The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-08-18
Bedtime Stories
For Little Folks
SQUANk'S VISIT TO MAINLAND.

Fairy Queen, Emereselda, longed to
go and to see strange lands. So he
said to the Queen:
ooh, Queen, l wish to go to the
land where the men creatures live"
They are wise, the men creature
are," replied the Mother Spider, whirl-
ing her spinning wheel. "And wisdom
is more wonderful than magic. Stay
home" But little Squank was head
strong. And so next morning he start
ed cheerily forth. The fairies sat up
late that night awaiting his return,
and, sure enough, at midnight, here
| he came, all breathless and bedrag-
gled and bewildered, with his little
COLLINS pop-eyes sticking out of his
head.
"Oh, Fairy Queen! Oh, Mother
Spider!" he exclaimed, dropping ex-
| hausted. How glad l am to be at
home, The Mainland is filled with
monsters more terrible than ogres; in
the air are birds a million times big
ger than the fiercest eagle and in the
water great fish breathe smoke and
have eyes of fire. And, worst of all,
as l ran home tonight all the stars
in the sky tumbled down to earth!"
l, /, I, hn
and all the fairies. But the wise old
Mother Spider smiled shrewdly.
Tell us just what you saw, little
SQuank,' she said, quietly whirling
her spinning wheel.
why, soon after I reached the
Mainland" said Squank, hopping his
brow, Il heard a mighty roaring and
saw a gigantic serpent ten times as
long as a giant, rushing along at
frightful speed, without wings or feet.
| 1t glistened in the sun, and from its
| frightful nostrils set in front of its
terrible black head it spurted smoke.
| tried to hide, but as it rOared clat-
tering past it waved a long white
plume from its head and uttered a
| frightful shrek. l fled in terror, but
hardly had the serpent gone from
sight before | heard above me a most
horrible chattering, and, looking up,
| saw a huge bird, larger than
| thousand eagles, flying faster than a
swallow. 1t flew past, and suddenly
it whirled and dipped, and skimming
close to the ground, lit right where
| was trying to hide. More frightened
| than ever, l ran as hard as l could.
| The awful bird rose and followed fast,
and at length l fell, faiting with ter
ror, on the banks of a great river.
Il was brought to my senses by
! When l arose l saw it was night, and,
| looking around to see whence that
frightful believing came, l saw a
sight that froze my goblin blood.
Swimming with a rush through the
river was a monster fish, such as no
one in fairyland ever dreamed of,
, higher than an ogre's castle, with a
great horn on its back, from which
spouted million fiery sparks. Along
| its sides, from head to tail, there
cleaned rows of myriad blazing eyes.
Crawling over it were men creatures,
and | think they were torturing the
monster fish, for suddenly it COM
menced to below again in that terri
BILE voice.
Then | turned and fed homeward,
while my teeth chartered in terror.
Suddenly, as l came into an open
road, it seemed as though all the
stars of heaven had fallen about me,
some perched on posts, some hanging
in the air. | did not stop again, but
came running home, all frightened out
of ny wits, as you see. And so, I'm
so glad to get home safe; after all
those terrible things, with their awful
roarings and believing and glisten-
ing eyes!"
''O-o-o-oh-h-h." exclaimed all the
fairies. "How TERRIBLE! What aw-
full magic!"
ut was no magic at ALL" remarked
wise old Mother Spider, winding up
her thread Those monsters are the
servants that the wise men have built
to work for them. That glistening
serpent that Squank saw was what
men call railroad train. 1t can
carry as much as 10000 horses faster
than a horse ever ran. That great
bird was a flying machine that goes
higher and swifter than any bird
ever travelled. That great fish was
steamboat, that men built to carry
them on the water and the eyes were
the lights in the windows. The stars
that Squank saw did not fall from the
sky, but were the electric lights that
men made to give them light at night