in scarlet and gold. And they gave him a cap like a saucer turned
upside down and made of gold, and he looked all dressed up for a
party.

I guess the million Chinamen thought he did, too, and that they must
get up a party for him, for they led him to the great Pagoda which
stood on the top of the hill, and which, they told him, was the
highest anywhere in the world.

When they reached it, Marmaduke saw that it had many stories, which
grew smaller as they mounted nearer the sky. And each had roofs
curving like skis at the end. It was all pink-colored, too, with
stripes, and he saw that it was built of peppermint!

He was minded to eat it as Hansel and Gretel had eaten their sugar
house, but he didn't, because Ping Pong said it was sacred.

On a throne of stone, inside the Pagoda, sat an old jolly Billiken,
also of stone, and shaped just like an egg, with his hands across his
tummy and his legs crossed under him.

Now all the million Chinamen had followed Marmaduke, their slippers
going "clippity clop," on the pavement of the courtyard. They thought
he must be very wonderful to make the earthquake that killed Choo Choo
Choo, and they wanted him to sit on the great stone throne of the
Billiken. But Marmaduke wouldn't let them. He didn't want to take the
seat of the old Billiken when the old fellow had sat there for three
thousand years and more.

Billiken, however, had an idea about that. Probably he thought he had