“And there never was an ignoranter girl!” retorted Bruno. “Come along and pick some dindledums. _That’s all she’s fit for!_” he added in a very loud whisper to me.
“But why do you say ‘Dindledums,’ Bruno? _Dandelions_ is the right word.”
“It’s because he jumps about so,” Sylvie said, laughing.
“Yes, that’s it,” Bruno assented. “Sylvie tells me the words, and then, when I jump about, they get shooken up in my head—till they’re all froth!”
I expressed myself as perfectly satisfied with this explanation. “But aren’t you going to pick me any dindledums, after all?”
“Course we will!” cried Bruno. “Come along, Sylvie!” And the happy children raced away, bounding over the turf with the fleetness and grace of young antelopes.
“Then you didn’t find your way back to Outland?” I said to the Professor.
“Oh yes, I did!” he replied, “We never got to Queer Street; but I found another way. I’ve been backwards and forwards several times since then. I had to be present at the Election, you know, as the author of the new Money-Act. The Emperor was so kind as to wish that _I_ should have the credit of it. ‘Let come what come may,’ (I remember the very words of the Imperial Speech) ‘if it _should_ turn out that the Warden _is_ alive, _you_ will bear witness that the change in the coinage is the _Professor’s_ doing, not _mine_!’ I never was so glorified in my life, before!” Tears trickled down his cheeks at the recollection, which apparently was not _wholly_ a pleasant one.
“Well, it’s _supposed_ so: but, mind you, _I_ don’t believe it! The evidence is _very_ weak—mere hear-say. A wandering Jester, with a Dancing-Bear (they found their way into the Palace, one day) has been telling people he comes from Fairyland, and that the Warden died there. _I_ wanted the Vice-Warden to question him, but, most unluckily, he and my Lady were always out walking when the Jester came round. Yes, the Warden’s supposed to be dead!” And more tears trickled down the old man’s cheeks.
The Professor brightened up again. “The Emperor started the thing,” he said. “He wanted to make everybody in Outland twice as rich as he was before—just to make the new Government popular. Only there wasn’t nearly enough money in the Treasury to do it. So _I_ suggested that he might do it by doubling the value of every coin and bank-note in Outland. It’s the simplest thing possible. I wonder nobody ever thought of it before! And you never saw such universal joy. The shops are full from morning to night. Everybody’s buying everything!”