The Blue City was quite extensive, and consisted of many broad
streets paved with blue marble and lined with splendid buildings of
the same beautiful material. There were houses and castles and shops
for the merchants, and all were prettily designed and had many
slender spires and imposing turrets that rose far into the blue air. Everything was blue here, just as was everything in the Royal Palace and gardens, and a blue haze overhung all the city.
"Doesn't the sun ever shine?" asked Cap'n Bill.
"Not in the blue part of Sky Island," replied Ghip-Ghisizzle. "The
moon shines here every night, but we never see the sun. I am told, however, that on the other half of the Island--which I have never seen--the sun shines brightly but there is no moon at all."
"Oh," said Button-Bright. "Is there another half to Sky Island?'
"Yes, a dreadful place called the Pink Country. I'm told everything
there is pink instead of blue. A fearful place it must be, indeed!" said the Blueskin with a shudder.
"I dunno 'bout that," remarked Cap'n Bill. "That Pink Country sounds
kind o' cheerful to me. Is your Blue Country very big?"
"It is immense," was the proud reply. "This enormous city extends a
half mile in all directions from the center, and the country outside
the City is fully a half-mile further in extent. That's very big, isn't it?"
"Not very," replied Cap'n Bill with a smile. "We've cities on the
Earth ten times bigger, an' then some big besides. We'd call this a
small town in our country."
"Our Country is thousands of miles wide and thousands of miles
long--it's the great United States of America!" added the boy
earnestly.
Ghip-Ghisizzle seemed astonished. He was silent a moment, and then
he said, "Here in Sky Island we prize truthfulness very highly. Our
Boolooroo is not very truthful, I admit, for he is trying to
misrepresent the length of his reign, but our people as a rule speak
only the truth."
"So do we," asserted Cap'n Bill. "What Button-Bright said is the
honest truth, every word of it."
"But we have been led to believe that Sky Island is the greatest
country in the universe--meaning, of course, our half of it, the
Blue Country."
"It may be for you, perhaps," the sailor stated politely. "An' I
don't imagine any island floatin' in the sky is any bigger. But the
Universe is a big place, an' you can't be sure of what's in it till
you've traveled like we have."
"Perhaps you are right," mused the Blueskin, but he still seemed to
doubt them.
"Is the Pink side of Sky Island bigger than the Blue side?" asked
Button-Bright.
"No, it is supposed to be the same size," was the reply.
"Then why haven't you ever been there? Seems to me you could walk
across the whole island in an hour," said the boy.
"The two parts are separated by an impassable barrier," answered
Ghip-Ghisizzle. "Between them lies the Great Fog Bank."
"A fog bank? Why, that's no barrier!" exclaimed Cap'n Bill.
"It is indeed," returned the Blueskin. "The Fog Bank is so thick and
heavy that it blinds one, and if once you got into the Bank, you
might wander forever and not find your way out again. Also, it is
full of dampness that wets your clothes and your hair until you
become miserable. It is furthermore said that those who enter the
Fog Bank forfeit the six hundred years allowed them to live and are
liable to die at any time. Here we do not die, you know; we merely
pass away."
"How's that?" asked the sailor. "Isn't 'pass'n' away' jus' the same
as dyin'?"
"No indeed. When our six hundred years are ended, we march into the
Great Blue Grotto, through the Arch of Phinis, and are never seen
again."
"That's queer," said Button-Bright. "What would happen if you didn't
march through the Arch?"
"I do not know, for no one has ever refused to do so. It is the Law, and we all obey it."
"It saves funeral expenses, anyhow," remarked Cap'n Bill. "Where is
this Arch?"