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Then a gust of wind seized him and carried him straight towards the
pond.
"Ee! I'll be drowned if I am not careful," he frowned. "I must get down
before I am carried into the open sea."
At that moment the Professor was being carried over a sunny meadow. It
looked a good place in which to alight. He decided to land.
Having let go several of the parachutes he moved in a wandering slow
flight above the ground gently descending. The grass was already turning
back into the nightmare forest and the narrow streamlet into a broad and
noisy river.
"Hop - la!" yelled the Professor, letting two more parachutes go at
once.
He was swinging in the air above the river looking downwards for a
suitable place to land when he suddenly saw Karik and Valya floating in the
river.
The waves dashed them against a rock and they spun around in the grip
of the current just like logs.
"Hold on!" yelled the Professor from above; letting the last parachute
go he plunged like a stone into the foaming water.
The rescue - Some explanations - Living windows - The herd of grass
cows - Sad recollections - An air tortoise attacks
THE. STRONG CURRENT TOPPLED THE PROFESSOR OFF HIS FEET. He fell first
on one knee and then on the other. The water beat him down and swept over
his head, but he got up and venturing cautiously from rock to rock managed
to make his way forward.
Karik and Valya were lying just near him looking as if they were dead.
Their eyes were closed, their arms dangled helplessly down and their legs
trailed in the water.
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" muttered the Professor heavily.
"Everything will be all right!" and he seized the children tightly.
Here at last was the bank. The Professor laid Karik and Valya on the
ground, squatted down and started to rub them with the palms of his hands.
"Now then! Now then! What do we do next?" he muttered.
He bent their arms and legs and raised them up and down. But all was in
vain. The children lay motionless with their eyes shut and their white lips
clenched firmly.
"What am I to do with you next?" he frowned.
He wiped his forehead with his hand and suddenly his face lit up.
The Professor had remembered an old long forgotten device for restoring
the drowning. Quickly jumping up he seized Valya by the legs, lifted her
upside down and started to shake her violently. Water poured out of Valya's
mouth and nose. She groaned.
"Groaning!" rejoiced the Professor. "Excellent! you will live."
Laying the girl on the | ground, he set about Karik.
"One, two!"
A murky flood poured out of Karik's mouth.
"And now you lie down too."
Spitting and coughing the children opened their eyes.
They looked around, not understanding a thing. Immediately in front of
them stood the Professor, the Professor real and alive. Huge and bearded,
just as they were accustomed to see him every day.
They were so delighted that they never noticed how oddly he was
dressed. They just gazed at his face and saw his kindly smiling eyes and his
tousled grey beard.
"The Professor!" exclaimed Valya. She flung herself towards him,
sobbing with joy.
"Now, now, now." coughed the Professor with embarrassment, stroking the
girl's head. "There is nothing to cry about now."
Valya smeared the tears out of her eyes with her fists and started to
smile.
"All that - all that water - came out of us. What a lot!"
"Plenty of it," agreed the Professor. "But now, my dears," he
continued, "tell me who decided to make free with my study?"
The children hung their heads.
"Ah, you are silent! You have forgotten how to speak?" The children
sighed.
Dripping wet and unhappy, they stood in front of the Professor not
daring to look up at him. Karik lowered his head so much that his chin
rested on his chest which was covered with sticky mud, Valya turned away.
"Well! Why are you silent?" the Professor gruff-gruffed. Karik started
to sniff and Valya sighed deeply. The Professor became sorry for the
children. He seized them in his arms, squeezed them to himself and started
to laugh.
"Ruffians! just think what you have done. Ah, what goats you are! I
nearly went out of my mind with you!"
"We had an accident!" said Valya, twisting her damp hair round her
fingers.
Karik gazed at her in amazement. "What a liar I" he thought but he did
not say anything.
"Now, now. Come on home, your mother will show you what she thinks of
the accident and it won't be an accident if she whips you."
"Mother never whips us!" said Karik, raising his head.
The Professor pulled at his grey whiskers and said gloomily:
"They beat me all right when I was small - with a strap or a cane: they
took the hide off me. Russia was a wild place then. Now everything is grand.
Come on to the mother who never beats you. Such a mother must be seen to be
believed! Isn't that so?"
"But where are we going?"
"Where are we going? Why, home, of course!"
"Home, Home!" Valya shouted cheerfully. Jumping up and down she clapped
her hands.
"But is it a long way to our home, Professor?" asked Karik. "Shall we
get there in an hour?"
"An hour? Dear, no!"
The Professor shook his head.
"We cannot get home even in ten hours. We are practically six miles
from home."
"Oh, that's fine!" Valya was jumping up and down. "We can run that
distance. We'll do it in an hour."
"How?" coughed the Professor in confusion. "Once - that is to say this
morning - we, I think, might have covered six miles in two hours. That's
true. But now it will take us several months."
"How's that?" marvelled Karik.
"Why?" Valya opened her eyes wide.
"Just because we cannot now do more than a yard or one and a half yards
in the hour. You forget that formerly each of our steps was about half a
yard and now it is a very small part of a centimetre."
"What? We are not as small as that?"
Karik glanced hastily around.
Strange trees with green angular trunks stood beside them. Along the
bank of the river there was wandering some sort of winged being smaller than
a calf but bigger than a sheep. Through the air, as if on purpose to impress
them, an enormous monster came hurtling above their heads. It was about the
size of a motor-bus with black wool on it.
The children gazed about in amazement. - What did it all mean? The
Professor was real but all around, as before, were extraordinary unreal
things.
"And what has happened?" Karik blinked his eyelids in confusion. "You
seem to be real, big. What are you, real or unreal?"
The Professor smiled.
"Both real and unreal," he said. "But you think it out for yourself.
Surely I was bigger than you formerly. I therefore have the right to remain
the same in the small world. Understand?"
"I understand," replied Karik, undecidedly.
But the Professor realised from Karik's eyes that he understood
precious little.
"Imagine," he continued, "that the liquid I invented had been drunk by
you, I, an elephant, a horse, a mouse, and a dog. All the whole lot of us
would be reduced in size to about one-thousandth part of what we formerly
were, but to us human beings the elephant would still appear as big as we
are accustomed to see him in the zoological gardens, and the mouse - well,
naturally, the mouse will remain tiny, but it will be only a thousandth of
the size of an ordinary mouse. But all of us humans, together with the
elephant, horse, dog and mouse, could quite easily be put in the palm of an
ordinary man's hand."
"I understand," Karik nodded his head.
"But I don't understand," said Valya.
"What don't you understand?"
"I don't understand how you knew where we had got to.''
"I'll explain even that to you but not now," said the Professor,
slapping Valya on the back. "We have a long way to go and we shall be a long
time going there. We shall be able to talk about everything on the journey
home. You will tell me what you saw and what you understood and I will tell
you how I found you. Now, first of all, my dears, on the way we may lose
each other, and therefore each one of us must know how to find the way home.
Come with me, I have something to explain to you before we start our
journey."
"But we don't want to lose each other!" said Valya, holding on to the
Professor's hand.
"Very good. But all the same. . . . In any case . . . because anything
might happen."
The Professor held both the children by the hand and with rapid steps
climbed up a hillock.
The children scurried along beside the grand old man. "Do you see?" he
suddenly asked, stretching out his hand. Far away over the thick growth of
the grass jungle raising itself up in the sky like a huge chimney was an
enormous post. At the top of it waving in the blue sky there hung an immense
stretch of red cloth.
The post stood in the midst of the forest, but one could see it as
clearly as a solitary pine tree on the steppe.
"There is my flagstaff!" said the Professor. "I stuck it up as a
landmark."
"What for?"
"Now listen. . . . Wherever we may get to we can always take a look at
our landmark. All we have to do is to climb up to the top of the grass and .
. . .
"Of course, naturally," shouted the children.
"Well, the rest is quite simple. Below, just near the mast, I left a
small plywood box. It is completely wrapped up in order to protect it from
the rain and sun. But so that we could get into it I cut a small hole in one
of its sides."
"Why should we want to get into it?"
"When we reach the box we shall climb into it and there we shall find a
little case with white powder. That, my dears, is the enlarging powder. It
would be sufficient for each of us to swallow a handful of this powder to
turn us once again into big ordinary people, now do you understand?"
"Oo!" Valya suddenly interrupted, "but suppose someone takes the box
away?"
The Professor was confused. He himself had not thought of such a
possibility. But it was important not to let the children think this.
Stroking his beard he said confidently, "Rubbish! Who in the world
would want an old plywood box. In any case very few people ever come to
these parts. And . . . and whilst it is very pleasant chatting here we must
not waste our breath. Let's start our journey, my dears! Forward! Come on!
Heads up! Give me your hand, Karik! and yours, Valya."
"Where are we going now?"
"There!" the Professor waved his hand. "Set course to the plywood box!"
he ordered.
Raising his head high, he started to march towards the forest. The
children lagged behind him and started whispering excitedly about something.
The Professor heard.
"You tell!"
"Why me? Tell him yourself."
"What's all this?" he asked, stopping.
"Well, how are we going to sleep and what about dinner and breakfast?"
asked Valya.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"What trifles! We shall sleep like our forebears slept - in trees, in
huts, in caves, and certainly it will be much better than sleeping in a
stuffy room. You must think we are going camping. Haven't you ever done
that?'
"But what are we going to eat?"
"Well, there is no end of food here. You could have dinner, breakfast
and supper ten times a day if you wanted it."
"But look what happened to us," said Valya. "We wanted to eat a berry
to-day and someone hit us and threw us into the river."
"Hit you?" the Professor was astonished.
"Well, yes."
And Valya recounted how they had tried to get a berry off a tree and
had not got it but had fallen off into the stormy river.
"You ate these berries?" asked the Professor with alarm.
"No! we didn't succeed!"
He sighed with relief.
"Just as well. Most probably these were the berries of the poisonous
daphne or as most people call this plant, 'Wolf's Tongue.' "
"But we did not eat it."
"That does not matter. You breathed in the poisonous vapour of the
daphne and for that reason lost consciousness."
"Do you know, Professor," interrupted Karik, "we are quite ready to
spend the night on a branch or anywhere else you like, but. . . ."
"But what?"
Karik swallowed the water which was forming in his mouth and said:
"Well, we haven't had anything to eat since yesterday and . . . and we
simply can't go on, we must. . . ."
"Good gracious me," fussed the Professor, "fancy my not thinking of
that at once. Certainly, my dears, certainly! Before we set off on our
journey we'll all have a jolly good meal. What about some milk?"
"Ordinary milk?"
"M-m, it's certainly not quite ordinary, but it's milk."
"Let's have it!" Karik stretched out his hand.
"Only let's have lots," said Valya.
"Quick march," ordered the Professor.
Sticking his beard out he started off ahead, examining the grass trees,
looking for something. At last he stopped under the shade of a grassy oak
tree which had such immense leaves that on anyone of them there would have
been plenty of room for a football match. Yes and room over for the
spectators.
"Here," the Professor pointed upwards, "here is a herd of cows
grazing."
"Cows up a tree?"
"M-yes . . . it's something like an alpine dairy farm. Now who is going
to be first up?"
"Bu - but don't these cows bite?"
"No, they don't bite nor do they butt. They have neither | teeth nor
horns, my dears."
Karik and Valya immediately flung themselves at the tree. The Professor
followed them.
Clutching at the soft green branches they clambered up
- helping each other and quickly reached the top of the mighty tree.
In front of them shining in the sun were broad glistening leaves as
much like green meadows as anything else.
The travellers clambered out on to one of the leaves and started to
walk about it, treading with their bare feet on the soft fleshy surface. But
after taking a few steps the children stopped hesitatingly.
"What's up?" asked the Professor, and he also stopped.
Valya stretched out a trembling finger. "What is this?" she pointed to
the surface of the leaf.
"Yes, whatever is it?" asked Karik, starting to retrace his steps.
The leaf was to all appearances alive.
Its glistening surface rustled, contracted and expanded. It was covered
with thousands of mouths, and these were either chewing something or else
waiting to seize Karik and Valya by their bare feet.
"Well! what's worrying you?" the Professor was surprised.
"This can't be a leaf?" said Valya. "Look what it's doing. It's trying
to bite my feet. I don't like such leaves."
"What nonsense! You ought to be ashamed of yourself. They are just the
very ordinary pores - the stomatac."
"Pores?"
"Of course! They are the windows of the leaf which ventilate the plant,
they are its lungs with which it breathes."
"But can't they fasten on to our feet?"
"Obviously not. Don't worry! Just follow me!" and the Professor
courageously started to walk over the leaf along the thick veins which were
traversing the green meadow in all directions.
The children followed him.
The first to see the cows was Valya.
"Oh, look!" she shouted. "Can these be the cows? They are not at all
like cows. They are so green."
On the edge of the leaf-meadow green animals were wandering like giant
pears perched on delicate long legs. Some of them were sitting down with
their whiskers resting on the fleshy surface of the leaf and their snouts
deeply thrust into it.
"Here we are," said the Professor, "let me introduce the grass cows.
Don't be upset because they do not look like cows.
In spite of it you'll find their milk excellent. In no way inferior to
real milk."
"But what are they called?" asked Valya. "Do you mean to say you
haven't guessed it? Why they're plant lice. Very familiar insects. If you
have ever read about ants you must know about the plant lice - aphides - or
green-fly as they are often called."
"Aha, I remember," said Karik, "the ants breed them."
"Yes, yes, quite right, Karik," answered the Professor. "The ants often
collect the plant lice, feed them and tend them."
"Just like they do in the State dairy farms."
"Yes. Pretty well. The ants are very fond of plant lice and treat them
just like people treat cows. They milk them and feed on this milk. . . . Be
careful, please, don't step into the milk."
The Professor had stopped at the edge of a pool of some sort of thick
liquid.
"I don't think it is worth milking the green cows," he continued. "The
milk appears to be flowing in rivers here. Help yourselves, my friends."
He lay down on his stomach, buried his lips in the pool of | green
plant-lice-milk and with his beard splashing in it took several gulps.
"It tastes all right! Help yourselves!"
The children followed the Professor's example and quickly buried their
mouths in the sweet thick milk.
"What about it?" said the Professor. "Do you like it? Nice, isn't it?"
"It's better than real milk," said Karik, wiping his mouth with his
hand, obviously well satisfied.
Valya was lapping it down noisily and didn't raise her head but just
grunted something no one could follow.
At last they were all of them fully satisfied.
The children rolled themselves away from the milk pool and stretched
themselves out on the leaf, just as if it had been the beach at the seaside.
Valya lay stroking her tummy. Karik flung his legs and arms widely
apart.
"Good enough," he said.
"If you are now no longer hungry we must get going!"
"Oh, no!" hastily interjected Valya, "we must rest a little to begin
with."
"Just half an hour," Karik supported his sister.
Their legs were so tired that it seemed as if they didn't belong to
their owners, and their arms lay on the fleshy surface of the leaf like
lead. A great laziness had wrapped itself around them.
"All right!" agreed the Professor. "Take a proper rest."
He lay down beside the children.
After all the events of the day he was not at all loath to lie and rest
himself for half an hour. Yawning lusciously, he put his hands behind his
head, and his eyes which it was now difficult to keep open gently closed.
For some time the travellers lay silent with their eyes closed to avoid
the glare of the sun, turning now on one side, now on the other.
Over their heads the wind blew noisily. The leaf swayed like a hammock.
"Isn't this grand?" mumbled the Professor. He started to mutter
something as his head sank on to his chest. He began to snore gently as if
he was whistling through his nose.
"Fast asleep," said Valya.
"Let him sleep. Then we can rest."
Valya was silent for a little and then sighing.
"Mother will be crying probably."
"Certainly she'll cry."
Valya sighed more deeply as if she herself were about to cry,
but at this moment something buzzed through the air and hit the leaf
with a thud.
The leaf shook.
"Whatever is that?" squeaked Valya.
The Professor opened his sleepy eyes slightly.
A huge tortoise nearly as big as a tank was moving across the leaf. The
back of the tortoise glistened like scarlet lacquer.
Black patterns on this background made it seem like a Japanese plate.
The Professor yawned, closed his eyes and started snoring.
The children gazed at the red monster in alarm as, quite unlike a
tortoise, it started to run lightly towards them.
They clung to each other.
The red tortoise ran up to the children, gazed down at them as if from
the roof of a barn and angrily rustled its whiskers.
Karik and Valya jumped up and with a scream and shout took to their
heels.
They dashed past the green cows which were peacefully grazing on the
leaf meadow and ran up to the very edge of the leaf.
There was no further escape possible.
A thirsty journey - The cafe in the grass jungle - The assault on a
forest stronghold - The battle with the ants - Under the mushroom - The
flood
KARIK AND VALYA STOOD ON THE VERY EDGE OF THE LEAF. BELOW, under their
feet, there swayed the tops of trees and through the chinks between the
leaves far below could be seen the ground.
Jump down? They could hardly jump from such a height.
Valya gripped Karik's hand firmly.
The red tortoise had crawled quite close. Another minute and it would
hurl itself on the children, kill them, carry them off and eat them.
"Don't be frightened! Don't be frightened!" the children suddenly heard
the voice of the Professor, "It is a lady-bird. It won't touch you. Come
over here."
"It won't touch you!" whispered Valya, hiding behind Karik.
Not for a moment taking his eyes off the tortoise-monster, Karik moved
sideways past it.
"Now, now! be brave!" encouraged the Professor.
The children turned abruptly and dashed away at full speed to the green
cows.
Hardly drawing breath they then darted towards the Professor, stumbling
now and then in their flight across the leaf. They finally managed to hide
behind his broad back.
"It is quite harmless!" said the Professor. "No need to worry!"
"May be harmless but it's very alarming!" puffed Valya. "Oy! Look what
this harmless creature is up to!" The lady-bird had reached the herd of
green cows and stopping suddenly struck down one of the cows with its paws
like a lion and trampling on it, squeezing it with the weight of its body,
proceeded to suck it. In a few seconds nothing of the cow remained except
its skin.
The lady-bird proceeded to knock down one after the other.
It trampled on them, sucked them like grapes and threw away the skins.
By the time the children had recovered their senses there was not a
single one of the plant lice left on the leaf.
Having devoured the lice the ladybird wiped its whiskers with an
enormous paw and kicking the skins out of its way moved over to the edge of
the leaf.
Here it raised its armour and pushed out from under it a transparent
flinty-like tail and two heavy trough-shaped wings, after which the armour
fell back with a clacking noise. Then with a creaking rustle two more wings
appeared this time, delicate and transparent. They started to beat violently
up and down, disappearing from view with their speed, like propellers. A
stream of air beat in the faces of the travellers. The lady-bird was off,
away above the forest.
"So that's a lady-bird!" said Valya. "Sucks them all dry-in a most
lady-like manner and flies away!"
"Yes, most excellent," said the Professor. "Just what is needed.
Couldn't be better."
"Excellent?"
"Of course. It is most important to get rid of these lice in every
possible way. But probably the best method of fighting the lice is the
lady-bird beetle. In America they collect these lady-birds in baskets and in
spring-time release them wherever there are lice. The lady-bird hunters have
special maps provided for them showing the places in which the lady-bird
usually winters. They go to these places and collect them."
"But why is it necessary to get rid of the lice?" asked Valya. "They
have such nice milk."
"The milk is all right," agreed the Professor, "but the lice themselves
are very harmful creatures and what is more they have so many children and
multiply so rapidly. But for the lady-birds the lice would be most difficult
to combat."
"In what way are they harmful?"
"They attack the leaves of fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. In
fact, there is hardly a plant on which you might not find lice."
"What do they actually do?"
"The lice suck the sap out of the plant, but this is only half the
evil. The green milk which you found so nice to taste, gums up the pores of
the leaf so that it cannot breathe and grow. The leaf naturally dies. But if
the leaves perish it just means that you can't expect either fruit or
vegetables. However, it is all very well to talk. We have had our rest, it's
high time to step out. Come on, my dears!"
But before climbing down from the tree the Professor scanned the
horizon for his beacon.
Away in the west above the foliage of the grassy jungle there fluttered
in the wind an enormous red flag.
"Aha," he muttered, turning to climb down, "we must go westward. Keep
going towards the sun."
He jumped down on to the ground.
"Forward!" he shouted, and stepping off through the glade began to sing
like the wind in a chimney.
"Forward! the bugles blow,
To battle most glorious.
Forward! with eyes aglow,
The children victorious."
Valya frowned and stuck her fingers in her ears. Karik waved his hand:
let the old boy sing, after all every human being has some sort of a
weakness.
The Professor was only human.
The travellers were passing through a forest. Tall trees, without any
branches or even knots, surrounded them like giant radio masts.
The sun's rays falling from above made golden streaks on the ground so
that their path seemed across a blanket striped with yellow.
The travellers now clambered up steep, practically vertical mountain
sides, now tobogganed downwards raising thick clouds of dust behind them.
Deep valleys were succeeded by high peaks. The forest followed down to the
bottom of the ravines and up to the ridges of the mountains.
The soil was all full of holes and terribly rough. The arms and legs of
the Professor and the children became covered with scratches and weals.
Valya had a great blue bruise on her forehead. Karik's nose was all
swollen and he had a great scratch right across his chest.
The children were puffing but the Professor would not slacken his pace.
The sun started to burn their shoulders and arms painfully. The
Professor had to wipe his dripping face continually with the palm of his
hand. Valya became as scarlet as if she had been plunged in boiling water.
"What ho for Africa!" Karik tried to joke. "Another day like this and
we shall start to moult our skins. We shall be all striped like Zebras."
The Professor and Valya remained silent. They licked their cracked lips
and looked from side to side hoping for the glitter of water in some pond or
river.
There was no sign of water.
"You just can't imagine how I want a drink!" Valya at length could not
contain herself any longer.
"And you just can't imagine," croaked Karik, "how my tongue feels. Just
as if pepper had been shaken all over it."
"Don't be discouraged!" the Professor comforted the children. "There
must be water somewhere fairly close."
Valya soon became quite exhausted.
"Let's rest!" Every ten minutes or so she had to rest again.
The travellers would stop and sit down. But sitting on the baking earth
was even worse than walking over it. After a minute or so they would have to
jump up and start off again.
"My goodness," gruff-gruffed the Professor, "it's just like travelling
in the Sahara desert."
Valya staggered along.
"A drink! a drink!" she whimpered.
Karik moved as if in a dream, stumbling and bumping up against the
trees.
And suddenly through a clearing in the forest there was a glimpse of
blue.
"Water!" shouted Valya rushing ahead.
The Professor and Karik forgot their tiredness. One after the other
they chased after Valya.
The clearing in the forest widened.
There amid the green vegetation hung a great blue flower but no sign of
water.
Valya flung herself on the ground.
"I - I can't go any further," she groaned.
"Stick to it! stick to it!" grunted the Professor, "in a very little
time we shall find water."
He put his arms around Valya and pulled her up.
"We must keep going! Come along, little Valya!"
Cold refreshing water now taunted them every step they took, for right
and left where ever they looked they saw the blue of the water they needed.
But when the exhausted travellers stumbled towards it every time the
blue turned into a flower.
"A drink! I must drink!" groaned Valya.
"Water," Karik whispered with dry lips.
The Professor stumbled and fell face downwards on the ground. The
children threw themselves down beside him.
They could hear the monsters of the grass jungle rustling past them.
Backwards and forwards the insects went so that it seemed that the
travellers might have been resting at some busy crossroads. However, they
were too tired to pay any attention to the passers-by. One caterpillar
passed so close that it trod on Valya's hand but they none of them stirred.
"Water !"
"Wa-ater!" groaned the children.
Swaying from side to side the Professor stood up.
They must move on. But which way? In which direction would they find
water.
He leant against a tree and with his head stuck forward upon his breast
he stared gloomily at the ground.
Suddenly right beside him an earthy hillock started to move. Stones
fell from its top to the ground around. Then suddenly the hillock split
open. Long feelers stuck up into the air and from within the hillock a huge
head appeared and then a dark body with a yellow edge slid out of the
ground.
"Saved!" shouted the Professor.
The children raised their heads from the ground.
"Get up! Here's the water!" he continued.
Having grasped the last word, the children both struggled up.
"Give us a drink !"
"In a minute or two you'll have a whole river but now we must accompany
a very good friend of mine who is going to the water."
The Professor waved his hand to where at one side there stood the
monster with the yellow streak cleaning the dust and dirt from its body. It
was like a beetle of some sort, only this beetle was the size of a
motor-bus.
"What is this?" whispered Karik.
"Dytiscus, the water beetle! It will lead us to the water!" said the
Professor.
The water beetle stretched out its whiskers, turned to the right and
confidently went ahead crashing its way through the grassy trees.
The travellers ran behind it.
They had all become more cheerful. Karik's eyes were glistening.
"But how does the water beetle know where the water is?" he croaked.
"Very simple, considering it lives and hunts in water. It could hardly
get on without knowing."
"Where did it come from?"
"Out of the earth."
"But why?" marvelled Valya.
"Well, it is such an amazing creature, is this water beetle."
As they followed in the wake of the beetle the Professor went on:
"They reproduce themselves by means of eggs which they stick to water
plants.
"In a month or so the eggs hatch and larvae come out like caterpillars,
but with the temperaments of tigers. These courageous and greedy larvas will
attack pretty well any inhabitant of the water even fish, which are many
times their size. When the larvae are full grown they creep out of the water
and finding a peaceful, comfortable spot they bury themselves in the earth.
Here they turn first of all into a chrysalis and then into a large ordinary
beetle. The beetle comes out of the ground - you yourselves saw this happen
- and sets out on a career of piracy in its proper realm - in water."
"But how does it know where the water is?"
"Well, how do birds know which is south when they fly away from us in
the Autumn to winter in a warm climate?"
The Professor was talking without stopping. He knew well that a journey
seems much shorter to those who travel talking.
"This beetle," he continued, "is perhaps one of the most remarkable
creatures in the world. You can come across it in any water butt. When you
next see one look at it closely. Think, my dears, it charges over the water
like a speed boat, dives like a diving duck, is able to sit at the bottom of
a pond longer than a human diver, travels under the water as well as any
submarine, flies through the air like an aeroplane and walks on dry land
like a human. You do not meet a creature like that everyday. Once I was - "
"Water!" screamed Valya.
Without waiting to hear what the Professor had to say both children
rushed ahead.
Amid green foliage there was now mirrored a blue unruffled expanse of
water.
The beetle made for the steep bank of the lake, hurled itself down into
the water and vanished. Circles of waves spread across the mirror.
"Water !"
"Water!"
On the bank of the lake there stood a tree with huge blue flowers. Dark
leaves cast a dense cool shadow on the ground beneath.
Karik, not waiting, ran down a slope, jumped down and stretching out
his arms flung himself in the water like the beetle had done.
He splashed himself and, burying his face in the water, drank. Then he
sat up spluttering and laughing.
There was no more tiredness.
"Quickly!" he shouted. "Come here quickly before I have drunk it all
up."
Limping and stumbling, the Professor and Valya made their way to the
bank. They too jumped into the water, raising a cloud of spray and at once
started to drink: burying their poor lips, cracked from the heat, in the
cool water.
"Oo! Good, isn't it." Valya raised her head. Her nose was wet and water
dripped from her cheeks and chin.
"Let's bathe! Bathe!" the Professor ordered, as he squeezed his wet
beard.
Having bathed to their hearts' content the travellers came up from the
water's edge, dried themselves in the sun and then betaking themselves into
the glade stretched out in the cool shadow of the tree with blue flowers.
Thus they lay motionless, silent, gazing through the openings in the
trees above them at the distant blue sky, lazily listening to the noises of
the grassy jungle.
Suddenly the Professor stood up and hitching up his clothes went over
to the tree and grasped a green branch with both hands.
"Where are you off to?" the children shouted. "Don't disturb
yourselves. I'll be back in a minute." The Professor started to climb the
tree. The children looked at each other. "We'll climb too !" said Valya.
"We'll climb!"
They jumped up and jostling each other darted to the tree, but they had
not succeeded in getting hold of the lowest branch when something above them
made a tearing noise as if someone was ripping a strong piece of cloth.
"Catch it, children !" Karik and Valya stretched out their arms. Something
blue was coming down through the air. Lazily it circled and swayed until it
seemed about to cover the children in what appeared to be a huge blue
bedcover.
The children skipped out of the way.
The bedcover fell quite gently at their feet.
"Whatever is it?" shouted Karik, bending over the blue bedcover.
"A forget. me-not petal!" shouted the Professor from above.
"What are we to do with it?" asked Valya.
"Do with it? We can make ourselves clothes and umbrellas. I don't know
about you, but my back is already covered with blisters from sunburn."
The Professor threw down some more petals.
The children collected them and laid them in a heap.
Valya threw one of the petals up on to her head. The petal was big and
broad. It drooped down over her shoulders and covered her hot back like a
rubber cape.
"Well, how about it?" asked the Professor, jumping down from the tree.
"Thanks awfully!" replied Valya.
The Professor took the petal, bent it in his hands until it was in
halves, then he bent it over the other way and bit the corner off with his
teeth.
"Oo-ough! It's tough enough," he said, and carefully unfolded the
petal.
In the middle of the petal there now appeared an uneven hole with
ragged edges.
"Now put your head through here!" commanded the Professor.
The petal soon lay soft, cool and protecting, upon Valya's sunburnt
shoulders.
It covered Valya from the shoulders to the knees.
"Grand!" approved Karik. "Something like a shroud."
"Not a shroud!" said the Professor. "A floral cape. You must have one
now. These capes will save you from the sun by day and from the cold by
night."
The little party soon looked as if they belonged to some travelling
circus. The Professor and the children garbed in blue capes proceeded on
their way in single file.
In their hands they carried long sticks, to the ends of which had been
fastened pieces of petal. These blue umbrellas swayed above their heads,
throwing a shadow on their faces. They were a splendid protection from the
scorching rays of the sun.
The Professor tramped on whistling a march. Karik and Valya hummed the
same tune where possible.
The forest became thinner. The travellers came out on to a sunny field.
Overhead huge winged creatures as big as cows were droning. Flashing their
transparent wings they darted past so near that Karik and Valya had either
to duck or to stop in terror.
"You needn't worry about these insects," smiled the Professor.
"Remember each one has its own regular habitual food. Dragon-flies, for
example, feed on flies and butterflies, bees on the honey in flowers. Many
of the flying insects actually never eat anything. They come into the world
just to lay their eggs, after which they die. Quite a number of these do not
even have a mouth. As you can see, it is just as safe here as in a town. I
am quite certain that none of these insects would consider us as dainties to
be eaten. . . ."
The Professor did not finish his sentence. He suddenly seized Karik and
Valya by the arms and pulled them to himself. The children fell sprawling on
the ground with the Professor stretched out beside them.
"Ts-s," hissed the Professor, pressing himself to the earth. At that
moment something whistled over the heads of the travellers and crashed
noisily into the undergrowth of the forest.
The travellers hastily covered themselves with their umbrellas. "What
is it?" "What's that?"
The Professor cautiously peeped out from under his umbrella. Not far
away behind a dark hillock there could be seen the green back of some
creature glistening in the sun above the tops of the trees. This back was
now rising, now falling, then the creature slid sideways, jumped upwards
and, having in one flash spread its wings, disappeared.
"A grasshopper!" said the Professor, standing up and dusting himself.
Karik quickly nudged Valya in the side. "Surely a grasshopper wouldn't
find us a dainty morsel?". he asked slyly.
"Look here," gruff-gruffed the Professor in confusion. "A grasshopper
is a treacherous beast. How am I to know what might enter its head. Caution
never did anybody any harm, my dears."
The travellers moved on in no particular hurry.
They made their way forward, wading across rivers, swimming across
small ponds and making their way through the thick growth of the jungle.
The Professor pointed out first this, then that particular grassy tree
and told the children interesting stories about various plants. Apparently
there was not such a thing as a grass or flower that simply grew without
being of some use for mankind.
Suddenly Valya seized the Professor by the arm.
"Look! " she shouted. "Look! What's that?"
They all stopped in front of some thick undergrowth.
"Where? What are you looking at?"
"Over there! There they are! Lying in wait for us."
"I don't see anything!" frowned the Professor. Putting his hand to his
eyes like a peak of a cap, he craned his neck, stood on tip-toe and gazed
attentively at the undergrowth.
"I see! I can see!" said Karik. "They are round and they are moving."
"But where do you see them?" asked the Professor, in some alarm.
He stepped forward and then suddenly burst out laughing.
"Nothing to worry about there. You'll see yourselves when we get nearer
to these forest monsters. Come on." And with big strides he moved towards
the lair of these fearsome creatures.
The children followed behind him.
They could now distinguish quite clearly brown balls hanging from the
grassy trees. At a distance they were like footballs, but as one approached
they seemed to be balloons bigger than the Professor. The walls of these
brown balloons were made of twigs and pieces of earth.
"Can you guess what these are?" asked the Professor, stopping.
"Oy!" shouted Valya. "Round houses! Look at all the tenants. This is a
forest hotel. The 'Insects' Hotel Metropole'."
"Or it may be a forest restaurant - 'Insects' Help-yourselves Cafe',"
grinned Karik.
Yellow six-legged animals were crawling over the broad bulging walls.
They staggered out of dark entrances and lazily • crawled in various
directions then once again came together, felt each other with their
whiskers and waddling in a ridiculous way, disappeared into the dark
entrances of their round house.
"But these are plant lice!" interjected Karik. "How is it that they are
yellow?"
"Very simple," answered the Professor, "this kind of lice takes the
colour of their dwelling. In the far north all birds and beasts are white in
colour to match the snow, but in the south animals have splashes of
different colours to match the splashes of sun and shadow seen in the
southern forests and plains. Surely you know that?"
"It is in order to enable them to hide more easily?" Karik said
questioningly.
The Professor nodded his head.
"Both to enable them to hide more easily and also to creep up
unobserved by their prey. The markings on the skin of a giraffe enables it
to hide more easily but the markings on a tiger's skin help it to come up to
its victims unobserved.
He went up to one of the round brown houses, examined it from all sides
and even tapped it with the stick of his umbrella.
"Beautiful work! Excellent! Conscientious workers!" he said. "They are
great boys are ants!"
"Ants? Surely they didn't build it?"
"Certainly."
"But why then are the plant lice living in it?"
"Just because it happens to be an ants' dairy farm." The Professor
waved his blue umbrella and said:
"Just as mankind breeds cows, so ants herd plant lice. Not only do they
breed them but they protect them from enemies.
And to prevent the rain washing their cows away they build them these
house farms."
"And how do the ants carry the milk away?"
"Why carry it? The ants come here and drink the milk."
Karik grinned cheerfully.
"It's not so much a farm as a cafeteria."
"Some types of ants," continued the Professor, "chase the plant lice
into their ant hills when winter starts and feed on fresh milk for the whole
winter without ever coming out of their ant hill."
"Gunning!" whistled Karik. "But I read somewhere that ants slept
through the winter and did not eat anything."
"That is perfectly true, but not of all the ants. In ant hills some of
the ants are always on watch. These are the ones that feed on the plant lice
milk."
"These must be the white ants who feed during the winter!" said Valya.
"I also read about them. They live in Africa and they are called termites."
"Oh, Valya, you have muddled it up. There are no such things as white
ants. And termites are not ants although they resemble ants in build.
Termites are nearer dragonflies than ants."
"And are there no white ants?"
"No! There are black, chestnut, red, blood-red and yellow ants. There
are ant sculptors, ant miners, stone quarriers, cowherds, agriculturists,
honey ants, umbrella ants and solitary ants. Then you have by no means
exhausted their occupations."
* * * * * *
Still talking about ants, the travellers came to a precipice which fell
sharply away down to a green valley surrounded with low hills.
Light clouds floated above the hills.
The tops of the hills were flooded with the orange tints of the early
evening sun.
''Look !'' exclaimed Valya, suddenly. "Egyptian pyramids. Look ! Do
look!"
In the middle of the valley there rose a queer-shaped hill.
It was made of dark beams covered over with earth. Hanging galleries
covered the sides of the pyramid and appeared to slope downwards in spirals.
"Ants!" said the Professor. "Black ants. These are evidently the owners
of the farms we have just passed."
Long-bodied just like greyhounds, the ants were fussing around their
ant hill. They thrust backwards and forwards, ran jostling each other along
the hanging galleries. Knocking each other down, getting up again, and
running, running, running. Apparently they had been frightened by something.
They were carrying great white cocoons and dragging these in through the
pond.
"Ee! I'll be drowned if I am not careful," he frowned. "I must get down
before I am carried into the open sea."
At that moment the Professor was being carried over a sunny meadow. It
looked a good place in which to alight. He decided to land.
Having let go several of the parachutes he moved in a wandering slow
flight above the ground gently descending. The grass was already turning
back into the nightmare forest and the narrow streamlet into a broad and
noisy river.
"Hop - la!" yelled the Professor, letting two more parachutes go at
once.
He was swinging in the air above the river looking downwards for a
suitable place to land when he suddenly saw Karik and Valya floating in the
river.
The waves dashed them against a rock and they spun around in the grip
of the current just like logs.
"Hold on!" yelled the Professor from above; letting the last parachute
go he plunged like a stone into the foaming water.
The rescue - Some explanations - Living windows - The herd of grass
cows - Sad recollections - An air tortoise attacks
THE. STRONG CURRENT TOPPLED THE PROFESSOR OFF HIS FEET. He fell first
on one knee and then on the other. The water beat him down and swept over
his head, but he got up and venturing cautiously from rock to rock managed
to make his way forward.
Karik and Valya were lying just near him looking as if they were dead.
Their eyes were closed, their arms dangled helplessly down and their legs
trailed in the water.
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" muttered the Professor heavily.
"Everything will be all right!" and he seized the children tightly.
Here at last was the bank. The Professor laid Karik and Valya on the
ground, squatted down and started to rub them with the palms of his hands.
"Now then! Now then! What do we do next?" he muttered.
He bent their arms and legs and raised them up and down. But all was in
vain. The children lay motionless with their eyes shut and their white lips
clenched firmly.
"What am I to do with you next?" he frowned.
He wiped his forehead with his hand and suddenly his face lit up.
The Professor had remembered an old long forgotten device for restoring
the drowning. Quickly jumping up he seized Valya by the legs, lifted her
upside down and started to shake her violently. Water poured out of Valya's
mouth and nose. She groaned.
"Groaning!" rejoiced the Professor. "Excellent! you will live."
Laying the girl on the | ground, he set about Karik.
"One, two!"
A murky flood poured out of Karik's mouth.
"And now you lie down too."
Spitting and coughing the children opened their eyes.
They looked around, not understanding a thing. Immediately in front of
them stood the Professor, the Professor real and alive. Huge and bearded,
just as they were accustomed to see him every day.
They were so delighted that they never noticed how oddly he was
dressed. They just gazed at his face and saw his kindly smiling eyes and his
tousled grey beard.
"The Professor!" exclaimed Valya. She flung herself towards him,
sobbing with joy.
"Now, now, now." coughed the Professor with embarrassment, stroking the
girl's head. "There is nothing to cry about now."
Valya smeared the tears out of her eyes with her fists and started to
smile.
"All that - all that water - came out of us. What a lot!"
"Plenty of it," agreed the Professor. "But now, my dears," he
continued, "tell me who decided to make free with my study?"
The children hung their heads.
"Ah, you are silent! You have forgotten how to speak?" The children
sighed.
Dripping wet and unhappy, they stood in front of the Professor not
daring to look up at him. Karik lowered his head so much that his chin
rested on his chest which was covered with sticky mud, Valya turned away.
"Well! Why are you silent?" the Professor gruff-gruffed. Karik started
to sniff and Valya sighed deeply. The Professor became sorry for the
children. He seized them in his arms, squeezed them to himself and started
to laugh.
"Ruffians! just think what you have done. Ah, what goats you are! I
nearly went out of my mind with you!"
"We had an accident!" said Valya, twisting her damp hair round her
fingers.
Karik gazed at her in amazement. "What a liar I" he thought but he did
not say anything.
"Now, now. Come on home, your mother will show you what she thinks of
the accident and it won't be an accident if she whips you."
"Mother never whips us!" said Karik, raising his head.
The Professor pulled at his grey whiskers and said gloomily:
"They beat me all right when I was small - with a strap or a cane: they
took the hide off me. Russia was a wild place then. Now everything is grand.
Come on to the mother who never beats you. Such a mother must be seen to be
believed! Isn't that so?"
"But where are we going?"
"Where are we going? Why, home, of course!"
"Home, Home!" Valya shouted cheerfully. Jumping up and down she clapped
her hands.
"But is it a long way to our home, Professor?" asked Karik. "Shall we
get there in an hour?"
"An hour? Dear, no!"
The Professor shook his head.
"We cannot get home even in ten hours. We are practically six miles
from home."
"Oh, that's fine!" Valya was jumping up and down. "We can run that
distance. We'll do it in an hour."
"How?" coughed the Professor in confusion. "Once - that is to say this
morning - we, I think, might have covered six miles in two hours. That's
true. But now it will take us several months."
"How's that?" marvelled Karik.
"Why?" Valya opened her eyes wide.
"Just because we cannot now do more than a yard or one and a half yards
in the hour. You forget that formerly each of our steps was about half a
yard and now it is a very small part of a centimetre."
"What? We are not as small as that?"
Karik glanced hastily around.
Strange trees with green angular trunks stood beside them. Along the
bank of the river there was wandering some sort of winged being smaller than
a calf but bigger than a sheep. Through the air, as if on purpose to impress
them, an enormous monster came hurtling above their heads. It was about the
size of a motor-bus with black wool on it.
The children gazed about in amazement. - What did it all mean? The
Professor was real but all around, as before, were extraordinary unreal
things.
"And what has happened?" Karik blinked his eyelids in confusion. "You
seem to be real, big. What are you, real or unreal?"
The Professor smiled.
"Both real and unreal," he said. "But you think it out for yourself.
Surely I was bigger than you formerly. I therefore have the right to remain
the same in the small world. Understand?"
"I understand," replied Karik, undecidedly.
But the Professor realised from Karik's eyes that he understood
precious little.
"Imagine," he continued, "that the liquid I invented had been drunk by
you, I, an elephant, a horse, a mouse, and a dog. All the whole lot of us
would be reduced in size to about one-thousandth part of what we formerly
were, but to us human beings the elephant would still appear as big as we
are accustomed to see him in the zoological gardens, and the mouse - well,
naturally, the mouse will remain tiny, but it will be only a thousandth of
the size of an ordinary mouse. But all of us humans, together with the
elephant, horse, dog and mouse, could quite easily be put in the palm of an
ordinary man's hand."
"I understand," Karik nodded his head.
"But I don't understand," said Valya.
"What don't you understand?"
"I don't understand how you knew where we had got to.''
"I'll explain even that to you but not now," said the Professor,
slapping Valya on the back. "We have a long way to go and we shall be a long
time going there. We shall be able to talk about everything on the journey
home. You will tell me what you saw and what you understood and I will tell
you how I found you. Now, first of all, my dears, on the way we may lose
each other, and therefore each one of us must know how to find the way home.
Come with me, I have something to explain to you before we start our
journey."
"But we don't want to lose each other!" said Valya, holding on to the
Professor's hand.
"Very good. But all the same. . . . In any case . . . because anything
might happen."
The Professor held both the children by the hand and with rapid steps
climbed up a hillock.
The children scurried along beside the grand old man. "Do you see?" he
suddenly asked, stretching out his hand. Far away over the thick growth of
the grass jungle raising itself up in the sky like a huge chimney was an
enormous post. At the top of it waving in the blue sky there hung an immense
stretch of red cloth.
The post stood in the midst of the forest, but one could see it as
clearly as a solitary pine tree on the steppe.
"There is my flagstaff!" said the Professor. "I stuck it up as a
landmark."
"What for?"
"Now listen. . . . Wherever we may get to we can always take a look at
our landmark. All we have to do is to climb up to the top of the grass and .
. . .
"Of course, naturally," shouted the children.
"Well, the rest is quite simple. Below, just near the mast, I left a
small plywood box. It is completely wrapped up in order to protect it from
the rain and sun. But so that we could get into it I cut a small hole in one
of its sides."
"Why should we want to get into it?"
"When we reach the box we shall climb into it and there we shall find a
little case with white powder. That, my dears, is the enlarging powder. It
would be sufficient for each of us to swallow a handful of this powder to
turn us once again into big ordinary people, now do you understand?"
"Oo!" Valya suddenly interrupted, "but suppose someone takes the box
away?"
The Professor was confused. He himself had not thought of such a
possibility. But it was important not to let the children think this.
Stroking his beard he said confidently, "Rubbish! Who in the world
would want an old plywood box. In any case very few people ever come to
these parts. And . . . and whilst it is very pleasant chatting here we must
not waste our breath. Let's start our journey, my dears! Forward! Come on!
Heads up! Give me your hand, Karik! and yours, Valya."
"Where are we going now?"
"There!" the Professor waved his hand. "Set course to the plywood box!"
he ordered.
Raising his head high, he started to march towards the forest. The
children lagged behind him and started whispering excitedly about something.
The Professor heard.
"You tell!"
"Why me? Tell him yourself."
"What's all this?" he asked, stopping.
"Well, how are we going to sleep and what about dinner and breakfast?"
asked Valya.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"What trifles! We shall sleep like our forebears slept - in trees, in
huts, in caves, and certainly it will be much better than sleeping in a
stuffy room. You must think we are going camping. Haven't you ever done
that?'
"But what are we going to eat?"
"Well, there is no end of food here. You could have dinner, breakfast
and supper ten times a day if you wanted it."
"But look what happened to us," said Valya. "We wanted to eat a berry
to-day and someone hit us and threw us into the river."
"Hit you?" the Professor was astonished.
"Well, yes."
And Valya recounted how they had tried to get a berry off a tree and
had not got it but had fallen off into the stormy river.
"You ate these berries?" asked the Professor with alarm.
"No! we didn't succeed!"
He sighed with relief.
"Just as well. Most probably these were the berries of the poisonous
daphne or as most people call this plant, 'Wolf's Tongue.' "
"But we did not eat it."
"That does not matter. You breathed in the poisonous vapour of the
daphne and for that reason lost consciousness."
"Do you know, Professor," interrupted Karik, "we are quite ready to
spend the night on a branch or anywhere else you like, but. . . ."
"But what?"
Karik swallowed the water which was forming in his mouth and said:
"Well, we haven't had anything to eat since yesterday and . . . and we
simply can't go on, we must. . . ."
"Good gracious me," fussed the Professor, "fancy my not thinking of
that at once. Certainly, my dears, certainly! Before we set off on our
journey we'll all have a jolly good meal. What about some milk?"
"Ordinary milk?"
"M-m, it's certainly not quite ordinary, but it's milk."
"Let's have it!" Karik stretched out his hand.
"Only let's have lots," said Valya.
"Quick march," ordered the Professor.
Sticking his beard out he started off ahead, examining the grass trees,
looking for something. At last he stopped under the shade of a grassy oak
tree which had such immense leaves that on anyone of them there would have
been plenty of room for a football match. Yes and room over for the
spectators.
"Here," the Professor pointed upwards, "here is a herd of cows
grazing."
"Cows up a tree?"
"M-yes . . . it's something like an alpine dairy farm. Now who is going
to be first up?"
"Bu - but don't these cows bite?"
"No, they don't bite nor do they butt. They have neither | teeth nor
horns, my dears."
Karik and Valya immediately flung themselves at the tree. The Professor
followed them.
Clutching at the soft green branches they clambered up
- helping each other and quickly reached the top of the mighty tree.
In front of them shining in the sun were broad glistening leaves as
much like green meadows as anything else.
The travellers clambered out on to one of the leaves and started to
walk about it, treading with their bare feet on the soft fleshy surface. But
after taking a few steps the children stopped hesitatingly.
"What's up?" asked the Professor, and he also stopped.
Valya stretched out a trembling finger. "What is this?" she pointed to
the surface of the leaf.
"Yes, whatever is it?" asked Karik, starting to retrace his steps.
The leaf was to all appearances alive.
Its glistening surface rustled, contracted and expanded. It was covered
with thousands of mouths, and these were either chewing something or else
waiting to seize Karik and Valya by their bare feet.
"Well! what's worrying you?" the Professor was surprised.
"This can't be a leaf?" said Valya. "Look what it's doing. It's trying
to bite my feet. I don't like such leaves."
"What nonsense! You ought to be ashamed of yourself. They are just the
very ordinary pores - the stomatac."
"Pores?"
"Of course! They are the windows of the leaf which ventilate the plant,
they are its lungs with which it breathes."
"But can't they fasten on to our feet?"
"Obviously not. Don't worry! Just follow me!" and the Professor
courageously started to walk over the leaf along the thick veins which were
traversing the green meadow in all directions.
The children followed him.
The first to see the cows was Valya.
"Oh, look!" she shouted. "Can these be the cows? They are not at all
like cows. They are so green."
On the edge of the leaf-meadow green animals were wandering like giant
pears perched on delicate long legs. Some of them were sitting down with
their whiskers resting on the fleshy surface of the leaf and their snouts
deeply thrust into it.
"Here we are," said the Professor, "let me introduce the grass cows.
Don't be upset because they do not look like cows.
In spite of it you'll find their milk excellent. In no way inferior to
real milk."
"But what are they called?" asked Valya. "Do you mean to say you
haven't guessed it? Why they're plant lice. Very familiar insects. If you
have ever read about ants you must know about the plant lice - aphides - or
green-fly as they are often called."
"Aha, I remember," said Karik, "the ants breed them."
"Yes, yes, quite right, Karik," answered the Professor. "The ants often
collect the plant lice, feed them and tend them."
"Just like they do in the State dairy farms."
"Yes. Pretty well. The ants are very fond of plant lice and treat them
just like people treat cows. They milk them and feed on this milk. . . . Be
careful, please, don't step into the milk."
The Professor had stopped at the edge of a pool of some sort of thick
liquid.
"I don't think it is worth milking the green cows," he continued. "The
milk appears to be flowing in rivers here. Help yourselves, my friends."
He lay down on his stomach, buried his lips in the pool of | green
plant-lice-milk and with his beard splashing in it took several gulps.
"It tastes all right! Help yourselves!"
The children followed the Professor's example and quickly buried their
mouths in the sweet thick milk.
"What about it?" said the Professor. "Do you like it? Nice, isn't it?"
"It's better than real milk," said Karik, wiping his mouth with his
hand, obviously well satisfied.
Valya was lapping it down noisily and didn't raise her head but just
grunted something no one could follow.
At last they were all of them fully satisfied.
The children rolled themselves away from the milk pool and stretched
themselves out on the leaf, just as if it had been the beach at the seaside.
Valya lay stroking her tummy. Karik flung his legs and arms widely
apart.
"Good enough," he said.
"If you are now no longer hungry we must get going!"
"Oh, no!" hastily interjected Valya, "we must rest a little to begin
with."
"Just half an hour," Karik supported his sister.
Their legs were so tired that it seemed as if they didn't belong to
their owners, and their arms lay on the fleshy surface of the leaf like
lead. A great laziness had wrapped itself around them.
"All right!" agreed the Professor. "Take a proper rest."
He lay down beside the children.
After all the events of the day he was not at all loath to lie and rest
himself for half an hour. Yawning lusciously, he put his hands behind his
head, and his eyes which it was now difficult to keep open gently closed.
For some time the travellers lay silent with their eyes closed to avoid
the glare of the sun, turning now on one side, now on the other.
Over their heads the wind blew noisily. The leaf swayed like a hammock.
"Isn't this grand?" mumbled the Professor. He started to mutter
something as his head sank on to his chest. He began to snore gently as if
he was whistling through his nose.
"Fast asleep," said Valya.
"Let him sleep. Then we can rest."
Valya was silent for a little and then sighing.
"Mother will be crying probably."
"Certainly she'll cry."
Valya sighed more deeply as if she herself were about to cry,
but at this moment something buzzed through the air and hit the leaf
with a thud.
The leaf shook.
"Whatever is that?" squeaked Valya.
The Professor opened his sleepy eyes slightly.
A huge tortoise nearly as big as a tank was moving across the leaf. The
back of the tortoise glistened like scarlet lacquer.
Black patterns on this background made it seem like a Japanese plate.
The Professor yawned, closed his eyes and started snoring.
The children gazed at the red monster in alarm as, quite unlike a
tortoise, it started to run lightly towards them.
They clung to each other.
The red tortoise ran up to the children, gazed down at them as if from
the roof of a barn and angrily rustled its whiskers.
Karik and Valya jumped up and with a scream and shout took to their
heels.
They dashed past the green cows which were peacefully grazing on the
leaf meadow and ran up to the very edge of the leaf.
There was no further escape possible.
A thirsty journey - The cafe in the grass jungle - The assault on a
forest stronghold - The battle with the ants - Under the mushroom - The
flood
KARIK AND VALYA STOOD ON THE VERY EDGE OF THE LEAF. BELOW, under their
feet, there swayed the tops of trees and through the chinks between the
leaves far below could be seen the ground.
Jump down? They could hardly jump from such a height.
Valya gripped Karik's hand firmly.
The red tortoise had crawled quite close. Another minute and it would
hurl itself on the children, kill them, carry them off and eat them.
"Don't be frightened! Don't be frightened!" the children suddenly heard
the voice of the Professor, "It is a lady-bird. It won't touch you. Come
over here."
"It won't touch you!" whispered Valya, hiding behind Karik.
Not for a moment taking his eyes off the tortoise-monster, Karik moved
sideways past it.
"Now, now! be brave!" encouraged the Professor.
The children turned abruptly and dashed away at full speed to the green
cows.
Hardly drawing breath they then darted towards the Professor, stumbling
now and then in their flight across the leaf. They finally managed to hide
behind his broad back.
"It is quite harmless!" said the Professor. "No need to worry!"
"May be harmless but it's very alarming!" puffed Valya. "Oy! Look what
this harmless creature is up to!" The lady-bird had reached the herd of
green cows and stopping suddenly struck down one of the cows with its paws
like a lion and trampling on it, squeezing it with the weight of its body,
proceeded to suck it. In a few seconds nothing of the cow remained except
its skin.
The lady-bird proceeded to knock down one after the other.
It trampled on them, sucked them like grapes and threw away the skins.
By the time the children had recovered their senses there was not a
single one of the plant lice left on the leaf.
Having devoured the lice the ladybird wiped its whiskers with an
enormous paw and kicking the skins out of its way moved over to the edge of
the leaf.
Here it raised its armour and pushed out from under it a transparent
flinty-like tail and two heavy trough-shaped wings, after which the armour
fell back with a clacking noise. Then with a creaking rustle two more wings
appeared this time, delicate and transparent. They started to beat violently
up and down, disappearing from view with their speed, like propellers. A
stream of air beat in the faces of the travellers. The lady-bird was off,
away above the forest.
"So that's a lady-bird!" said Valya. "Sucks them all dry-in a most
lady-like manner and flies away!"
"Yes, most excellent," said the Professor. "Just what is needed.
Couldn't be better."
"Excellent?"
"Of course. It is most important to get rid of these lice in every
possible way. But probably the best method of fighting the lice is the
lady-bird beetle. In America they collect these lady-birds in baskets and in
spring-time release them wherever there are lice. The lady-bird hunters have
special maps provided for them showing the places in which the lady-bird
usually winters. They go to these places and collect them."
"But why is it necessary to get rid of the lice?" asked Valya. "They
have such nice milk."
"The milk is all right," agreed the Professor, "but the lice themselves
are very harmful creatures and what is more they have so many children and
multiply so rapidly. But for the lady-birds the lice would be most difficult
to combat."
"In what way are they harmful?"
"They attack the leaves of fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. In
fact, there is hardly a plant on which you might not find lice."
"What do they actually do?"
"The lice suck the sap out of the plant, but this is only half the
evil. The green milk which you found so nice to taste, gums up the pores of
the leaf so that it cannot breathe and grow. The leaf naturally dies. But if
the leaves perish it just means that you can't expect either fruit or
vegetables. However, it is all very well to talk. We have had our rest, it's
high time to step out. Come on, my dears!"
But before climbing down from the tree the Professor scanned the
horizon for his beacon.
Away in the west above the foliage of the grassy jungle there fluttered
in the wind an enormous red flag.
"Aha," he muttered, turning to climb down, "we must go westward. Keep
going towards the sun."
He jumped down on to the ground.
"Forward!" he shouted, and stepping off through the glade began to sing
like the wind in a chimney.
"Forward! the bugles blow,
To battle most glorious.
Forward! with eyes aglow,
The children victorious."
Valya frowned and stuck her fingers in her ears. Karik waved his hand:
let the old boy sing, after all every human being has some sort of a
weakness.
The Professor was only human.
The travellers were passing through a forest. Tall trees, without any
branches or even knots, surrounded them like giant radio masts.
The sun's rays falling from above made golden streaks on the ground so
that their path seemed across a blanket striped with yellow.
The travellers now clambered up steep, practically vertical mountain
sides, now tobogganed downwards raising thick clouds of dust behind them.
Deep valleys were succeeded by high peaks. The forest followed down to the
bottom of the ravines and up to the ridges of the mountains.
The soil was all full of holes and terribly rough. The arms and legs of
the Professor and the children became covered with scratches and weals.
Valya had a great blue bruise on her forehead. Karik's nose was all
swollen and he had a great scratch right across his chest.
The children were puffing but the Professor would not slacken his pace.
The sun started to burn their shoulders and arms painfully. The
Professor had to wipe his dripping face continually with the palm of his
hand. Valya became as scarlet as if she had been plunged in boiling water.
"What ho for Africa!" Karik tried to joke. "Another day like this and
we shall start to moult our skins. We shall be all striped like Zebras."
The Professor and Valya remained silent. They licked their cracked lips
and looked from side to side hoping for the glitter of water in some pond or
river.
There was no sign of water.
"You just can't imagine how I want a drink!" Valya at length could not
contain herself any longer.
"And you just can't imagine," croaked Karik, "how my tongue feels. Just
as if pepper had been shaken all over it."
"Don't be discouraged!" the Professor comforted the children. "There
must be water somewhere fairly close."
Valya soon became quite exhausted.
"Let's rest!" Every ten minutes or so she had to rest again.
The travellers would stop and sit down. But sitting on the baking earth
was even worse than walking over it. After a minute or so they would have to
jump up and start off again.
"My goodness," gruff-gruffed the Professor, "it's just like travelling
in the Sahara desert."
Valya staggered along.
"A drink! a drink!" she whimpered.
Karik moved as if in a dream, stumbling and bumping up against the
trees.
And suddenly through a clearing in the forest there was a glimpse of
blue.
"Water!" shouted Valya rushing ahead.
The Professor and Karik forgot their tiredness. One after the other
they chased after Valya.
The clearing in the forest widened.
There amid the green vegetation hung a great blue flower but no sign of
water.
Valya flung herself on the ground.
"I - I can't go any further," she groaned.
"Stick to it! stick to it!" grunted the Professor, "in a very little
time we shall find water."
He put his arms around Valya and pulled her up.
"We must keep going! Come along, little Valya!"
Cold refreshing water now taunted them every step they took, for right
and left where ever they looked they saw the blue of the water they needed.
But when the exhausted travellers stumbled towards it every time the
blue turned into a flower.
"A drink! I must drink!" groaned Valya.
"Water," Karik whispered with dry lips.
The Professor stumbled and fell face downwards on the ground. The
children threw themselves down beside him.
They could hear the monsters of the grass jungle rustling past them.
Backwards and forwards the insects went so that it seemed that the
travellers might have been resting at some busy crossroads. However, they
were too tired to pay any attention to the passers-by. One caterpillar
passed so close that it trod on Valya's hand but they none of them stirred.
"Water !"
"Wa-ater!" groaned the children.
Swaying from side to side the Professor stood up.
They must move on. But which way? In which direction would they find
water.
He leant against a tree and with his head stuck forward upon his breast
he stared gloomily at the ground.
Suddenly right beside him an earthy hillock started to move. Stones
fell from its top to the ground around. Then suddenly the hillock split
open. Long feelers stuck up into the air and from within the hillock a huge
head appeared and then a dark body with a yellow edge slid out of the
ground.
"Saved!" shouted the Professor.
The children raised their heads from the ground.
"Get up! Here's the water!" he continued.
Having grasped the last word, the children both struggled up.
"Give us a drink !"
"In a minute or two you'll have a whole river but now we must accompany
a very good friend of mine who is going to the water."
The Professor waved his hand to where at one side there stood the
monster with the yellow streak cleaning the dust and dirt from its body. It
was like a beetle of some sort, only this beetle was the size of a
motor-bus.
"What is this?" whispered Karik.
"Dytiscus, the water beetle! It will lead us to the water!" said the
Professor.
The water beetle stretched out its whiskers, turned to the right and
confidently went ahead crashing its way through the grassy trees.
The travellers ran behind it.
They had all become more cheerful. Karik's eyes were glistening.
"But how does the water beetle know where the water is?" he croaked.
"Very simple, considering it lives and hunts in water. It could hardly
get on without knowing."
"Where did it come from?"
"Out of the earth."
"But why?" marvelled Valya.
"Well, it is such an amazing creature, is this water beetle."
As they followed in the wake of the beetle the Professor went on:
"They reproduce themselves by means of eggs which they stick to water
plants.
"In a month or so the eggs hatch and larvae come out like caterpillars,
but with the temperaments of tigers. These courageous and greedy larvas will
attack pretty well any inhabitant of the water even fish, which are many
times their size. When the larvae are full grown they creep out of the water
and finding a peaceful, comfortable spot they bury themselves in the earth.
Here they turn first of all into a chrysalis and then into a large ordinary
beetle. The beetle comes out of the ground - you yourselves saw this happen
- and sets out on a career of piracy in its proper realm - in water."
"But how does it know where the water is?"
"Well, how do birds know which is south when they fly away from us in
the Autumn to winter in a warm climate?"
The Professor was talking without stopping. He knew well that a journey
seems much shorter to those who travel talking.
"This beetle," he continued, "is perhaps one of the most remarkable
creatures in the world. You can come across it in any water butt. When you
next see one look at it closely. Think, my dears, it charges over the water
like a speed boat, dives like a diving duck, is able to sit at the bottom of
a pond longer than a human diver, travels under the water as well as any
submarine, flies through the air like an aeroplane and walks on dry land
like a human. You do not meet a creature like that everyday. Once I was - "
"Water!" screamed Valya.
Without waiting to hear what the Professor had to say both children
rushed ahead.
Amid green foliage there was now mirrored a blue unruffled expanse of
water.
The beetle made for the steep bank of the lake, hurled itself down into
the water and vanished. Circles of waves spread across the mirror.
"Water !"
"Water!"
On the bank of the lake there stood a tree with huge blue flowers. Dark
leaves cast a dense cool shadow on the ground beneath.
Karik, not waiting, ran down a slope, jumped down and stretching out
his arms flung himself in the water like the beetle had done.
He splashed himself and, burying his face in the water, drank. Then he
sat up spluttering and laughing.
There was no more tiredness.
"Quickly!" he shouted. "Come here quickly before I have drunk it all
up."
Limping and stumbling, the Professor and Valya made their way to the
bank. They too jumped into the water, raising a cloud of spray and at once
started to drink: burying their poor lips, cracked from the heat, in the
cool water.
"Oo! Good, isn't it." Valya raised her head. Her nose was wet and water
dripped from her cheeks and chin.
"Let's bathe! Bathe!" the Professor ordered, as he squeezed his wet
beard.
Having bathed to their hearts' content the travellers came up from the
water's edge, dried themselves in the sun and then betaking themselves into
the glade stretched out in the cool shadow of the tree with blue flowers.
Thus they lay motionless, silent, gazing through the openings in the
trees above them at the distant blue sky, lazily listening to the noises of
the grassy jungle.
Suddenly the Professor stood up and hitching up his clothes went over
to the tree and grasped a green branch with both hands.
"Where are you off to?" the children shouted. "Don't disturb
yourselves. I'll be back in a minute." The Professor started to climb the
tree. The children looked at each other. "We'll climb too !" said Valya.
"We'll climb!"
They jumped up and jostling each other darted to the tree, but they had
not succeeded in getting hold of the lowest branch when something above them
made a tearing noise as if someone was ripping a strong piece of cloth.
"Catch it, children !" Karik and Valya stretched out their arms. Something
blue was coming down through the air. Lazily it circled and swayed until it
seemed about to cover the children in what appeared to be a huge blue
bedcover.
The children skipped out of the way.
The bedcover fell quite gently at their feet.
"Whatever is it?" shouted Karik, bending over the blue bedcover.
"A forget. me-not petal!" shouted the Professor from above.
"What are we to do with it?" asked Valya.
"Do with it? We can make ourselves clothes and umbrellas. I don't know
about you, but my back is already covered with blisters from sunburn."
The Professor threw down some more petals.
The children collected them and laid them in a heap.
Valya threw one of the petals up on to her head. The petal was big and
broad. It drooped down over her shoulders and covered her hot back like a
rubber cape.
"Well, how about it?" asked the Professor, jumping down from the tree.
"Thanks awfully!" replied Valya.
The Professor took the petal, bent it in his hands until it was in
halves, then he bent it over the other way and bit the corner off with his
teeth.
"Oo-ough! It's tough enough," he said, and carefully unfolded the
petal.
In the middle of the petal there now appeared an uneven hole with
ragged edges.
"Now put your head through here!" commanded the Professor.
The petal soon lay soft, cool and protecting, upon Valya's sunburnt
shoulders.
It covered Valya from the shoulders to the knees.
"Grand!" approved Karik. "Something like a shroud."
"Not a shroud!" said the Professor. "A floral cape. You must have one
now. These capes will save you from the sun by day and from the cold by
night."
The little party soon looked as if they belonged to some travelling
circus. The Professor and the children garbed in blue capes proceeded on
their way in single file.
In their hands they carried long sticks, to the ends of which had been
fastened pieces of petal. These blue umbrellas swayed above their heads,
throwing a shadow on their faces. They were a splendid protection from the
scorching rays of the sun.
The Professor tramped on whistling a march. Karik and Valya hummed the
same tune where possible.
The forest became thinner. The travellers came out on to a sunny field.
Overhead huge winged creatures as big as cows were droning. Flashing their
transparent wings they darted past so near that Karik and Valya had either
to duck or to stop in terror.
"You needn't worry about these insects," smiled the Professor.
"Remember each one has its own regular habitual food. Dragon-flies, for
example, feed on flies and butterflies, bees on the honey in flowers. Many
of the flying insects actually never eat anything. They come into the world
just to lay their eggs, after which they die. Quite a number of these do not
even have a mouth. As you can see, it is just as safe here as in a town. I
am quite certain that none of these insects would consider us as dainties to
be eaten. . . ."
The Professor did not finish his sentence. He suddenly seized Karik and
Valya by the arms and pulled them to himself. The children fell sprawling on
the ground with the Professor stretched out beside them.
"Ts-s," hissed the Professor, pressing himself to the earth. At that
moment something whistled over the heads of the travellers and crashed
noisily into the undergrowth of the forest.
The travellers hastily covered themselves with their umbrellas. "What
is it?" "What's that?"
The Professor cautiously peeped out from under his umbrella. Not far
away behind a dark hillock there could be seen the green back of some
creature glistening in the sun above the tops of the trees. This back was
now rising, now falling, then the creature slid sideways, jumped upwards
and, having in one flash spread its wings, disappeared.
"A grasshopper!" said the Professor, standing up and dusting himself.
Karik quickly nudged Valya in the side. "Surely a grasshopper wouldn't
find us a dainty morsel?". he asked slyly.
"Look here," gruff-gruffed the Professor in confusion. "A grasshopper
is a treacherous beast. How am I to know what might enter its head. Caution
never did anybody any harm, my dears."
The travellers moved on in no particular hurry.
They made their way forward, wading across rivers, swimming across
small ponds and making their way through the thick growth of the jungle.
The Professor pointed out first this, then that particular grassy tree
and told the children interesting stories about various plants. Apparently
there was not such a thing as a grass or flower that simply grew without
being of some use for mankind.
Suddenly Valya seized the Professor by the arm.
"Look! " she shouted. "Look! What's that?"
They all stopped in front of some thick undergrowth.
"Where? What are you looking at?"
"Over there! There they are! Lying in wait for us."
"I don't see anything!" frowned the Professor. Putting his hand to his
eyes like a peak of a cap, he craned his neck, stood on tip-toe and gazed
attentively at the undergrowth.
"I see! I can see!" said Karik. "They are round and they are moving."
"But where do you see them?" asked the Professor, in some alarm.
He stepped forward and then suddenly burst out laughing.
"Nothing to worry about there. You'll see yourselves when we get nearer
to these forest monsters. Come on." And with big strides he moved towards
the lair of these fearsome creatures.
The children followed behind him.
They could now distinguish quite clearly brown balls hanging from the
grassy trees. At a distance they were like footballs, but as one approached
they seemed to be balloons bigger than the Professor. The walls of these
brown balloons were made of twigs and pieces of earth.
"Can you guess what these are?" asked the Professor, stopping.
"Oy!" shouted Valya. "Round houses! Look at all the tenants. This is a
forest hotel. The 'Insects' Hotel Metropole'."
"Or it may be a forest restaurant - 'Insects' Help-yourselves Cafe',"
grinned Karik.
Yellow six-legged animals were crawling over the broad bulging walls.
They staggered out of dark entrances and lazily • crawled in various
directions then once again came together, felt each other with their
whiskers and waddling in a ridiculous way, disappeared into the dark
entrances of their round house.
"But these are plant lice!" interjected Karik. "How is it that they are
yellow?"
"Very simple," answered the Professor, "this kind of lice takes the
colour of their dwelling. In the far north all birds and beasts are white in
colour to match the snow, but in the south animals have splashes of
different colours to match the splashes of sun and shadow seen in the
southern forests and plains. Surely you know that?"
"It is in order to enable them to hide more easily?" Karik said
questioningly.
The Professor nodded his head.
"Both to enable them to hide more easily and also to creep up
unobserved by their prey. The markings on the skin of a giraffe enables it
to hide more easily but the markings on a tiger's skin help it to come up to
its victims unobserved.
He went up to one of the round brown houses, examined it from all sides
and even tapped it with the stick of his umbrella.
"Beautiful work! Excellent! Conscientious workers!" he said. "They are
great boys are ants!"
"Ants? Surely they didn't build it?"
"Certainly."
"But why then are the plant lice living in it?"
"Just because it happens to be an ants' dairy farm." The Professor
waved his blue umbrella and said:
"Just as mankind breeds cows, so ants herd plant lice. Not only do they
breed them but they protect them from enemies.
And to prevent the rain washing their cows away they build them these
house farms."
"And how do the ants carry the milk away?"
"Why carry it? The ants come here and drink the milk."
Karik grinned cheerfully.
"It's not so much a farm as a cafeteria."
"Some types of ants," continued the Professor, "chase the plant lice
into their ant hills when winter starts and feed on fresh milk for the whole
winter without ever coming out of their ant hill."
"Gunning!" whistled Karik. "But I read somewhere that ants slept
through the winter and did not eat anything."
"That is perfectly true, but not of all the ants. In ant hills some of
the ants are always on watch. These are the ones that feed on the plant lice
milk."
"These must be the white ants who feed during the winter!" said Valya.
"I also read about them. They live in Africa and they are called termites."
"Oh, Valya, you have muddled it up. There are no such things as white
ants. And termites are not ants although they resemble ants in build.
Termites are nearer dragonflies than ants."
"And are there no white ants?"
"No! There are black, chestnut, red, blood-red and yellow ants. There
are ant sculptors, ant miners, stone quarriers, cowherds, agriculturists,
honey ants, umbrella ants and solitary ants. Then you have by no means
exhausted their occupations."
* * * * * *
Still talking about ants, the travellers came to a precipice which fell
sharply away down to a green valley surrounded with low hills.
Light clouds floated above the hills.
The tops of the hills were flooded with the orange tints of the early
evening sun.
''Look !'' exclaimed Valya, suddenly. "Egyptian pyramids. Look ! Do
look!"
In the middle of the valley there rose a queer-shaped hill.
It was made of dark beams covered over with earth. Hanging galleries
covered the sides of the pyramid and appeared to slope downwards in spirals.
"Ants!" said the Professor. "Black ants. These are evidently the owners
of the farms we have just passed."
Long-bodied just like greyhounds, the ants were fussing around their
ant hill. They thrust backwards and forwards, ran jostling each other along
the hanging galleries. Knocking each other down, getting up again, and
running, running, running. Apparently they had been frightened by something.
They were carrying great white cocoons and dragging these in through the