THE DUCHESS BREDENBUTTA'S VISIT TO TURVYLAND


The Duchess Bredenbutta was forty-seventh cousin to the Monarch of Mo
and great-grandniece to the Queen; so you can readily see she was
nearly related to the Princess Pattycake and had blue blood in her
veins. She lived in a pretty house on the banks of Rootbeer River, and
one of her favorite amusements was to row on the river in her boat,
which, although rather small, was light as a cork.

One day, as usual, the Duchess went for a row on the river, expecting
to return home in about an hour; but after floating a long distance
down the stream she fell asleep in the boat and did not awake until she
felt a sudden shock.

Then, sitting up and looking about her, she found, to her alarm, that
the boat had drifted to the end of the Land of Mo, and was in the
rapids leading to the Great Hole in the ground where the river
disappeared from view. Becoming very much frightened, Bredenbutta
looked for the oars of her boat, that she might row to the bank; but
soon she discovered that the oars had fallen overboard and were lost,
leaving her without any means of saving herself.

The poor Duchess now began to cry out; but no one heard her. Gradually
the boat came nearer and nearer to the Great Hole, now bumping against
the rocks and now spinning around with the current, until at last it
paused for an instant on the very brink of the chasm down which the
river fell.

The girl seized the sides of the boat in a firm grasp, and the next