_Enter Bob._
NEXT morning consternation reigned in the nursery, for nurse coming
in early to light the wood fire, found the electric lights burning,
everything overturned, and the whole place looking as if it had been
visited by a cyclone.
All the toys were lying about wherever they had happened to drop when
surprised in their antics by Sally’s sudden awakening. Nurse’s work
basket lay overturned on the floor with all its contents spilled out
and her favorite tomato pincushion piteously emptying forth its sawdust
vitals through a yawning rent in its side.
A basket of waxen fruits, perpetrated by Sally’s grandmother in her
youth, had been thrown down from the shelf, and all the beautiful
peaches and pears and apples lay ruined on the carpet mixed with the
fragments of the glass shade that had covered them.
Most deplorable of all, nurse’s best bonnet had been dragged from its
box and the gorgeous bunch of grapes that adorned its brim had been
torn off and lay crushed and mangled on the floor.
Everything bore the mark of rapacious little teeth. Therefore nurse’s
theory favored rats, and mamma shuddered at the mere thought of such
dreadful little creatures being so close to her darling.
Such a thing had never before occurred in the annals of the nursery.
Nurse wept over her bonnet and Sally over the ruined fruit which had
been one of her chief treasures. She hated, oh, how she hated those
dreadful marauding rats, who had done such damage with their sharp
little teeth. Supposing that they had attacked Peter Pan and his
beloved family? The thought was too terrible for words. She immediately
resolved that in the future, Rough House, the beautiful Scotch collie,
should sleep in the nursery, a plan that mamma entirely approved.
Never for one moment did Sally suspect Peter Pan, sitting so calmly in
the bosom of his family, of being the author of the tragedy.
She had taken off his pajamas and dressed him for the day in a smart
white sweater with leggings to match, and a beautiful white toboggan
cap with a pink tassel that hung down at one side. To be sure, the
tendency of the tassel was rather to make things topheavy on its own
particular side, so that the toboggan cap was somewhat inclined to tilt
rakishly over one eye.
This, however, was arranged by Sally with many a loving pat, and
she gathered him affectionately in her arms, fancying that a queer
expression flashed into his bright black eyes as she and the nurse
discussed the feasibility of allowing Rough House to sleep in the
nursery.
[Illustration]
Nurse had been very much disturbed by the fact that she had found the
night light extinguished, although the little vessel in which the wick
floated was nearly half full of oil.
Rats could never have done a thing like that, she said to herself,
neither could they have turned on the electric lights, nor yet
scattered all the toys about the nursery floor in the grotesque
confusion in which they had been found. However, she kept her ideas to
herself, for the subject of ghosts and fairies was a strictly forbidden
one in the nursery.
Only Sally herself might have explained the matter of the electric
lights, but she intuitively felt that for Peter Pan’s sake she must
never, never mention anything that she had heard or seen without his
permission; and somehow she felt pretty sure that this he would be
rather unwilling to grant.
In point of fact the little girl was rather beginning to wonder if it
had not all been a dream.
However, she did not allow the matter to trouble her gay little
brain, and was the picture of delighted happiness when an hour later,
accompanied by mamma and nurse, she stepped into the big motor car and
rolled away down town to the shopping district, carrying Peter Pan, who
wore an altogether angelic expression, and nobody in the world would
ever have suspected that the demure rascal, although somewhat disturbed
at the fuss caused by his escapade of the night before, was even then
planning some new performance for the ensuing evening.
This shopping trip was instituted chiefly for the benefit of nurse,
who was delighted with the gift of a new bonnet that fairly bristled
with grapes, while Sally was overjoyed with a beautiful set of library
furniture for the doll’s house. After this the little girl was lifted
to the loftiest pinnacle of enjoyment by luncheon at one of the fine
cafés. Mamma allowed her to select the dishes she liked best, although
nurse was rather inclined to shake her head over a combination of
oysters, chicken salad, eclairs and _café parfait_, she herself being
more inclined for beefsteak and baked potato. But mamma laughingly
declared that it would do no harm for once and Sally enjoyed the menu
to its fullest extent, now and then pretending to feed the Teddy bear,
who sat up stiffly in a chair by himself, with a biscuit between his
paws. After the jolly luncheon another surprise was in store for
Sally—a matinee of Buster Brown, over which the child was enraptured.
But I regret to say that the play supplied Peter Pan’s already fertile
brain with several ideas which he could very well have done without.
[Illustration]
It was very close to dinner time when the very happy if very tired
little girl trotted upstairs to the nursery hugging Peter Pan to her
heart, and rather wondering to hear voices through the half closed
door. Then as she entered a sort of whirlwind punctuated by kisses
enveloped her, and after the first breathless moment she could only
cry out, “Oh Bob! I’m so glad!” and sure enough Bob it was, come back
somewhat unexpected from Florida, where he had gone to spend part of
the winter with the two pretty aunties whose absence had made a great
gap in Sally’s small social circle.
[Illustration: The new Teddy Bears proved a great acquisition]
They were all there, and all wanting to hug Sally at once and indeed
the dinner bell was ringing before nurse was able to carry her off to
be made fresh and pretty for the evening meal.
How good it was to see Bob’s dear brown face and to hear him telling
of the fine times they had had down in the beautiful land where it is
always summer. Sally could scarcely wait until dinner was ended and ate
little herself, but she greatly enjoyed watching Bob while he satisfied
the hearty appetite that rightfully belonged to a little man of twelve.
As soon as the meal was ended, the children hurried upstairs and Sally
introduced her brother to Peter Pan and his family.
Bob thought the bears a great acquisition and then the two children,
curled upon the hearth rug before the crackling and snapping grate
fire, toasted marshmallows and popped chestnuts which they could not
eat, but which, although they did not know it, were destined for the
delectation of the Teddy bears later on.
For these rascals, as soon as the children had been tucked up in bed,
came hopping and skipping with eagerness and greedily gobbled up the
last crumb, and then held a council of war which resulted in a scheme
that they were not, however, able to carry out at once, owing to other
plans now being formulated by Papa Doctor.