s of his visitors. "You brutes! You apes! You
miserable, white-skinned creatures! How dare you come into my garden
and knock me on the head with that awful basket and then fall on my
toes and cause me pain and suffering? How dare you, I say? Don't you
know you will be punished for your impudence? Don't you know the
Boolooroo of the Blues will have revenge? I can have you patched for
this insult, and I will--just as sure as I'm the Royal Boolooroo of Sky
Island!"

"Oh, is this Sky Island, then?" asked Trot.

"Of course it's Sky Island. What else could it be? And I'm its Ruler,
its King, its sole Royal Potentate and Dictator. Behold in the
Personage you have injured the Mighty Quitey Righty Boolooroo of the
Blues!" Here he strutted around in a very pompous manner and wagged his
little head contemptuously at them.

"Glad to meet you, sir," said Cap'n Bill. "I allus had a likin' for
kings, bein' as they're summat unusual. Please 'scuse me for a-sittin'
on your royal toes, not knowin' as your toes were there."

"I won't excuse you!" roared the Boolooroo. "But I'll punish you. You
may depend upon that."

"Seems to me," said Trot, "you're actin' rather imperlite to strangers.
If anyone comes to our country to visit us, we always treat 'em decent."

"YOUR country!" exclaimed the Boolooroo, looking at them more carefully
and seeming interested in their appearance. "Where in the Sky did you
come from, then, and where is your country located?"

"We live on the Earth when we're at home," replied the girl.

"The Earth? Nonsense! I've heard of the Earth, my child, but it isn't
inhabited. No one can live there because it's just a round, cold,
barren ball of mud and water," declared the Blueskin.

"Oh, you're wrong about that," said Button-Bright.

"You surely are," added Cap'n Bill.

"Why, we live there ourselves," cried Trot.

"I don't believe it. I believe you are living in Sky Island, where you
have no right to be, with your horrid white skins. And you've intruded
into the private garden of the palace of the Greatly Stately Irately
Boolooroo, which is a criminal offense. And you've bumped my head with
your basket and smashed my toes with your boards and bodies, which is a
crime unparalleled in all the history of Sky Island! Aren't you sorry
for yourselves?"

"I'm sorry for you," replied Trot, "'cause you don't seem to know the
proper way to treat visitors. But we won't stay long. We'll go home
pretty soon."

"Not