hed. "Last night
Mulla-jugguba; this night Nodda-nellipogo" (Prince of Bonfires, Noddle
of Pork). But Thimble was too sore to say anything, for his little
Exxswixxia-book of sorcery had been stuffed into Nod's bundle, and now
it was lost for ever. And they left Nod to climb up again by himself.
Once safely back on his fork, he was so tired and miserable that, with
his hands over his face, he fell almost directly fast asleep.

When he opened his small clear eyes again, sunrise was glinting here and
there through the green twilight on the icicles and snow in the trees.
He looked down, and saw Thumb and Thimble combing themselves. So down he
went, too, and took off his jacket, and skipped and frisked till he grew
warm. Then he, too, combed himself, and went and sat down beside his
brothers at the foot of the Ollaconda-tree to eat his morning's share of
musty nuts. At first his brothers sat angry and sullen, munching with
their great dog-teeth, and seeming to begrudge him every Ukka-nut he
cracked. But as the daybeams brightened, here where the trees grew not
so dense, and the birds, some wellnigh as small as acorns, flashed and
zigzagged, and Parrakeetoes squeaked and screamed in hundreds on the
branches, watching the three hungry travellers, they began to forget
Nod's supper with the pigs. And when they had eaten, into the gloom of
Munza they set out once more.

As a dog smells out the footsteps of his master so these Mulla-mulgars
seemed to smell out their way. No path was to be seen except where
pig-droves had rambled by, or droves of Mullabruks and packs of
Munza-dogs. And once Thumb, on a sudden, stood still, and pointed to the
ground, opening his great grinning mouth, with its little wall of
glistening teeth, and muttered, "Roses!" They stood together looking
down at the frozen footprints of a mother-leopard and her cubs in the
fresh-laid snow. Nod fancied, even, he could smell her breath on the icy
air. After this they went forward more warily, but carried their cudgels
with a bravery, looking very fierce in their red jackets and great caps
of furry skins. And, after a while, the huge trees gathered in again,
and soon arched loftily overhead as thick as thatch, so that it was all
in a cold and sluggish gloom they walked, like the dusk of coming
night. Nor, so thick was the leafy roof overhead, had any snow floated
into its twilight. Only a rare frost shimmered on the spiky husks of
fruit thrown down by the Tree-mul