Chapter Twelve
before he came to a cluster of huge shells. He turned one over curiously. "Why, it's a soup bowl," whistled the Elegant Elephant. He rushed back with it to Pompadore, who still stood dreamily surveying the soup.
"I never thought I'd be so thrilled by a common soup bowl," thought Kabumpo, staring at the Prince in amusement. He stepped out on a rock and dipped up a bowl of the hot liquid.
"Here! Drink!" commanded the Elegant Elephant, handing the bowl to the Prince. "Drink to the Proper Princess and the future Queen of Pumperdink."
"Don't go," begged the Prince between gulps, "I shall want two—three—several!"
Kabumpo laughed good naturedly. "This is the pleasantest thing that has happened to us. Here! Have another!"
Then both Pompa and the Elegant Elephant gasped, for out of the bubbling waves arose the most curious figure that they had ever seen—the most curious and the jolliest. He was made entirely of soup bones, and his head was a monster cabbage, with a soup bowl set jauntily on the side for a cap. For a cabbage head he sang very well and this was the song to which he kept time by waving a silver ladle:
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