Above the Clouds Chapter II
Reading edition
One fine morning away they flew, circling round and round, up and up, until the earth lay far below. Numbers of strange birds flew about them, and one big gray one, with long feathery ears and a huge beak, frightened little Rosamund dreadfully, by perching on the airship close beside her. Day after day, they sailed past beautiful stars and planets, until one morning they came to a very large cluster of star islands, which were thickly covered with herds of snow-white cows.
“Those cows belong to the King of the Moon,” said Captain Hawk, “and they give so much milk that the islands are called The Milky Way. We are not far from the Moon now.”
That same day, towards evening, they came to a great round island entirely made of rocks and ice.
“Let’s not stop here,” said Mr. Bunnikins-Bunny with a shiver. “It is so cold that I think the tip of my left ear is frozen.”
“But this is the Island of the Moon,” exclaimed Admiral Owl, blinking his round eyes.
“Oh, how I wish that I had stayed at home,” groaned poor Mr. Bunnikins. “Mrs. Bunny did not want to come anyhow, and now we shall all freeze into icicles. Oh dear! Oh dear!”
“Never mind,” said his kind little wife. “We will wrap up warmly, and perhaps we shall have some sleighing.”
Sure enough, when they landed, they found a nice sleigh, drawn by four reindeer, ready to carry them to the hotel. In spite, however, of wearing two ulsters, fur-lined overshoes, a big muff, and a fur cap tied down under his chin, Mr. Bunnikins-Bunny’s whiskers, which were all you could see of him, fairly shook with the cold.
The hotel was all made of ice, so that everybody outside could see inside, and everybody inside could see outside.
It was well heated, and there were warm carpets on the floors, but Mr. Bunnikins would not be comforted. He sat in a big arm-chair close to the fire, with his toe-toes drawn up under him, shivering and groaning.
They had a very queer supper of dried potato-pie, dried apple dumpling, and dried lettuce and carrot-cake, for as nothing grows on the cold Island of the Moon, everything to eat has to be brought a long distance in airships, and it all dries up on the way.
