The boat crossed the shore and Maria rubbed her eyes and gave out a yawn, she had the most wonderful sleep in the middle of the violet sea; where the sky was always violet and the sun couldn't bear the color so, he always hid among the clouds, however, moon loved the color violet as it always kept the sun away and she gets more time to play with the waves.
"I am hungry," Maria said
The old jolly sailor with his left hand rowed the boat with a crooked oar and was holding goo-like stuff in a bottle, which he drank every time he rows the boat.
"Mr.sailor," Maria said, "I am hungry."
The jolly sailor smiled at her with his jagged teeth but never said a word, instead he opened his mouth to drink his goo. Now, Maria was in search of her brown hedgehog, which had run behind the garden and had disappeared and she hopes to find and take him back home.
"Mr. sailor, if you are not going to give me anything to eat, I won't be able to find my hedgehog." Maria said, "his name is Hoggie and I really love him." The jolly sailor just showed his jagged teeth and grinned at her, then he started to sing.
"Michael…rowed his boat ashore…like a fish…Michael rowed his boat ashore…like a fish…"
"Perhaps, you've heard of this song?" he said.
"Oh! Yes, something like that." Maria replied. "except… we say a different word for the 'like a fish', we learned that during our Sunday school days."
" and why to use a different word?" said the jolly sailor.
" well, you see we say 'hallelujah' instead of 'like a fish'," Maria replied in a soft tone.
" aren't 'hallelujah' and 'like a fish', the same thing?" said the sailor, who seemed offended by Maria.
"Absolutely Not!" Maria said
"then what's the difference?"
"well…hallelujah…means…" Maria replied nervously ( In fact she did not know what hallelujah meant.)
"Hmph!...perhaps you shouldn't speak if you are not sure." The sailor said.
" But I do know what hallelujah is, I just don't know the meaning," Maria replied angrily.
"well, you ought to learn more" replied the sailor. "you don't know what hallelujah means, how can you be sure that 'hallelujah' and 'like a fish' are not the same thing."
" I may not know the meaning of it, but I'm sure that 'hallelujah' and 'like a fish' are not the same thing," Maria said, but the sailor paid no heed to her and continued singing his song. Maria had to cover her ears as to not listen to his song.
…
Maria jumped from the boat and made ashore, she slapped mud off her blue linen dress and turned back to thank the jolly sailor but he was long gone-vanished into the thick fog. She walked around the brown land, the sky was violet, and all the trees, grasses, and rocks were brown "Oh! How peculiar" she said to herself. " It is already fall! I must have slept for a whole season because the last time I remember it was spring." ( and just like her grandmother, Maria too was very curious and she loved adventures.)
"I wonder where Hoggie went," she said as she danced around with the brown butterflies. " he must have loved this place to run away."
Maria had a habit of talking to herself and would sometimes argue with herself, like that one time when she began arguing to herself about ' why a raven is like a writing desk' she would say that ' raven is like a writing desk because ravens are as dark as an ink,' but soon she will scold and call herself 'stupid!' for that was a very stupid answer.
" I never thought, there would be a world behind our garden." Maria said. " a world where everything is brown and violets, now I can boast around and tell grandma that she is not the only one who entered wonderland."
Suddenly a gravel path appeared before her, " Oh! My, a gravel path? This must mean good luck." ( for you know Maria always thought gravel path means good luck.)
As she walked along the path, singing songs in a rather cheerful mood and not forgetting she had lost her precious pet. The gravels jumped on her shoes every time she stepped on them and she had to shake them off and after that give a nice stomp to discipline them, " Oh! What stubborn gravels!." She said and walked above them.
Far away but not so far away, far away enough for Maria to hear a hideous noise, " what is that?" she said, thinking she could get a reply back, she hurried to the other side to check what was making that hideous noise. She saw on the top of a mushroom-a dwarf playing his harmonica and tilting left and right as if enjoying himself, the sound was so horrible, and Maria had to cover her ears, to not listen to the hideous noise. She stood there waiting for him to stop but he did not so she started asking questions. " excuse me, Mr.dwarf but do you know where I can find Hoggie."
The dwarf ignored her and continued his play, " Mr. dwarf!" Maria said angrily, " would you be kind enough to tell me where brown Hoggie is?"
The dwarf stopped his play and looked at her with tears in his eyes, Maria thought the dwarf was weeping, thinking that he had lost something, but instead he was angry. "OOOOO!!" he cried, "Good Heavens!...why..why?" Maria was confused she thought the dwarf had done something wrong and that he was regretting it, but Maria continued to ask the same questions. " Mr.dwarf, do you know where I can find Hoggie because he's precious to me."
The dwarf looked at her and said "do you know who I am,"
Maria was irritated as the dwarf did not answer her questions, despite a lot of askings but she tried not to be rude as she had been learning 'a lady should know her etiquette' and in a polite tone she said, " I'm sorry, but I came here just now after my pet had jumped here, which makes me and my pet new here." The dwarf slowly narrowed his eyes at her. " did you see what I was doing?"
"you mean the harmonica? I saw you playing the harmonica." Maria said. "and what else?" the dwarf asked
" and you were playing it in a very hideous way." She replied
"Hideous!!" the dwarf yelled. " how could you say it was hideous."
Maria shrugged, " because it sounded very bad."
The dwarf twisted his lips and turned around " Hmph…I do play well, unlike you brat!."
At this Maria turned hot as pepper, she tightens her fist and stomped hard on the ground " Brat? How dare you call me a brat and I can play,….well not harmonica but I can play the flute very well." She yelled.
The dwarf started playing his harmonica ignoring Maria, this made her even angrier that she stomped very hard on the ground, and the mushroom where the dwarf was sitting popped out its head, throwing the dwarf away. "OH!NO, OH!NO," he cried. The mushroom gave out a big yawn, " Sprong….sprong…is it night already?" he said with a sleepy head. "but I remember sleeping just now." Maria felt sorry for the mushroom. " I am so sorry Mr. mushroom, but it was me who woke you up."
The mushroom looked at her and said, "you woke me up? What's the emergency,"
"Oh! It's nothing." She replied, "I am so sorry I was searching for my pet-a brown hedgehog, have you seen him?"
The mushroom looked up at the sky. "well there were lots of hedgehogs crossing over here and poking my sweet head Ow!"
Maria really felt sorry for the mushroom (maybe it was because the mushroom looked cute, or because mushroom was her favorite food and she felt guilty eating them.) " well I hope you didn't run across brown Hoggie, perhaps he might have poked you, you know he has a lot of spikes on his back, like a chestnut."
"Oh! I love chestnut!" the mushroom said with joy tilting right and left.
"How insolent!" the dwarf said standing up holding his back.
"Oh! You noisy dwarf!" Maria said, " and how could you sit on someone else's head."
The dwarf picked his harmonica and started blowing away the dust in it.
" Are you okay, Mr. mushroom, Mr. dwarf has been sitting on your head for a very long time."
The mushroom face grew gloomy and quickly hid on the ground again.
"Oh! No, what happened." Maria said
The dwarf looked at her and said. "It's all your fault."
"My fault?"
"Yes, you don't say 'not to do' to someone when they are meant to do it."
" well, I didn't know that," Maria said,
"well, you should." The dwarf said and he sat again on the mushroom's head. "But.." before Maria could say anything, the dwarf started playing his harmonica, she had no choice but to cover her ears and walk away, following the gravel path.