Whoops and Putty-Nose were at the seaside, playing on the shore of a beautiful, big blue bay—a bay which was really part of the big, beautiful blue ocean, where their father and mother had taken them for the summer. Whoops was a very pretty little girl with long yellow curls, and big brown eyes which were almost always wide open with surprise. She had been given her funny nickname because she always cried “Whoops!” when she saw anything that pleased her, and as almost everything pleased her she was crying “Whoops!” most of the time. Putty-Nose was her brother—a jolly, fat little fellow with a round face and a quaint snub nose in the exact middle of it so covered with big brown freckles it looked just like a lump of putty. Whoops and Putty-Nose had a very small tent, buckets, shovels, and a pop-gun, and had been playing that they were Robinson Crusoe and his good man Friday, cast away on a desert island. But after a while they got tired—it was hard work imagining oneself quite deserted when one could see home all the while! So they sat down by the water to rest and to think up some more interesting game.
All of a sudden Putty-Nose exclaimed, “Whoopsie! Look at that big, round, flat rock out in the water! Let’s wade out to it and we can pretend it’s a really truly island!”
Whoops was always ready for fun, so they waded out, carrying all their playthings in their arms with them; they pitched their tent in the very middle of the rock, and there they were, really on an island, with water all around. It was ever so much cooler than on the beach, and much more exciting, so they sat down to enjoy life and plan what to do next. Whoops had just noticed that their rock was all marked out in a diamond pattern, something like a giant checkerboard, only not colored, when she felt it begin to move smoothly and slowly through the sparkling blue waters. Whoops “whooped” in her very best manner, crying out to her brother, “Hold on tight, Putty-Nose! Our island is swimming away with us!”
Our Island Is Swimming Away With Us
And sure enough, the island was moving off to sea, making tiny ripples like those that follow in the wake of a boat. The children didn’t know what to do; they had never heard of a swimming island, and they had just about decided to become very, very frightened indeed, when a big, long, ugly head lifted itself up over the western shore of the island, turned, and looked back at them. It was exactly like the head of a turtle they had once seen, only a great many times larger, and although it was quite hideously ugly, it had a kindly humorous expression around its mouth and a merry twinkle in its eye.
“I’m Old Flipperoo, the sea-turtle,” it said by way of polite introduction, “and I’m perfectly harmless, so you mustn’t be afraid. You can stay on my back and I’ll carry you across the ocean to a place I know, and show you all the queer and wonderful things that grow there. Then I’ll bring you back safe and sound in time for supper. How does that sound?”
Now of course, Whoops and Putty-Nose said it was the one thing they wanted to do most of all, so Old Flipperoo tucked his head away out of sight again and set himself to paddling away at a great rate. The mariners were soon so far out to sea that they could no longer see land, and when they passed close by the great sea-going vessels and trans-oceanic liners, all the people on their decks ran to the rail to look at the queer flat boat and its very youthful passengers. Everybody waved and called greetings to the children, and the children waved back, and shouted “Ship ahoy!” which they knew was the polite thing to do.
After a long, long voyage they sighted a land almost completely covered with the queerest looking trees. Flipperoo swam into a quiet bay and waddled right up on the sand, so that Whoops and Putty-Nose were able to step ashore without even wetting their feet. “I’ll lie here in the sun and take a nap,” said the turtle, “and you children start off on a journey of discovery. Nothing in this strange country will hurt you, although you will be surprised at many of the things you will see. Only be sure to come back here to me when you hear the Tick-Tock bird calling, ‘Five o’clock!’, or we’ll all be late for supper.”
So Whoops and Putty-Nose left their wonderful new friend dozing in the hot sand and set off, hand in hand, along the path which led up among the trees. Now they understood why the island had looked so funny when they were approaching it on the turtle’s back, for all the trees grew upside-down, their roots in the air, and the figs, cocoanuts, and bananas on the ground, where they could easily be picked. They decided to gather some of the fruit on the way back to take home to their father and mother, and went on up the winding path. The air was full of Jujube and Lollypop birds, which flew ahead of them calling, “Whoops and Putty-Nose have come to visit us!”
All at once they came upon a colony of Chase-Tails, little striped animals with a very sweet tooth. Instead of regular tails they had sticks of peppermint candy, which they were forever chasing round and round, in order to satisfy their enormous appetites for candy. Each Chase-Tail was chasing his tail for dear life around a little bush, until every bush in sight had a Chase-Tail lying around it like a doughnut, holding its peppermint tail fast in its mouth, and nibbling away happily at the candy. Just as Whoops and Putty-Nose were wondering what would happen when the tails were all eaten up, the Whispering-Tell-Tale bird flew down and explained that new tails would grow by tea-time next Thursday. It was then only Monday, and the Chase-Tails had to make their peppermint candy tails last for four whole days, or go hungry.
Further on, in a cool little dell, they found the Ice Cream Soda plant in full bloom, covered with great white cup-shaped flowers, like Easter lilies. All you had to do was pick one of these flowers, wish very hard for your favorite flavor, and instantly it was full of cold, delicious ice cream soda. After sampling as many kinds as they could think of, Whoops and Putty-Nose continued their journey, and were just crossing a bridge over a tiny stream when they were brought to a standstill by a strange sound. It came from the water, and, on looking closer, the children discovered a school of Gurgling Gonces swimming in a quiet pool under the bridge. They ran down on the bank to see and get a closer look, and were amazed to find that a Gurgling Gonce is exactly like a small, red rubber hot water bottle, and makes the same noise a water bottle does when shaken. Putty-Nose waded carefully into the stream and succeeded in catching one of the funny fish. It seemed not at all afraid—and very, very warm, and it had just one big, round eye in the end where the stopper of the water bottle would be. It looked so pleadingly into his face and seemed so helpless that Putty-Nose felt sorry for it and put it back in the water right away. “Gurgle-Gurgle,” said the grateful Gurgling Gonce, very politely, and swam off to join its brothers and sisters.
At last, just as Whoops and Putty-Nose were beginning to feel very hungry, they smelled a pleasant odor of cooking, and coming out into a little clearing in the woods where a fire was burning, they found dozens of chubby little Waffle-Wimps dancing hand in hand around it. The Waffle-Wimps were square and flat, with little square holes all over their plump little bodies. They kept dancing closer and closer to the flames until they grew crisp and brown and very hot. Then they all ran off sizzling and chuckling, each one crawling under a marvelously sweet Syrup-Bush, where he lay down on his back and let the bush drip delicious maple syrup on him until he was just prime for eating. The children ate all the Waffle-Wimps they could hold, then they said, “Thank You,” to the ones they left behind, and went on.
They had a wonderful time getting acquainted with all the strange and marvelous creatures that lived on the island, but at last it began to get darker and cooler in the woods and they heard the Tick-Tock bird calling, “Five o’clock! Five o’clock!” so they ran back obediently to Old Flipperoo, who opened one eye at them sleepily and asked, “Did you see everything on the island?”
“Oh, yes! Everything! And we loved it!” cried the children. So Flipperoo promised to bring them again, and crawled lazily back into the water, preparatory to carrying them home. Whoops and Putty-Nose, who were very tired by this time, climbed on his back under their Robinson Crusoe tent and lay down. They fell fast asleep, and never woke up until they heard their mother calling to them from the shore. You can guess how surprised she was to see them come sailing home on Old Flipperoo’s back, and to hear all about the delights and wonders of their voyage to No-Such Land.