Page:The Floating Prince - Frank R Stockton.djvu/195

180 Loris saw he was in earnest, and, as she was a sensible girl she sat down at the end of the cloth. "That's right," gaily cried the queer man, sitting up again, "I was a little afraid you'd be obstinate and then I should have starved." When the meal was over, Loris said, "I never had such good dinner in my life."

The man looked at her and laughed. "This is a funny world isn't it?" said he.

"Awfully funny!" replied Loris, laughing. "You don't know what I am, do you?" said the man to Loris as she gathered up the dishes and put them, with what was left of the meal, into the basket. "No, sir; I do not," answered Loris.

"I am a Ninkum," said the other. "Did you ever meet with one before?" "No, sir, never," said Loris.

"I am very glad to hear that," he said. "It's so pleasant to be fresh and novel." And then he went walking around the house again, looking at everything he had seen before. Soon he laid himself down on the grass, near the house, with one leg thrown over the other and his hands clasped under his head. For a long time he lay in this way, looking up at the sky and the clouds. Then he turned his head, and said to Loris, who was sewing by the door-step:

"Did you ever think how queer it would be if everything in the world were reversed; if the ground were soft and blue like the sky, and if the sky were covered with dirt and chips and grass, and if fowls and animals walked about on it, like flies sticking to a ceiling?"

"I never thought of such a thing in my life," said Loris.

"I often do," said the Ninkum, "It expands the mind."