Ting a ling

F >> Frank Richard Stockton >> Ting a ling

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And the men skipped, and the cooks cooked, and the fires blazed, and the
pots boiled and bubbled, and the Giant sat down in a great hurry, with
the man who came on horseback sitting cross-legged on one side of the
table, and Ting-a-ling on the other. So he forgot to finish his sentence
about the Kyrofatalapynx. During the meal there was nothing but noise
and confusion, and Ting-a-ling could not get in a word. The Giant had a
dish of broiled sheep before him, and he was crunching them up as fast
as he could, and talking, with his mouth full, to the man all the time;
and the slaves and the servants were all eating and drinking, and
running about, until there was no hearing one's own voice, unless it was
a very big one. So, although Ting-a-ling was dying of curiosity to know
what the Kyrofatalapynx was, he could not get an answer from any one.

As soon as the Giant was done eating, he jumped up, and shouted for his
hat and his boots; and if the men did not run fast enough, he shouted at
them all the louder. If Ting-a-ling had not stayed on the table, I don't
know what would have become of him in the confusion. The Giant had now
pushed off his slippers, and was waiting until the men should bring his
boots; and as one lazy fellow was poking around, as if he was half
asleep, Tur-il-i-ra was so irritated at his slowness that he slipped the
toe of his stockinged foot under him, and gave him a tremendous send
right out of the door, and he went flying over the trees at the bottom
of the lawn, and over the barley-field on the other side of the ditch,
and over the pasture, where the cows were kept, and over the pomegranate
orchard, and over the palm-grove by the little lake, and over Hassan ab
Kolyar's cottage, right smack down into the soft marsh, back of the
sunflower garden; and he didn't get back to the castle until his master
had been gone an hour. As the Giant sat on the edge of the table,
pulling on his boots, he told Ting-a-ling that he must make himself as
comfortable as possible until he came back, and that he would not be
gone longer than he could possibly help. But although the fairy asked
him again and again to tell him what the Kyrofatalapynx was, he never
seemed to hear him, so busy was he, talking to everybody at once. Now
Tur-il-i-ra was nearly ready to go, and Ting-a-ling was standing close
to the fringe on his scarf, which lay over one end of the table.

[Illustration]

"How I should like to go with him," said the little fairy, and he took
hold of the fringe. "But he doesn't want me, or he would take me along.
I would ask him, if he would only be quiet a minute"--

Just then up jumped the Giant; and as Ting-a-ling had not let go of the
fringe, he was jerked up too. He held on bravely; and as he did not wish
to swing about on the scarf, he climbed up to the Giant's shoulder, and
took tight hold of his long hair. With the man and his slaves in a large
round basket in one hand, and his great club in the other, away went
Tur-il-i-ra, with strides longer than across the street, and he walked
so fast, that Ting-a-ling had to hold on tight, to keep from being blown
away.

About noon they came to a large palace, surrounded by smaller dwellings;
and on the porch of the palace there stood a King and a Queen and three
princesses, and they were all crying. On the steps, in the grounds and
gardens, and everywhere, were the lords and ladies, and common people,
and they were all crying too. When these disconsolate people saw the
Giant approaching, they set up a great shout of joy, and rushed to meet
him, calling out, "O, the Kyrofatalapynx has broken loose!"

Tur-il-i-ra went up to the palace, and sat down on the great portico,
with his feet on the ground, and the people told him (all speaking at
once, and not having even manners enough to let the King have the first
say) that the Kyrofatalapynx had grown awfully strong and savage since
the Giant had tied him up, and that he had at last broken loose, and was
now ravaging the country. He had carried off ever so many camels, and
horses, and sheep, and oxen, and had threatened to eat up every person
in those parts, who was under age. But since he had found out that they
had sent for Tur-il-i-ra, he had gone into the forest, and they knew not
when he would come forth. Then up spoke a woodman above all the clamor,
and he said he knew when he would come out, for he had been in the
forest that morning, and had stumbled on the Kyrofatalapynx, which was
so busy making something that he did not see him; and he heard him
mutter to himself, over and over again, "When he comes, I'll rush out
and finish him, and then I'll be head of them all."

"All right," cried Tur-il-i-ra. "I'll wait down there by the edge of the
forest; and when he sees me, he can rush out, and then you will all soon
know who will be finished."

So the Giant went over to the wood, and sat down and waited. After a
while, he got very sleepy, and he thought he would take a little nap
until the Kyrofatalapynx should come. In order that the people might
wake him up in time, he tied a long rope to one of his ear-rings (his
eyes had been a little weak in his youth), and everybody took hold of
the end of the rope, and they promised to pull good and hard when they
heard the trees crushing in the forest. So the Giant went to sleep, and
the people all listened for the Kyrofatalapynx,--holding their breaths,
and standing ready to jerk the rope when he should come.

Poor little Ting-a-ling was nearly consumed with curiosity. What _was_
the Kyrofatalapynx? He slipped down to the ground without being noticed
by anybody; and, as they all seemed so intent listening and watching, he
felt afraid to speak to any of them. Directly a happy thought struck
him.

"I will go into the wood myself. Whatever the Kyfymytaly-gyby is, he
won't be likely to see me, and I can run and tell Tur-il-i-ra where he
is, before he comes out of the wood."

So away he went, and soon was deep in the darkness of the forest. But he
could hear no noise, and saw nothing that appeared to have life. Even
the very birds and insects seemed to have flown away. After wandering
some distance, he suddenly met a fairy, a little bit of a fellow, but
somewhat larger than himself, and entirely green. Ting-a-ling spoke to
him, and told him what he was after.

"That isn't exactly his name," said the green fairy, politely, "but I
know what you mean. If you come this way, I can show him to you."

So Ting-a-ling followed him, and presently they came to the edge of an
opening in the middle of the forest; and there, sure enough, was the
Kyrofatalapynx. With one of his great red tails coiled around an immense
oak-tree, and the other around a huge rock, he sat with his elephantine
legs gathered up under him, as if he were about to spring over the
tree-tops. But he had no such idea. In his great hands, as big as
travelling-trunks, he held a long iron bar, one end of which he was
sharpening against a stone. By his side lay an immense bow, made of a
tall young yew-tree, and the cord was a long and tough grape-vine. As he
sat sharpening this great arrow, he grinned until his horrid teeth
looked like a pale-fence around a little garden, and he muttered to
himself as he worked away,--"Four hundred and nine more rubs, and I can
send it twang through him; twang, twang, twang!"

"Isn't he horrid?" whispered Ting-a-ling.

"Yes, indeed," said the green fairy. "When he was young, he came out of
the mouth of a volcano; and the King here, who is very fond of wonderful
things, got Tur-il-i-ra to catch him, and chain him up for him in a
great yard he had made for him. But now that he is grown up, no chains
can hold him, and I expect he will kill the Giant with that great iron
arrow, before he can come near him."

"O!" cried Ting-a-ling, "he mustn't do that. We must never let him do
that!"

"We!" said the fairy, in a voice of astonishment.

"Yes, yes, I mean us. O, what shall we do? Let's cut his bowstring,"
said Ting-a-ling, in great excitement, and drawing his little sword. The
green fairy, although polite, could not help laughing at this idea; but
Ting-a-ling slipped softly to where the bow was lying, a little behind
the Kyrofatalapynx, and commenced to cut away at it; but although the
green fairy took the sword when he was tired, they could make but little
impression on the stout grape-vine, nearly as thick as they were high.

"Let's nick the sword," said Ting-a-ling, "and then it will be a saw."
And so, with a sharp little flint, they nicked the edge of it, and the
edge of the green fairy's knife (for he had no sword), and as they
commenced to saw away as hard as they could at the grape-vine, they
heard the Kyrofatalapynx muttering, "Only three hundred and seven more
rubs, and then--twang, twang, twang!"

They worked like little heroes now; and as the fairy's sword was of the
sharpest steel, they cut a good way into the vine; but just when they
were nearly tired out, they heard the words,--"Ninety-three more rubs,
and--twang, twang, twang!"

"O, let's saw, let's saw," cried Ting-a-ling (and it's a wonder the
Kyrofatalapynx did not hear him), and they worked as hard as they did at
first.

"Six more rubs, and--twang, twang, twang!" cried the Kyrofatalapynx, and
the two little fairies fell down exhausted and disheartened. The vine
was cut but little more than half through.

Up rose the mighty creature; and with his bow and arrow in his hands, he
pushed quietly through the wood. The two fairies jumped up in a few
minutes, and hurried after him; and as he went very slowly, so as not to
be perceived, they reached the edge of the wood just as he crashed out
into the open field.

"O!!!" shouted all the people, and they pulled the rope with a terrible
jerk. Up sprang the Giant, but there stood the Kyrofatalapynx, with his
long iron arrow already fitted into his bow. "Ha, ha!" he cried, "I
shall put it through you--twang!" And he drew his arrow to its very
head, and all the people fell down on their faces, and even Tur-il-i-ra
turned a little pale. But snap! went the bowstring, and down fell the
arrow! Then up rushed the Giant, and with one crushing blow of his
rock-knobbed club, he laid the Kyrofatalapynx stone-dead!

The King, and the Queen, and the princesses, and all the people, jumped
up, and in their wild joy they would have kissed the clothes off the
good Giant, had he been willing to wait.

"All right!" he cried; "I must be off. I've a friend at home waiting for
me. No thanks. You can stuff him now. Good-by!"

And away he went, and poor little Ting-a-ling was left behind!

When he saw the Giant walking away like a steam-engine on stilts,
Ting-a-ling began to cry.

"Did you come with him?" said the green fairy. "Well, he's gone, and you
can live with me now."

But Ting-a-ling was so overcome with sorrow, and begged so hard that his
new friend should tell him of some way to follow the Giant, that the
latter, after thinking a while, took him up into the King's
pigeon-house. Warning him to be careful not to let any of the birds pick
him up, the green fairy pointed out a gray pigeon to Ting-a-ling.

"Now," said he, "if we can get a string around the middle feather of his
tail, we are all right."

"How so?" asked Ting-a-ling.

"Why, then you get on, and start him off, and by pulling the string you
can make him go any way you wish; for you know he steers himself with
his tail."

"Good!" cried Ting-a-ling, and they both looked for a string. When they
had found one, they stole up to the pigeon, who was eating corn, and
tied it fast to the middle feather of his tail, without his knowing
anything about it.

"Now jump on and I'll start him off," said the green fairy; and
Ting-a-ling ran up the pigeon's tail (which almost touched the floor),
and took his seat on its back, holding tight on to its feathers. Then
the green fairy ran around by the pigeon's head, and shouted in its ear,
as it was pecking corn,--"_Hawk!_"

The bird just lifted up its head, and gave one shoot right out of the
window of the pigeon-house. It went high up into the air; and
Ting-a-ling, when he looked around and saw which way he ought to go,
pulled his string this way and that way, and he found that he could
steer the pigeon very well, and even make him keep up in the air, by
pulling his tail-feather straight up. So on they went, and they got to
the Giant's castle before the Giant himself. The pigeon flew over the
castle, but Ting-a-ling steered him back again, and backward and
forward, two or three times, until the bird thought he might as well
stop there; and so he alighted on the roof, and off jumped Ting-a-ling.
The first thing he saw there, after the pigeon had flown away again, was
the green fairy!

"Why, where did you come from?" cried Ting-a-ling.

"O," said the other, laughing, and jumping up and down, "I thought I'd
come too, and I hung on to his leg. It was nice, sitting up among his
warm feathers, when his legs were curled up under him; a great deal
better than being on top."

Ting-a-ling was very glad to have his friend with him, and he took him
down-stairs. When the Giant got home, there they were, both in the
middle of the table in the great hall, ready to welcome him. Tur-il-i-ra
did not ask where the green fairy came from; but he was glad to see him,
and he ordered supper to be laid on a table out on the lawn; for he was
warm with his long walk. After supper, the two fairies came down to the
Giant's end of the table, and he told them all that had happened, and
how fortunate it was that the bowstring of the Kyrofatalapynx had
broken.

"He did it!" cried the green fairy, pointing to Ting-a-ling; and then he
told the whole story of their doings, and Ting-a-ling had to explain how
he had gone with the Giant. Tur-il-i-ra listened until they had quite
finished, and then exclaimed, "Well! I never saw such a little thing as
you are, Ting-a-ling, for being in the right place at the right time.
Never, never!" And he brought his hand down on the table with such an
emphatic bang, that Ting-a-ling and the green fairy shot into the air
like rifle-balls. Ting-a-ling went up, up, and up, until a high wind
took him, and it blew him over a river, and a wood, and a high hill, and
a wide plain; and then he fell down, down, down,--right into the middle
of a soft powder puff-ball, with which a lady was powdering her neck.

"Mercy on us!" cried the lady, when she saw a little fairy in the
puff-ball that she was just going to put up to her throat.

[Illustration]

"It's only I, Nerralina," cried Ting-a-ling, who immediately recognized
her; "wait a minute, until I get my breath."

Sure enough, it was Nerralina, the Princess's lady, who had been on a
visit to her mother, in a distant country, and returning, had ordered
her slaves to pitch her tent where she now was, about half a day's
journey from the palace. Ting-a-ling told his story, and they had a nice
time, talking of their past adventures; and in the morning Nerralina
took Ting-a-ling with her to his home in the palace gardens.

As to the green fairy, he came down in a spider web. When he got out and
stood on the grass, he said, "I shall not go back to that Giant. He is
good, but he is too violent."

So he went to the river and got a nice chip, and he loaded it with
honeysuckles and clover blossoms, and pushed it off into the stream; he
then lay down on his back in the middle of his clover, and, sucking a
honeysuckle, floated away in the moonlight, down to his home, where he
arrived in two or three days, just as his honeysuckles were all gone.

When Tur-il-i-ra saw what he had done, he was in great trouble indeed.
He ordered all his slaves to bring their little children, and he
gathered up great handfuls of them, and spread them out all over the
grass, so that they might look for the two lost fairies. But of course
they could not find them; and just as the sun was setting, and the Giant
was going to bed in despair, there came a horseman from Nerralina,
telling him that Ting-a-ling was safe, and was going home with her.
Early in the morning Tur-il-i-ra went to the palace gardens, and
Ting-a-ling seeing him, they went down to the wood where they were when
this story opened. Tur-il-i-ra wanted Ting-a-ling to go back and finish
his visit.

"No," said the fairy. "I like you very much indeed, but I'm afraid I'm
most too little for your house."

"Perhaps that's true," said the Giant; "and when you want to see them,
there are so many good people here in the palace. I am sure I like
common human beings very much, and I would wish to be with them always,
if they were not so little."

"I like them too," said Ting-a-ling, "and would live with them all the
time, if they were not so big."

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| Transcriber's Notes: |
| |
| Page 56 Mahalla changed to Mahallah |
| 75 wofully changed to woefully |
| 138 afrites changes to Afrites |
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