Anyhow, without these real trees I should
soon have starved to death."
Betsy looked around at the quaint trees.
"I don't just understand that," she admitted.
"What could you find to eat here."
"The best food in the world," Ugly answered. "Do
you see that grove at your left?" he added,
pointing it out; "well, such trees as those do not
grow in your country, or in any other place but
this cavern. I have named them 'Hotel Trees,'
because they bear a certain kind of table d'hote
fruit called 'Three-Course Nuts.' "
"That's funny!" said Betsy. "What are the
'Three-Course Nuts' like?"
"Something like cocoanuts, to look at,"
explained the Ugly One. "All you have to do is to
pick one of them and then sit down and eat your
dinner. You first unscrew the top part and find a
cupfull of good soup. After you've eaten that, you
unscrew the middle part and find a hollow filled
with meat and potatoes, vegetables and a fine
salad. Eat that, and unscrew the next section, and
you come to the dessert in the bottom of the nut.
That is, pie and cake, cheese and crackers, and
nuts and raisins. The Three-Course Nuts are not
all exactly alike in flavor or in contents, but
they are all good and in each one may be found a
complete three-course dinner."
"But how about breakfasts?" inquired Betsy.
"Why, there are Breakfast Trees for that, which
grow over there at the right. They bear nuts, like
the others, only the nuts contain coffee or
chocolate, instead of soup; oatmeal instead of
meat-and-potatoes, and fruits instead of dessert.
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