hundred years from now."

"Nor I," added Button-Bright, laughing at the whimsical speech. "But
I don't see how the Boolooroo is able to fool you all. Can't any of
you remember two or three hundred years back when he first began to
rule?"

"No," said Ghip-Ghisizzle, "that's a long time to remember, and we
Blueskins try to forget all we can, especially whatever is
unpleasant. Those who remember are usually the unhappy ones; only
those able to forget find the most joy in life."

During this conversation they had been walking along the streets of
the Blue City, where many of the Blueskin inhabitants stopped to
gaze wonderingly at the sailor and the boy, whose strange appearance
surprised them. They were a nervous, restless people, and their
egg-shaped heads, set on the ends of long, thin necks, seemed so
grotesque to the strangers that they could scarcely forbear laughing
at them. The bodies of these people were short and round and their
legs exceptionally long, so when a Blueskin walked, he covered twice
as much ground at one step as Cap'n Bill or Button-Bright did. The
women seemed just as repellent as the men, and Button-Bright began
to understand that the Six Snubnosed Princesses were, after all,
rather better looking than most of the females of the Blue Country
and so had a certain right to be proud and haughty.

There were no horses nor cows in this land, but there were plenty of
blue goats, from which the people got their milk. Children tended
the goats--wee Blueskin boys and girls whose appearance was so
comical that Button-Bright laughed whenever he saw one of them.