A WONDERFUL DREAM
January now is here,
The first glad month of all the year;
Get your sled and snowshoes out;
The coasting is good without a doubt;
We are so merry and glad, ho! ho!
We like the winter’s ice and snow;
I heard the Ink-Bottle Babies say,
“Snow-men we’ve made all the day!”
One Saturday in January it began to snow, and down came the flakes bigger
and bigger.
By noon the Ink-Bottle Mamma said, “There is enough snow now to make a
snow-man!”
“How can we make a snow-man?” asked Molly.
“Please show us how to make a snow-man,” said Polly.
The Ink-Bottle Mamma shook her head. She said, “I am too stiff and old to
make a snow-man.”
Then the Ink-Bottle Babies all began to talk at once and they said, “Will
no one show us how to make a snow-man?”
Then the Mamma said, “Hush! Listen! Stop your noise!”
Then the Babies were still and they heard the far-off tinkle of sleigh
bells.
Molly cried, “Oh, is it the farmer again?”
Polly cried, “Oh, are we going to have company?”
Then the twenty-five little Babies were very still. They flattened their
little noses against the windowpanes, and looked out into the great white
world.
Nearer, nearer, nearer, came the tinkle of sleigh bells, and very soon a
cunning little sleigh came in sight.
In the sleigh were seated two dwarfs. They were as much alike as two peas.
They stopped right in front of the house and got out of the sleigh.
They ran to the door and asked, “Can you tell us if we are on the right
road?”
The Ink-Bottle Mamma bowed and said, “It all depends on where you are
going, gentlemen!”
“It always depends on where we are going,” snapped the first little dwarf.
The second little dwarf said, “We are not gentlemen at all, we are only
dwarfs!”
Just at that minute, the first little dwarf caught sight of the
twenty-five Babies with their noses still flattened against the
windowpanes, and he cried, “Excuse me, but I must have one of those
Babies.”
“Oh! oh! oh!” cried the Ink-Bottle Mamma. “They are not for sale. You
cannot have one of my Babies.”
Then she shut the door quickly and left the two little dwarfs standing on
the doorstep.
“I want one of the Babies!” howled the first little dwarf.
The second little dwarf took him by the arm and led him down the walk
back to their little sleigh.
“I wonder if they live in the deep woods,” said Polly.
“I wonder where they were going,” said Molly.
The Ink-Bottle Mamma went and kissed every one of her Babies.
She said, “They cannot have any of my Babies. I cannot spare one of you!”
The old clock sang a new song. It sounded like this:
“Tick, tock, tick, tock,
They’re very sly, very sly,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
They may return by and by.”
[Illustration: “_A whole row of snow-men_”]
The Ink-Bottle Mamma pretended that she did not hear the clock’s song,
and she said, “Hurry, hurry into your caps and mittens and I will tell
you how to make a snow-man!”
Then the twenty-five Ink-Bottle Babies put on their caps and mittens, and
went out doors.
Mamma called to them to roll the snow over and over. Each Baby rolled a
snow-man.
“Put in sticks for arms,” she called. “Make eyes, and mouth, and nose.”
My! what a jolly time the Ink-Bottle Babies had!
They made a whole row of snow-men, and they worked so late that the stars
came out and began to twinkle.
Then twenty-three of the Babies said, “We are cold and hungry. We are
going into the house.”
Molly and Polly said, “Run on; we are not ready to go in yet.”
So the twenty-three Babies ran in and found Mamma making gingersnaps in
the kitchen.
Then Molly said, “Hark! what is that?”
Then Polly said “Hark! I hear something.”
Just at that minute a tiny sleigh drew up at the door. It was the same
sleigh that had been there before.
In the sleigh sat the two little dwarfs. They sat very still. They had
hidden their sleigh bells.
The first little dwarf jumped out of the sleigh and whispered to Molly
and Polly, “Have a sleigh ride? We will bring you home again safe and
sound!”
Then Polly said, “We must ask Ma.”
And Molly said, “I will ask Ma.”
The little dwarf winked his eye and said, “I have asked Ma already!”
So Molly and Polly got into the sleigh and they bounded away, away, away
over the snow.
Why didn’t the Ink-Bottle Mamma come out and stop them? She was busy
making gingersnaps!
“Are you warm enough?” asked the first little dwarf.
Then the second little dwarf began to sing in a drowsy voice,
“Heigho! over the snow,
Away in our little sleigh we go;
Heigho! hear the merry winds blow;
Away, away, away we go!”
Pretty soon Molly and Polly went to sleep.
When they woke up they found themselves in the cutest little house in the
world. They were in the house of the two little dwarfs!
The little dwarfs capered and danced about them and said, “You are the
cutest Babies in the world. Come and see grandpa!”
They went into the next room and there sat a very old dwarf. He stared at
the Babies and said,
“I am two thousand years old. Pray tell, how old are you?”
“Say you are two hundred,” said the first little dwarf, stamping his foot
at grandpa.
Grandpa shook his head and said, “I have always been two thousand years
old as long as I can remember.”
He pointed his finger at Molly and Polly and said, “Can you tell the
time?”
Then he took a large gold clock out of his pocket. “I always carry a
clock,” he said. “I don’t believe in watches. They run fast or slow.”
Then he turned to the little dwarfs, and said, “Speaking of time, is
supper ready?”
The Ink-Bottle Babies stared at the clock. They could not tell the time.
They said, “We must learn to tell time; there is so much to learn!”
Just then the two little dwarfs said, “Come into the candy room,” and
they all skipped into the next room.
There were bookshelves of candy and sofas of candy, and chairs of candy!
Molly and Polly clapped their hands with delight.
“Eat all you want to!” said the little dwarfs.
“Eat a chair!” shouted the first dwarf.
“Eat a table!” shouted the second dwarf.
“Oh! oh! oh!” cried Molly and Polly, “we must not eat up your furniture,
but it does look good.”
“Eat it all! Eat it all! We have plenty more!” roared the dwarfs.
Then Molly ate a leg of a table and Polly ate the corner of the bookcase.
Just at this time grandpa came in.
[Illustration: “_He was leaning on a cane made of candy_”]
He was hobbling along leaning on a very pretty cane made of striped
candy! He made a funny appearance, indeed.
“Supper time,” he called. “Supper time, I say.”
Then the two little dwarfs offered grandpa a candy rocking-chair, and
they ran and got on the cutest little aprons you ever saw.
They went to the kitchen stove and began to fry and bake and stew, and by
and by they called, “Supper is ready; soup is served.”
They had a nice supper and grandpa was so hungry he ate with a fork and
spoon at the same time!
Molly and Polly had eaten so much candy they could not eat any supper.
Grandpa said, “That is the way our visitors always do.”
Then he pulled the clock out of his pocket and said, “Tell the time,
please.”
Molly and Polly said, “We are sorry but we do not know how to tell the
time.”
“That is too bad,” said grandpa. “If you want to enjoy life, you must
learn to tell the time.”
Just then one of the little dwarfs began to pour out a glass of milk from
a very strange-looking pitcher.
“I wonder if that is the magic pitcher?” whispered Polly.
Polly whispered so loud that the little dwarf heard her.
He was so surprised that he dropped the pitcher and it broke into one
hundred pieces.
The room began to melt away and Molly and Polly woke up and rubbed their
eyes.
The Ink-Bottle Mamma was shaking them.
“You poor dears!” she said. “Are you almost frozen? You have been asleep
in the snow!”
Then she carried Molly and Polly into the house.
They rubbed their eyes again and cried, “Where are the little dwarfs?
Where is the old grandpa? Where is the magic pitcher?”
Then all the Ink-Bottle Babies set up a shout, “You have been asleep! You
fell asleep playing in the snow!”
Molly and Polly could not believe they had been dreaming. They said, “We
went riding in a sleigh!”
Then the Ink-Bottle Mamma put dry clothes on them and said, “Sit and
toast yourselves by the fire, while I get you some gingersnaps!”
When Molly and Polly were warm again, they told their wonderful dream.
When they had finished talking the Ink-Bottle Mamma said, “Can’t you
really tell the time, my dears?”
[Illustration: “_It is nine o’clock_”]
The Ink-Bottle Babies all shook their heads. Then the Ink-Bottle Mamma
gave them twenty-five little circles of pasteboard, and she gave them
some little pieces for hands of each clock.
They fastened the hands on the clocks with twenty-five little pins.
Now she said, “We will make numbers on the clockface.”
So they wrote twelve at the top of the circle, and six at the bottom;
they wrote three at the right and nine at the left; then they put the
other numbers between.
The Mamma said, “Put the long hand at twelve, and the little hand at
nine; now tell the time!”
Not one of the Ink-Bottle Babies could tell what time it was. Could you?
Then the Ink-Bottle Mamma said,
“The little hand tells the hour, you know,
As round and round the two hands go;
The big hand never makes a sound;
It tells the minutes as it goes around!”
Then the Ink-Bottle Babies clapped their hands and said, “It is nine
o’clock!”
Then they looked up at the big clock on the mantle-piece, and just then
they cried, “The big clock is nine o’clock, too.”
At this very minute the big clock began to strike.
The Ink-Bottle Babies held their breath and counted the strokes of the
clock.
They counted the strokes on their fingers!
Sure enough, the big clock struck nine.
“Hurrah!” cried the Babies. “We are learning to tell the time.”
Just then there was heard a gentle tap at the door. The door opened and
in walked an Ink-Bottle Baby. She wore a red dress and a red sunbonnet.
She said,
“How do you do? I am tired, too;
May I come in and sit with you?”
The Ink-Bottle Babies all shouted, “Can you tell the time?”
The new Ink-Bottle Baby shook her head and said, “I have been walking
over maps all day. The children want a red line here, and a red dot
there, and I am very tired.”
“Did you meet the little dwarfs in the woods?” asked Molly and Polly
together.
“Who are the little dwarfs?” asked the new Ink-Bottle Baby, and Molly and
Polly said,
“We have a picture of two little dwarfs;
If you will only look,
The magic pitcher, too, is seen
Within our picture-book.”
At the words “magic pitcher,” the new Ink-Bottle Baby sprang from her
chair, and ran out of the house as fast as her legs could carry her.
“Well, what do you think of that?” asked the Ink-Bottle Mamma.
The Ink-Bottle Babies clapped their hands and danced up and down.
They shouted, “There really must be a magic pitcher! There truly must be
a magic pitcher!”
Then they looked out of the window and saw the snow-men they had made.
The snow-men looked very real in the moonlight.
The Ink-Bottle Babies cried, “Listen! the snow-men are singing.”
They kept very still and they heard this song:
“Last night I saw a funny sight,
Upon the ground all glistening white;
Queer people standing in a row,
Who told me they were made of snow!
“They waved their arms so queer and long,
And kept time to a winter song;
And when I said I’d go away,
Their frosty voices bade me stay.
“I looked up at them in surprise,
And each man rolled his wooden eyes;
Then said if I’d excuse the joke,
They’d light a match and take a smoke!
“Now if you’d like to hear them talk,
Come out with me and take a walk;
You’ll find them standing in a row,
These funny people made of snow!”