n two while I was doing it.'

"So saying I went to the peach basket, where Bowser was vainly
endeavoring to get the peaches out, and opened the fastenings, while he
hopped around me on his huge legs and uttered his strange chuckling
laugh. I picked out a few dozen of the ripest for the old lady, and
let Bowser have the rest, which we left him swallowing greedily.

"They took me around to a spacious veranda, where a dark-skinned maid
served us with delicious iced drinks, fruit and small cakes, and then
the old gentleman told me about the Wonderful Plant."

CHAPTER XIV

"'You are no doubt wondering,' he said with a smile, 'who we are and
what manner of oasis this is, and I am going to tell you about
ourselves first.

"'To begin with, we are not fairies, but quite ordinary mortals, and we
live here alone. We have no children, and no pets but Bowser, but we
are never lonesome. Now Bowser is just a common toucan, and I found
him on the ground under a big tree one morning, where a bad storm the
night before had tossed him out of the nest. We brought him in and my
wife cared for him, and the only reason he is so big is that he has
such a voracious appetite and eats ten meals a day. In fact he is
eating practically all the time, and I believe is still growing. I
suppose his brothers and sisters might be as large as he if they could
get enough to satisfy their appetites the way Bowser does. He would
eat most families out of house and home, but as our store-room never
gives out it does not matter. But although we do our best to feed him
enough to satisfy his appetite we cannot cure him of stealing peaches.
We are very sorry for the poor farmers whose orchards he raids, but in
one sense it is rather a good thing, as it serves to keep people afraid
of him, and he is our only watchdog.

"This desert around us was not always here. The whole valley was once
much higher than now, and was a happy little kingdom where we all dwelt
in peace and prosperity until the unlucky day when the Evil Magician
came this way and swept the whole kingdom out to sea, drowning
everyone, including the king and queen and their little son and
daughter, and leaving nothing here but bare sand.

"'We were absent from home when it happened. I was a merchant, and had
gone to buy a new supply of goods, and my wife accompanied me,
otherwise we would have met the same fate as our friends and neighbors.

"'You can imagine the sight which met