There is no country so delightful but that it suffers some
disadvantages, and so it was with the Valley of Mo. At times the good
people were obliged to leave their games and sports to defend
themselves against a foe or some threatened disaster. But there was one
danger they never suspected, which at last came upon them very
suddenly.
Away at the eastern end of the Valley was a rough plain, composed
entirely of loaf sugar covered with boulders of rock candy which were
piled up in great masses reaching nearly to the foot of the mountains, containing many caves and recesses.
The people seldom came here, as there was nothing to tempt them, the
rock candy being very hard and difficult to walk on.
In one of the great hollows formed by the rock candy lived a monstrous
Gigaboo, completely shut in by the walls of its cavern. It had been
growing and growing for so many years that it had attained an enormous
size.
For fear you may not know what a Gigaboo is I shall describe this one. Its body was round, like that of a turtle, and on its back was a thick shell. From the center of the body rose a long neck, much like that of a goose, with a most horrible looking head perched on the top of it. This head was round as a ball, and had four mouths on the sides of it and seven eyes set in a circle and projecting several inches from the head. The Gigaboo walked on ten short but thick legs, and in front of its body were two long arms, tipped with claws like those of a lobster. So sharp and strong were these claws that the creature could pinch a tree in two easily. Its eyes were remarkably bright and glittering, one being red in color, another green, and the others yellow, blue, black, purple and crimson.
It was a dreadful monster to see--only no one had yet seen it, for it
had grown up in the confinement of its cave.
But one day the Gigaboo became so big and strong that in turning around
it broke down the walls of the cavern, and finding itself at liberty, the monster walked out into the lovely Valley of Mo to see how much evil it could do.
The first thing the Gigaboo came to was a large orchard of preserved
apricots, and after eating a great quantity of the preserves it
wilfully cut off the trees with its sharp claws and utterly ruined
them. Why the Gigaboo should have done this I can not tell; but
scientists say these creatures are by nature destructive, and love to
ruin everything they come across.
One of the people, being in the neighborhood, came on the monster and
witnessed its terrible deeds; whereupon he ran in great terror to tell
the King that the Gigaboo was on them and ready to destroy the entire
valley. Although no one had ever before seen a Gigaboo, or even heard
of one, the news was so serious that in a short time the King and many
of his people came to the place where the monster was, all having
hastily armed themselves with swords and spears.
But when they saw the Gigaboo they were afraid, and stood gazing at it
in alarm, without knowing what to do or how to attack it.
"Who among us can hope to conquer this great beast?" asked the King, in
dismay. "Yet something must be done, or soon we shall not have a tree
left standing in all the Valley of Mo." The people looked at one
another in a frightened way, but no one volunteered his services or
offered to advise the monarch what to do.
At length Prince Jollikin, who had been watching the monster earnestly, stepped forward and offered to fight the Gigaboo alone.
"In a matter of this kind," said he, "one man is as good as a dozen. So
you will all stand back while I see where the beast can best be
attacked."
"Is your sword sharp?" asked his father, the King, anxiously.
"It was the sharpest on the tree," replied the Prince. "If I fail to
kill the monster, at least it can not kill me, although it may cause me
some annoyance. At any rate, our trees must be saved, so I will do the
best I can."
With this manly speech he walked straight toward the Gigaboo, which, when it saw him approaching, raised and lowered its long neck and twirled its head around, so that all the seven eyes might get a glimpse of its enemy.