Mark Swan

“ Well, that’s the way Arcturia looks. Without doubt it is one of the most wonderful and beautiful cities in the world—all ice—nothing but ice.
Maida rode on Fido’s back across the snow desert with the Candy Kid on one side and Jack-in-the-Box on the other, for they were rivals you know and quarrelled dreadfully whenever they got near each other. As they drew near the city their eyes were dazzled by the brightness—even Fido blinked, but they pressed on till they came to a sort of wall which brought them to a halt. ”

“ Don’t you believe in me?”
“You must consider me very unsophisticated,” answered Maida. (And the big word didn’t bother her a bit now that she was a grown-up.) “You don’t exist. You couldn’t exist. You’re a figment of the imagination.”
There—it was out! She didn’t believe in Santa Claus! Yet there he stood before her. Clearly one had to lose much to be grown up.
Poor Billy made one more effort. “Why, you and I used to be such great friends,” he said, smiling sadly at Maida. ”

“ She called Santa Claus who came over, took her on his knee, and chucked her under the chin.
“When you go about at Christmas time,” she said, “how do you get up on the roofs?”
“My reindeers are marvels,” chuckled Santa Claus. “They can run on the snow, in the water, or in the air.”
“Splendid, splendid!” shouted Maida in great glee. “Now I’ll tell you what to do. Take the Man with the Growly Voice in your sledge, and go back to where our flying machine fell. It’s big enough to hold all of us, and we’ll be in Illusia in no time.” ”

“ The Wishing Post grows out of the earth at the Top of the World and if one makes a wish upon it the wish will come true.”
Maida was overjoyed. “I am going to make a wish just as soon as I find it,” she told him. “You find it!” he said scornfully, “why it is death for mortal to try to cross the Forbidden Land, to reach the city of Illusia. Even I have never crossed those icy wastes, and should you find the Post you would be put to death by the Queen of the North, Aurora Borealis, or her Prime Minister, Jack Frost. Look!” ”

“ Maida often meant to rebel at such treatment, but somehow when she cuddled up in the pink and white bed and finished yawning, she overlooked it, and the next thing—it would be morning.
Still this ruffled her dignity every time it happened—as if she were sleepy, and didn’t know it, and she realized—just as you do—that it was because she was a little girl; for grown-ups can stay awake as long as they like. ”

“ Now, of course, Maida meant well; she only wanted to make Kokomo happy; but it was the first kiss that had ever happened in Arcturia. When the Eskimos wish to show great joy, and welcome or salute someone, they stand on the right foot, rub their nose with the left hand, and wiggle the left ear. So when Kankakee saw Maida kiss his daughter he gave a howl of anger, and in a moment there were half a dozen keen spears pointing at her bosom. And, of course, she screamed.
“She was trying to steal my daughter’s breath,” shouted Kankakee, as Jack-in-the-Box and the Candy Kid tried to restrain him. ”

“ Maida was about to protest, but a whisper from Santa Claus frightened her to silence.
138 “Still for your life!” he said. “If she learns you are a mortal, you will be put to death.”
So Maida stood stock still, and never even winked an eye. A pretty little boy, Aurora’s page, who carried her sceptre, stared at Maida critically. “I think it’s rather pretty,” he said.
“Pretty?” said Aurora, “pooh, pooh! Why, it’s very badly made. The arms are much too long—the body is too slender,” and she gave Maida a poke in the ribs which made the poor child gasp for breath. ”

“ She realized with great embarrassment—to the new Maida—that for a grown-up lady to sit about under the North Pole with a lot of strangers was a most improper proceeding. Did you ever have one of those dreams in which you found yourself out on the street in a nightie and a fur cap—or in a ballroom in a bathing-suit? ”

“ So they all started to make their way through the city of Illusia to the flying ship.
By this time the people had left the Plaza and were going home to dinner, or to supper, or to work, or wherever people go when a big crowd breaks up; and the streets were full of them. The three were jostled and pushed, as people always are in a narrow street when it is crowded. And before she realized what had happened, Maida was separated from Santa Claus and Billy, and swept away in an eddy of the crowd. ”

“ Keep close together, and do not speak lest your voices betray you to one of the snow sprites, who serve the Queen Aurora Borealis. Burrow beneath the snow if danger threatens, and lie hidden till it has passed. The most deadly peril we will encounter is Jack Frost. He may not discover us—but if he should our fate is sealed. Mush!”
Maida began to feel a little uneasy. It wasn’t such a joke after all to find the Wishing Post. ”

“ But never, oh, never, had anybody given her such a scolding as she got from Jack Frost. I can’t begin to tell you all he said, so I won’t tell you any of it—but when he finished poor Maida was sure she was the most foolish and wicked little girl who ever tried to find the North Pole. And all the time the Man with the Growly Voice was tinkering with the Can of Climate and turning little handles and pressing little levers. ”

“ Then an ugly old woman waddled out of the palace door and waddled down the steps into the Plaza. She must have been eighty at least. She had a red face and pop eyes, her nose was like a banana, and three of her teeth were missing. My! but she was a fright.
“Who’s that?” inquired Maida of her neighbor, “the cook?”
“The cook!” echoed the girl. “Why, that’s the Queen, Aurora Borealis.” ”

“ It didn’t seem so out of the way for a little girl to be travelling about with all these strange creatures, but for a young lady, a grown-up young lady, to find herself at the North Pole in company with a couple of eccentric toys, without proper clothes, and with no chaperone—come to think of it this was rather a peculiar condition; so Maida walked away from her old friends, and sat down on the bench to think it over. Jack and the Candy Kid stared at each other in dismay. The change in Maida simply appalled them. ”

“ Of course those old men with the goggles and the bald heads don’t believe it. If you ask them they will tell you the North Pole is just the end of the axis of the earth, whatever that may mean, and they will insist it isn’t a Wishing Post at all. Now, when they tell you this, here’s a crusher for them. Ask them how they know. Ask them if they’ve ever been there to see. Just see what they say to that. Maida has been there, and she knows all about it. ”

“ The green sun rises in the green East. The green seal peers through a green hole in the ice. Men and women, bears and birds, all green—oh, a horrible land”; and wildly shaking his head, he hobbled away. ”

“ Poor Maida, she had so many troubles—but you understand, don’t you? So she wished and wished with all her heart that she were a really grown-up; that she could read those lovely books and have her hair fuzzed all over her head—that she could wear those traily, hangy gowns, and stay up nights, and never, never, NEVER have to eat anything but ICE-CREAM.
7 Chapter II
If you stand with one hand on the Wishing Post, and think hard of what you would like most in all the world, your wish comes true. ”

“ Maida hurried along by his side. “Tell me sir,” she inquired, “what makes Illusia so beautiful?”
The man smiled kindly. “Illusia is beautiful,” he answered, “because it is built130 of the rose-tinted dreams of young maidens and the brave hopes of youth. The dreams and the visions of the children are not wasted. They are brought here—they are used to build our palaces and temples. Time can never shatter them—they can never be destroyed.” And so he went his way. Although Maida did not understand exactly, she thought what he said was very pretty. ”

“ The Explorer took from his pocket a small tablet wrapped in tissue paper, which32 looked very much like a piece of candy. He took the paper off and threw the tablet on the ground, just as you pop torpedoes on the Fourth of July. In an instant all the ice and snow began to melt. Grass began to grow. Maida could feel it under her feet—pushing to come up, it was growing so fast. Some little flowers suddenly peeped from the turf. There was no fire, no smoke, but everything was warm and sweet, just like a Spring day. ”

“ As nearly as we (Maida and I) can remember, the speech ran something like this:
“I am Kankakee, chief of this tribe and a person of great dignity and importance. These, my vassals, will serve me to the death and go wheresoever I bid them. Have I not spoken truly, Oshkosh?” (Whereupon Oshkosh rose and made a low bow.)
92 “And of all the men in Arcturia I alone know the secret way across the Forbidden Land, and I alone can guide you to the City of Illusia. ”

“ An idea struck Jack presently. “Kid,” he called. “Kid.” The Candy Kid angrily turned and listened. Jack went on. “We can’t have a duel with gas, without a meter. I never saw a meter, but I’m told they’re terrible things. You run the gas through, then you look at the meter, and drop dead.” The Candy Kid124 pointed to a rubber tube that hung from the bag overhead. “We’ll eat the gas through this tube,” he said. “I see,” Jack replied, “and who wins the duel—the one who eats the most?” “Oh, no,” said the Candy Kid, “the one wins who dies the quickest.” ”

“ Well, perhaps Maida only imagined it, but that is exactly the kind of noise those two birds were making. After a while they rose in the air, slowly flapping their big wings—flew about the wreck of the airship a few times, just to show how much better real wings are than31 made wings, then they disappeared in the distance. Maida was getting cold.
“As long as you’re an Explorer,” she said, “don’t you think you had better explore something? Where are we?”
“Why, here,” said the Man with the Growly Voice, “just here. If we weren’t here, you know, we’d be somewhere else.” ”

“ If you don’t, I’ll tell you. It’s a man who wants to go away up North so far that his next step will start him South; and he had just come back from the land where it is always Winter.
Somehow Maida found him the nicest grown-up she had ever met, he was so interested in everything she said, and somehow when she was cuddled against his big arm, with her nose nestled against his breast it was so easy to explain that she was tired—oh, so tired of being a little girl; and tell him all her troubles.
He listened to every word and then he told her about the Wishing Post. ”

“ Maida sighed again; it was so difficult to make Jack understand. “Why it means,” she explained, “you feel so weary; you can hardly lift your arms, and your legs ache, and you don’t want to move.” “Oh, I know now,” interrupted Jack in great glee. “I often get that way. You’re run down. ”

“ But as soon as Aurora saw Kokomo (and Kokomo was really pretty you know) she screamed, “You’ve got some of my beauty, too! I’ll have you fed to the Walrus ‘à la Newburg.’”
They laughed and laughed
At this dreadful threat Kokomo began to whimper while the minions started to laugh at her distress. The more she grieved the louder they laughed; and Aurora looked so funny and so odd, that despite their anxiety for Kokomo, and their fear about their own plight, all Maida’s friends, and 191 Maida, too, began to laugh at the Queen. ”

“ Suddenly her attention was attracted by156 a pitiful sight at the other end of the square.
A young boy was leading a poor old man who hobbled painfully along, leaning on a cane. Both were dressed in rags and tatters, and the old man, whose beard and hair were white, wore a green bandage over his eyes which hid half his face, so Maida guessed he was blind. She felt very sorry, and watched them to see what they meant to do, but felt afraid to go to them, on account of the boy;—her last experience with boys had been so unpleasant. ”

“ He36 thought he was going to have a nice little girl for breakfast, and presto! he had swallowed three or four days of awfully hot weather. He rolled and yelped and jumped about—well, if you want to know just37 exactly how he behaved, borrow a tablet of climate from the Explorer; go up there where Maida was, and give it to the first wolf that comes along. Then you’ll see.
Finally the wolf ran away as hard as he could. But the climate he had swallowed made everything warm as it passed. So they all three followed it along a nice grassy lane bordered with flowers, and warm as a Spring day. ”

“ All men know that wood floats in from the sea, when the ice is gone, and that it comes in no other way. How then can it grow out of the ground? He99 speaks of grass that grows like a carpet beneath the feet. How can this be? Is not the snow and ice too thick for anything to force its way through? ”

“ So she stepped out of the elevator and walked about till she came to a lovely big room, with frost letters on the door, which read, “Ladies’ Reception Room.” It was the most gorgeous room she had ever seen. ”