"Now then," commanded Princess Indigo, "go and feed my little blue dog that crows like a rooster."
"And feed my pretty blue cat that sings like a bird," said Princess Azure.
"And feed my soft, blue lamb that chatters like a monkey," said Princess Cobalt.
"And feed my poetic blue parrot that barks like a dog," said Princess Sapphire.
"And feed my fuzzy blue rabbit that roars like a lion," said Princess Turquoise.
"And feed my lovely blue peacock that mews like a cat," said Princess Cerulia.
"Anything else?" asked Trot, drawing a long breath.
"Not until you have properly fed our pets," replied Azure with a scowl.
"What do they eat, then?"
"Meat!"
"Milk!"
"Clover!"
"Seeds!"
"Bread!"
"Carrots!"
"All right," said Trot, "where do you keep the menagerie?"
"Our pets are in our boudoirs," said Indigo harshly. "What a little fool you are!"
"Perhaps," said Trot, pausing as she was about to leave the room, "when I grow up I'll be as big a fool as any of you."
Then she ran away to escape another shaking, and in the first boudoir she found the little blue dog curled up on a blue cushion in a corner. Trot patted his head gently, and this surprised the dog, who was accustomed to cuffs and kicks. So he licked Trot's hand and wagged his funny little tail and then straightened up and crowed like a rooster. The girl was delighted with the queer doggie, and she found some meat in a cupboard and fed him out of her hand, patting the tiny creature and stroking his soft blue hair. The doggie had never in his life known anyone so kind and gentle, so when Trot went into the next boudoir, the animal followed close at her heels, wagging his tail every minute.
The blue cat was asleep on a window seat, but it woke up when Trot tenderly took it in her lap and fed it milk from a blue-gold dish. It was a pretty cat and instantly knew the little girl was a friend vastly different from its own bad-tempered mistress, so it sang beautifully as a bird sings, and both the cat and the dog followed Trot into the third boudoir.
Here was a tiny baby lamb with fleece as blue as a larkspur and as soft as milk.
"Oh, you darling!" cried Trot, hugging the little lamb tight in her arms. At once the lamb began chattering just as a monkey chatters, only in the most friendly and grateful way, and Trot fed it a handful of fresh blue clover and smoothed and petted it until the lamb was eager to follow her wherever she might go.
When she came to the fourth boudoir, a handsome blue parrot sat on a blue perch and began barking as if it were nearly starved. Then it cried out,
"Rub-a-dub, dub, Gimme some grub!"
Trot laughed and gave it some seeds, and while the parrot ate them she stroked gently his soft feathers. The bird seemed much astonished at the unusual caress and turned upon the girl first one little eye and then the other as if trying to discover why she was so kind. He had never experienced kind treatment in all his life. So it was no wonder that when the little girl entered the fifth boudoir she was followed by the parrot, the lamb, the cat and the dog, who all stood beside her and watched her feed the peacock, which she found strutting around and mewing like a cat for his dinner. Said the parrot,
"I spy a peacock's eye On every feather. I wonder why?"
The peacock soon came to love Trot as much as the other bird and all the beasts did, and it spread its tail and strutted after her into the next boudoir, the sixth one. As she entered this room, Trot gave a start of fear, for a terrible roar like the roar of a lion greeted her. But there was no lion there; a fuzzy, blue rabbit was making all the noise. "For goodness sake keep quiet," said Trot. "Here's a nice blue carrot for you. The color seems all wrong, but it may taste jus' as good as if it was red."
Evidently it did taste good, for the rabbit ate it greedily. When it was not roaring, the creature was so soft and fluffy that Trot played with it and fondled it a long time after it had finished eating, and the rabbit played with the cat and the dog and the lamb and did not seem a bit afraid of the parrot or the peacock.