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diff --git a/11116-0.txt b/11116-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6d29a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/11116-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3844 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11116 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 11116-h.htm or 11116-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/1/1/11116/11116-h/11116-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/1/1/11116/11116-h.zip) + + + + + +THE WONDERFUL BED + +By + +GERTRUDE KNEVELS + +[Illustration] + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY HALL CHAMBERLIN + +1912 + + + + + + +[Illustration: Ann was ready to cry and Rudolf had drawn his sword.] + + + +[Illustration] + + + +[Illustration] + + + +CONTENTS + + + I AUNT JANE'S OLD TOYS + + II THE ANGRY WARMING-PAN + + III A VISIT TO THE GOOSE + + IV THE FALSE HARE + + V REAL LIVE PIRATES + + VI ABOARD THE MERRY MOUSER + + VII CATNIP ISLAND + +VIII MUTINY ON BOARD + + IX CAPTAIN JINKS + + X MEETING A QUEEN + + XI THE GOOD DREAMS + + XII ENTER THE KNIGHT-MARE + +XIII THE BAD DREAMS + + XIV IN THE HOLLOW TREE + + XV COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + + + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +AUNT JANE'S OLD TOYS + + +It was beginning to get dark in the big nursery. Outside the wind +howled and the rain beat steadily against the window-pane. Rudolf and +Ann sat as close to the fire as they could get, waiting for Betsy to +bring the lamp. Peter had built himself a comfortable den beneath the +table and was having a quiet game of Bears with Mittens, the cat, for +his cub--quiet, that is, except for an angry mew now and then from +Mittens, who had not enjoyed an easy moment since the arrival of the +three children that morning. + +"Rudolf," Ann was saying, as she looked uneasily over her shoulder, +"I almost wish we hadn't come to stay at Aunt Jane's alone without +mother. I don't believe I like this room, it's so big and creepy. I +don't want to go to bed. Especially"--she added, turning about and +pointing into the shadows behind her--"especially I don't want to go +to bed in that!" + +The big bed in Aunt Jane's old nursery was the biggest and queerest +the children had ever seen. It was the very opposite of the little +white enameled beds they were used to sleeping in at their apartment +in New York, being a great old-fashioned four-poster with a canopy +almost touching the ceiling. It was hung with faded chintz, and +instead of a mattress it had a billowy feather bed over which were +tucked grandmother's hand-spun sheets and blankets covered by the +gayest of quilts in an elaborate pattern of sprigged and spotted +calico patches. The two front posts of the bed were of dark shiny +wood carved in a strange design of twisted leaves and branches, and to +Ann, as she looked at them by the leaping flickering firelight, it +seemed as if from between these leaves and branches odd little faces +peered and winked at her, vanished, and came again and yet again. + +"Bother!" exclaimed Rudolf so loud that his little sister started. +"It's just a bed, that's all. It'll be jolly fun getting into it. I +believe I'll ask if I can't sleep there, too, instead of in the cot. I +wanted to take a running jump at it when we first came this morning, +but Aunt Jane wouldn't let me with my boots on. She said she made that +quilt herself, when she was a little girl. We'll all climb in together +to-night as soon as Betsy goes, and have a game of something--I dare +say we'll feel just like raisins in a pudding!" + +"All the same," said Ann, "I don't think I like it, Rudolf. I wish +Betsy would bring the lamp!" + +It was almost dark now, and they could not see, but only hear, Peter +as he came shuffling out of his den, dragging his unhappy cub, and +prowled around the darkest corners of the room. Being a bear, he was +not at all afraid, but made himself very happy for a while with +pouncing and growling, searching for honey, and eating imaginary +travelers. Then the cub escaped, and Peter tired of his game. Rudolf +and Ann heard him tugging at the door of an old-fashioned cupboard in +a far corner of the room, and presently he came over to the fire, +carrying a wooden box in his arms. + +"Oh, Peter, you naughty boy!" cried Ann. "You've been at the cupboard, +and Aunt Jane said expressly we were not to take anything out of it!" + +"You are just like Bluebeard's wife," began Rudolf, but Peter--as was +his way--paid no attention to either of them. He put the box down on +the hearth-rug, and got on his hands and knees to open it. Then, of +course, the other two thought they might as well see what there was to +see, and all three heads bent over the box. After all it contained +nothing very wonderful, the cover itself being the prettiest part, Ann +thought, for on it was painted a bright-colored picture of a little +girl in a funny, high-waisted, old-fashioned dress, making a curtsy to +a little boy dressed like an old gentleman and carrying a toy ship in +his hand. The box was filled with old toys, most of them chipped or +broken. There was a very small tea-set with at least half of the cups +missing, a wooden horse which only possessed three legs, and the +remains of a regiment of battered tin soldiers. + +"How funny the box smells--and the toys, too!" Ann said. "Sort of +queer and yet sweet, like mother's glove case. I think she said it was +sandal-wood. That set must have been a darling when it was new, but +there's only just a speck of blue left and the gilt is every bit gone. +These must be Aunt Jane's toys that she had when she was little." + +"That was a long time ago," remarked Rudolf thoughtfully. "I don't see +why Aunt Jane didn't throw 'em away, they're awful trash, I think. +Those soldiers aren't bad, but--" + +Just then Ann's sharp eyes caught Peter as he was about to slip away +with a little parcel done up in silver paper that had lain all by +itself at the very bottom of the box. By this time she and Rudolf had +both forgotten that they had no more right than Peter to any of the +things in the box, and both threw themselves on their little brother. +Peter fought and kicked, but was at last forced to surrender the +little parcel. Under the silver paper which Rudolf hurriedly tore +off, was layer after layer of pink tissue infolding something which +the boy, when he came to it at last, tossed on the floor in his +disgust. + +"Pshaw," he exclaimed, "it's nothing in the world but an old +corn-cob!" + +"Yes, it is, too," said Ann, picking it up. "It's a doll, the funniest +old doll I ever saw!" + +And a strange little doll she was, made out of nothing more or less +than a withered corn-cob, her face--such a queer little face--painted +on it, and her hair and dress made very cleverly out of the corn +shucks. Ann burst out laughing as she looked at the old doll, and +turning to her new children, Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida, which +her mother had given her for Christmas, she placed the two beauties on +the hearth-rug, one on each side of the corn-cob, just to see the +difference. This seemed to make Peter very cross. He tried his best +to snatch away the old doll, but Rudolf, to tease him, held him off +with one hand while with the other he seized the poor creature by her +long braids and swung her slowly over the fire. + +"Wouldn't it be fun, Ann," said he, "to see how quick she'd burn?" + +"Oh, you mustn't, Rudolf," Ann cried, "Aunt Jane mightn't like it. I +shouldn't be surprised if she'd punish you." + +At that Rudolf lowered the old doll almost into the blaze, and she +would most certainly have burned up, she was so very dry and crackly, +if at that very moment Aunt Jane had not come into the room and +snatched her out of his hand. Rudolf never remembered to have seen +Aunt Jane so vexed before. Her blue eyes flashed, and her cheeks were +quite pink under her silver-colored hair. He expected she would +scold, but she didn't, she only said--"Oh, Rudolf!" in a rather +unpleasant way, and then, after she had carefully restored the +corn-cob doll to her wrappings, she knelt down and began to gather up +the old toys which the children had scattered over the hearth-rug. Ann +and Rudolf helped her, and Peter who, though a very mischievous little +boy, was always honest, confessed that he had been the one to open the +old cupboard and take out the box. He seemed to feel rather +uncomfortable about it, and after the things had been put away, he +climbed upon Aunt Jane's lap and hid his head upon her shoulder. +"Never mind, Peter, dear," she said, holding him very tight, "I always +meant to show you my old toys some day. I dare say you children think +it strange that I have kept such shabby things so long, but when I was +a little girl I did not have such beautiful toys as you have now, and +the few I had I loved very dearly." + +"Was this your nursery, Aunt Jane," Ann asked. + +"Yes, dear. I slept all alone in the big bed, and I kept my toys +always in the old cupboard. I spent many and many an hour curled up on +that window-seat, playing with my doll. Yes, I did have others, Ann, +but I think I loved the corn-cob doll best of all, perhaps because she +was the least beautiful." + +"Didn't you have any little boys to play with?" Rudolf asked. "Other +boys beside father and Uncle Jim, I mean." + +"There was one little boy who came sometimes," Aunt Jane said. "He +lived in the nearest house to ours, though that was a mile away. Those +were his tin soldiers you saw in the box. He gave them to me to keep +for him when he went away to school, and thought himself too big to +play at soldiers any more." + +"And when he came back from school, did he used to come and see you?" + +"Yes, he used to come every summer till he got big." + +"And what did the little boy do when he got big, Aunt Jane?" + +"When he got big," said Aunt Jane slowly, looking very hard into the +fire, "he went away to sea." + +"O-ho!" cried Rudolf. "And when he came back what did he bring you?" + +"He never did come back," said Aunt Jane, and she bent her head low +over Peter's so that the children should not see how shiny wet her +eyes were. Ann and Rudolf did see, however, and politely forced back +the dozen questions trembling on the tips of their tongues about the +different ways there were of being lost at sea. Rudolf in particular +would have liked to know whether it was a hurricane or sharks or +pirates or a nice desert island that had been the end of that little +boy, and he was about to begin his questioning in a roundabout manner +by asking whether sea serpents had often been known to swallow ships +whole, when the door opened, and in came Betsy, Aunt Jane's old +servant. She had the lamp in one hand and the great brass warming-pan, +with which she always warmed the big bed, in the other. + +Her arrival disturbed the pleasant group by the nursery fire, and +reminded Aunt Jane that it was the children's bedtime. She kissed them +good night, heard them say their prayers, and then went quickly away, +leaving Betsy to help them undress. Now this was rather unwise of Aunt +Jane, for Betsy and the children did not get on. She was one of those +uncomfortable persons who refuse to understand how a little +conversation makes undressing so much less unpleasant. She was not +inclined to give Rudolf any information on the subject of sea +serpents, nor would she listen to Ann's remarks on how much more +fashionable hot-water bottles were than warming-pans. She had even no +sympathy for Peter when he wished to be considered a diver going down +to the bottom of the sea after gold, instead of a little boy being +bathed in a tin tub. + +Betsy had a horrid way of scrubbing, being none too careful about soap +in people's eyes, and Peter came out dreadfully clean. Feeling that he +needed comforting of some sort, he looked about for Mittens and +discovered him at last, taking a much needed nap behind the sofa. +Squeezing the weary cat carefully under one arm, Peter began to climb +by the aid of a chair into the big bed. Betsy caught sight of him and +guessed his plan. Poor little Peter's hopes were dashed. + +"No you don't, Master Peter," she snapped at him. "Ye don't take no +cats to bed with ye--not in this house!" And she grabbed Mittens away +very roughly, set him outside the door, and shut it with a bang. After +she had tucked the bedclothes firmly about the little boy, she turned +her attention to Rudolf and Ann, evidently thinking Peter was settled +for the night--which shows just how much Betsy knew about him. Peter +waited patiently till she was in the depths of an argument with Rudolf +who was trying vainly to make her understand that the dirt upon his +face was merely the effect of his dark complexion. Then Peter slipped +out of bed, darted out of the door, and returned in a moment or two +with the unhappy Mittens once more a prisoner beneath his arm. This +time he managed to conceal the cat from Betsy's sharp eyes. + +At last all three children were in the big bed, Rudolf having refused +to consider sleeping in the cot, and Betsy, after a gruff good night, +departed, carrying the lamp with her. Now that the room was in +darkness except for the flickering light of the dying fire, Ann's +fears began to come back to her. She sat up in bed and peered round +her into the dark corners. + +"I--I wish Betsy had left the light," she said. "But it would have +been no use asking her." + +"Not a scrap," said Rudolf. "Not that _I_ mind the dark," he added +hastily, "_I_ rather like it, only don't let's lie still +and--and--listen for things. Let's play something." + +"Shall we try who can keep their eyes shut longest," suggested Ann. + +"Oh, that's a stupid game! Beside Peter would beat anyway, for he's +half asleep now. Shake him up, Ann." + +When shaken up Peter refused to admit that, he was even sleepy. He was +very cross, and immediately began to accuse Rudolf of having taken his +cat. This Rudolf--and also Ann--denied. They had seen Peter smuggle +Mittens into bed the second time, but had supposed he must have +escaped and followed Betsy out. + +"No, he didn't neither," Peter insisted. "I had him after she went. He +was 'most tamed." + +"Then," said Ann, "he must be in the room and we might as well have +him to play with. Rudolf, I dare you to get up and look for him!" + +And Rudolf got up--just to show he was not afraid. Before stepping +into those dark shadows, however, he armed himself with his tin +sword, a weapon he was in the habit of taking to bed with him in case +of burglars, and with this he poked bravely under the bed and in all +the dark corners, calling and coaxing Mittens to come forth. At last +both he and Ann felt sure the cat could not be in the room. + +"He _must_ have got out somehow," said Rudolf. "Anyway, I sha'n't +bother any more looking for him." Still grasping his sword, he climbed +back into the big bed between his brother and sister. Peter was still +cross and grumbly. He kept insisting that Mittens might have +disappeared _inside_ the bed--which was a piece of nonsense neither of +the others would listen to. + +After some discussion Rudolf and Ann agreed that the very nicest thing +to do would be to make a tent out of the bedclothes, and seeing Peter +was again inclined to nod, they shook him awake and sternly insisted +on his joining in the game. By tying the two upper corners of the +covers to the posts at the head of the great bed a splendid tent was +quickly made, bigger than any the children had ever played in before, +so big that Rudolf, who was to lead the procession into its white +depths, began to feel just the least little bit afraid,--of what he +hardly knew. How high the white walls rose! Not like a snuggly +bed-tent, but like--like a real white-walled cave. Being a brave boy, +he quickly put these unpleasant thoughts out of his mind, and grasping +his sword, crawled on his hands and knees into the dark opening. +Behind him came Ann, and behind Ann, Peter. + +"Are you ready?" asked Rudolf. "Then in we go!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER II + + +THE ANGRY WARMING-PAN + + +It was not surprising that the big bed should be different from any +other bed the children had ever played in, yet it was certainly taking +them a long, long time to crawl to the foot! + +"It must have a foot," thought the brave captain of the band, as he +plunged farther and farther into the depths of the white cave. "All +beds have." Then he stopped suddenly as a loud squeal of mingled +surprise and terror came from just behind him. + +"Oh, Rudolf," Ann cried, "I don't want to play this game any +longer--let's go back!" In the half-darkness Rudolf felt her turn +round on Peter, who was close behind her. "Go back, Peter," she +ordered. + +"I can't," came a little voice out of the gloom. + +"You must--oh, Peter, hurry!" + +"I can't go back," said Peter calmly, "because there isn't any back. +Put your hand behind me and feel." + +It was true. Just how or when it had happened none of them could tell, +but the soft drooping bedcovers had suddenly, mysteriously risen and +spread into firm white walls behind and on either side, leaving only a +narrow passageway open in front. It was nonsense to go on their hands +and knees any longer, for even Rudolf, who was tallest, could not +touch the arched white roof when he stood up and stretched his arm +above his head. He could not see Ann's face clearly, but he could hear +her beginning to sniff. + +"Now, Ann," said he sternly, though in rather a weak voice, "don't you +know what this is? This is an adventure." + +"I don't care," sniffed Ann, "I don't want an adventure. I want to go +back--back to Aunt Jane!" And the sniff developed into a flood of +tears. + +"Peter is not crying, and he is only six." + +This rebuke told on Ann, for she was almost eight. "But what are we +go--going to do?" she asked, her sobs decreasing into sniffs again. + +"We'll just have to go on, I suppose, and see what happens." + +"Well, I think--I think Aunt Jane ought to be ashamed of herself to +put us in such a big bed we could get lost in it!" + +"Maybe"--came the voice of Peter cheerfully from behind them--"maybe +she _wanted_ to lose us, like bad people does kittens." + +"Peter, don't be silly," ordered Rudolf sternly. "There isn't really +anything that can happen to us," he went on, speaking slowly and +thoughtfully, "because we all know that we really are in bed. We know +we didn't get _out_, so of course we must be _in_." + +This was good sense, yet somehow it was not so comforting as it ought +to have been, not even to Rudolf himself who now began to be troubled +by a disagreeable kind of lump in his throat. Luckily he remembered, +in time to save himself from the disgrace of tears, how his father had +once told him that whistling was an excellent remedy for boys who did +not feel quite happy in their minds. He began to whistle now, a poor, +weak, little whistle at first, but growing stronger as he began to +feel more cheerful. Grasping his sword, he started ahead, calling to +the others to follow him. + +The white passage was so narrow that the children had to walk along it +one behind another in Indian file. The floor was no longer soft and +yielding but firm and hard under their feet, and by stretching out +their hands they could almost touch the smooth white walls on either +side of them. At first the way was perfectly straight ahead, but after +they had walked what seemed to them a long, long time, the passage +curved sharply and widened a little. The children noticed, much to +their relief, that it was growing lighter around them. + +"I'm getting tired," Ann announced at last. "See, Ruddy, there is a +nice flat black rock. Let's sit down and rest on it." + +There was room for them all on the large flat rock, and when they were +settled on it, Peter remarked: "I'm hungry!" Now this was a thing +Peter was used to saying at all times and on all occasions, so it was +just like him to bring it out now as cheerfully and confidently as if +Betsy had been at his elbow with a plate of bread and butter. + +"Oh, dear," Ann exclaimed, "what a long, long while it seems since we +had our tea! I suppose it will soon be time to think about starving." +And she took her little handkerchief out of the pocket of her nighty +and began to wipe her eyes with it. + +"Not yet," said Rudolf hastily. "I put some candy into my pajamas +pocket when I went to bed, because the time I like to eat it best is +just before breakfast--if people only wouldn't row so about my doing +it. Let me see--it was two chocolate mice I had--I hope they didn't +get squashed when we were playing! No, here they are." The chocolate +mice were a little the worse for wear, in fact there were white +streaks on them where the chocolate had rubbed off on the inside of +Rudolf's pocket, but the children didn't mind that. They thought they +had never seen anything that looked more delicious. + +"I will cut them in three pieces with my sword," said Rudolf. "You may +have the heads, Ann, and me the middle parts, and Peter the tails +because he is the youngest." + +This arrangement did not suit Peter. "I will _not_ eat the tails," he +screamed, kicking his heels angrily against the rock,--"the tails is +made out of nassy old string!" And, I am sorry to say, Peter made a +snatch at both chocolate mice and knocked them out of Rudolf's hand. +This, of course, made it necessary for Rudolf to box Peter's ears, and +a tussle quickly followed, in the middle of which something dreadful +happened. The large flat rock they were sitting on gave several queer +shakes and heaves and then suddenly rose right up under the three +children and threw them head over heels into the air. They were not a +bit hurt, but they were very, very much surprised when they scrambled +to their feet and saw the rock erect on a long kind of tail it had, +glaring at them out of one red angry eye. + +Ann was the first to recognize it. "Oh, oh," she cried, "it's not a +rock at all--it's Betsy's Warming-pan!" + +The Pan, giving a deep throaty kind of growl, began to shuffle toward +them. "I'd like to have the warming of _you_ three," he snarled. "I'll +teach you to come sitting on top of me playing your tricks on my +rheumatic bones--waking me out of the first good nap I've had in +weeks!--I'll fix you--" + +"We're really very sorry," Ann began. "We didn't mean to sit on you, +we thought--" + +But the Warming-pan did not want to hear what Ann thought. He turned +round on her fiercely. "_You're_ the young person," he snapped, "who +made the polite remarks about my figure this evening? Eh, didn't you? +Can you deny it? Called me old-fashioned and 'country'--said nobody +ever used _me_ any more!--I'll teach you to talk about hot-water +bottles when _I'm_ through with you!" As he spoke he came closer and +closer to Ann, snorting and puffing and glaring at her out of his one +terrible eye. Although he was so round and waddled so clumsily, +dragging his long tail behind him, his appearance was quite dreadful. +He reminded Rudolf of the dragon in Peter's picture-book, and he +hastily tried to imagine how Saint George must have felt when +defending his princess. Clutching his sword, he thrust himself in +front of Ann and bravely faced the Warming-pan. "Run!" he called to +the others, "Fly!--and I will fight this monster to the death." + +Ann, dragging Peter by the hand, made off as fast as she could go, and +the Pan tried his best to dodge Rudolf and rush after her. Again and +again Rudolf's sword struck him, but it only rattled on his +brassiness, and making a horrible face, he popped three live coals out +of his mouth which rolled on the ground unpleasantly close to Rudolf's +bare toes. Then they had it hot and heavy until at last the knight +managed to get his blade entangled with the dragon's long tail, and +tripped the creature up. Then, without waiting for his enemy to get +himself together again and heartily tired of playing Saint George, +Rudolf turned and ran after Ann and Peter. Long before he caught up to +them, however, he heard the Pan behind him, snorting and scolding. +Luckily it did not seem able to stop talking, so that it lost what +little breath it had and was soon obliged to halt. For some time +Rudolf caught snatches of its unpleasant remarks, such as--"Children +nowadays--wish he had 'em--he'd show 'em--bread and water--good thick +stick!--" Rudolf was obliged to run with his fingers in his ears +before that disagreeable voice died away in the distance. + +At last he saw Peter and Ann waiting for him at a turn in the passage +just ahead, and in another moment he flung himself panting on the +ground beside them. "What a beast he was!" Rudolf exclaimed. + +"Dreadful!" said Ann. "I shall tell Aunt Jane never, never to let +Betsy put him in our bed again." And then, after she had thanked +Rudolf very prettily for saving her life, and that hero had recovered +his breath and rested a little after the excitement of the battle, +they all felt ready to start on their way again. + +No sooner had they turned the corner ahead of them than they found +themselves in broad daylight. The passage was now so wide that all +three could walk abreast, holding hands; a moment more and they stood +at the mouth of the long white cave or tunnel they had been walking +through. There was open country beyond them, and just opposite to +where the children stood was the queerest little house that they had +ever seen. It was long and very low, hardly more than one story high, +and was painted blue and white in stripes running lengthwise. In the +middle was a little front door with a window on either side of it and +three square blue and white striped steps leading up to it. From the +chimney a trail of thick white smoke poured out. As the three children +stood staring at the house, Peter cried out: "It's snowing!" + +Sure enough the air was full of thick white flakes. + +"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" Ann wailed, "what shall we do now? We can't go +back in the cave because the Warming-pan might catch us, and if we +stay here Peter will catch his death of cold out in the snow in his +night drawers--and so will we all. Oh, what _would_ mother say!" + +"But we are not out in the snow, Ann," began Rudolf in his arguing +voice. "We are _in_ in the snow." + +"And it is not wet," added Peter who was trying to roll a snowball out +of the white flakes that were piling themselves on the ground with +amazing quickness. + +"I don't care," said Ann. "I know mother wouldn't like us to be in in +it or out in it. I'm going to knock at the door of that house this +minute and ask if they won't let us stay there till the storm's over." + +"All right," said Rudolf, "only I hope the people who live there don't +happen to be any relation of the Warming-pan." + +It was a dreadful thought. The three children looked at the house and +hesitated. Then Rudolf laughed, drew his precious sword, which he had +fastened into the belt of his pajamas, and mounted the steps, the +others following behind him. + +"You be all ready to run," he whispered, "if you don't like the looks +of the person who comes. Now!" And he knocked long and loud upon the +blue and white striped door. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER III + + +A VISIT TO THE GOOSE + + +The door flew open almost before Rudolf had stopped knocking, but +there was nothing very alarming about the person who stood on the +threshold. Ann said afterward she had thought at first it was a Miss +Spriggins who came sometimes to sew for her mother, but it was not; it +was only a very large gray goose neatly dressed in blue and white +bed-ticking, with a large white apron tied round her waist and wearing +big spectacles with black rims to them. + +"Nothing to-day, thank you," said the Goose. + +"But please--" began Rudolf. + +"No soap, no baking powder, no lightning rods, no hearth-brooms, no +cake tins, no life insurance--" rattled the Goose so rapidly that the +children could hardly understand her--"nothing at all to-day, _thank_ +you!" + +"But _we_ want something," Ann cried, "we want to come in!" + +"I never let in peddlers," said the Goose, and she slammed the door in +their faces. As she slammed it one of her broad apron-strings caught +in the crack, and Rudolf seized the end of it. When the Goose opened +the door an inch or so to free herself he held on firmly and said: + +"Tell us, please, are you the Warming-pan's aunt?" + +The Gray Goose looked immensely pleased, but shook her head. + +"Nothing so simple," said she, "nor, so to speak, commonplace, since +the relationship or connection if you will have it, is, though +perfectly to be distinguished, not always, as it were, entirely +clear, through his great-grandfather who, as I hope you are aware, was +a Dutch-Oven, having run away with a cousin of my mother's uncle's +stepfather, who was three times married, numbers one, two and three +all having children but none of 'em resembling one another in the +slightest, which, as you may have perceived, is only the beginning of +the story, but if you will now come in, not forgetting to wipe your +feet, and try to follow me very carefully, I'll be delighted to +explain all particulars." + +The children were glad to follow the Lady Goose into the house, though +they thought she had been quite particular enough. They found it +impossible to wipe their feet upon the mat because it was thick with +snow, and when the door was closed behind them, they were surprised to +feel that it was snowing even harder inside the house than it was +out. For a moment they stood half blinded by the storm, unable to see +clearly what kind of room they were in or to tell whose were the +voices they heard so plainly. A great fluttering, cackling, and +complaining was going on close to them, and a hoarse voice cried out: + +"One hundred and seventeen and three-quarters feathers to be +multiplied by two-sevenths of a pound. That's a sweet one! Do that if +you can, Squealer." + +"You can't do it yourself," a whining voice replied. "I've tried the +back and the corners and the edges--there's no more room--" + +Then came the sound of a sudden smack, as if some one's ears had been +boxed when he least expected it, and this was followed by a loud angry +squawk. Now the flakes, which had been gradually thinning, died away +entirely, and the children suddenly discovered that they had not been +snowflakes at all but only a cloud of white feathers sent whirling +through the house, out of the windows, and up the chimney by some +disturbance in the midst of a great heap in one corner of the room as +high as a haystack. From the middle of this heap of feathers stuck up +two very thin yellow legs with shabby boots that gave one last +despairing kick and then were still. Near by at a counter a Gentleman +Goose in a long apron was weighing feathers on a very small pair of +scales, and at his elbow stood a little duck apprentice with the tears +running down his cheeks. He was doing sums in a greasy sort of +butcher's book that seemed quite full already of funny scratchy +figures. + +"That must be Squealer, the one who got his ears boxed," whispered Ann +to Rudolf, "but what do you suppose is the matter with the other +duck, the one in the heap? He will be smothered, I know he will!" + +Rudolf thought so, too, yet it didn't seem polite to mention it. The +Lady Goose had been busily helping the children to brush off the +feathers that were sticking to them, and patting Peter on the back +with her bill because he said he was sure he had swallowed at least a +pound. She now brought forward chairs for them all. As the children +looked around more closely they saw that the room they were in was a +very cozy sort of place, long and low and neatly furnished with a +white deal table, a shiny black cook-stove, a great many bright copper +saucepans, and a red geranium in the window. A large iron pot was +boiling merrily on the stove and from time to time the Gray Goose +stirred its contents with a wooden spoon. It smelled rather good, and +Peter, sniffing, began to put on his hungry expression. + +"No, not even a family resemblance," went on the Gray Goose, waving +her spoon, "although, as is generally known, a Roman nose is +characteristic in our family, having developed in fact at the time of +that little affair when we repelled the Gauls in the year--" + +But Rudolf felt he could not stand much more of this. "I beg your +pardon," he interrupted, "but would you mind if we helped the little +one out of the heap, the--the--duck who is getting so thoroughly +smothered?" + +"Not at all, if you care about it," said the Gray Goose kindly. +"Squawker'll be good now, won't he, Father?" + +"Oh, I'm sure he'll be good," Ann cried, and she ran ahead of Rudolf +to catch hold of one of the thin yellow legs and give it a mighty +pull. + +"He'll be good," said the Gentleman Goose gravely, speaking for the +first time, "when he's roasted. Very good indeed'll Squawker be--with +apple sauce!" And he smacked his lips and winked at Peter who was +standing close beside him, looking up earnestly into his face. + +Peter thought a moment. Then he said: "_I_ likes currant jelly on my +duck. I eats apple sauce on goose." + +The Gentleman Goose appeared suddenly uncomfortable. He began +nervously stuffing little parcels of the feathers he had been weighing +into small blue and white striped bags, which he threw one after the +other to Squealer, who never by any chance caught them as he turned +his back at every throw. "I suppose," said the Gentleman Goose to +Peter in a hesitating, anxious sort of voice, "you believe along with +all the rest, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, +don't you? I suppose there's nothing sauce-y about yourself now, is +there?" And apparently comforted by his miserable little joke he went +on with his weighing. + +By this time the other little duck had been hauled out of the heap of +feathers by Ann and Rudolf, and stood coughing and sneezing and +gasping in the middle of the floor. As soon as he had breath enough he +began calling pitifully for some one to brush the down off his Sunday +trousers. The Gray Goose came good-naturedly to his assistance, but as +she brushed him all the wrong way, the children couldn't see that she +improved him very much. Squawker seemed quite pleased, however, and +turned himself round and round for their approval. + +"What kind of birds are these new ones?" he asked the Lady Goose when +she had finished with him. + +"Why just three more of us, Squawker, dear," she answered. + +This remark made all three children open their eyes very wide. + +"Nonsense," began Rudolf angrily, "_we_ aren't geese!" + +From the other end of the room came the voice of the Gentleman Goose, +who spoke without turning round. "What makes you think that?" he +asked. + +"Because we aren't--we--" + +--"You're molting pretty badly, of course, now you mention it," +interrupted the Lady Goose, "you and the little one. But this one's +feathers seem in nice condition." As she spoke she laid a long claw +lovingly on Ann's head. "How much would you say a pound, father?" + +"Can't say till I get 'em in the scales, of course," and, smoothing +down his apron, the Gentleman Goose advanced toward Ann in a +businesslike fashion. The two little apprentices, carrying bags, +followed at his heels. + +Ann clung to Rudolf. "I haven't any feathers," she screamed. "They're +curls. I'm not a nasty bird--I'm a little girl with hair!" + +"She doesn't want to be plucked!" exclaimed the Gray Goose who had +returned to the stove to stir the contents of the iron pot. "Well, +now, did you ever! Maybe it goes in her family. I had a great-aunt +once on my father's side who--" + +"They're feathers, all right," chuckled Squawker. "You're a perfect +little duck, that's what I think." + +"Me, too," chimed in Squealer. + +The Gentleman Goose reached over the Lady Goose's shoulder, snatched +the spectacles off her nose without so much as by your leave, set them +crookedly on his own, and looked over them long and earnestly at Ann. +"So you want to call 'em hair, do you?" he snapped. "I suppose you +think you belong in a hair mattress!" + +Ann was ready to cry, and Rudolf had drawn his sword with the +intention of doing his best to protect her, when at that moment a new +voice was heard. Looking in at the little window over the top of the +red geranium the children saw a good-humored furry face with long +bristly whiskers and bright twinkly eyes. + +"Anybody mention my name?" said the voice, and a large Belgian Hare +leaped lightly into the room. He was handsomely dressed in a light +overcoat and checked trousers, and wore gaiters over his +patent-leather boots. He had a thick gold watch-chain, gold studs and +cuff buttons besides other jewelry, and in one hand he carried a high +hat, in the other a small dress-suit case and a tightly rolled +umbrella. + +"What's the matter here?" he inquired cheerfully. + +"Why, this bird," explained the Gentleman Goose, pointing his claw +disdainfully at Ann, "says it has no feathers, which you can see for +yourself is not the case. It has feathers, therefore it is a bird. +Birds of a feather flock together. That settles it, I think! Come +along, boys. To work!" + +At his command the two duck apprentices, who were standing one on +either side of Ann, made feeble dashes at the two long curls nearest +them. Rudolf stepped forward but the Hare was before him. He only +needed to stare at the two ducks through a single eye-glass he had +screwed into one of his eyes to make them turn pale and drop their +claws to their sides. + +"Now once more," said the Hare to Ann. "What did you say you call +those unpleasantly long whiskers of yours?" + +"Hair," Ann answered meekly, for she was too frightened to be +offended. + +"Hair!" echoed Rudolf and Peter loudly. + +"Bless me," said their new friend, "that's not at all _my_ business, +is it? Not at all in my line--oh, no!" He gathered up his hat, +dress-suit case, and little umbrella from the floor where he had +dropped them. "Be sure you don't follow me," he said, nodding +pleasantly and winking at the children. Then he stepped to the door +without so much as a look at the Gentleman Goose who called out +angrily: + +"Stop, stop! Catch 'em, Squealer--at 'em, Squawker--hold 'em, boys!" + +It was too late. The boys were too much afraid of the Hare to do more +than flutter and squawk a little, and as the Gentleman Goose did not +seem inclined to make an attack single-handed, the Hare, with the +children behind him, got to the door in safety. Peter, however, had +to be dragged along by Ann and Rudolf, for the Lady Goose had just +removed the great pot from the stove in time to prevent its contents +from boiling over, and the little boy was sniffing hungrily at the +steam. Now she came after the children carrying a large spoonful of +the bubbling stuff. "All done, all done," she cried. "Don't go without +a taste, dears." + +"What's done?" asked Peter, eagerly turning back to her. + +"Worms, dear; red ones and brown ones," answered the Lady +Goose,--"boiled in vinegar, you know--just like mother used to +make--with a wee bit of a grasshopper here and there for flavoring. +Mother had the recipe handed down in her family--her side--you know, +from my great-great-grandmother's half-sister who was a De l'Oie but +married a Mr. Gans and was potted in the year--" + +They got Peter through the door by main force, Ann and Rudolf pushing +behind and the Hare pulling in front. Even then, I am ashamed to say, +Peter kept calling out that he would like "just a taste", and he +didn't see why the Goose's worms wouldn't be just as good as the white +kind cook sent up with cheese on the top! + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER IV + + +THE FALSE HARE + + +As they hurried away from the Goose's house, the children cast one +last look behind them. There at the window was the Lady Goose waving +in farewell the spoon she had stirred the hot worms with. Suddenly a +whirl of white feathers flew out of the chimney, the window and the +door, which the children in their haste had left open behind them, and +hid her completely from their sight. At the same instant two feeble +shrieks came from within the house. + +"Squealer and Squawker both went into the heap that time, I guess," +said Rudolf. + +"I'm glad of it!" Ann cried. "_I'd_ never help either of the horrid +little things out again. Would you, sir?" she asked, turning politely +to the Hare. + +"I dare say not," he answered, yawning. "That is, of course, unless I +had particularly promised _not_ to. In that case I suppose I'd have +to." + +All three children looked very much puzzled. + +"Would you mind telling us," asked Ann timidly, "what you meant when +you said _this_"--and she touched her hair--"was not your business?" + +"Not at all," said the Hare cheerfully. "I meant that it was." + +"But you said--" + +"Oh, what I _said_ was, of course, untrue." + +"Do you mean you tell stories?" Ann looked very much shocked, and so +did the others. + +"Certainly," said the Hare, "that's my business, I'm a False Hare, you +know. Oh, dear, yes, I tell heaps and heaps of stories, as many as I +possibly can, only sometimes I forget and then something true will +slip out of me. Oh, it's a hard life, it is, to be thoroughly +untruthful every single day from the time you get up in the morning +till the time you go to bed at night--round and round the clock, you +know! No eight-hour day for me. Ah, it's a sad, sad life!" He sighed +very mournfully, at the same time winking at Rudolf in such a funny +way that the boy burst out laughing. "Take warning by me, young man," +he continued solemnly, "and inquire very, _very_ carefully concerning +whatever business you go into. If I had known what the life of a False +Hare really was, I doubt if I should have ever--But, dear me, this +will never do--you're getting me into mischief! I've hardly done so +much as a fib since we met." + +"Oh, you mustn't mind _us_," said Rudolf, trying hard not to laugh, +as he and Ann and Peter marched along beside the False Hare. "You +mustn't let us interfere with your--your business, you know. We +sha'n't mind, at least we'll try not to. Whatever you say we'll +believe just the opposite. It'll be as if he were a kind of game," he +added to Ann who was still looking very doubtful. She looked happier +at once, for Ann was quick at games and knew it. + +"I think," said she to the False Hare, "that I heard something about +you the other day--at least I suppose it must have been you. It was at +a tea-party given by a friend of mine,"--here Ann put on her most +grown-up manner and made her voice sound as much like her mother's as +possible--"a Mrs. Mackenzie who lives in the city. One lady said to +another lady, 'How fashionable false hair is getting!'" + +The False Hare stroked his whiskers to hide a pleased smile. "Bless +me," said he, "I should think so! Keeps a fellow on the jump, I can +tell you--this social whirl. And then, when bedtime comes along and a +chap ought to get a bit of rest after a day's hard fibbing, why +then--there's the dream business. I can't neglect that." + +The children did not understand and said so. + +"Well," said the False Hare, "I'll just explain, and then I really +must get back to business. Now then, suppose a hound dreams about a +hare? It's a dream hare, isn't it?" + +"Yes, of course," they cried. + +"And a dream hare is not a real hare, is it? And a hare that's not a +real hare is a false hare, isn't it? So there _I_ am. That's where I +come in. Simple, isn't it?" + +"You make it sound simple," said Rudolf politely. "We're much obliged. +And now would you mind telling us where we are coming to, and what is +beyond this steep hill just ahead of us?" + +The Hare screwed his glass into his eye and looked thoughtfully at the +country round about. "I can tell you, of course," he said, "but it +won't be the truth. I really _must_ get back to business." + +"Oh, never mind telling us at all, then," said Rudolf, who was +becoming rather vexed, "I see there's no use asking _you_ any +questions." + +During their conversation with the False Hare, the children had been +hurrying along over a stretch of open level country. Now the ground +began to slope gradually upward and soon they were climbing a very +steep hill. It was hard traveling, for the hill was covered with +thick, fuzzy, whitish-yellow grass which tangled itself round their +feet, and gave them more than one fall. Ann and Rudolf had to stop +often to pick up Peter, for he was rather fat and his legs were too +short to carry him along as fast as theirs did. The False Hare hurried +ahead by leaps and bounds that would soon have carried him out of +sight of his companions if he had not stopped now and then to wait for +them. When the children caught up to him, they would find him sitting +on his little dress-suit case, smoking a chocolate cigarette, and +laughing at them. + +"Oh, don't mention it," he would say when they apologized for keeping +him waiting. "_I_ don't mind. I like waiting for slow-pokes! It's +nothing to me if I miss a dozen appointments and get driven out of the +dream business by that old what's-his-name--Welsh Rabbit!" + +This sort of talk was rather annoying, and after a while the children +decided not to heed it any longer. Indeed they were all three tired +with their climb, and were glad to sink down on the soft fuzzy grass +and rest a while. The False Hare bounded ahead, calling back to them +"Not to hurry", but when he found he could not tease them into +following, he sauntered back to meet them, looking as cool and fresh +and neat as when he started. Peter had been rather in the dumps ever +since he had been refused a taste of the Lady Goose's dinner, and now +he looked thoughtfully at the Hare's suit case. + +"Has you got anything to eat in there?" he asked, his little face +brightening. + +"Gracious, yes," said the False Hare lightly. "Lemme see! What do +little boys like best? Cinnamon buns an' chocolate cake an' +butterscotch an' lemon pie an' soda-water an' gingerbread an' jujubes +an' hokey-pokey an 'popcorn balls an'--" He might have gone on +forever, but Ann and Rudolf would not stand any more of it. They rose +angrily and dragging Peter after them, continued their climb. Just as +they had almost reached the top of the hill, the False Hare bounded +past them with a laughing salute and a wave of his paw, and dropped +out of sight over the brink of the ridge. A moment more and they all +stood on the edge of a cliff so steep that they were in danger of +tumbling over. From beneath the Hare's voice called up to them, +"Nobody ever thought of a sheet of water--_oh_, no!" + +Before their eyes lay the last thing the children had expected to see, +a large piece of water quite calm and smooth, without a sign of a sail +on it, nor were there any bathers or children playing on the narrow +strip of beach directly beneath them. At first it seemed as if it +would be impossible for them to climb down the face of that steep +cliff to the water, but the False Hare had done it, and they +determined that they must manage it somehow. After looking about +carefully, they found a set of rude steps cut in the side of the +cliff. They were very far apart, to be sure, for climbers whose legs +were not of the longest, but Rudolf helped Ann and Ann helped Peter +and at last they were all safely down and standing beside the False +Hare, who was strolling along the edge of the water. + +"Hullo," said he, sticking his glass in his eye and looking at Ann. +"What makes the whiskerless one so cheerful?" + +Rudolf and Peter were not surprised when they turned to look at Ann to +see that she was ready to cry. + +"What's the matter, Ann?" they asked. + +"Oh, dear, dear!" sighed Ann. "Whatever will become of us now? We +can't go back. Even if we could climb up the cliff, I'd never pass +that dreadful Goose's house again, no, not for anything! But how are +we going to get any farther without a boat?" + +The False Hare pretended to wipe away a tear with the back of his paw. +"No boat," he groaned. "Oh, dear, dear, dear--no boat!" + +The faces of the three children brightened immediately, for they were +beginning to understand his ways. "Hurrah!" cried Rudolf, waving his +sword. + +Sure enough, coming round a bend in the shore where the bushes had +hidden it from their sight, was a small boat rowed by two white candy +mice. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER V + + +REAL LIVE PIRATES + + +After neatly and carefully turning up the bottoms of his trousers so +that they should not get wet, the False Hare bounded on a rock that +rose out of the water a few feet from shore, and stood ready to direct +the landing of the boat. There was some sense in this, for certainly +neither of the two mice was what could be called good oarsmen. One of +them had just unshipped the little sail, and--not seeming to know what +else to do with it--had cut it loose from the oar that served as a +mast and wrapped it round and round his body, tying himself tightly +with a piece of string. + +Rudolf thought he had never in his life seen people in a boat do so +many queer and unnecessary things in so short a time as those two +mice did. They would stop rowing every few minutes and begin sweeping +out the floor of their boat with a small broom, dusting seats, +cushions, and oar-locks with a little feather duster tied with a pink +ribbon. Then, after a few, rapid, nervous strokes at the oars, one or +the other of them would pull his blade out of the water and polish it +anxiously with his handkerchief, as if the important thing was to keep +it dry. They would probably never have reached land that day if this +had depended on their own efforts, but luckily the breeze was blowing +them in the right direction. + +All this time the False Hare had been waiting on the rock, and now as +the boat was almost within reach, he began leaping up and down, +clapping his paws and calling out in the heartiest tones: "Go it, my +dear old Salts! Hurrah, my fine Jack Tars! You're a pair of swell old +sea-dogs, you are. Only don't _hurt_ yourselves, you know. We wouldn't +like to see you _work_!" + +It seemed as if the white mice knew the False Hare and the value of +his remarks, for they made no attempt to answer him, but only looked +more and more frightened and uncomfortable. When their boat was at +last beached, they jumped out of it, turned their backs to the rest of +the party, and standing as close together as they could get, gazed +anxiously out over the water. Seen close by there was something +familiar about the look of these mice to the three children, yes, even +though they _had_ grown a great deal, and had disguised themselves by +the simple method of licking the chocolate off each other! Rudolf and +Ann hoped Peter would not notice it, but nothing of the sort ever +escaped him. He walked around in front of the two mice, who tried +vainly not to meet his eye, looked at them long and earnestly, and +said: + +"I say, Mr. Mouses, was you always white?" + +The mice turned a pale greenish color in their embarrassment and +looked nervously at each other, but answered never a word. + +"I thought," continued Peter, staring steadily at them, "that last +time I saw you you was choc'late. Did you wash it off--on purpose?" he +added sternly. + +"Excuse me, sir, we don't believe in washing," muttered one of the +poor things hastily. + +Ann shook her head at Peter. "Hush!" she whispered. "You mustn't be +rude to them when they are going to lend us their boat so kindly." +Then she asked in a loud voice, hoping to change the subject: "Who is +going to row? Will you, Mr. False Hare?" + +"Why certainly, dearie, I adore rowing," said the False Hare sweetly. + +"Then you will have to, Rudolf, and I will look after Peter. 'He is +always _so_ apt to fall out of a boat. I dare say the mice will be +glad of a rest." + +They all got into the boat, Rudolf took the oars, Ann sat in the bow +with Peter beside her, and the False Hare settled himself comfortably +in the stern with a mouse squeezed on either side of him. He wanted to +pet them a little, so he said, but from the strained expressions on +their faces and the startled squeaks they gave from time to time, it +seemed as if they were hardly enjoying his attentions. The children +loved being on the water better than anything else, and they would +have been perfectly happy now, if the False Hare had not had quite so +many nice compliments to make to Rudolf on his rowing, and if the +white mice had not complained so bitterly of them all for "sitting all +over the boat cushions," and "wetting the nice dry oars!" They were +enjoying themselves very much, in spite of this, when suddenly Ann, +who had very sharp eyes, called out: + +"Sail ahead!" + +At first Rudolf thought she had said this just because it sounded +well, but on turning his head he saw for himself a small boat heading +toward them as fast as it could come. A moment more and the children +could see the black flag floating at its masthead. + +"Oh, oh!" screamed Ann, "that's a skull and cross-bones. It's a pirate +ship!" + +"Hurrah!" Rudolf shouted. "How awfully jolly! Just like a book." + +"Dee-lightful!" the False Hare exclaimed, shuddering all over to the +tips of his whiskers. "If there's one thing I do dote on it is +pirates--dear old things!" + +As for the two white mice, after one glance at the ship, they gave +two little shrieks and hid their faces in their paws. + +Rudolf shipped his oars while he loosened his sword. "I shall be +prepared to fight," said he, "though I am afraid we must make up our +minds to being captured. Our enemy's boat is not so large--it's not +much more than a catboat--but there are only four of us, as the mice +don't count, and I suppose there must be at least a dozen of the +pirates." + +The False Hare smiled a sickly sort of smile. "And such nice ones," he +murmured. "Such gentle, well-behaved, well-brought-up, _polite_ +pirates! Just the sort your dear parents would like to have you meet. +_Those_ fellows don't know anything about shooting, stabbing, +mast-heading or plank-walking; _oh_, no! _They_ don't do such things." + +Ann turned pale at the False Hare's words, but Rudolf only laughed. +"What luck!" he exclaimed. "I'm nine years old and I've never seen a +real live pirate, and goodness knows when I ever will again--I +wouldn't miss this for anything." Then, as he saw how really worried +his little sister looked, he added cheerfully. "They may sail right +past without speaking to us, you know." + +But this was not to be the case. Nearer and nearer came the pirate +craft until at last the children could see, painted in black letters +on her side, her name, _The Merry Mouser_. A group of pirates was +gathered at the rail, staring at the rowboat through their glasses. +There was no mistake about these fellows being pirates--that was easy +enough to see from their queer bright-colored clothes and the number +of weapons they carried, even if the ugly black flag had not been +floating over their heads. At the bow stood he who was evidently the +Pirate Chief. He was dressed in some kind of tight gray and white +striped suit with a red sash tied round his waist stuck full of +shiny-barreled pistols and long bright-bladed knives. A red turban +decorated his head and under it his brows met in the fiercest kind of +frown. His arms were folded on his breast. As Rudolf looked at this +fellow, he began to have the queerest feeling that somewhere-- +somehow--under very different conditions--he had seen the Pirate +Chief before! + +Just at that instant he heard the sound of a struggle behind him, and +turning round he saw that Peter had become terribly excited. "Mittens! +Mittens!" he screamed, and breaking loose from Ann's hold, he stood up +and leaned so far over the side of the boat that he lost his balance +and fell into the water. Ann screamed, the False Hare--I am ashamed to +say--merely yawned and kept his paws in his pockets. Rudolf had kicked +off his shoes and was ready to jump in after Peter, when he saw that +quick as a flash, on an order from their Chief, the pirates had +lowered a long rope with something bobbing at the end of it. Peter +when he came to the surface, seized this rope and was rapidly hauled +on board the pirate ship. + +Ann came near falling overboard herself in her excitement. "Oh, Ruddy, +Ruddy!" she begged, "let's surrender right away quick. We can't leave +poor darling Peter to be carried off by those terrible cats." + +"Cats?" said Rudolf, staring stupidly at the pirates. "Why so they are +cats, Ann! Somehow I hadn't noticed that before. But, look, they are +sending a boat to us now." + +In a small boat which had been towed behind the catboat, a couple of +pirates--big, rough-looking fellows--were sculling rapidly toward the +children. Cats indeed they were, but such cats as Ann and Rudolf had +never seen before, so big and black and bold were they, their teeth so +sharp and white, their eyes so round and yellow! One had a red sash +and one a green, and each carried knives and pistols enough to set up +a shop. + +"Surrender!" they cried in a businesslike kind of way as they laid +hold of the bow of the rowboat, "or have your throats cut--just as you +like, you know." + +Of course the children didn't like, and then, as Ann said, they had to +remember Peter. Much against his will, Rudolf was now forced +to surrender his beloved sword. The False Hare handed over all +his belongings--his jewelry, his suit case, and his little +umbrella--without the slightest hesitation, humming a tune as he did +so, but his voice cracked, and Ann and Rudolf noticed that the tip of +his nose had turned quite pale. The prisoners were quickly +transferred to the other boat, and the pirate with the green sash took +the oars. Just as all was ready for the start the cat in red cried: + +"Hold on a minute, Growler! I'll just jump back into their old tub to +see if we've left any vallybles behind!" + +"All right, Prowler." + +It was then and only then that Rudolf and Ann remembered the two white +mice! The last time they had noticed them was at the moment of Peter's +ducking when in their excitement, the foolish creatures had hidden +their faces on each other's shoulders, rolled themselves into a kind +of ball, and stowed themselves under a seat. Prowler leaped into the +little boat which the pirates had fastened by a tow-rope to their own, +and during his search he kept his back turned to his companions. He +was gone but a moment, and when he returned his whiskers were very +shiny, and he was looking extremely jolly as he hummed a snatch of a +pirate song. + +"Find anything?" asked Growler, eying him suspiciously. "If you did, +and don't fork it out before the Chief, _you'll_ catch it. 'Twill be +as much as your nine lives are worth!" + +"Oh, 'twas nothing--nothing of any importance," answered Prowler +airily. + +Rudolf and Ann looked at each other, but neither of them spoke. Both +the pirate cats now settled to the oars and the boat skimmed along the +water in the direction of the _Merry Mouser_. As they drew alongside, +Growler muttered in a not unfriendly whisper: + +"Look here, youngsters, here's a word of advice that may save you your +skins. Don't show any cheek--not to me or Prowler, we're the +mates--and above all, not to the Chief!" + +"What is your Chief's name, Mr. Growler, dear sir?" asked Ann +timidly. + +Growler flashed his white teeth at her. Then he looked at Prowler and +both mates repeated together as if they were saying a lesson: "The +name of our illustrious Chief is Captain Mittens--Mittens, the +Pitiless Pirate--Mittens, the Monster of the Main!" + +"Why--why--my Aunt Jane had a tiger cat once with white paws--" Ann +began, but then she stopped suddenly, for Rudolf had given her a sharp +pinch. A terrible frown had spread over the faces of both Growler and +Prowler. "Above _all_," whispered the mate in low and earnest tones, +"none of that! If you don't want to be keel-hauled, don't recall his +shameful past!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER VI + + +ABOARD THE MERRY MOUSER + + +When Rudolf and Ann and the False Hare, under guard of Growler and +Prowler, reached the deck of the _Merry Mouser_, they found Peter, +dressed in a dry suit of pirate clothing and looking none the worse +for his wetting. He was being closely watched by a big Maltese pirate +whose strong paw with its sharp claws outspread rested on his +shoulder, but as Rudolf and Ann were led past him, he managed to +whisper, "Look out! Mittens is awful cross at us!" + +Foolish Ann paid no attention to this warning. She was so glad to see +her Aunt Jane's pet again that she snatched her hand out of Prowler's +paw, and ran toward the Pirate Chief. "Kitty, Kitty, don't you know +me?" she cried. "Oh, Puss, Puss!" + +For a moment Captain Mittens stood perfectly silent, bristling to the +very points of his whiskers with passion. Then he ordered in a hoarse +kind of growl: "Bring the bags." + +Instantly two ugly black and white spotted cats dived into the little +cabin and brought out an armful of neat, black, cloth bags with +drawing strings in them. "One moment," commanded Mittens in a very +stern voice, "any plunder?" + +Growler, the mate, bowed low before his chief. "'Ere's a werry +'andsome weapon, sir," said he, handing over Rudolf's sword. "Nothing +else on the little ones, sir, but _this_ 'ere gentleman"--pointing to +the False Hare--"was loaded down with jools." + +Hearty cheers sprang from the furry throats of the crew, while broad +grins spread over their whiskered faces as they listened to this +pleasing news. + +"Silence," snarled Mittens--and every cat was still. "Now then," he +commanded Growler, "hand 'em over." + +Very much against his will, Growler emptied his pockets of the False +Hare's jewelry and handed it over to his Chief. Mittens took the gold +watch and chain, the flashing pin and studs, the beautiful diamond +ring and put them all on, glaring defiantly at his crew as he did so. +So fierce was that scowl of his, so sharp and white the teeth he +flashed at them, so round and terrible his gleaming yellow eyes that +not a cat dared object, though the faces of all plainly showed their +anger and disappointment at this unfair division of the spoils. + +"Now, what's in _there_," demanded Mittens, as he gave a contemptuous +kick to the False Hare's dress-suit case. Growler opened it and took +out a dozen paper collars, a little pair of pink paper pajamas, and a +small black bottle labeled "Hare Restorer." + +"All of 'em worth about two cents retail," snorted Mittens with a +bitter look at the False Hare. "And that umbrella, I see, is not made +to go up! Huh! Drowning's too good for _you_!" + +"I feel so myself, sir," said the False Hare humbly. "You see," he +added, wiping away a tear with the back of his paw, "I'm so _fond_ of +the water!" + +Mittens thought a moment, keeping his eye firmly fastened on the Hare. +"I'll fix you," he cried, "I'll tie you up in one of those bags!" + +The False Hare put his paw behind his ear. "Bags?" said he. "Excuse +me, sir, but did you say bags?" + +"Yes, I did," roared the Pirate Chief. "Bags! Bags! Bags!" + +"Oh, _thank_ you!" cried the False Hare cheerily. "Just my favorite +resting-place--a nice snug bag. Mind you have them draw the string +_tight_, won't you?" + +Mittens flew into a terrible passion. "I have it," he roared, "I'll +send you adrift! Here, boys, get that boat ready!" + +Then the Hare began to cry, to sob, to beg for mercy, till the +children felt actually ashamed of him. "Look here, Mittens," Rudolf +began. + +"_Captain_ Mittens," corrected the pirate coldly. + +It was hard for Rudolf, but he dared not anger the pirate cat any +further. "Don't hurt him, please, Captain Mittens," he begged. "He's +only a--" Then he stopped, for the False Hare was making a terrible +face at him behind the handkerchief with which he was pretending to +wipe his eyes. + +"Tie his paws!" commanded Mittens, without so much as a look at +Rudolf. "There--that's a nice bit of string hanging out of his +pocket--take that. Now--chuck him in the boat!" + +In a trice the black and white spotted cats, who seemed to be common +sailors, had tied the False Hare's paws behind him with his own +string, lowered him into the mice's little boat from which they had +already removed the oars, gave it a push, and sent him cruelly adrift! + +"Oh, Rudolf," cried tender-hearted Ann, "what will become of him? Poor +old Hare!" + +"Po-o-o-r old Hare," came back a dismal echo from the little boat +already some distance away. Then they saw that the False Hare had +freed his paws--that string must have been made of paper like his +clothes and his umbrella--and was standing up in his boat waving a +gay farewell to all aboard the _Merry Mouser_. + +"Good-by, kidlets!" he called in mocking tones. "Hope you have a good +time with the tabbies!" And then to Mittens, "Good-by, old Whiskers!" + +At this insult to their Chief all the pirate cats began firing their +revolvers, but their aim must have been very poor indeed, as none of +their shots came anywhere near the Hare's boat. Indeed, a great many +of the cats had forgotten to load their weapons, though they kept +snapping away at their triggers as if that did not matter in the +slightest. The False Hare merely bowed, kissed his paw to Captain +Mittens, and then began using his silk hat as a paddle so skilfully +that in a few moments he was far beyond their range. + +Growler edged up to Prowler. "I say, old chap," he chuckled, "I +s'pose that's what they mean by a hare-breadth escape?" + +Prowler grinned. "It's one on the Chief, anyway," said he joyfully. +"Not a breath of wind, ye know, not so much as a cats-paw--no chance +of a chase." + +"What's that?" Captain Mittens had crept up behind the two mates and +bawled in Prowler's ear. "What's that? No wind? Why not, I'd like to +know? What d'ye mean by running out o' wind? Head her for Catnip +Island this instant, or I'll have ye skinned!" + +"Yes, sir, I'll do my best, sir," answered Prowler meekly. "But you +see, sir, the breeze havin' died, sir, it'll be a tough job to get the +_Merry Mouser_--" + +"Prowler!" The chief, who had been standing close beside the unlucky +mate while he spoke, now came closer yet and fixed his terrible eye +on Prowler's shining whiskers. "How long," he asked, speaking very +slowly and distinctly, "is--it--since--you--have--tasted mouse?" + +Prowler trembled all over. "A--a--week, sir," he mumbled, "that is, I +couldn't _swear_ to the date, sir, but 'twas at my aunt's and she +never has us to tea on a Monday, for that's wash-day, nor on a +Tuesday, for that's missionary, so it must 'a' been--" + +"No use, 't won't work, Prowler." The Chief grinned and waved a paw to +one of the spotted sailors. "Here, you, bring along the +Cat-O'-Nine-Tails!" + +At this the children were immediately very much interested, for they +had never in their lives seen a cat with more than one tail. + +"It would take nine times as much pulling--" Rudolf was whispering to +Peter, when he noticed a new commotion among the sailors. The black +and white sea-cat had turned to carry out the Chief's order when +suddenly some one called out "A breeze, a breeze!" and in the +excitement of getting the _Merry Mouser_ under way, the captain's +attention was turned, and Prowler and his crime were forgotten. + +All this time Ann and Rudolf and Peter had been standing a little +apart from the rest under guard of the Maltese pirate at whose feet +lay the dreadful black bags all ready for use. In the confusion Rudolf +turned to Ann and whispered, "Do you suppose we could possibly stir up +a mutiny? Prowler must be pretty sore against the Chief! If we could +only get him and Growler on our side and make them help us seize +Mittens and drop him overboard." + +But Ann shook her head, and as for Peter he doubled up his little +fists and cried out loud: "Nobody sha'n't touch my Mittens! I don't +care if he _is_ a pirate cat. I'm going to ask my Aunt Jane if I +can't take him home with me to Thirty-fourth Street!" + +"Sh--sh!" Ann whispered, putting her hand over his mouth, but it was +too late! Mittens had crept stealthily up behind Peter and now he +popped one of the black bags over his head. At the same instant, Ann, +kicking and struggling, vanished into another held open by two of the +spotted cats, and before Rudolf could rush to her rescue a third bag +descended over his own head. It was no use struggling, yet struggle +they did, till Mittens sent three of the spotted sailors to sit on +them, and _then_ they soon quieted down. There were one or two small +breathing holes in each bag, or else the children would surely have +suffocated, so stout and heavy were those spotted cats. After what +seemed to them a very long time a cry of "Land ho!" was raised, and +the cats got up and rushed away to join in the general fuss and +confusion of getting the _Merry Mouser_ ready for her landing. + +Rudolf had been working his hardest at one of the holes in his bag and +soon he was able to get a good view of his immediate surroundings. + +"Cheer up!" he called to Ann and Peter. "We're coming close to the +island." + +"Has it got coral reefs and palm-trees and cocoanuts and savages, +friendly ones, I mean?" came in muffled tones from Ann's bag. + +"Has it got monkeys and serpents an' turtles an'--an'--shell-fish?" +demanded Peter from his. + +"N-no," said Rudolf, "I don't see any of those things _yet_. There are +a great many trees, some of 'em coming most down to the edge of the +water, but they're not palm-trees, they're willows, the kind you pick +the little furry gray things off in early spring--" + +"Pussy-willows, of course, stupid!" interrupted Ann. + +"Yes, and back of that there are fields with tall reeds or grasses +with brown tips to them." + +"Cattails!" giggled Ann. + +"And there's a big high cliff, too, with a little stream of water +running down, and--" But here Rudolf stopped, for Growler and Prowler +rushed up, cut the strings of the three bags, and released the +children from their imprisonment. Hardly did they have time to stretch +themselves before the _Merry Mouser_ brought up alongside her +landing-place, and in a moment more the children were being led +ashore, each under guard of a cat pirate to prevent escape. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER VII + + +CATNIP ISLAND + + +Little cats, big cats, black, white, gray, yellow, striped, spotted, +Maltese, tortoise-shell, calico, and tiger cats! Cats of all sizes and +all kinds, cats of all ages, from tiny furry babies wheeled in +perambulators by their mamas to gray old grandpas hobbling along by +the aid of canes or crutches--all the cats of Catnip Island had +trooped down to the shore to watch the landing of the _Merry Mouser_. +Captain Mittens, decked out in the False Hare's jewelry, was the first +to leave the pirate ship. He stepped along jauntily, nose in the air +and the haughtiest kind of expression on his whiskered face. After him +came Growler leading Rudolf, then Prowler with Ann, then the Maltese +pirate with Peter by the hand. The spotted sailors brought up the +rear, all but two who had been left to guard the ship. As soon as the +shore cats saw that their Chief had brought home three prisoners from +his cruise, they set up a great yowl of joy, and began to dance, +prancing and bounding in the air and whirling round and round upon +their hind legs. + +[Illustration: Captain Mittens was the first to leave the pirate +ship.] + +"Oh, my eye!" exclaimed Rudolf, quite forgetting where he was and +standing still to watch their antics. "Don't I wish I had my +slingshot!" + +"Hush! Silence--'nless ye want to be skinned!" It was the voice of +Prowler just behind him. + +"If you think I'm afraid of a lot of silly cats--" began Rudolf, but +his voice was drowned by the angry yowls that burst from a hundred +furry throats as the islanders pressed closer and closer. + +"Oh, Rudolf, do be quiet!" Ann begged, and Rudolf, remembering that he +was not only a long way from his sling shot, but that even his sword +had been taken away from him, was obliged to submit. By this time the +pirates had cleared a way through the crowd and the procession left +the beach and entered the pussy-willow grove which Rudolf had +described from the deck of the _Merry Mouser_. Half hidden among the +trees were a number of pretty little houses, each with a neat door +yard and a high back fence. Each had its name, too, on a small door +plate, and it amused Ann and Peter to spell out as they went +along--"Furryfield," "Mousetail Manor," "Kitten-cote," etc. + +"Oh, look," Ann whispered, "see the darling, little, front doors, +Peter! Just like the cat-hole in Aunt Jane's big door. The chimneys +are shaped something like ears and the roofs are all covered with +fur!" + +"Yes," answered Peter, "and they've got little gardens to 'em, Ann. I +guess that must be the catnip we smell so strong. I don't see any flowers, +though, only big tall weeds, rows and rows of 'em--milkweed--that's what +it is! What do you suppose they planted that for?" + +Prowler, who was walking just ahead of Peter, overheard this last +remark, and turning, fixed his large, round, yellow eyes on the little +boy. "Don't you like milk, young man?" he asked. + +"Why, yes," said Peter, very puzzled, "but not _that_ kind, you know." + +"Well, milk's milk these hard times," said Prowler, wagging his head. +"It don't do to be too particerler. You like mice, don't you?" he +continued. + +"Why, _I_ like candy mice," said Peter grinning, "but I never knew +before that cats did!" + +"Sh-sh!" Poor Prowler began to tremble all over and look anxiously +about him. "Not a word of that," he murmured, "or I'm a dead cat! You +keep mum about that little affair, young'un, and I'll do you a good +turn yet, see if I don't!" + +"All right; don't you forget!" whispered Peter. + +The procession was now approaching a house considerably larger than +any of the others and which had "The Pirattery" written in large +letters over its door. Mittens led the way inside, the mates with the +children and all the other pirates followed, together with as many of +the island cats as could squeeze themselves in. The Pirattery, so the +children were informed by Growler and Prowler, was an assembly hall or +general meeting-place for the pirates when on shore. Its floor and +the little platform at one end were strewn with rat-skin rugs of the +finest quality, and its walls were adorned with handsomely stuffed and +mounted mouse and fish heads, snake skins, and other trophies of the +chase. + +Mittens now took up his position on the platform and began a long and +eloquent speech in which he related the story of the capture of his +prisoners, making the most absurd boasts of the terrible risks he had +run, and dwelling most particularly on the awful fate of the False +Hare--while quite forgetting to mention his escape. This speech was +interrupted by tremendous cheers from the island cats which were only +faintly joined in by the pirates. Mittens finished by saying that a +concert in celebration of the victory would now be given, after which +there would be refreshments--Peter pricked up his ears at the word! +--and then the plunder taken from the prisoners would be distributed +among the officers and crew of the _Merry Mouser_. This last +announcement was greeted by a volley of shrill and joyful yowls from +the younger cat pirates, but Growler, frowning, whispered in Rudolf's +ear: + +"Don't you believe a word of that, about whacking up on the treasure! +He'll never give up so much as a single shirt stud, he won't." + +"I would 'a' liked them pink pajamas, I would," sighed Prowler. +"They'd just suit my dark complexion." + +"I can't understand," said Ann, "what it is that has made such a +change in Mittens! Why, just yesterday when we got to Aunt Jane's he +was asleep before the fire with a little red bow on his collar--just +as soft and nice as anything, and he let us all take turns holding +him!" + +"He never scratched really _deep_ all day," said Peter mournfully, +"only when we dressed him up in the doll's clothes--he didn't seem to +'preciate that--an'--an' when I pulled his tail--he didn't _like_ +that, neither." + +"He's a bad old thief, that's what he is!" exclaimed Rudolf, +forgetting in his excitement to lower his voice. "And if we ever get +back to Aunt Jane's and he's there, _I'll_ fix him--" + +A general warning hiss went up from the pirate cats who stood nearest +to the children. "Be quiet," muttered Growler, "unless you want your +ears bitten off? Don't you see the Chief is going to sing?" + +Mittens had stepped to the front of the platform and was fixing an +angry scowl upon the three children who stood between Growler and +Prowler directly beneath him. When all was so quiet in the hall you +could have heard a pin drop, the Chief cleared his throat and nodded +to the Maltese pirate who stood ready to accompany him upon the +tambourine. In the background a semicircle of other singers clutched +their music and shuffled their feet rather nervously as they waited to +come in at the chorus. + +Mittens sang in a high plaintive voice: + + + "When I was young, you know, + Not very long ago, + I was a mild, a happy Pussy-cat! + My fur was soft as silk, + I lived on bread and milk, + And I dozed away my days upon the mat!" + + _Chorus_ + + ("He was then a happy, happy Pussy-cat!") + + "I really blush to say + How idly I would play + With my tail or silly spool upon the floor-- + Till one unlucky day + Three children came to stay-- + After that I wasn't happy any more." + + _Chorus_ + + ("No, _indeed_, he wasn't happy any more!") + + "They drove me nearly wild, + My temper, once so mild, + They spoiled--the truth of that you'll say is plain-- + So I ran away to sea-- + 'Tis a pirate's life for me, + And I'll never be a Pussy-cat again!" + + _Chorus_ + + ("No, _he'll_ never be a Pussy-cat again!") + + +You may be sure that Rudolf and Ann did not join in the burst of +applause which greeted the end of Captain Mittens' song. Peter would +have been glad to, for he was too young and foolish to understand how +really impertinent Mittens had been, but his brother and sister +quickly stopped that. As for Growler and Prowler, they merely yawned, +as if they had heard this song more than once before, only faintly +clapping their paws together in order not to attract the tyrant's +attention to themselves. The next piece on the program, so Mittens +announced, would be a duet between himself and Miss Tabitha Tortoise, +entitled _Moonbeams on the Back Fence_. This selection proved so very +noisy, so full of quavers, trills, and loud and piercing yowls, that +the children decided it would be safe to attempt a little +conversation. + +"Oh, Rudolf," whispered Ann, "how shall we ever get away from here?" + +"Don't want to get away," grumbled Peter. "We're going to have +refreshments; Mittens said so." + +"Nonsense; you'll have to go if we do," answered Rudolf. "But listen, +what are the mates saying?" + +The two black cat pirates were conversing excitedly under cover of the +music, and presently the children heard what Prowler was whispering +to Growler: "Look here, Matey, where's the rest of the swag, the suit +case and _his_ sword, you know?" + +"On board ship, stowed away in Cap'n's cabin," answered Growler. "You +don't mean to--" + +"Yes, I do--I'm no 'fraid-cat--I mean to have them pink pajamas, or--" + +"And where do _I_ come in, eh?" exclaimed Growler indignantly. + +"Oh, you can have the shirts and collars, Matey. Share and share +alike, you know. We'll just slip off to the ship, and--" + +"And take us with you," broke in Rudolf. "Do!" + +"You know you promised to do us a good turn," whispered Ann. "And if +you don't take us we'll tell, and we'll tell about what happened to +the white mice, too--" + +"And while you're about it," went on Rudolf, "you'd better take +possession of the vessel. Between us we can easily manage those old +spotties that were left on board. Then, don't you see, when you +fellows are masters of the _Merry Mouser_, you'll have Mittens in your +power and you can make him whack up on all the treasure!" + +At this brilliant suggestion the two mates gave a smothered cheer, +gazing at each other with their round yellow eyes full of joy and +their whiskered mouths grinning so widely that the children could see +their little red tongues and all their sharp white teeth. + +"But how shall we get away without being seen?" Ann asked. + +"Oh, that'll be all right," said Prowler, looking about him nervously. +"Just wait till you hear 'em announce the refreshments--that always +means a rush, you know. Then slip through the crowd and out by that +door behind the curtain, and hustle down to the ship just as fast as +ever you can lay your paws to the ground!" + +Prowler had hardly finished speaking before, with a final long-drawn +piercing yowl, the duet of the Pirate Chief and Miss Tabitha Tortoise +came to an end, and an intermission of ten minutes for refreshments +was announced. From an inner room at the back of the hall a dozen or +so white cats in caps and aprons trotted forth bearing large trays +loaded with very curious-looking cat-eatables. + +Rudolf and Ann had now their usual trouble with Peter who at first +absolutely refused to budge until he had tasted at least "one of +each". When at last he was made to understand that the trays around +which the cats were so greedily thronging contained nothing more +inviting than roasted rats and pickled fish fins, and that these +delicacies would probably not be offered to prisoners anyway, he +regretfully allowed himself to be pushed through a door at the side of +the hall and hurried off in the direction of the shore. Although the +children, followed closely by the two mates, had managed to slip away +almost unnoticed in the general excitement, yet they knew their escape +must soon be discovered and they ran as fast as ever they could go. + +At last they reached the wharf and scrambled up the side of the _Merry +Mouser_, expecting each instant to receive some kind of challenge from +the two spotted cats on guard. Much to their surprise they received +none. This was soon explained, for the two common sailors were found +in the cabin, curled up in the Captain's bunk, fast asleep. + +"A nice mess they'd be in if the Chief caught 'em!" cried Growler. + +Prowler said nothing, but winked at his friend, and taking a piece of +strong string from his pocket, he bound the poor spotted cats' eight +paws all in a bunch together and left them to continue their nap. This +little matter attended to, all hands now turned their attention to +raising the sail, and by the time the advance-guard of cat pirates +came rushing down through the pussy-willow grove in their pursuit, the +_Merry Mouser_, borne along by a breeze that was something more than a +catspaw, was fast leaving the shores of Catnip Island behind her. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER VIII + + +MUTINY ON BOARD + + +For some time the children leaned over the rail looking back at the +group of cats gathered at the water's edge. The form of the Pirate +Chief towered above them all as he ran up and down the beach yowling +out all sorts of commands to which was paid very little attention by +any one, and stopping every little while to flourish an angry paw in +the direction of the _Merry Mouser_. + +Peter regarded him sadly. "Poor old Mitts," he sighed, "it was an +awful mean trick to play on him! He hasn't got any other boat and he +looks so mad, I b'lieve he'd swim after us if he could." + +"He could, all right," said Prowler gravely, "but he'd get his paws +wet, and that's a serious thing, you know." + +Rudolf and Ann burst out laughing, and even Peter smiled, for it +seemed to them a funny thing for a pirate to fuss about. + +"Now," exclaimed Rudolf, as the breeze freshened and the forms of the +cat pirates began to fade from sight, "there's a great deal to be +attended to. What do you think we'd better get at first?" + +"My pink pajamas!" cried Prowler, leaping in the air and turning a +double somersault in his delight. + +"My paper collars!" shouted Growler, following his example. + +Rudolf was disgusted with the two mates for thinking of such nonsense +at a time like this, but it was no use trying to do anything with +them. They left the _Merry Mouser_ to his management, and rushed below +to bring up the False Hare's suit case. When they returned they were +followed by the two spotted sailors whom they introduced to the +children as Toddles and Towser. Toddles and Towser were still very +sleepy. They had managed to free themselves by chewing the string that +bound their paws, but they did not seem at all disturbed by the change +in affairs or inclined to make any trouble. + +Rudolf placed them both at the wheel with stern directions to keep +each other awake if possible. He then went below to see if he could +find his sword before either Growler or Prowler should take a fancy to +it. It was hanging up over Captain Mittens' berth, and under the +Chief's pillow, neatly folded ready for the night, Rudolf found +Peter's pajamas. As they were quite dry now, he called Peter and +insisted on his putting them on, much against the little boy's +wishes, for hot and tight and furry as his borrowed suit had been, +Peter had felt gloriously like a pirate in it! Very sulkily he +followed his brother out of the cabin, but when the two had mounted to +the deck Peter's sulks gave way to a burst of giggles at the sight of +Growler and Prowler. + +Ann was sitting on the deck quite weak with laughter, while the two +mates, dressed in their stolen finery, paraded up and down in front of +her. Prowler's pink pajamas were a better fit for him than Growler's +paper collar which nearly concealed his pirate's nose, only the points +of his whiskers and the tips of his black ears showing. Ann had added +to his costume by the loan of her blue hair-ribbon which she had tied +in a nice bow on the tip of his tail. But Prowler, if possible, looked +even more silly than Growler, for he copied the actions of Captain +Mittens as closely as he could, folding his paws on his chest and +scowling gloomily about him. He seemed extremely vexed when the +children laughed, but they really could not help it, since a pirate in +pink pajamas is not particularly dreadful. At last, after much +coaxing, Rudolf got the whole party to sit down in a circle on the +deck and consult with him on some plan of action. + +"We _must_ make up our minds," said he firmly, "on where we are going, +and what is the nearest land, and what we are going to do when we get +there, and who is in command of the _Merry Mouser_, anyway, and--" + +Here he was interrupted by Prowler who said would he please go a +little slower, for Rudolf was making his head ache and it reminded him +of going to his aunt's to say his catechism. + +"The thing ter do," drawled Growler sleepily, "is ter do nothin' 'tall +till ye git somewheres where somethin's gotter be did, an' then +like's not it's too late ter do anything an' all yer trouble's saved +for ye!" + +Rudolf did not think much of this as advice, but Prowler seemed +delighted. "Hurrah, my hearties!" he shouted, and up he jumped, stood +on his furry head on the deck, and waved his pink pajamaed legs in the +air. "Now we can have our tea!" he cried. + +The faces of the three children brightened at the pleasant thought of +tea, and when the tray arrived, carried by Towser, Ann asked if she +might pour. + +"Paw away!" cried Prowler, grinning widely as he fixed his round +yellow eyes on a small covered dish that Toddles had just set before +him. + +Ann lifted the cover of the tea-pot to peep inside but as she sniffed +the steam an expression of disgust wrinkled up her little nose. +"Ugh!" she cried, "it's catnip tea." + +"Course it is," answered Prowler calmly. "Catnip tea and stewed +mouses' tails--an' I asks what could anybody want nicer?" + +"Little girls that don't like what's put before 'em can go without. +Ever hear anything like that before?" asked Growler sweetly, and as he +spoke he reached over and took the covered dish away from Prowler and +helped himself to it largely. + +"But we don't any of us like this kind of a tea!" cried Rudolf +angrily. + +"Then all the more for us that does," said Prowler, and he snatched +the dish in his turn away from Growler and emptied all that was left +of it on his own plate. Since there was nothing else for the children +to do, they sat and watched the two mates eat, all of them feeling +decidedly cross, especially Peter. When every drop was finished and +every crumb licked up, Growler said to Prowler, "Time for a nap, old +boy," and without so much as a look in the children's direction the +two rude fellows turned tail and marched off arm in arm to their +bunks. + +"Well, they _are_ nice!" cried Ann. "And what are _we_ going to do, I +would like to know?" + +"What we are going to do," said Rudolf thoughtfully, "is probably to +be shipwrecked. Oh, not _right_ away," he added quickly as he saw how +frightened his little sister looked. "But there's land close ahead, as +sure as sure can be, and, if I'm not much mistaken, Toddles and Towser +have both gone to sleep at the wheel." + +It was true. The two common sea-cats had left the wheel to take care +of itself and had curled themselves up in a soft round ball on the +deck for a nap from which the children found it impossible to arouse +them. + +"I will try to steer and also mind the sheet, I think that's what it's +called," said Rudolf, "but as I don't know _much_ about sailing a boat +except what I've read in books, and you and Peter don't know +_anything_, I think the least we'll do will be to run her aground." + +"Let's try to wake Growler and Prowler up," Ann begged. "They can't be +sound asleep yet." + +The two mates were not only sound asleep but snoring loudly. Ann and +Peter tried shaking them, spanking them, even drenching them with the +cold remains of the catnip tea, but it was all no use, they could not +get them to stir. Meanwhile the _Merry Mouser_ was drifting +dangerously near land, in spite of all Rudolf could do to prevent her. +He did several things and he ordered Peter and Ann to do a good many +others, but all of them felt glad the False Hare was not there to +compliment them on their seamanship. At last there came a dull shock +and a jar, and the _Merry Mouser_ ran her nose into a sand-bar, +quivered all over, and then stood still. + +"The thing to do _now_" said Rudolf easily, just as if he had planned +it all, "is for us to get into the little boat we are towing and row +ourselves ashore. Of course we must wake up the mates and the crew and +take them with us." + +It was simply astonishing the things those children had to do to +Growler and Prowler before they could get either of them so much as to +open an eye! When they were at last able to understand what had +happened, they merely turned over and growled out: "Oh, is _that_ all? +Aground, are we? Ye needn't have waked us up for _that_! Be off as +soon as ye like and give us some rest--do!" They had hardly left off +speaking before they were sound asleep again. As for Toddles and +Towser they refused to wake at all. + +The children left them where they lay and climbed Over the side of the +_Merry Mouser_ into the little rowboat which Rudolf had brought +alongside. When all were safely aboard, he cut loose the tow-rope, +took the oars, and pulled away from the pirate ship. After a short and +pleasant row they reached a gently shelving beach where it was not +difficult to make a landing. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER IX + + +CAPTAIN JINKS + + +Ann stood and stared at the line of low hills that fringed the edge of +the water. "What funny, funny country!" she exclaimed. "It's like a +checker-board going up-hill." + +"No, it isn't either," said Rudolf, who loved to disagree, "because +the squares are not square, they're all different shapes and sizes and +they're not just red and black but ever and ever so many different +colors." + +"It's something like the countries in the geography maps, anyway," +said Ann. + +"It's like patchwork," said Peter, and he came nearest the truth. + +As it did not seem likely they would need the little boat again, the +children left it to float away if it liked, and crossed the strip of +gray sand to where they saw a little pink and white striped path +winding up the side of a crimson hill. This path they began to follow, +and it took them by so many twists and turns that they hardly noticed +the climb. When the last loop brought them to the top of the slope +they stood still and looked about them, surprised and delighted at the +beauty of the bare bright hills that sloped away in front of them. + +The ground under their feet was now a bright beautiful yellow, +powdered all over with little white dots that proved to be daisies. +With shouts of delight, Ann and Peter stooped to gather these, but +Rudolf cried out: "Oh, look, look! Don't let's stop here. It's +prettier yet farther on!" So on they ran, all three of them, over the +yellow ground, over a stretch of green and blue checks, across a +lavender meadow, and found themselves at last in a wonderful pale +blue field scattered all over with bunches of little pink roses. + +"This is the prettiest yet," exclaimed Ann, "though of course it is +very old-fashioned. I wonder what it reminds me of? Ruddy, do you +remember that picture of Aunt Jane when she was little in such a funny +dress with low neck and short sleeves--" + +The children had been wandering across the field as Ann spoke, +stopping to pull a rose here and there, too busy and too happy to +notice where their feet were taking them. All at once they looked up +and saw that they had come to the end of the pale blue field where it +bordered on a broad brown road. Just ahead of them stood a little +white tent, and from the door of the tent two tin soldiers suddenly +sprang out, shouldered arms, and cried: "Halt!" + +Of course the children halted. There was nothing else to do, so +astonished were they to meet any one when they had supposed themselves +to be in quite a wild and uninhabited country. Besides, though these +were small and tinny-looking, yet soldiers are soldiers wherever you +meet them, and have an air about them which makes people feel +respectful. These two handled their little guns in a most businesslike +manner. The taller of the two, who seemed by his uniform to be a +superior officer, now stepped forward and snapped out: "Give the +countersign!" + +The children stood still and stared, Peter with his thumb in his +mouth. + +"We haven't got any, sir, so we can't give it to you," said Ann at +last. + +"Silly! He means _say_ it," whispered Rudolf in her ear. + +"We can't say it either," Ann went on, "because we don't know it. But +we know lots of other things," she added, looking pleadingly at the +officer. "Rudolf, he can say the whole of ''Twas the night before +Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not +even a mouse'--and I can say 'The Gentle Cow all Red and White I Love +with all my Heart',--and Peter he says 'I have a Little Shadow',--he +knows it all, every word!" + +The little officer turned sharply to his companion. "Make a note of +that, Sergeant," he snorted. "Head it, suspicious information: first +prisoner, probably dangerous burglar burgling on Christmas eve; second +prisoner, cattle thief; third prisoner--" + +"But we aren't anything like that," broke in Rudolf hastily. "You're +entirely mistaken, we--" + +"Say what you are, then," snapped the officer, "and where you have +come from and where you are going and what you are going to do when +you get there; say it, quick!" And raising his little gun, the officer +pointed it straight at Rudolf's nose. + +"We have come from Catnip Island where we were captured by the cat +pirates," began Rudolf, stumbling over the words in his excitement, +"and we--we don't know exactly where we are going, and we--we aren't +doing exactly anything!" + +"Aha!" The officer turned to his sergeant with a triumphant +expression. "Just what I thought. Anybody that can't give a better +account of himself than that had better be locked up. Spies--aha! +Another of you came ashore a while ago--a glib-tongued, story-telling +gentleman who fooled us into letting him off, but we've got _you_ safe +and sound and here you'll stay! Sergeant, arrest these spies!" + +"Certainly, sir," said the sergeant, making a note of it in his book, +"but please, sir, how do they be spelled, Captain Jinks, sir?" + +"S-p-i-s-e, spies, of course, idiot!" snapped the captain. "Now then, +off with 'em. Separate cell for each prisoner, bars to the windows. +Heavy chains on this gentleman in particeler," pointing to Rudolf. +"Bread and water, on a Sunday. Off to the jail with 'em--march 'em +along!" + +"Beg pardon, sir," interrupted the sergeant who was glad of an excuse +to stop at a very difficult bit of spelling. "We'll have to wait a +bit. I hear the Queen's band playin'--" + +"Then stand at attention and hold yourself answerable for the +prisoners!" With this command, Captain Jinks faced about to the road, +and stiffened all over till he looked like a little tin statue. For +some time the children had been hearing the sound of music, at first +faint and far-away, now growing louder and louder. The sergeant +pulled them hastily to the side of the road, and bade them in a gruff +voice, "Keep quiet, or he'd settle 'em!" Then he, too, stiffened all +over just as Captain Jinks had done, and both of them presented arms. +The head of a procession was coming in sight. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER X + + +MEETING A QUEEN + + +First came a large company of soldiers almost exactly like Captain +Jinks and the sergeant, except that their uniforms were a little +shabbier-looking, and their arms a little less brightly polished. They +held themselves stiffly and marched very well, in spite of the fact +that many of them had suffered severe injuries, such as the loss of a +leg or an arm at the least, in some former campaign, and all of them +were rather the worse for wear. After the soldiers came the band, +playing shrilly on their tiny instruments, and next, to the children's +delight and astonishment, rolled a number of little carriages drawn by +mechanical horses. Rudolf was so keenly interested in the working of +these mechanical horses, that he hardly noticed the fine ladies who +sat stiffly on the cushioned seats of the carriages, very grandly +dressed, and holding beautiful pink and blue parasols over their +curled heads. + +Suddenly Ann grabbed his arm and whispered: "Look, look! Did you see +them? Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida, my _own_ dolls, and they +never so much as bowed!" + +"Perhaps they didn't know you," whispered Rudolf. + +"They did, too," returned his sister angrily. "They just laughed and +turned their heads the other way, horrid things! Just wait, I'll tell +them what I think of them; but, oh, Rudolf, here come more carriages +and more dolls in them, and how queerly they are dressed, these last, +I mean! I never saw any dolls like them before. See their poke +bonnets, and their fringed mantles, and their little hoop-skirts, +but, oh, look, _look_, can that be the Queen?" + +Ann's voice sounded disappointed as well as surprised, and in her +excitement she spoke so loud that Captain Jinks himself turned his +threatening eye on her and called out: "Silence!" But Ann paid no +attention to him, nor did the other children; the eyes of all three +were fixed upon a little figure who rode all alone at the very end of +the procession. They knew she must be the Queen by the respectful way +in which Captain Jinks and the sergeant saluted, but she was very +different from what they had imagined a Queen to be. The wooden horse +which she rode was not handsome, indeed one of his legs was missing, +but he pranced and curvetted so proudly upon the remaining three that +it seemed as if he knew he carried a Queen upon his back. The royal +lady kept her seat with perfect ease, and when she came opposite the +children, she checked her steed, halted, and gazed down upon them. + +"Have you forgotten me?" she said. Then she smiled and they knew her +at once. It was the corn-cob doll! Though she had grown so much larger +and seemed so much grander, yet she looked just the same as when they +had taken her out of Aunt Jane's sandal-wood box from which, the +children now remembered, certain tin soldiers and a three-legged +wooden horse had also come! The Queen still wore her flowing +greeny-yellow gown, her hair was braided in two long braids that hung +over her shoulders, and she carried her quaint little head high, in +truly royal fashion. + +Now she dismounted gracefully from her horse and came toward the +children, holding out her hand. They dared not look her in the face. +They were all three ashamed to speak to her, and especially Rudolf who +remembered only too clearly all the unkind things he had said about +the corn-cob doll, and how very, very near he had come to roasting her +over the nursery fire! Whatever would happen, thought he, if any of +her subjects who seemed to stand in such awe of her, should find out +that attempt on their Queen's life? Captain Jinks would probably think +imprisonment on bread and water entirely too good for him, probably it +would be slow torture. + +"Answer her majesty," muttered the captain in his ear, "or I'll have +your head cut off!" + +Still Rudolf, blushing fiery red, and not knowing what to say, +continued to stare down at his toes. Peter put his thumb in his mouth, +Ann hung down her head; neither of them was any better off. + +The little tin captain stepped eagerly forward. "Shall I give orders +to prepare for the execution, your Majesty?" he began, in a voice +full of pleased excitement. "These suspicious persons are already +under arrest. They would furnish very excellent targets for the +artillery practise? If it should please your Majesty to offer a prize +for the best shot? Or, if your Majesty is in a _hurry_, now, a nice +dip in boiling oil would finish them off very neatly!" + +"Be quiet, Jinks," said the Queen frowning. "You talk so much I can't +think. If it wasn't for those tiresome revolutions in my capital city, +I believe I'd banish you. Let me see, how many of them have you +suppressed for me?" + +"Exactly twelve, your Majesty," answered Jinks with a low bow, "and I +beg to announce that we are at this moment on the brink of the +thirteenth--baker's dozen, your Majesty." + +"Oh, it's the baker this time, is it?" asked the Queen with a sigh. +"What's the matter with _him_, Jinks?" + +"Same old trouble, your Majesty. Your court, those doll ladies in +particular, have become so haughty--" + +"Naughty, you mean, Jinks," corrected the Queen. + +"So haughty _and_ naughty, your Majesty, that they've absolutely +refused to eat their crusts. Did anybody, I ask your Majesty, ever +hear the likes of that?" + +There was a moment's silence. The Queen shook her head. The children +tried to appear at their ease, but they were not. Ann looked +particularly uncomfortable. She was not fond of her crusts. + +"Well, go on, Jinks, what else?" said the Queen. + +"Well, your Majesty, this keeps the baker busy day and night baking +'em bread, not to speak of the cakes and pies, and he says he feels he +hadn't orter stand it any longer. He's going to strike. As for the +populace, your Majesty, they only get the stale loaves or none at +all, and they're wild, your Majesty, very wild indeed." + +"I suppose they are, Jinks," sighed the Queen. + +"And the worst of it is, your Majesty, we're very short of soldiers. +The Commander-in-Chief"--both Jinks and the sergeant drew themselves +up and saluted at the name--"has taken a whole company to the seaboard +for to repel the cat pirates, and very fierce them pirates are, I've +heard tell. We may have to send him reinforcements at any time." + +"The Commander-in-Chief, Jinks," said the Queen haughtily, "is a great +general. He will manage the pirates and the baker, too, if you can't +do it. And if the worst should come to the worst before he gets back, +why I'll just abdicate, that's all, and the baker can be king and much +good may it do him." She turned to the children and smiled at them. +"Now," she said, "you shall come with me and I will show you where I +used to live before I was a Queen." + +The corn-cob doll waved her hand, gave an order, and immediately the +carriage in which sat Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida was turned and +driven back to where the children stood. + +"These ladies will enjoy a walk," said the Queen. + +Very sulkily the two elegant doll-ladies got out of their carriage, +not daring to disobey, and passed by Ann, noses in the air, without so +much as a nod. + +"Never mind them, dears," said the Queen kindly. "They don't know any +better. Now jump in!" + +The children obeyed, hardly able to believe in their good luck, and in +another moment, much to the surprise and indignation of Captain +Jinks, they were rolling away from him, the Queen riding close beside +their carriage. + +"You are safe now," said she, "at least until the revolution begins. +If Jinks should fire his cannon, that's a sign it's starting, but +don't worry"--as she saw that the children were looking rather +alarmed--"I dare say it will blow over without a battle. And now I +want you to look about you, for I don't think you have ever seen +anything like this before." + +They had not indeed, and as their shyness wore off, the children began +to ask the Queen a great many questions. Was this her capital city +they were coming to? Were those the stores where all the dolls' +clothes in the world came from? Was it real water in the little +fountain playing in the middle of the square? All this time they were +being carried swiftly through the streets of the neatest, prettiest, +little, toy town any one could wish to see. Both sides of the main +street were lined with little shops, and as the children leaned out of +the carriage for a brief glimpse into their glittering windows, they +saw sights that made them long to stop and look more closely. + +There were clothing shops, shoe shops, candy shops, a very +grand-looking milliner's establishment where the children were amused +to catch a glimpse of Angelina-Elfrida and Marie-Louise trying on +hats, and a gaily decorated doll theater where a crowd of dolls were +pushing their way in to see a Punch and Judy show. There were markets +where busy customers thronged to buy all sorts and kinds of doll +eatables, turkeys and chickens the size of sparrows and humming-birds, +yellow pumpkins as big as walnuts, red-cheeked apples like +cranberries, cabbages fully as large as the end of your thumb, and +freshly baked pies as big around as a penny. + +Peter's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he passed all these good +things without hope of sampling any of them! The last shop they passed +was that of the royal baker, and they noticed that its windows were +boarded up, while a crowd of common dolls stood about in front of the +door, muttering angrily. + +But now the business part of the town was left behind, and the +children were being driven through street after street of gaily +painted, neatly built, little houses with gardens full of tiny +bright-colored flowers, stables, garages--everything complete that the +heart of the most exacting doll in the world could desire. Ann and +Peter were quite wild about it all, and even Rudolf condescended to +admire. Now the houses were left behind and they entered a little +park, where tiny artificial lakes glittered and stiff little trees +were set about on the bright green grass. In the center of this park +stood the doll palace. It was pure white, finished in gold, and had +real glass windows in it, and white marble steps leading up to it, and +high gilded gates where a guard of soldiers turned out to present +arms, and a band was beginning to play. The rest of the procession +turned in at the gates of the palace, but rather to the children's +disappointment, the Queen gave their coachman orders to drive on. + +"You may see my palace afterward, if we have time," she said, "but I +want to take you first of all to see my dear old home where I used to +live when I was a girl, when the little mother took care of me." + +The children looked at one another. Then Peter said boldly: "Was that +when you were Aunt Jane's doll? You weren't a Queen _then_, were +you?" + +"No, indeed," answered her majesty, smiling. "I was just an ugly +little doll, the happiest, best-loved little doll in all the world, +and with the dearest little mother. But here we are, and you shall see +for yourself what a snug home I had." + +The old doll house looked neat enough from the outside, to be sure, +but I am afraid if the children had run across it in the attic at Aunt +Jane's they would have taken it for a couple of large packing-boxes +set one upon the other. Once inside, however, they forgot how +impatient they had been to see the palace and its gorgeous +furnishings, they were so interested and amused by the homely +furnishings and neat little arrangements so proudly displayed to them +by the Corn-cob Queen. + +She led the children through one room after another, explaining each +thing as they passed it. Those little muslin curtains at the windows, +the little mother had hemmed them all herself. It was she who had made +that wonderful cradle out of cardboard, with sheets from a pair of +grandfather's old pocket-handkerchiefs, she who had pieced that +tiniest of tiny patchwork quilts! In the kitchen that neat set of pots +and pans made from acorns and the shells of walnuts was the work of +her hands, assisted, perhaps, by the penknife of a certain little boy. +That blue and white tea-set on the pantry shelves--the children +recognized it at once as having come out of the sandal-wood box--why +it was almost worn out from the number of cups of tea the old doll and +her little mother had taken together in the good old days! + +"It's just the dearest little house in the world," sighed Ann, when, +after having seen and admired everything to their heart's content, +they took their places in the carriage again, "and we don't wonder you +love it! The things that come straight from the toy shops are not +really half so nice as the things you fix yourself--we understand now. +But I suppose," she added thoughtfully, "you find it much grander +being a Queen?" + +"Grander, perhaps," sighed the corn-cob doll, "but a great deal more +of a nuisance. However--" + +Just then the pop of a toy cannon interrupted the Queen's speech. They +had driven back almost to the palace, and could see a crowd of common +dolls of all kinds and sizes gathering on the green in front of the +gilded gates. At the same moment a troop of soldiers, headed by the +little tin captain, came running from the direction of the town +evidently with the intention of putting a stop to the disturbance. + +"The revolution," said the Queen calmly, "just as I expected. Now I am +afraid I shall have to send you out of town." + +"But why?" Rudolf began in his arguing voice. "We don't _want_ to go. +We want to stay and fight on your side, and I'm sure we'd be very +useful! Why I'd just as lief command your army as not, and--" + +"Thank you very much," said the Corn-cob Queen, "but what would +Captain Jinks say to that? He is in command, you know. And if he +_should_ fail me, why the Commander-in-Chief will soon be back from +capturing the cat pirates." + +"Who is this fellow you call the Commander-in-Chief, anyway?" Rudolf +interrupted crossly. + +The Queen looked him straight in the eye. "I hope," she said, "that +you may all be allowed to see him some day, if you are good. He is a +_great_ soldier. He never sulks, and always obeys without asking +questions. That is more than some little boys do." Rudolf hung his +head, and the Queen added hastily: "But now I see that Captain Jinks +and the baker are going to hold a conference. I must go and join them. +Your coachman will drive you out of town the back way. Now where would +you like to go?" + +"Back to our Aunt Jane, please," said Ann quickly. "Can you tell us +the way?" + +"No," said the Queen, "I mustn't, but I have a friend who is a +dream-keeper just over the border, and I think he may be able to help +you. I'll tell the coachman to drive you there. Now good-by!" + +"Good-by, good-by!" called the children. The coachman touched up the +horses, they were whirled away in a cloud of dust through which they +looked back regretfully at the queenly figure on the little wooden +horse who waved her hand again and again in kindly farewell. They saw +her joined by Captain Jinks and by a stout person in a white cap and +apron who handed the Queen what seemed to be some kind of document +printed upon a large sheet of pie crust. + +"That was the Baker, I guess," said Rudolf, "and I dare say what he +was handing her was the declaration of war! Oh, what a shame it is we +are going to miss all the fun!" + +"And the refreshments," sighed Peter. "We _always_ do! I never did +taste a declarashun of war, but it looked awful good. The very next +time I see one, I'm going to--" + +But what Peter was going to do Ann and Rudolf did not hear, for at +that moment they were all three nearly spilled out of the little +carriage by the furious rate at which their driver turned a corner. +They had left the dolls' city far behind them and were out on the long +brown road that led past the little tent where the children had been +arrested by Jinks and the sergeant. Now they were out in the open +country hurrying past the wonderful bright-colored plains, past fields +of pink and purple, blue and green and yellow, white and scarlet, +faster and faster all the time, the horses rushing along with such +curious irregular jerks and bounds that it was almost impossible for +the children to keep their seats, and they expected at each moment to +be dumped in the middle of the road. + +"Look out!" shouted Rudolf to the coachman. "Don't you see you are +going to upset us?" + +The coachman was a very grand-looking person in a white and gold +livery. He never even turned his powdered head as he shouted back: + +"Didn't have no--or-ders--not--to!" And for some time they tore on +faster than ever. + +At last Ann leaned forward and caught hold of one of the coachman's +little gold-embroidered coat tails. "Oh, do take care," she cried, +"you might run somebody down!" + +"That's it,"--the coachman's voice sounded faint and jerky, and the +children could hardly catch the words that floated back to them: +"Running--down--run-ing--down! As--fast--as--ev-er--I--can. +Most--com-pli-cated--insides--in--all--the--king-dom. Can't--be +--wound--up--not--by--likes--of--you--" + +The horses were no longer galloping, now they were slowing up, now +they stopped, but with such a sudden jerk that all three children were +tumbled out into the road. They had been expecting this to happen for +so long that the thing was not such a shock after all, and somehow +they landed without being hurt in the slightest. They picked +themselves up, and saw the little carriage standing at the side of the +road, the horses perfectly motionless, each with a forefoot raised in +the air, the coachman stiff and still upon his box, _gazing_ straight +in front of him. + +"He'll stay like that," said Peter mournfully, rubbing the dust from +his knees, "till he's wound up again. I wish we had the key!" + +"I wish we did," said Rudolf crossly. "You know what Betsy says +about--'If wishes were horses, beggars could ride'--well, they aren't, +so we've got to walk now. I wonder where we are?" + +Looking around them, the children saw that they had come to the very +last of the many colored fields, where the brown road ended in a +stretch of creamy-yellow grass. Just beyond a thick woods began, but +was divided from the creamy field by a broad bright strip of color, +like a long flower bed planted with flowers of all kinds and colors +set in all sorts of different patterns--stars, triangles, diamonds, +and squares. + +"That's the border," shouted Ann, "and over there somewhere we'll find +the person the Queen said would help us get back to Aunt Jane. Come +on!" As she spoke she bounded off across the field, the two boys after +her, and in less time than it takes to tell it they had run through +the tall yellow grass, jumped the border, and stood upon the edge of +the wood. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XI + + +THE GOOD DREAMS + + +A thin screen of bushes was all that hid from the children's eyes the +people whose voices they could hear so plainly. + +"Maybe it's some kind of picnic they're having in there," cried Peter, +pushing eagerly forward. "Come on quick!" + +"No, you don't, either," whispered Rudolf, catching him and holding +him back. "Don't let's get caught this time, let's peep through first +and see what the people are like." + +"Yes, do let's be careful," pleaded Ann. "We don't want to get +arrested again, it's not a bit nice--though I suppose if this is where +the Queen's friend lives, it isn't likely anything so horrid will +happen to us." + +"Do stop talking, Ann, and listen. Whoever they are in there, they +are making so much noise they can't possibly hear me, so I'm going to +creep into those bushes and see what I can see." + +As he spoke Rudolf carefully parted the bushes at a spot where they +were thin and peeped between the leaves, Ann and Peter crowding each +other to see over his shoulder. They looked into a kind of open glade +not much larger than a good-sized room and walled on all sides by tall +trees and thick underbrush. It had a flooring of soft green turf, and +about in the middle lay a great rock as large as a playhouse. This +rock was all covered over with moss and lichens, and the strange thing +about it was that a neat door had been cut in its side. Before this +door, talking and waving his hands to the crowd that thronged about +him, stood a man--the queerest little man the children had ever seen! +He looked like a collection of stout sacks stuffed very tightly and +tied firmly at the necks. One sack made his head, another larger one +his body, four more his arms and legs. His broad face, though rather +dull, wore a good-humored expression, and he smiled as he looked about +him. + +A pile of empty sacking-bags lay on the ground beside him, and from +time to time he caught up one of these, ran his eye over the crowd, +chose one of them, and popped him, or it, as it happened to be, into +the sack which he then swung on his shoulder and heaved into the open +doorway in the big rock, where it disappeared from sight. He would +then taken another sack and make a fresh selection, looking about him +all the while with sleepy good humor, and paying little if any +attention to the cries, questions, and complaints with which he was +attacked on all sides. + +What a funny lot they were--this crowd that surrounded the little man! +The children could hardly smother their excitement at the sight of +them. Not people or animals only were they, but all kinds of odd +objects also, such as no one could expect to see running about loose. +A Birthday Cake was there, with lighted candles; a little pile of +neatly darned socks and stockings, a white-cotton Easter Rabbit with +pink pasteboard ears, a Jolly Santa Claus, a smoking hot Dinner, a +Nice Nurse who rocked a smiling baby, a brown-faced grinning +Organ-Man, his organ strapped before him, his Monkey on his shoulder. +There were too many by far for the children to take in all at once, +but at the sight of one particular member of the crowd, the children +gasped with astonishment; and Peter's excitement nearly betrayed +them. There, lounging by the side of a mild-faced School-Mistress +Person, still smoking his chocolate cigarette, was--the False Hare! + +"Look alive now!" the little man was crying out. "Who's next, who's +next?" + +"Me, me, me--take me next, Sandy!" A dozen little voices cried this at +one and the same time. There was a scramble, bursts of laughter, +followed by a sharp rebuke from Sandy. "No, you don't either. Stand +back, you small fry. No shoving!" + +When Peter had seen and recognized the False Hare he had been so +excited that it had been almost impossible for Rudolf and Ann to keep +him quiet. Now, as he watched the scramble and the rush and the fuss +the funny crowd was making about the little man, he laughed out so +loud that it was too late even to pinch him. The children's presence +was discovered, and two, tall, silver candlesticks jumped from a +satin-lined box and ran to draw them into the middle of the glade. +Sandy, as the little man appeared to be called, paused in his +business, turned round, and smiled at the children. + +"Now then," said he, "what are you doing here? Don't you know this is +my busy night? Who are you, anyway? Not on my list, I'll warrant. +Who's dreams are you?" + +"Nobody's," began Rudolf. "The Corn-cob Queen sent us to see if you +could tell us any way to get back to our Aunt Jane--" + +"Nobody's?" interrupted the little man. "Did you say you were Nobody's +dreams? Don't see him in the N's." And he took a printed list out of +his pocket and ran his eye anxiously over it. "Are you sure--" + +"Please, he means we're not dreams," said Ann, stepping forward, "at +least we don't think so." She hesitated a second and then added: "It +depends on what happens to them. Are these all dreams?" + +"All perfectly Good Dreams, or my name's not Sandman," answered the +baggy fellow briskly. "We don't handle the Bad Ones here, not us!" + +Peter looked interested. "Where does the Bad Ones live?" he asked. "I +wants to see them." + +The Sandman shook his head at Peter. "Oh, no, you don't, little boy," +he said. "No, you don't! Don't you go meddling in their direction or +you'll get into trouble, take my word for it. They live way off in the +woods and they're a bad lot. They've got a worse boss than old Sandy! +No, no;--the good kind are trouble enough for me. What with the hurry +and the flurry and the general mix-up, something a little off color +will slip in now and then. Everybody makes mistakes _sometimes_!" + +As he made this last remark Sandy cast a doubtful look at the False +Hare, who grinned and tipped his silk hat to him. + +"I told Sandy _all_ about myself," said the False Hare, winking at the +children. "I told him I was just as good as I could be!" + +The children could not help laughing. "I'm afraid you don't know him +as well as we do, Mr. Sandy," said Ann. + +"Oh, I know about as much as I want to know about him," said Sandy, +pretending to frown very fiercely. "I've almost made up my mind to get +rid of him, but the truth is I don't really know just where he +belongs." + +"Doesn't matter to _me_ whether I spend the night with a bald-headed +old gentleman or a bird-dog--all the same to _me_," said the False +Hare meekly. This speech sounded so like him that the children looked +at one another and burst out laughing again, at which the False Hare +gave a kind of solemn wink, sighed, and touched his eyes with a little +paper handkerchief he held gracefully in one paw. + +The Sandman turned his back on the silly fellow, and went on with his +explanations to the children: "We have a very select set of +customers," he said, "and it's our aim to supply 'em with the finest +line of goods on the market. Wears me to a frazzle sometimes, this +business does," he stopped to wipe from his brow a tiny stream of sand +that was trickling down it, "but I've got to keep at it! All the +folks, big and little, like Good Dreams, and want 'em every night, and +if they get mixed up or the quality's inferior, or there's not enough +to go around, I tell you what, it makes trouble for Sandy! But just +step a little nearer, and you shall see for yourselves how the whole +thing is managed." + +The children followed Sandy, who walked back to the pile of empty +sacks, picked one up, compared the label on it with a name on his +list, and called out in a loud voice: "Mrs. Patrick O'Flynn, Wash +Lady--excellent character--never misses on a Monday--six +children--husband not altogether satisfactory. Here, now, +Noddy--Blink! I'll want some help, boys." + +As he called out these two names, two very fat, sleepy boys, looking +like pillows with strings tied round their waists, slouched from +behind the rock where they had been waiting, and stood sulkily at +attention. There was a scramble and a rush and a fuss among the Good +Dreams, just as there had been before when the children first peeped +into the glade, each one struggling and pushing and crowding to get +ahead of the next, without any regard as to whether or not it was +wanted. It took a tremendous effort on the part of Sandy, together +with all the help the sleepy sulky boys would give, to get the right +collection of dreams into the Wash Lady's sack, and to keep the wrong +ones out. + +"Letter from the Old Country," Sandy cried. "That's it, boys, more +lively there. Tell that Pound of Tea to step up--No, no pink silk +stockings to-day, thank you. Tell that Landlord the rent's paid, I'll +let him know when he's wanted. Hand over that pile of mended +clothing--and the pay envelope, mind it's the right amount--all the +rest of you, step aside!" Waving away a gay bonnet with a bird on it, +a bottle marked "Patent Medicine," and the persistent pink stockings, +the Sandman closed the mouth of Mrs. O'Flynn's sack, and swung it on +his shoulder, nodding to the children to watch what would happen. +Much excited, they crowded round the open door in the side of the big +rock and peered down into what seemed to be a kind of dark well with a +toboggan-slide descending into it. Sandy placed the Wash Lady's sack +at the top of the slide, and before the children could so much as +wink, it had slid off into the darkness and disappeared from sight. + +"Oh, my!" cried Ann, "Is it a shoot-the-chutes? Does it bump when it +gets there?" + +"No, no," said the Sandman. "No bumps whatsoever, the most comfortable +kind of traveling I know, in fact you're there the same time you +start, and I'd like to know how you can beat that? I ought to know, +for I use this route myself on my rounds a little earlier in the +evening." He walked back to his pile of sacks, and picked up another +of them. "Now then," said he, examining the label, "who's next? +Aha--Miss Jane Mackenzie!" + +The children could hardly believe their ears. "Oh, Ruddy," whispered +Ann in Rudolf's ear, "what kind of dreams do you suppose Aunt Jane +will get?" + +"Sh! Listen, he's going to tell us," answered Rudolf. + +The Sandman was gravely consulting his list. +"M-hm--Cook-that-likes-living-in-the-Country! Step this way, ma'am, +and don't take any more room than you can help. New Non-fadable Cheap +but Elegant Parlor Curtains--One Able-bodied Intelligent Gardener, +with a Generous Disposition--hurry the gentleman forward, boys, he's a +curiosity! What's next? Aha! One niece, two nephews--three perfectly +good children." Sandy paused, stared about him at the throng of +jumping, pushing dreams--then added: "Don't see 'em." + +"Why, yes you do!" Ann was pulling impatiently at the Sandman's +sleeve--"Here you are." Then she turned to Rudolf and whispered +excitedly: "Don't you see? We must make the Sandman believe we are +Aunt Jane's Good Dreams, and then he'll send us back to her." + +"I'd like a ride on that slide, all right!" returned Rudolf. + +"But I doesn't want to go back to Aunt Jane yet," came the voice of +Peter clearly from behind them. "I shan't go till I've seen the Bad +Dreams." + +"Nonsense!" Rudolf turned round on him angrily. "Of course you'll go. +You're the youngest, and you've _got_ to mind us." And then without +paying any more attention to Peter, Rudolf thrust himself in front of +the Sandman. "Here we are," he said. "We're all ready." + +The Sandman looked the boy up and down, consulted his list again, +smiled and shook his head very doubtfully. + +"I'm sorry," he said, "but I'm afraid you don't exactly answer. Just +listen to this." And he read aloud: "Number one. Boy: polite and +gentlemanly in manner--brown hair neatly smoothed and parted--Eton +suit, clean white collar, boots well polished--Latin grammar under +arm--" + +He stopped. Rudolf, in his pajamas, with his ruffled locks, tin +sword, and angry expression, did not answer very closely to +this description. The Cook-who-liked-living-in-the-Country, the +Gardener-with-the-Generous-Disposition, and several other Good Dreams +burst out laughing. Only the False Hare kept a solemn expression, but +Rudolf knew very well what _that_ meant. + +The Sandman continued: "Number two. Little girl: modest and timid in +her manners, not apt to address her elders until spoken to--hair +braided neatly and tied with blue ribbon--white apron over dark +dress--doing patchwork with a pleased expression. Has not forgotten +thimble--" + +Here Sandy was interrupted by the Cook and the Gardener, who declared +that if he didn't stop they'd die a-laughin', that they would! The +False Hare wiped away a tear, and none of the dreams seemed to +consider the description correct. Sandy shook his head again, as he +glanced at Ann in her nighty, her ruffled curls tumbling over her +flushed face--Ann without patchwork, thimble, or pleased expression! + +"Afraid you won't do, miss," said he, looking quite sorry for her. +"Let's see what's next. Number three"--he read--"Very small boy: clean +blue sailor suit--white socks--looks sorry for--" + +All turned to look at Peter, but Peter was not looking sorry for +anything--Peter was not there! Ann gave a hasty look all round the +glade, then burst into tears. + +"Oh, Rudolf," she cried, "what shall we do? He's gone--he's slipped +away to find those Bad Dreams all by himself--you know how Peter is, +when he says he's going to do anything, he _will_ do it. Oh, oh, I +_ought_ to have watched him!" + +"Don't cry," said Rudolf hastily. "It's just as much my fault. You +stay here and I'll go fetch him back. I have my sword, you know." + +"No, no," sobbed Ann. "Don't leave me. It was my fault--I promised +mother I would always look after Peter. We'll go together. The Sandman +will tell us where the Bad Dreams live, won't you?" she added, turning +to Sandy. + +"There, there, of course I will," said the little man kindly. "I'd go +along with you, if there wasn't such a press of business just now, but +you can see for yourselves what a mess things would be in if I should +leave. You must go right ahead, right into the thick of the woods. +Follow that path on the other side of the glade. You needn't be afraid +you'll miss those Bad Ones--they'll be on the lookout for you, I'm +afraid." + +The children thanked Sandy for all his kindness, and turned to leave +him. "One moment," he cried, and he ran ahead of them to draw aside +the wall of prickly bushes and show them the little path he had spoken +of which wound from the Good Dreams' glade toward the heart of the +wood. + +"Keep right on," said Sandy, "and don't be afraid. Remember--they're a +queer lot, those fellows, but they can't hurt you if you are careful. +Don't answer 'em back and don't ask 'em too many questions. One thing +in particular--if they offer you anything to eat, don't taste a +mouthful of it. If you do it'll be the worse for you!" + +Rudolf and Ann thought of Peter and his passion for "refreshments", +and they started hastily forward. + +"Just _one_ thing more," called Sandy after them. "About that +consignment of your aunt's, you know! I'll hold that over till you get +back, and we'll see what can be done. Maybe we can fit you in yet, +somehow. Now good-by, and good luck to you!" + +"Good-by, and thank you!" Rudolf and Ann called back to him, and then +they plunged into the path. The wall of bushes sprang back again +behind them, and cut them off from the shelter of the Good Dreams' +glade. As the path was very narrow, Rudolf walked first, sword drawn, +and Ann trotted behind him, trying not to think of what queer things +might be waiting behind the trees to jump out at them, trying only to +think of her naughty Peter, and how glad she would be to see him +again. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XII + + +ENTER THE KNIGHT-MARE + + +At first it was easy enough for the children to follow the narrow +winding path which the Sandman had pointed out, but soon they came to +a part of the wood where the underbrush grew thicker and their path +lost itself in a network of other little paths spread out as if on +purpose to confuse them. Rudolf and Ann hurried along as fast as they +could go, but it was hard work to make their way through the tangled +undergrowth where the twisted roots set traps for their feet--and +caught them, too, sometimes--while overhead the tall trees met and +mingled their branches. From these hung down great masses of trailing +vines and spreading creepers like long, lean, hairy arms stretched +out to bar their way. Rudolf had to stop now and then to hack at these +arms with his sword before he and Ann could pass through. Worst of +all--the thick growth of trees made the wood so dark that they could +not see more than a few feet ahead of them. + +"Oh, Ruddy, I'm sure we're not on the right path any more," said Ann +at last. "Peter is so little--he never, never could have pushed his +way through here!" + +"N-no," admitted Rudolf. "Perhaps he couldn't, but maybe he stuck to +the right path, Ann, and if he did he's there by this time." + +"But I don't want him to get there!" poor Ann cried. "That would be +much worse for him than being lost. If he's just around the wood +somewhere we can find him and bring him back and then coax Sandy to +send us all home by the toboggan-slide to Aunt Jane, but if he's found +the Bad Dreams or they've found him--Oh, Ruddy, how do we know what +awful things they may be doing to him!" + +"Don't be a goose, Ann," said Rudolf stoutly, though he was really +beginning to feel worried himself. "You know they are only dreams if +they _are_ bad. What can a dream do, anyway? They're not real." + +"Oh, they're real enough," sighed little Ann. "Sometimes the things in +dreams are real-er than real things. I'm 'fraid enough of real cows, +but _they_ can't walk up-stairs like the dream cows can--and, oh, I +remember the dream I dreamed about the Dentist-man, after I had my +tooth pulled, the one father gave me the dollar for--and--" + +"Bother!" said Rudolf. "I've had lots worse dreams than cows and +dentists. P'licemen and Indian chiefs, and--oh, heaps of things, and I +didn't really mind 'em, either, but then I'm braver than--" + +"Sh!" interrupted Ann, stopping and catching at Rudolf's arm. "I hear +something--something queer. Listen!" + +[Illustration: "I hear something--something queer."] + +Rudolf listened. "I don't hear anything," he said at last. "What was +it like?" + +"Oh, such a creepy, crawly sound, and--Oh, Ruddy--there is a face--see +it? A horrid little face peeping out at us from behind that tree!" + +Rudolf saw the face too, a winking, blinking, leering, little face +much like the one that had grinned at Ann from the post of the big bed +not so very long ago. + +All at once as the children looked about them, they began to see faces +everywhere, faces in the crotches of the trees, faces where the +branches crossed high above their heads, faces even in the undergrowth +about their feet. It reminded Rudolf of the puzzle pictures he and Ann +were so fond of studying where you have to look and look before you +can find the hidden people, but when once you have found them you +wonder how you could have been so stupid as not to have spied them +long before. He heard distinctly now the noises Ann had heard. It was +as if the hidden places of the wood were full of small live things +which were gathering together and coming toward the children from +every direction, closing them in on every side. Then somebody laughed +in a high cracked voice just behind them, one of Ann's curls was +sharply pulled, and Rudolf's precious sword was plucked from his hand +and tossed upon the ground. Still they could see no bodies to which +the little faces could belong, and they began to feel very queer +indeed. + +Then came the laugh again, repeated a number of times and coming now +from directly over their heads where the branches of a great beech +tree swept almost to the ground. Rudolf and Ann looked up just in time +to catch sight of the queer little creatures who were looking down at +them from between the beech leaves. It was no wonder they had been so +hard to see, for they were dressed in tight-fitting suits of fur +exactly the color of the bark, and had small pointed fur hoods upon +their heads which made them look very much like squirrels. Even now +that the children had spied them out, it was impossible to examine +them closely for they were never quiet, never in the same place more +than an instant, but swung themselves restlessly from bough to bough, +then to the ground and back again in two jumps, peeping, peering, +racing each other along the branches, all the time without the +slightest noise other than was made by their light feet among the +leaves and the two laughs the children had heard. + +Rudolf picked up his sword, and said in as bold a voice as he could +manage--"Please, could any of you tell us the right path to--" + +A burst of sharp squeals, shrill laughs, and jeering remarks +interrupted his question. The whole company of queer creatures dropped +to the ground at the same time, and instantly formed a circle about +the children, snapping their little white teeth, and grinning and +chattering like monkeys. + +"Are you the Bad Dreams?" asked Rudolf. Then, as a burst of laughter +contradicted this idea--"Who are you, then?" + +"Who are we? Who are we?" mocked the creatures. "O-ho, hear the human! +Doesn't know us--never got scolded on _our_ account, did he, did he? +_Oh_, no; _oh_, no! Bite him, snatch him, scratch him! _Catch_ him!" + +Closer and closer the horrid little things pressed about the two +children. "What do you mean, anyway?" cried Rudolf, keeping them back +with his foot as best he could. "Who are you? You're squirrels--that's +all you are!" + +"Squirrels!" The leader of the little wretches seemed furious at the +idea. "No, no," he screamed, making a dash at Rudolf's leg with his +sharp teeth. "We're Fidgets, Fidgets, Fidgets! Don't you know the +Fidgets when you see 'em, you great blundering human, you? An old, +_old_ family, that's what we are. Guess Methuselah had the Fidgets +sometimes, guess he did, did, did!" With every one of the last three +words he made a snatch at Rudolf, trying his best to bite him, and at +the same time dodging cleverly the blows Rudolf was now dealing on all +sides with his sword. + +Ann had picked up a little stick and was doing her best to help Rudolf +in his battle. "I know you," she cried, turning angrily on the +Fidgets, "you horrid little things! I've had you often, in school just +before it's out, and in church, and when mother takes me out to make +calls--you've disgraced her often--" Then she stopped, really afraid +of saying too much. The Fidgets, with a wild squeal, now began a mad +sort of dance round and round the two children, giving them now a nip, +now a pinch, now a sharp pull till they were dizzy and frightened and +weary of trying to defend themselves against such unequal numbers. + +All at once, above the shrill cries of their enemies, the children +heard a new sound, a crackling rustling noise in the bushes as if some +large creature was making its way through the wood. The Fidgets heard +it, too, and in a twinkling they had hushed their shrill voices, +broken their circle, and completely hidden themselves from sight. It +was all so sudden that Rudolf and Ann had no time to run, but stood +perfectly still, gazing at the bushes just in front of them from which +the noises came. + +As they looked the bushes were parted, and a long lean head poked +itself through, a large black head with a white streak down its nose, +and two great mournful eyes that stared into theirs. Ann gave a little +scream and shrank closer to Rudolf. The creature opened a wide mouth +that showed enormous, ugly, yellow teeth, and said in a rough but not +unfriendly voice: "Hullo! Oats-and-Broadswords--if it's not a couple +of lost colts! Where'd you come from, youngsters?" + +Without waiting for them to answer, it crashed through the bushes and +stood before them, a curious sight, indeed the strangest they had yet +seen in the course of their adventures. What they had thought was a +horse from the sight of its head, was a horse no farther down than the +shoulders, all the rest of him was a Knight, a splendid knight in full +armor of shining steel. He was without weapon of any kind, and even +while the children shrank from the sight of his big ugly head with its +sad eyes and long yellow teeth, they saw that this was not a creature +to be much afraid of. + +"Well, I scared 'em away, didn't I?" he asked triumphantly, and then, +hanging his head a little, he added in rather a humble tone, "It's +pretty poor sport hunting Fidgets, I know, but it's about all I can +get nowadays. Hope they didn't hurt you?" he added politely. + +"Not a bit," said Rudolf, "but I'm sure I'm glad you came along when +you did, for I don't know how we ever would have got rid of the +beastly little things. Only when we first saw you, we thought--" + +"Oh, I know," interrupted the stranger hastily--"you thought it was +something worse. That's it, that's just my luck! I'm the gentlest +creature in the world and everybody's afraid of me. My business," he +explained, turning to Ann, "is to redress wrongs and to see after the +ladies, but--bless you--they won't let me get near enough to do +anything for 'em!" A great tear rolled down his long nose as he spoke, +and he looked so silly that Ann and Rudolf could hardly help laughing +at him, though they did not in the least want to be rude. + +"And then," continued the creature, sobbing, "I'm so divided in my +feelings. If I were only _all_ Knight, now, or even all Mare, I'd be +thankful, but a Knight-mare is an unsatisfactory sort of thing to be." + +"A Knight-mare--Oh, how dreadful!" cried Ann, drawing away from him. +"Is _that_ what you are?" + +"There! You see how it is!" exclaimed the Knight-mare, tossing his +long black mane. "Nobody's got any sympathy for me. How would _you_ +like it? Suppose you were a little girl only as far as your shoulders +and all the rest of you hippopotamus, eh?" + +"I wouldn't like it at all," said Ann, after thinking a moment. + +"Then no more do I," said the Knight-mare, and sighed a long sad sigh. + +"Would you mind telling us how it happened?" asked Rudolf politely. + +"Not at all," said the Knight-mare. "You see I was a great boy for +fighting in the old days--though you mightn't think it to see me +now--and I used to ride forth to battle on my coal-black steed, this +very mare whose head I'm wearing now. Well, of course I was a terror +to my enemies, used to scare 'em into fits, and I suppose it was one +of those very fellows that got me into this fix, dreamed me into it +one night, you know, only he got me and my steed mixed. We've stayed +mixed ever since, and the worst of it is I oughtn't to be a Bad Dream +at all. I was the nicest kind of a Good Dream once--why I belonged to +a lady who lived in a castle, and she thought a lot of me, she did!" + +"It's too bad," said Rudolf sympathetically; "but isn't there anything +you can do about it?" + +"Nothing," groaned the Knight-mare, "nothing at all. At least not till +I can find a way to get rid of this ugly head of mine. If there was +anybody big enough and brave enough, now, to--" He interrupted his +speech to stoop down and snatch up something from the grass. It was +Rudolf's sword which he had dropped from his hand in his weariness +after his battle with the Fidgets. "What's this?" the Knight-mare +cried. "Hurrah, a sword!" + +"My sword," said Rudolf, stretching out his hand for it. + +"Just the thing for cutting heads off!" cried the Knight. "Will you +lend it to me, like a good fellow? Mine is lost." + +"What for?" asked Rudolf suspiciously. + +"Why, to cut my head off with, of course, or better yet, perhaps +you'll do it for me. Come, now! Just to oblige me?" + +Rudolf took back his sword, while Ann gave a little scream and seized +both the Knight's mailed hands in hers. "I'm sorry not to oblige you," +said Rudolf firmly, "but I can't do anything of the sort. I never cut +anybody's head off in my life, and the sword's not so awful sharp, +you know, and then how can you tell a new head will grow at your time +of life?" + +"Oh, I'd risk that," said the Knight-mare lightly. "I do wish you'd +think it over. If you knew what a life mine is! All my days spent +browsing round on shoots here in the wood, without a single adventure +because nobody's willing to be rescued by the likes of me! And then +the nights! Oh"--groaned the poor fellow--"the nights are the worst of +all!" + +"What do you do then?" asked Rudolf and Ann. + +"Oh, I'm ridden to death," sighed the Knight-mare. "As if it wasn't +bad enough to scare folks all day _not_ meaning to, without being sent +out nights to do it on purpose!" He looked over his shoulder as if he +was afraid some one might be listening, and then added in a low +voice, "And it's not my fault, either, I swear it's not. _They_ +actually make me do it!" + +The children shivered, for they guessed at once that "they" meant the +Bad Dreams. Then they suddenly recollected poor little Peter, whom +their last adventure and the Knight-mare's talk had quite put out of +their minds. + +"I tell you what," said Rudolf suddenly, "I'll make a bargain with +you. My little brother has run away to find the Bad Dreams, and we +have got to find him and bring him back. If you'll lead us to him and +help us all you can, why--why--I won't promise--but I'll see what I +can do for you." + +The Knight-mare gave a loud triumphant neigh. "Ods-bodikins and bran +mash!" he cried. "You're worth rescuing for nothing, the whole lot of +you! But"--he added mournfully--"I ought to warn you to keep away +from that crowd--they're a bad lot. You'd do better to cut along +home." + +"We can't do that," cried Rudolf and Ann together. + +"Then come with me," said the Knight-mare. "It's only a short way +to--" + +He was suddenly interrupted by a fresh commotion in the wood. Heavy +bodies were parting the undergrowth back of where they stood. Before +the children could think of escape, four strange figures sprang on +them from behind, their arms were seized, they were tripped up, and +they landed very hard upon the ground. Both knew in a moment what had +happened. The Bad Dreams had caught them! + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIII + + +THE BAD DREAMS + + +At first the children's view was entirely shut off by the size and +heaviness of the things that were sitting on their chests. They had +been completely taken by surprise and they had not even breath enough +left to cry out, but lay still and listened to what was going on about +them. This is what they heard: + +"Ye arre arristid in the name of the Law!" a gruff voice was saying. +"Move on, move on, move on." + +"One moment, Officer," a second voice interrupted. "Imprison these +young persons, if you are so disposed, but pray allow me first my +little opportunity to practise on them. This young lady--ahem! We will +begin by extracting that large molar on the upper left-hand side, we +will then have out two or three--" + +"Ugh--ugh!" A series of hoarse grunts, and what had been sitting on +Rudolf rose up and rushed at the last speaker. "No, no! Big Chief +first! Big Chief Thunder-snorer take two fine scalp--ha! ha!" + +There was a confused sound of struggling and voices arguing, and in +another moment Ann was relieved of her burden which, with a mighty +moo, got up and joined the others. Ann sat up and clung to Rudolf, +while the Knight-mare who was standing close beside her, laid a +protecting hand upon her shoulder. When she saw what had been holding +her down, she gave a little shriek. It was a small spotted cow in a +red flannel petticoat. She wore stout button boots on her hind feet, +and she now reared herself upon these to flourish two angry hoofs +over the sleek head of a little man in a white linen coat who held a +tiny mirror in one hand and a pair of pincers in the other. Ann took a +great dislike to this little man at once, and felt more afraid of him +than of the Cow or of the handsome Indian Chief in full +war-paint--feather head-dress and all--who was brandishing his +tomahawk, sometimes in the face of the Little Dentist, again under the +turned-up nose of a large fat Policeman who stood with folded arms, +the only calm member of that much-excited group. + +The Knight-mare stepped forward and put himself between the children +and the Bad Dreams. "Look here, you fellows," he said quietly, "you +may as well stop this nonsense first as last. You haven't got any +business here, and well you know it. If the Boss finds you've been +disposing of any prisoners without his permission--well--_you_ know +what'll happen!" + +That the Bad Dreams did know was to be seen by their foolish scared +expressions. The Indian Chief, with a disappointed grunt, replaced his +tomahawk in his belt, and seated himself cross-legged on the grass, +drawing his blanket closely about him. The Policeman stopped murmuring +"Move on!" The Cow dropped clumsily on all fours and began to crop the +bushes. Even the Little Dentist put his pincers back into his pocket, +though he still looked wistfully at Ann, who avoided his eye as much +as she could. This was a very terrifying company in which the children +found themselves, and in spite of the comforting presence of the +friendly Knight-mare, they felt very doubtful of their present safety, +not to speak of what might be done to them when once they were in the +clutches of that dreadful "Boss", whom even the Bad Dreams seemed to +be afraid of. + +"He has all the fun, anyway," snorted the Cow, switching her tail. +"All the choice bits of torturing. Why, I've not had so much as a +single toss since I've been on this job; no I haven't!" And she shook +her sharp curved horns at Ann. + +"Not a tooth out yet!" complained the Dentist, "not a single one." He +sighed, glancing from Ann to Rudolf and from Rudolf back again to Ann, +as if he expected they might be coaxed into presenting him with a full +set each. + +"'Tis himsilf does all the arristin'," muttered the Policeman sadly. + +"Big-boss-chief take all good scalp," Thunder-snorer, the Indian, +grunted. + +The children began to think this "Boss" must indeed be a terror. + +"Now, come, come," continued the Knight-mare soothingly, "it's not so +bad as that. You all get plenty of fun, but you mustn't mix it up with +business. We're in a row now, every one of us, for being out of +bounds. Better move along and have it over, that's my advice." + +The Policeman looked more cheerful. "That's it," cried he. "Move on!" + +Ann put her little arms around the Knight-mare's neck and whispered +something in his ear. He turned to the Cow and said: + +"Madam, this young lady wishes to know if anything has been seen or +heard of another prisoner, a small fat one called Peter?" + +"Sir," said the Cow, "he was taken just a little while ago. That's why +we four went off in a huff. We wanted a little fun with him, just a +bit of our pretty play, you know, but the Boss wouldn't have it. He's +saving him up for the Banquet, and not one of us is to be let at him +till after that." + +Rudolf and Ann looked at each other, both suddenly remembering the +Sandman's warning that on no account were any of them to taste the Bad +Dreams' food. Could Peter be expected to refuse any kind of +refreshments at any time? They knew that he could not. + +"Come," cried Rudolf, pulling at the Knight-mare's arm. "Take us to +him, please. We've got to hurry." + +The Knight-mare obligingly stepped forward, leading Ann by the hand, +and the Bad Dreams--to the children's surprise--rose meekly to +accompany them. It was decided that the Cow should go first, to clear +a way through the forest by her simple method of trampling down +everything before her. The Indian walked next, stepping softly and +silently on his moccasined feet, and turning now and then to make a +horrid face at the children who followed behind him, one on either +side of the Knight-mare. The Dentist and Policeman, walking arm in +arm, brought up the rear. The party had not gone a great distance +through the wood, before Ann and Rudolf noticed that the underbrush +was growing thinner and the trees beginning to be taller and farther +apart. At last they could see through a veil of branches the light of +a fire burning on the ground not a great distance ahead of them, and +soon they came close to the enormous oak tree under which this fire +was kindled. Its flames were a strange bluish color, and as they shot +up into the darkness which was almost complete under the shade of that +great tree, the children could plainly see strange figures showing +black against the light, leaping and dancing around the fire. + +"The party's begun, but not the Banquet," whispered the Knight-mare. +"You can come a little closer, but you mustn't interrupt till it's +over." + +In silence they all moved a little nearer to the cleared space under +the tree, but not so near as to be discovered. Rudolf and Ann gazed +anxiously at the scene before them. First of all they noticed that the +fire was not an ordinary fire, but a huge blazing plum pudding which +accounted for the queer color of its flames. It was stuck full of bits +of crackling holly and dripped sweet-smelling sauce in every +direction. On the other side of the fire, just opposite to them, was a +moss-grown log, and on this log sat Peter. His big brown eyes, shining +with excitement, were fixed on the dancers passing before him, his +little nose sniffed the burning plum pudding with great satisfaction. +As soon as her eye fell on her little brother, Ann started toward him, +but the Knight-mare held her back. + +"No use," said he. "Wait a bit, and I'll tell you when the real +trouble's going to begin." + +The children had no choice but to obey, and their attention was soon +occupied by the strange sights before them. As one odd figure after +another sprang out of the dark into the firelight, capered and +pranced, and then disappeared into the blackness again, Ann and Rudolf +drew closer together and squeezed hands, very queer feelings creeping +up and down their back-bones. The strangest part of it all was that +among that crazy company were many whom the children did not see for +the first time, who were old acquaintances of theirs! There--grinning +and brandishing his stick--was the Little Black Man who had worried +Rudolf many a night as far back as he could remember. There was the +Old Witch on the Broomstick, whom Ann had often described to him. +There again, were other Bad Dreams that made the children almost smile +as they remembered certain exciting times. The Angry Farmer--Rudolf +had seen him before; he remembered his fierce expression, yes, and his +short black whip, too! Also the Cross Cook, her fat arms rolled up in +her apron, and "I'm going to tell your mother," written plainly on her +round red face. A great white Jam Pot danced just behind the Cook, and +was followed by a dozen bright Green Apples. A Dancing-master came +next, bowing and smiling at Peter as he passed him, then a Bear +paddling clumsily along on its hind legs, its great red mouth wide +open to show its long white teeth, then a Gooseberry Tart marked +"Stolen", then an Arithmetic with a mean sort of face, rulers for +legs, and compasses for arms; then a Clock that had been meddled with +by somebody (Rudolf felt certain it was not by him) and kept striking +all the time; then a Piano with a lot of horrid exercises waiting to +be practised; then last of all a familiar clumsy figure with one red +glaring eye--their old enemy, the Warming-pan! + +As Rudolf was trying to take in these, and many others in that curious +throng, he felt himself sharply pinched by Ann. "Look, look," she +whispered, "over there where it's so dark, close to Peter. Oh, don't +you know _now_ who their Boss is?" + +Rudolf looked. Clearly enough now he saw two flaming green eyes and a +clumsy black figure crouching on the ground. Before this figure every +one of the dancers made a low bow as he passed. + +"Don't you know him?" repeated Ann, shivering with excitement. "It's +Manunderthebed!" + +"Oh, well, what if it is?" whispered Rudolf. "I stopped bothering +about _him_ years ago. He's only for babies." + +Ann was not deceived by Rudolf's cheerful tone. Manunderthebed might +not amount to much at home with nurse and mother to frighten him away, +but here in his own country it was not pleasant to meet him. + +"He's horrid," said she. "Oh, look, Ruddy, what is he doing now?" + +Manunderthebed had stretched out a long black arm and pointed to the +fire. Instantly the Bad Dreams stopped their dance and vanished into +the darkness. When they came again into the firelight the children saw +that the Cook, the Dancing-master, and several others carried large +dishes in their hands which they now presented with low bows to +Peter. + +"It's the Banquet!" whispered the Knight-mare nervously. "If he +touches a morsel, he's lost. He'll go to sleep and dream Bad Dreams +forever and a day--which won't be pleasant, I assure you." + +Ann and Rudolf had not waited for the Knight-mare to finish his +speech. They rushed on Peter, just as he had helped himself to an +enormous slice of mince pie, and while Ann threw her arms about his +neck, Rudolf snatched the tempting morsel out of his hand and cast it +in the fire. Of course Peter struggled and fussed and was not a bit +grateful, but Rudolf and Ann did not care, for the Knight-mare's +warning rang in their ears. Meanwhile the Bad Dreams had gathered +round the three children in an angry circle, and Manunderthebed +growled out: + +"Seize 'em, some of you! Where's that fat Policeman?" + +"Here, sorr." Very much against his will the Policeman had been pushed +forward till he stood in front of the children, hanging his head and +looking very uncomfortable. + +"Arrest 'em, why don't you?" shouted the Boss. + +"Please, sorr, Oi have," muttered the Policeman humbly, shifting from +one foot to the other and looking more and more unhappy. + +"Then do it all over again, and be quick about it--or--" +Manunderthebed made a terrible face at the Policeman, who shivered, +and edging up to Rudolf, laid a timid hand on his shoulder. + +"No you don't!" cried Rudolf. "I'm not afraid of _you_!" And he gave +the Policeman a poke with his sword, just a little one, about where +his belt came. The Policeman gave a frightened yell, doubled up as if +he had been shot, and ducking under the shoulders of the crowd made +off into the darkness. Manunderthebed was furious. The children heard +him roar out a command, and then the Bad Dreams advanced on them in a +body. The leaping dancing flames of the plum-pudding fire showed their +angry faces and strange figures. + +Rudolf was not really afraid now, for he saw at once that the Bad +Dreams were not much at fighting, yet there were so many of them that +by sheer force of their numbers they were slowly but surely pushing +the three children back, back, until they were crowded against the +trunk of the great oak tree where Manunderthebed had been crouching. +He had run to fetch a great branch of burning holly from the fire, and +holding this like a torch above his head, he pressed through the +crowd toward Rudolf and dashed it almost into his eyes. Rudolf shrank +back, half blinded by the glare, and bumped sharply into Peter, who in +turn was pushed violently against Ann, who had set her back firmly +against the tree trunk. The tree, as she described it afterward, +seemed to give way behind her, and she fell backward into soft +smothery darkness. Peter fell after her and Rudolf on top of Peter. +The little door which had opened to receive them snapped to again, as +if by magic, and from the other side of it the triumphant howls of the +Bad Dreams came very faintly to their ears. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIV + + +IN THE HOLLOW TREE + + +At first it seemed perfectly dark inside the tree, but after the +children had rubbed out of their eyes the soft powdery dust which +their fall had stirred up, they made out the dull glow of a dying +fire, a real one in a real fireplace this time, and no plum-pudding +affair. From the amount of furniture they knocked against in moving +about they knew they must be in somebody's house. + +"Oh, dear," whispered Ann, "I hope the owner is not at home!" + +Rudolf said nothing, for he was groping about after the poker. He +found it presently and stirred the embers into quite a cheerful blaze. +By this light the children were able to see dimly what the room was +like. It was circular in shape and the walls and ceiling were covered +with rough bark. The floor was of earth, covered with a thick carpet +of dry leaves. There were several chairs and a round table all made of +boughs with the bark left on and the mantel-piece was built of +curiously twisted branches. On it stood a round wooden clock and a +pair of wooden candlesticks. A pair of spectacles lay on the top of a +pile of large fat books upon the table. + +"I'd like to know whose house this is," said Rudolf. + +"It's Manunderthebed's house," said Peter calmly. + +"How do you know?" cried Ann and Rudolf. + +"'Cause I _do_ know," said Peter. + +"Oh, Peter, you naughty boy, you are so provoking!" exclaimed Ann, +hugging him. "Tell sister what you mean, and what you've been doing +and why you ran away to find those horrid creatures!" + +"Aren't horrid," said Peter, wriggling away from her, "and '_tis_ +Manunderthebed's house, 'cause he came out by the little door when the +Bad Dreams brought me. He came out of his little door, and he said +'Peter, will you come to my party?'" + +"But there isn't any little door now," interrupted Rudolf, "anyway, +_I_ can't find it." He had taken a candle from the mantel-piece, had +lighted it at the fire, and was making a careful search of the walls. +No trace of a door or any opening except the fireplace could be seen. + +"It's a magic door," said Peter cheerfully. "Manunderthebed touched +something with his foot and that opened it and then he pushed you and +you pushed me and I bumped into Ann, and here we are." + +"He's shut us up on purpose!" cried Ann. "It's just like him." + +"He's shut us up to starve us into submission, like they do in books," +said Rudolf gloomily. + +"I'm starved now," began Peter, "and that was the very _nicest_ pie!" +But the other two were much provoked with Peter for having led them +into such a fix, and they would not listen to him any longer. By +Rudolf's orders, Ann lighted the other candle and both searched again +with the greatest care for some trace of the secret door. At last +Ann's sharp eyes spied not a door, but a small opening in the wall far +above their heads, like a little round window not much bigger than a +knothole. Rudolf climbed upon the table, but found he was hardly tall +enough to look through, so he was obliged to hoist Peter upon his +shoulders and let him have first look. When the little boy got his +eye to the window he gave such a shout of surprise that he nearly +knocked Rudolf and himself completely off the table. + +"Hush," warned his brother, "you mustn't make a noise! Can you see +what the Bad Dreams are doing?" + +"Yes, I can see 'em," whispered Peter. + +"They're all sitting round the fire and Manunderthebed is making a +speech." + +"What's he saying?" asked Ann anxiously. + +"I can't hear, but he's awful cross. Now the Little Black Man has +gone--now he's come back again, and--oh!" + +"What is it? What is it?" cried Ann and Rudolf. + +"He's got three animals on a chain--a bear, an'--an'--a lion--an' a +great big white wolf!" + +"Oh, Peter, darling, you _know_ they're only dream animals!" Ann +hastily reminded him. + +"Well, they're most as nice as real ones, they're awful fierce--" + +"What's the Little Black Man doing with 'em?" interrupted Rudolf. + +"He's letting them loose," said Peter, "and they're smelling round--" + +"He's putting them by the tree to guard us--that's what he's doing," +broke in Rudolf. + +"To swallow us up if we ever do escape!" wailed Ann, now thoroughly +frightened. "Oh, Rudolf, whatever shall we do?" + +Rudolf hastily lowered Peter to the floor and got down off the table. +"Ann," said he, "there must be another way out. In books there always +are two ways out of secret rooms, and this," he added cheerfully, "is +the bookiest thing that's happened to us yet. Come, let's look again +for it." + +He and Ann began the search once more, going over and over the walls +by the light of their candles, but without any success. Peter was +nosing about by himself in a little recess by the fireplace, and soon +the other two heard him give a gleeful chuckle. + +"What is it? Have you found the spring of the secret door?" cried +Rudolf, running to him. + +"Nope," said Peter. "It's nicer than that, it's a cake. I found it +right here on this little shelf that you went past and never noticed." + +"Oh, Peter," Ann scolded, "I think you are the very greediest little +boy I ever knew!" + +"That cake belongs to Manunderthebed, and you know it," said Rudolf +sternly. "It's a dream cake, of course, a Bad-dream cake, so you can't +eat it." + +Peter clasped the small round cake tightly to his breast. + +"It's a nice seed-cake like Cook makes," he said stubbornly, "and I +_must_ eat it." + +"The seeds in it are poppy-seeds," explained Rudolf, "and you'll go +to sleep and dream Bad Dreams forever, like the Knight-mare said, so +you _sha'n't_ eat it!" He tried to get the cake away from his naughty +little brother who only grasped it the more tightly. There would have +been a quarrel, and a fierce one, if it had not been for Ann. + +"I tell you," said she, "let's try it on the animals!" + +This seemed a really bright idea, and Rudolf agreed at once, though +Peter considered it wasteful. Ann had to coax some time, but at last +she persuaded him to part with his cake. Rudolf would not trust Peter +with the distributing, so he piled three fat dictionaries that lay on +the table one on top of another and climbed upon them himself, +managing in this way to bring his eye to the level of the little +window. The plum-pudding fire was burning very low by this time, and +Rudolf could barely make out the forms of some of the Bad Dreams who +were stretched on the ground around it. + +Suddenly he gave a great start and nearly tumbled off the +dictionaries, for he found himself staring down into the yellow hungry +eyes of the big white wolf. Peter had described him truly, he was very +fierce, wolfier-looking, Rudolf thought, than any of his kind the boy +had seen in the dens at the park. Now the beast gave a low growl and +opened his great red mouth. Rudolf dropped a generous bit of cake +straight into it. The big jaws closed with a snap, and the white wolf +looked up for more. By this time the other beasts had discovered the +presence of refreshments, and came slinking forward, squatting +themselves one on either side of their companion. + +Rudolf could hardly help a squeal of surprise at the sight of the +yellow lion and the big shambling bear. He remembered in time, though, +to smother it, and hastily divided the rest of the cake between the +two animals. When they had licked it up greedily, Rudolf turned his +attention again to the white wolf, and this time he could not suppress +an exclamation of delight. + +"Oh, what _is_ it, tell us," cried Ann, while Peter jumped up and down +impatiently, begging to be allowed to see. + +"He's going to sleep--the white wolf is," whispered Rudolf. "He's +rocking from side to side--he can hardly stand up--his red tongue is +hanging out of his mouth--he looks too silly for anything--now he's +rolled over on his back--now he's snoring!" + +"And the other animals--the lion and the bear?" + +"They are lying down, too, they will be asleep in a moment! There, +Peter, didn't I tell you it was a dream cake?" + +But even then Peter did not appear grateful. He went back to the shelf +where he had found the cake and stood looking at it wistfully, as if +he hoped he would find another. Rudolf came up behind him and looked +over his shoulder. + +"It's no use," said Peter mournfully, "there isn't any more." + +"There's this!" cried Rudolf triumphantly, and reaching over Peter he +pressed a little round knob of wood half hidden under the shelf. +Instantly the whole shelf, together with a large piece of the wall, +swung aside, and the children were standing on the threshold of just +such another little door as that by which they had entered, only on +the other side of the tree. For a moment the three children +hesitated, half afraid to believe in their good luck, and then, +taking hold of hands they stepped softly out of their prison. Almost +at their feet lay the great white wolf, the yellow lion, and the +shaggy bear, all snoring in concert. Carefully avoiding them, the +children made for the thick woods ahead, not caring where they went so +long as they could escape from their enemies. The big tree was now +between them and the plum-pudding fire around which the Bad Dreams lay +asleep, so it really seemed as if they had a good chance of getting +away unseen. + +"Hurry, hurry," Rudolf whispered, dragging Ann by the hand. "If we can +only get to those thick trees I am sure we shall be safe." + +"If they only don't wake up!" she panted. + +Just at that exciting moment Peter had to make trouble--as usual. He +stumbled and fell over a twisted root, hurt his knee, and gave a loud +angry squeal. Rudolf clapped a hand over his mouth and dragged him to +his feet, but it was too late--they were discovered. A tall form shot +up out of the grass just behind them, and instantly a loud war-whoop +rang through the woods. + +"It's Thunder-snorer--it's the Indian," Rudolf cried. "Run for your +lives!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XV + + +COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + + +The Bad Dreams were all aroused by Thunder-snorer's war-whoop, and in +an instant the whole pack of them, headed by Manunderthebed, were at +the children's heels. Rudolf and Ann ran as fast as ever they could, +dragging Peter after them, but it was both difficult and dangerous to +run fast through that dark wood, especially as they had no idea in +what direction they ought to go. Each moment they expected to be +overtaken, each moment they seemed to feel Manunderthebed's long black +arm stretched out to drag them back to their prison--or to something +worse. + +Then suddenly from just ahead of them came the sound of a great +crashing and rustling among the bushes and the tramp of approaching +feet. Some new danger--perhaps something worse than what was behind +them--seemed to threaten the children, but they were too breathless, +too bewildered even to try to avoid it. On they ran--straight into the +arms of a tall figure who was hurrying to meet them, a knight dressed +in shining armor wearing a plumed helmet on his handsome head. At the +same moment a troop of little tin soldiers broke through the bushes +and rushed past the children to attack the Bad Dreams. All of them +were quickly put to flight except their leader, Manunderthebed, who at +first sight of the soldiers had hidden himself behind a tree. As soon +as they had passed he crept forth and made a dart at the children. But +they had a protector now! The tall knight stepped in front of them and +raised his glittering sword. Before he could bring it down, the +cowardly King of the Bad Dreams gave a horrible yell and turned to +run. He might have escaped, but as he passed Rudolf the boy put out +his foot and tripped him up. There the rascal lay on his back, kicking +wildly, while the Knight stood guard over him. Seen close by, +Manunderthebed was not quite so dreadful as when he crouched in his +dark haunt near the hollow tree, but still his shaggy fur, sharp white +teeth, and gleaming green eyes were very terrifying to Ann, who gave a +little shriek and turned her face away. "Don't be afraid," cried the +Knight. "This is the end of Manunderthebed!" And he stooped and caught +hold of the shaggy fellow by the shoulder. A crack, a rip, and the +whole silly disguise came away in one piece, fur suit, teeth, claws, +and green glass eyes. The terrible King of the Bad Dreams was just a +big naughty boy in knickerbockers who kicked and cried and begged to +be let go! The children had to laugh, they could not help it, to hear +him blubber and whine and promise over and over again that he'd never, +no, _never_ frighten little girls and boys any more! So at last the +Knight let him scramble to his feet and rush off through the woods as +fast as he could go. + +"That's the last of _him_" said the children's protector smiling, "but +now tell me, you three, what do you think of the change in _my_ +appearance?" + +For a moment the three children stared up at the tall figure, admiring +yet puzzled, then Ann clapped her hands and shouted: "Oh, I know _now_ +who you are--you're the Knight-mare!" + +The tall figure swept off his helmet and made Ann such a low bow that +his fair curling locks brushed the ground, fluttering like yellow +plumes about his ruddy face. "I'm all knight now," cried he, "and none +of me mare. I'm a Good Dream now, and I've no doubt she'll be rather +pleased to get me back--the lady I belong to in the castle, you know. +I'm wearing her glove, as you may perceive." + +"But how did it happen?" asked Ann, fingering the helmet with the +greatest admiration. + +"Well," said the Knight, "as soon as you children were imprisoned in +the hollow tree I managed to escape from those fellows and rushed off +to Sandy to get you help. I found he had already sent to the Corn-cob +Queen for rescuers and just as we were talking they arrived. I agreed +to guide their leader through the woods to Manunderthebed's place if +he would first settle a certain little matter for me--that one your +brother wasn't very anxious to tackle, you know. Well, when I asked +him if he'd cut off my head, _he_ said he'd just as lief as not!" + +All three children burst out laughing. + +"There's only one person we've met as fierce as that," said Ann, "and +that's Captain Jinks." + +"Captain Jinks--at your service," snapped a sharp voice at her elbow, +and turning, Ann found the little tin captain standing beside her. "I +have to report," said he, wheeling around to Rudolf and saluting him +stiffly--"the enemy--routed completely!" + +Never, never had the children expected to be so glad to meet the +little captain again! They thanked him heartily for his part in their +splendid rescue, and asked him what he thought it was best to do next. + +"Sound a recall," answered the officer, "and return in good order +according to commands." + +"Whose commands, Captain Jinks?" Rudolf wanted to know, but Jinks +would not answer any more questions just then. He recalled those of +his fierce little soldiers who, with the sergeant at their head, were +still chasing the last remnants of the Bad Dreams back to the depths +of the wood, formed them into marching order, and taking the head of +the procession himself, placed the children directly behind him under +the protection of the Knight. They were anxious to have the little +captain explain all the particulars of their rescue, but found it very +hard indeed to make him talk while on duty. He marched so fast that +they had to trot to keep up with him, and stared straight ahead +without winking an eye. "Queen's orders," was all they could at first +get out of him. + +"But, Jinks, dear, who was it brought the message to the Queen?" Ann +coaxed. + +"Traveling Gentleman!" The little captain made a disgusted face. +"_He's_ a nice one! Said nobody was being shut up nowhere, nor didn't +_want_ to be rescued." + +For a moment the children were puzzled, then Rudolf called out, "Oh, I +know--the False Hare!" + +They all laughed and Ann said: "I suppose Sandy didn't know any better +than to send him, but I should think he'd make a pretty funny +messenger!" + +"Make a better pie," said Jinks grimly, and not another word could +they get out of him after that. They were now coming to that part of +the wood Ann and Rudolf remembered so well, where the kindly Knight +had rescued them from the attack of the tiresome Fidgets. They looked +about for signs of the little creatures' presence in the branches +overhead, and listened for their chattering laughter, but the coming +of so large a company must have scared the cowardly Fidgets away, for +not a trace of them was to be seen. + +At last the procession struck the little path Sandy had pointed out to +the children, and in another moment it was being met and greeted by a +whole troop of Good Dreams who had rushed to welcome the returning +party and escort them back to the glade. Here they found the whole +family assembled: the Cook-that-liked-living-in-the-Country, the +Gardener-with-the-Generous-Disposition, the Pink Stockings, the Nice +Nurse, the Good Baby, the Easter Rabbit, the Birthday Cake, the Organ +Man, the Tall Candlesticks, and the Jolly Santa Claus--one and all of +the Good Dreams, with Noddy and Blink, the two fat boys, and--best of +all--old Sandy himself, a twinkle in his sleepy eyes, a grin on his +round good-humored face. + +"Well, well, well," cried he. "Glad to see you back again, my +friends! Guess _you've_ had enough of the bad 'uns--eh, young man?" +And he gave Peter a kindly dig in the ribs. Peter grinned and looked +rather foolish but said nothing. "And now," went on Sandy, pushing +aside the excited dreams that crowded round him, "make way, all of +you! Let these young people see who's come to welcome them." He led +the children across the glade to where, throned on a pile of sacks, +sat the Corn-cob Queen! There she was in her greeny-yellowy gown, her +little head erect, her sweet face smiling, her tiny hands stretched +out to greet the children. They could have hugged her, but they didn't +dare, she looked, in spite of being just a doll and an old-fashioned +one at that, so truly like a Queen. Back of her majesty stood a group +of doll ladies-in-waiting dressed in their gayest clothes, and among +them were Ann's very own children, Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida! +They did not look haughty or naughty or cross any more, but smiled +sweetly at their little mother. + +"Yes," said the Queen, "I have come to welcome you back, dears, and to +say good-by, for I suppose you would like to go home to your Aunt Jane +now, wouldn't you?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed, please your Majesty," cried Rudolf and Ann in one +breath--but Peter said nothing. He was gazing rather regretfully at +the False Hare who lounged near by, smoking his chocolate cigarette +and polishing the nap of his silk hat with the back of his paw. The +False Hare winked at Peter and edged a little closer to him. "Mighty +glad to see the last of you, old chap," he whispered. Then Peter +smiled all over, he was so pleased. + +"Yes, I suppose it's time for you to be going, if go you really +must," sighed Sandy. "And since you're in such a hurry, I'm happy to +be able to include you in that consignment of your aunt's after all. +She"--and he bowed gallantly to the Queen--"says it's all right, and +what she says goes, though to be sure, it's out of order, slightly out +of order!" As he spoke he took his list out of his pocket and ran his +eye over it once more. "Hullo," said he in a surprised tone, "there's +one more item on Miss Jane Mackenzie's and it seems to be missing! +Comparatively unimportant, but I like to have my things complete. 'One +lost Kitten!' Now what can have become of that, I wonder?" + +It was Captain Jinks' voice that broke the silence. "Prisoner of War, +sir! Taken with others by the Commander-in-Chief in the recent +glorious victory of the tin soldiers over the cat pirates. Here you +are, sir!" He motioned to two of the soldiers who stood on guard +over something in a dim corner of the glade. The soldiers hustled the +object forward. It was Captain Mittens! Mittens despoiled of his +scarlet sash, his turban, his sword and pistols, even of his fierce +expression! Mittens, no longer a bold and bloody robber of the seas +but a humble repentant kitten who let himself be cuddled into Peter's +arms without so much as a single scratch. + +Peter stroked the pirate--and the pirate purred! + +"Now then, all ready? All aboard!" It was Sandy's voice who spoke and +Sandy's were the arms that lifted the children gently into the +enormous sack held open by Noddy and Blink, and placed them at the top +of the toboggan-slide--but they were feeling too curiously tired and +sleepy to understand exactly what was happening. Rudolf, still +clasping his tin sword--that invaluable weapon--pillowed his sleepy +head on the shoulder of the Generous Gardener. Ann rested comfortably +on the large lap of the Cook-who-liked-living-in-the-Country, and +Peter snuggled close beside her, holding Mittens tightly in his arms. + +[Illustration: "Now then, all ready?"] + +They thought the new non-fadable curtains were packed in somewhere, +they thought they saw the kindly face of old Sandy peeping into the +mouth of the sack at them while the whole troop of Good Dreams pushed +and crowded one another to peer at them over his shoulder. Among all +the familiar faces were some they had almost forgotten but were not +sorry to see again: the Lady Goose, waving her spoon; the Gentleman +Goose, and Squealer and Squawker, his two little duck apprentices; the +cheerful grinning countenances of Prowler and Growler, the mates, with +Toddles and Towser the common sea-cats. But at the last all grew dim, +faded, melted into mist until two figures only stood out clearly and +distinctly. One was the Corn-cob Queen smiling and waving her tiny +hand in loving farewell, the other that of a little boy in long +trousers and a frill collar, a merry-faced boy with a toy sword +buckled round his waist and a toy ship in his hand. Though they had +not seen him until now, the children recognized him at once. It was +the little boy Aunt Jane had told them of--the Little Boy who Went +Away to Sea. It was also the Commander-in-Chief of the tin soldiers, +whom the Queen had said they might be allowed to see, if they were +good. + +Just then the children began to feel it impossible to keep their eyes +open any longer. They heard the voices of all their friends calling +"Good-by", but they could not answer. They tried to get one more +glimpse of the Good Dreams, but their eyes dropped shut--they were far +away. + +In the morning Aunt Jane woke to find all three children in her room. +Ann jumped into bed on one side of her, Peter, holding Mittens, +snuggled himself on the other, and Rudolf bestrode the foot. + +"Why, good morning, dears," she said. "Did you sleep well in the big +bed?" + +The children looked at one another thoughtfully. + +"Did you have good dreams?" asked Aunt Jane politely. "I did, I dreamt +about you three all night." + +"We had funny dreams," said Rudolf, "at least, I suppose they were--" +He stopped, looking very puzzled. + +"We woke up laughing," Ann said, "and we got right out of bed to come +quickly to tell you something awful funny that happened to us, but +now--" + +"Now we've forgotten it!" finished Rudolf sadly. + +Peter said nothing at all. He looked very grave and thoughtful and +squeezed Mittens just a little--only a little too hard. The kitten +gave a slight squeak. + +"Will you be good now?" whispered Peter in his furry ear. "Will you +never run away no more--_never_?" + +But Mittens would not answer. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11116 *** |