"That's how you consummate a marriage, innocent boy. It doesn't really count until you contact the stork."

"But I don't know how to do that!"

"That's why it should be rare entertainment."

Dolph lumbered on, no longer quite as satisfied with his success in making her stay. How he wished he could pass that magic barrier and become adult, so he could learn everything in the Adult Conspiracy! Then the demoness wouldn't be able to tease him so cruelly.

But first he would have to get married, and that was worse. Oh, he would like to marry Nada, but the thought of seeing Electra die appalled him. Yet if he married her and lost Nada, his heart would break. Time was crunching on as determinedly as his big sphinx feet, but he was no closer to an answer than he had been six years ago when he had first gotten betrothed to the two girls. This news about having to summon the stork just made it worse, Nada knew the secret, but not Electra. But he feared Nada wouldn't tell him. After all, she hadn't told him until now; why should she change her mind then? Assuming he found some way to get around the problem of Electra's situation.

It was solid day when he tromped up to the south bank of the With-a-Cookee River. He was going to splash on through it, but its bottom turned out to be the muckiest muck he could imagine, probably dough left over from the Half-Baked Bog, and he was afraid his legs would sink in like deep pilings and be permanently mired. So he ground to a slow halt.

Nada woke. "Oh, the river!" she said, surprised.

"What did you expect, a desert?" Metria asked in Dolph's voice.

"What?" Nada asked, surprised at hearing that tone from him.

"That wasn't me!" Dolph cried.

"That is, it wasn't what I meant to say," the demoness said immediately, using his voice again. "I meant to say that only the very most stupid hammer would—"

"Stupid what?" Nada asked.

"Vice, clamp, pliers, grip—"

"Wrench?"

"Yes. No, not quite—"

"Wench, Metria?"

"Wench! That's it! Only the very most stupid wench would confuse a river with a desert. So you can just—uh-oh." For the demoness had realized that Nada had called her by name. She departed in a puff of irritated smoke.

"I knew it wasn't you, Dolph," Nada said. "I heard how she was teasing you, before."

"I'm glad," Dolph said, relieved. "Now I have to figure out how to cross the river. The muck is too deep."

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Nada asked solicitously.

"No." How nice it was to have her interested!

"Then I think you had better get some. So why don't you become a whaleboat and drift down the river for a few hours? I understand it flows generally northward from here, so your direction will be right, and we can all relax and still keep moving."