Gollups and Barlet moved on the road again, and eventually caught up to Shesha and the mopsy children playing in the water in one of the calm pools in the stream, off the side of the road. They had changed and were wearing their swimming clothes with Meedee and Ceedee giving little Needee a boat ride, or rathere pretending to be boats floating on the water as Needee jumped back and forth, while Sesha sliced fruit into a clean plate, for a quick something, as mothers tend to do when their children are playing.
The time to walk had now begun to be a very long time indeed, but it was still very early afternoon, as they had all stopped for lunch previously when the sun was not quite up in the middle of the sky, and the sun, now, had just reached that point.
Sesha smiled and waved as she saw Barlet and Gollup walking up, then called to the children to come out of the water, as they were all going to walk together again. Gollup was a little embarrassed from speaking so loudly before, but when wet little Needee came squishy squashy on the grass to hug him, wrapping her wet little frail arms around him, he soon felt more wet than embarrassed. As the mopsy children dried their ears, and paws and arms, and legs, Barlet – who had been telling Gollup a little more on the gollups hoping to perhaps release a memory – pulled out a little flask of honey brown liquid from the carrying case, and said to Gollup,
“Now taste this you should!
Its really quite good!
A beer made from oats,
and honey for your throat!”
Gollup accepted a little in his drinking flask – to be polite – though he had never had a drink of alcohol before, realized that he did not know if gollups drank alcohol at all – now that he wasn’t the only one. He accepted another flask of dark brown liquid which was dark brown sugar with water, to help it flow, and poured a little into the beer as Barlet instructed. Then took a careful sip. Well it wasn’t half bad really, though the cream on the top did tickle his nose just a little bit.
He smiled a bit to Barlet and said, “thank you for all that you’ve told me. I would’ve been quite shocked and beside myself in Wunderlingshire Township if you had not warned, and I have no idea how I would’ve reacted to suddenly discovering that much of what I know was just not so.”
Barlet smiled and nodded, passing the flask with oat beer to Gollup to add a little more to his drinking flask, which Gollup, not sure of beer, extracted only a little more, so as not to be too overwhelmed from the affects, as he did feel a little lighter, and his belly did feel warm.
“Now a name you must have,
before we enter the town,
or all will just laugh,
which will give you a frown.
So then what do you think?
for a name for yourself?
for a gollup distinct!
who requires no wealth!”
Said Sesha, very concerned about Gollups heart and not wanting the poor gollup to suffer any ill abuse after already having experienced some surprise.
