THE SILLY DILLY TREASURE HUNT
Story # 7

One Sunday evening, a messenger arrived from Silly Dilly land
with a very important letter.

 

  On Thursday, Princess Fay called Princess Peek-A-Boo and said that she and her
sister and brother would love to help on the treasure hunt. So on Sunday morning,  they put on their coats (for it was winter time) and went to Silly Dilly Land. It was very  warm in Silly Dilly Land that  lovely winter day.  “ The weather does strange things in Silly Dilly Land,” Princess Kay reminded  her sisters.  “ But it’s just right for a treasure hunt.”

Prince Hop-A-Lot was hopping at the palace door, and took the three Willy Nilly children to Princess Peek-A-Boo 's room. Princess Peek-A-Boo did not seem to be there.

"She's probably hiding again," said Prince Hop-A-Lot as he hopped all over the room looking for her.

Suddenly, Princess Peek-A-Boo jumped out of the closet calling her name.

Prince Hop-A-Lot was hopping higher and faster than ever. He was anxious to get going on the treasure hunt.

“Oh calm down, Hoppy. We will go very soon,”   Princess Peek-A-Boo told her brother. 
Then she explained to the girls and to Prince Jay that Prince- Hop-A-Lot is always in too much of a hurry. “Anyway we have to wait for Naa Princess to arrive”

Within an hour Naa Princess backed into the palace and went to Princess Peek-A-Boo 's room. Soon the four princesses, Prince Jay and Prince Hop-A-Lot and  his pet porcupine Mr. Pin Cushion walked to Uncle Wizard Wookelwood’s house. Uncle Wizzie, as everyone called him, showed the girls the treasure map.

It looked like this:

The Instructions were on the back.

 

Uncle Wizzie and the four princesses two princes and Mr. Pin Cushion went into the garden. It was a big garden  with  lots of bushes, trees and flowers.

"Ok, let's get started," Prince Hop-A-Lot shouted as he hopped up and down. " It looks easy enough!:

“ Not so fast, Hoppy," Princess Peek-A-Boo was studying the map. "The  teasure map says to go to START HERE and take 11steps. But where in the garden is HERE?”

     Nobody seemed to know, because "START HERE " changed every time the map was turned.

“ Well, maybe HERE  is over there,” said Princess Kay.
“Over where?” asked Princess Peek-A-Boo
“Over there! near the yellow flowers.”

“There over is HERE  maybe or,” Naa Princess said.

Uncle Wizzie looked confused, so Princess Kay told him that what Naa Princess meant was "Or maybe HERE is over there!"

“Oh dear!  sighed Princess Fay. We  need to know where THERE is so that we know where HERE is.”  Afer all, we can’t start to dig for the treasure until we find  where HERE  is.”

"Well I think HERE is right here where I am," said Prince Hop-A-Lot .

Princess Peek-A-Boo scolded her brother “Oh Hoppy, you always think that wherever you are is the most important place to be! “ So I am not surprised that you think that where you are hopping is where HERE is.!  We should ask Uncle Wizzie how to find HERE and then  start walking the steps  right  there.

“Uncle Wizzie,  where do you think HERE IS? asked Princess Peek-A-Boo.

“Well, I always think that HERE is wherever you are, “ said  Uncle Wizzie. “So all we have to do is choose one of us and wherever he or she is that will be HERE.  We can take a vote. And we can all vote for each other so no one feels left out.

“What a good idea,” shouted Princess Fay. “Kay, I will vote for you and you can  vote for me. Then Prince Jay said he would vote for Princess Peek-A-Boo and she would vote for him. Prince Hop-A-Lot would vote for Naa Princess, and the other way round.”

Prince Hop-A-Lot wanted to know if Mr. Pin Cushion should vote and if so, who to vote for.

Princess Kay said, "Of course he should vote. Mr. Pin Cushion can vote for Uncle Wizzie and Uncle Wizzie can vote for Mr. Pin Cushion."

“Is HERE where know not will still we and, win would one no other each for vote all we if voters 8 are there since but ,” Naa Princess said wisely--which means, "But since there are 8 voters if we all vote for each other, no one would win, and we still will not know where HERE is!"

 And Naa Princess was right.

"Except," Prince Hop-A-Lot said hopping higher than ever," Since Mr. Pin Cushion likes to sit in my pocket, his HERE is the same as my HERE because we are both in the same place.

And Prince Hoppy was right.

“Okay,” said Uncle Wizzie. “ Where Prince Hoppy and Mr. Pin Cushion are is where HERE is. Let’s start following the map. As soon as we get back where we started, which is where START HERE is, we can dig.”

They finally got back to Mr. Pin Cushion's and Prince Hop-A-Lot's START HERE.

"Let's Dig," they all shouted.

But where was the shovel? No one had it!
They came out to the garden to dig up the treasure but forgot to take the shovel.

“Hoppy, could you ask the royal gardener for a shovel,” begged Princess Peek-A-Boo,
"You'll find him in the kitchen preparing lunch."

When Prince Hop-A-Lot hopped back with the shovel, they started to dig and dig.
But they couldn’t find anything.

“Well, we just have to try another spot,” said Uncle Wizzie. “Let’s just try Princess Fay’s HERE.”  They followed the map and then dug and found nothing.

Then they tried other HEREs. After awhile they dug so many holes that they had to be careful not to fall in when they walked the  steps.

They dug and dug and dug all over the garden.  Each one had many turns at being HERE because they all moved around from place to place.

Then at 3 O’Clock, they went to Uncle Wizzie's fifth HERE. And it is there that they dug up a small red box with pink stripes. How excited everyone was to finally find out where HERE really was and to find the treasure.

They opened the box but all they  found was a CD and a recorder.

They played the CD. There was a song on the CD.

 There was also 8 gold coins in a little bag, one for each child and one for Uncle Wizzie and Mr. Pin Cushion. When it was time to give Princess Peek-A-Boo her coin, she wasn't there.

"Where is Princess Peek-A-Boo?" Princess Fay asked? "Yes where is she?" they all repeated.

"I'm over in HERE," shouted Princess Peek-A-Boo who had climbed into one of the holes to hide. "Where in Here? We can't see you! Come out, come out from where ever you are!"

"Peek-a-boo" laughed the princess shouting her name when she climbed out, "I'm right over HERE."

After all of that the children were very tired. They fell asleep in Uncle Wizzie's house. In the morning, before going home, the children wrote a thank you note to Uncle Wizzy who wasn't there at the moment.

It said,

Dear Uncle Wizard Wookelwood

We loved the dig, and had such fun,
On sunny yesterday.
We'd tell you so in person,
What we really want to say.
But since you aren't HERE right now,
The only thing to do,
Is write a little note of thanks,
And leave it HERE for you.

from the SillyDilly's and the WillyDilly's

 

"Where should we leave the note so that Uncle Wizzie will be sure to see it?" Prince
Jay asked the others.
"That depends upon where HERE is!" said Prince Hop-A-Lot who jumped so
high he hit his head on floor."

(In case you don't rememember, in SillyDilly Land the floor is where the ceiling should be and the ceiling is where the floor usually is.)