"Julia's got the bug, too." Billy's eyes lighted with a gleam of
tenderness. "Among the things she found in the trunk was a box of white
silk stockings and some moccasins. She's taken to wearing them lately.
It always puts a crimp in me to get a glimpse of them - as if she'd
suddenly become a normal, civilized woman."
"Now that I think of it," Frank again came out of his book. "Chiquita
asked me a little while ago for a pair of shoes. She's wearing them all
the time now to protect her feet - from the sun she says."
"It is the most curious thing," Billy said, "that they have never wanted
to walk. Not that I want them to now," he added hastily. "That's their
greatest charm in my eyes - their helplessness. It has a curious appeal.
But it is singular that they never even tried it, if only out of
curiosity."
"They have great contempt for walking," Honey observed. "And it has
never occurred to them, apparently, that they could enjoy themselves so
much more if they could only get about freely. Not that I want them to -
any more than you. That utter helplessness is, as you say, appealing."
"Oh, well," Ralph said contemptuously, "what can you expect of them? I
tell you it's lack of gray matter. They don't cerebrate. They don't
co-ordinate. They don't correlate. They have no initiative, no creative
faculty, no mental curiosity or reflexes or reactions. They're nothing
but an unrelated bunch of instincts, intuitions, and impulses - human
nonsense machines! Why if the positions were reversed and we'd lost our
wings, we'd have been trying to walk the first day. We'd have been
walking better than they by the end of a month."
"I like it just as it is," Pete said contentedly. "They can't fly and
they don't want to walk. We always know where to find them."
"Thank God we don't have to consider that matter," Billy concluded.
Apparently the walking impulse isn't in them. They might some time, by
hook or crook, wheedle us into letting them fly a little. But one thing
is certain, they'll never take a step on those useless feet."
"Delicate, adorable, useless little feet of theirs," Pete said softly as
if he were reciting from an ode.
"There's something moving along the trail, boys," Frank said quietly. "I
keep getting glimpses of it through the bushes - white - blue - red and
yellow."