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THE
ADMIRAL'S CARAVAN
BY
CHARLES E. CARRYL
AUTHOR OF "DAVY AND THE GOBLIN"
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
REGINALD B. BIRCH
[Illustration: The Riverside Press]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
Copyright, 1891, 1892, 1919, and 1920, by The Century Co.
Copyright, 1920, by Charles E. Carryl
[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW
OF HIS LEGS THROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS."]
TO CONSTANCE
Sweet Chatterbox, 't is thou that hast beguiled
My fancy, as it drew the little child
Who in these pages lives; her gentle ways
Are but the reflex of thy round of days.
The trip of syllable I held so dear,
And all thy small remarks, are treasured here--
Charmed by the alchemy of love to stay
The while thy blissful childhood slips away.
Kind little heart, that knows no selfish thought,
Read here the tale that thou, thyself, hast wrought!
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Dorothy and the Admiral 11
CHAPTER II
The Ferry to Nowhere 23
CHAPTER III
The Cruise of the Sideboard 32
CHAPTER IV
Tree-top Country 39
CHAPTER V
Bob Scarlet's Garden 54
CHAPTER VI
In the Toy-shop 66
CHAPTER VII
The Song in the Dell 81
CHAPTER VIII
Something About the Camel 95
CHAPTER IX
The Camel's Complaint 104
CHAPTER X
The Sizing Tower 112
CHAPTER XI
The Dancing Animals 120
CHAPTER XII
The Caravan Comes Home 129
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"The Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a
view of his legs through his spy-glass" Frontispiece
Head-piece to Chapter I 11
The Admiral 13
The Highlander 14
Sir Walter Rosettes 15
"The Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a
view of his legs through his spy-glass" 19
"The Admiral sat up and gazed about with a complacent smile" 21
"'They're entirely different from mine, anyhow,' said
the Stork" 25
"It seemed like listening to an enormous cuckoo-clock" 26
"'Dear Me!' she exclaimed, 'here comes all the furniture!'" 30
"The Admiral exclaimed: 'There she is! I can see
her quite plainly!'" 34
"The sideboard slowly floated along through this
strange forest" 40
Dorothy makes a call in the tree-top country 43
The extraordinary Post-Captain 47 and 48
"He did a little fifing on the edges of the note" 49
"Sir Peter caught the pirate, and he took him by the neck" 51
"He was walking about with his hands in his waistcoat-pockets" 55
"There were plants loaded down with little pinafores,
and shrubs with small shoes growing all over them" 57
"'Why, the place where I am,' said Dorothy" 62
"Dorothy started off at once, as fast as she could run" 64
"'It is a shelf!' she exclaimed" 67
"The Highlander, with his usual bad luck, had put
on his sunbonnet backward" 68
"'You know your size does come in dozens, assorted,'
continued the Jack" 75
"He sailed away under the bridge" 80
"She found it rather trying to her nerves, at first,
to meet with rabbits as big as horses" 86
"--To be chattered at by squirrels a head taller
than she herself was" 87
"Pushing the leaves gently aside, she cautiously peeped out" 91
The Mouse laments 93
"And found the Caravan sitting in a row on a little
bench at the door" 96
"He dropped his little book, with an appearance of
great agitation, and hurried away" 101
"A door at the back of the shop opened and they all rushed out" 102
Tail-piece to Chapter VIII 103
The Caravan discipline the Camel 109
"'There isn't any more,' said the Highlander, rather confusedly" 115
"An elephant and a sheep seized her by the hands, and the next
moment she was dancing in the ring" 123
The animals crossing over 127
"By this time they were running so fast that she
could hardly keep up with them" 135
"It slowly changed to a bird-cage with a robin sitting in it" 138
Tail-piece to Chapter XII 140
[Illustration: HEAD-PIECE TO CHAPTER I.]
CHAPTER I
DOROTHY AND THE ADMIRAL
The Blue Admiral Inn stood on the edge of the shore, with its red brick
walls, and its gabled roof, and the old willow-trees that overhung it,
all reflected in the quiet water as if the harbor had been a great
mirror lying upon its back in the sun. This made it a most attractive
place to look at. Then there were crisp little dimity curtains hanging
in the windows of the coffee-room and giving great promise of tidiness
and comfort within, and this made it a most delightful place to think
about. And then there was a certain suggestion of savory cooking in the
swirl of the smoke that came out of the tall, old-fashioned chimneys,
and this made it a most difficult place to stay away from. In fact, if
any ships had chanced to come into the little harbor, I believe
everybody on board of them, from the captains down to the cabin-boys,
would have scrambled into the boats the moment the anchors were down and
pulled away for the Blue Admiral Inn.
But, so far as ships were concerned, the harbor was as dead as a
door-nail, and poor old Uncle Porticle, who kept the inn, had long ago
given up all idea of expecting them, and had fallen into a melancholy
habit of standing in the little porch that opened on the village street,
gazing first to the right and then to the left, and lastly at the
opposite side of the way, as if he had a faint hope that certain
seafaring men were about to steal a march upon him from the land-side of
the town. And Dorothy, who was a lonely little child, with no one in the
world to care for but Uncle Porticle, had also fallen into a habit of
sitting on the step of the porch by way of keeping him company; and
here they passed many quiet hours together, with the big robin hopping
about in his cage, and with the Admiral himself, on his pedestal beside
the porch, keeping watch and ward over the fortunes of the inn.
[Illustration: THE ADMIRAL.]
Now the Admiral was only a yard high, and was made of wood into the
bargain; but he was a fine figure of a man for all that, being dressed
in a very beautiful blue coat (as befitted his name) and canary-colored
knee-breeches, and wearing a fore-and-aft hat rakishly perched on the
back of his head. On the other hand, he had sundry stray cracks in the
calves of his legs, and was badly battered about the nose; but, after
all, this only gave him a certain weather-beaten appearance as if he had
been around the world any number of times in all sorts of company; and
for as long as Dorothy could remember he had been standing on his
pedestal beside the porch, enjoying the sunshine and defying the rain,
as a gallant officer should, and earnestly gazing at the opposite side
of the street through a spy-glass.
[Illustration: THE HIGHLANDER.]
Now, what the Admiral was staring at was a mystery. He might, for
instance, have been looking at the wooden Highlander that stood at the
door of Mr. Pendle's instrument-shop, for nothing more magnificent than
this particular Highlander could possibly be imagined. His clothes were
of every color of the rainbow, and he had silver buckles on his shoes,
and brass buttons on his coat, and he was varnished to such an extent
that you could hardly look at him without winking. Then his hair and his
whiskers were so red, and his legs were so pink and so fat and so
lifelike, that it seemed as if you could almost hear him speak; and,
what was more, he had been standing for years at the door of the shop,
proudly holding up a preposterous wooden watch that gave half-past
three as the correct time at all hours of the day and night. In fact, it
would have been no great wonder if the Admiral had stared at him to the
end of his days.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER ROSETTES.]
Then there was Sir Walter Rosettes, a long-bodied little man in a
cavalier's cloak, with a ruff about his neck and enormous rosettes on
his shoes, who stood on a pedestal at old Mrs. Peevy's garden gate,
offering an imitation tobacco-plant, free of charge, as it were, to any
one who would take the trouble of carrying it home. This bold device was
intended to call attention to the fact that Mrs. Peevy kept a
tobacco-shop in the front parlor of her little cottage behind the
hollyhock bushes, the announcement being backed up by the spectacle of
three pipes arranged in a tripod in the window, and by the words
"Smokers' Emporium" displayed in gold letters on the glass; and, by the
way, Dorothy knew perfectly well who _this_ little man was, as somebody
had taken the trouble of writing his name with a lead-pencil on his
pedestal just below the toes of his shoes.
And lastly there was old Mrs. Peevy herself, who might be seen at any
hour of the day, sitting at the door of her cottage, fast asleep in the
shade of her big cotton umbrella with the Chinese mandarin for a handle.
She wasn't much to look at, perhaps, but there was no way of getting at
the Admiral's taste in such matters, so he stared through his spy-glass
year in and year out, and nobody was any the wiser.
Now from sitting so much in the porch and turning these things over in
her mind, Dorothy had come to know the Admiral and the Highlander and
Sir Walter Rosettes as well as she could possibly know persons who
didn't know her, and who couldn't have spoken to her if they _had_ known
her; but nothing came of the acquaintance until a certain Christmas eve.
Of course, nobody knew better than Dorothy what Christmas eve should be
like. The snow should be falling softly, and just enough should come
down to cover up the pavements and make the streets look beautifully
white and clean, and to edge the trees and the lamp-posts and the
railings as if they were trimmed with soft lace; and just enough to
tempt children to come out, and not so much as to keep grown people at
home--in fact, just enough for Christmas eve, and not a bit more.
Then the streets should be full of people hurrying along and all
carrying plenty of parcels; and the windows should be very gay with
delightful wreaths of greens, and bunches of holly with plenty of
scarlet berries on them, and the greengrocers should have little forests
of assorted hemlock-trees on the sidewalks in front of their shops, and
everything should be as cheerful and as bustling as possible.
And, if you liked, there might be just a faint smell of cooking floating
about in the air, but this was not important by any means, as it might
happen at any time.
Well, all these good old-fashioned things came to pass on this
particular Christmas eve except the snow; and in place of that there
came a soft, warm rain which was all very well in its way, except that,
as Dorothy said, "It didn't belong on Christmas eve." And just at
nightfall she went out into the porch to smell the rain, and to see how
Christmas matters generally were getting on in the wet; and she was
watching the people hurrying by, and trying to fancy what was in the
mysterious-looking parcels they were carrying so carefully under their
umbrellas, when she suddenly noticed that the toes of the Admiral's
shoes were turned sideways on his pedestal, and looking up at him she
saw that he had tucked his spy-glass under his arm, and was gazing down
backward at his legs with an air of great concern.
This was so startling that Dorothy almost jumped out of her shoes, and
she was just turning to run back into the house when the Admiral caught
sight of her, and called out excitedly, "Cracks in my legs!"--and then
stared hard at her as if demanding some sort of an explanation of this
extraordinary state of affairs.
Dorothy was dreadfully frightened, but she was a very polite little
girl, and would have answered the town pump if it had spoken to her; so
she swallowed down a great lump that had come up into her throat, and
said, as respectfully as she could, "I'm very sorry, sir. I suppose it
must be because they are so very old."
[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW OF
HIS LEGS THROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS."]
"Old!" exclaimed the Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a view
of his legs through his spy-glass. "Why, they're no older than _I_ am";
and, upon thinking it over, this seemed so very true that Dorothy felt
quite ashamed of her remark and stood looking at him in a rather foolish
way.
"Try again," said the Admiral, with a patronizing air.
"No," said Dorothy, gravely shaking her head, "I'm sure I don't know any
other reason; only it seems rather strange, you know, that you've never
even seen them before."
"If you mean my legs," said the Admiral, "of course I've seen them
before--lots of times. But I've never seen 'em behind. That is," he
added by way of explanation. "I've never seen 'em behind before."
"But I mean the cracks," said Dorothy, with a faint smile. You see she
was beginning to feel a little acquainted with the Admiral by this time,
and the conversation didn't seem to be quite so solemn as it had been
when he first began talking.
"Then you should say 'seen 'em before _behind_,'" said the Admiral.
"That's where they've always been, you know."
Dorothy didn't know exactly what reply to make to this remark; but she
thought she ought to say something by way of helping along the
conversation, so she began, "I suppose it's kind of----" and here she
stopped to think of the word she wanted.
"Kind of what?" said the Admiral severely.
"Kind of--cripplesome, isn't it?" said Dorothy rather confusedly.
"Cripplesome?" exclaimed the Admiral. "Why, that's no word for it. It's
positively decrepitoodle----" here he paused for a moment and got
extremely red in the face, and then finished up with "----loodelarious,"
and stared hard at her again, as if inquiring what she thought of
_that_.
"Goodness!" said Dorothy, drawing a long breath, "what a word!"
"Well, it _is_ rather a word," said the Admiral with a very satisfied
air. "You see, it means about everything that can happen to a person's
legs--" but just here his remarks came abruptly to an end, for as he was
strutting about on his pedestal, he suddenly slipped off the edge of it
and came to the ground flat on his back.
[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL SAT UP AND GAZED ABOUT WITH A COMPLACENT
SMILE."]
Dorothy gave a little scream of dismay; but the Admiral, who didn't
appear to be in the least disturbed by this accident, sat up and gazed
about with a complacent smile. Then, getting on his feet, he took a pipe
out of his pocket, and lit it with infinite relish; and having turned up
his coat-collar by way of keeping the rest of his clothes dry, he
started off down the street without another word. The people going by
had all disappeared in the most unaccountable manner, and Dorothy could
see him quite plainly as he walked along, tacking from one side of the
street to the other with a strange rattling noise, and blowing little
puffs of smoke into the air like a shabby little steam-tug going to sea
in a storm.
Now all this was extremely exciting, and Dorothy, quite forgetting the
rain, ran down the street a little way so as to keep the Admiral in
sight. "It's _precisely_ like a doll going traveling all by itself," she
exclaimed as she ran along. "How he rattles! I suppose _that's_ his
little cracked legs--and goodness gracious, how he smokes!" she added,
for by this time the Admiral had fired up, so to speak, as if he were
bound on a long journey, and was blowing out such clouds of smoke that
he presently quite shut himself out from view. The smoke smelt somewhat
like burnt feathers, which, of course, was not very agreeable, but the
worst of it was that when Dorothy turned to run home again she
discovered that she couldn't see her way back to the porch, and she was
feeling about for it with her hands stretched out, when the smoke
suddenly cleared away and she found that the inn, and Mr. Pendle's shop,
and Mrs. Peevy's cottage had all disappeared like a street in a
pantomime, and that she was standing quite alone before a strange little
stone house.