`` Where am I ? who are you ? '' she cried , in the language of her own country , which came back to her on a sudden . `` We are nurses of the Earthquaker , '' they said . `` Our duty is to sing him asleep , and every year he must have a new song ; and every year a new maiden must be sent down from earth , with a new sleepy song she has learned from the priests of Manoa , the City of the Sun . Are you the new singer ? '' `` No , I 'm not , '' said Jaqueline . `` I do n't know the priests of Manoa ; I do n't know any new sleepy song . I only want to find the way out . '' `` There is no way , or we should have found it , '' said one of the maidens ; `` and , if you are the wrong girl , by the day after to-morrow they must send the right one , otherwise the Earthquaker will waken , and shake the world , and destroy Manoa , the City of the Sun . '' Then they all wept softly in the stillness . `` Can we get anything to eat here ? '' asked poor Jaqueline , at last . She was beginning to be very hungry , and however alarmed she might be , she felt that dinner would not be unwelcome . The tallest of the maidens clapped her hands , and immediately a long table was spread by unseen sprites with meringues and cold chicken , and several sorts of delicious ices . We shall desert Jaqueline , who was rather less alarmed when she found that she was not to be starved , at all events , and return to Prince Ricardo , whom we left fluttering about as a little golden-crested wren . He followed the Giant and Jaqueline into the whirlpool of air as far as he dared , and when he saw her vanish down the cone of the hill , he flew straight back to Pantouflia . CHAPTER IX . Prigio has an Idea . -LCB- Ricardo and Semiramis : p165.jpg -RCB- A weary and way-worn little bird was Prince Ricardo when he fluttered into the royal study window , in the palace of Pantouflia .
The king was out at a council meeting ; knowing that Ricardo had the XXXXX things , all in good order , he was not in the least anxious about him .
Earthquaker Jaqueline Pantouflia Ricardo ices meringues p165.jpg right wren year