When I from black, and he from white cloud free.
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,

I'll shade him from the heat 'til he can bear
To lean in joy upon our Father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me._

By the time Ozma had read the last line, tears were streaming down
everyone's face.

"That is the most beautiful poem I have ever heard..." Elephant sobbed,
as Tweaty dabbed his eyes with a tailfeather, "...and so very sad that
it will take so long for True Love to exist between all peoples. Only
when they realize that in the ultimate sense there is no difference
between them."

The story of the chilepeppers and the poem by William Blake left
everyone in a very somber mood. But Time was not standing still, and you
can be sure that that mean-spirited old spider-monster was not letting
any grass grow under his feet. Even now he was no doubt growing stronger
by the minute by sucking strength and courage out of any victim who had
been unfortunate enough to be caught in his deadly web.

"We must be on our way," Ozma said, shivering slightly. "Elephant, why
don't we all ride on you, and we'll talk as we go along and plan our
strategy."

"Good idea," Elephant answered, picking Ozma up again.

Meanwhile, Tweaty and the owls flew up and perched on Elephant's head.
Elephant then lowered his trunk to allow Nibbles to jump aboard and be
lifted up behind Ozma.

"Okay, every one!" shouted Elephant as he raised his trunk high in the
air and let out a great trump which just about blew everyone off his
back. He then proceeded to waddle down the road making trumping sounds
that sounded suspiciously like a trombone playing the bass part to _When
the Saints go marching in_. In fact, pretty soon everyone was singing
along--

_Oh when the saints
Go mar chin' in.
When the saints go marchin' in.
Lord, I want to be in that number,
When the saints go marchin' in..._

[Illustration: Sniffer and Stinkfoot arguing.]

CHAPTER 8

THE JOURNEY TOWARD THE SNIFFER NATION

"As I see it," said Lisa as they traveled along, "there is at least one
major difference between the problems in the Sniffer Nation and the
problems of Chilepepperland. The Chilepeppers, so far as I can
determine, are different from one another only in their viewpoints. Some
may have had a better education than others, but all were born