ow."

"I don't know anything of the sort. Now then, just keep quiet while I
finish this document. There," he continued, when he had finished writing
some mysterious-looking words on the paper, and had attached two
enormous red seals to it--"that's your warrant for arresting the Dodo,
when you have found him; and it is also an authority from the little
Panjandrum for you at any time to become any size that you wish; to
float through the air at will; and to live under water if necessary. So
you have everything in your favor, and I shall expect the Dodo back in
less than a week. Do you hear? Now I'm off."

The little man mounted his ostrich, and without saying a word more to
any one, he and his followers rode off in the direction from whence they
had come.

"Well, I never!" said Dick, picking up the scrawl which had fallen at
his feet. "Here's a go! We've got to find that beastly old Dodo in less
than a week, or be--what was it?"

"I don't know," said Marjorie, dolefully, "it was something very long,
and sounded dreadful."

"But what's that he said about our being able to be any size that we
wished? I'm sure I wish I was as tall as father."

"Me, too," said Fidge, emphatically.

"And I should love to float about in the air, I'm sure!" declared
Marjorie.

The words were scarcely out of her mouth when she felt herself wafted
gently off her feet, while at the same moment Dick, to Fidge's intense
surprise, suddenly shot up to the height of over six feet, and looked so
very ridiculous, that all three of them burst out into an uncontrollable
fit of laughter.

CHAPTER III.

THE SAGE IN THE ONION FIELD.

"How absurd," laughed Dick, as he looked down from the--to him--enormous
height of six feet. "What a thin, lanky-looking creature, I am, to be
sure--and Fidge, too; he looks perfectly ridiculous"--for Fidge, also,
was growing amazingly.

"How did it happen, Dick, dear?" asked Marjorie, in an awe-stricken
voice. "It seems so funny to be up here in the air, and yet I don't feel
in the least frightened, do you?"

"Of course not," said Dick, contemptuously. "Why, we just said we wished
to be as tall as the Pater, you know, and it happened."

"Oh, yes; and I said I should like to float in the air. I suppose we can
always do what we want to now--how lovely! Like the 'Arabian Nights,'
isn't it?"

"I don't want to be thin, like a walking-stick," said Fidge, in a
dissatisfied voice.

"No, it's rather horrid,"