In a twinkling the frogs all turned and made the longest leaps their powerful legs enabled them to.  The King jumped first of all, and in a panic of fear the others followed his example.  They were out of sight in an instant, and then the elephant turned its head and looked at Button-Bright and at once trotted into the depths of the fog.

“He wants us to follow,” said the boy, gasping in amazement at this wonderful transformation.  So immediately they began marching through the fog behind the elephant, and as the great beast advanced the frogs scrambled out of his way and hid themselves in the moist banks until he had passed them by.

Cap’n Bill had to mind his wooden leg carefully, and the old sailor was so excited that he mumbled queer sentences about “Araby Ann Knights” and “ding-donged magic” and the “fool foolishness of fussin’ with witches an’ sich,” until Trot wondered whether her old friend had gone crazy or was only badly scared.

It was a long journey, and all the Pinkies were dripping water from their raincoats, and their fat little legs were tired and aching when the pink glow showing through the fog at last announced that they were nearing the Pink Country.

At the very edge of the Fog Bank the elephant halted, winked at Button-Bright, lowered its head and began to shrink in size and dwindle away.  By the time the boy came up to it, closely followed by Trot and Cap’n Bill, the thing was only the well-known Magic Umbrella, with the carved elephant’s head for a handle, and it lay motionless upon the ground.  Button-Bright picked it up, and as he examined it he thought the tiny eyes still twinkled a little, as if with triumph and pride.

Trot drew a long breath.

“That was some magic, I guess!” she exclaimed.  “Don’t you think so, Rosalie?”

“It was the most wonderful thing I ever saw,” admitted the Witch.  “The fairies who control Button-Bright’s umbrella must be very powerful indeed!”

TROT REGULATES THE PINKIES

CHAPTER 29

The Pinkies were rejoiced to find themselves again in their beloved land of sunrises and sunsets.  They sang and shouted with glee, and the Band uncovered its pink instruments and played the National Pink Anthem, while the parrot flew from Trot’s shoulder to Cap’n Bill’s shoulder and back again, screaming ecstatically,

“Hooray!  We’re through the wetful fogs
Where the elephant scared the fretful frogs!”

There was a magnificent sunset in the sky just then, and it cheered the Pinkies and gave them renewed strength.  Away they hastened across the pink fields to the Pink City, where all the Pink people who had been left behind ran out to welcome them home again.

Trot and Button-Bright, with Cap’n Bill and Rosalie the Witch, went to the humble palace, where they had a simple supper of coarse food and slept upon hard beds.  In the houses of the City, however, there was much feasting and merrymaking, and it seemed to Trot that the laws of the country which forbade the Queen from enjoying all the good things the people did were decidedly wrong and needed changing.