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The Ork was provoked by this unkind speech, so he turned his tail toward the little man and made it revolve so fast that the rush of air tumbled Pessim over backward and he rolled several times upon the ground before he could stop himself and sit up. By that time the Ork was high in the air and speeding swiftly over the ocean. The Flight of the Midgets
"Then lead me to the tree at once!" begged the Ork, "for this tiny form I now have terrifies me greatly." Pessim examined the Ork closely "You are ugly enough as you are," said he. "Were you any larger you might be dangerous." "Oh, no," Trot assured him; "the Ork has been our good friend. Please take us to the tree." Then Pessim consented, although rather reluctantly.
"If the earth were pushed in a mile, it would be a great calamity, wouldn't it?" "I s'pose so," admitted the little girl. "Well, here it is pushed in a full inch! That's a twelfth of a foot, or a little more than a millionth part of a mile. Therefore it is one-millionth part of a calamity Oh, dear! How dreadful!" said Pessim in a wailing voice.
They said nothing to Pessim, who was sitting on his stool and scowling dismally as he stared at the ocean, but started at once to seek the trees that bore the magic fruits. The Ork remembered very well where the lavender berries grew and led his companions quickly to the spot. Cap'n Bill gathered two berries and placed them carefully in his pocket.
"One is jammed already," he said, looking at them. "All ready?" asked the Ork. "Yes!" they cried together, and Pessim came close to the sunbonnet and called out to them: "You'll be smashed or drowned, I'm sure you will! But farewell, and good riddance to you."
He could see nothing good or admirable in all the world and Trot soon came to understand why the little man's former neighbors had brought him to this island and left him there, all alone, so he could not annoy anyone. It was their misfortune that they had been led to this place by their adventures, for often they would have preferred the company of a wild beast to that of Pessim.
So Cap'n Bill gathered six of the purple berries and with their precious fruit they returned to the shed to big good-bye to Pessim. Perhaps they would not have granted the surly little man this courtesy had they not wished to use him to tie the sunbonnet around the Ork's neck.
But his greatest poem is "Optim and Pessim," which is one of the subtlest and strongest passages of human thought concerning the mystery of the universe; and his next greatest is his "Ode for the Ohio Centennial," delivered at Columbus in 1888. It merits a place with the best that have celebrated, like Lowell's "Commemoration Ode," the achievements of the people.
Trot was a little puzzled by this speech, which seemed to her unreasonable; but she made no reply and presently Gloria's grief softened and she began to question the little girl about herself and her adventures. Trot told her how they had happened to come to Jinxland, and all about Cap'n Bill and the Ork and Pessim and the Bumpy Man.
"What's happened to you?" asked the sailor, putting his head close to Trot's shoulder in order to hear the reply better. Pessim also put his head close, and the Ork said: "You will remember that when I left you I started to fly over the trees, and just as I got to this side of the forest I saw a bush that was loaded down with the most luscious fruit you can imagine.
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