kenneth looked at it angrily, then turned over the other pages. they were just the same as the first one. he tore up the sheets and threw them on the ground. it was only an april fool letter, after all!
“april fool!” cried a voice, echoing the same hateful words. “april fool! ha! ha! what a joke!” it was a funny little voice, louder than those of the flowers, and, instead of being silvery sweet like theirs, it was harsh and disagreeable. kenneth glanced up, and there, perched on the railing of the summer-house, was the queerest little fellow, making the most horrible faces. with a bound the figure sprang inside, and kenneth saw him more clearly. he was certainly a fairy, for he had wings, gauzy and beautiful, growing from his shoulders. but his dress was unlike[39] that of any fairy whom kenneth had met. it reminded him, however, of pictures that he had sometimes seen in books. this fairy wore a suit half of red and half of yellow; one leg and one shoe were red and the other yellow. his doublet was divided likewise, and likewise the funny hood which he wore about his shoulders. the borders of his costume were cut into points, and from every point hung a little bell that jingled and jangled mischievously whenever the imp moved about—which was continually. his cap had two long pointed ears, and in his hand he carried a wand, on the end of which was a copy of himself dressed in red and yellow, and tinkly with many bells. he was a very funny figure, and his mouth stretched from ear to ear in a grin which made kenneth laugh, too. but kenneth soon stopped laughing; for there was something about the imp’s smile that was not kindly, and that made one half afraid.
“who are you?” asked kenneth, trying to[40] seem very bold. “and what are you laughing at? i don’t see anything so very funny at this moment.”
“oh, don’t you?” grinned the imp. “april fool! i do. i am april fool. why, don’t you know me?” and turning around he showed kenneth a large placard, such as he had himself often made, pinned to one of the points of the imp’s doublet. “april fool!” it read. kenneth began to understand.
“oh, you are april fool, are you?” he said. “i never saw you before.”
“ho! you never saw me? no, but you have used my name often enough. you remember april fool’s day every year? aha! those were good tricks you played, though to be sure most of them were old enough—old as i am, and that is old indeed, i can tell you, my little joker. but they are good jokes, are they not? one never tires of them, does one?” and again he grinned at kenneth maliciously.
“n-no,” said kenneth, doubtfully, looking again at the pieces of the torn april fool letter and rubbing his eyes, which still smarted from the snuff. “but i think jokes are funnier when one looks on, don’t you?”
“ha! ha!” laughed the imp. “that is the best joke of all. why, some folk seem to think as you do. but not i! now i love a good joke for its own sake better than anything else in the world. i am always in it, for i am the joke itself. ha, ha!”
“then it is you who have made all these things happen to me,” said kenneth angrily. “what do you mean by it?”
“ha! ha! don’t you know what night it is? to-morrow is the first of april! what can you expect in fairyland except the very biggest of jokes? this is my night. but come, now, don’t be sulky. it is only a joke after all, and you are such a joker yourself that you ought to take these little matters very cheerfully. come with me.”
“i don’t want to come with you,” said[42] kenneth, hanging back. “i want to go home.”
“nonsense, you cannot go home yet,” answered the imp. “it is not nearly morning. now that you have come you must stay here until the time is up.”
“then i want my good fairy guide,” said kenneth.
“ho!” cried the other in scorn. “she is too silly-kind, too goody-goody. she has no real sense of fun, poor thing.”
“i like her fun best,” insisted kenneth. “please take me to her.”
“oh, very well,” said april fool carelessly. “if you insist i will bring you to her. but first you must have something to eat, for it is a long journey. are you not hungry, poor boy?”
kenneth confessed that he was very hungry. “then we will go to the kitchen garden,” replied the imp; “and there you can feast as much as you like.”
“oh, yes! i have been to the kitchen[43] garden,” cried kenneth, brightening. “the good fairy took me there; it is a lovely place!”
he followed april fool out of the summer-house into a narrow path leading on and on and on between green hedgerows full of blossoms. overhead the birds sang sweetly, and the sky was blue. kenneth began to feel very happy. at last, in the distance, he caught sight of the kitchen garden, as he well remembered it, with its tall pie-fruit trees, its cooky bushes, its eclair plants, and its ice-cream fountains. the glimpse made him so hungry that he could hardly wait to be there, and he ran ahead, outstripping april fool himself.
“that is right! hurry, my boy!” cried the imp heartily. and kenneth skipped on happily. but suddenly bump! went his head and his knee against something hard, and he came to a dizzy stop, hardly knowing what had happened. there lay the kitchen garden just beyond, but something had stopped him[44] and would not let him pass, something which he could not see.
“ha! ha! april fool again!” laughed the imp, holding his sides for merriment. “don’t you see through this joke? why, it is perfectly transparent.”
sure enough! kenneth put out his hand, and found that it was a wall of glass, which stretched across the path from hedge to hedge; a gateless wall which he could by no means climb over, but through which he could plainly see all the dainties on the other side. kenneth groaned. “oh, i am so hungry! what a cruel, cruel joke!”
“jokes do seem cruel sometimes,” admitted april fool; “but they are such fun! oh, my, oh, my! how queer you did look when you bumped against that wall!” and he burst out laughing once more.
“well, are you going to let me in?” asked kenneth, trying to keep his temper, though he thought the joke in very poor taste, like most of april fool’s tricks.
“oh, no, we cannot enter here,” said the imp. “this is only an impracticable window. we shall have to go around by another way, a détour of some miles. but this time i really promise to take you to the kitchen garden.”
kenneth was very angry, but he began to suspect that he must let april fool have his own way on this night. they turned back down the narrow path and began a long, tiresome journey round about and round about to the garden which they had already seen so near.
and what a journey that was! beset by so many surprises, shocks, and practical jokes that kenneth was nearly frantic before they had seen the end. they were crossing a bridge over a pretty little stream, when in the middle—crash! the whole structure gave way, and down they fell, with a sickening sinking feeling—fully three feet! then the bridge came to rest on the magic springs which were made to complete this jouncy joke. after this their way led through a pitch-black cavern,[46] which was so silent that kenneth could hear his heart beat as he felt his way along. suddenly there was an awful roar, like the growl of hundreds of wild beasts let loose. kenneth screamed with fright, but the imp cried out, “april fool!” and immediately the cave was filled with light, showing only an innocent sound-machine which had made all this commotion.
they came within sight of a broad brook, which the imp said they must cross. kenneth took off his shoes and stockings to wade and stepped down to the margin. but what was his anger to find that it was only a wide mirror over which they were able to pass dry-shod. that was a famous joke, to judge by the imp’s shrieks of laughter when he saw kenneth put out his foot to wade into the glassy stream. but kenneth had become so tired of such fun that he did not even smile.
kenneth grew thirsty, and they stopped to drink at a fountain which gushed clear and sparkling by the wayside. but at the first[47] draught kenneth found his mouth full of horrid, briny water, such as one swallows by mistake when one is bathing in the sea. poor boy! this made him all the thirstier, but he was resolved not to show april fool how wretched and unhappy he really was.
