L. Frank Baum (9 page)

"This is pleasant," said he; "but I might try to force our way through
the hedge. The briers would probably prick me severely, and that would
be delightful."

"Try it!" the prince returned, with twinkling eyes.

Nerle sprang from his horse to obey, but at the first contact with the
briers he uttered a howl of pain and held up his hands, which were
bleeding in a dozen places from the wounds of the thorns.

"Ah, that will content you for a time, I trust," said Marvel. "Now
follow me, and we will ride along beside the hedge until we find an
opening. For either it will come to an end or there will prove to be a
way through it to the other side."

So they rode alongside the hedge for hour after hour; yet it did not
end, nor could they espy any way to get through the thickly matted
briers. By and by night fell, and they tethered their horses to some
shrubs, where there were a few scanty blades of grass for them to crop,
and then laid themselves down upon the ground, with bare rocks for
pillows, where they managed to sleep soundly until morning.

They had brought a supply of food in their pouches, and on this they
breakfasted, afterward continuing their journey beside the hedge.

At noon Prince Marvel uttered an exclamation of surprise and stopped
his horse.

"What is it?" asked Nerle.

"I have found the handkerchief with which you wiped the blood from your
hands yesterday morning, and then carelessly dropped," replied the
prince. "This proves that we have made a complete circle around this
hedge without finding a way to pass through it."

"In that case," said Nerle, "we had better leave the hedge and go in
another direction."

"Not so," declared Marvel. "The hedge incloses some unknown country,
and I am curious to find out what it is."

"But there is no opening," remonstrated Nerle.

"Then we must make one. Wouldn't you like to enjoy a little more pain?"

"Thank you," answered Nerle, "my hands are still smarting very
comfortably from the pricks of yesterday."

"Therefore I must make the attempt myself," said the prince, and
drawing his sword he whispered a queer word to it, and straightway
began slashing at the hedge.

The brambles fell fast before his blade, and when he had cut a big heap
of branches from the hedge Nerle dragged them to one side, and the
prince began again.

It was marvelous how thick the hedge proved. Only a magic sword could
have done this work and remained sharp, and only a fairy arm could have
proved strong enough to hew through the tough wood. But the magic
sword and fairy arm were at work, and naught could resist them.

After a time the last branches were severed and dragged from the path,
and then the travelers rode their horses through the gap into the
unknown country beyond.

They saw at first glance that it was a land of great beauty; but after
that one look both Prince Marvel and Nerle paused and rubbed their
eyes, to assure themselves that their vision was not blurred.

Before them were two trees, exactly alike. And underneath the trees
two cows were grazing—each a perfect likeness of the other. At their
left were two cottages, with every door and window and chimney the
exact counterpart of another. Before these houses two little boys were
playing, evidently twins, for they not only looked alike and dressed
alike, but every motion one made was also made by the other at the same
time and in precisely the same way. When one laughed the other
laughed, and when one stubbed his toe and fell down, the other did
likewise, and then they both sat up and cried lustily at the same time.

At this two women—it was impossible to tell one from the other—rushed
out of the two houses, caught up the two boys, shook and dusted them in
precisely the same way, and led them by their ears back into the houses.

Again the astonished travelers rubbed their eyes, and then Prince
Marvel looked at Nerle and said:

"I thought at first that I saw everything double, but there seems to be
only one of YOU."

"And of you," answered the boy. "But see! there are two hills ahead of
us, and two paths lead from the houses over the hills! How strange it
all is!"

Just then two birds flew by, close together and perfect mates; and the
cows raised their heads and "mooed" at the same time; and two men—also
twins—came over the two hills along the two paths with two
dinner-pails in their hands and entered the two houses. They were met
at the doors by the two women, who kissed them exactly at the same time
and helped them off with their coats with the same motions, and closed
the two doors with two slams at the same instant.

Nerle laughed. "What sort of country have we got into?" he asked.

"Let us find out," replied the prince, and riding up to one of the
houses he knocked on the door with the hilt of his sword.

Instantly the doors of both houses flew open, and both men appeared in
the doorways. Both started back in amazement at sight of the
strangers, and both women shrieked and both little boys began to cry.
Both mothers boxed the children's ears, and both men gasped out:

"Who—who are you?"

Their voices were exactly alike, and their words were spoken in unison.
Prince Marvel replied, courteously:

"We are two strangers who have strayed into your country. But I do not
understand why our appearance should so terrify you."

"Why—you are singular! There is only half of each of you!" exclaimed
the two men, together.

"Not so," said the prince, trying hard not to laugh in their faces.
"We may be single, while you appear to be double; but each of us is
perfect, nevertheless."

"Perfect! And only half of you!" cried the men. And again the two
women, who were looking over their husbands' shoulders, screamed at
sight of the strangers; and again the two boys, who were clinging to
their mothers' dresses in the same positions, began to cry.

"We did not know such strange people existed!" said the two men, both
staring at the strangers and then wiping the beads of perspiration from
their two brows with two faded yellow handkerchiefs.

"Nor did we!" retorted the prince. "I assure you we are as much
surprised as you are."

Nerle laughed again at this, and to hear only one of the strangers
speak and the other only laugh seemed to terrify the double people
anew. So Prince Marvel quickly asked:

"Please tell us what country this is?"

"The Land of Twi," answered both men, together.

"Oh! the Land of Twi. And why is the light here so dim?" continued the
prince.

"Dim?" repeated the men, as if surprised; "why, this is twilight, of
course."

"Of course," said Nerle. "I hadn't thought of that. We are in the
long hidden Land of Twi, which all men have heard of, but no man has
found before."

"And who may you be?" questioned the prince, looking from one man to
the other, curiously.

"We are Twis," they answered.

"Twice?"

"Twis—inhabitants of Twi."

"It's the same thing," laughed Nerle. "You see everything twice in
this land."

"Are none of your people single?" asked Prince Marvel.

"Single," returned the men, as if perplexed. "We don't understand."

"Are you all double?—or are some of you just one?" said the prince,
who found it difficult to put his question plainly.

"What does 'one' mean?" asked the men. "There is no such word as 'one'
in our language."

"They have no need of such a word," declared Nerle.

"We are only poor laborers," explained the men. "But over the hills
lie the cities of Twi, where the Ki and the Ki-Ki dwell, and also the
High Ki."

"Ah!" said Marvel, "I've heard of your High Ki. Who is he?"

The men shook their heads, together and with the same motion.

"We have never seen the glorious High Ki," they answered. "The sight
of their faces is forbidden. None but the Ki and the Ki-Ki has seen
the Supreme Rulers and High Ki."

"I'm getting mixed," said Nerle. "All this about the Ki and the Ki-Ki
and the High Ki makes me dizzy. Let's go on to the city and explore
it."

"That is a good suggestion," replied the prince. "Good by, my
friends," he added, addressing the men.

They both bowed, and although they still seemed somewhat frightened
they answered him civilly and in the same words, and closed their doors
at the same time.

So Prince Marvel and Nerle rode up the double path to the hills, and
the two cows became frightened and ran away with the same swinging
step, keeping an exact space apart. And when they were a safe distance
they both stopped, looked over their right shoulders, and "mooed" at
the same instant.

From the tops of the hills the travelers caught their first glimpse of
the wonderful cities of Twi. Two walls surrounded the cities, and in
the walls were two gates just alike. Within the inclosures stood many
houses, but all were built in pairs, from the poorest huts to the most
splendid palaces. Every street was double, the pavements running side
by side. There were two lamp-posts on every corner, and in the dim
twilight that existed these lamp-posts were quite necessary. If there
were trees or bushes anywhere, they invariably grew in pairs, and if a
branch was broken on one it was sure to be broken on the other, and
dead leaves fell from both trees at identically the same moment.

Much of this Marvel and Nerle learned after they had entered the
cities, but the view from the hills showed plainly enough that the
"double" plan existed everywhere and in every way in this strange land.

They followed the paths down to the gates of the walls, where two pairs
of soldiers rushed out and seized their horses by the bridles. These
soldiers all seemed to be twins, or at least mates, and each one of
each pair was as like the other as are two peas growing in the same
pod. If one had a red nose the other's was red in the same degree, and
the soldiers that held the bridles of Nerle's horse both had their left
eyes bruised and blackened, as from a blow of the same force.

These soldiers, as they looked upon Nerle and the prince, seemed fully
as much astonished and certainly more frightened than their prisoners.
They were dressed in bright yellow uniforms with green buttons, and the
soldiers who had arrested the prince had both torn their left
coat-sleeves and had patches of the same shape upon the seats of their
trousers.

"How dare you stop us, fellows?" asked the prince, sternly.

The soldiers holding his horse both turned and looked inquiringly at
the soldiers holding Nerle's horse; and these turned to look at a
double captain who came out of two doors in the wall and walked up to
them.

"Such things were never before heard of!" said the two captains, their
startled eyes fixed upon the prisoners. "We must take them to the Ki
and the Ki-Ki."

"Why so?" asked Prince Marvel.

"Because," replied the officers, "they are our rulers, under grace of
the High Ki, and all unusual happenings must be brought to their
notice. It is our law, you know—the law of the Kingdom of Twi."

"Very well," said Marvel, quietly; "take us where you will; but if any
harm is intended us you will be made to regret it."

"The Ki and the Ki-Ki will decide," returned the captains gravely,
their words sounding at the same instant.

And then the two pairs of soldiers led the horses through the double
streets, the captains marching ahead with drawn swords, and crowds of
twin men and twin women coming from the double doors of the double
houses to gaze upon the strange sight of men and horses who were not
double.

Presently they came upon a twin palace with twin turrets rising high
into the air; and before the twin doors the prisoners dismounted.
Marvel was escorted through one door and Nerle through another, and
then they saw each other going down a double hallway to a room with a
double entrance.

Passing through this they found themselves in a large hall with two
domes set side by side in the roof. The domes were formed of stained
glass, and the walls of the hall were ornamented by pictures in pairs,
each pair showing identically the same scenes. This, was, of course,
reasonable enough in such a land, where two people would always look at
two pictures at the same time and admire them in the same way with the
same thoughts.

Beneath one of the domes stood a double throne, on which sat the Ki of
Twi—a pair of gray-bearded and bald-headed men who were lean and lank
and stoop-shouldered. They had small eyes, black and flashing, long
hooked noses, great pointed ears, and they were smoking two pipes from
which the smoke curled in exactly the same circles and clouds.

Beneath the other dome sat the Ki-Ki of Twi, also on double thrones,
similar to those of the Ki. The Ki-Ki were two young men, and had
golden hair combed over their brows and "banged" straight across; and
their eyes were blue and mild in expression, and their cheeks pink and
soft. The Ki-Ki were playing softly upon a pair of musical instruments
that resembled mandolins, and they were evidently trying to learn a new
piece of music, for when one Ki-Ki struck a false note the other Ki-Ki
struck the same false note at the same time, and the same expression of
annoyance came over the two faces at the same moment.

When the prisoners entered, the pairs of captains and soldiers bowed
low to the two pairs of rulers, and the Ki exclaimed—both in the same
voice of surprise:

"Great Kika-koo! what have we here?"

"Most wonderful prisoners, your Highnesses," answered the captains.
"We found them at your cities' gates and brought them to you at once.
They are, as your Highnesses will see, each singular, and but half of
what he should be."

"'Tis so!" cried the double Ki, in loud voices, and slapping their
right thighs with their right palms at the same time. "Most
remarkable! Most remarkable!"