"No," said Tommy Kwikstep.
"Then she wasn't Old Mombi," remarked the transformed
Emperor.
"I'm not interested in who it wasn't, so much as I am
in who it was," said the twenty-legged young man. "And,
whatever or whomsoever she was, she has managed to keep
out of my way."
"If you found her, do you suppose she'd change you
back into a two-legged boy?" asked Woot.
"Perhaps so, if I could run another errand for her
and so earn another wish."
"Would you really like to be as you were before?"
asked Polychrome the Canary, perching upon the Green
Monkey's shoulder to observe Tommy Kwikstep more
attentively.
"I would, indeed," was the earnest reply.
"Then I will see what I can do for you," promised the
Rainbow's Daughter, and flying to the ground she took a
small twig in her bill and with it made several mystic
figures on each side of Tommy Kwikstep.
"Are you a witch, or fairy, or something of the
sort?" he asked as he watched her wonderingly.
The Canary made no answer, for she was busy, but the
Scarecrow Bear replied: "Yes; she's something of the
sort, and a bird of a magician."
The twenty-legged boy's transformation happened so
queerly that they were all surprised at its method.
First, Tommy Kwikstep's last two legs disappeared; then
the next two, and the next, and as each pair of legs
vanished his body shortened. All this while Polychrome
was running around him and chirping mystical words, and
when all the young man's legs had disappeared but two
he noticed that the Canary was still busy and cried out
in alarm:
"Stop -- stop! Leave me two of my legs, or I shall be
worse off than before.
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