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We passed three gates, that were opened in the same manner, and found ourselves in front of a queer old house, with seventy-seven gables and ever so many doors, and over every door was written, "The Great Panjandrum Himself." There was a great bustle about the place, dried-up Garulies running around, dandy-looking Pickaninnies hopping about, and Joblilies swimming in the lake.
Poor Larkin was used to being laughed at, but it was provoking to be laughed at by these queer-looking folk, sitting on the lilies in the water. Soon he saw that there were nearly a hundred of them gathered. "Come on, Joblilies!" cried one of them, who carried a long fish-bone, and seemed to be leader; "let's make a Joblily of him." Upon that the whole swarm of them came ashore.
And so Larkin swam on, and found that it was a busy world beneath the lake. He saw mussels slowly crawling through the sand; he found that the pickerel, which he had supposed idle, was really standing guard over her nest, and fanning the water with her fins all day long, that a current of fresh water might be supplied to her eggs. And all the time the Joblilies kept singing "Work! work!
"Come along," said the Joblily, giving another punch with his fish-bone; and Larkin travelled on. Presently they came to a log with something growing on it. "What beautiful moss!" "Moss, indeed!" said one of the Joblilies; "that is a colony of small animals, all fast to one stem." "They have an easy time of it, I suppose," said Lazy Larkin; "they don't have to travel, for they cannot move."
"When the sun shines the Joblilies roam; When the storm comes we play with the foam; When the owl hoots Joblilies fly home!" When they had sung this, they all went under the water; and the leader, giving Larkin a thrust with his fish-bone, cried out, "Come along!" and Lazy Larkin had nothing to do but to swim after them. Once under the water, the scene was exceedingly beautiful.
He thought carefully over his trip with the Joblilies, and, I am glad to say, gradually learned to be more industrious, though it took him a long while to overcome his lazy habits, and still longer to get rid of the name of Lazy Larkin. But he remembered the jingle of the Joblilies, and I trust you will not forget it: "Work! work! Never shirk! There is work for you, Work for all to do!
And there were present the Garulies, and the Joblilies, and the Pickaninnies, and the Great Panjandrum himself, with his little, round button-at-the-top; and they all fell to playing the game of 'Catch-as-catch-can, till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots." Now you see where the Garulies and the Joblilies and the Pickaninnies came from.
Immediately the Joblilies leaped into the air, and the whole hundred of them dashed into the water like so many bull-frogs, crying, as they came down, "What will the Joblily do, When the great owl cries tu-whoo?" Larkin looked around suddenly to see whither they had gone, but could discover no trace of them.
Then they all jumped upon him and stamped, but Larkin could not move hand or foot. In fact, he found that his hands were flattening out, like fins. The leader then put the three blades of grass in Larkin's mouth, and said, "Eat a dry blade! eat a dry blade! From the nest that the kingfisher made! What will the Joblilies do, When the old owl cries tu-whoo?"
A moment after, he found himself sitting under the same tree that he was under when the Joblilies came for him. The boys had gone, and he was forced to walk home alone.
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