The Magic Soap Bubble

NED had been reading a very interesting book about fairies and goblins, and how these real queer little folk inhabit dense forests and lofty mountain caves and lead a wonderful life apart from the homes and cities of men.

The book was very large and heavy, and the afternoon was very warm, and the big armchair in which he was curled up was so comfortable that by and by he let the book slip to one side.

He had just closed his eyes for a moment to rest them, when he was startled by a little squeaky voice at his elbow.

He opened his eyes with a start and saw a Gnome standing on the window-sill just in front of him. Yes, there was no mistake about it, it was a Gnome. For had not Ned a moment before seen his picture in the big book he had been reading? Indeed, it almost seemed as if the picture itself had stepped out of the page from between the covers, so exactly a duplicate did the little man appear.

"Hello, Ned!" said the little squeaky voice again. "I say, hello! You ought to know me well enough by this time to answer, since you've been reading about me for the last hour."

"Hello, yourself!" replied Ned, laughing in spite of himself, and rubbing his eyes again to make sure that it was not a picture from the book.

[Illustration]

"Can't you see a fellow is sleepy after reading so long a time? I didn't think you were coming out of the book to speak to me, you know."

"Neither did I," retorted the Gnome, with a funny wink. "I came from the forest to invite you to take a little journey with me through Gnomeland. I am the King of the Gnomes, and my subjects have told me how interested you are in reading about us, so I have come to take you for a trip through our kingdom. I know you will love to see all the wonderful things you have been reading about. Will you come?"

"Indeed, I will," said Ned.

"Then follow me," replied the Gnome.

Ned jumped through the window after the little fellow, who ran swiftly down the walk and across the fields to the forest beyond.

As they neared the brook that ran through the meadow, the Gnome paused. Taking from his pocket a clay pipe, he stooped over and filled it with water.

"Did you ever blow soap bubbles?" he asked, taking a piece of soap from another pocket and rubbing it carefully around the inside of the pipe-bowl.

"Yes," replied Ned, "lots of times."

"Well, you wait and see what sort of a bubble I'll blow," replied the Gnome.

It was a bubble! But the strangest part of it all was that Ned found himself inside of it with his companion.

"How did we get inside, or how did the bubble get around us?" asked Ned, but before his question was answered away went the bubble up in the air, across the meadow, above the little brook, yes, over the roof of his own house, higher and higher, until finally it reached the big high mountain that he had so often dimly seen from the window of his bedroom at home.

After circling about the highest peak the bubble at length safely landed on a rocky ledge.

Before Ned could ask how they were ever going to get out the Gnome opened a little door through which he led him to the outer air.

There was a great change in the temperature, or else the inside of the bubble was very warm, for Ned began to shiver and shake. "Who-o-!" he cried; "it's co-old!"

"Of course it is. Look," answered the Gnome, and Ned's eyes, following the pointing finger of his little friend, fell upon a strange and terrifying figure.