By this time the albatross was hovering about among the vessels, making choice of one to take Jack and the fairies up the wonderful river.
"It must not be a large one," she said, "for the river in some places is very shallow."
Jack would have liked very much to have a fine three-master, all to himself; but then he considered that he did not know anything about sails and rigging, he thought it would be just as well to be contented with whatever the albatross might choose, so he let her set him down in a beautiful little open boat, with a great carved figurehead to it. There he seated himself in great state, and the albatross perched herself on the next bench and faced him.
"You remember my name?" asked the albatross.
"Oh yes," said Jack; but he was not attending he was thinking what a fine thing it was to have such a curious boat all to himself.
"That's well," answered the bird; "then, in the next place, are those fairies awake yet?"
"No, they are not," said Jack; and he took them out of his pockets and laid them down in a row before the albatross.
"They are certainly asleep," said the bird. "Put them away again, and take care of them. Mind you don't lose any of them, for I really don't know what will happen if you do. Now I have one more thing to say to you, and that is, are you hungry?"
"Rather," said Jack.
"Then," replied the albatross, "as soon as you feel very hungry, lie down in the bottom of the boat and go to sleep. You will dream that you see before you a roasted fowl, some new potatoes and an apple pie. Mind you don't eat too much in your dream, or you will be sorry for it when you wake. That is all. Goodbye! I must go."
Jack put his arms round the neck of the bird and hugged her; then she spread her magnificent wings and sailed slowly away. At first he felt very lonely; but in a few minutes he forgot that, because the little boat began to swim so fast.
She was not sailing, for she had no sail, and he was not rowing, for he had no oars; so I am obliged to call her motion swimming, because I don't know of a better word. In less than a quarter of an hour they passed close under the bows of a splendid three-decker, a seventy-gun ship. The gannets[4] who live in those parts had taken possession of her, and she was so covered with nests that you could not have walked one step on her deck without treading on them. The father birds were aloft in the rigging, or swimming in the warm green sea, and they made such a clamor when they saw Jack that they nearly woke the fairies nearly, but not quite, for the little things turned round in Jack's pockets, and sneezed, and began to snore again.
Then the boat swam past a fine brig. Some sea fairies had just flung her cargo overboard, and were playing at leapfrog on deck. These were not at all like Jack's own fairies; they were about the same height and size as himself, and they had brown faces, and red flannel shirts and red caps on. A large fleet of the pearly nautilus was collected close under the vessel's lee. The little creatures were feasting on what the sea fairies had thrown overboard, and Jack's boat, in its eagerness to get on, went plunging through them so roughly that several were capsized. Upon this the brown sea fairies looked over, and called out angrily: "Boat ahoy!" and the boat stopped.
"Tell that boat of yours to mind what she is about," said the fairy sea-captain to Jack.
Jack touched his cap, and said: "Yes, sir," and then called out to his boat: "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, running down these little live fishing-vessels so carelessly. Go at a more gentle pace."
So it swam more slowly; and Jack, being by this time hungry, curled himself up in the bottom of the boat and fell asleep.
He dreamt directly about a fowl and some potatoes, and he ate a wing, and then he ate a merrythought, and then somebody said to him that he had better not eat any more, but he did, he ate another wing; and presently an apple pie came, and he ate some of that, and then he ate some more, and then he immediately woke.
"Now that bird told me not to eat too much," said Jack, "and yet I have done it. I never felt so full in my life," and for more than half an hour he scarcely noticed anything.
At last he lifted up his head, and saw straight before him two great brown cliffs, and between them flowed in the wonderful river. Other rivers flow out, but this river flowed in, and took with it far into the land dolphins, swordfish, mullet, sunfish and many other strange creatures; and that is one reason why it was called the magic river, or the wonderful river.
At first it was rather wide, and Jack was alarmed to see what multitudes of soldiers stood on either side to guard the banks and prevent any person from landing.
He wondered how he should get the fairies on shore. However, in about an hour the river became much narrower, and then Jack saw that the guards were not real soldiers, but rose-colored flamingoes[5]. There they stood in long regiments among the reeds, and never stirred. They are the only foot-soldiers the fairies have in their pay; they are very fierce, and never allow anything but a fairy ship to come up the river.
They guarded the banks for miles and miles, many thousands of them, standing a little way into the water among the flags and rushes; but at last there were no more reeds and no soldier guards, for the stream became narrower, and flowed between such steep rocks that no one could possibly have climbed them.
CHAPTER THREE
Winding-up Time
Jack looked at these hot brown rocks, first on the left bank and then on the right, till he was quite tired; but at last the shore on the right bank became flat, and he saw a beautiful little bay, where the water was still and where grass grew down to the brink.
He was so much pleased at this change that he cried out hastily: "Oh, how I wish my boat would swim into that bay and let me land!" He had no sooner spoken than the boat altered her course, as if somebody had been steering her, and began to make for the bay as fast as she could go.
"How odd!" thought Jack. "I wonder whether I ought to have spoken; for the boat certainly did not intend to come into this bay. However, I think I will let her alone now, for I certainly do wish very much to land here."
As they drew towards the strand the water got so shallow that you could see crabs and lobsters walking about at the bottom. At last the boat's keel grated on the pebbles; and just as Jack began to think of jumping on shore he saw two little old women approaching and gently driving a white horse before them.
The horse had panniers[6], one on each side; and when his feet were in the water he stood still; and Jack said to one of the old women: "Will you be so kind as to tell me whether this is Fairyland?"
"What does he say?" asked one old woman of the other.
5
flamingoes Carroll's Alice used flamingoes as mallets in the croquet game in which soldiers formed arches