There was no
efficient way to get the powder from the coffee-mill to the bellows;
and in the loading much time was wasted and much ammunition spilled.
While Pirlaps was looking about him with great anxiety, trying to
think of some way to remedy the trouble, the little Teacup came
fluttering tremulously down from above. "Let me do it!" she cried; and
while they all looked on in admiration (though with only one eye
apiece, since the other was busy aiming at the enemy) she proceeded to
load one pair of bellows after another, with the utmost nicety and
plenty of poetry-powder. A little was spilled, to be sure, because she
trembled so terribly; still, it was an enormous improvement, and they
all praised and congratulated the Teacup.
"Ah, these sheltered women!" said Pirlaps. "How an emergency does
bring them out!"
The battle must have raged for nearly an hour; but at the end of that
time there was not so much as a One-Twenty-Second left alive. The
Greatest Common Divisor, as befitted his rank, was the last to succumb;
and when he went down the defenders of the Garden threw down their
weapons and began tossing their shoes into the air and shaking each
others' hands and talking all at once. The Gunki passed the word down
the line to Avrillia, who presently came floating in, with her wild
eyes shining and her pale-gold hair rumpled, and her golden
swan's-quill still in her hand; and everybody fell upon her with
congratulations.
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