hand that he raised was the same one that had reached for the kite only a couple of minutes ago. Everyone got to see the superlight peach fingers again.

Before he left, however, he turned his head to glance at the wonderfully shimmering Wrong Kite again. He even took a step toward the beautiful object and looked at it more closely, with curiosity that Meri could readily understand!

_For if it could really do what it was supposed to do, take wrongdoing dummies up into the sky, keep them there until they corrected themselves acceptably, and only then let them come down again, no matter how long it took, it was definitely an interesting object!_

But in barely a moment he turned to go. It was obvious by the way he turned that he was preparing to hurry.

The crowd was a delightful splash of many colors. The pleasant light green yarn of the dummies of the land was here and there and everywhere, lightened by the colors in the patches and in the numerous excellent kites being held in hands and under arms. Some dummies from other lands, with their differing yarns and canvas, enhanced the mixture.

They were vaguely disappointed by what had happened, but they were satisfied with their final fairness. Like Meri and her friends up on Jethro, standing there like a small crowded balcony, however, they were all still immensely curious.

"Please be kind enough to tell us who you are," a dummy in the crowd requested in clear tones.

Meri looked. She saw that it was her new friend in that land, the one with the out-of-focus stars on her dress, with a sewn necklace of small pretty kites among the upper stars---the same one who had touched her to see if she was warm.

It was Flora. She stepped out from the edge of the crowd.

The soft aquamarine of the domed-building rose up into the sky in the background.

Flora had asked the right question. For everyone there, _everyone_ , had been wondering,

"Who is he, and what land is he from?"

That's why she asked it.

Meri had noticed, when seeing the mysterious dummy's hands, that he was a _stuffed canvas_ dummy, like the Tackling Dummy. Quickly she glanced over her right shoulder, at the face of her friend to see if he had noticed too. She didn't even have to say anything. Obviously he knew what she was thinking.

He nodded and tapped his own hand, smiling.

# Chapter XIV: LEO

The mysterious dummy paused, patiently but reluctantly allowing himself to be delayed again.

The dummies in the crowd couldn't see his face. All they could see was his high coat and hat. He looked directly into the eyes of many. By watching him closely, Meri had the impression that he knew and even liked these dummies.

What he said made her think she might be right.

"Friends," he began in a sympathetic but firm voice, "I truly love this land. It's beautiful and fascinating. I like to think about it, and I do, a lot. _You_ are unique, too. You are always looking up. High is a word with a special meaning to you. Obviously you are just right for the land of justice. Only standards that would be high would satisfy you.

"All of the dummies in The Lands depend on this love and this necessity.

"You've agreed that it was a mistake to bring me here to the Wrong Kite, showing those standards that I mentioned. And now I need to say that I was interrupted when I was doing something very important, dangerous to delay. And it's another mistake to ask me who I am. For the same reason, it would be safer not to say. And it would be safer not to stay. I've been here too long already."

It was a startling speech, making the members of the crowd, and those on the Buffalo Unicorn, more curious than ever.

The dummy waited another second before departing, to see if there was any other remark.

While doing so, he looked directly up at the sky, thinking about all the dummies far above, holding onto Wrong Kites and waiting to come down.

He wished them good thinking.

Watching him, Meri looked up at the sky too. She also was curious about what those dummies up there were thinking. And what it was like to be so far up in the air like that, looking down and around.

The extraordinary dummy then noticed her staring and the thoughtful expression on her face. His eyes seemed magnetized to her. Meri looked back kindly, knowing what had just happened. She had seen that look a number of times already. He had obviously just realized that she was _a flesh and blood dummy!_

She wished she knew more about him.

A large number of dummies were even beginning to like this dummy.

"Excuse me," said Flora again, "but please help us. You didn't have to pick up the Wrong Kite, even though some of our friends have been blown to bits lately."

A low response of shock came from the whole crowd, because she had spoken so graphically and painfully.

Flora during all this time had become emotional, and she was now visibly so. She was a dummy with especially strong feelings. She was being haunted by images in her mind of dummies helplessly and desperately caught in The Land of Firecracker Hail.

"And your hat," she continued, speaking tearfully, but with more confidence, now that she had begun, "isn't small, but it looks like it was made to protect you from the hail. And it has explosions all over it and so does your coat! You've been doing something in _The Land of Firecracker Hail!"_

"And you're hiding your face," someone else in the crowd pointed out, supporting her. He spoke factually.

"That's right," other dummies added in respectful tones. Clearly they had paid attention when the dummy had reminded them about the high standards of their land. They were being respectful. Flora had given them an opportunity to ask for an explanation.

Flora spoke again, "It would be unkind of you to leave without letting us know who you are. What do you have to hide?" Either she had forgotten, or she was ignoring, that the stranger had said it would be unsafe, in some unknown way, for him to stay and also to reveal who he was.

"Who are you?" called out a very pretty light green yarn maid from the land, whose personal choice of kite string was light pink. The kite patch on her left arm was pink and white with a yellow border. She was also holding a kite with exactly those colors and outline.

The surrounded dummy was gazing at the crowd with steady analytical eyes. He was listening carefully.

Flora's last statements and the question from the pretty light green yarn maid made him hesitate. He thought, and then, reluctantly, his thoughts led him to change his mind. He decided to provide the correct answers to the questions, although he would have to give up something important when he did. That's what Meri and her friends and some others read in the small messages of his body language. At the same time, the secret dummy obviously didn't seem completely happy with his decision. But he made it.

"Okay," he began his explanation, "I'm wearing a disguise." He reluctantly lifted the round wide hat above his forehead, revealing an attractive face. At the same time, he threw open his long coat of colorful small explosions while stepping out and away from it.

A burst of yellow was suddenly in the midst of everyone.

"Ohh!" responded the crowd, almost all at once, releasing loudly all the tension that had been building up again.

"Leo!" called out more. His name was echoed many more times joyfully. Clearly he was a beloved dummy.

Meri recognized him immediately as the dummy being honored on the top of the last cake in The Land of Lavender Thought when she and Perfit had visited there only the day before.

"It's the _very same_ dummy," she whispered to herself, "only this time it's him--- _himself_ \---in person!" She also heard "Leo J. upP" repeating over the multicolored crowd, with kites, which had now grown excitedly loud.

He was a stuffed canvas dummy, about two inches taller than the Tackling Dummy---who was observing him ever so intently. Of an extraordinarily beautiful light yellow color, he had pictures going all the way around him just above his waistline. In front was a picture of lightly colored spring flowers in a small wood with a tree stump, and a glimmer of light blue distance above the trees. Above that was a small square of black for the sky above the sky, dotted all over with mostly white for stars and two or three different colors for other objects.

Around his left side were a few trees with mellower leaves of a sunripened green, and there were some summery flowers below.

On his right side was another forest scene with leaves of Autumnforest colors dropping quietly to the grass where others had already accumulated.

As Meri was glancing, she and her other friends heard the Tackling Dummy murmur softly to himself behind her, when he saw the scene of falling leaves, "It's not no time to not watch not no leaves." She liked this little sentence that she had now heard him say three separate times. She thought it must be one of those little sentences always coming into his mind.

And as Leo turned toward the Wrong Kite, still displayed beside him, and gazed at it again for another second, his back came into view, showing white snowflakes falling through yellow air to green grass and a few flowers and small shrubs on one side, and falling through the black space of night onto the same scene beside it. In other words, the picture was divided between day and night, and there was a barely visible full moon in the snowfalling night sky. The two pictures side by side were quite lovely together.

His right arm was light yellow, like the rest of him, but the other was a superlight peach. He had been a beautiful dummy, but the crowd cried out in pain, in unison almost, as they realized that all over his figure holes had been blown out by something, and splits and tears, breaking out from the holes, had been caused in his canvas by whatever had caused the holes.

"Oh Leo," wept a small girl. "What happened? You were always so beautiful. Now---" and she burst out crying.

Leo's steady gaze softened slightly as he looked down at the small weeping dummy who obviously adored him. Reaching down, he put a comforting hand on her small shoulder. Then he raised her up, and holding her with his right arm, he hesitated. And then he said, slowly, and not that loud,

"Since these recent problems began, I've been trying to help the dummies in trouble in The Land of Firecracker Hail---and I've been able to save some of them. I've also been trying to find out who is responsible.

"The coat was a disguise. It also protected me as much as possible during the terrible battering weather, when I've been trying to save dummies. The hat was for where I needed to be protected the most---my head. Regrettably, you can't go into The Land of Firecracker Hail during inclement weather without being hit somewhere by the storm, no matter what you're wearing. It's simply too densely explosive.

"I needed this disguise because I wanted to try to go inside the firecracker hail, when it began falling, in order to be close to dummies who needed help. They didn't have much time.

"And, hopefully, without being seen, I could also try to discover who's been doing this---who is willing to treat our wonderfully nice dummies so barbarously. But I haven't yet been able to find out. This was my disguise, and I'm sure you can understand now why I didn't want to reveal it.

"Actually," he continued after a pause to allow the crowd to think, "I've been doing _the opposite_ of what you were suspecting me of. Be very careful before you suspect or accuse, and _especially_ before acting on your suspicions," he reminded them. "Remember what just happened to me. No one saw me do anything at all wrong. In fact I was really trying to help the problem you're concerned about. And I was dragged here and made a public spectacle. Remember that your land is so important to all of us. It must _unquestionably_ be fair."

The crowd was stunned, at first by his appearance, and then, by what he said. For everyone had always loved his remarkable canvas, even though they didn't get to see it too often. He was a private dummy, not socializing too much---staying mostly up in individual trees and up in the tops of the different forests of The Lands. He did come by sometimes, though rarely. And when he did, he would talk to his many friends, though usually not for long. He liked to go around The Lands helping those whom he had heard needed help, and when he did help someone, he didn't linger---to the disappointment of the dummies whom he assisted. He liked to think a lot, and he loved to be up in the trees, where he could think and where he could see what was going on without being seen himself. He was a lot like Wut in going around The Lands and doing what he could to help out, although he did what he did privately and Wut was lucky enough to have been given the job. Each really wanted to do what he was doing, however.

"So you see, I would have passed the test of the Wrong Kite," Leo reminded the crowd, gently setting the little girl dummy back onto the grass with a smile just for her eyes before he straightened back up again.

"Sorry, Leo," said a nearby dummy to one of his heroes. The word could be heard again and again, in all sorts of regretful tones, all over the crowd. They realized even more the injustice of bringing him there when he had been doing something so unquestionably important.

"Please continue what you were doing, Leo," someone else said. Once again, the crowd noises suggested general agreement.

"But please, please, take care of yourself. You are so valuable."

"And please come to see us when you can, Leo," a dummy in the back urged the beloved friend.

"Please," many repeated. By the way they said it, apparently they were afraid that now he might not come back much anymore. Or not at all. Clearly they were very unhappy about what had happened.

"I do have work to do," Leo announced with considerable friendliness, to reassure them. But he also spoke a little urgently. "I think you know where I need to be and what I need to try to do. Don't worry, I'm going to help your friends, if I can." And then he ran off extremely swiftly, carrying his coat and hat.

He didn't say anything about taking care of _himself._

Meri was surprised at how extraordinarily fast he could run. He made a wonderfully yellow line across the countryside.

The crowd was still a little stunned. An extraordinarily serious mistake had just been made: mistreating a beloved dummy and jeopardizing those he had been trying to keep from a terrible end.

"He was helping all the time," Flora said out loud in a plaintive tone to herself and to everyone, as they watched Leo grow yellowishly small in the distance toward The Land of Firecracker Hail. "And we almost treated him badly---I'm afraid we _did_ treat him badly. Oh, I'm so sorry!" she wailed and began crying, being led off by friends. "He had to remind us of our own justice. Why didn't we remember ourselves?! He was right. Our suspicions of him weren't based on any real evidence at all. And we even interfered with his efforts." She made quite a noise as her friends comfortingly led her away, inconsolable.

All of the dummies of the land were in low spirits. Many were also thinking sadly of Leo's injuries. He was a beloved dummy whom they had always paid attention to, and now they knew he was sacrificing his especially beautiful canvas---himself---to try to help others in desperate trouble.

The rest of the crowd, feeling as glum as Flora, wandered thoughtfully off in different directions, leaving Jethro and his friends by themselves. It wasn't like them at all to neglect their visitors, but Wut and his friends on Jethro understood.

It took a long time for the kites to go back up again, and when they did, the holders of the kite strings, which slanted up like upsidedown rain of the palest varying colors, were still quite quiet and thoughtful. The breezes from The Mistercald were as steady as ever, lifting all of the kites easily.

Jethro just stood there in the breezes, watching them go up, quietly thinking too about everything that had just happened. While he did, Meri unobtrusively slid off and walked across the grass over to the Wrong Kite. As curious as ever, she wanted to see it up close, too---to be close to it.

She loved the way justice was handled in The Lands.

It was a remarkable kite. The workmanship was the best, she could tell. Looking around, and seeing that no one seemed to be watching her, she reached up and picked up The Wrong Kite herself. At first she had hesitated and thought about it. Surprisingly, she found that it took a lot of nerve to even touch it, even though she knew she was perfectly innocent.

It didn't take her up into the air. But it did do something else. It tingled her fingers suddenly and strangely. And then pleasantly. And as it did, it pulled upward slightly, stretching her arms straight up.

She was so surprised that she let go, in a reflex which she immediately regretted. Because the kite was immediately, accidentally, picked up by the breezes from The Mistercald and then lifted higher and higher into the air, floating pleasantly and carefreely away.

"No!" she called after it, considerably embarrassed, but it kept on, rising and slowly spinning around in a lovely circle as it went up. It passed all the other kites, going up, having no string, and began floating away high over the land, onward and upward. Soon it was quite small.

Looking around, Meri saw that her friends had been watching her for a while and were grinning good-naturedly. She also realized that she was being watched by dummies all over the land!

They had gotten to see a Wrong Kite go up after all!

Meri ran back over to Jethro, immensely embarrassed.

Cupping her hands, "Sorry!" she called out to the dummies of the land, who were scattered all over, flying their kites. For the moment, they were looking at her, too. Since they had already had their eyes facing up, they hadn't failed to see their Wrong Kite suddenly appear among theirs, drifting impressively upward, pleasantly tumbling around in slow circles.

Many waved back to Meri, with hands that unquestionably were shaking in a way to let her know it was all right. Most of the dummies also smiled with understanding, for other dummies, similarly curious, had allowed Wrong Kites to get up into the air before, too, after bravely trying to touch them when no one was looking.

_It was fun that the flesh and blood dummy had done it this time!_

It only took _a little extra lift_ for a stringless kite to get away in their land. On this particular day, the smiles Meri had given them were especially useful, lifting their spirits again as they remembered her when she had arrived.

While Meri and the others were still there, with Meri up on Jethro again, a tiny little girl dummy walked out from the aquamarine dome telescope building with _another_ huge box kite, hexagonal, all caramel and pink and light aqua.

A sight to see _, it was another Wrong Kite._

One was _always_ kept on the pedestal. The little dummy was so small, though, only a little larger than Perfit, and this Wrong Kite was extra large. She struggled with it toward the pedestal.

She was too short to reach up. For a moment she stood there wondering what to do, when Jethro walked gently over. Handing the kite up to Perfit, when Jethro helpfully bent his head down for that purpose, the small dummy smiled briefly up at the travelers. She was the same one whom Leo had comforted about his canvas.

"Thanks," she said sweetly to the dummy almost her own age, and to Jethro, and to the others still up on him.

Ignoring the tingling in her fingers, and the slight pulling, Perfit lowered it down to stand perfectly in place on the flat star shape of the holder. A little heavier than the other one, there it remained upright among the breezes, almost hurting the eyes of the five friends with its vivid colors. The sun continued to shine brightly through it.

"I'm very sorry about Leo's canvas," said the Tackling Dummy with great feeling to the little girl dummy, and to his friends, revealing his thoughts. They were all momentarily looking at the new Wrong Kite, but each one, reminded by the small dummy, was actually thinking about Leo in the distance, with those ugly holes in his canvas.

They all looked toward him. "I know what it's like to be like that," he told them all, without explaining exactly what it _was_ like to have damaged canvas like Leo's. He didn't want them to feel any worse than they already did.

They all became aware, then, that there were _two_ dummies in The Lands who needed new canvas: the Tacking Dummy and now Leo.

"Something has to be done," Wut said desperately to himself as he thought about both of his good friends.

"But what?"

Questions like the last one, which he had repeated many times in The Lands, as he was going around trying to solve problems, were the reason he had the name that he did.

# Chapter XV: THE LAND OF LOVING YELLOW

It was time to continue taking the owingstones where they belonged.

The friends climbed down from Jethro, except for Perfit.

"This way," Wut called back to the others, beginning to bounce across the grass, to the right of the direction taken by Leo.

The light was bright, and kites were still ascending into the air, one by one. Once set free, they rose steadily, because of The Mistercald.

The sky was still pale blue, but there were a few larger clouds in the distance.

The travelers still had thoughts of Leo, including Wut. As he bounced, he told Meri, the Tackling Dummy, and Perfit a little more about him. Jethro, of course, already knew him from his many wanderings around The Lands.

Springing up and down on the light green grass of The Lands, Wut spoke loudly enough for Perfit to be able to hear high up on the light green saddle. As usual, her flying wand was dangling by a ribbon attached to the right shoulder of her dress. Her long yellow curls were hanging prettily in the sunlight.

Jethro was walking along peacefully and powerfully with his eyes half closed, thinking about everything. He could hardly feel the weight of Perfit on top. Somewhat mellow and pleasant at the thought of having seen his mother again, he recalled his visit with pleasure. She was a unique and unforgettable mother.

He began to be worried about Leo. And he was concerned about his brother Smithery. And about all the other problems in The Lands. He couldn't think of a time when there had been more things going wrong. The thought made him sad. But he knew he couldn't help by worrying. He just wished there was something _definite_ he could do. He was _definitely_ ready to do _something_.

But he didn't know what it was.

"Leo stays mainly in the forests," the question mark with the green eyes out in the spaces on either side of his head was saying. He was bouncing casually along and looking ahead to a small long wood becoming visible. What he saw influenced his choice of words.

"He loves trees. But it's hard to see him, because he's usually _upP_ in them, and it's rare to be able to find him. He has to find you, if he wants to, but he usually just keeps to himself. You may go by and never know he's there.

"He likes to think about The Lands a lot---about ways they can be improved---and sometimes he talks to all of us about his ideas. At these times, he's very eloquent. He's very passionate about The Lands and especially about everyone being treated well and fairly---even though most of the dummies in The Lands are extraordinarily nice, anyway. That's why he was spending his time recently near The Land of Firecracker Hail, sacrificing himself to help others.

"He can't stand anything unfair. He's sympathetic to anyone being treated unfairly. You have to know him. The holes you saw in his canvas tell you what he's like. It's too bad that he himself was just treated that way by the well-meaning dummies in the land we just left, especially in _that_ land. But he won't hold it against them. He's very generous. And he certainly helped them, too, with his reminder."

Meri had become more curious about The Land of Firecracker Hail, since she had been hearing about it more and more. She wanted to ask a question, but she was listening so hard to Wut that she didn't.

"He definitely _has_ sacrificed something important," the Tackling Dummy solemnly continued, remembering Leo's canvas. It was pitiful, because it had once been so beautiful. For just a moment the Tackling Dummy looked down at his own patched and mended self. Too quickly, he looked away again. The light was bright, easily revealing the worn quality of all the places where he hadn't been mended. Aquamarie had done the best she could, but his canvas desperately needed _replacing_. Nothing was really going to work but _new canvas_. And that wasn't something Aquamarie could do. She wasn't in the business of _making_ dummies.

"Leo must have been extraordinary before," the Tackling Dummy continued. "When I looked at his canvas for the first time, even with the damage, I realized that I hadn't known canvas could even look that beautiful!"

" _You're_ going to be beautiful," Meri assured her dear friend, giving him a hug around his side as she walked along beside him. But she was careful not to squeeze too hard, to avoid tearing the weakened material.

"He actually has two names that he likes to be called," Wut continued: "Leo, when he's on the ground, but upP, when he's upP in the trees. But most dummies forget and just call him Leo---actually, most dummies never even see him when he's upP in the trees, I guess, as I said a minute ago, and so mostly they don't get to call him upP anyway."

What Wut was saying about Leo reminded Meri of Art or Nart in The Land of Dark.

"He has two names, too, depending on the moment, too," she thought. She also remembered that some of The Lands have two names, "Like _The Land of Better Lending_ , also called," she remembered pleasantly, from Syl, " _The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains_. And then there's _The Land of Snowflake Stepping_ , which some of the dummies in The Lands call _The Land of Geometrical Snow_. And _The Land of Stopping Flowers_ , which is also _The Land of Slow Floating_. And of course _The Land of Lavender Thought_ , also _The Land of Clinging Light_ ," she thought, recalling with joy her night flight in her nightgown. "And there are others."

She liked remembering these lands.

Although looking like he was half asleep, Jethro with his deep whimsical voice startled them all when he spoke. "And there's a third and a fourth reason, too, besides being private, and being up in the trees, that Leo's seldom seen. Tell them about his coats, Wut." And his eyes drifted almost shut again as he continued to amble steadily across the medium green grass carrying the tiny nice dummy, so conspicuous with her exquisite yellow hair, on his back on a light green saddle.

They were almost all the way across The Land of Wrong Kites.

"Oh yes," began Wut, reminded. "Aquamarie helps him, too. He has a different coat for each of the forests of The Lands, made especially by our good friend in The Land of Pink Windmills." They all, for just a moment, gladly thought about the great seamstress in The Lands who just happened to live in the same one as Perfit, luckily for all the dummies there.

"Of course, being light yellow, he would be especially easy to see in the trees, but Aquamarie made him a long coat with autumn leaves to wear upP in The Autumnforest. And one with bright green leaves and oak limb designs for wearing in the single line of The One Tree Forest. And, of course, a colorful one, with leaves of many shades of green, and parts of many hoops, for The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest."

Meri's eyes opened wide for an instant at the mention of this land and an additional forest which sounded so interesting.

"The one you saw, of course," went on Wut, "must have been made fairly recently---the one he was wearing showing tiny explosions against a white and dark plum background. I'd never seen that one before myself.

"I guess it's obvious why," he added, talking mainly to himself for an instant. "So much of this is so recent."

"Yellow is my favorite color, I think you know why," contributed Perfit in her soft little girl voice from above. She was leaning down and forward from the saddle to hear better. "But I don't think I've ever seen a yellow as splendid as his before."

The travelers glanced up appreciatively at her face and at her massive yellow curls and the many yellow windmills in her long dress. Actually, they _had_ seen a yellow as beautiful as his before, for Perfit's own hair was an incomparable yellow, and quite captivating, though she was so nice she obviously wasn't going to compare herself favorably to Leo.

"The Land of Firecracker Hail," Meri suddenly said to herself, out loud, without meaning to. She was thinking hard about it because she remembered the scene on the top of the cake in The Land of Lavender Thought. Leo had been shown saving a dummy from that terrible hail. She wondered if perhaps the dummies in that beautiful land, so far away, somehow had found out about Leo's efforts because of the power of their unusual lavender thought. But then she realized, correctly, that probably a dummy he had helped had simply been crossing The Lands and told them. (In fact Meri and the others had met and spoken to that same dummy in The Land of Handwriting Speech.)

"Yes," replied Wut to Meri's words, looking around uneasily as he bounced. Just the name of the land was enough to make someone nervous---especially since it wasn't that far away. "One of the most dangerous---more so than The Land of Geological Speed. It's so beautifully violent, when the weather's bad, I couldn't describe it---." And he shivered in the middle of his next bounce, thinking about it.

But his eyes also showed that he nevertheless liked how it looked. And then he went on to say so. "Although quite spectacular and lovely from a distance and especially at night, a dummy foolish enough to try to cross it when the skies are dark and plum colored would be exploded to bits if caught during the inclement weather. I doubt if _we'll_ go near it, although I may go there by myself later." He shivered going up, looking around uneasily when he got to the top of his bounce.

There was deep concern in his voice. Meri had never seen a shadow that dark across his eyes before.

"To help Leo?" she questioned quietly, more afraid for her good friend Wut than she revealed because of what he had just said. But his only reply was to look at her momentarily with the same great shadow in his eyes. He held the look, for a long time, it seemed. And then he just blinked. Words just weren't there, apparently, for him to speak at that moment. Meri realized, correctly however, that the blink had meant _yes. He had decided to go and help his friend do what was so dangerous._

Deeply worried that what had happened to Leo might also happen to Wut, she was glad to be able to change the subject.

"Oh look!" she cried.

Lying ahead on the green grass, standing up on end in the soft breeze, was the beautiful lavender box kite that she had caused to fly and drift away from The Land of Wrong Kites. It was in the middle of the lovely green border between the land they were leaving and another one now coming into their vision.

Wut bounced ahead, reaching it before the others.

"It's lucky that it landed here," he exclaimed, obviously pleased. "There's a lot of traffic along this way. The dummies of The Land of Wrong Kites, especially, come by here all the time, going over there." And he pointed to the dramatically different land they were walking toward.

"They'll find it easily and take it back to their land. Good! They'll be glad when they see it here! They love all of their kites, no matter where they are, even if up in the sky. And they like to get them back, if any get away."

But Meri had a different idea. She was still feeling bad because she had caused her friends in that land to lose their kite.

_Now_ , she thought, she had a chance to make it up to them.

"Couldn't I carry it, and return it back to The Land of Wrong Kites---on our way back? I want to do that," she said eagerly, "because my carelessness made them lose it in the first place. Please!!?" she asked, looking pleadingly into Wut's attentive but reluctant green eyes.

There was something else, too. Secretly, she didn't mention it, but she had liked holding the kite when it had tingled her fingers and slightly pulled her up, stretching her arms enjoyably. Clearly it was a very special kite.

She also hated to just leave it there on the grass, as valuable as it was.

Sitting there ordinarily on the grass, it was hard to believe that it could actually take anyone far up into the sky. It looked very beautiful, but not dramatic. Meri remembered how it had felt when she had touched it. She wanted her arms and hands to feel that way again.

"If you're worried about it being all by itself out here, don't," Wut answered readily. " _No dummy would try to bother a Wrong Kite_. But if you really feel that way," he continued, unable to resist the pleading look on her face, you can bring it along. But I don't think you should. You're certainly going to get tired of carrying it."

With that discouragement, which made sense, he gave his permission.

"Thank you so much!" said Meri happily, affectionately giving him a hug as he went up and down. She smiled as she did, for he was uniquely interesting to try to hug.

With an expectant look on her face, which included another small smile, she reached out slowly for the kite, touched it and picked up it. Immediately she felt a strange sensation, a tiny wonderful thrill that traveled up her arms and then throughout her body. The marvelous kite stretched her arm up completely again, lifting her two or three inches above the grass, before setting her back down again.

She _didn't_ fly any farther than that up into the air. So the kite had said something about the kind of person she was.

With the spectacular object in both of her hands, being overly careful and protective at first, she started walking slowly with it, and the others started again too.

She was now carrying her flying wand in the pencil pocket at the top of her bib jeans overall shorts---pointing down, of course. It stuck up just a little higher than a pencil would have, leaving both of her hands free.

Quickly crossing the rest the border, the five friends came up to the next land.

It was especially conspicuous and had already seized their attention some time before.

_This was because it was completely yellow_!

_A vivid, almost eye blinding, but very pleasant yellow._

_Everything in it was yellow_ \---what could be vaguely seen, that is---because its air was luminous yellow too. It reminded Meri of The Land of Dark---only the exact opposite!

"The Land of Loving Yellow," Jethro mentioned in his deep voice, as they began to walk beside the dazzling land to their left.

"Don't look too hard," he added, too late, whimsically looking very hard straight into it himself.

"It may hurt your eyes. Till they get used to it. I usually don't go in at all because it's so hard on my eyes. I have been inside several times, though," he added with an interesting note of recollection in his voice.

There was another reason that he didn't usually go into the land anymore. But he didn't mention that.

Regardless of Jetho's advice but following his example, Meri and the others couldn't help but look directly at the land and into it, even though their eyes were squinting and the rest of their faces wrinkling at the same time, in a way that couldn't be helped, because of the adorable yellow.

"And hold on tight to everything you have that may be yellow," cautioned Wut, bouncing along as he also looked into the land, which showed vague shapes of yellow becoming easier to see as one's eyes adjusted.

"They love yellow, and they may temporarily _borrow_ something yellow from you while we are going by, as they can't resist anything yellow. However, they'll return it. And you may not even know it's gone---for the dummies in this land are _very very_ fast."

The friends stopped momentarily to look at themselves and each other, but without seeing any of the esteemed color except on Perfit's head, and that was firmly attached to her; and in her dress, but no one thought they might take her dress off.

"Uh oh," said Jethro, suddenly swinging his great head around to look in the saddle on his back. It was now empty, although they all had just looked at Perfit's yellow hair and dress. But Jethro had seen a blur go by.

"Oh no!" echoed Wut, laughing, looking around intently with his green eyes, gladheartedly but also surprisedly. No one had suspected that they might steal _all_ of Perfit---an entire dummy--- because of her wonderful hair, and her dress. But now he realized that they hadn't been able to resist _her_ , as exquisite as she is, and he understood. She was just that kind of dummy.

Perfit was gone.

Her beautiful yellow hair and her long dress with the pink flowers and the yellow windmills were missing, as well as her friendly face with those large thoughtful light blue eyes. And the rest of the adorable dummy.

And the travelers hadn't even seen her being taken!

"Too late!" exclaimed Wut, slapping his hands together in front of him, clearly dissatisfied with himself. "I warned you---about their habit, and about their speed---but I should have known better myself what might really happen! I should have known they wouldn't be able to resist anyone as charming as she is, with that hair and in that dress."

"Tatch!" he immediately called out loudly at the edge of the yellow land, looking as hard as he could into the yellow air---which was so hard to look into. All of the remaining friends did the same, too, of course.

They all called, " _Tatch!"_ along with Wut. Meri and the Tackling Dummy of course were wondering who she was.

But they called anyway. They couldn't lose their beloved Perfit!

"Tatch!" Wut repeated, a little louder. "Bring her back. We can't blame you for liking her---we love her---but she can't stay. She needs to go with us. Bring her back out!" This last sentence was spoken with even more firmness.

"Yeah!" Jethro echoed him, attempting to sound gruff with his deep voice, but sounding only deeply friendly instead, while a whimsical glint in his eyes suggested he understood their attraction to her. Also, he knew that as nice as Perfit is, her hair didn't have to be that yellow and perfect for anyone to find her loveable. He completely understood why they took her.

To the surprise of Meri and the Tackling Dummy, but not to Wut and Jethro, a tall yellow figure stepped out of the light and stood right before them.

Here was another strange looking dummy!

She was wearing a yellow jacket and fairly short yellow skirt. And the rest of her was completely yellow too, except for the black pupils in her eyes, her irises which were light blue, the pink of her lips, the white of her teeth, and strangely, all of her left arm up to the shoulder, which was a superlight green.

She was actually very lovely, Meri thought, for her own yellow color was quite attractive. Her neat hair was yellow, like Perfit's, but shorter and made of yarn, like the rest of her.

"We don't like her---we love her," said Tatch evenly, adding, however, a little wisely, "but I suppose everyone does who sees her and talks to her. She's so exquisite."

"Told you so," said Jethro to himself.

"We can't let her go,"

and

"Yes"

and

"We love her,"

added other, shorter, dummies of The Land of Loving Yellow, who at that moment stepped out in a line, all holding hands, with Perfit in the middle holding their hands on either side. Her yellow hair, which was real hair, was especially shining in the luminous light from the edge of the land. The yellow in her long dress was also particularly attractive, surrounded by the yellow of the other dummies. Each of these dummies also had a left arm of a superlight color, from the top half of their shoulders to the tips of their fingers.

"I know what you mean," replied Wut with his greatest diplomacy, as he continued to bounce in place. There was a natural understanding in his voice for all of the yellow dummies in the line, which was now quite long, as more dummies had been stepping out, and for Tatch---for he himself, like everyone, was more than fond of the special little dummy.

"But instead of her staying here, could we just come in for a short visit now, and could you also invite her to come back for a longer visit later? I'd like for my friends to see the tree. But there's somewhere that we _have_ to go today. Besides, what do you think it would be like for the dummies in The Land of Pink Windmills, her own land, without her, after having had her with them for so long? If you love her after only several minutes, think of how _they_ feel."

The yellow loving dummies made little pleased sounds, not really having expected Perfit, or any of her friends, to be able to stay. But they hadn't expected a visit either, since visitors usually didn't enter their land at all, much less stay, because of the intense yellow light. And Perfit might actually come to visit them later!

They were all very happy with the compromise!

Before giving her okay, Tatch looked over at Jethro, who just looked back as if everything were normal. And, of course, the familiar whimsical expression was on his face and in his eyes.

There was a short, suspense-filled pause during which Tatch was obviously thinking about something the others didn't understand.

"Okay," she finally agreed, and the yellow loving dummies and Perfit jumped up into the air, throwing their arms up, which was quite a sight because of all the superlight colors of their left arms. Even Jethro, not to be left out, jumped up in his own excitement, and that was a sight. And then they all turned and walked---some were jumping, and Wut was bouncing---into _The Land of Loving Yellow_ , with its luminous yellow air.

"A new land!" thought Meri, stepping in. Yellow immediately flooded into every corner of her light hazel eyes and her mind.

"What's this land going to be like?" She wondered. Two things she _already_ knew: it was going to be surprising in its own special ways, as each of The Lands was; and she already liked it anyway. For she loved yellow. And she had liked these friendly, fast, yellow loving dummies the instant they had stepped out of their light holding Perfit's hands. The amiable looks on their faces had been quite nice.

Meri had all kinds of sensations herself, mostly of wonder, as she stepped into the land. She and Wut and Jethro and the Tackling Dummy then were forced to stop right where they were, though, for a few seconds.

For they were all temporarily blinded.

**************

The story continues in Book Six of "Across The Mistercald": The Land of Now and Later. The travelers see the special tree in The Land of Loving Yellow, as Wut had mentioned. And then there's another surprise that's new! On the other side of The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest, they finally reach The Land of Strawberry Dawn, where Meri had promised Sticktight she would take the owingstones. Guess what the Strawberries will say when they finally get to talk?!

The Land of Firecracker Hail is also in that part of The Lands.

# ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry Good's mother's name was Virginia, he was born in Virginia, and he went to the University of Virginia, where he majored in English. His high school math teacher, Miss Lillian C. Maben, whose initials can stand for "least common multiple" and whom he remembers with great affection, hoped that he would major in math.

He's interested in science and astronomy like Meri's Aunt Amelia. She has her own telescope. An astronomical telescope can also be found in The Land of Wrong Kites, where it is used for another very important reason than looking at the stars. They both also like libraries, so you can visit one in The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains. You can guess what the chains are for.

Before he was 12 years old, the author went to the movie every Saturday afternoon in Blackstone for 9 cents. He loved the Tarzan movies. The opportunity to swing from beautiful haystack to haystack or hay mountain in The Land of Haystack Swinging may have something to do with that. Even if you're a Buffalo Unicorn, you can hold on with your teeth.

Larry Good lives in Nottoway County, Virginia, which is next to Amelia County, where Meri lives with her family.
