THE BOLLA
This is Bolla. He has had rather a sad life. To begin with, years ago, he ate too much at a birthday party and was terribly ill for many months. When he was better, he took a vow that he would never eat rich food again, so now he feeds entirely on those light, airy feathers (one for breakfast, two for dinner, and one for tea) that you sometimes see floating about the room after the bed has been made up. So although he looks bulgy he is quite empty and perfectly resembles a balloon. This is a great trouble to him. He just cannot keep on the ground, but with the slightest puff of wind he is taken up and has to float till the breeze drops and he is allowed to alight gently on the ground probably miles from where he started.
Many years ago, before the birthday party, when he was still a young and handsome animal, he fell in love with a beautiful young damsel-animal and the marriage was arranged to take place in the spring. This was the autumn and between the engagement and the wedding occurred the birthday party. So when the great day arrived, Bolla had become the light airy creature he is now. However his bride loved him so much she didn’t mind. But poor Bolla! Just as the wedding march began, a breeze arose and he was borne aloft and wafted away, very far away indeed, because the breeze became a hurricane, and lasted for three days and he was set down in an entirely new country, and he has never been able to find his way back to his bride since. He is terribly miserable about this, and has never smiled since that day, although he is very kind and still makes jokes in a melancholy way, so that his friends won’t feel depressed when they are with him. He has no fixed home, because he would not be able to settle down in one, but he carries a clean white paper-bag with him to sleep in in case he is wafted far away from any shelter and has to spend the night outdoors.