PEGGY IN TOYLAND

  BY
  ARCHIBALD MARSHALL

  Author of “Exton Manor,”
  “Sir Harry,” etc.

  _ILLUSTRATED BY
  HELEN M. BARTON_

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK
  DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
  1920




  COPYRIGHT, 1920,
  BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.




  TO

  KATHLEEN ANN

  I DEDICATE THIS STORY
  WHICH WAS BEGUN FOR HER MOTHER
  KATHLEEN NOEL




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                           PAGE

      I INTRODUCES PEGGY AND SOME OF HER FRIENDS       1

     II PEGGY’S SURPRISING ADVENTURE BEGINS           16

    III THE ROYAL ARK AND THE BAD BEHAVIOUR OF
          WOODEN’S AUNT                               31

     IV MOMENTOUS NEWS IS BROUGHT BY A DUTCH DOLL     46

      V ARRIVAL AT THE ROYAL PALACE OF DOLLTOWN       59

     VI KING SELIM HOLDS AN AUDIENCE                  74

    VII THEY ALL GO TO PRISON                         90

   VIII PEGGY BATHES A BABY AND HAS A SURPRISE       107

     IX THEY DISCUSS A PLAN OF ESCAPE                124

      X PEGGY TALKS TO A ROYAL PRISONER              137

     XI THE RELEASE OF PEGGY AND WOODEN              151

    XII PEGGY STAYS IN A REAL DOLLS’ HOUSE           165

   XIII THE DOLLS TALK IT ALL OVER                   176

    XIV THE ESCAPE                                   190

     XV THE PURSUIT                                  203

    XVI COLONEL JIM ATTEMPTS A RESCUE                216

   XVII THE BATTLE                                   227

  XVIII THE SIEGE                                    238

    XIX SELIM IS CAPTURED                            252

     XX THE LAST                                     264




PEGGY IN TOYLAND




PEGGY IN TOYLAND




I

INTRODUCES PEGGY AND SOME OF HER FRIENDS


Peggy was just eight years old. She had very long rather straight hair,
blue eyes, a dear little pudgy nose, and a small mouth. She lived with
her father and mother in a nice house in the country with a big garden
round it. It was about five miles from the sea, and she was sometimes
taken there in the motor-car, to paddle and to play on the sands.

The place she used to go to had only one house near it. This was a
large bungalow belonging to some friends of Peggy’s father and mother.
It was built right on the beach, but there was a little lawn beside it,
and on the edge of the lawn were two wooden figures that had been once
figure-heads of ships. They were both ladies, and it was difficult to
tell whether they were old or young, because one of them had had her
nose broken off, and the other had lost every bit of paint off her
face. But there was something agreeable in the appearance of both of
them, and Peggy used to think she would have liked to know them when
they were leading a more active life, perched up in the very front of
the ships to which they belonged, and travelling over the sea to all
sorts of strange places. But they still looked over the sea, which was
better than being broken up and burnt, with the rest of the ships; and
of course they always looked in one direction, straight across the
water to the big Island on the other side of it.

Peggy had never been to the Island, and when she was playing on the
sands she would sometimes look at it, and wonder what it was like
there. She could see a little town and a little church, and a few
houses scattered about among the hills; and she wondered what sort of
people lived in them.

Well, when she was eight years old she found out, and she also got to
know a good deal more about the two wooden ladies of the bungalow. What
she found out was so remarkable that it is doubtful if any little girl
has ever seen anything like it before, and I am going to tell you the
story of it.

But before I begin I must say this: that if Peggy had not had a kind
heart she would never have found out anything. I do not mean to say
that she was never naughty; but she was never naughty in that most
horrid of all ways, by being cruel or unkind. She had several pets--two
rabbits and four guinea-pigs, a bantam cock and hen, two white pigeons,
and a kitten, which she liked best of them all. If she had once been
cruel to any of these pets, just to see what they would do, it is quite
certain that she would never have been taken to the Island. And if she
had made fun of old people or poor people, she would never have gone
either, because that is an extremely unkind and horrid thing to do.
But Peggy had never done any of these things, because she was a really
kind little girl, and if something horrid inside her whispered: “Now,
just be a little bit cruel,” she was almost as much ashamed of it as if
she had really been cruel, and she never listened to the whisper for a
moment. So when she was eight years old she was taken to the Island in
the extraordinary way I am going to tell you about.

Peggy had a good number of toys, and amongst them two dolls, which will
now engage our attention.

The elder of the two was a wooden doll, which she had had for some
time, and the story of this doll is rather interesting.

[Illustration]

When Peggy was five years old she had a doll given her called Rose.
Rose was well-dressed, in clothes that would come on and off; and
rather a nice hat came with her. But somehow Peggy could not get
to like her much. She took her about everywhere for quite a week,
undressed her every night and dressed her again every morning, and
sometimes gave her a bath, but not with water in it, because her body
was stuffed, although her head was composition. She also took her out
in the new pram that had been given to her at the same time, and put up
the hood if it was sunny. In fact she did everything that a nice little
girl could to make Rose feel that she had come to a kind and loving
home.

But at the end of a week she didn’t feel that Rose really loved her.
Most little girls know dolls like that. You may do all you can for
them, and they don’t seem to appreciate it at all. Well, Rose was one
of those dolls.

One morning Peggy went out with her nurse, and took Rose with her
in the pram. They went down through the village, and along the road
on the other side, and presently they came to a cottage where a lot
of children lived. Their mother was not very kind to them, and so
they were not very kind to each other, but were always fighting and
squabbling.

One of these children was a girl a year older than Peggy, called Mabel,
and just as Peggy and her nurse came up to the cottage they saw Mabel
banging the head of an old wooden doll on the hard road.

Now children and dolls are sometimes naughty, and must be corrected,
but their heads should never be banged against anything hard. There
are plenty of ways of correcting them without doing that, and every
nice mother knows it. Peggy knew it as well as anybody, although she
was a year younger than Mabel; so directly she saw what was being done
she cried out to her nurse how cruel it was.

[Illustration]

Mabel stopped beating the wooden doll’s head against the road, and
stared at Peggy, and at Rose, who was sitting in the pram; and she must
have fallen in love with Rose at first sight, because her face became
quite different when she looked at her.

While Mabel was looking at Rose, Peggy was looking at the wooden doll;
and the more she looked the more her heart went out to her. She was
not what you would call a beautiful doll, and perhaps never had been.
One of her legs had been amputated at the knee, one of her arms at the
shoulder, and the other at the elbow. Her face was round and open; so
were her eyes. Her nose was gone. The less said about her hair the
better; she would never need another shampoo. She was dressed in a
loose frock of spotted red flannel, tied round the waist with an old
piece of black hair-ribbon.

Such was this doll, who was destined to play so large a part in Peggy’s
life, as she first saw her; and it may seem odd to some people that she
should instantly have loved her. Perhaps being such a kind little girl,
and feeling so dreadfully sorry to see the doll so badly treated, had
something to do with it; but it could not have been only that. No,
there was something about this wooden doll which made Peggy love her at
once, and when you have read this story, perhaps you will be able to
understand what it was.

Peggy told Mabel that she ought not to knock her doll’s head on the
road, and Mabel pointed at Rose, and said: “If I had a doll like that,
I wouldn’t want to knock ’er ’ead on the road.”

It was then that the idea first came to Peggy that she would much
rather have the wooden doll than Rose; and she asked her nurse if she
might give Rose to Mabel, and ask Mabel to give her the wooden doll
instead.

Nurse said: “The idea of such a thing!” and told Peggy to come on. Of
course she was right not to let Peggy exchange dolls there and then,
because she didn’t know whether Peggy’s mother would like it. But
where she was wrong was when she said, “Fancy wanting to exchange a
beautiful doll like Rose for an ugly old wooden thing like that!” She
didn’t understand that what she called beauty had nothing to do with it
at all. You don’t love a person for their looks, but just because you
can’t help loving them. And Peggy was quite right to love the wooden
doll more than Rose, as afterwards turned out.

Fortunately, Peggy’s mother understood these things better than the
nurse. The end of it was that Peggy was allowed to give Rose to Mabel,
with all her clothes except the hat, which had come on the same
birthday as she had, but had not belonged especially to her. And Mabel
gave Peggy the wooden doll, but without its red flannel dress, which
Peggy’s mother thought might contain germs.

Now that the wooden doll belonged to Peggy she had to give her a name.
She called her Daffodil, because the daffodils were out in the garden
when she came. But the name never stuck to her. She was always called
Wooden in the family circle; and presently it was forgotten that she
had ever had any other name.

The first thing that happened to her was that she underwent an
operation for restoring the limbs that were lost. It was a serious
operation, and she was under chloroform for about a week. The
chauffeur, whose name was Herbert, performed the operation, and when
it was over Wooden had two arms and two legs just like everybody else.
One of the legs sometimes came off at the knee, and both arms at the
elbows. But Herbert, accustomed to making quick repairs, was always
ready to perform other minor operations, and Wooden was seldom without
her full number of limbs for long together.

Wooden went through the usual illnesses, and was carefully nursed by
Peggy. Perhaps she suffered rather more than most dolls, but Peggy’s
father was a doctor, and there was always help at hand if anything
serious happened. And of course Peggy knew more about cases, and
nursing, than other little girls whose fathers were not doctors. Wooden
had whooping-cough, croup, mumps, scarlet-fever, chicken-pox, measles,
German-measles, swollen glands, general debility, bronchitis, typhoid,
and lung trouble, all in the ordinary way. For some little time she
was a spinal case, and had to be kept on her back. But she was always
good and uncomplaining through her ailments, and Peggy loved her more
because she was a trifle delicate than if she had always been in robust
health.

In fact, the longer Peggy had Wooden the more she loved her. She played
with her more than with her other dolls, and Wooden was always the one
she took to bed with her. Peggy had a large Teddy bear, which she also
loved and took to bed with her. But there could be no jealousy between
Wooden and Teddy, because they were so different. If Peggy sometimes
dressed Teddy up in a jacket and skirt belonging to Wooden, it was
always treated as a joke. As a rule he went about with nothing on but
his own thick fur.

[Illustration: Peggy had a large Teddy bear]

Wooden had all the clothes of Peggy’s dolls’ wardrobe to wear, if they
fitted her, and was better dressed than most dolls. And as everybody
liked her when they once came to know her, she had plenty of things
given her as time went on. When Miss Clay came to the house for a week
or two to sew, she would generally make something for Wooden out of
the material left over. Once she made her a purple velvet jacket, and
once a tailor-made skirt. As for nightgowns, and petticoats, and things
like that, trimmed with lace, and sometimes with pink and blue ribbon,
Wooden was so well supplied that Peggy’s father said her laundry bill
was becoming quite a serious item. So it will be seen that Wooden was
very much better off than when she had belonged to Mabel, and had only
had one red flannel dress.

We now come to the other doll of Peggy’s, of whom mention has been made.

Her name was Lady Grace. She came on Peggy’s eighth birthday, and was
really a beautiful doll, as everybody who saw her bore witness. She had
been born in France, although she herself was English, and the clothes
that came with her were finer than any of Wooden’s. Her face was wax,
and she had beautiful hair. Her eyes opened and shut, and she had the
sweetest little hands and feet, with pink toes and fingertips.

Peggy loved her at once. This was not altogether because of her beauty,
for Rose had been beautiful--though not so beautiful as Lady Grace--and
Peggy had never been able to love Rose at all. There was something
about Lady Grace which made Peggy feel that she must look after her and
pet her. And she never felt, as she had felt with Rose, that all her
petting was of no use. Lady Grace might not say much, but she showed
that she was grateful to Peggy for all the care she took of her by
being always sweet and good; though she was, as I have said, rather
helpless.

Now, although Peggy loved Lady Grace from the first, it must not be
supposed that she loved Wooden any the less. It was just as it is with
children. When a new baby comes, the mother adores it, but she loves
her other children just as much as she did before.

But, just at first, it must be confessed that Wooden had rather less
attention; and if she had not been so sensible she might have felt
jealous. I don’t think she did, or she would have told Peggy so
afterwards. She probably knew exactly how things were, and that, when
Lady Grace had been made to feel quite at home, her turn would come
again.

Well, one night when Peggy went to bed, she took Lady Grace and Teddy
with her, and left Wooden on the top of a chest of drawers with all her
clothes on. And then Wooden might have felt a little sad, because it
was the first time that such a thing had ever happened to her; and she
might have begun to wonder whether, after all, Peggy loved her quite as
much as she had done before.

But fortunately for this story, which might not otherwise have been
written, as you will presently see, soon after Peggy had been tucked
up and left to go to sleep, she remembered that she had not undressed
Wooden. So she called her nurse, who was in the next room with the door
a little open, and asked her to give Wooden to her.

The nurse would not let her have two dolls in bed with her. Teddy
didn’t matter because he was so soft. So Peggy asked her to put
Lady Grace in the dolls’ cot, and give her Wooden instead. She felt
dreadfully sorry that she had forgotten about Wooden, and wanted to
make it up to her. Lady Grace would have to get used to sleeping in the
cot some time or other, and Peggy thought she might just as well begin
now.

So Peggy went to sleep hugging Wooden in her arms; and Teddy lay on his
back on the pillow on the other side of her, with one paw stuck up in
the air and the rest of him under the bedclothes.

By-and-by the nurse came in to look at her, and then went to bed in the
next room. Then her father and mother came in and kissed her, but she
did not wake up. Then the house became quiet and dark, and everybody in
it was fast asleep.

And then things began to happen.

[Illustration]




II

PEGGY’S SURPRISING ADVENTURE BEGINS


Peggy was awakened by the noise of a motor outside. It sometimes
happened that her father had to go out at night, and she heard the car
start off. But she generally went to sleep again as soon as ever the
noise had died away.

But this time the car, instead of standing throbbing for a few minutes
before the door, and then starting off down the drive and leaving
everything as quiet and still as before, seemed to be coming nearer
and nearer. In fact, it seemed as if it was being driven right into
the room, and made such a noise that Peggy opened her eyes. And when
she did open them, she opened them very wide indeed, for the car _was_
in the room, standing right at the foot of the bed. And who should be
driving it but Teddy, whom she had last seen lying on the pillow by her
side?

And that was not nearly all, for everything was changing all
around her. The apple-blossoms on the wall-paper had become real
apple-blossoms, and were dancing in a bright spring breeze; the ceiling
had melted away into blue sky; and suddenly the little birds that had
been sitting in a long row on the bough which ran round the top of the
paper flew up all together and filled the air with their singing.

[Illustration: The apple-blossoms on the wall-paper had become real
apple-blossoms]

Peggy sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. When she looked again there
was Wooden standing by the side of the bed, smiling at her.

“Get up, dear,” said Wooden in the kind and gentle voice that Peggy had
known she would speak in if she ever spoke at all. “I am going to take
you to Toyland.”

Teddy spoke at the same moment. He waved a paw in the air and said,
“What ho! What larks!” and sounded his motor-horn.

Now the moment that Wooden and Teddy spoke, Peggy left off being
surprised altogether. Everything seemed quite natural, and she jumped
up full of pleasure at the idea of an adventure.

The moment her feet had touched the floor, lo and behold! she was fully
dressed, in a clean blue over-all, with her outdoor shoes and her big
straw hat trimmed with daisies. Her face and hands were washed, her
nails scrubbed, and her teeth cleaned; and her long hair, which was
always plaited for the night, was brushed and tied up with her blue
ribbon.

“Come along, dear,” said Wooden, taking her hand. “We must start at
once. Are you quite ready, Lady Grace?”

“Yes,” said a soft, musical voice. Peggy looked towards the
dressing-table, and there was Lady Grace pinning on her hat. She came
and kissed Peggy. “I am sure you will like Toyland, dear,” she said,
“and it is a great honour to be taken there.”

Both Wooden and Lady Grace seemed to be grown up all of a sudden, and
ready to take care of Peggy, instead of her taking care of them. Lady
Grace had on the beautiful French clothes in which she had come, and
Wooden was dressed in her purple velvet jacket and her grey tailor-made
skirt. She wore the straw hat that had come at the same time as Rose,
and looked very nice altogether, but a little different, because her
nose was now perfect, and her face and eyes and hair had got all their
colour back. She had a wonderfully kind and simple expression of face,
and Peggy felt that it would be quite safe to go anywhere with her.

[Illustration]

Teddy was also life-size. Peggy had always known that he was of a very
cheerful nature, for his face had always seemed to be laughing at some
joke. But he seemed to be rather forward in his manners, for as Lady
Grace kissed Peggy he said with a sort of crow, “What ho, girls! You
jump up and sit alongside me, my lady, and we’ll have a nice little
chat as we go along.”

“Be careful, Teddy,” said Wooden in a warning voice.

“Oh, I’ll be careful all right,” said Teddy encouragingly. “Oh, what
larks we’re going to have!”

Lady Grace got up in front of the car, and Peggy and Wooden behind. It
was not Peggy’s father’s car, but a toy one which had been given to
her. But it was now big enough to hold all four of them comfortably.

Teddy sounded his horn and gave a whoop of joy, and the car drove
straight out of the bedroom into the garden, though how it got there
from her nursery on the first floor Peggy could never remember.

Now, although it had been winter when Peggy went to bed, and the
thermometer on the pergola outside had registered two degrees of frost,
it had suddenly become the most delicious spring and summer weather
combined. When Peggy saw the garden she clapped her hands with delight.
Never was seen such a blaze of colour. Everything was out at once--all
the trees, and all the shrubs, and all the flowers. The house was
smothered in roses and honeysuckle and clematis. The daffodils were
dancing in the grass. The rhododendrons and azaleas flamed against
the green of the darker shrubs. Every flower in the long border was
in full bloom, from the scarlet anemones of the early spring to the
yellow sunflowers and Michaelmas daisies of the late autumn; and so
were the lilacs, white and purple, the guelder roses, the syringas,
the may-trees and laburnums, the pink almond, and the Pyrus Malus
Floribunda, which was Peggy’s favourite tree, though she never quite
got its name right. There were thousands of blooms in the rose garden;
the climbing roses trained over the pergola were as gay as gay could
be; and even the newly-planted nut-walk had grown twelve feet in a few
hours, and made a shady green tunnel through which you could see the
park beyond.

But there was not much time to take in all the wonders of the garden,
for Teddy whirled them through it in no time, out into the road and
down to the village. The car seemed to be going faster than Peggy’s
father’s big new one, but it travelled so easily and so smoothly that
Peggy, who was a little nervous of motors going very fast, said, “What
a nice drive we’re having!” As they passed the clock over the Abbey
gateway the hands were pointing to twelve o’clock, and Peggy, who
could of course tell the time, knew somehow that it was really twelve
o’clock at night, and not twelve o’clock in the daytime, although the
sun was shining with all its might. And as they turned and drove up
the village street all the windows had their blinds down, and there
were no people about.

[Illustration]

“Where are we going?” Peggy asked.

“We are going to Toyland,” said Wooden. “We all go there every night
when people are asleep, and it is a lovely place; I am sure you will
like it, dear. And I must tell you that it is very seldom we are
allowed to take little girls there. When you were so kind to me, and
rescued me from Mabel, I told the Queen about it, and asked if I could
bring you. And she said that if you went on being kind to me for three
years and a week I might bring you; but if you once grew tired of me
and neglected me, the three years and a week would have to begin all
over again. You can’t think how I have been looking forward to it,
dear. Yesterday I was able to tell the Queen that you had never once
neglected me, and Lady Grace said the same. She is one of the Queen’s
ladies-in-waiting, and she thinks a deal of her. So the Queen said, ‘I
shall be very glad to see such a nice little girl. Bring her tomorrow.’”

When Wooden told her this Peggy remembered that she had not been
_quite_ so attentive to Wooden since Lady Grace had come, and wondered
what would have happened if she had left her to sleep on the chest of
drawers with all her clothes on that very night. It would have been
too awful if she had had to begin the three years and a week all over
again, after so nearly getting through it once.

But Wooden did not refer to that at all, and Peggy felt grateful to
her, and took hold of her hand and squeezed it. And Wooden squeezed
Peggy’s hand in return, and smiled at her and said again, “Toyland is a
wonderful place. I am sure you will like it.”

When they had passed through the village Teddy took the road towards
the sea. He drove very well, and talked all the time to Lady Grace,
sometimes leaning towards her and saying something in his gruff, hearty
voice, and sometimes throwing his head back and laughing loudly.
Lady Grace seemed to be receiving his attentions kindly, but Wooden
looked a little anxious, and leant forward sometimes and joined in the
conversation.

“Lady Grace is engaged to Colonel Jim of the Lifeguards,” she explained
to Peggy. “The Queen takes a great interest in the young couple, and I
promised her that I would give an eye to Lady Grace. The Queen trusts
me, you know, dear.”

“Shall I see the Queen?” asked Peggy. “What is she like?”

“She is not very well,” said Wooden sadly. “I don’t know whether you
will be able to see her, but I hope so.”

“What is the matter with her?” asked Peggy.

“Well they told me last night at the Palace that they were afraid she
had a mump.”

“What is that?”

“Why, you know all about that, don’t you? You have had mumps
yourself--several of them. If a doll has more than one it is generally
fatal. But I quite hope that the Queen has not got any; and if she is
better I am sure she would like to see you. You asked what she was
like. Well, she is wax, of course, and she is about a hundred years
old, or perhaps a thousand, or a million, but quite as beautiful as
ever. She was one of the first wax dolls ever born, and they made her
Queen because they admired her so.”

“Is there an elective monarchy in Toyland?” asked Peggy, who had got on
quite a long way in history.

Wooden did not seem to understand the question fully, but she answered
in her soothing voice, “No, dear, all the animals are tame; you need
not be afraid of any of them.”

They drove on towards the sea, and when they got within sight of it
Peggy cried out, and clapped her hands with pleasure.

For the sea was full of boats crowded with dolls all going to the
Island. It was the prettiest sight. There were hundreds of toy yachts
with their white sails, steam-boats and motor-boats and clockwork boats
and rowing boats, and even boats made of paper, and walnut shells. The
sun was shining brightly on this gay scene, and the water was as calm
as possible, so that there was no chance of anybody being seasick.

“Why, they are all going over to the Island!” said Peggy. “Are we going
there, too?”

“Oh, yes,” said Wooden. “The Island is Toyland; I forgot that you
didn’t know that. That is where all the dolls live. Those who are
finished with your world live there always, and the others go there
every night. At least it is night with you, but of course it is day
with us. And when it is day with you it is night with us.”

“Like Australia,” suggested Peggy.

“Yes, dear,” said Wooden. “I like it very much.”

“But if you go to Toyland every night, and it is day there, you never
have any real night at all,” said Peggy.

“No, dear,” said Wooden reflectively. “I suppose not.”

When they reached the shore Teddy turned to the right. “Are we going to
the Bungalow?” asked Peggy.

“That is where we shall set sail for Toyland,” said Wooden. “And, you
know, I have two relations there.”

Peggy could not think what she meant for the moment. Then she
remembered the two wooden figure-heads, and asked Wooden if they were
her relations. Wooden said they were. One was her mother and one was
her aunt. “I’m sure you will like mother, dear,” she said. “Aunt has
wonderful high spirits, and doesn’t always behave as she ought, through
picking up sailors’ ways. But she says herself she never did no harm to
nobody, so we must overlook it.”

It was well that Wooden had given Peggy this warning about her aunt, or
Peggy might have been rather surprised at her behaviour when the car
drew up before the grass-plot by the Bungalow. The two figure-heads,
now full length and moving about freely, were waiting for them, and
when she saw them coming Wooden’s aunt gave a loud screech and rushed
forward to meet them, but caught her foot on a root of gorse and fell
full length in front of the car.

Teddy very cleverly stopped the car at once, or he might have run over
her. Then he jumped down and lifted up Wooden’s aunt, who was not hurt
at all, but screeched with laughter again. Teddy seized her round the
waist and waltzed up and down the grass with her, kicking up his legs
and being very silly. Peggy was surprised to see him going on like
that, but Wooden’s aunt seemed to enjoy it thoroughly, and when he had
finished she sat plump down on the grass, with her legs sticking out in
front of her, and simply roared with laughter, and said, “Lawks! you
_are_ a one!”

In the meantime Wooden had introduced Peggy to her mother, who was as
fresh as paint could make her, but had a weather-beaten look, too, and
a husky voice, owing to her having taken so many sea voyages that the
fog had got into her throat. She said that she was very pleased to see
Peggy, because she had heard a lot about her, and when they got on to
the boat they must have a nice long talk.

“Aunt seems in very good spirits today, mother,” said Wooden, looking
at her doubtfully as she was being danced about the grass by Teddy.
Wooden’s aunt was really being rather common, and Wooden would not
like Peggy to think that her relations were common.

Just at that moment Wooden’s aunt sat down on the grass in the rather
vulgar way already described, and Wooden’s mother said to her sharply,
“Now, Polly, do adone now, and remember what company you’re in. Get up,
and come and be introduced to the little lady.”

So Wooden’s aunt came and shook hands with Peggy, and gave her a
smacking kiss, which tasted of salt. “Dear little precious! Bless her!”
she said in quite a kind voice, which made Peggy like her a little
better. “Lawks, Maria! _She_ ain’t one to mind a body having a bit o’
fun.”

[Illustration]




III

THE ROYAL ARK AND THE BAD BEHAVIOUR OF WOODEN’S AUNT


Lying tied to one of the groins, which seemed to have widened out into
a sort of pier, was a rakish-looking clockwork steamer, with a red hull
and a broad white line above it, all very smart and clean.

“Why, it’s my very own steamer,” cried Peggy, “just as it was when it
was new, only much bigger.”

“Yes, dear,” said Wooden. “We use it every night to take us across to
Toyland. You didn’t know that. You will see all your other toys when we
get across, and some of them are coming with us.”

“Is the man who shoots pennies into my money-box coming?” asked Peggy.

“Yes,” replied Wooden. “He is the Queen’s head game-keeper. He shot the
three china hares that stand on the nursery mantelpiece. He shot them
with the sixpences you got out of the Christmas pudding.”

The steamer and the pier beside it were now crowded with doll sailors
and doll passengers preparing to take the journey across the water
to Toyland, and the road along the beach in both directions was full
of dolls hurrying to the various starting-places. Every row of piles
along the shore had turned into a pier, and scores of boats were moored
alongside them, in which dolls were embarking.

But still they came, from north, east, and west. Many of them were in
motor-cars, others were packed into wooden carts, the babies were being
wheeled in prams, and many were walking. Some way off Peggy saw a troop
of lead soldiers riding down to the shore on black horses, and they
looked very fine with the sun shining on their helmets and breastplates.

Lady Grace shaded her eyes and looked at them, too, and Wooden said to
her, “Lady Grace, I believe that is Colonel Jim’s regiment.”

Teddy turned round and grinned at them, and said, “What ho, girls!”

Wooden said sharply, “Now behave, Teddy, and don’t let’s have any
byplay.”

They all embarked in the toy steamer, and Peggy was pleased to find
her own sailor doll acting as captain of it. Very well he did it, too,
standing on the bridge and shouting his orders down a tube, while the
steamer was loosed from the quay and started off at a splendid pace,
making a hundred knots an hour across the blue calm water.

[Illustration]

It was a delightful voyage, pleasanter even than the motor drive had
been. The sun was shining so brightly, and every one seemed so pleased
to be going to Toyland. They could hear the dolls laughing and singing
from the other boats, which were all round them. On one of them was
a toy piano with five notes, on which a gentleman doll with long hair
was playing a tune so difficult that you would never have thought it
possible if you had not heard him.

Wooden’s mother and aunt went forward and stood in the bows of the boat
as she drove across the sea. They sniffed the salt breeze with rapture,
and their brightly-coloured faces glistened in the sunshine. “This,”
said Wooden’s mother, “is Life!” And Wooden’s aunt enjoyed it so much
that until they came to the other side she said nothing vulgar or
common.

But the moment the steamer began to move, although the water was as
smooth as it could possibly be, Teddy became as green as pea soup and
rushed downstairs to the cabin.

“He’s always like that, poor fellow,” said Wooden. “I suppose it comes
from being a bear. He will be all right when we get to the other side.”

Very soon the voyage was over, and the toy steamer came alongside a
quay carpeted with red felt. There were many other landing stages
all along the shore, at which other boats were landing their doll
passengers; but the steamer was the only one which came alongside this
special quay. It was decorated with flowers and flags, and round it
stood a row of wooden soldiers, with shiny black bearskins, red coats,
and spotless white trousers. They lined three sides of the square, and
looked very smart, all of exactly the same height, and all standing at
attention.

Wooden seemed to be rather embarrassed as the steamer made fast
alongside this gaily decorated quay. “This is the royal quay,” she said
to Peggy. “Only the Queen uses it. There must be some mistake.” And she
asked the captain why they were landing there.

“Orders, ma’am, orders,” said the captain briefly, touching his cap.

“I expect,” said Lady Grace, “that it is to do honour to our little
visitor.” She put her hand on Peggy’s shoulder and smiled at her.

Wooden’s honest face beamed with pleasure. “Now, I do call that kind of
Her Majesty,” she said, “very kind indeed.”

The wooden soldiers all presented arms as Peggy stepped off the steamer
between Lady Grace and Wooden, while Wooden’s mother and aunt followed
them, and Teddy came up from below no longer looking green, but quite
cheerful again and grinning all over. One of the soldiers let off
his gun by mistake. He had only lately joined the regiment, and did
not quite understand the words of command. The captain of the wooden
soldiers boxed his ears soundly, and nobody took any further notice
of the episode, which, however, had far-reaching effects, as will
presently appear.

Directly the party had landed, a band struck up and led the way along
a broad carpeted passage, which was also lined on one side by wooden
soldiers. On the other side was the water, for the royal quay was at
the mouth of a broad river, and a little farther on was another quay
towards which they were going. And here Peggy saw an extraordinary and
pleasing sight.

There was a large, gaily decorated Noah’s Ark lying at the second quay.
At each end of the house on the Ark was a big platform. The one in
front was shaded by a gaily striped awning. There was also a carpet on
it, and big pots of flowers, and comfortable chairs and little tables.
On the platform at the back stood Mr. Noah in a long yellow robe, and
Mrs. Noah in a blue robe. Mr. Noah had taken off his black shiny hat,
and was bowing low, as Wooden and her party approached the Ark.

But the most curious thing of all was the long line of animals that
were standing two and two along the towing-path by the river. They were
all in charge of the rest of Mr. Noah’s family, and were harnessed
to the Ark, which they were evidently going to pull. There were two
elephants and two camels, giraffes, zebras, cows, hyenas, leopards, and
a lot more, all much the same size; and at the head of the procession
were two antelopes. Hovering round the Ark were a great number of
birds--wild geese, and rooks and parrots and peacocks and canaries and
budgeree-gars and others, all flying in pairs.

[Illustration: On the platform at the back stood Mr. Noah and Mrs. Noah]

“The Queen’s own Ark,” said Lady Grace. “It must have been sent down
for somebody. I wonder who.”

“Do you think it could be for a specialist?” Peggy asked. “They do send
for them, you know, if anybody is ill.”

“Oh, I do hope her mump isn’t worse,” said Wooden.

“I expect it’s sent down for me,” said Wooden’s aunt, with her vulgar
laugh. “She knowed I was coming all right.”

“Now, Polly, behave,” said Wooden’s mother. “Mr. and Mrs. Noah are
looking at us.”

Mr. Noah advanced to the side of the Ark and bowed to Wooden. “I have
been ordered to bring the Ark down for you and your party,” he said. “I
hope we shall have a nice trip up the river.”

Wooden turned to Peggy with a pleased smile on her face. “Now that is
an honour,” she said. “I am so pleased, dear. It is a most lovely ark
inside.”

Then she asked Mr. Noah how the Queen was, and he shook his head and
was just going to tell her how the Queen was when Wooden’s aunt gave a
wild whoop, and picking up her skirts ran along the quay, kicking her
feet out in front of her, and shouting, “Come on, girls! Here’s larks!”

And I am sorry to say that Teddy joined her, and they danced up the
quay together and rushed down the bridge from the bank to the ark,
jostling each other and quite spoiling everything by their behaviour.

“Oh dear, oh dear!” said Wooden’s mother in a vexed voice, “Really,
Polly does carry on something awful.”

But Mr. Noah only laughed and said, “I like a little fun sometimes.”

Then he led the way to the platform in the front of the ark, and Mrs.
Noah walked by Peggy and said to her, “I like your face very much. I am
sure we shall be friends.”

The captain of the wooden soldiers now gave some words of command, and
all his troops fell into their places ready to march alongside the
ark. Mr. Noah blew a whistle, and his sons made themselves very busy
unfastening ropes, pushing the ark out into the river, and getting
ready to start the animals. Mr. Noah blew his whistle again when the
ark was clear of the shore, and with a great deal of shouting and
cheering, the procession of animals started off, and pulled the ark at
a good pace up the river.

It was a very pleasant journey. The air was warm and the sky was
blue. All the different animals that were pulling the ark were very
interesting to look at, and the birds that flew in couples overhead
were very pretty, too, and sang most melodiously.

They had not travelled very far before a smart servant doll in cap and
apron came out of the house in the ark, and said, “Would you like to
take a little light refreshment?”

Wooden’s aunt instantly jumped up from her chair and said, “I’m always
ready for my grub.” Then she pushed in front of all the others and
rushed into the house in the most vulgar and objectionable manner. And
again, I am sorry to say, Teddy followed her.

[Illustration]

Wooden blushed with annoyance at the behaviour of her relative, and
Wooden’s mother said in an angry voice, “It is really too much. But
please don’t think because she is my daughter’s aunt that she is
my sister. Quite the reverse. I wouldn’t own her. My poor brother
married much beneath him. He was a wooden Scotchman of irreproachable
character, outside a tobacconist’s shop, and a perfect gentleman in
every way.”

Peggy smoothed the wounded feelings of Wooden and her mother, and said
it didn’t matter. “I think I had better say a word to Teddy,” she said.
“He is not behaving nicely.”

“Oh, she leads him on,” said Wooden’s mother, who was still very much
annoyed.

“Teddy has always been flighty, for a bear,” said Wooden. “I haven’t
liked to say anything, dear, but I think it would be a good thing if
you were to speak to him. He would pay attention to you.”

When they got inside the house of the ark they found a most beautifully
furnished apartment, with big windows on either side, through which the
scenery on the banks of the river could be observed as they went along.

On the table was spread a most sumptuous repast. There was a dish of
chicken, consisting entirely of wishing-bones; there was a pudding made
of one gigantic chocolate cream; there were little baby bananas growing
on a live tree in the middle of the table; there were sandwiches of
toast and butter and watercress and blackberry jam and potted prawns,
all mixed up together in the most ingenious manner, and very seductive
to the palate; there was a birthday cake and a wedding cake; there was
a jelly that tasted of violets and another that tasted of carnations;
there were delicious drinks, from the sweet and comforting chocolate
of the cold north to the iced sherbet of the burning south; there were
dozens of crackers, and every one of them contained a beautiful toy,
a motto, a cap of coloured paper decorated with gold and silver, and
a small but valuable piece of jewellery. In short, there was every
delicacy of the season, and all in the utmost profusion.

Wooden’s aunt was already deep in the repast when they got inside. She
was purple in the face, and beginning to breathe heavily.

“Such greed I never saw,” said Wooden’s mother, eyeing her severely.
“She has not even washed her hands.”

Teddy, however, was nowhere to be seen, and the servant-doll said that
he had gone out by another door into Mr. Noah’s cabin. Mr. Noah had
invited him to have a steak and onions with him. Peggy was rather glad
not to have to rebuke him before company, for she was fond of Teddy.
She thought that if he were kept away from Wooden’s aunt he would
probably behave all right.

The servant-doll had led them into a nice airy bedroom, which opened
out of the main saloon, and Peggy washed her hands, and then put on a
very pretty pinafore made of lace and chiffon, which the servant-doll
gave her. When they were all ready they went into the saloon and sat
down at the table, and much enjoyed their repast, while the ark was
drawn rapidly along the winding river.

Unfortunately their enjoyment was marred by the continued bad behaviour
of Wooden’s aunt, who went on as if she had really never been in
respectable company before. When she could eat no more--and that was
not for a long time--Wooden’s mother gave her a dose of Gregory powder,
which she always carried about with her for such emergencies, or she
would probably have died. As it was she felt very ill, and said so in a
thoroughly vulgar manner.

Wooden was most distressed at her behaviour, but she was so
kind-hearted that she could not help making excuses for her.
“Greediness and vulgarity and vanity are her only failings, poor
thing,” she said. “Otherwise she has a very charming character. We all
have our little weaknesses, and we must not think too much of them.”

“I’m ashamed of her,” said Wooden’s mother. “And I shall tell her so
to her face directly she regains consciousness.”

For Wooden’s aunt was now stretched on one of the luxurious sofas of
the saloon in a state of complete collapse.

“Let us leave her there,” said Lady Grace. “She will be better when we
arrive at Dolltown.”

[Illustration]




IV

MOMENTOUS NEWS IS BROUGHT BY A DUTCH DOLL


They left Wooden’s aunt in the saloon and went on deck again, and
seated themselves in the comfortable chairs under the awning, from
which they could observe the scenery. This was very beautiful.

They were now going through a mountain gorge. The river was narrow
here, but deep. The mountains came steeply down into the water, and
on one side of the river was a road cut in the rock, along which all
the animals were walking two by two, pulling the ark at a smart pace.
Perched up on the mountains here and there were pretty wooden Swiss
chalets, large and small; and numberless clean wooden cows, with bells
round their necks, were browsing in the mountain pastures, which were
gay with flowers. The wooden peasants who were looking after them
showed great interest in the progress of the ark. They came running
down the steep paths to see who was on board, and shouted and waved
their hats in their excitement.

[Illustration: On the mountains here and there were pretty wooden Swiss
chalets]

By-and-by they had passed through the mountains, and had come to a
perfectly flat country, planted with wooden poplars of a vivid green.
Here and there were farms--dear little wooden houses with doll-farmers
living in them, and taking care of more wooden animals, cows and
horses, and sheep and pigs. After a time they came to a small town
consisting of streets of dolls’ houses, with a church built of toy
bricks.

“Oh, I would like to go into one of those dear little houses,” said
Peggy. “Can’t we stop here, Wooden?”

“We shall see much better dolls’ houses than those when we get to
Dolltown,” said Wooden. “I have got a very nice dolls’ house myself,
bigger than any of those. I shall take you there, dear, and you will
occupy the spare room. And I will show you the Queen’s Palace, which is
finer than any of them.”

At this moment Mrs. Noah came forward, and stood by them smiling, as if
she would like a little conversation.

“Won’t you sit down, Mrs. Noah?” said Lady Grace politely; and Mrs.
Noah thanked her and sat down.

Mrs. Noah was a large smiling woman who liked to make friends. She
smiled at Lady Grace, and Wooden, and Wooden’s mother, and Peggy, and
then said suddenly, “I thought you’d like to know how it all was.”

Of course they would like to know how it all was, though they didn’t
quite know what she meant. So they smiled back at her, and then she
began.

“Of course he is wood,” she said, “begging your pardon, Lady Grace, and
I ought to like him on that account. But the truth is that I don’t, and
can’t.”

There was a little pause, and then Wooden’s mother said, nodding her
head wisely, “Ah, I know who you mean, and I don’t much like him
either. I suppose because he’s a foreigner.”

Wooden shook her head, but said nothing. Lady Grace said, “I hate him;
but then I’m wax, you see.”

Peggy wondered who they were talking about, but just as she was going
to ask Wooden, Mrs. Noah looked at her, and said, “Why, bless me! the
little lady must be thinking that we’re talking in riddles.”

And then she told the following story:--

Some time before, a ship had been wrecked on the coast of Toyland, and
all its passengers drowned except King Selim. He had been brought to
Dolltown, and, because he was a king, Queen Rosebud had given him a set
of rooms in her palace, where he had lived very comfortably ever since.

“What was he King of?” asked Peggy.

Mrs. Noah hesitated. “I really don’t know, dear,” she said. “Do you
know, Wooden?”

“No,” said Wooden. “I never thought of asking.”

It seemed that nobody else had ever thought of asking either. They knew
he must be a king because he said he was. Besides, he wore a crown.
Everybody was very sorry for him, because his Queen had been drowned
when the ship had been wrecked, but when some time had passed and he
had got over that, he had become rather interfering, and he was not so
much liked now as he had been, especially by the Waxes. For although
all the dolls in Toyland generally lived happily together, still
there was always apt to be a little feeling between the Waxes and the
Woodens. The Waxes thought the Woodens were rather common, and the
Woodens thought the Waxes were rather stuck up.

“Of course, speaking for myself,” said Mrs. Noah, “I’ve never had no
quarrel with a Wax in my life, and, if I may say so, have as many
friends among the Waxes as I have among the Woodens.”

She looked at Lady Grace, who said, “The Queen has always disliked
having anything said against the Woodens, and has often told me that if
she had not been born Wax she would have liked to be born Wood.”

There were murmurs of approbation at this speech, and Wooden’s mother
said, “Wax is as wax does, I always say. If all was as polite as the
Queen, there wouldn’t be no trouble at all. But you haven’t told us
about the Queen’s health yet, Mrs. Noah.”

“Well,” said Mrs. Noah, “it’s my belief that the Queen is dead.”

“Dear, dear!” said Wooden’s mother. “And such a nice lady as she was,
too.”

“What makes you think that, Mrs. Noah?” asked Lady Grace. “Surely I
should have heard of it if it had been true.”

“Well, perhaps you would, Lady Grace,” said Mrs. Noah. “Anyhow, she
is alarmingly ill, and has appointed King Selim regent, to act in her
place until she gets better. And if she dies, King Selim is to reign in
her place. You see, the Queen having no children, naturally the only
other royal person in Toyland has to reign instead of her.”

“Is that the law in Toyland?” asked Peggy.

Mrs. Noah looked at her affectionately. “Bless your pretty face, what
questions you do ask, dear,” she said. “I don’t know nothing about the
law, but it’s what King Selim says, and of course he knows, or else he
wouldn’t say it.”

“Oh, no,” said Wooden decisively. “Some people don’t like him, but he
isn’t as bad as that. Was it him that ordered the royal barge to meet
us, Mrs. Noah?”

“Yes, it was,” said Mrs. Noah. “Now I must be getting back to my old
man. He says there ain’t no flavour in his pipe unless I fill it for
him.”

“I hope the Queen isn’t really dead,” said Wooden, when Mrs. Noah had
left them. “That would indeed be a sad pity. Look, dear, you can see
Dolltown now. It won’t be long before we are there now.”

The ark had turned a bend in the river, and Peggy could see across the
flat plains a large town with an enormous tower standing in the middle
of it.

“That is the House of Cards,” said Wooden, in answer to her question.
“It stands in the middle of the market-place, and is thirteen stories
high.”

“What is it used for?” asked Peggy.

“It is used for going to the top of, dear,” replied Wooden. “You get a
magnificent view of the surrounding country, and when you have looked
at it you come down again.”

It was not long before they reached the outskirts of Dolltown. On
either side of the river were rows of houses in which the poorer
dolls, mostly wooden and rag, lived. The weather was warm, and many of
the fronts of the houses stood wide open, showing the inside of the
four rooms into which each of them was divided. There were generally
a kitchen and a dining-room on the ground floor, and a drawing-room
and a bedroom above. None of these houses had staircases, and it was
puzzling to think how the dolls could get into the upstairs rooms.
Wooden explained, when Peggy asked her, that the dolls either climbed
in through the windows, or, if the house-front was open, put a kitchen
chair on the kitchen table, and scrambled up somehow. Those who were
not strong enough to do so had to spend the night sitting on chairs in
the kitchen or dining-room.

“Isn’t that rather uncomfortable for them?” asked Peggy.

“Well, dear, perhaps it is rather,” said Wooden. “But, you see, we’re
not so particular as you are, so we don’t feel it so much.”

“But didn’t you say there wasn’t any night in Toyland?” asked Peggy.

“Perhaps, I did, dear. I say so many things in the course of time that
I can’t possibly remember all of them. But there is one thing I should
never do, and that is tell a lie.”

Peggy looked at her quickly, fearing that she might be offended, but
her face still wore its amiable sweet-tempered expression, and when
Peggy gave her a kiss, just in _case_ she might have said something to
hurt her, she kissed her back, and called her a precious lamb.

Some of the dolls’ houses that they were passing were quite well
furnished. Others had furniture a good deal too large for the rooms,
but the dolls seemed all to be of one size, and Wooden told Peggy that,
however large or small a doll might be in the nursery, when it got home
to Toyland it became as large as life.

All the inhabitants of these small houses came thronging down to the
banks of the river to see the procession of animals, and to cheer
the royal ark as it passed along. Peggy noticed that the wooden
dolls cheered more heartily than the wax dolls and china dolls and
composition dolls. In fact one party of Dutch dolls became so excited
as the ark passed that they all fell into the river, and had to be
rescued by Mr. Noah’s youngest son, who was attending to the elephants.
All were got safely to land, except the father of the Dutch doll
family, who swam out and clung to the ark, and was dragged on board by
Mr. Noah himself.

Just at the moment when this was happening Wooden’s aunt came out of
the saloon, and seemed highly delighted at the scene. She bent down
and slapped her knees with both her hands, and then threw her head
back and roared with laughter.

“Lawks! I wouldn’t have missed that for anything,” she said, when the
Dutch doll had been led below. “Well, I’ve had a nice little nap,
girls, and now I’ve come to cheer you all up a bit.”

[Illustration]

“Then behave yourself, do, Polly,” said Wooden’s mother severely, “and
don’t let’s have any more of your carryings on.”

When the Dutch doll was quite dry he insisted upon being led into the
presence of “the company.” Mr. Noah had lent him his second-best yellow
robe, in which he looked rather funny, as it was too long for him. He
came up the steps from the saloon, and, tripping over the skirt of the
robe, fell flat at the feet of Wooden’s aunt, who roared with laughter
at him again.

So far from getting up again as quickly as possible, the Dutch doll
remained where he was, rubbing his forehead on the deck of the ark.

“Get up, man,” said Wooden’s mother sharply, “and don’t stop lying
there like a silly.”

The Dutch doll got up, looking foolish, and bowed low to Wooden’s aunt.
“I hope your Majesty is quite well,” he said. “I am very pleased to see
your Majesty.”

“Lawks! he calls me ‘your Majesty!’” said Wooden’s aunt. “Well, I
never! I shall die of laughing if this goes on.” And indeed it seemed
likely that she would.

“The man’s silly,” said Wooden’s mother. “His ducking has turned his
head. The Queen isn’t here. We’re only the party that the royal ark has
been sent down for.”

But still the Dutch doll kept on bowing to Wooden’s aunt, and calling
her your Majesty; and Wooden’s aunt enjoyed it.

Lady Grace intervened in her polite and aristocratic manner. “Don’t you
know Queen Rosebud by sight?” she asked. “In calling this lady your
Majesty you are coming very near to telling a story.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that, my lady,” said the Dutch doll, much shocked.
“Queen Rosebud is dead, you know.”

“I feared it,” said Wooden. “It is very sad.”

Lady Grace turned pale. “She was a loving mistress and a great Queen,”
she said.

Wooden’s mother said, “Yes, she was. But crying out about it won’t
bring her to life again, poor thing!” And Wooden’s aunt had the grace
to leave off with her nonsense, and say, “I’m sure I’m sorry to hear
the news. Then who is going to be Queen now?”

“You are, your Majesty,” said the Dutch doll, bowing to her again.
“King Selim is going to marry you.”

“What, marry me!” exclaimed Wooden’s aunt, forgetting to be vulgar
for once, in her surprise. “Well, I never! Why, I hardly know the
gentleman.”

“Surely you are making some mistake,” said Lady Grace.

The Dutch doll looked offended. “Do you think I’d tell you a lie?” he
asked.

“Oh, no, of course he wouldn’t do that,” said Wooden hastily. “If he
says so, of course it is so. But you’re not Queen yet, aunt.”

“No, nor never will be, if you don’t learn to behave proper,” said
Wooden’s mother. “If I was you I should keep quiet till the wedding
ceremony.”

Wooden’s aunt seemed to think this was good advice, for she gave no
more trouble till the ark drew up at the royal quay in the middle of
Dolltown.

[Illustration]




V

ARRIVAL AT THE ROYAL PALACE OF DOLLTOWN


The Royal Quay was a great open space carpeted with red felt, and
decorated with palms and flowers. Wooden soldiers were standing all
round the square, and inside it was a royal carriage with six wooden
horses, and servants in scarlet liveries. A little troop of lead
soldiers on black horses was drawn up by the carriage, and looked very
gallant with their scarlet tunics, silver breastplates and helmets and
waving plumes. Lady Grace blushed when she saw that the head of the
troop was Colonel Jim, and said to Peggy, “The rather nice-looking
officer is a friend of mine, dear. I will introduce him to you when I
get an opportunity.”

Behind the wooden soldiers was a great crowd of dolls, all cheering
themselves hoarse as the royal ark was being tied up by the quay, and
the bridge was being run out. Peggy noticed that there were no wax
dolls among them, and rather wondered at this, but had not time to ask
about it in the excitement of the moment.

Just by the landing stage was a little group of gentlemen dolls. The
most important person in it was an old gentleman doll of patriarchal
aspect. He had no beard, but his head was completely bald, and he was
dressed in a long gown of black velvet. As soon as the bridge between
the quay and the ark was put into position, he came forward with his
party on to the platform of the ark, and bowed low before Wooden, who
happened to be standing a little in front of the rest.

[Illustration: He had no beard, but his head was completely bald]

“Welcome, your Majesty,” he said, “to the Capital of your kingdom of
Toyland. I will explain why I thus address you later.”

Wooden was quite taken back, and could only stammer out, “But
Mr.--Mr.--I don’t know your name, but----”

“My name is Norval,” said the old gentleman doll. “And I am the Lord
Chancellor of your Majesty’s kingdom.”

“But why do you call me your Majesty, Mr. Norval?” asked Wooden.

“_Lord_ Norval, at your Majesty’s pleasure,” corrected the Lord
Chancellor. “I address you as a Queen because King Selim, successor
to our late lamented Queen Rosebud, has intimated his intention of
marrying you, and in these matters I feel that one cannot begin too
soon. Besides, it is his Majesty’s pleasure that you should be paid
every possible honour, as his highly respected bride to be.”

“But Lord Noodle!” stammered Wooden, getting his name a little wrong in
her perplexity, “this gentleman said that it was my aunt here that the
king wanted to marry.”

She indicated the Dutch doll, and the Lord Chancellor looked at him in
anger. “Did you say that?” he asked.

Wooden’s aunt broke in before the Dutch doll could speak. “Yes, he did
say it,” she said. “And I ain’t going to give up my Selim for nobody.
Him and me has always been friendly like, and I wasn’t a bit surprised
to hear he wanted to marry me. Why should he want to marry a young
thing like Wooden, I should like to know? Why she’s like a kid beside
of him! It’s me that’s going to be Queen, not her.”

“Captain Cook,” said the Lord Chancellor to a lead soldier of his
party, “arrest this Dutchman for telling a lie, and arrest this woman
for telling another.”

“What, me!” cried Wooden’s aunt. “How dare you accuse me of telling a
lie, you old creature with a head like an egg? How dare you? What lie
have I told?”

“Arrest her again for insulting the Lord Chancellor,” said Lord Norval.
“You said you were going to be Queen, and that’s a lie. King Selim
wouldn’t look at you. He has confided to me that he has been in love
with--with--I suppose I had better say _Princess_ Wooden, for some
time, and has reason to believe that she is not indifferent to him.”

“Well, he has looked at me sometimes,” said Wooden, “but I’m sure I
never gave him any encouragement. I don’t like him very much, Lord
Noodle. He’s a foreigner, you see, and I don’t like foreigners.
Couldn’t it be arranged for him to marry my aunt, as she’s ready for
him! I’d rather it was her than me.”

The Lord Chancellor looked muddled. “I couldn’t say anything without
consulting his Majesty,” he said. “He _might_ consent; but then again
he might not. The best way will be for us all to go up to the Palace,
as already ordered, and ask him. I am sorry your aunt will have to
appear there under arrest, but as she has committed a crime, or rather
two crimes, that can’t be helped.”

The situation was certainly awkward. Nobody quite seemed to know what
to do about it. But Peggy, who had been listening with great interest
to what had been said, ventured to make a suggestion. “If Wooden’s
aunt _does_ marry the King,” she said, “then she wouldn’t have told a
story, would she?”

Everybody brightened up, and the Lord Chancellor said, “That is one of
the cleverest things I ever heard said. But who is this ingenious and
attractive-looking young lady, may I ask?”

Wooden explained to him who Peggy was, and he bowed low to her, and
said he was proud to make her acquaintance. “Well, after what you have
pointed out,” he said, “I have no difficulty in unarresting this lady
for telling a lie. But she has also insulted a high official. She said
that my head was like an egg. It may be or it may not be, but nobody
could say that it was a polite thing to point out.”

He looked at Peggy as if he expected her to make another suggestion,
and would not be sorry if she made it.

Peggy could think of nothing better to say than, “I like eggs myself,
especially if they are new-laid.”

The Lord Chancellor caught at this instantly. “Did you have a new-laid
egg in your mind when you referred to my head, Madam?” he asked of
Wooden’s aunt.

Wooden’s aunt, who was looking much more subdued than usual, standing
by the officer who had arrested her, said, “Well, there’s one thing I
never would do, and that’s tell a lie. I can’t rightly say that I had
a new-laid egg in my mind, because I won’t deceive you, I don’t know
where my mind is. I went to sea early, and never had much schooling,
and never learnt no physiognomy. There may be a new-laid egg in my
mind, or there may not. I wouldn’t like to say.”

“What I would suggest to you, madam,” said the Lord Chancellor, “is
that in likening my head to an egg you didn’t mean an old-laid egg, or
an addled egg, or a bad egg, or anything of that sort. If it is like an
egg at all, it was a fresh egg you meant.”

“Oh, lawks, yes,” said Wooden’s aunt. “I’d never be one for insulting a
gentleman. I know what’s due to myself and my family better.”

“Then that is quite enough for me,” said the Lord Chancellor, evidently
greatly relieved. “Captain Cook, unarrest this lady completely.”

“And the Dutch doll, too,” said Peggy, pleased at having succeeded so
well.

“And the Dutch doll, too, of course, Captain Cook,” said the Lord
Chancellor. “And my advice to you, sir, is to make yourself scarce. You
have had a narrow escape, and let it be a lesson to you.”

[Illustration]

The Dutch doll, whose knees had been knocking together with fright,
picked up the skirts of Mr. Noah’s second-best yellow robe, and ran
away as fast as he could. He poked in between two of the wooden
soldiers guarding the quay, and was lost in the crowd. But he was
an honest doll, for the next morning Mr. Noah received back his
second-best robe by parcel’s post, with a note of thanks, which he
could not read, as it was written in double-Dutch.

The party was now ready to land and get into the royal carriage, but
just as they had stepped off on to the red carpet on the quay, the Lord
Chancellor’s eyes fell upon Lady Grace, whom he seemed not to have
noticed before.

His face darkened, and he said, “Why, what is this? A wax doll
at large, after the royal proclamation that all Waxes are to be
imprisoned! Captain Cook, do your duty instantly.”

Captain Cook stepped forward to arrest Lady Grace, who shrank away from
him, while Wooden and her mother and aunt began to protest volubly
against such an outrage, for they were all friendly to Lady Grace, who
had always treated them with perfect politeness.

Peggy felt dreadfully frightened at the moment at all the hubbub, and
at the idea of poor Lady Grace being taken off to prison; but just
as she was trying to think what she could do to stop it there was
an unexpected diversion. Colonel Jim, the officer in charge of the
Lifeguards standing by the royal carriage, rode forward with a clatter
of harness and accoutrements, and said in a loud voice, “Unhand that
lady!”

There was a moment’s pause. Then the Lord Chancellor said, “Colonel
Jim, you are taking a great deal upon yourself. You know what the royal
proclamation was. All Waxes are to be arrested and sent to prison.”

“What for?” asked Colonel Jim, with soldierly brevity.

“The general charge against them,” said the Lord Chancellor, “is giving
themselves airs.”

“Has Lady Grace ever given herself airs?” asked Colonel Jim.

“No, that she never has,” said Wooden’s mother indignantly. “I will say
this for her, Wax or no Wax, that a nicer-spoken or nicer-behaved lady
never stept.”

“And she was a great favourite of Queen Rosebud’s, besides,” said
Wooden. “She thought the world of her.”

And even Wooden’s aunt showed up well in the emergency. “If I’m to be
Queen,” she said, “I shall have Lady Grace as my own lady-in-waiting.
She shall put in my hairpins for me, which I never could do rightly
myself. And how’s she to do that if she’s in prison?”

Colonel Jim rode back to his troop without saying another word. But
his interference had been successful, for the Lord Chancellor said,
“Under the circumstances, I will not have Lady Grace arrested now. She
can come with us to the Palace, and we will see what the King has to
say about it.”

Then Wooden and her mother and aunt, and Lady Grace and Peggy got into
the royal carriage, and the Lord Chancellor and his suite got into two
other carriages. Colonel Jim and his Life Guardsmen formed themselves
on either side, and with a clash and a glitter, the little procession
started. The wooden soldiers all presented arms, and made a way through
for them, and they drove off the quay and into the streets of Dolltown.

Peggy had been rather surprised that the dolls had not shown more grief
at the sudden death of the Queen, though all of them had certainly
spoken very nicely about it when the news had first come to them, and
were evidently sorry that she had died. But she now began to understand
that dolls do not take things in quite the same way as human beings.
For one thing, there were no signs of mourning in the streets, but on
the other hand there were flags on some of the houses, and all the
people seemed to be out of doors watching for the royal procession,
and when it appeared they cheered heartily, and seemed as happy and
pleased as possible. This was all the more remarkable because, if what
the Lord Chancellor had said was true, which of course it was, as he
would never have told a lie, all the wax dolls in the place had already
been sent off to prison, and you might have thought that that would
have sobered the rest. But even the four dolls in the carriage seemed
to have forgotten it, and also the unpleasant episode of Lady Grace
nearly being taken off to prison, too. They were all anxious to point
out to Peggy the interesting sights to be seen on either side of them,
and had nothing to say about anything else, not even about what might
happen when they arrived at the royal palace. And as they seemed able
to forget everything but the pleasure and interest of the moment, Peggy
was able to do so, too.

What she saw of Dolltown enchanted her. It was like all the toys
she had ever had, and her friends had had, and she had seen in
shop-windows, all become real, and not only that, but of a size to
be used. All little girls know what it is to wish that they could
sometimes live in their own dolls’ houses, especially in the big
ones, where there are staircases that they could go up and down if
only they were of the right size, and all sorts of nice furniture,
and dinner-sets and tea-sets, and other things which they would like
to use themselves and not always be making believe with. Well, in
Dolltown, and in fact in the whole of Toyland, there was no making
believe. Everything was as real as real, even the smallest things for
the smallest dolls. Peggy could have used everything she saw herself,
and it was really quite thrilling and delightful to feel that she could
pretend to be a doll if she wanted to, and have all the fun for herself
that little girls give to their dolls.

Just outside the royal quay was a large station, with platforms and
signal boxes and bridges and lines of rails all complete, and a train
waiting there with a bright green clockwork engine, ready to go off
into the country. One of Peggy’s boy cousins had collected a splendid
railway plant--his relations always gave him things for it at Christmas
and on his birthdays--and Peggy had often wished she could go for a
ride in it all round his playroom floor, and be shunted and go under
the little tunnels, and stop at the stations, just as the tin soldiers
he put into the carriages did. Well, it would be just as much fun going
in this railway system, and she could get into the toy carriages just
as easily as her cousin’s tin soldiers.

They crossed over the river on one of those suspension bridges that
you see in shop-windows, and then climbed a hill into the town. At the
beginning of the hill was a large toy fort, crammed with tin soldiers,
who were looking over the parapet and cheering them as they passed.

Then they went through a street of shops, and the joints of meat
hanging in the butchers’ shops, and the fish lying on the slabs of the
fishmongers’ shops, and the stores in the grocery shops were all real;
and specially attractive were the highly-coloured fruits.

As for the shops where they sold the baby-clothes, they were too
delightful. But the first one they passed brought a most disturbing
thought to Peggy. She turned to Wooden and said, “Oh, Wooden, dear,
where are all the long-clothes babies! Surely they haven’t been cruel
enough to send them to prison, too!”

“Oh, no, dear,” said Wooden decidedly. “Nobody is cruel in Toyland.”

Peggy did not feel quite so sure of that, considering that Lady Grace
had nearly been sent to prison already for being wax; and of course
most long-clothes babies are wax, or composition. “Then where are
they!” she asked.

“They are all having their morning sleep, dear,” said Wooden’s mother,
and Peggy had to be content.

When they reached the more important streets of Dolltown, most of
the houses were built of wooden or terra-cotta bricks, and very fine
some of them were. But this part of the town _was_ rather silent and
deserted, for the owners of most of the fine houses were wax, and they
had all been taken off to prison.

At last they reached the royal palace. It was a most gorgeous building,
built of ivory, with windows made of enormous diamonds and rubies and
emeralds and sapphires, all glittering in the sun.

The carriages drew up underneath an ivory porch. The Lord Chancellor
was at the door of the royal one as soon as it was opened. “I will
conduct you straight to his Majesty,” he said.

[Illustration]




VI

KING SELIM HOLDS AN AUDIENCE


They were led through several magnificent ivory halls, with a great
many looking-glasses in them but scarcely any furniture, and into the
great Hall of Audience, where there was a lovely ivory throne on a daïs
at one end, and on either side of the Hall a row of ivory chairs.

Here Peggy had two great surprises.

The first surprise was the new King, who was sitting on the throne.
Directly she saw him, Peggy exclaimed, “Why, he’s a White Chess King!”

[Illustration: “He’s a White Chess King!”]

And so he was, though none of the dolls seemed to know it. His crown
was on his head, and he had a face underneath it, which chess kings
don’t have, and, although he was wood himself, his robes did not appear
to be. But there was no doubt about his being a chess king, in spite
of these differences, and the moment she saw him Peggy had the feeling
that he ought not to be King of Toyland, for he wasn’t a real doll that
children play with, but only part of a game for grown-ups.

The King was sitting on his throne when they came into the Hall, and
standing by his side on the daïs was a lady doll. And this was Peggy’s
second surprise. For the lady doll was no other than Rose, who had
once been her own doll--the one she had given to Mabel in exchange for
Wooden.

Now, as we know, Peggy had never really loved Rose; she had tried to,
but had not succeeded. But she had not come to _dis_like her in any
way, and had kissed her affectionately when she had given her up to
Mabel, and told her that she would come to see her sometimes. And she
had done this now and then, until Mabel’s father had left the village
shortly afterwards, and taken Mabel and Rose with him.

But now, directly she set eyes on Rose again, and recognized her, Peggy
felt that she did dislike her. She looked very proud, for one thing,
and pride is not a quality that becomes anybody, least of all dolls,
who are generally free from it. She also looked bad-tempered, and that
again is a fault from which dolls are usually free. The only point to
admire about her was her good looks, but as Peggy had never been able
to love her because of them when she had been her own doll they did
not recommend her now. Peggy felt once for all that she had been quite
right in not liking Rose, and also felt that it would be impossible
ever to like her.

But we must get on. Directly the party introduced by the Lord
Chamberlain made its appearance at the door of the Hall of Audience,
the King rose from his throne. As they advanced up the Hall, he
stepped down from the daïs, and approaching Wooden, bowed to her in a
stately but somewhat foreign fashion, and took her hand. Then he said
with great respect, “Madame, our wedding will take place in half an
hour, and our coronation half an hour after that. I wish to get both
ceremonies over before tea-time.”

He spoke in an imperious way, and although there was a sort of smile on
his face as he looked at Wooden, showing that she was dear to him, it
was not altogether a pleasant smile; nor did King Selim seem to Peggy
an agreeable person. He was tall and fat and ugly, and looked as if he
ate and drank too much.

Wooden was taken aback by the suddenness of the proposal. And no
wonder! It must be remembered that she hardly knew King Selim, and had
had no idea until half an hour before of anything in the nature of
a marriage with him. And, although he had smiled at her, he had not
uttered a word of love, nor even asked if she wanted to marry him or
not. No lady would like a gentleman simply to tell her that he was
going to marry her in half an hour, even if the gentleman _was_ a King.

“I don’t know, your Majesty,” she said hesitatingly. “Of course it’s a
great honour you’re doing me. But I haven’t thought of such a thing,
and--and----”

The Lord Chancellor stepped forward and bowed to the King. “Your
Majesty,” he said. “I am empowered by this lady to make a suggestion
to you. Would it be the same to your Majesty if you were to marry the
lady’s aunt instead of her? She has the advantage of being wood, and
of possessing considerable personal attractions. Wooden’s Aunt, kindly
step forward, and display those attractions to his Majesty.”

Wooden’s aunt stepped forward, dropped a curtsy to the King, and
smirked.

The King’s face darkened, and he was about to speak, when Rose, who was
still standing by the throne on the daïs, interrupted. “Your Majesty,”
she said, “this woman is not at all suitable for the purpose that has
been suggested. She lives in the same part of the country over there
as I used to, and I know all about her. She is quite a common woman--I
believe she was once a sort of stewardess on a ship--and, if I may
so express myself, it is like her impudence to think of marrying your
Majesty.”

Wooden’s aunt bridled. “And who are you, I should like to know,” she
burst out, “to call me common? Common yourself! I dare say you think
yourself very grand now, talking to a Majesty, but I’ve seen you
dressed in dirty pink flannelette, and held head-downwards by one foot,
over there. So there now, Miss Superior! Common, indeed! _I_’ll learn
you!”

From these two speeches, Peggy understood that when dolls in Toyland
talked about the world of real people they called it “over there.”

“Peace, woman!” ordered the King in an angry voice. “How dare you make
a brawl in my royal palace?”

Wooden’s aunt was affected by the majesty of his demeanour, which
was certainly that of a King, though not perhaps of a good king. She
shrank back, and Selim went on: “I have no idea of marrying this woman,
Norval, and I wonder at your suggesting such a thing. But before we
talk about that I should like to know how it comes about that a wax
doll is brought into my presence, when I have given orders that all
Waxes are to be imprisoned. And I should also like to know who this
human child is, and how _she_ comes here. It looks to me very much like
prying.”

King Selim had very bushy eyebrows, and he bent them with a terrific
frown upon Peggy and Lady Grace, as he spoke.

Lady Grace shrank back, evidently frightened by Selim’s anger. But
Peggy wasn’t frightened at all. She knew somehow that she had nothing
to fear from a chess king, however angrily he might look at her. She
even thought that she might be able to do something to save Lady Grace,
if the King tried to punish her for being wax. But at present she
thought she had better keep quiet, and see what happened.

The Lord Chancellor did not seem to be frightened of the new King
either. He said, in a chatty sort of way, “Now those are both very
interesting questions, your Majesty, and I shall be delighted to
discuss them with you. Then there’s the question of your marriage to be
decided, and several other little matters, which will give us quite an
agreeable discussion, if we take them one by one. What I say is, let’s
have an Audience.”

The King stepped back on to the daïs and whispered to Rose, who
shrugged her shoulders and looked disagreeable, but did not seem to be
able to object to the proposal.

“Very well,” said the King, seating himself on his throne. “We’ll have
an Audience.”

The Lord Chancellor seemed pleased at the idea of an Audience. “Bring
in the Woolsack,” he said to the royal servant dolls, who were standing
round the daïs; and two of them went out, and came back with a large
sack of wool, which they placed in the middle of the Hall. The Lord
Chancellor took his seat on it, facing the throne, but it was so soft
that he fell back into it, and it covered him up so completely that
only two little thin legs could be seen sticking into the air. But
the two royal servants quickly rescued him, and sat him in the middle
of the sack, which bulged up all round him. He laughed in a very
good-humoured way at his mishap, and said, “Now the rest of you take
your seats, please, and then we’ll begin.”

All the company sat down on the ivory chairs on either side of the
Hall, except Rose, who still stood at the right of the King on his
throne.

“Now we must have everything quite in order,” said the Lord Chancellor
cheerfully. “I don’t know who the lady is standing by his Majesty. I’ve
nothing to say against her whatever. In fact, I’m sure she will be of
great assistance to us in our important deliberations. But I should
like her to take her place with the rest, please.”

“I am advising his Majesty on behalf of the Composition dolls,” said
Rose hastily. “It is his Majesty’s wish that I should keep by him.
Please get on with the Audience, and don’t fuss.”

“Oh, if it’s his Majesty’s wish, I’ve nothing more to say,” said the
Lord Chancellor genially. “I only thought you would be more comfortable
sitting down. Now the first thing to be done is to announce what steps
have been taken by your Majesty for the welfare of the Kingdom of
Toyland. Let’s have it all, please, from the time you received the last
wishes of our dear lamented Queen Rosebud.”

The King frowned. “I don’t want to have to go into all that again,” he
said. “I want my questions answered.”

“All in good time, your Majesty,” said the Lord Chancellor. “But let’s
have your statement first, please.”

Peggy quite expected that the King would refuse, and might even do
something to the Lord Chancellor for giving him an order in that sort
of way. But it seemed as if it was difficult for a doll to refuse to
obey any order, if it was given with enough firmness. At any rate, the
King obeyed this one, although he frowned and looked very disagreeable
about it.

“Well, if you must have it,” he said, “when the late lamented Queen
Rosebud was nearing her end she told me that she wished me to reign
over Toyland in her place.”

“Will you kindly make a note of this?” said the Lord Chancellor to his
secretary, who was standing beside him. “Take it all down in shorthand;
then we shall know where we are. Go on, please, your Majesty.”

“That’s all,” said the King. “Queen Rosebud said I was to reign, and
I’m reigning.”

“Did his Majesty say it was raining?” asked the secretary.

“No, no,” said the Lord Chancellor testily. “The King said _he_ was
reigning--with a ‘g.’ Keep your ears open, please. Well, that’s all in
order, then. Now what about the imprisonment of all wax dolls, your
Majesty? Let’s have that explained, please.”

The King frowned again. “Have I got to explain everything I do, when
I’m already King?” he asked.

“Yes, please, your Majesty,” said the Lord Chancellor firmly.

“Well, then,” said the King, “I was given reason to believe that there
would be a revolution among the Waxes, when it was known that a wooden
King was to succeed a wax Queen, and I took steps to prevent it, that’s
all.”

[Illustration]

“Who gave your Majesty reason to believe such a thing?” asked the
Lord Chancellor. “I am China myself, but I have always lived on good
terms with Waxes and Woodens alike--Compositions and Rags, too, for
the matter of that--and I believe I may say the same of most of the
inhabitants of this happy country. I see no reason to believe that
there would have been a revolution of any sort, when it was given out
that Queen Rosebud had nominated you as her successor.”

“Did you say that she abominated her professor?” asked the secretary.
“You talk so very fast.”

The King broke in before the Lord Chancellor could reply. “Are you
giving me a lecture?” he asked angrily.

“Yes,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Will your Majesty kindly answer my
question?”

“No, I won’t,” said the King. “It is enough to say that I gave orders
that if there was any trouble among the dolls landing from over there,
a gun was to be fired. The gun _was_ fired, and I ordered the Waxes to
be locked up at once.”

“The gun was fired by mistake,” said Wooden’s mother sensibly. “I saw
the soldier’s ears boxed for firing it with my own eyes.”

“Did she say she fired it with her own eyes?” asked the secretary. “She
does mumble so.”

“Mistake or no mistake,” said the King, “the gun was fired, and the
Waxes were locked up. And now we’ve finished all that, I should like
to know what this lady is doing here, when she ought to be in prison.”

He frowned terrifically at Lady Grace, who was sitting between Peggy
and Wooden. Peggy took hold of her hand. Although Lady Grace was grown
up, and she was only a little girl, she felt that she must protect her.
For after all she was her own dearly loved doll, and Peggy was not
going to have her bullied by a chess king, if she could help it.

It was Wooden who answered, in her calm, kind voice. “Lady Grace was a
favourite lady-in-waiting of dear Queen Rosebud,” she said. “I think it
would be a great pity to send her to prison, and I hope you won’t do
it, your Majesty.”

King Selim’s face grew softer as Wooden spoke. Her voice was evidently
music in his ears. Perhaps he would have given way at once, but before
he could say anything, Rose, who was still standing by the side of the
throne, spoke. “It isn’t safe to leave any wax dolls free to go about,”
she said. “They will only stir up trouble. Compositions are quite as
good as Waxes, and anything that Waxes could do, such as acting as
ladies-in-waiting to royalty, Compositions can do.”

“_You_’re not even Composition,” broke in Wooden’s aunt, who had been
glowering at Rose all along, and seemed to have forgotten her own
fright. “You’re Composition down to the neck, and your hands and feet
and the rest of you is stuffed rag. Yes, _stuffed rag_! So there,
Sawdust!”

The Lord Chancellor held up his hand. “That is a very serious
accusation to bring against a lady,” he said. “I understood the lady to
claim that she was Composition. Do you mean to accuse her of telling a
lie, madam?”

“I’ve seen her held upside down by the leg,” said Wooden’s aunt.
“Composition below, sawdust above. Deny it if you can.”

Rose did not deny it. She looked as if she were going to, but her eyes
rested on Peggy, and she knew that Peggy knew all the truth about her.
She burst into angry tears. “It is most offensive to be addressed in
that way by a vulgar creature like that,” she said. “Before gentlemen,
too! She hasn’t got any legs at all, herself, over there. Nor a nose
either. She’s a regular figure of fun.”

The King put out his hand to soothe her. “The first law I shall make,”
he said, “will be that no doll in my dominions shall ever refer to the
deficiencies of another doll over there, under pain of imprisonment.
I feel very strongly on the subject. That is why I object to human
children being brought over here to pry, and perhaps to tell tales. I
shall make a law forbidding that, too.”

“I think it would be a pity to do away with the good feeling that
exists between us and human children,” said the Lord Chancellor.
“Allowing one of them occasionally to visit us here is the only return
we can make for special kindness. I shouldn’t make that law if I were
you, your Majesty.”

“When I was at the head of my Pieces over there,” said the King, “there
was a horrible child who used to put my head in her mouth. She had at
the time only one tooth, but I bear the marks of that tooth upon me to
this day.”

Directly he had spoken, a sudden memory came back to Peggy. A year or
so before, her father had wanted to play a game of chess with a friend.
The chess-men had been brought out, but it had been found that the
white king was missing. Then it had come out that Peggy had had him to
play with when she had been a baby, and he had not been seen since. Of
course she had been too young to remember playing with him, but she
felt almost certain that King Selim was the very same piece, especially
as he was exactly the same in pattern as the black king, who still
remained.

“Why, I do believe you’re our white chess king!” she cried out. “Father
_will_ be glad that you are found again.”

[Illustration]




VII

THEY ALL GO TO PRISON


It would be impossible to describe the consternation that Peggy’s
remark caused in the Hall of Audience. King Selim grew purple in the
face with passion, and cried out in a terrible voice, “Arrest this
Human instantly, and take her off to prison. She has spoken the truth,
and it shall be her own undoing.”

Some royal guards stepped forward to do his bidding, and there was a
great commotion among the other dolls in the Hall.

But before the soldiers could reach Peggy, the Lord Chancellor made
his voice heard above the hubbub. “Half a moment! Half a moment! Half
a moment!” he kept on calling out, louder and louder, and quicker and
quicker, until the words sounded like “Ar-mo! Ar-mo!” The soldiers
paused, and the noise died down, until he could make himself heard.

“It is rather a serious thing to arrest a Human, your Majesty,” he
said. “I don’t think it has ever been done before, and it may make a
deal of trouble. We ought to be careful how we go.”

The King was still almost beside himself with rage. “Do you think I am
going to let my enemy go, now I have got her in my power at last?” he
cried. “Yes, that’s the odious child who made these scars.”

Since his face had become so red, a lot of little white marks had come
out all over it. They were the marks of Peggy’s dear little first
tooth, and she couldn’t help laughing as she looked at them, which made
the King angrier still.

“How dare you laugh?” he cried passionately. “I’ll send you to prison,
and keep you on bread and water and mustard. I’ll execute you. I’ll
have your ears boxed three times a day, an hour before meals and half
an hour after. If my mouth was big enough I’d bite _your_ head, and
see how _you_ liked it. Arrest her instantly and take that wax doll
with her as well, and the woman who dared to think she was going to
marry me. Do it at once, and don’t you dare to cross my royal will any
longer, Norval, or I’ll have you arrested, too.”

As the King had given way when the Lord Chancellor spoke firmly, so the
Lord Chancellor now gave way when the King spoke firmly. He shrugged
his shoulders, and said, “Well, I think you are making a mistake, your
Majesty, but if you say it is to be done, of course it must be done.”

Wooden rose from her seat as the officials prepared to carry out the
King’s orders. “If they are to go to prison,” she said, “I shall go,
too, and so will mother. Then we can all keep each other company. I
expect they will take us to the House of Cards, dear,” she said in a
lower voice to Peggy. “It is very nice there, and there is a lovely
view.”

Now it might have been thought that King Selim would have hesitated
before letting Wooden go off to prison, considering he had just told
her that he intended to marry her in half an hour. But he was so beside
himself with rage that he hardly knew what he was doing or saying.
“Take the whole lot of them off,” he ordered, “and don’t let me see
their ugly faces again.” Then he gathered up his robes and stalked off
the daïs and out of the Hall, by a door at the back, which he banged
after him.

The royal guards now approached the five prisoners, but did not take
hold of them or put handcuffs on them, or anything of that sort. For
the Lord Chancellor said to them, “Go easy, now! It’s only a little
flash in the pan, ladies. The King is rather irritable by nature, and
I don’t think his lunch has agreed with him. But he will think better
of this by-and-by, and you will all be let out again.”

“Not if I know it,” said a haughty, scornful voice.

It was Rose, who still stood on the daïs, and was looking at them with
a cruel joy, which she made no effort to disguise.

Her contemptuous gaze fell upon each of them in turn, but when she came
to Peggy it turned into one of absolute ferocity. She stretched out her
forefinger, and pointed at her. “Base human,” she addressed her. “I
never thought to get you into my power, but now I have you you will rue
the day when you came across the path of Rose, who never forgets and
never forgives.”

“Tut! tut!” said the Lord Chancellor. “These are hard words, madam, and
quite out of order.”

“Silence!” cried Rose, in a terrible voice, and flashing a terrible
look at him from her dark and flaming eyes. And the Lord Chancellor
shrugged his shoulders again, and kept silence, until she had finished
her oration.

“Was it not enough,” she said, “that I should be born into the world
over there as the property of a human child whom I despised and hated,
but I must be treated by her with the grossest indignity?”

Peggy thought this was a little too much. She was not in the least
frightened of Rose, nor of the King, nor of all the palace guards put
together, and thought it would be rather amusing to go to a dolls’
prison, and see what it was like. But she was not going to be stormed
at and told stories about by Rose.

“Why did you hate me?” she asked. “I was always kind to you, and I
would have loved you if you had let me.”

Rose laughed her scornful laugh. “As if I wanted _your_ love!” she
exclaimed. “Or the love of any human child! I hate the whole tribe of
them, and wish I could have them _all_ over here, and tell them what I
thought of them.”

“Oh, this is quite out of order, quite out of order,” said the Lord
Chancellor fussily. “I wish you would finish what you have to say,
madam, and let us get on with our work. You are keeping us all waiting.”

Rose took no notice of him, but went on. “You exchanged me,” she said,
“for a battered wreck of a wooden doll, without a vestige of beauty
such as mine, or indeed of any sort.”

“Who are you talking about, Miss Imperence?” said Wooden’s aunt,
suddenly breaking in. “This young lady exchanged you for my niece, who
is going to be Queen when she comes out of prison. You’d better be a
bit more careful of what you say; that’s my advice to _you_. And don’t
forget that what we can’t see of you is stuffed with sawdust.”

“Yes, I should leave off, if I were you,” said the Lord Chancellor.
“You are not being polite, you know, and it is quite true what the lady
says. It is the future Queen of Toyland that you seem to have been
exchanged for, and his Majesty won’t like it if you call her names.”

Rose laughed her scornful laugh again. “_She_ will never be Queen of
Toyland,” she said. “I’ll see to that.” And with a toss of her head and
a swish of her skirts she swept out of the Hall, by the door through
which the King had already disappeared.

The Lord Chancellor completely recovered his good humour the moment
she was gone. “What a very talkative lady!” he said, with a laugh.
“However, we needn’t worry our heads about her. We’ve got plenty to
occupy ourselves about, haven’t we?”

It really seemed as if they had. It is not every day that five ladies
are taken off to prison, not knowing when they will be let out again;
and the experience would naturally make them think. But the four dolls
did not seem to be much cast down by the prospect, and Wooden kept on
assuring Peggy that the House of Cards was a very nice prison, and
there was a magnificent view from the upper stories.

The Lord Chancellor proposed that they should walk to the prison, so
that Peggy might see some of the life of Dolltown before she was shut
up. “I should have liked to take you about myself,” he said politely,
“and to show you some hospitality during your visit. It’s a pity you
didn’t come when Queen Rosebud was alive. However, we must make the
best of things, mustn’t we? I’ll see that you’re comfortable, and
have plenty of pot-plants. We might buy a few as we go along. I like
pot-plants.”

They set out. The Lord Chancellor gave the palace guards instructions
to walk behind. “The people will think they are just a guard of
honour,” he explained kindly. “If they were to put handcuffs on you,
it would be different. But I have always been one for making things
comfortable all around. Live and let live is my motto.”

He walked between Peggy and Wooden as they went through the streets,
and turned out to be a pleasant, chatty old gentleman, with a
well-stored mind, and a fund of varied information. He told Peggy a
good deal that interested her about the conditions of life in Dolltown,
and she found it difficult to believe that she was really being taken
to prison, and quite enjoyed her walk.

[Illustration: He walked between Peggy and Wooden]

The streets were gay, and crowded with dolls of all sorts except
those made of wax. A good deal of interest was aroused by the little
procession, with the six palace guards bringing up the rear. Gradually
a crowd of dolls gathered and walked with them, so that the streets
became rather full, and the dolls who were driving the toy hansom cabs,
and the toy motors, and the toy carts, had some difficulty in making
their way along.

The Lord Chancellor seemed to enjoy the attention that was being drawn
to them, but also to be a little anxious about being recognized. He
called his secretary to him, and said, “You might just tell some of the
people that the elderly gentleman in the velvet gown, with a learned
and amiable expression of face, is the Lord Chancellor. Then they
will hand it on to the others. We will go into this shop and buy some
pot-plants.”

They went into a flower-shop, full of toy flowers in very bright red
pots, and the Lord Chancellor made a handsome purchase, and paid for
it with toy money, which Peggy thought most fascinating. She wished
she had brought some of hers with her, for she had had a lot given to
her for a Christmas present, and would have been quite rich with it
in Toyland. The pots were given to the guards to carry, and they said
good-bye to the nice pleasant woman doll who kept the shop, and set out
again.

[Illustration]

While they had been in the shop, the Lord Chancellor’s secretary had
been telling everybody who they were, and also that they were all on
their way to prison. He had not been told to say this, but he was
rather stupid. The only reason why he was kept on was that he was so
willing. But this time he had been a little too willing, for a lot of
the doll people were inclined to be angry at so much sending to prison,
and some of them thought that the Lord Chancellor could have stopped it
if he had liked.

So when they all came out of the shop, there were not quite so many
smiles for them as before, and there were even a few boos and hisses as
they continued on their way.

The Lord Chancellor looked surprised and pained. “Now I did think that
when they were told who I was they would be pleased,” he said. “I
must say that I do like people to like me, and it makes me positively
miserable if they don’t. What can I have done? There isn’t a smut on my
nose, or anything like that, is there?”

“No,” said Wooden. “There is only a small pimple that people might
mistake for a smut if they were a little short-sighted.”

“Ah, then I expect that is it,” said the Lord Chancellor. “That pimple
has been growing lately, and I always feared that it would bring me
trouble.”

Peggy now began to be a little frightened, for the crowd of dolls was
pressing more closely round them, and the hisses and the booing were
beginning to get louder. Many of the dolls looked angry, too, and she
found that it was one thing to laugh at a single chess king being
angry, and quite another to have several hundred dolls as large as life
jostling round her in a crowd.

You see, an angry doll is not what you are accustomed to, and you are
always apt to be a little frightened at something that is quite strange.

But just as it was beginning to be difficult to move forward, because
of the crowd, Peggy suddenly caught sight of something that took her
mind off what was happening. This was the shiny black hat and yellow
robe of Mr. Noah on the edge of the crowd, and not only that, but
the brown coat and merry face of her own old Teddy. She had been so
occupied with all the curious and interesting things that had been
happening since she had come off the ark that she had had no time to
think about Teddy, or to wonder what he was doing. But evidently he
had made great friends with Mr. and Mrs. Noah, and was going about with
them.

Well, Teddy was peering between the heads of the people to see what
was happening, and directly he caught sight of Peggy he pushed his way
through the crowd, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Noah. All of them were tall
and strong, and although there were some complaints from the dolls they
elbowed aside, such as, “Now then, where do you think you are going?”
and “Mind who you’re shoving, can’t you?” the three of them quickly got
through.

“Now then, Mr. Man,” said Teddy to the Lord Chancellor, “where are you
taking my young mistress off to?”

“Why, they’re taking them off to prison!” said an indignant voice
from the crowd, and it was repeated by several other voices, equally
indignant. “They’re taking them off to prison.”

The Lord Chancellor held up his hand. “Now then, my good people,” he
said, “don’t disturb yourselves, I do pray and beg of you. It’s the
King’s orders, you know, and you can really hardly call it going to
prison. They are going to be his Majesty’s guests for a little time
in the House of Cards. There’s a glorious view from there, and they
will get very good food. You see, we’ve just been buying pot-plants to
brighten up their apartments for them. Here they are. The guards are
carrying them. You can see them for yourselves. Do please let us get
on. The ladies want their tea.”

The Lord Chancellor seemed to attach great importance to the
pot-plants, and they did make some impression on the crowd, because
they could all see them, and there was no doubt about them at all. They
made way for the Lord Chancellor to go on for a few steps, followed by
his charges.

But Teddy wasn’t at all satisfied. “Here, wait a minute, Mister,” he
said. “What are you taking my young mistress to prison _for_? That’s
what I want to know. And, why bless me! here’s Wooden, too, and Lady
Grace, and Wooden’s mother and aunt. I say, this won’t do at all, you
know. Are they all going to prison?”

“Oh, yes, but only--well, you might almost call it for a little fun,”
said the Lord Chancellor. “It’s more like a first-class hotel than a
prison, you know. And--and--well, look at the pot-plants! You can see
for yourself!”

“Oh, blow the pot-plants!” said Teddy; and Peggy did not object to the
vulgarity of the expression, as he spoke as if he really meant to do
something. “What are they going to prison _for_?”

“Three wooden dolls, too!” said Mrs. Noah. “And one of them was going
to be Queen, we were all told. It doesn’t seem to me as if the new King
was acting quite right, it doesn’t.”

There were murmurs among the crowd. Mrs. Noah seemed to have hit upon
a feeling that they all shared, more or less. “No, it isn’t right.”
“There was hardly any sending to prison in Queen Rosebud’s time.” “They
don’t look as if they had done anything wrong either.” “Nice kind
faces, all of them!” These were a few of the speeches that reached
Peggy’s ears from among the dolls who were all round her.

The Lord Chancellor still kept his good-natured expression of face, as
if they were all making a great fuss about nothing, but he would put
up with it for the sake of pleasing them. “Now, look here,” he said in
a persuasive voice, “I think there’s a great deal in what you say, and
I should be the last one to want to go against you. A more intelligent
and intellectual-looking crowd I have seldom set eyes on, and it’s a
real pleasure to address you.”

There were murmurs of approval, and one smartly dressed lady doll
standing near to Peggy, said, “Lord Norval can be trusted. I know all
about him, and I once met him at a garden party.”

“Now suppose we come to a compromise,” said the Lord Chancellor.

There were more murmurs of approval. Another lady doll near to Peggy
asked, “What is a compromise?”

“Oh, don’t you know?” said the first lady doll. “It’s ‘If you give way,
I’ll pretend to.’”

“What I suggest is this,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Let us all take
these ladies to the House of Cards--it isn’t really like a prison at
all, you know--and when we have made them comfortable there, and got
them off our minds, then we’ll talk about what can be done. Now that
strikes me as eminently fair.”

“Yes, that’s a compromise,” said the first lady doll, “and a very good
one. But I knew that the Lord Chancellor could be trusted. A cook I
once had had been kitchen maid to a great friend of his wife’s.”

Peggy did not think much of the Lord Chancellor’s compromise, but
it seemed to satisfy the crowd, who greeted it with enthusiasm, and
immediately made a way through for them, and went along with them.
Peggy thought that Teddy would have seen that if they were once all
shut up in prison it would be much more difficult to get them out
again than to prevent their going there. But he said no more. With an
encouraging wave of the paw he took himself off, followed by Mr. and
Mrs. Noah, and was lost to view. Peggy felt a little sad, but only for
a moment, because she couldn’t help treating the whole business as a
sort of game; and everybody knows that whatever dreadful things happen
in dolls’ games, everything always comes right in the end.

So on they all went, and by-and-by they came to the House of Cards.

[Illustration]




VIII

PEGGY BATHES A BABY AND HAS A SURPRISE


The House of Cards was a noble structure, and one which interested
Peggy extremely. She had once built one herself, up to five stories,
and had nearly finished the sixth before it tumbled down. But the House
of Cards in Dolltown was of no less than thirteen stories, and towered
high above all the other buildings. Each story was as high as the shops
round the market-place, and not even the Post-Office, which was an
imposing edifice of terra-cotta bricks, reached higher than its second
story. It was built up of gigantic cards, just as Peggy had built hers
with ordinary sized ones, but it seemed quite strong, and as if it
would last for ever. There were windows and doors in the cards, and the
ones that were laid flat at each story formed platforms and balconies,
on which you could go out to look about you.

Just as the Lord Chancellor was ushering them in to the House of Cards,
a lead Life Guardsman from the palace rode up on his black horse and
handed him a note. “Now I am rather sorry for that,” he said, when
he had read it. “I had intended to shut you all up in the top story,
for the sake of the view. But the King doesn’t wish that. You are to
be imprisoned on the first floor. Those are his very words. Well,
you will be able to see the life of the market-place, which is very
entertaining. As a distinguished doll once said, ‘There is no cloud
without its silver lining.’ You couldn’t do that so conveniently from
the top story. Perhaps the King thought of that. There is a good deal
of thoughtfulness in his nature, though he is apt to be a little
irritable after meals.”

“It’s like his nastiness not to let us see the view,” said Wooden’s
aunt. “I wouldn’t marry him now, not if he was to go down on his bended
knees, I wouldn’t.”

Peggy would have liked to go up to the top of the House of Cards, but
it turned out very well for them all that they were not shut up there,
as will presently appear.

The cards of which the house was built were so enormous that each
story had two floors of several rooms. They were taken upstairs by a
policeman doll, and found themselves in a spacious apartment furnished
with quite nice dolls’ furniture, and not like a prison at all. The
Lord Chancellor rubbed his hands as he looked round him, and said,
“Well, this isn’t so bad, is it? With the pot-plants it will look quite
home-like, and I should think, when you are set free, you will hardly
like to leave it. You can go out on this balcony, see? We might go out
now, and look at the people. I’m sure they will be pleased to see us
all, especially me. The people have a great love for me, and it is very
gratifying. I often think about it when I am alone, and it sometimes
brings tears to my eyes.”

They went out on the balcony, and looked down at the crowd of dolls in
the market-place. There were all sorts there except wax. Peggy looked
to see if she could see Teddy or the Noahs among them. There were
several Teddy bears, and one or two Noahs in the crowd, but although
she might not have recognized the Noahs of the royal Ark, Peggy would
have known her own Teddy anywhere. She was sure that he was not in the
crowd, and wondered what had become of him.

The crowd of dolls cheered when they appeared on the balcony. The Lord
Chancellor put himself in front, and bowed repeatedly, but the dolls
seemed to be cheering Wooden more than him. This was probably because
they had been told that she was to be their Queen, and because any
doll who knew her would have told their friends how nice and good
she was. So the news would have spread, and Wooden would have become
popular. At any rate the dolls kept on calling out, “Wooden! Wooden!
Speech! Speech!”

The platform was too high above the market-place to make it convenient
for anybody to make a speech from it, even if they had wished to.
Wooden did not wish to, not being accustomed to public speaking, but
her aunt offered to dance a Highland fling, which her late husband had
taught her. This offer was refused, and Wooden’s mother told her to
behave herself, and remember where she was.

“Now, I must leave you,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Good-bye, ladies,
and a very pleasant imprisonment to you!”

He shook hands affably with all of them, and bowed himself out. He
seemed already to have forgotten the compromise he had come to with the
people, and they seemed to have forgotten it, too; for Peggy watched
him go off, followed by the palace guards, and bowing to right and
left. The dolls in the market-place cheered heartily, but none of them
stopped him to say anything, and he disappeared round the corner.

“Dolls seem to have very short memories,” said Peggy to herself. She
could not help feeling a little unhappy at being shut up in a prison,
though it was only a dolls’ prison, and quite different from the stone
cells she had read about. She did think that her own Teddy might have
done something more to help them. She knew now that he was rather
flighty, but surely he need not have gone off like that, and have left
his mistress and her friends to be locked up, without trying to do
anything to rescue them! She supposed he was amusing himself with his
new friends, Mr. and Mrs. Noah, and had forgotten all about her.

But she did Teddy an injustice there, as you will soon see.

The policeman doll came up to see if they wanted anything directly
the Lord Chancellor had gone, and brought his wife with him. He was
a large, amiable-looking doll, and his wife was nice too. She was
dressed as a Swiss peasant, and when she saw Peggy she said, “Bonjour,
Mademoiselle! Comment ça va t’il?”

Now Peggy knew a good deal of French already, because her father and
mother took her to Etretat every summer for the holidays. So she said
at once, “Merci, Madame, ça va bien. Et vous?”

The policeman doll’s wife was delighted to hear her own language
spoken, and asked Peggy if she might kiss her. The policeman doll
beamed affectionately at them, and said, “Isn’t that clever now? I
never could pick up her lingo.”

[Illustration]

They said they would like some tea as soon as possible, and apricot jam
with it. The policeman doll’s wife, whose name was Mrs. Emma, said that
she would bring it up as soon as she had bathed her baby.

“Oh, have you got a long-clothes baby?” asked Peggy, clasping her two
hands together.

Mrs. Emma said that she had, and Peggy begged her to let her go down
and bathe it for her.

The policeman doll said he didn’t think he could allow that without
orders, but Mrs. Emma persuaded him, and he said that as the outer
door of the house was locked, perhaps it wouldn’t much matter after
all; only she wasn’t to tell anybody. Peggy would have promised almost
anything for the sake of bathing a real live baby doll, and promised
this readily enough. So she left the four dolls, promising to come back
soon, and went downstairs with Mr. and Mrs. Emma.

They lived in the basement, where they had a large and well furnished
kitchen, spotlessly clean. In one corner of it was a pretty bassinette
covered with muslin and ribbons, and inside it was the sweetest little
baby doll, beautifully dressed in a hand-made robe of cambric and lace.
Everything was so pretty and dainty that it might have belonged to
a princess, and Mrs. Emma told Peggy that she took a great pride in
having everything very nice for her baby.

Peggy lost her heart to the baby doll at once. She would have loved
it even if it had been just like other dolls, but when it smiled at
her, and put out its little pudgy hands, and gurgled happily, she could
almost have eaten it, it was so fascinating.

[Illustration: Peggy lost her heart to the baby doll]

Mrs. Emma put on her a large bath apron, and got out a white enamelled
toy bath, with a gold rim round it, and a cake of pink soap, and filled
the bath with hot water. And then Peggy lifted the baby doll carefully
out of the cot and undressed it and put it into the bath, first putting
her own hand in the water to see that it was not too hot.

It was lovely, bathing that beautiful fat laughing baby doll. Mrs. Emma
stood over the bath smiling at them both, but she soon saw that Peggy
knew exactly what to do and how to do it, so she went away to her work
in another part of the kitchen.

Peggy was so busy with the baby doll, and so wrapped up in it, that
she did not pay much attention to what Mr. and Mrs. Emma were talking
about. But she heard some of the things they said, and, although she
did not pay much attention to them at the time, as I have said, they
turned out to be important afterwards, as you will see.

When Peggy had bathed the baby doll, and dressed it and put it back
into its cot, she was taken upstairs again. She found the Woodens and
Lady Grace on the balcony, where something interesting was just about
to happen.

A Teddy bear had made its appearance in the market-place with an
enormous pole, and just as Peggy went out on to the balcony he was
balancing it on his head. Then he balanced it on different parts of his
body, as he knelt or lay or stooped on the ground. The crowd of dolls
who still filled the market-place was absolutely delighted with his
performance, and when he shouted out that he would climb up to the top
of the pole and balance himself on his head, if somebody would hold it
for him, all the gentlemen dolls in the market-place wanted to have the
honour of holding the pole for him.

But the Teddy bear said he must choose who should hold the pole
himself, and chose out of the crowd four tall wooden dolls with shiny
black hats and different coloured robes. Then he looked up at Peggy and
the four dolls standing on the balcony of the House of Cards, and waved
his paw and made a low bow, and told his four assistants to hold up the
pole near the House, so that the ladies could see. The crowd of dolls
was pleased at this, for they were sorry for the prisoners, and wanted
them to have all the amusement that they could get.

Well, of course you have already understood that the Teddy bear who was
so clever at his acrobatic feats was Peggy’s own old Teddy, who had not
forgotten her at all, but had evidently chosen this means of getting
at them. And the four tall wooden dolls who were helping him were Mr.
Noah of the Royal Ark, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. It
was rather clever of Teddy to have chosen them out of the crowd, as
if he hadn’t known them before. But Teddy was clever, in spite of his
flightiness, and faithful, too, as Peggy was very glad to see. She had
recognized him at once, but the crowd had not. One Teddy bear is very
much like another, unless he happens to be your own, and there were
several of them in the crowd itself, as I have already said.

Teddy climbed carefully up to the top of the pole, and when he got
there he stood on one foot and waved his paws about, and then changed
to the other foot, and kissed his paw to the crowd, and to Peggy and
the dolls on the balcony. Peggy was afraid that he might tumble, and
almost forgot to listen for anything that he might say when he got near
to them. But he seemed quite at home on his pole, and as he turned
towards them and kissed his paw, he said in a mysterious voice, “One of
you go to the other side.”

That was all he said, and the crowd down below could not have known
that he was saying anything at all, he did it so cleverly. He was just
on a level with the balcony, and could easily have jumped on to it if
he had wanted to. Peggy had thought that perhaps he had meant to do
that, so as to be with them, because he could not have got there in
any other way. But he was too clever for that, for if he had stepped
on to the balcony, all the dolls who had been watching him would have
known at once that they had been deceived. And besides, he would only
have been locked up with Peggy and the four dolls, and could have done
nothing more to help them.

When Teddy had said, “One of you go to the other side,” he turned round
again, and then stood on his head on the top of the pole, as he had
promised to do. The crowd of dolls was wild with delight, and none of
them suspected that he had given a message to the prisoners.

“What does he mean? What are we to go to the other side for?” asked
Wooden.

“I expect there is somebody there,” said Lady Grace. “Shall I go?”

“No, I’ll go,” said Wooden’s aunt, who had largely recovered her
spirits during Teddy’s performance, and had danced a few steps of a
Highland fling on her own account, while he was posturing on the pole.

“I think Peggy had better go,” said Wooden’s mother. “She has a
slightly better head than any of us, because she is human.”

“Oh, yes, let Peggy go,” said all the others at once. So Peggy went
round the balcony to the other side of the house, feeling proud at the
trust reposed in her, but a little alarmed also at what should happen.
But she hid that from the dolls, and walked with a firm and confident
step.

There was as big a space in the market-place on the other side of the
House of Cards as in the one in which Teddy was performing, but it was
absolutely empty. Every doll was watching Teddy, and even the shops
were deserted, as all the doll shopkeepers had gone round to the other
side. A thief might have taken anything he liked from the shops, and
nobody would have seen him. But dolls are never thieves, so it was
quite safe.

Perhaps I ought not to have said that that side of the market-place was
absolutely empty. It looked so to Peggy when she got there, but when
she looked over the edge of the platform she saw a solitary doll figure
standing below her, looking up. It was rather a disappointment to
her, for it was a gentleman doll wrapped up in a long black cloak, and
he had his arms full of pot-plants, like the ones the Lord Chancellor
had bought to brighten up their rooms. Peggy thought they had quite
enough pot-plants to go on with, and, if the gentleman doll only wanted
to sell them some more, it was hardly worth Teddy’s cleverness to get
all the people round on the other side, so that he might do so without
being observed.

And that was apparently all that the gentleman doll did want, for
directly he saw Peggy looking over the platform at him he called up to
her, “Kind lady, buy a few pot-plants from a poor man. I’ve got some
lovely ones here.”

“No, thank you,” said Peggy. “We have plenty. Besides, I haven’t got
any money; at least, not here.”

“I don’t want any money for them,” said the gentleman doll. “Let me
come up and show you my lovely pot-plants.”

Now there was something in his voice that Peggy seemed to recognize.
She thought she had heard it before, but she couldn’t remember where or
when. However, she began to understand that the pot-plants were only an
excuse for the gentleman doll to get into the House of Cards, and that
if he did so he might have something interesting to say.

“I should be glad if you could come up,” she said. “But the doors are
locked, and I don’t suppose they will let you.”

“Yes, they will, if you say the word ‘pot-plants,’” said the gentleman
doll. “Say that somebody has come from the palace with some pot-plants
for you. Go quickly, before anybody comes.”

Peggy went back, and told Wooden and the others what had happened. “I
don’t know who it was,” she said, “but I couldn’t help thinking that I
had heard his voice before.”

“Was it the Lord Chancellor?” asked Wooden’s mother. “Perhaps this is
his compromise.”

“I don’t think so,” said Peggy. “But hadn’t we better ask for him to be
let in?”

Teddy had finished his performance, and was climbing down the pole. It
was time to do something, for soon the crowd of dolls would disperse,
and some would go round to the other side of the House.

“Yes, dear, we had better do that,” said Wooden. “It is a very good
idea. Perhaps you had better go yourself, if you don’t mind, as it was
you who heard what he said.”

Peggy would have been quite willing to go down, but the door of their
room was locked. So after a little more discussion they rang the bell,
and presently Mr. Emma came up to see what they wanted.

The dolls seemed to expect Peggy to speak, so she said, “There is a man
outside who wants to come up and see us.”

Mr. Emma beamed affectionately upon her. “Bless your dear little
heart!” he said. “I’d do anything to please you, but I can’t let
anybody up to see you without orders. It would be as much as my place
is worth.”

“He has come from the palace with some pot-plants,” said Peggy.

Mr. Emma’s face underwent a complete change. “Come with what?” he asked.

“With some pot-plants.”

“Oh, well then, I’ll let him up at once,” said Mr. Emma. “Oh,
certainly.”

He went out quickly, but did not forget to lock the door behind him.

Just as he had locked it, and they thought he was on his way
downstairs, he unlocked it again, and put his head into the room. “What
did you say the man had come with?” he asked.

“With some pot-plants,” said Peggy again.

“Ah, that’s the word,” he said. “I wasn’t quite certain I’d got it
right.”

Then he locked the door behind him again, and they heard his feet going
heavily downstairs.

In a few minutes he came back again, unlocked the door, and came into
the room with the gentleman doll, who was wrapped in his long cloak,
and carried his pots in his arms.

“I’ll leave the gentleman with you for a bit,” said Mr. Emma, “as I’m
just in the middle of my tea.”

He went out and locked the door behind him once more. The gentleman
doll, who had put the pots down on the floor, stood up and threw off
his cloak, and revealed the stalwart form and handsome features of
Colonel Jim, of the Lifeguards.

[Illustration]




IX

THEY DISCUSS A PLAN OF ESCAPE


The first thing Colonel Jim did when he had thrown off his disguise
was to bow politely to all of them. But to Lady Grace he did more than
that. He took her hand and kissed it respectfully, and then said,
“Very sorry to see you here, my lady. Forming plans to get you out.
Disgraceful affair altogether!”

[Illustration: He took her hand and kissed it respectfully]

Lady Grace looked pleased at the attention paid to her, and blushed.
Peggy had not known before that dolls could fall in love, but it was
quite plain that Lady Grace was in love with handsome Colonel Jim.
It seemed plain also that he was in love with her. He spoke in short
sharp sentences because he was a soldier, and loved deeds better than
words. But there was a tenderness in his manner when he addressed Lady
Grace which he did not show to anybody but her, though his manners were
always courteous.

Wooden’s aunt gave a screech of enjoyment when Colonel Jim kissed Lady
Grace’s hand, and said, “Lawks! I wish I’d got a handsome beau like
that.” But nobody took any notice of her, as there was so much to talk
about. Wooden’s mother requested Colonel Jim to take a seat, which he
did, and proceeded to explain himself.

“Didn’t hear you were shut up till Teddy bear came and told me so,”
he said. “Determined at once to use the pass-word for the day, which
I knew, as commanding troops at palace. Pass-word ‘Pot-plants.’ So
concocted plan with Teddy bear, and here I am.”

Peggy wondered that she had not known who he was under his disguise.
But he had not then spoken in the military way he used now, as he had,
of course, been playing his part as well as he could.

“And very pleased we are to see you, Colonel Jim,” said Wooden, in her
nice gentle manner. “It’s a sad thing, this shutting up of Waxes and
others. I’m sure dear Queen Rosebud would never have allowed it, if she
had been alive.”

“It’s my belief,” said Colonel Jim, “that Queen Rosebud _is_ alive.”

All the dolls exclaimed, in surprise. And Wooden said, after the pause
which followed, “But King Selim said that she was dead, Colonel Jim. We
all heard him with our own ears.”

“I know that,” said Colonel Jim shortly.

There was another pause of consternation. “Do you mean that you think
the King has told an untruth?” asked Lady Grace, in an awestruck voice.

“Yes,” said Colonel Jim.

Another pause. “It would be a dreadful thing if he had,” said Wooden.
“He wouldn’t deserve to be King if he could do a thing like that, would
he?”

“He doesn’t deserve it,” said Colonel Jim.

Nobody spoke. The matter was too serious to be treated in a light
conversational way, and it was felt that Colonel Jim must have more to
tell them, if he could only get it out.

He seemed to feel, himself, that he owed them explanations, and must
try to make them as clear as possible, for he spoke slowly, and in
longer sentences than he usually employed. He could do this all right
if he liked.

“It was Rose who put him up to it all,” he said. “She’s mad all the
time because she isn’t Wax.”

“And only half Composition,” put in Wooden’s aunt.

“Well, that’s as may be,” said Colonel Jim. “Anyhow, she got him to let
her nurse the Queen, and told him to give out that she was dead. She
wasn’t dead at all, but getting better all the time.”

“Do you mean that _she_ told a story?” asked Wooden, in a voice of
consternation.

“Yes,” said Colonel Jim. “I do.”

“Well,” said Wooden, “I never liked her; but I did not think she would
go so far as that.”

“It’s depravity,” said Wooden’s mother. “That’s what I call it;
positive depravity.”

“Well, that’s as may be,” said Colonel Jim again. “Anyhow, that’s what
she did.”

“How did you find out about Rose so cleverly?” asked Lady Grace.

Colonel Jim looked pleased at being called clever, which he wasn’t
very. “One of my troopers is going to be married to Rose’s maid,” he
said. “She heard them talking--Rose and Selim--and told him about it.
He came and told me. Very proper thing to do. Made him a lance-corporal
on the spot. He marries the maid tomorrow. Shall give them a wedding
present. Silver pepper-castor.”

“Then, where is dear Queen Rosebud?” asked Wooden. “I am so glad she
isn’t dead after all. I wish we could see her.”

“This is my month to be in waiting,” said Lady Grace. “Could you take
me to her, do you think?”

“Afraid that’s impossible,” said Colonel Jim. “Don’t know where she
is. She was taken out of the palace and hidden somewhere.”

“How dreadful it all sounds,” said Wooden. “I shouldn’t have thought
such things could have happened in Toyland. I do hope they give her
enough to eat.”

“I expect she’s having her tea now,” said Wooden’s aunt. “If I was a
Queen, I’d have herrings every day.”

It was a foolish remark, as many of Wooden’s aunt’s remarks were, but
it turned out to be a lucky one, for it reminded Peggy of something she
had heard downstairs, while she was bathing the baby doll.

“I suppose she couldn’t be the lady in the top story!” she said.

They stared at her. “What do you mean, dear? What lady?” asked Wooden.

“When I was downstairs just now,” said Peggy, “Mrs. Emma was getting
tea ready for the lady in the top story, and Mr. Emma said he was
sorry for her being shut up there, and he wondered if she would like a
herring for her tea.”

“Did they give her one?” asked Wooden’s aunt.

“No,” said Peggy. “Mrs. Emma said that as she was Wax she might not
like herrings.”

[Illustration]

“It’s the best fish out of the sea,” said Wooden’s aunt, smacking her
lips. “Lawks! How I wish they’d bring me one!”

“Adone, now!” said Wooden’s mother sharply. “We’re talking about the
Queen in the top story, not about what you’d like to have for your
tea.”

“I don’t know that it is the Queen,” said Peggy. “But there is a lady
on the top story, and she is Wax. I know as much as that.”

“And it’s a good deal to know, dear,” said Wooden fondly. “It was very
clever of you to find it out.”

“Oh, it’s the Queen, right enough,” said Colonel Jim. “Wonder we never
thought of her being here before. Question is now how to get at her. I
wish that Teddy bear was here.”

They all seemed at a loss what to do next, and the suggestions they
made were not very helpful. Wooden thought that it would be a good
thing if Teddy were to bring a very long pole and climb up to the top
of the House of Cards. But it was quite certain that there wasn’t a
pole long enough in the whole of Toyland, or anywhere else. Wooden’s
mother suggested throwing the Queen a rope. But it was equally certain
that nobody could have thrown it far enough. Wooden’s aunt said,
why not telephone to her? But this was silly, because there was no
telephone.

By-and-by they all looked at Peggy, as if they expected her to suggest
something sensible. She did not like to disappoint them, as it was
flattering the way they seemed to believe in her. So she knitted her
brows hard, to see if she could think of something.

“We could do so much more if we weren’t locked up in prison,” she said
at last.

All the dolls looked at one another in admiration, and Wooden said,
“Now, that’s one of the cleverest things I ever heard said, dear. How
these things come into your head I can’t think.”

Peggy didn’t think that what she had said was so clever as all that,
though she had had something further in her mind when she had said it.
But she was pleased at being praised; most of us are; and she wanted to
be as helpful as she could.

“Did you and Teddy make any plan for getting us out of prison?” she
asked, turning to Colonel Jim.

“Now, I wonder what made her think of that?” said Wooden’s mother.

“Well, we did make a plan,” said Colonel Jim; “though how you guessed
it I don’t know, as you couldn’t have heard us talking. Our plan was
this: When I’m ready to go out, I say to Mr. Emma, ‘I should like to
look at the view.’ He says, ‘With pleasure,’ and takes me up to the top
story.”

“But supposing he doesn’t say ‘With pleasure,’” suggested Wooden.

Colonel Jim looked worried. “Teddy bear said he’d say ‘With
pleasure,’” he said. “Never thought of asking what to do if he didn’t.”

“If Teddy said he’d say ‘With pleasure,’ I should think he would,” said
Wooden. “Teddy is flighty, but I have always found his word reliable.”

Colonel Jim brightened. “Well, then, we go up to the top story,” he
said. “Then I look at the view, and I say--let’s see, what is it I say?
I’ve learnt it all up, but it’s difficult to remember. Oh, yes, I know.
I say, ‘What’s that bird flying towards the sea?’ No, that’s wrong. I
say, ‘What’s that bird over there?’ He says, ‘What bird? Where?’ I say,
‘Over there!’ pointing towards the sea. He turns to where I point, you
see, and----”

“But are you sure there will be a bird to point at?” asked Lady Grace.
“If not, won’t it be telling a story?”

“Do you think it will?” asked Colonel Jim. “I shouldn’t like to do
that.”

There was a pause. “I like the plan,” said Wooden, “but that does
rather interfere with it, doesn’t it?”

They all looked at Peggy as if they expected her to find a way out of
the difficulty; and she did so at once. “I think there are sure to be
birds flying about,” she said, “and some of them will be flying towards
the sea.”

Their faces brightened, and Wooden’s aunt slapped her knee. “Now,
doesn’t that beat all?” she said. “How she do think of things, to be
sure! Well, go on, soldier.”

“Directly he says, ‘What bird, where?’” proceeded Colonel Jim, “that’s
my sign. I get behind him. I whip off my cloak. I throw it over his
head. I tie the cord--it’s got a cord, you see--round his arms, so that
he can’t move. Then I say to him, ‘Your keys, please.’ Then I come
downstairs with the keys, unlock the doors, and off we go. Well, that’s
the plan, and if it all goes right I don’t think a better plan was ever
invented. It’s Teddy bear’s plan chiefly, but it was me who thought of
saying, ‘Your keys, please,’ instead of ‘Hand over your keys.’ More
polite.”

The plan was not received with the pleasure that Colonel Jim seemed to
expect. Wooden said doubtfully, “Mr. Emma is a very nice man. He might
not like to have a cloak thrown over his head.”

“Don’t you think he would?” asked Colonel Jim, in a disturbed way. “I
never thought of that. What do you say, Peggy?”

“If you were to treat him as gently as you could,” said Peggy, “and
tell him that he might go downstairs to Mrs. Emma and the baby in five
minutes, when we had all got away, he might not mind so much.”

“He couldn’t do that,” said Colonel Jim. “His legs would be tied up
too. I forgot to say that. Can’t keep everything in your head at once.”

“Try again, dear,” said Wooden hopefully.

“Well, supposing we told Mrs. Emma she could go up and untie him, as we
went out!” suggested Peggy.

“The very thing!” exclaimed Wooden’s mother. “I should never have
thought of that if I had tried for a week.”

They had no time to settle anything further, for at that moment the key
was heard turning in the lock outside. Colonel Jim had just time to put
on his long cloak again before Mr. Emma came into the room.

He seemed not to be in quite such a good temper as before. Directly he
came in, he said to Colonel Jim, “Now, then, my man, you’ve been here
quite long enough. Pot-plants or no pot-plants, it’s time you cleared
out.”

Colonel Jim hesitated. Peggy was afraid for the moment that he had
forgotten the words he had learned so carefully. But they seemed to
come to him all of a sudden. He straightened himself up, and said in a
firm voice, but rather as if he were repeating a lesson, “I should like
to go up to the top story and look at the view.”

Peggy heard Wooden say, “With pleasure,” under her breath, as if she
were helping Mr. Emma to remember his part.

But unfortunately Mr. Emma had not learnt his part. What he did say
was, “Oh, you would, would you? Well, I’m afraid I can’t oblige you.
I’m almost run off my legs with work as it is. Now you come along down
with me.”

[Illustration]




X

PEGGY TALKS TO A ROYAL PRISONER


Colonel Jim threw a despairing look at Peggy; she could just see it
under the hood that he had put over his head. His carefully arranged
plan had gone wrong at the very beginning, and he hadn’t the least
idea what to do next. Of course, he might just as well have thrown
his cloak over Mr. Emma’s head there and then, as done it on the top
of the House of Cards, after pointing to a bird which might not have
been there. But perhaps he did not like to exercise violence before
ladies, or perhaps it never occurred to him to alter the plan so as to
suit the circumstances. At any rate, he prepared to follow Mr. Emma
downstairs without any further ado. If Peggy had not suddenly thought
of something, there would have been an end of any good he had done by
making his way in to them.

As they were going out, Peggy said to Mr. Emma, “If you and Mrs. Emma
have got so much work to do, couldn’t I come down and help you?”

Mr. Emma turned round and beamed at her. “Now, you _are_ a kind little
lady!” he said. “And I don’t know as you can’t help us. Yes, you come
along o’ me, dearie. My missus will be glad to see your pretty little
face, anyhow, and you can talk to her a bit in her own lingo, which I
never could fathom, nohow.”

Peggy was very glad at that moment that she had paid attention to her
French, which gave her this opportunity of helping her doll friends,
though she had been far from thinking that she would ever make such
extraordinary use of it when she had talked as much as she could to
French people during her holidays. She followed Mr. Emma out of the
room, and he locked the door carefully after him, and led the way
downstairs.

Now would have been Colonel Jim’s opportunity, either to throw his
cloak over Mr. Emma, who was in front of him, or else to bolt upstairs
instead of down. If he had done that, Mr. Emma would have had to follow
him, and then they could have had it out together, and Colonel Jim
would probably have won, as he was younger and stronger than Mr. Emma.
But, though as brave as a lion, Colonel Jim had a brain that did not
move very fast. All he could do, as they went downstairs, was to nudge
Peggy with his elbow, and that did not take them very far, for when
she whispered to him, “What is it?” he had nothing to say.

So it rested with her to think of something, and she whispered to
Colonel Jim, unheard by Mr. Emma, whose large feet were making a
considerable noise, “I will try to get upstairs, and see if it is the
Queen who is there; and you and Teddy must try to get in to us again.
Then I will tell you what I have found out.”

Colonel Jim nodded his head repeatedly, and Peggy could only hope that
he had understood what she had said, and would remember it, for she had
not time to say it over again, as they had now reached the ground floor.

Mr. Emma unlocked the big door leading into the market-place, and
Colonel Jim went out. Just as he was going down the steps, Peggy had
another bright idea. She said to Mr. Emma, “We should like this man to
bring us a few more pot-plants later on. I suppose you will let him in,
if he comes.”

But Mr. Emma spoilt that little plan at the beginning, for he said,
“No, dearie, I can’t do that. When he once goes out he stays out.” Then
he locked the door.

[Illustration]

Mrs. Emma was pleased to see Peggy again. She and Mr. Emma had had
their own tea, and she was preparing trays to take up to the prisoners.
Peggy helped her to do this, while Mr. Emma sat by the cradle of his
baby doll, of which he seemed to be very fond. Peggy couldn’t help
going over to have a look at it sometimes, and see it smile and gurgle;
and it delighted Mr. Emma to see her so taken up with his baby doll.
This was a very good thing, for when Peggy said, “Now, I will take up
the trays, if you like,” Mr. Emma replied, “I ought not to let you do
it, I suppose, because I shall have to give you my keys. But I’ve been
so rushed off my legs today that I shan’t be sorry to sit still for
a bit; and you’re such a nice little lady that I really feel as if I
could do anything for you.”

“It is more like Mademoiselle doing something for _you_,” said Mrs.
Emma, with a laugh. But if she had only known, she might not have said
that.

“I know you wouldn’t want to get me into trouble,” said Mr. Emma as he
handed Peggy his keys. “You won’t tell the King now, will you? He’s
Wood, and so am I; but he don’t seem above punishing Woods, if it suits
him, any more than the rest.”

Peggy promised not to tell the King, readily enough. She was not quite
sure that Mr. Emma might not get into trouble, if anything came of her
taking his keys; but she made up her mind to speak up for him when
affairs in Toyland came to be righted, as she hoped they would be.
Selim was only a usurping King, after all, and if Queen Rosebud was
restored to her throne he would not be able to do any harm to Mr. Emma,
or to anybody else.

“First of all,” said Mrs. Emma, “you might take this tray up to the top
story. There is a wax lady there who hasn’t been very well. I should
like her to have her tea first.”

Peggy was almost frightened at the easiness of it all. She had hardly
taken any trouble to bring it about, and here she was with the key to
the Queen’s prison, and her tea-tray in her hands. For she had little
doubt now that it was the Queen who was shut up in the top story. Mrs.
Emma had no idea who she was, but she said she had been ill, and Peggy
knew that the Queen had been ill.

Just as she was going out with the tea-tray, Mrs. Emma said, “Don’t
stay very long, because there are the other trays to take up. But you
might just talk to her a little. She is a nice lady, and it is lonely
for her up there, all by herself.”

This made it all the easier for Peggy, and she started upstairs,
thinking how luckily it had all turned out.

It took her quite a long time to reach the top story. There were four
flights of stairs to each story, and each flight had ten steps. Four
times ten times thirteen are five hundred and twenty all the world
over, and if you ever try going up five hundred and twenty stairs with
a rather heavy tea-tray in your hands you will find that it is no light
matter. However, Peggy got to the top at last, with one or two rests
on the way--But wait a minute. She did not have to go up the last two
flights of stairs, which would have led to the roof, so that takes
twenty off the total, and makes exactly five hundred steps, which is
almost as serious as five hundred and twenty.

She put the tray on the floor outside while she unlocked the door. Then
she knocked at it, and a voice inside said, “Come in.”

She opened the door a little, took up the tea-tray from the floor, and
then pushed the door open with her elbow and went in.

The room was much like the one downstairs, and was quite as comfortably
furnished, but was without the pot-plants which made theirs so bright
and gay. So that it did look rather bare, and not altogether unlike a
prison, in spite of the large window, which showed a magnificent view
of the country. But perhaps what gave it the air of being a prison was
not that, but the sad figure of the lady doll that was sitting in a
chair by the window.

Peggy knew that it must be the Queen, directly she saw her. Indeed,
it was surprising that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Emma had guessed who the
prisoner on the top story really was.

For she looked very royal. She was most delicately made of wax, and
looked a little faded, which would have been accounted for by her great
age. But she was beautiful, too, with young features; for, of course,
dolls do not grow old like human beings, and when they are in Toyland
even breakages do not count.

[Illustration: She looked very royal]

She wore a dress of rich brocade embroidered with seed pearls, rather
like those that you see in pictures of Queen Elizabeth. It was quite
possible that she might have been born about the same time as Queen
Elizabeth, which would have made her very interesting, if she had had a
good memory, and could have talked about all the changes she had seen.
But dolls’ memories are short, and Peggy did not find out how old the
Queen really was, and, indeed, it would not have been good manners to
ask.

When Peggy came in with the tea-tray, the Queen looked surprised, and
said, in a sad but gentle voice, “Who are you? Have you come to take me
home? Why am I kept locked up here?”

Peggy put the tray down on the table, and said, “I am Peggy, your
Majesty. Wooden brought me to Toyland. You said that she might.”

“Why do you call me your Majesty?” asked the Queen. “They said that
if anybody called me that, or I told anybody who I was, I should be
locked up in a dungeon where I could not see the light.”

Peggy felt desperately sorry for her. She had called her “Your Majesty”
quite naturally, for she was very royal, both in appearance and manner,
although she was only a doll. It seemed quite dreadful that she should
be locked up there, and be threatened with still worse imprisonment,
and for no fault of her own at all.

“I know that you are the Queen,” Peggy said, “and I hope that you will
soon be back in your beautiful palace again. They are making plans
outside to rescue you.”

“I can’t understand it,” said the poor Queen, passing her hand wearily
over her brow. “I have always been as nice as I could to everybody. And
yet they told me that the people hate me, because I am Wax, and don’t
want me to be their Queen any longer.”

“That isn’t true,” said Peggy. “That wicked Selim has told everybody
that you are dead, and that you said that he was to be King after you.”

“Oh, I never said that,” said the Queen indignantly. “How can he have
said such a thing? I never said anything like it.”

“That is what he has given out,” said Peggy. “It was Rose who made it
up. She is as wicked as he is.”

The Queen thought for a little time, looking out of the window at the
beautiful view of her own kingdom. Then she looked at Peggy searchingly
and said, “Isn’t it true that my people hate me because I am Wax, and
want to have a Wooden King and Queen in my place? Rose told me that
Selim was going to marry Wooden, who brought you here. I was very sorry
to hear that, because I have always liked Wooden, and I didn’t think
she would want to take my place.”

“Oh, she doesn’t,” said Peggy, speaking as indignantly as the Queen
had done. “Nobody will be more pleased to hear that you are really
alive. And she doesn’t want to marry Selim. She hates him. Why, he has
actually sent her to prison, because she said she didn’t want to marry
him.”

The Queen looked out of the window and did not speak for some time.
Then she said, “I was kind to Selim. When he was brought to me after
he had been wrecked, and had lost everything that he had, I gave him
apartments in my own royal palace, and money every month from my
treasury.”

“He is bad and wicked,” said Peggy. “And Rose is bad, too. She used to
be mine once, and I never liked her. Now I know why.”

“I didn’t like her either,” said the Queen. “She wanted to be my
lady-in-waiting. She said that I ought to have one Composition at
least, and not all Waxes round me. But I said no. Perhaps I would have
a Wood, so as to please the Woods. I chose Wooden herself, and I was
going to appoint her when I fell ill. You are sure that it is not true
that the Woods hate me?”

Peggy assured her again that it was not true, and she seemed much
relieved. “I will not say anything about Selim and Rose,” she said, in
a stately kind of way that was more effective than if she had said how
wicked she thought they were. “When I get back my throne, and put on my
crown again, I shall know what to do. My people have always been good,
and I will not have them taught to tell untruths and to deceive.” She
smiled gently at Peggy. “Why, what would you think of us over there?”
she asked, “if you could not trust us?”

This made Peggy see how trustworthy dolls really were. If they are ever
naughty, it is only because their mistresses like to make them pretend
to be, just for fun. And they are never _really_ naughty, and soon get
over whatever little trouble there may be with them, and are good and
obedient again. Peggy wondered now whether all this might not be owing
to the wise and temperate rule of Queen Rosebud. Perhaps if Selim were
to go on ruling it might all be altered, and dolls might become as bad
as some human beings.

“I am sure when the people know you are alive,” she said, “they will
very soon take you back to your palace. And they will be most awfully
glad to have you reigning over them again.”

“Well, you must tell them,” said the Queen. “I can wait here a little
longer in patience, now that I know things are to be put right. And I
am very pleased to see you here, my dear; but I wish you had come at a
happier time.”

Peggy had never before conversed with a Queen, or indeed with any
royal person, though she had once seen her own King and Queen driving
through London; but she knew somehow that she was being dismissed from
the presence. She kissed the Doll-Queen’s hand, which she had read
somewhere was the proper way to behave, and went out of the room,
leaving Queen Rosebud sitting by the window.

As she went down the five hundred steps, she thought it was rather
extraordinary that the Queen had not said anything about the way in
which she was to be rescued. She had seemed to take it for granted
that when her people knew what had happened, everything would come
right for her. She could leave the details to them.

This seemed to Peggy rather royal, too, and also that she had not
grumbled at all about her imprisonment. Though she was only a doll,
Peggy had gained a great respect for Queen Rosebud.

[Illustration]




XI

THE RELEASE OF PEGGY AND WOODEN


Peggy went down to the kitchen. She had time as she went down the five
hundred stairs, to make up her mind as to whether she should tell Mr.
and Mrs. Emma that the Wax lady on the top floor was the Queen. She
decided not to do so just yet, but to wait a little longer and see what
happened. They might be very indignant at hearing what Selim and Rose
had done, but on the other hand they might be frightened that they
would be punished for having let Peggy see such an important prisoner;
and in that case they would probably not let her see her again. And
Peggy wanted to see Queen Rosebud again.

When Peggy went into the kitchen Mrs. Emma said, “You have been a long
time away, but I know it takes a long time to go up and down those
stairs. How did you find the lady? I hope she liked the tea I sent her.
I gave her some bread and honey instead of bread and butter.”

Peggy thought this rather remarkable, as she remembered the nursery
rhyme about the Queen being in her parlour eating bread and honey.
She wondered whether Mrs. Emma had any suspicion of the prisoner being
the Queen.

Before she could reply Mrs. Emma went on, “I was just saying to my
husband that she is very like what Queen Rosebud was, except for
her crown. Queen Rosebud had no sisters, but I shouldn’t be at all
surprised if she didn’t turn out to be a sort of cousin. If you think
that is likely, I shall ask her to write her name in my birthday book.”

[Illustration: Before she could reply Mrs. Emma went on]

So she seemed to have no suspicion of the truth; but that seemed to be
only because the Queen was not wearing her crown.

“It would be nice to have her name in your book,” said Peggy. “Shall I
take up the other tray now?”

“Yes, dear,” said Mrs. Emma. “And then will you please bring the keys
down? You have been very kind helping us, but of course we must not
forget that you are a prisoner.”

Peggy smiled to herself as she went upstairs again. If she took the
keys down, their room would not be locked, and she would hardly be a
prisoner. But she did not say anything, as she thought that if the door
was left unlocked she might take Wooden or Lady Grace, or both of them,
up to see the Queen.

The dolls were interested in what she told them, but they were now
quite used to the idea of Queen Rosebud being alive, and showed less
excitement at her news than Peggy had expected. While she had been
away, they seemed to have been talking about the failure of the plan
concocted by Teddy and Colonel Jim, and to have agreed that Teddy had
not behaved well in telling Colonel Jim that Mr. Emma would say, “With
pleasure,” when he asked him if he could go up to the top story. For
Mr. Emma had said quite the opposite.

“I always knew Teddy was flighty,” said Wooden, “but I did not think
that he would go so far as to tell a story.”

“So many people seem to be telling them now,” said Lady Grace sadly.
“It is very dreadful.”

“But Teddy didn’t tell a story,” said Peggy. “He only thought that Mr.
Emma would say that, and told Colonel Jim so.”

Wooden’s aunt, who was already very busy with her tea, slapped her
knee, and said, with a mouth full of bread and butter, “There now!
Didn’t I say the very same thing? I was the only one as stuck up for
Teddy. I said he wouldn’t tell a lie, because I knowed he wouldn’t.”

“You didn’t say what Peggy says he told Colonel Jim,” said Wooden’s
mother. “Are you sure he said that, dear?”

“Yes,” said Peggy stoutly. “That is what he must have said.”

“Well, I am sure I am very glad to hear it,” said Wooden, with a sigh
of relief. “I know _you_ wouldn’t tell a story, dear, and if you say
that is what Teddy said, of course he said it. I am _very_ glad he
didn’t tell a story, as I shouldn’t like to think ill of him. I suppose
you couldn’t tell us what Rose really said, could you? I have never
liked her, but you did exchange her for me over there, and I have
always felt sorry for her, because the exchange was such a good thing
for me. I should like not to think badly of her, if I could.”

“Rose has told nothing but stories,” said Peggy decisively. “She is
really wicked, and when Queen Rosebud comes to the throne again I hope
she will do something to her. I am very glad I did exchange her for
you, dear Wooden, especially now I know what she is really like.”

“Perhaps if she had stayed with you she might not have been so wicked,”
said Wooden; and Peggy thought this was a great compliment from a doll,
because in some ways they are better than human beings. Of course
they have not so many temptations to be naughty, but I am not sure
that they don’t resist the temptations that they do have better than
a good many humans. Rose was quite an exception, and as for Selim, he
wasn’t a proper doll at all, and had spent his active life in being so
harried about a chess board, with hectoring Queens, and heavy Castles,
and sliding Bishops, and hopping Knights, and perky little Pawns always
giving him check, and he not able to move more than one square at a
time, that perhaps it was no wonder that he would do anything to get
into a position in which he could really act like a King. However, I
am far from excusing his abominable behaviour at this particular time,
and think that Peggy was quite right in hoping that he would come to be
soundly punished for it.

When they had nearly finished their tea, footsteps and voices were
heard coming up the stairs, and to their surprise the Lord Chancellor
came into the room, followed by Mr. Emma.

The Lord Chancellor looked annoyed, and Mr. Emma looked frightened.
Peggy guessed at once that this was because the Lord Chancellor had
found out about Mr. Emma giving her his keys.

[Illustration]

She was right. As they came into the room, the Lord Chancellor said, “I
dare say the young lady did want to see your baby. Nobody knows better
than I do, from long experience of the law, that young ladies like to
see babies, and you have nothing to teach me about that. But you had
no right whatever to lend her your keys, and allow her to go in and out
of this room as she pleases.”

When he had said this he changed his expression of face completely, and
smiled at Peggy and the four dolls. “Well, ladies,” he said, “I am glad
to see you all looking so well, and I expect you are glad to see me
looking well. I should say now that none of you have been in the least
inconvenienced by your visit to this handsome building.”

He said this as if he were inviting them to agree with him, and added,
“Why, for part of the time you haven’t even had the door locked, which
must have taken away the idea of a prison from your minds altogether.”

Peggy thought this was rather cool, considering they had just heard
him scolding Mr. Emma for letting them have the door unlocked. While
the Lord Chancellor had been speaking, Mr. Emma had been making signs
to her in a pathetic imploring sort of way, pointing up to the ceiling
and at her and himself and the Lord Chancellor and the tea-tray on the
table, and making words at her with his mouth, none of which she could
understand. But suddenly she understood by his signs what he wanted to
convey to her. He was begging her not to tell the Lord Chancellor that
she had carried the tray up to the top story. So she nodded her head
and put her finger on her mouth to assure him that she would keep his
secret, for she did not want to get him into further trouble. He seemed
a little soothed by this, but still very dejected, as he stood with his
head on one side behind the Lord Chancellor.

“If I had not made it a rule of life never to take tea twice on the
same day,” said the Lord Chancellor, “I should feel inclined to ask you
for a cup. I assure you that this is better tea than I drank at my own
house half an hour ago. Really, I feel inclined to wish that I could be
sent to the House of Cards myself, for a short time. I doubt if there
is a more comfortable place in the whole of Dolltown. Now, confess,
ladies. Haven’t you found it so?”

“We have nothing to complain of in our treatment,” said Wooden, in a
polite and simple but yet dignified way. “But nobody likes to be in
prison, and I would rather go without my tea altogether than have it
and be shut up.”

The Lord Chancellor seemed delighted with this speech. “Now, it is a
most extraordinary thing,” he said, “that you should express those
sentiments. I was half afraid, when I came in, that you would be
so delighted with your present situation that you would not want to
exchange it for another. In fact, I thought you might even refuse to do
so. I am very glad indeed that I was mistaken. For I have come to tell
you that his most gracious Majesty, moved by one or two things that
I have said to him, has instructed me to release you and Peggy. Now,
don’t tell me--_please_ don’t tell me--that you would rather stay where
you are.”

“No, I shall not,” said Wooden. “I am very glad to be let out of
prison. I ought never to have been sent here. None of us ought. Are my
mother and aunt and Lady Grace still to be kept here?”

“If she and Peggy go, _I_ go,” said Wooden’s aunt. “That’s flat.”

“You will go by-and-by,” said the Lord Chancellor in a soothing voice.
“Leave it to me, and I will arrange it all. But I’m afraid you three
others will have to stay here a little longer. Lady Grace is Wax, you
see, and the order for releasing Waxes has not yet been given. But it
will be. You needn’t have the slightest doubt about that. Just have
patience for a little; that’s all.”

“Well, I ain’t Wax,” said Wooden’s aunt. “I’m Wood, and proud of it.
What’s the matter with me being let out?”

“Well,” said the Lord Chancellor, “the fact is that the King is still
rather annoyed with you for thinking of such a thing as him marrying
you.”

“I don’t think of it no more,” said Wooden’s aunt. “I don’t want to
marry the old heathen image. You tell him that, Mr. Lawyer, with
Wooden’s aunt’s comps.”

“Certainly, I will,” said the Lord Chancellor, with a polite bow. “It
may make all the difference; there’s no telling.”

“Am I to stay in prison?” asked Wooden’s mother. “If so, I think it is
very unfair. I’ve done nothing.”

“I hinted as much to his Majesty,” said the Lord Chancellor, “but
he said two out at a time was enough. So I shouldn’t worry about it
if I were you. You’ll be let out all in good time, and you are so
comfortable here that it hardly makes any difference whether it’s
sooner or later.”

“You keep on saying that like a Poll-parrot,” said Wooden’s aunt. “I’ve
no patience with you. You go back and tell your master that if I ain’t
let out of this in an hour’s time I’ll yell the place down. So there
now!”

“I will be sure to convey your message, madam,” said the Lord
Chancellor, as politely as before. “Now, I think we might make a start,
eh?” He turned towards Emma, and his face became severe once more. “As
for you, sir,” he said, “I shall have you dismissed from your post. You
have given your keys to a prisoner. That is the most serious offence
you could have committed.”

Poor Mr. Emma threw himself on his knees and held up his hands in
supplication. “Oh, don’t dismiss me, your Honour,” he cried, “I’ve got
a wife and a dear little baby, and you wouldn’t want them to starve,
now would you? You’ve got a kind face; and a kind heart goes with it--I
know it do. Don’t turn me off; please don’t.”

The Lord Chancellor’s face became softer. “It is quite true that I have
a kind face,” he said. “Many people have remarked the same thing before
now, and some of them have even gone so far as to say that for my age
it is a handsome face. Of course that was only said in compliment, I
know; I don’t wish to make too much of it; but it does show that there
is something in my face that strikes people, and I don’t wonder that it
has struck you. Well, now, about dismissing you from your post--if I
_could_ find a way out of it----!”

He looked at Peggy, as if he expected her to help him, but for the
moment she couldn’t think of anything.

“Of course you have committed a serious fault,” he said to Mr. Emma,
who had risen from his knees and was waiting to hear what was to be
done to him, with a mournful expression on his face. “Prisoners are
entrusted to you, and you are right in treating them as well as you
can. But you have treated this young lady as if she weren’t a prisoner
at all.”

“But I am not a prisoner,” said Peggy. “You have said yourself that I
am not.”

The Lord Chancellor’s face lightened. “Now, why didn’t I think of
that?” he said. “It makes all the difference. Mr. Emma, you have
committed no fault whatever. In fact, by carrying out his Majesty’s
wishes at the earliest possible moment, you have shown yourself a
zealous servant of the Crown, and I shall have much pleasure in
recommending you for a rise in wages.”

So that matter was settled in the most satisfactory fashion, and Peggy
was pleased to see Mr. Emma cheer up and look proud of himself, as if
he had done something particularly clever.

She and Wooden said good-bye to the others, who did not seem so
disappointed at still being kept in prison as might have been expected.
There are many advantages in being a doll, and one of them is that they
have such a lot of time before them that they are a good deal more
patient than we are when things are not going well for them. They know
that the bad time will end, and are content to wait till it does. Peggy
managed to whisper to Lady Grace that she would do all she could to
set things right and get the Queen out of prison. Then, of course, she
would come out, too, and be restored to her post as lady-in-waiting.
Wooden’s aunt was still eating and drinking in great enjoyment, and
Wooden’s mother, after kissing them farewell, said that she should have
a little nap, and when she woke up perhaps she would be let out.

[Illustration]




XII

PEGGY STAYS IN A REAL DOLLS’ HOUSE


Peggy had only stayed a very short time in prison, and had been so much
interested in all that had happened there that she had hardly been able
to think of herself in prison at all, but she was none the less pleased
to be in the open street and free to go anywhere. They were going first
of all to Wooden’s house, which was in the chief residential quarter of
Dolltown, near the royal palace.

The news of the imprisonment of a human child, and of four dolls, two
at least of whom were highly respected, must have spread; for as they
walked along everybody seemed to recognize them, and they were followed
by an ever increasing crowd of dolls, who seemed to be greatly excited
by their reappearance. The Lord Chancellor was in a high state of
delight at the attention they were receiving. If he had a fault, it
was a slight but excusable vanity. By his own labours he had raised
himself to his present proud position, and thought it only natural that
everybody who saw him should be extremely interested in him. He was
generally accompanied by his secretary when he walked about the streets
of Dolltown, so that if he happened to go unrecognized the secretary
could tell the people who he was. But this time he had left him behind,
to write out the notes he had taken in the Hall of Audience, and walked
alone with Peggy and Wooden.

He certainly received a great deal of attention, and was at first very
pleased with it, as I have said. But by-and-by he became a good deal
less pleased.

For the crowd was not so good-tempered as it had been when they had
all walked to prison together. Most of the dolls that composed it made
a lot of fuss over Peggy and Wooden, whom they were pleased to see
let out of prison, but they did not seem at all pleased to see the
Lord Chancellor, and he had to listen to some unpleasant remarks about
himself for his share in what had happened.

These remarks caused him a good deal of pain, and, when he understood
that he was not sharing in the popularity that Peggy and Wooden
enjoyed, he began to explain to everybody who would listen to him that
he had been against sending anybody to prison from the first, and that
it was entirely owing to him that Peggy and Wooden had been let out.
But nobody did listen to him very carefully, and one rather rude Dutch
doll actually said to him, “Oh, dry up, you silly old fool, and don’t
talk so much.” This distressed him very much. He had never in his life
been called a silly old fool before, and the phrase rankled. He did not
try to excuse himself any more, but kept on repeating “silly old fool”
under his breath, so as to see if it was really as bad as it sounded.

Wooden’s house was situated in a handsome terrace, which had a gate and
a little wooden lodge at each end of it, to keep the houses private.
This was a good thing, for the crowd had to stay outside the gates.
It was nice to have them so enthusiastic, but they might have made
themselves a nuisance if they had swarmed about the house itself, and
looked in at the windows, and dirtied the front door steps.

Wooden had told Peggy what a nice house she had, and was pleased to be
able to show it to her. It was a handsome, rather old-fashioned, wooden
dolls’ house of three stories and six rooms, with a staircase running
up the middle. It was nicely furnished, too, with beautifully-made
dolls’ furniture and ornaments. Any little girl would have been
overjoyed at having such a dolls’ house given to her to play with. To
Peggy it was even more delightful than if she had had it as a toy,
because it was of a size that made it possible for her to use it as a
real house. Instead of putting her hand inside the rooms with great
care, so as not to disturb the arrangements, she could go into all the
rooms herself and use the things in them.

[Illustration: It was a handsome house of three stories]

I know that it is not customary in stories to talk about the rooms and
furniture of a house before your characters have entered it; but in
this case it is all right, because the front of the house stood open,
and Peggy saw nearly everything inside it before they went in.

The rooms were a good deal larger than those in most dolls’ houses. I
mean not only larger because the house had grown up, so to speak, but
because they would hold more dolls and more furniture. In a dolls’
house it is sometimes awkward to have a doll or a piece of furniture
that takes up nearly the whole of a room, and even in good ones it does
not often happen that the rooms are big enough to accommodate many
dolls, or more than a few pieces of furniture. But there was quite a
lot of furniture in the rooms of Wooden’s house, and although they were
all square, and of the same size, which gave them a certain lack of
variety, they would comfortably hold quite a large number of dolls.

On the ground floor were a kitchen and a dining-room, on the first
floor a drawing-room and the best bedroom, and on the top floor a
servants’ room and a spare room. Wooden pointed them out as they walked
up the terrace, and said that as long as Peggy stayed with her she
should give her the best bedroom, because it had the best furniture in
it, and use the spare room for herself.

It was just like Wooden to offer to do this, but Peggy said no, she
wouldn’t hear of it. She could not see the furniture of the spare room
from where they were, as it was too high up, but she was sure it was
good enough for her.

It may seem a little odd that Wooden should have spoken as if they were
going to stay in Toyland, if not for ever, at least for some time.
For Peggy had understood that the dolls who were still played with
by children only went to Toyland when it was night--“over there,” as
they would have said. But it did not seem odd to her, and in fact she
never thought about it. Once in Toyland, the dolls who inhabited that
pleasant country behaved as if they always lived there. It seemed to
come from the air of the place; and that explains why Peggy never once
thought of going home again as long as she was there, any more than
Wooden or any of the other dolls did.

The weather was fine and warm, which would have made it nice to have
the front of the house open, although a little wanting in privacy. But
Wooden said, “I should like you to go in through the front door, dear.
It is a beautiful door, and it seems a pity not to use it. So I think I
will have the front of the house shut.”

Two wooden servant dolls, a cook and a housemaid, dressed one in a
blue, the other in a black frock, with snowy white caps and aprons,
had been standing in front of the kitchen looking out for them. Wooden
told them to shut the front of the house, and they came out and did so,
pushing it back quite easily. For they were good servants and devoted
to their mistress, and kept the hinges well oiled.

When the front of the house was shut it looked very handsome indeed.
The door that Wooden was so proud of was inside a fine porch, and had
a brass knocker on it. All the windows had little panes of glass, kept
beautifully clean, and white curtains looped up inside them. And each
of them had a neat iron railing in front of it to hold flowers. It was
like a real house, and yet it was like a dolls’ house, too, which made
it all the more fascinating.

They went up two steps under the porch, and Wooden knocked with the
knocker, to show that it was a real knocker. The doll housemaid opened
the door, and they went in. For the first time in her life, naturally,
Peggy was inside a real dolls’ house, with the front shut and even the
door shut. Hitherto she had only been able to see what it was like by
peeping in through the windows; for of course you know that a dolls’
house can never be quite the same with its front open. It takes away
from the make-believe. She felt frightfully pleased; and it really was
nice, and not a bit like a real house, although everything in it was of
an ordinary real size.

The Lord Chancellor had come in with them. He had told Wooden that he
had had a lot of running about and should like to rest a little. But,
of course, what he really wanted was to get away from the crowd, and go
home later on when it should have dispersed. But Wooden said that it
was an honour to entertain him in her own house, which pleased him, and
by the time they had got inside he had recovered some of his spirits,
and seemed ready to be as talkative as ever.

[Illustration]

Wooden led the way up to the drawing-room, which had a carpet of a
very large pattern and a wall paper with enormous roses on it. The
furniture was beautifully made, but Peggy felt that she was really
sitting on a dolls’ sofa and not on an ordinary one, although it was
comfortable, and of an ordinary size. Nothing was quite the same. The
mirrors had tin frames, the books on the tables were evidently toy
books, with thick leaves and bindings that did not keep quite flat;
and there were some packs of cards and some dominoes on another table
looking exactly like those very tiny ones which you can buy in shops,
but are so small that you do not want to play with them more than once.

They had hardly sat down, Peggy and Wooden on the sofa and the Lord
Chancellor on a large chair, before the doll housemaid opened the door
and announced a visitor, by the name of Mrs. Winifred.

Mrs. Winifred was a mature-looking Dutch doll. Most of the wooden dolls
in Toyland were of Dutch extraction, even Wooden herself, just like
many of the old families of New York, but they were no more Dutch than
the New Yorkers are. She came forward and kissed Wooden, and said she
was very glad she had come out of prison, and she felt that she must
come round at once and tell her so.

Mrs. Winifred had hardly been accommodated with a seat before Mrs.
Hilda was announced, and when Mrs. Hilda had said the same as Mrs.
Winifred, Captain and Mrs. Louisa were announced. Captain Louisa was
an officer in a regiment of wooden soldiers, and wore his uniform. His
wife and Mrs. Hilda were wooden dolls like Mrs. Winifred. These were
followed by Mr. and Mrs. Joyce, Mr. and Mrs. Ida, Mrs. Mollie, Mrs.
Jane, and one or two more, all of the best wooden families of Dolltown,
and it was evidently a source of great pride to Wooden that they
should show such a nice feeling towards her.

She introduced them all to Peggy, and those who did not know him to the
Lord Chancellor. There were so many of them that it was like a sort of
party. The dolls sat rather stiffly in their chairs, and there were
other little points about them, such as their knees showing rather
prominently through their skirts and trousers, which made it seem like
a dolls’ party, and as if they were all playing at something. This
pleased Peggy. She felt as if she had set them all down herself on
their chairs and on the sofas, exactly where she wanted them to be, as
she did sometimes with her smaller dolls in her dolls’ house at home,
and pretended that they were talking politely to each other.

[Illustration]




XIII

THE DOLLS TALK IT ALL OVER


The late imprisonment of Peggy and Wooden, and especially of Wooden,
naturally formed the chief subject of conversation.

“I must say,” said Mrs. Winifred, “that I was surprised to hear that
_you_ had been sent to prison, Mrs. Wooden. We had all heard that such
a _very_ different lot had been prepared for you.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Hilda. “What we heard was that you were to be made
Queen and live in the palace.”

“And we were very _glad_ to hear it,” said Mrs. Joyce, a thin,
rather vinegary-looking doll, whom Peggy did not very much take
to. “We knew that if _you_ were made Queen there would be no more
high-and-mightiness at the palace, and you wouldn’t give yourself airs
with _us_.”

“It would be the beginning of a new era,” said Mr. Joyce, who was a
members of the Dolls’ Parliament. “The Woodens would be no longer
oppressed by the Waxes, and peace and contentment would reign, where
before there had been strife and inequality.”

“I’m not sure,” said the Lord Chancellor, “that I quite agree with that
observation. As Woods, all this extremely intelligent and entertaining
company is naturally pleased at having a Wooden King to reign over
Toyland. But under our late lamented Queen Rosebud, as far as my memory
carries me back, there was no oppression. And personally I boast
intimate friends amongst dolls of all varieties, from Wax to Rag.”

“What I think,” said Mrs. Mollie, a severe-looking doll with a long
upper lip, “is that we were a good deal better off under Queen Rosebud
than we are likely to be under King Selim. I don’t hold with these
foreigners.”

The other dolls seemed to be rather taken aback by this plainness of
speech, and the Lord Chancellor said, “Tut, tut! You mustn’t say things
like that, my dear lady. It isn’t respectful to the Crown.”

“But it’s what a good many of us are feeling,” said Mrs. Winifred. “At
first it was very nice to feel we were considered as good as the Waxes.
In this company there’s no harm in saying that Waxes do give themselves
airs, and it isn’t nice to feel you are considered common, when you
know you are nothing of the sort, but quite the opposite.”

[Illustration]

“But _all_ Waxes don’t give themselves airs,” said Wooden, speaking for
the first time. “There’s Lady Grace, now. Both of us live with this
dear little girl when we’re over there, and we are real friends, and
there’s never a word awry between us. And it’s the same here.”

“I’m sure,” said Mrs. Ida, a young-looking doll who was dressed more
fashionably than the rest, “that I have always got on as well as
possible with the Waxes. In fact, most of my friends were Wax before
they were all sent to prison.”

“I should think you must feel a bit lonely, then,” said Mrs. Jane.
“I’ve always associated with Woods myself, and prefer their company.”

“The best company in Toyland,” said Mrs. Winifred, “is to be found
amongst the higher classes of Woods. Still, I’m against this sending to
prison of all Waxes, whether they give themselves airs or not.”

“It isn’t so much the shutting up of Waxes that I object to,” said Mrs.
Louisa. “It’s the shutting up of Woods. How did it come about, Wooden,
that instead of marrying the King you were sent to prison?”

Captain Louisa cleared his throat behind his hand. “Manners, my dear,
manners!” he whispered to his wife.

“We don’t want to go into all that,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Perhaps
a slight mistake was made; but it has now been put right, chiefly
owing to representations made to his Majesty by myself.”

“It hasn’t been put right, and we do want to talk about it,” said Mrs.
Mollie. “There are two Wooden dolls still locked up in the House of
Cards, to say nothing of a Wax one. What were they locked up for, and
when are they going to be let out?”

She addressed her question directly to the Lord Chancellor, and there
seemed to be a general opinion amongst the other dolls that it was
right to ask it, and that it wanted an answer.

The Lord Chancellor gave one. He gave it at great length, but there was
not much in it. It seemed that all they had to do was to trust to him,
and everything would come right in the end.

“That doesn’t satisfy _me_,” said Mrs. Mollie, when he had quite
finished. “And it isn’t only Woods either that have been sent to
prison, and are being kept there for nothing at all. What about this
human child? What was _she_ sent to prison for? I’m against sending
human children to prison when they are allowed to come over and visit
us. It’s likely to make bad feeling over there.”

There were murmurs of approval at this, and all the dolls looked
sympathetically at Peggy, who felt rather shy.

“You are quite right, Mrs. Mollie,” said Captain Louisa. “And I may
tell you in strict confidence that the army feels with you about it.
It is the best army to be found anywhere. Leads and Woods alike are
devoted to their duty, and quite ready for a war, if a war is forced on
us. But we don’t want a war with the people over there. We should win,
of course, in the long run, but it would leave bad blood behind it, and
while it was going on our women and children wouldn’t be safe.”

“It’s a prospect I don’t like at all,” said Mrs. Winifred. “I have
received nothing but kindness from Humans, myself, and I believe the
same may be said by most of us here. I say that Peggy ought not to have
been locked up, and I hope she will remember that I said that when she
goes back. Mrs. Winifred, 4 Prospect Place, Dolltown, are my name and
address, and over there I may be found at any time at Top Drawer, Day
Nursery Chest, 43 Hamilton Square, London, S.W.”

All the other dolls hastened to give Peggy their names and addresses,
except Mr. Joyce, who said, “My peace-loving sentiments are well
known, and nobody over there is likely to make any mistake about them.
I agree with the opinion of this assembly to this extent: I believe
that a Wood King is the best kind of King we could have for Toyland,
but I’m not at all sure that King Selim is the right doll in the right
place, or that this reign is likely to be an improvement on the last.
Wax or no Wax, Queen Rosebud would never have made the mistakes in
foreign policy that have already been made in this reign. If we are not
very careful, this young lady, and others who may come over to visit
us, will carry back a report that may bring serious trouble. King Selim
ought to be told that.”

“For my part, I’ve no patience with King Selim,” said Mrs. Mollie. “I
heartily wish Queen Rosebud wasn’t dead.”

“But Queen Rosebud _isn’t_ dead,” said Wooden. “She is locked up in the
House of Cards. Peggy took her tea up to her this very afternoon.”

She spoke in a tone of surprise, as if everybody ought to know that
Queen Rosebud was alive. Peggy had been wondering whether it would be
a good thing to tell the dolls what she had discovered, and now that
Wooden had let it out, she was rather glad. She didn’t much like
keeping such a secret to herself, and, of course, a doll is hardly
capable of keeping any secret, and Wooden had only not spoken before
because she had got used to the idea of Queen Rosebud being alive, and
had not thought much about it since.

“Oh, my dear lady!” said the Lord Chancellor, before anybody could
speak. “You mustn’t say a thing like that, you know. King Selim has
said that Queen Rosebud is dead and of course she must be dead.”

“But she isn’t,” Wooden persisted. “Peggy has seen her.”

“Yes, I did,” said Peggy. “She is in the top story of the House of
Cards. Selim and Rose had her locked up there, and they said that if
she told anybody who she was they would put her in a dark dungeon. They
are both very wicked.”

“Well, that’s beyond everything!” said Mrs. Winifred. “And I should
like to know who Rose is, to go locking up the Queen.”

“If Waxes like to give themselves airs, that’s one thing,” said Mrs.
Ida. “But for a Composition----! That’s what nobody can stand.”

“There are Compositions and Compositions,” said Mrs. Mollie. “But Rose
would be a disgrace to _any_ class. She ought to be locked up herself.”

“And I think you ought to see to it, Lord Norval,” said Mrs. Jane.
“According to Peggy, she has told a deliberate falsehood, and that is
punishable by law, as I’ve always understood.”

They seemed to be in danger of forgetting all about Queen Rosebud in
their disgust for Rose. But this brought them back to the subject.

“I quite agree with you,” said the Lord Chancellor. “It is a most
disgraceful affair altogether. I shall inform his Majesty about it at
once, and request him to see that Rose is properly punished. What I
shall suggest is that she shall take Queen Rosebud’s place in prison.
I fancy that would be rather neat, eh? I shall press the point on his
Majesty.”

“But Selim is just as bad as she is,” exclaimed Peggy. “_He_ ought to
be sent to prison, too. Why do you call him ‘His Majesty’? He isn’t a
King at all.”

“Hush, hush, my dear young lady!” said the Lord Chancellor, much
shocked. “I know you are human, and to be excused on that account, but
if one of _us_ had said that, it would be punishable, you know. Selim
is a King. He wears a crown. We have all seen it.”

“He is only a chess king,” said Peggy. “I meant that he isn’t King of
Toyland. He can’t be, if Queen Rosebud is still alive.”

“That’s one way of looking at it, certainly,” said the Lord Chancellor,
in a puzzled kind of way. “I shall have to think about it very
carefully when I go home. He _says_ he’s King of Toyland. I shall get
at it better when I’ve slept over it.”

“But aren’t you going to do anything now?” asked Peggy. “There’s Queen
Rosebud still locked up in the House of Cards. _I_ think Captain Louisa
ought to take his soldiers at once, and let her out.”

All the dolls had sat with puzzled faces, looking at Peggy and the Lord
Chancellor. They had all been ready to talk a great deal, but when it
came to doing something they seemed quite at a loss.

Captain Louisa started when his name was mentioned. “If it was my duty,
I should do it,” he said. “I should do it very well--nobody better.”

“Well, I think it is your duty,” said Peggy. “Don’t you, Wooden?”

“Well, dear,” said Wooden, “if we all did our duty as well as Captain
Louisa, we might be very proud of ourselves.”

Captain Louisa looked proudly at Peggy. “You see what she thinks of
me,” he said. “And it isn’t only me either. My men would follow me
anywhere.”

Mrs. Winifred rose from her seat. “I’m afraid I must say good-bye, dear
Mrs. Wooden,” she said. “I am so glad you have been let out of prison.
And I’m so glad that Queen Rosebud isn’t dead. Somehow, I could never
feel that she was.”

All the dolls rose one after the other to say good-bye. They all
said they were glad that Queen Rosebud was alive, and some of them
said that she ought not to stay in prison a moment longer. But none
of them seemed interested in how she was to be got out, or in what
should happen afterwards, except that Mrs. Mollie said she hoped Rose
would get her deserts, and Mrs. Ida said that they saw now what came
of Compositions giving themselves airs. However much they seemed to
be different from one another in their way of talking and looking
at things, they all seemed alike in having no idea of acting for
themselves. They were very nice, but Peggy thought that if she had been
the Queen in prison she would hardly have felt so confident as Queen
Rosebud had been of her doll subjects getting her out again.

[Illustration: All the dolls rose to say good-bye]

However, the Lord Chancellor, who stayed behind, did seem to think
that _something_ ought to be done, though he seemed disinclined to
do it himself. “When the people get to know of this,” he said, “I’m
afraid there will be trouble. The question is, how to act so as to save
trouble.”

“_I_ should think the question was how to get poor Queen Rosebud out of
prison as soon as possible,” said Peggy.

“Well, certainly there is that side of it,” he said. “The only thing
is that if she comes out of prison and goes back to the palace, there
will be two of them--a King and a Queen--and that is something that it
is very difficult to know how to deal with, without a great deal of
careful thought. If King Selim could marry Queen Rosebud, now! How does
that strike you as a way of getting over the difficulty?”

“It doesn’t strike me at all,” said Peggy. “Selim has done a very
wicked and horrible thing. Queen Rosebud was ill, and she _might_ have
died, and if she had it would have been all his fault. He has told
heaps of stories about her. She never told him that he was to be King
after her at all. That’s one story. And he told the people she was
dead. That’s another. And he has sent a lot of dolls to prison for
nothing at all. He has done very wrong, and he ought to be punished.”

“That is a very eloquent speech,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Very
eloquent indeed. I wish I could make one like it. But you see the
trouble is that the King can do no wrong; so of course you can’t punish
him.”

“But he _has_ done wrong,” said Peggy. “And he _isn’t_ the King. You
keep on talking about him as if Queen Rosebud wasn’t alive. _She_ is
the Queen. Selim is only a usurper.”

“I’m beginning to see it,” said the Lord Chancellor. “It’s a very
subtle point, but I’m beginning to see it, or at least some of it.”

Whether he would have seen all of it in time cannot be known, for just
at that moment the door was opened by the housemaid doll, and in came
Colonel Jim and Teddy.

[Illustration]




XIV

THE ESCAPE


The moment Teddy came into the room, Peggy felt that the time for
action had come. And she had never felt more pleased with him than when
he addressed himself straight to the Lord Chancellor, and said, “Now,
then, old man, you come along with us to the House of Cards. We’re
going to get the Queen out of prison, and we want you with us.”

“I’m sure I’m very glad that you propose to adopt that course,” said
the Lord Chancellor, speaking quickly and nervously. “It is exactly
what I should have recommended myself. But why do you want me with you?
I should have thought--”

“Never mind what you would have thought,” said Teddy. “We want you with
us because, now the people have found out that old Selim’s a rascal,
and the Queen isn’t dead, they’ve got their dander up. They’ll have
some questions to ask, and you can answer them. Colonel Jim and me will
be too busy.”

This did not seem to suit the Lord Chancellor at all. He began to
protest vigorously that he had had no more to do with the fraud that
Selim had practised than anybody else. But Teddy cut him short. “If you
won’t come of your own accord,” he said, “Colonel Jim has a couple of
troopers outside who will make you. You’d like to come, too, Peggy and
Wooden. We’ve brought gees for everybody. Come along quick. We don’t
want to waste any time.”

He led the way downstairs, and the others followed him, Colonel Jim
bringing up the rear, and keeping an eye on the Lord Chancellor to see
that he did not escape.

Waiting outside the house were several horses. There was Colonel Jim’s
black charger, and those of his two troopers. These were of lead. There
were also some composition horses, and a couple of shaggy ponies, made
of wood and covered with hair, and a beautiful cream-coloured one, with
a bridle and saddle-cloth sewn with gold embroidery. They were all toy
horses and ponies, but they looked splendidly alive, and Peggy was
quite delighted to see that the two shaggy ponies had side-saddles, for
she knew at once that one must be meant for her and one for Wooden. She
loved riding, and thought it would be great fun to ride through the
streets of Dolltown on a toy pony.

Wooden was not used to riding, although Peggy had sometimes put her on
her rocking-horse at home, so she was not altogether without practice.
But Teddy assured her that he had chosen her a very quiet pony, and
she was so nice, in the way that she always did what people wanted
her to, that she made no trouble about it, and got on very well when
she was once helped into the saddle. Peggy felt quite at home on her
pony, and patted its nice shaggy neck. She would have liked to have
a gallop on it, but that would not be possible in the streets of the
town. Colonel Jim and his troopers mounted their chargers, the Lord
Chancellor got on to one of the composition horses, and Teddy leapt
on to another straight from the ground, without using the stirrup. A
royal servant-doll, dressed in scarlet and gold, led the beautiful
cream-coloured pony, which was evidently meant for Queen Rosebud. It
was a good idea to have a sort of little procession on horseback to
take her from her prison to her royal palace again, and no doubt Teddy
had thought of it, for he seemed to be the only one who really did
things, while the other dolls only talked about them.

[Illustration]

What Teddy said about the inhabitants of Dolltown being excited over
what had happened was quite true. The crowd outside the gates of the
terrace was larger than ever, and when Peggy and the dolls appeared
amongst them on horseback there was quite a commotion. They cheered
them all except the Lord Chancellor, and they were so angry with him
that they would probably have pulled him off his horse if he had not
been riding between the two troopers, who protected him. They seemed
to have taken the affair much more seriously than the dolls who had
come to visit Wooden, but then a crowd always is more excited about
things than a few people, because they work each other up. Very likely,
if this crowd of dolls had had to do something of their own accord,
instead of shouting at those who were doing it, they would not have
been very good at it. And if they _had_ pulled the Lord Chancellor off
his horse, it is doubtful if they would have known what to do next.

The poor Lord Chancellor was terribly upset at the way the crowd hissed
and booed at him. Peggy heard him explaining to the troopers who rode
on either side of him that nobody was more surprised than he was, or
more glad either, that Queen Rosebud was alive. But they took no notice
of him, and the crowd went on booing and hissing all the same.

When they arrived at the market-place, there was a square of lead life
guardsmen all round the door of the House of Cards, to keep the crowd
off. The market-place was packed full of dolls, shouting and singing,
and looking up to the top story, where they had heard that the Queen
was imprisoned. Peggy could see the open window at which she had sat;
but she did not appear at it.

What seemed more remarkable still was that there was nobody on the
balcony of the first floor, either. It might have been thought that
Wooden’s aunt, at least, would have been there, watching what was going
on. But there was nobody to be seen.

[Illustration: There was nobody on the balcony of the first floor
either]

They rode into the empty space kept by the soldiers. Teddy whispered
something to Colonel Jim, who got off his charger and went up the
steps and knocked at the door. As he waited for a minute before it
was opened, all the dolls on that side of the market-place were quite
silent.

The door was opened by Mr. Emma. Peggy could not hear what passed
between him and Colonel Jim, but presently Colonel Jim turned sharp
round and came down the steps again. “The Queen’s gone,” he said. “So
are the other prisoners. Selim and Rose came and fetched them half an
hour ago.”

Here was a piece of news! Mr. Emma was summoned, and made to tell
exactly what had happened. The Lord Chancellor asked most of the
questions, for he was out of reach of the crowd and had somewhat
recovered from his fright. Besides, he was used to asking questions,
and liked doing it.

It seemed that Selim had come to the prison in a closed carriage,
accompanied by Rose; and another empty carriage had come with them.
He had seemed to Mr. Emma to be in a very nervous state, but he had
not seen much of him, because he had sat in the carriage all the time,
while Rose had gone in to the House of Cards, and fetched the Queen
down. Mr. Emma had not known it was the Queen until this moment, for
he had kept himself shut up in the House of Cards, with Mrs. Emma and
the baby, and had not tried to find out what the crowd outside was so
excited about.

The Lord Chancellor asked him what the Queen had said when she had come
downstairs.

“She didn’t say nothing, your Honour,” said Mr. Emma. “She looked kind
of proud-like, and held her head high. If she’d had her crown on I
should have knowed it was the Queen by the way she behaved.”

Well, the Queen had got into the carriage where Selim was, and then
Rose had gone upstairs and fetched down Lady Grace, and Wooden’s mother
and aunt. Wooden’s aunt had seemed very pleased with herself, according
to Mr. Emma. She had imitated a grand lady mincing down the steps, and
said to him, “Out of the way, Bobby, we’re going to the palace. Haw!
Haw!” This had offended Mr. Emma, for he had left the police force some
time before.

Rose had got into the first carriage, with the Queen and Selim, and the
other three had got into the second carriage. Then they had all driven
away.

That was Mr. Emma’s story, and about all that could be got out of
him. The two carriages had driven off in the direction of the palace,
and Rose must have told Wooden’s aunt that that was where they were
going to. The carriages were not the gilt and glass coaches that were
generally used from the palace, but ordinary landaus. They had not
stood before the House of Cards very long, and nobody had taken much
notice of them. A few dolls had seen the Queen come out and get into
the carriage, but they had not known who she was.

Well, what was to be done now? It seemed plain that Selim had found
out somehow that the people were beginning to find out all about his
wickedness, and had kidnapped the Queen. Why he had also taken off
Lady Grace, and Wooden’s mother and aunt, was not quite so plain, but
perhaps it was because he thought they knew too much, and he wanted to
get them out of the way.

“What we had better do,” said the Lord Chancellor, “is to go back to
the palace and interview King Selim. I’m all for prompt action in these
matters, and I propose we start at once.”

“Oh, you silly old thing!” said Teddy. “As if he had gone to the
palace! You ought to know better than that, at your age.”

“But Wooden’s aunt said they were going to the palace,” said the Lord
Chancellor. “You wouldn’t accuse her of telling a lie, I suppose!”

“Rose told her so,” said Wooden. “You can’t believe _anything_ that
_she_ says. Aunt would like to think she was going to the palace, and
Rose must have told her that to quiet her.”

It was rather clever of Wooden to think of this, for dolls are apt to
believe everything they are told. But when a doll has once made herself
disbelieved, as Rose had done, there is an end of their trusting her.

“There is a good deal in what you say,” said the Lord Chancellor. “But
if they have not gone to the palace, where _have_ they gone? It might
be as well to go there and see if anybody knows.”

They might perhaps have done this, for, although Selim would not have
been likely to tell anybody where he meant to go, still, they might
have picked up some sort of a clue. But just as they were discussing
it, our old friend Mr. Noah pushed his way through the soldiers who
were guarding the square. He was, of course, a royal servant, and wore
a medal to show it, so they let him through. He brought the important
information that the two carriages had been seen driving fast through
the town on the road to the sea.

Directly Teddy heard this, he gave a whoop, and said, “Let’s after
them, then, as fast as we can go. Come on, all!” He dug his heels into
his horse’s sides, and galloped off. The soldiers parted to let him
through, and the crowd scattered away from him on all sides, as he
galloped through the streets and was lost to sight.

Now this was all very well. Teddy was anxious to catch up the
fugitives, but if he did catch them up he couldn’t very well do
anything all by himself. Besides, he seemed to be about the only one
who had any ideas in his head--or, at least, ideas that were worth
anything--and if he went off all by himself, the others were likely to
make a muddle of things. It was his “flightiness” coming out, but he
had done so well already that he might be forgiven for it.

However, his going off like that was not so bad as it might have been.
If it had been left to the Lord Chancellor to say what was to be done
next, it would have taken a long time to do anything, and then very
likely what would have been done would have been wrong. And Colonel
Jim, though brave as a lion, and handsome, too, was not intellectual.
But Mr. Noah seemed to have a few ideas in his head, and some spirit to
carry them out. Of course he was not exactly a doll, though he lived
in Dolltown, and he had Oriental blood in his veins, or whatever fluid
dolls do have, and this made him rather more clever than might have
been expected from his wooden expression. He was angry, too, at having
had orders given him about his Ark by Selim, and wanted to get at him
and tell him what he thought of him.

Anyhow, as the Lord Chancellor was talking and talking, Mr. Noah cut
him short. “What are you wasting all this time for?” he asked. “What
we’ve got to do is to go after them as quick as we can, and take the
soldiers with us. Give me a horse, and let’s be off.”

There was a horse to spare, and Mr. Noah got on to it. He looked rather
funny in his long yellow robe, and being a sort of sailor he was not
used to horses. But he managed to stick on all right, and as the horse
was fortunately a quiet one, he soon got used to the unusual motion. He
said to the others, “Now, you come after me!” and without waiting any
longer he trotted off.

The others all followed him. Colonel Jim gave some orders to his men,
and they formed themselves into fours and fell behind. It was quite a
gay cavalcade that went trotting through the streets of Dolltown, and
this time the crowd cheered them to the echo, and forgot to hiss and
boo at the Lord Chancellor.

[Illustration]




XV

THE PURSUIT


They trotted along through the streets of the town, and soon got clear
of the crowd. But the news of what had happened had spread all over
Dolltown by this time, and there were many dolls at the windows and on
the pavements to see them pass. They did not know yet that Selim had
kidnapped Queen Rosebud, but they knew that she was alive, and that he
was a usurper. When they saw all the soldiers they knew that something
stirring was going to happen, and by the way they shouted and waved
their hands it seemed that Selim had very few friends in Dolltown, and
had better look out for himself if he ever came back there.

At the end of the town, where the country began, there was a gate,
and a sentry box beside it, where a wooden sentry was keeping guard.
They stopped to question him. He remembered the two carriages driving
through the gate, and had wondered who they belonged to. It was not his
duty to challenge them, as he was there chiefly for ornament; but when
Teddy had galloped up, he had asked him, more out of curiosity than
anything else, why he was going so fast. Teddy had said, “Open the gate
and I’ll tell you.” So he had opened the gate, and the moment Teddy had
got through it he had galloped off again, shouting out to the sentry,
“I’m going fast because my horse is.” Of course this was true, but it
had made the sentry angry; and he had been still more annoyed when
Teddy had jumped himself round on his horse, just as if he had been a
rider in a circus, and ridden away backwards, making long noses at him.
The sentry said that this was disrespectful to a servant of the Crown,
and asked the Lord Chancellor to send Teddy to prison for it. But they
had no time to waste over his grievances, and set off again.

They trotted through the country roads, and Peggy enjoyed the ride very
much. She felt quite safe, with all the soldiers riding behind them,
but thought it was hardly necessary to have brought so many of them, as
Mr. Noah and Teddy, to say nothing of Colonel Jim and his two special
troopers, would have been enough to take Selim prisoner when they
caught up with him. But it was a good thing that they had brought the
soldiers, as will presently appear.

By-and-by they came to an inn, which was a farm as well, and looked
very peaceful and comfortable, with its neat toy barns and outhouses
among the trees and fields, and the toy animals feeding all about them.
They stopped for a minute or two to ask questions of the innkeeper,
who was a wooden doll of a rather stolid appearance. When the Lord
Chancellor began to ask him questions he went and fetched his wife, and
she was more intelligent, and gave her answers well.

[Illustration: He went and fetched his wife]

She said that the two carriages had stopped at the inn, and a lady in
the first one had put her head out and asked for a glass of water. The
blinds of the carriage were drawn down, but when the innkeeper’s wife
had brought the glass of water she had seen the lady who asked for it
give it to another lady inside the carriage. She thought that this
second lady had tried to say something to her, but the first lady had
put her hand over her mouth and stopped her, and then somebody else in
a corner of the carriage--she thought it was a man by the size of his
hand--had passed the glass out to her, with a piece of money, and the
window had been pushed up at once and the carriages had driven off.

She was rather confused about it all, as it had passed so quickly; but
it seemed plain that Queen Rosebud had thought of this way of making
it known that she was being carried off. She must have said that she
didn’t feel very well, and would like a glass of water at the next
house they stopped at, meaning to tell whoever brought it who she was.
But Rose had prevented her. This was one more thing against Rose.

That was not all the innkeeper’s wife told them. As the carriage drove
off, a wooden lady had put her head out of the second one and called
out, “Here we go round the mulberry bush!” The innkeeper’s wife had
thought afterwards that perhaps these were some lunatics--for there
are a few lunatics amongst dolls--being taken out for an airing. But,
of course, it had only been Wooden’s aunt acting in her usual silly
fashion.

But the odd thing was that the innkeeper’s wife had seen nothing of
Teddy. She said she must have seen him if he had passed along the road,
as she had been in her kitchen, which was in front of the house, all
the time. So as they went on they had something to wonder about, as to
what had become of Teddy. Wooden thought he had missed the way, but
this seemed impossible, as the road ran straight towards the sea. The
Lord Chancellor thought that he might have tumbled off his horse, but
this seemed more unlikely still, as he was clever enough to jump about
on it and ride backwards. What Peggy thought she kept to herself. It
was that Teddy had some clever plan in his head, which they would hear
about all in good time, and had never meant to catch up the carriages
all by himself. For of course he could easily have done so if he had
liked, as he could go much faster than they could.

They went up the road over the hills, which you remember that the river
had come through in a gorge, and when they came to the top of it they
could see the sea a few miles away. The road ran straight down to it.
They could see several specks on the road at a good distance off, but
there was nothing that looked like the two carriages.

This was a disappointment, as they had quite expected to catch sight of
the fugitives from the top of the hill, and to come up with them before
they could reach the sea. If they had already got there, it seemed as
if they must have escaped them after all.

But it seemed impossible that the carriages should have got so far
ahead. They had not been more than half an hour behind them at the inn,
and even if they had not gained on them since, they must have seen them
on the road in front, if they had been there. So they must have left
the straight road, and the question was what to do next.

As they were talking it over, Peggy thought she heard a cry in the
wood on their right. She listened with all her ears, and then thought
she heard another. She told Wooden, and all of them listened.

Yes, there was no doubt about it. The noise was some distance off,
and could not be heard very plainly; but it kept on, and seemed to be
somebody calling for help. They got off their horse and went into the
wood, in the direction from which the call seemed to be coming. As they
got farther in among the trees it became louder. It was like a woman
calling “Help! Help!” every second or two, but in a strangled voice, as
if there were something in the way.

Wooden called out “Coming! Coming!” and they ran on as fast they could.

They came to a little clearing in the wood, and there, sitting on the
ground with her back against a great fir-tree, was Wooden’s unfortunate
aunt. She had a handkerchief tied over her mouth, and a rope went round
her body and tied her tight to the tree. Her hands were behind her, and
seemed to be tied too, so that she could not free herself. Altogether,
she was in a very sorry plight.

But she did not seem to have altogether lost her spirits, for when she
saw them coming towards her she kicked her legs up and gave a little
sort of crow, which sounded rather pathetic, coming through her
handkerchief.

Wooden untied the handkerchief, murmuring sounds of distress and
sympathy all the time, while Colonel Jim busied himself with the rope,
and when he found he couldn’t untie it cut it with his sword. In a
very short time, Wooden’s aunt was standing up free, shaking the pine
needles off her skirts.

“I thought somebody would come if I yelled long enough,” she said, in
quite a cheerful voice, which did her credit, as it showed she had a
great deal of pluck, in spite of the numerous faults of her nature.

“But how did you come to be here, dear?” asked Wooden. “And what has
become of mother?”

“Oh, yer mother’s all right,” said Wooden’s aunt. “She’s with the
quality. I don’t like their ways of going on, so I asked them to kindly
drop me anywhere that was convenient.”

“But why did they tie you up like this, dear?” asked Wooden.

“Oh, they thought we was playing Blind Man’s Bluff,” said her aunt.

It was all very well for her to take it in this light-hearted spirit,
and Peggy rather admired her for it. But she must have had a very rough
time, for her dress was all torn, and her wrists were scarred where
the rope had bound them. As she spoke she was rubbing them, to restore
the circulation, and she looked white, and as if she might faint at any
moment.

[Illustration]

Fortunately, there was a little pool of water quite near, and Colonel
Jim, who showed himself kind and useful in this emergency, filled his
helmet with water and gave it to her to drink, as she sat on the ground
again with Wooden kneeling by her side and holding her.

“Ah, that’s better,” she said, smacking her lips, when she had had a
good drink. “I’ve been looking at that pond and wishing I could get at
it. Drat that Selim! I wish I could get at _him_! _I_’d mark him.”

She said these last sentences in her usual vigorous way, which showed
that she was recovering; and when she had rested a little longer, they
got her story out of her.

“They’d said we was going to be took to the palace,” she said, “and at
first I didn’t think nothing of going such a long way round. None of
us didn’t. But by-and-by Lady Grace says, ‘I wonder who’s in the first
carriage,’ she says. ‘Oh, I’ll soon find that out,’ I says, and I pokes
my head out of window and hollers out to the driver, ‘Hi, Mister! Who
have you got in front there?’”

“Was that before or after you had passed the inn where they got some
water?” asked the Lord Chancellor.

“Never you mind whether it was before or after,” said Wooden’s aunt.
“I’m telling this story, and I’m going to tell it in my own way.”

This was not very polite of her, but she had been through a great deal,
and her nerves were in an irritable state. The Lord Chancellor asked no
more questions, and she finished her story to the end.

She said the coachman told her that it was the King who was in the
first carriage, and advised her not to put her head out of window again
as he had orders to hit anybody who did so with his whip.

This seemed such an extraordinary order for him to have received
that the three dolls in the carriage began to suspect that there was
something wrong, especially as they had now been driving for a long
time, and when Wooden’s aunt had put her head out of window she had
seen that they were getting near the hills, which she recognized. It
was not exactly observant of them not to have suspected something
before, but, as you know by now, dolls are apt to take everything that
happens as a matter of course.

Well, by the time the carriages had reached the top of the hill, the
three dolls had come to the conclusion that they were being run away
with. Wooden’s aunt said she wasn’t going to stand that, and was going
to ask Selim what he meant by it. She said she would jump out of the
carriage as it was going, and run forward to the first carriage. The
others said that the coachman would hit her with his whip, but she said
she would run the risk of his missing her.

Well, as the carriages came to the top of the hill, she opened the
carriage door quickly and jumped out, and ran forward to the first
carriage. The driver shouted at her, and gave her a great cut with his
whip, which unfortunately did not miss her, but hit her in the face,
where there was still an ugly-looking mark. But she hardly felt it at
the time, and ran forward to the first carriage, shouting out, “Hi, you
there, Selim! Come out and show your ugly face!”

Oh, there was no doubt about the pluck of Wooden’s aunt, in spite of
the numerous faults of her character.

The rest was soon told. Selim had been furious with her, and he and
Rose had dragged her into the wood and tied her to the tree, and then
they had gone off. But before they had left her, Rose had stood in
front of her and laughed her scornful laugh, and said, “That’s for
calling me Sawdust. Perhaps you’ll be sorry now for crossing the path
of Rose, who never forgets and never forgives.”

This was one more thing against Rose.

The Lord Chancellor asked Wooden’s aunt if she had any idea where
the carriages were going, and told her they could not see them on the
straight road to Dollport. This was the name of the little town by the
sea, where the dolls landed from “over there.”

“Well, silly,” said Wooden’s aunt, “if they ain’t on that road, of
course they’re on the other one. It don’t take a pair of specs to see
that.”

The Lord Chancellor, slightly annoyed at being addressed in this
fashion, said stiffly, “I should have thought of that if I had been
given time. We have delayed long enough. Let us at once take the road
to Dollfort.” Now, Dollfort was the place in which the wooden soldiers
of Toyland were trained. If Selim had gone there, it looked as if he
expected the wooden soldiers to be on his side.

[Illustration]




XVI

COLONEL JIM ATTEMPTS A RESCUE


The road to Dollfort turned to the right at the top of the hill, and
ran for some way through the wood. When it got to the bottom of the
hill there was a stretch of open country for about a mile; then there
was another thick wood on another hill.

There was no sign of the carriages on the straight bit of road, but the
pursuers had been some time freeing Wooden’s aunt and listening to her
story, and could hardly have expected to catch them up yet. Wooden’s
aunt was riding between Peggy and Wooden. She had nearly recovered
from her disagreeable experience, and was inclined to like being on
horseback. She said the motion reminded her of being in a small boat on
a choppy sea.

When they had got about halfway between the two woods, Colonel Jim
halted them with a sharp word of command. “Women and children behind!!”
he said, and then ordered his men in front.

It was a good thing that this was done, for as they approached the
second wood two armed wooden soldiers sprang out of it and levelled
their rifles at them. They did not fire them, but it would have given
Peggy and the dolls a nasty fright if they had been riding in front.

The wooden sentries challenged Colonel Jim, riding at the head of his
little troop, with a “Halt!” and a “Who goes there?” He said “Friend!”
but they did not say “Pass Friend!” as is the usual custom. They told
him that the King had recently gone through to Dollfort, and had told
them that they were to let nobody pass until they received further
orders from the fort.

Now Colonel Jim engaged in the duties of his profession was quite a
different person from the amiable but rather slow-witted person we have
hitherto seen. He didn’t tell the sentries that Selim wasn’t the King
at all, or engage in any argument with them. He said, “I’m an officer
of the Royal Body Guard, so your orders can’t apply to me.” Then he
gave them the password for the day, which, as you remember, was the
word “pot-plants.”

Now, you must also remember that, although Selim had thought he might
be followed in his flight, which was the reason why he had given orders
to the sentries to let no one pass the wood, he could not have known
that he would be immediately followed by a troop of Household cavalry,
which is, of course, the special protection of a King or Queen. So he
had naturally not warned the sentries of this, and as Colonel Jim spoke
with authority, they were inclined to obey him.

“Well, I suppose it’s all right for you and your men,” said one of the
sentries, “but what about these here civs?” He meant civilians.

The Lord Chancellor now showed considerable resource. The sentries had
lowered their rifles, which, strictly speaking, they ought not yet to
have done, so he pushed his way to the front, and said in an important
voice, “I am the highest official of this country; this gentleman here
is the Royal Head Bargeman; this lady is the one the King has asked to
marry him, and this is her aunt; and this little girl is a human being,
and therefore doesn’t come under your orders at all.”

“Oh, well, I suppose it’s all right,” said the sentry in a grumbling
voice. “You can pass through, all of you, and if me and my mate thinks
it isn’t all right afterwards, why we can shoot after you.”

“Have you got your rifles in order?” asked Colonel Jim in a sharp
voice. “Let’s have a look at them.”

Because he was an officer, and had spoken in a voice of command, they
obediently handed him their rifles to look at.

“Thank you,” said Colonel Jim, and handed the rifles to one of his
men. “Now, you take these two and bring them along with us,” he said
to another one. The surprised sentries found themselves prisoners, and
made to walk by the side of the horses, which now proceeded at a foot’s
pace up through the wood.

So far, all had gone well.

They kept a sharp look-out going through the wood, but saw no more
soldiers. When they came to the edge of the wood they could see
Dollfort across the open downs about a mile away.

Dollfort was a very fine toy fort, something like the one Peggy had
seen driving into Dolltown, but much bigger. There were battlements all
round it, with gates in them, and on the top of the fort was a large
citadel. Outside the walls was a little town of dolls’ houses, where
the families of the wooden soldiers lived. None but wooden soldiers
occupied this fort, and of course that was why Selim had taken refuge
there. He would tell them a great many lies and get them on his side.

[Illustration: Dollfort was a very fine toy fort]

The pursuing party remained in the shelter of the wood, where they
could not be seen from the fort, even with a telescope, but they
could see the fort themselves quite plainly, and the country that lay
between. This was all open grass-land, and woolly sheep were feeding on
it. There were no houses between the wood and the fort.

Colonel Jim at once announced that he was going to take his soldiers
to the fort and summon Selim to surrender. The Lord Chancellor thought
this was a dangerous proceeding, but Colonel Jim refused to listen to
him. “I’m in military command here,” he said, “and that is what I am
going to do.” No doubt he was in a hurry, not only because of the Queen
being shut up there, in the power of Selim, but because his dear Lady
Grace was also shut up there. But he did not say this. He left Mr.
Noah in charge, and set off with his gallant little band. They watched
them ride down the hill, and trot across the open road over the downs,
and very fine they looked on their splendid black chargers, with the
sun glittering on their helmets and cuirasses, and their white plumes
waving in the breeze.

The two captured wooden soldiers had had their hands tied, but when
Mr. Noah told them all about Selim’s wickedness, and about the Queen
being still alive, they expressed such horror that he allowed them to
be untied. They said that if the soldiers in the fort knew what had
happened none of them would be on Selim’s side. They had only been
prepared to obey him as King because he was of wood, but they were
loyal to Queen Rosebud, and would be glad to have her reigning over
them again. They were none of them pleased at the shutting up of all
the Waxes, who had done them no harm, and rumours had come through
to Dollfort that not only Waxes but some Woods also had been sent to
prison, and this had pleased them still less. When the sentries were
told that Wooden and her aunt had been two of the dolls in question,
they were very interested, and said that their comrades would never
fight for Selim, if it came to fighting. Whether this was true or not,
you will soon see.

They watched the little troop of soldiers get smaller and smaller,
and at last disappear among the houses outside the fort. Then they
waited for a long time, while the sheep fed peacefully on the downs in
the evening sunlight, and no other signs of life could be seen at all
except the smoke rising from the houses round the fort.

They had finished talking, and had been sitting silent for about five
minutes, when Wooden’s aunt, whose ears were very sharp, said suddenly,
“Hark! What’s that?”

Nobody else had heard anything, but almost immediately Mr. Noah said,
“There are guns firing.” And then Peggy distinctly heard some faint
pops coming from the direction of the fort.

[Illustration]

This was serious, because the life guardsmen had no rifles, but only
their swords, and if they were being fired upon by the wooden soldiers
it would be difficult for them to defend themselves.

“Look!” cried Peggy in great excitement.

Just where the houses began, a mile away, there was a flash of sun
on bright metal, and no sooner had she spoken than they could all see
that it was on the helmets and breastplates of the soldiers. Then they
saw the life guardsmen galloping towards them, and directly they had
got clear of the houses, they saw the scarlet and white of the wooden
soldiers following them, and heard their guns shooting. But none of the
horse-soldiers seemed to be hit, and on they came, galloping along the
road, and on the grass on either side of it. The foot-soldiers came
running after them, but of course they could not go nearly so fast, and
presently Colonel Jim and his men galloped up the road into the wood.

By this time the wooden soldiers were about a quarter of the way
between the fort and the wood. There seemed to be an enormous number of
them. They had left off firing their rifles, but were coming on at a
good pace. In not so very long they would reach the wood, and it really
seemed as if they must capture not only Colonel Jim and his troop, but
Peggy and the Woodens and all the rest of them. Peggy _was_ a little
frightened then, for the red and white was coming towards them like a
great wave, and all the soldiers had rifles, which they would certainly
use if any resistance were offered to them.

Colonel Jim cast one hurried glance round him. “If we had axes,” he
said, “we could make a barricade, and keep them at bay until we could
send for reinforcements. As it is, I’m afraid we must clear out.”

“What, and leave my sister-in-law shut up there!” exclaimed Wooden’s
aunt. “Never! If nobody else stays, I shall. I’ve got a sharp pair of
nails, and I can give them a few scratches.”

Now, this was plucky of Wooden’s aunt, and loyal too. She had only
mentioned Wooden’s mother, but no doubt she had had the Queen in her
mind as well. But she had left out of account the military situation,
not knowing much about that sort of thing, and her opinion could not be
allowed to stand against that of Colonel Jim, who was quite as brave as
she was, but knew when there was a chance of fighting successfully and
when it was better to retreat.

“We shall have to go,” he said decidedly. “If they take us prisoners we
can’t do any more good, but if we get back to Dolltown we can bring out
reinforcements and take the fort. To horse, all of you!”

The wooden soldiers were now about halfway across the stretch of open
country. They were not running so fast now, as they must have got
rather winded with their first effort, but more and more of them were
coming out of the fort, and it was quite plain that the little band in
the wood would have no possible chance against them.

They untied the horses and ponies, and were just preparing to mount,
when Wooden’s aunt said, “Hark! I heard a shout.”

She turned towards the interior of the wood, and they all listened.
Yes, there was somebody shouting, and they heard the noise of a horse
galloping furiously, besides. In a moment there came into sight, among
the trees--who do you think? None other than Peggy’s faithful old Teddy.

[Illustration]




XVII

THE BATTLE


Teddy galloped up to them and threw himself off his horse. One glance
at the advancing wave of wooden soldiers showed him what the position
was. There was no time to explain what he had been doing. Every moment
was of value. “There’s cavalry and infantry coming up,” he said to
Colonel Jim. “We can make a stand here. Better send one of your men
back to hurry up the guns.”

But there was no necessity to do this, for as Teddy was speaking they
could hear the noise of horses trotting along through the wood, and
almost immediately a lot of lead soldiers made their appearance, and
came rapidly towards them. They were Lancers, on bright bay horses, and
very smart they looked with the little flags fluttering at the tops of
their lances.

The Colonel of the regiment rode at the head of them. He came up to
Colonel Jim, and saluted. “Just in time, eh, sir?” he said. Colonel Jim
saluted, too, and said, “Are your men ready for a charge, sir? If so,
we can keep them off till the guns come up.”

[Illustration]

The Colonel of the Lancer regiment threw one glance at the approaching
wooden soldiers. There were thousands and thousands of them, and only
a few of his men could come up at a time, by the narrow road through
the wood. But odds did not daunt him, and he at once gave the order to
charge.

The Lancers who had gathered at the edge of the wood immediately
charged down the hill, shouting and singing in the most gallant
fashion, the Colonel at their head; and the others who were coming
up behind quickened their pace and followed them. They spread out as
they got into the open, so as to charge the whole front of the wooden
infantry. Colonel Jim held his own little troop back, partly out of
politeness to the Colonel of Lancers, partly because their horses were
blown.

It had all happened so quickly that Peggy had not had time to be
frightened yet. But the noise of the horses galloping and the men
shouting got louder and louder, and the wooden soldiers had now got so
near that their shouts could be heard too, as they stood to receive the
shock of the cavalry. She suddenly shrieked, and clung to Wooden. “Oh,
they’re not going to kill each other, are they?” she cried. “Do let’s
go away!”

Wooden soothed her. “Of course they’re not going to kill each other,
dear,” she said. “Soldiers don’t do that in Toyland. They only knock
each other down; and whichever side knocks most down wins.”

This relieved Peggy’s fears a little, and in any case she was in the
thick of it now, and had to see it through. She was really a plucky
little girl, and by the time the cavalry got to the bottom of the hill
she had partly recovered from her fright, and did not shut her eyes.

The cavalry rode gallantly at the thick mass of soldiers, with their
lances levelled, and whenever they hit a wooden soldier, down he went.
The wooden soldiers fired their rifles at them as they came down the
hill, and knocked over a few. But the bullets, which were small peas,
of a kind grown specially for rifle ammunition, were not big enough
to do much damage against men and horses coming so fast. It was only
when several bullets hit the same soldier, or his horse, that they were
knocked over. But the foot-soldiers left off firing and began to use
their bayonets when the cavalry got amongst them, and then they did
knock over a large number of men and horses, though not nearly so many
as the Lancers knocked over of them.

It was most fascinating to watch. The Lancers went on and on through
the masses of infantry, and wherever they went, down fell heaps of
wooden soldiers. And when they were knocked down they lay quite still
on the ground, and took no further interest in the proceedings. But the
farther in the Lancers went the less they became, as men and horses
were bowled over in their turn. It was just as if they were being
swallowed up in the great mass of red and white, and there were so many
of the wooden soldiers that it soon became plain that in a short time
the Lancers would all disappear.

Peggy watched the Colonel, who was always in front, fight his way
steadily on, dealing lightning blows to right and left of him. But at
last he went down, and the red coats were almost as thick as before,
and still more were always coming up from the fort.

It was then that Colonel Jim rallied his little troop for a last
gallant charge. Teddy had galloped back through the wood, while the
Lancers were charging, to hurry up the guns. He now came tearing back,
and said to Colonel Jim in a hurried voice, “The guns will be here in
a couple of minutes. If you can keep them back till then we shall have
them beaten.”

“I’ll try,” said Colonel Jim, looking at his little troop, which seemed
almost nothing at all compared to the masses of soldiers advancing on
them; and then he gave the word to charge.

It was a desperate effort. The shock of the Lancers’ charge had now
spent itself. The wooden soldiers, who had been kept back by it for a
time which was short measured by minutes, but of inestimable value to
the defenders of the wood, were now forming at the foot of the hill.
If they succeeded in getting to the top of it, the little party in
the wood would be surrounded and taken prisoners. Could Colonel Jim’s
handful of men save them?

The troopers were given instructions to form themselves into a line at
the edge of the wood, and then to charge down the hill all together.
They rode out of the shelter of the trees, and formed their line with
as much coolness as if they were on parade. The foot-soldiers began
firing again, and the bullets pattered on their cuirasses like hail,
but had no effect upon these heroes, except to sting them up when they
caught them in their faces, and to make their horses restive. Peggy
could hear the bullets whistling and pattering amongst the leaves of
the trees over her head, but she and the dolls had been withdrawn a
little into the wood. Owing to the angle at which the wooden soldiers
fired, there was no danger for them as long as the firing was from the
bottom of the hill.

It took the life-guardsmen a very short time to form into line, and,
as the wooden soldiers had halted to fire at them, the time was not
wasted. The moment they were in line, Colonel Jim, who was in the
middle, slightly in advance of the rest, gave the word to charge.

Down swept the splendid little band, in an irresistible charge. It
was no good firing at them any longer, and the wooden soldiers stood
with bayonets fixed to receive the shock. Wooden’s aunt, who had been
getting more and more excited at what was happening, ran forward to the
edge of the wood to watch, and Peggy and the others went with her.

The sudden leaving off of the firing made a lull, in which the noise of
the horses’ hoofs could be heard thundering down the hill. When they
reached the bottom, the shock of the encounter was just like hammer
blows, as wood met metal.

The front line of wooden soldiers seemed to waver a little as the
horsemen approached them. And no wonder! The wooden soldiers were brave
enough, and they did not yet know that they were fighting in a bad
cause, so there was nothing to make them cowards. But the first line
of them, at least, must have known that they would all go down before
the irresistible charge, and it spoke well for them that they stood and
waited for it, instead of running away.

It was not only the front line that went down under the weight, but the
second and third. It really looked for a moment as if that single line
of heavy cavalry would push the opposing host back all by itself. And,
so far, not a single man or horse of them had fallen.

But the impetus of the furious charge was bound to spend itself. A
life-guardsman went down, and then another. But still they struggled
on, Colonel Jim in front of them fighting desperately, as the Colonel
of the Lancers had done. It was no longer a line of steel destroying
everything in front of it as it swept on, but a few scattered horsemen,
fighting gloriously against overwhelming odds.

But still they did advance, and for every horse and rider that went
down a score or more of foot soldiers bit the dust.

“They’ll do it! They’ll do it!” yelled Wooden’s aunt, dancing about in
a state of tremendous excitement.

Teddy, sitting on his horse, was no less excited. “They’re giving way!”
he cried. And Peggy distinctly saw a quiver run through the mass of
wooden soldiers, like wind passing over a field of corn.

At this very moment there was a roar and a rumble from the wood behind,
and the artillery came galloping up, just in the nick of time. A great
shout was raised, which struck terror into the hearts of the wooden
soldiers down below. Before the first gun could be unlimbered and
pointed at them, the great mass of red coats turned and broke. Colonel
Jim, and all that was left of his little troop, took up the shout, and
redoubled their efforts. They had it all their own way now. The enemy
was flying, and not one wooden soldier tried to knock them down any
more, but only to escape their blows, and get back in safety to the
fort.

The big guns got to work. One of them was quite near to where Peggy and
the Woodens were standing. It was quickly loaded with gunpowder and an
enormous pea. She stopped her ears as it was fired, but the noise was
not so bad as if it had been a real gun. She distinctly saw the great
pea fall in the middle of the fleeing army, and then go bowling along,
knocking over lots of soldiers before its force had spent itself.

[Illustration: The big guns got to work]

Orders soon came, however, for the artillery to cease firing. More
regiments of cavalry were coming up through the wood. As they arrived
they were sent down to pursue the wooden soldiers, and also to ride
round them, and cut them off from the fort. There was no necessity to
knock down any more of them. If they were surrounded they would be
obliged to surrender, and this would come to the same thing. The guns
would be wanted to reduce the fort, and, until further supplies of
ammunition came up, they did not want to waste it.

It was a pretty sight to see the cavalry galloping over the downs,
outflanking the flying red coats, and presently getting between them
and the fort. But a good many wooden soldiers who had only got a little
way out when the rout began had already succeeded in making their way
back. There would be plenty to defend the fort, if Selim should decide
to try to hold it.

[Illustration]




XVIII

THE SIEGE


The great contest that would be known in the history of Toyland as the
Battle of the Downs had been fought and won. But Queen Rosebud was not
yet set free, and Selim was not yet captured. There was still stern
work to be done. Dollfort must be taken at all costs, and as it was one
of the strongest forts in the country that would be no light matter.

The affair, however, was set in hand at once. The artillery limbered
up and galloped down the hill and trotted across the downs, making a
fine show. There were about twenty guns--quite enough to make a breach
in the walls. But when they had done so, infantry would be required
to pour in through the breach and complete the work that the guns had
begun. The cavalry had already done their share, and would not be of
much use for this task For in the valiant army of Toyland it was not
customary to use horse-soldiers apart from their horses.

But Teddy, who seemed to have thought of everything, had asked for
infantry to be sent from Dolltown, as well as cavalry and artillery,
and almost as soon as the guns had thundered off down the hill the
first detachment of foot-soldiers came up through the wood.

If they had had to march from Dolltown they could not have been there
in time; but all the available conveyances had been used to bring
them up. The first lot arrived in toy motor-cars, and then followed
carriages and cabs and carts in quick succession, until quite enough
men were there to overcome any resistance the fort might make.

Peggy, and the little group of civilian dolls watched the first
regiment form up and march away towards their task at Dollfort. It was
a regiment of wooden soldiers, and the Lord Chancellor said he thought
that was a mistake, as they would not like fighting against their
own sort. But Teddy, who came up to say a word to them now and then,
laughed at this. “They are all loyal,” he said. “So will the soldiers
at Dollfort be, when they know the truth.”

There was certainly no lack of eagerness shown by this fine regiment,
as it marched down the hill with its flag at its head. Peggy was
interested to see Captain Louisa marching with one of the companies. He
had said that his men would follow him anywhere, and she was glad to
see that he was prepared to fight on the side of the right.

When the first regiment had marched off, Teddy came up to them and
said, “I think we might go now. You’d like to see the guns knock the
fort down, wouldn’t you?”

Peggy said she should like it very much. She had always liked playing
with her boy cousin with his soldiers, and this was just like one of
the battles and sieges that they had arranged, only on an enormous,
glorious scale. Since she had seen that there was no horrible
bloodshed, but only fair and square knocking down, from which none of
the soldiers would be much the worse afterwards, she had ceased to feel
any alarm at the fighting, and was quite ready to see some more of it.

They rode across the downs towards Dollfort, and now Teddy had time to
tell them how he had so luckily been able to bring up the troops, and
spoil Selim’s little game.

He had been galloping along the road after the two carriages and must
have nearly caught them up, when he had met Japhet, Mr. Noah’s third
son. He had been just about to pass him with a wave of the paw, when
Japhet had stopped him, and told him some most important news.

[Illustration]

Now Japhet was a mild-mannered, studious young man, whose great hobby
was the collection of wildflowers, which he pressed in a book. Whenever
he was off duty on the royal Ark, he used to wander about the country
picking flowers. Sometimes he went alone, and sometimes with a friend,
who shared the same tastes. This friend was also in the royal service.
In fact, he was none other than the driver of the carriage in which
Selim had run away with Queen Rosebud. Japhet had made arrangements to
meet him that very evening on the road between Dolltown and Dollfort,
and have a good long ramble with him.

It was fortunate that it was just on this road that Japhet had arranged
to meet his friend. Of course, if he had not come, Japhet would have
known that it was because he was on duty; but he would not have known
where he was going.

As the carriage passed, Japhet waved to his friend, and asked him where
he was going. His friend said “Dollfort.” They both spoke under their
breaths, making great movement with their mouths, and the driver also
made a movement with his head towards the carriage behind him, and said
in the same way, “I’ve got the old man with me.” This was how these two
talked to each other about Selim, and was not meant for disrespect, as
they would not have done it in public.

Teddy said, “Are you sure he said Dollfort and not Dollport?”

Japhet said he was quite sure, because he had jerked his thumb to the
right, where Dollfort was. If he had meant Dollport, he would have
pointed straight ahead.

Then Teddy had seen it all. Selim was not going to try to escape by
sea, with Queen Rosebud, but was going to rouse the wooden soldiers
of Dollfort, and perhaps try to get the kingdom back with their help.
So Teddy turned sharp round, and rode back to Dolltown--but not along
the road by which he had come--leaving Japhet standing there in
considerable surprise.

When he had told his story, the Lord Chancellor asked him why he had
not come back and told them what he had found out. He was annoyed about
it. “If it had not been for our own extreme cleverness,” he said, “we
might have gone off on a false scent to Dollport, and not known where
they had gone to at all.”

Teddy grinned up at him rather impudently. “You wouldn’t have been much
loss,” he said. “I knew it would take you about a month to start, if
you started at all; and I wanted to take the short cut to the barracks.
There was no time to be lost.”

“It’s as well you did,” said Mr. Noah. “The troops only came up just
in the nick of time. Five minutes more, and the enemy would have been
entrenched in the wood.”

As they rode across the downs, they passed heaps of soldiers lying on
the ground, most of which were wooden soldiers of the attacking party;
but some were men and horses of the Lifeguards and the Lancers. None of
them were much damaged, but they hated lying there and doing nothing,
and implored to be picked up.

But they were told that there wasn’t time for that. The ambulance corps
would be sent out as soon as possible, and they must wait for that.
The only soldier they did pick up was the Colonel of Lancers, who rode
along with them, very glad for his horse to be on its feet again. He
was proud of the charge that his regiment had made, but would not take
any credit for his own share of it. He said that he had only done his
duty as a soldier should.

When they arrived at the houses in front of the fort, the guns had
already got to work. The cavalry had gone into the streets, and told
all the inhabitants to come away, as in five minutes their houses were
going to be knocked down. It was necessary to destroy them, in order to
have a clear range at the walls of the fort, and as our little party
came up the dolls’ houses of the town were toppling down in dozens as
the guns fired at them. All the poor dolls who had been told to leave
them were gathered in a body on a low hill to the right, watching
the destruction of their homes, and it was sad to hear the wails and
lamentations that arose from them; for they had not had time to bring
anything away. Perhaps their possessions were not worth very much, but
still, a home is a home to those who live in it. Be it ever so humble,
there is no place like it, as the song says, and it was not nice for
these poor people to see their homes knocked down by great peas as big
as wardrobes. However, the houses would all be put up again as soon as
the siege was over, and the poor dolls would not be any the worse off.

[Illustration: All the poor dolls were gathered in a body]

The hill on which the refugees were crowded was out of the line of
fire, and our party went there to watch what was going on.

It was not quite such an easy matter to reduce the fort as it first
appeared. For one thing, the walls had been built to resist such
attacks, and would be more difficult to demolish than the houses
outside them. And for another thing, the artillery did not have it all
its own way. There were, of course, guns in the fort itself, and they
were already doing great damage to the attacking forces. The shooting
was not quite so good as it might have been, and the artillery-men in
the field were very clever in moving their guns about quickly, so that
whenever they had fired they would move away to a new position, and
the guns in the fort always had to be finding new ranges.

Still, one field-gun after another was put out of action, and now there
were only about half of them left to do the work.

The situation was as follows. The houses in the way had all been
knocked down, leaving the battlements of the fort open to attack, but
it had cost half the artillery to do it. Would the other half be enough
to make a breach in the walls, through which the infantry could pour
in and do their work, before they were put out of action, too? And
supposing they did, would enough infantry arrive in time to do the
pouring in? It was touch and go, as all the episodes of this great
battle had been.

As for the infantry, the wooden regiment in which Captain Louisa served
had already come up, and was resting under cover waiting till the time
came for it to make its attack. And across the downs were marching more
regiments, all of lead soldiers. Yes, the infantry would be ready, if
the guns could do their work in time.

The artillery now changed its tactics. The time had gone by for moving
about and firing guns singly. They would never make a hole in those
stout walls, unless all of them fired at one place together. This then
was what they had to do. It was costly, because when once the guns of
the fort had found the range, they could knock them all out pretty
quickly. But it was the only way.

The Colonel of Lancers explained all this very politely to Peggy, and
she watched with breathless interest this exceedingly important phase
of the battle.

There was silence from the field artillery while the guns were all
being trained on to one place in the walls. But the guns from the fort
redoubled their efforts. One of them had the good luck to find the
range immediately. The moment the field-guns had galloped up to the
position that had been decided on, a great bullet came bounding along
and knocked one of the batteries down. Then the others found the range.
The field-guns were pointed and loaded wonderfully quickly, but before
any of them could actually fire, five of them had been knocked out.
Just as the order to fire was given, two more were knocked out. So the
great blow was only delivered by three guns.

They might just have done it if the balls had all hit exactly the same
spot in the walls. Two of them hit it exactly, but the third went a
little wild. Peggy distinctly heard them hit the wall. There was a
little fall of masonry and a cloud of dust. When this cleared away,
she looked eagerly for a hole in the wall. But no hole was there. Those
frowning battlements stood as whole and nearly as strong as before.

Immediately afterwards the remaining field-guns were put out of action
by the guns of the fort. The artillery attack had failed, and a
tremendous cheer arose from the soldiers who were crowding the walls of
the fort watching the Homeric contest.

But their cheering soon died away, for this was not the end of it. What
followed happened so quickly that Peggy could not afterwards remember
exactly how it did happen. But almost before she could draw breath the
wooden regiment which had come up first was charging towards the fort
with lusty shouts. Shots from the guns in the fort mowed them down in
long lanes, but still they charged on. They swarmed over the ruins of
the houses, and reached the very walls of the fort; and when they got
there they began swarming up the walls themselves, just like flies.

It was a most gallant assault. They were under shelter from the guns
of the fort, but the soldiers on the battlements could reach them,
and made great havoc in their ranks. They climbed up on each other’s
shoulders, but directly one of them reached the top he was knocked
down, and then the next one was knocked down, and sometimes a whole
line of men was toppled over.

But there were always more to take the place of those who fell. A
regiment of lead soldiers came dashing up to help them, and then
another and then another still. The advantage of numbers was on the
attacking side now, but the advantage of position was very much with
the soldiers of the fort, and it seemed impossible that anybody should
ever succeed in climbing over the top of the wall.

But a lot of sharpshooters were told off to aim at the soldiers who
were manning the walls, and they did their work very cleverly, picking
them off one by one. The guns of the fort were trained on them, and
they went down in large numbers, but they imitated the tactics of the
artillery, and never fired twice from the same spot; and gradually they
made an impression. There came a moment when the soldiers on the top of
the wall did not seem quite so thick as before. And when that moment
came there was a great shout from the regiments below, and from the
onlookers. For at last a soldier attacking the wall scrambled on to the
top of it.

They saw him stand for a second laying about him at the defenders, and
then he went down. But not before two or three more had climbed over.

After that it was quickly finished. More and more soldiers reached
the top, until presently the defence almost ceased, and the defendant
forces were driven away from the top of the walls altogether.

Another shout went up when the great gate in front of the fort was seen
slowly to roll open. And then the gallant soldiers ceased climbing up
over the wall, and poured in through the gate, to finish the work that
had been so splendidly begun.

[Illustration]




XIX

SELIM IS CAPTURED


The final reduction of Dollfort would have taken longer than it
actually did if the citadel at the top of it had not been closed for
spring cleaning. Selim and Rose would certainly have taken refuge
there, and would have been defended by those that remained of the
wooden soldiers. The citadel was very strong, and it might not have
been possible to take it by assault at all. They might have had to
starve it into surrender, and that would have taken a long time.

However, by a lucky chance, the commander of the fort, who was rather
fussy, had said the day before that he couldn’t have the place
looking like a pig-sty, and it was to be thoroughly cleaned out and
white-washed. This was being done when Selim drove into the fort, and
the fighting had followed so soon that there had been no opportunity of
putting the citadel into any sort of shape to resist attack.

Soon after the fort was taken, Peggy and the others were allowed to
ride into it through the gateway that had been opened by the attacking
party. As they came into the first narrow street of the fort a wooden
officer was standing by the gate. It was none other than Captain
Louisa, who saluted his old friends, and said he was very glad to see
them there.

Another officer who was standing with him, patted him on the back, and
said, “You haven’t told them that it was you who was first over the
wall.”

“That was nothing,” said Captain Louisa modestly. “I was only doing my
duty as a soldier should.”

They congratulated him heartily on his gallant feat of arms. He had
said nothing about it himself, but it was plain that he was pleased
at having it known to them. Peggy had thought it rather boastful of
him when he had said in Wooden’s drawing-room that nobody would do his
duty as a soldier better than he should, but it had turned out to be
quite true. Wooden said how pleased his wife would be to hear what he
had done, and his friend said that he would be made a Major for it, or
perhaps even a Colonel.

They got off their horses at the entrance to the fort, for the streets
were too narrow and steep to let them ride any more.

Dollfort was an old-fashioned though a very powerful fort. There were
houses and shops in the narrow streets, and as they went up through
them they saw the soldiers taking refreshment in the inns, which were
rather foreign-looking, and made Peggy think of the places she had seen
in France.

The two sides had already made friends again, and Leads and Woods were
eating and drinking at the same tables, and talking in an eager way
about the glorious fight they had had. That is the best of a toy army.
When one side wins, the other side bears no malice, and of course the
regiments that have fought each other today may very well be fighting
on the same side tomorrow.

The ambulance corps had already finished its work inside the fort, and
was on its way out to the soldiers still lying on the downs. All the
defenders of the fort who had fallen had been picked up again, and, to
judge by the merry noise they were making, were none the worse for the
experience.

Captain Louisa and his friend walked up through the streets with them,
and Peggy was interested to learn that the friend, whose name was
Lieutenant Napoleon, belonged to a regiment which had defended the
fort. He was very indignant at what he had heard about Selim. “Still,
it was a good thing we didn’t know what a rascal he was,” he said, “or
we shouldn’t have had this glorious scrap.”

That was the spirit of all the soldiers who had been fighting. They
often had sham battles, but this had been a real one, and they had
thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the knocking down of the houses
outside the fort. They would not have been allowed to knock them down
in a sham fight.

The exciting and interesting thing now was to find Selim and Rose, and
get to know where they had hidden the Queen and Lady Grace and Wooden’s
mother.

Lieutenant Napoleon told them that the two carriages had come driving
quickly into the fort, and the King had put his head out of the window
of the first and told the sentries to close the gates, and to send the
Commander of the fort to him at once at the Busby Arms, which was the
chief inn in the place. Then they had driven into the courtyard of the
inn, and the gates of that had been closed too.

[Illustration: The chief inn of the place]

The commander of the fort was General Wellington-Vera. He was an
uncle of Lieutenant Napoleon’s, and had taken his wife’s name upon
marriage, as is the custom in Toyland. General Wellington-Vera was a
brave and capable officer, and had hurried at once to the King, as
of course he thought him, to take his orders. These were that the
fort was to be stoutly defended to the last man and the last ounce of
powder, against a cowardly and treacherous attack that would shortly
be made upon the King’s life by the lead soldiers of Dolltown, who
had revolted. That was what Selim had told him, and of course he had
believed it.

Orders had quickly been given out that every man should be found at his
post. Then General Wellington-Vera had made up his mind that he would
not wait to be attacked, but would himself attack first; and Selim had
approved of this. The result had been as we have already seen, and we
need not go over the same ground again.

Lieutenant Napoleon was his uncle’s aide-de-camp, and had been by his
side during the greater part of the battle and the siege. He was now
free for a time, because the General, who was an old man, had been
somewhat exhausted by his exertions, and had gone home to lie down.
He said that his uncle had told him nothing about any ladies being
with Selim. He had talked to him in a room alone. In fact, Lieutenant
Napoleon was surprised to hear that there were any ladies there at all,
and still more surprised to hear that one of them was Queen Rosebud.
He had known by this time that she was alive, and that Selim was a
usurper, but not that he had tried to run away with her.

“We ought to find them at once,” he said. “I am in command here as long
as uncle is lying down, and I shall be pleased to put myself at your
disposal.”

They went first of all to the Busby Arms. The gate of the courtyard was
still shut, and Lieutenant Napoleon banged on it with the hilt of his
sword, and called out that if it was not opened at once he would give
orders for it to be blown up with gunpowder.

“You had all better take shelter,” he said, as he was waiting for a
reply. “They might try sniping at us. I don’t mind for myself, but I
shouldn’t like to see any of you hit.”

So they went behind a wall, all except Colonel Jim and the Colonel of
Lancers and Captain Louisa, who, being soldiers, scorned to shelter
themselves, and waited with Lieutenant Napoleon.

But there was no occasion for alarm. The gate was soon opened by the
innkeeper, who had been terrified by the bombardment of the fort,
especially as one of the cannon balls had fallen into the garden behind
the inn and broken a cucumber frame.

The innkeeper was as shocked as all the rest when he heard how wicked
Selim had really been, and very surprised at being told that one of the
ladies who had come in the carriage with him was Queen Rosebud.

“She must have been the one they said was ill,” he said. “Her head was
all covered up when they brought her in. They asked for a cup of tea
for her, so I went down into the kitchen myself, because, you see, the
girl what----”

“Never mind about all that,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Where are they
now? Take us to them at once.”

But alas! the innkeeper could only tell them that they had gone.

“The King,” he said--“well, I suppose I mustn’t call him that now--but
Selim, he went out with the General when the firing began, and soon
after he’d gone the ladies must have slipped off. That’s how I think
it must have happened. Anyhow, when I went up to tell them about my
cucumber frame they’d gone, and I haven’t set eyes on them since.”

They did not waste much more time at the inn. They set out to make
a thorough search of the houses in the fort, under the direction of
Lieutenant Napoleon, who now showed himself very zealous on the scent.

There were not, after all, a great many hiding places. It was only in
the lower streets of the fort that there were shops and houses. Above
that there were only barracks and defence works, and the citadel at
the top of all.

None of the soldiers whom Lieutenant Napoleon questioned had seen
anything of Selim since the taking of the fort. Up to that time he had
been with General Wellington-Vera, overlooking the defence, and many of
them had seen him. Of the Queen, and the other lady dolls, nobody had
seen anything, from first to last.

“The only thing left is to search the citadel,” said Lieutenant
Napoleon. “I don’t suppose they are there, but I don’t see where else
they can be.”

So they set out, and climbed the steep streets up to the top of the
fort.

As they went up, they met a lot of female dolls coming down with pails
and mops and brooms. These were the char-dolls who had been cleaning up
the citadel, and it speaks well for their sense of duty that they had
not left off their work during the bombardment. But they were all wives
of soldiers, and had been trained to do their duty, whate’er befell.

Peggy was interested in these dolls, who were chattering away at a
great rate, and anxious to know what had been happening while they were
busy. But, being wives of soldiers, they were too well disciplined to
ask questions of the officers, and nobody took much notice of them
except Peggy.

[Illustration]

They were mostly dressed in print gowns, but some of them wore big
cloaks, because the evening was beginning to get a trifle chilly. Peggy
noticed in the crowd of them two who had the hoods of their cloaks
right over their heads. One of them was very tall, but was bent, as if
she had rheumatism. She had the arm of the other one, who was carrying
a pail, and they were talking with their heads close together, but not
speaking to anybody else.

They had just passed, rather quickly, when an idea suddenly sprang into
Peggy’s mind. She clutched at Wooden’s arm, and said, “Look at those
two! I believe they are disguised.”

It was the remembrance of Colonel Jim’s cloak when he had got in to
them in the House of Cards that had made the idea come into her head.
And perhaps the same connection of ideas made Colonel Jim himself
sharper than he generally was; for the moment Peggy had spoken he
called out to the char-dolls to stop.

Most of them, being well disciplined, stopped at once, at the word
of command, but the two in cloaks went on, as if they had not heard,
slightly quickening their pace, but not running.

That was enough for Teddy. He sprang after them. “Here, you two!” he
said. “Let’s have a look at your faces. I’m sure you’ve no reason to be
ashamed of them.”

They began to run. But Teddy ran after them, and put his foot in front
of the tall one, who tripped and fell sprawling in the road. Teddy tore
off the cloak, and disclosed, not an inoffensive char-doll like the
rest, but the gross form and sinister features of the rascally Selim.

[Illustration]




XX

THE LAST


There lay the villain who had worked such mischief among the simple and
generous inhabitants of Toyland, and, above all, to their noble Queen,
who had loaded him with benefits. He lay on the muddy road, blinking
and scowling at his captors, well knowing that his game was up and his
doom would soon fall. He was a sorry spectacle, in his discovery and
disgrace. It was checkmate for him finally, and no further move was
left to him.

As for the chief partner in his crimes, who had tried to escape with
him--the renegade Composition doll Rose, who had so completely failed
to obey the natural instincts of upright dollhood--it was easy enough
to recognize her in the other cloaked figure, when once Selim’s
disguise had been torn from him. It was Wooden’s aunt who sprang
forward and snatched the cloak away from Rose. “So here you are, my
beauty!” she exclaimed exultantly. “Got you at last! And if you try to
get away I’ll scratch your eyes out.”

But Rose made no effort to get away. She did not cower before them, as
the wretched Selim did. He made no effort even to rise from the ground
until Lieutenant Napoleon called up two soldiers to seize him and hold
him fast. But Rose drew herself up to her full height, and flashed
scorn upon her captors from her dark eyes. There was something grand
in her, in spite of the wickedness of her behaviour, but it was not
the sort of grandeur that it does anybody any good to admire. The only
thing that can be said about her is that with such a bold character
it is a pity that she had not used her powers to do right instead of
wrong. Then they might have led her to great heights. As it was, they
had brought her down to ruin.

They questioned her as to what had been done with the Queen and the
other dolls who had been carried off; but she would answer them
nothing. Her contemptuous look seemed to say, “You may do what you like
with me, and I shall only go on despising you. But you will get nothing
out of me, so it is waste of time to try.”

The wretched Selim, however, was more amenable to pressure. “If you
will let me free to go away,” he whined, “I will tell you everything.”

“Give him a twist of the arm,” said Lieutenant Napoleon, “and see if
that will make him tell us. He isn’t going to be let free.”

One of the soldiers screwed Selim’s arm, not very hard, because it
wasn’t necessary. Directly he felt the slightest pain, Selim gave way
at once. “Oh, don’t hurt me!” he cried out--the wretched, cowardly
creature! “They are in the citadel--quite safe and comfortable. I might
have executed them all, but I haven’t touched a hair of their heads.”

“Bring the prisoners along with us,” said Lieutenant Napoleon. “We will
go up to the citadel at once.”

They mounted to the top of the fort. The citadel was a great barrack
of a place, with one fine hall, and a regular hive of smaller rooms,
besides the fortified works. If it could have been used for a final
defence of Dollfort there would have been room in it for lots of
soldiers, and everything would have been there to enable the defenders
to support a long siege. But it had all been cleared out. The courtyard
inside the gates was encumbered with furniture, and even the guns had
dust-sheets over them. The great hall and the lower rooms had all been
thoroughly cleaned, but the char-dolls had not reached the upper rooms
yet, and it was to one of these that Selim, who was now eager to tell
everything, led them.

He had locked the door, and thrown away the key out the window, as he
was obliged to confess, but it did not take long to break it open.
Colonel Jim, who was the biggest and strongest of them all, and who
was very anxious to rescue Lady Grace as quickly as possible, put his
shoulder to the door and gave one mighty push, and it flew open.

The room was very small. It had a narrow, barred window, and the only
furniture in it was a low bed and a wooden chair. It was, in fact, a
prison cell, used for locking up soldiers who had committed offences.
And this was the place in which Selim had locked up the unfortunate
Queen, and the other two dolls, without any food or even water.
Supposing he had escaped, as he had hoped to do! They would have stayed
there all night, and could only have been released if they had managed
to attract the attention of the char-dolls who would come to the
citadel the next morning.

Colonel Jim was not very quick at understanding things, as we have
seen, but he understood this directly his eyes took in what was inside
the door he had burst open. He turned round and gave Selim a violent
buffet on the side of his face, which made the miserable creature cower
away and cry out. He had still to be punished for his crimes, but this
first instalment of his punishment made everybody feel better.

Queen Rosebud was sitting on the chair with her hands on her lap,
the picture of stately patience; Lady Grace and Wooden’s mother were
sitting on the bed, and it was evident that Lady Grace had been crying.

The Queen rose slowly from her chair. “I wish to be taken away from
this place,” she said.

She was very royal, even under the dreadful circumstances in which she
found herself, and after all she had gone through. The Lord Chancellor
advanced towards her and bowed very low. “If your Majesty will deign to
lead your loyal subjects to the great hall,” he said, “justice can be
done at once on these malefactors, and in the meantime preparations can
be made for your Majesty’s convenience for the night. It will be too
late to go back to your Majesty’s Capital until tomorrow.”

The Queen simply said, “Come, Lady Grace,” and walked out of the
cell. The wretched Selim tried to draw her attention to himself with
a whining prayer for mercy, as she passed him. But she took not the
smallest notice. She did, however, make a slight inclination of the
head towards Peggy, as she passed her; and Peggy felt proud and
honoured, just as if it had been a real Queen who had taken notice of
her. But it cannot be too often repeated that Queen Rosebud was _like_
a real Queen, in all her ways and in all her deeds.

They went into the great hall, and a seat was brought for the Queen at
the top of it. All the rest of them stood. Selim, between two soldiers,
and Rose, between two others, were brought up before her.

The Lord Chancellor cleared his throat, as if it lay with him to open
the proceedings, but he was a very different Lord Chancellor before
Queen Rosebud from what he had been in the Hall of Audience before
the usurping Selim. When the Queen held up her hand he stopped his
preparations for speech at once, and listened respectfully to what she
had to say.

She spoke slowly, in a low musical voice, and every word she said could
be heard plainly by everybody in the great hall.

“King Selim is to be taken at once to the coast,” she said, “and put
into a boat, with oars and a sail, and enough food for several days. He
is to row or sail away from my kingdom, and never to come back here. If
he does so, he is to be executed. Take him away.”

That was all, and she waited for her commands to be carried out before
speaking again. She had given the miserable creature his title. He was
a King, though not King of Toyland. He had been cast on the shores of
her island destitute and solitary, and had been right royally treated.
And he had repaid her as we have seen. But she made no accusation
against him. He was simply to be sent away.

The wretched being was led off by the two soldiers who had guarded him.
He went without a word. He knew that his life had been most mercifully
spared, for he could row or sail to land in a few hours, or be picked
up by a ship. Let us hope that he felt some compunction for his many
crimes. He passed out of the hall between the two guards, the great
door clanged after him, and he was seen no more.

The Queen’s face changed as she turned towards Rose. Selim was a
foreigner, and in getting rid of him she had done all that she needed
to do. But Rose was her own subject, and must be dealt with in a
different fashion.

“As for you,” she said, “you must stand your trial according to the
laws of the land. If you choose to stand it now, with me for your
judge, you may do so. Say whatever you please in your own defence, and
I will listen to you. If not, I wash my hands of you, and you will be
sent to prison to await your trial by jury.”

It was an extraordinary act of clemency for the Queen to deal with
Rose’s case herself, and no doubt Rose knew that she would get more
merciful treatment than if her crimes were left to the judgment of a
jury of dolls, who could not help being furious with her for what she
had done.

But all she said, in a voice of scorn, was, “Oh, try me now, and finish
it. I have done what I have done, and I wish I had succeeded. As I’ve
failed, do what you like with me.”

The Queen looked at her with her calm, steady gaze, and Rose’s eyes
dropped before it. “I am more sorry for you than you are for yourself,”
the Queen said. “I know that you have been led away by spite and
jealousy, and those are feelings that cause great unhappiness to
whoever possesses them. It is your misfortune that you have those bad
qualities, but it is in your power to conquer them. It is my hope that
you will succeed in doing so. Go! You are free.”

The guards on either side of Rose fell away from her. She stood staring
at the Queen with wide eyes, as if she could hardly believe what had
been said to her. Then she realized that she was free, to go where she
liked, and that she was not to be punished at all. She covered her face
with her hands and burst into tears, and then hurried away out of the
hall. Her proud and rebellious spirit would not have quailed before any
punishment that might have been meted out to her, but the punishment
would have left her no better than she had been before. But the free
pardon, which she could never have expected, had broken her down. It
was to be hoped that she would really repent of her bad ways now, and
be a better doll than she had ever been before.

When Rose had left the hall, the Queen’s face lightened. “All that is
left for me now,” she said, “is to thank such of my subjects as have
been so active and successful in setting me free from the plots that
have surrounded me. And first of all, I must thank the dear little
girl who is not my subject, but has come here on a visit to find us in
trouble that is now at an end. She must come again. That is the only
way in which I can reward her.”

She smiled graciously and sweetly at Peggy, who felt extraordinarily
pleased.

Then she turned to Wooden. “You have always had my respect and
liking,” she said, “and I had intended to have appointed you today to
a post of honour about my person. I do so now, under the title of
Lady-in-Waiting in Ordinary, and Extra Bed-doll of the Royal Chamber.
Your duties will bring you into constant relationship with me, and I
look forward with pleasure to making you my friend.”

[Illustration]

It was most graciously said, and Wooden was so overcome with pride and
pleasure that she could only stammer out her thanks, and promise to
perform her duties as well as ever she could.

The Queen then called for a sword. Colonel Jim handed her his, and to
his great surprise she knighted him with it, and then conferred the
same honour upon Teddy, who was even more surprised, as he was the
first bear in Toyland who had ever received it.

[Illustration: She conferred the same honour upon Teddy]

When she had done this, she rose from her seat, and intimated that she
wished to retire for the night, but before doing so she said a few
gracious words to all who were in the hall. She said with a smile to
Colonel Jim that she hoped soon to know him under the title of Sir Jim
Lady-Grace, which was a happy way of saying that she would forward a
marriage between him and her favourite lady-in-waiting. And she told
Teddy, who was so overcome with the honour that had been conferred on
him that his customary flightiness had departed for the moment, that
she thought he ought to get married too, and she should always be
pleased to welcome to her Court Sir Teddy and Lady Bear-Wooden’s-Aunt.

It may readily be guessed into what a flutter this suggestion put
Wooden’s aunt. While the Queen was talking to her, and hearing about
her having been tied up to the tree by Selim and Rose, she was quiet
and respectful. But directly the Queen’s back was turned, and Teddy
came up to her with a grin to see whether she liked the idea of
marrying him, she cut a caper, and Teddy cut another, so that Wooden’s
mother had to remind them both that they would belong for the future to
the Upper Ten Thousand, and must learn to behave themselves.

       *       *       *       *       *

The shades of evening were beginning to close in as the Queen left the
hall, and suddenly Peggy began to feel as if she had had a very long
day, and would like to go to sleep in her own little bed at home, if
only she could get there. She began to wonder if it would be necessary
to go over again all the long journey between Toyland and her home, and
turned to ask Wooden how they were to get back.

       *       *       *       *       *

But as she turned, the hall and all the dolls in it seemed to be fading
away, and as she opened her mouth to speak----

       *       *       *       *       *

She awoke, to find herself lying in her own little white bed, with dear
Wooden in her arms, and Teddy with his impudent face lying on the
pillow, pointing one paw towards the open window, into which the happy
morning sun was shining.

[Illustration: FINIS]




Transcriber’s Note:

Minor errors and omissions in punctuation and spelling have been fixed,
otherwise the text has been left in original condition, except for the
below

Page 126: “to use pass-word” changed to “to use the pass-word”