_At Last_
And then Mother Goose called them to the table, where supper was
already waiting, and they began to eat. The children were very hungry,
and it seemed to them that they had never had such good things to eat
in all their lives. But afterward when they tried to remember what they
had had, they found that was a misty blank.
Then after supper they sat around the fire, and Mother Goose got out
her spinning-wheel and sang to them all the dear, wonderful, foolish
songs that every child knows—or ought to know.
And she made a song about the rescue of Humpty Dumpty. You have all
heard it, but don’t you wish you could have heard it when it was first
made up, as Bab and Meg and Dick did, by the cheerful little fire in
Mother Goose’s cottage?
This is the way it went, and she spun as she sang:
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!
Not all the King’s horses, nor all the King’s men
Could ever put Humpty Dumpty together again!
—I’m glad to say,” she added, smiling.
“Mother Goose,” said Dick, rather shyly, “do—do you think that we could
be pardoned now for—for not believing in—in—Make Believe things?”
“I’m sure of it,” answered Mother Goose. “You are no longer stupid
little unbelieving children, with dull eyes and deaf ears,—you have
learned to believe in the most wonderful things in any world—which are
the Make Believe things,—and you will be thankful all your lives. And
do you know whom you have to thank for all this?”
“You,” said Dick.
“Santa Claus!” suggested Bab.
“The Fairy Queen?” questioned Meg.
Mother Goose shook her head.
“In Make Believe Land,” she said, “there are many kingdoms, and we
are all rulers in our own way. But over us all is placed a great and
wonderful Queen. She is the real ruler of Make Believe Land.”
“Oh, who is she?” cried all three children. “Can’t we see her before we
go?”
“You have all seen her,” replied Mother Goose. “Guess, if you can, who
she is!”
They thought hard for a moment.
“The Idle Princess!” exclaimed Bab.
“Dreams-Come-True!” cried Meg.
“The Fairy of Fancy!” guessed Dick.
Mother Goose smiled approvingly at them.
“Well guessed!” she said. “For you are every one of you right!”
“Why—what—how—” gasped the three. “Is she—”
“You must have guessed that she was the lady who appeared to all of
you,” said Mother Goose. “You all saw her when you were in Santa
Claus’s sleigh.”
“We had forgotten!” they declared. “We were so excited! Oh, Mother
Goose, was _she_ the—”
“She takes a great many shapes, this great Queen of ours,” said Mother
Goose. “Indeed, she says that no one knows, nor ever will know, her
real name. Sometimes she wears a ragged dress, and often she forgets
her crown and leaves it at home; but whether she is an Idle Princess,
or a Lady of Dreams-Come-True, or a Fairy of Fancy,—she is always our
beloved lady,—whom I hope you will know and love, too, all your lives
long,—the dear, immortal, young, ancient girl-queen of Make Believe
Land.”
“Shall we see her again?” they asked in low voices.
“That,” said Mother Goose, with a little smile, “depends upon
yourselves. To those who love her she is always ready to come. But from
those who forget her, or slight her, or try to live without her, she
is careful to keep away. When you want her, she will be with you. Your
eyes have been opened by your stay here, so that you will always be
able to recognise her. Many people in the Real World meet her face to
face, but do not know who she is. But in all times of great happiness
or trouble, in all summer nights or snowstorms, and in all your dreams
and hopes, and later in whatever romance life may have thrown your
lots,—you will see her in her green gown smiling at you from under her
little crown of stars.”
“Mother,” interrupted Bizzybuzz, respectfully, “are the mortal children
to go home, now that their work is done?”
“Yes,” said Mother Goose, and looked just a wee bit sad,—“yes, yes! Of
course they must go home! Come, my children, come and kiss me good-bye!”
She drew them all three into her arms, and kissed them, one by one.
Then Humpty Dumpty and the Princess said good-bye, and Star cried a
little.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Bab. “Shall we never come back to Make Believe Land
any more?”
“My dears,” said Mother Goose, “I am going to tell you something which
you may not understand for a great many years. But it is true all the
same. The Real World, as it is called, is nothing at all but a very
small corner of Make Believe Land!”
Then she drew them once more into her arms, and held them close, and
they felt themselves growing sleepier and sleepier, and the warm
comfort of her arms seemed to wrap them round closely and happily. They
felt as though they were in their mother’s arms at home, and they knew
suddenly that they had become nothing but little, little babies, and
that their heads were nodding against Mother Goose’s breast.
And as they lay so in her arms, she began to rock them softly to and
fro, and croon the queerest, quaintest little lullaby to them. They
did not know in the least what it was all about, but it was drowsy
and motherly, and made them think of night-lights, and bath-tubs, and
coverlids pulled up close and warm on winter nights. And then they knew
that, whatever it was, it was what they always seemed to hear when
their mother used to creep into their room during a thunder-storm,
“just to see that they were all right and not frightened!”
Held so in Mother Goose’s arms, they all dreamed—for they were almost
asleep, you know—that they saw a nightgowned figure, stealing close and
closer, lowering the light, and softly mending the fire; and a dear
dream voice whispered: “Hush, darling, hush! It’s only Mamma. Go to
sleep.” And then came a kiss as light as a breath. Their minds seemed
confused; was it their own mother or Mother Goose? They never knew,
for the next moment, and before they had time to decide, they were all
three fast asleep.
* * * * *
When they opened their eyes,—it seemed but one dreamy minute
later,—they were all three back on the nursery hearth-rug. The fire was
almost out, and Nurse was just coming in.
“Bedtime, dearies,” she said. “Have you been asleep already?”
The children looked at each other.
Was it only fancy, or did they hear the faint whirr of Bizzybuzz’s
wings as he flew away?
[Illustration]
Transcribers Notes
Spelling isn’t always consistent. For some words several variants
can be encountered e.g. “sword-fish” and “swordfish”. Principally no
corrections have been made. However, there are some rather obvious
printing errors that have been corrected. These are listed below.
Corrections:
Frontispiece: “Page 26” changed to “Page 34” to correspond with the
list of illustrations
Page 53 “fox terrier” changed to “fox-terrier”
Page 66 Single quote changed to double quote
Page 69 Period inserted between “forest” and “She”
Page 76 “shapened” changed to “sharpened”
Page 142 “really” changed to “real”
Pages 148 and 149 “Moon Eyes” changed to “Moon-Eyes”
Page 169 “Moon-eyes” changed to “Moon-Eyes”
The text contains formatting. The following conventions are used:
_word_ means that “word” is in italics;
+word+ means that “word” is in small caps.