MARY FRANCES VISITS THIMBLE LAND
“TO-DAY I am to know all about where your dresses went, my dear Mary
Marie, and I’m so excited I can hardly wait,” said Mary Frances,
hugging the dolly close to her as she went into the sewing room.
[Illustration: “I am so excited!”]
Sewing Bird did not look up at her, nor seem to notice what she said.
“I wonder why Sewing Bird doesn’t glance at me,” she thought. “Dear
little bird, she may be tired. I’m tired, too, really! Hu―hm,” she
yawned, and leaned back in her chair, holding her arms closely about
Mary Marie. “I believe I’ll just shut my eyes and wait for Sewing
Bird to ‛come to.’”
Everything was quiet for a while, then suddenly a voice―the voice of
Sewing Bird―
“She’s just in time!
A minute more―
She never could
Get in the door!”
[Illustration: “She’s just in time!”]
Mary Frances looked at Sewing Bird.
“How do you do, Sewing Bird, dear,” she said.
“Come,” said Sewing Bird, “we must hurry. Come!”
[Illustration: “Don’t you want to go?”]
“We’re here!” laughed Mary Frances. “Why ‘hurry,’ or why ‘come’?”
“Don’t spend time talking,” exclaimed Sewing Bird rather impatiently.
Mary Frances remembered it was the first time she had ever spoken
other than most gently to her.
“If you do, you may think we’re there now.”
“Why, she must be crazy,” thought Mary Frances. “What a way to talk!”
“No,” she said aloud, “I think we’re here now―but when we’re there,
we’re―
“Don’t you want to go?” asked Sewing Bird.
“Of course!” said Mary Frances, although she’d no notion where.
“Well, that’s good,” said the little bird.
[Illustration: “Of course!” said Mary Frances]
“Good!” said Scissors Shears.
[Illustration: “Let’s be off”]
“Let us be off,” said Sewing Bird.
“Off!” said Scissors Shears.
“Sounds as though we were off,” said Mary Frances.
“Not yet,” said Sewing Bird. “Here!” And she jumped up and pecked
Mary Frances between her shoulders.
The little girl had the strangest sensation. She suddenly felt as
light as air,―as though her body weighed nothing. Her nose felt
strange, and she thought she ought to find her handkerchief.
“It was in my pocket, I am sure,” she said, and started to find her
pocket. Imagine her surprise when she couldn’t find her hand.
“Why, where can it be?” she thought. “I’ll see if I can move my arm!”
She raised one arm, and then the other, and away she flew. Out the
window―and across the blue sky―she, nearly as blue as the sky
itself, if she had known it.
[Illustration: Away she flew]
“How lovely!” she tried to say aloud, but what she heard herself
singing was:
“To float away,
Far, far away,
In clouds of blue
And every hue―
I flit my wing
And sing and sing!”
Then came another voice:
“I’m so glad, dear little friend,
My trouble now is at an end;
’Twas indeed my task of love
To turn you to a burnished dove.”
[Illustration]
She looked around, and there was Sewing Bird flying beside her, and
another tiny little blue bird, keeping close to Sewing Bird.
“What a dear little
Bird of blue!
Is she, dear friend,
A friend of you?”
she asked.
[Illustration: “What a dear little Bird of blue!”]
“A friend she is
Indeed of me―
But more of you―
It’s Miss Marie!”
answered Sewing Bird.
[Illustration: “She makes a beauteous bird”]
“My dear sweet dolly,
I declare!
She makes a beauteous bird―
And rare!”
sang Mary Frances.
“Now, turn again
To the right wing―
To Thimble Land
We safely bring,”
sang Sewing Bird. And Mary Frances, the Dove; and Mary Marie, the
Blue Bird; and Sewing Bird Fairy Lady stood before a golden gate.
[Illustration: “To Thimble Land We safely bring”]
“You’ll have to become a Thimble Person to enter,” smiled Fairy
Lady, and she touched Mary Frances’ right wing with her bodkin wand;
and Mary Frances felt herself stiffen and stiffen.
[Illustration: “She’s Bees Wax”]
“What am I now, please?” she asked Fairy Lady.
“You’re a Work Basket,” said Fairy Lady.
“How curious it feels,” said Mary Frances. “And Mary Marie―what is
she?” she asked.
“She’s Bees Wax,” whispered Fairy Lady.
“Who’s there?” came a voice at the gate, and before Mary Frances
could look for Mary Marie, “The pass-word?” came the same voice.
“P. P. B. S.,” answered Fairy Lady.
“What’s that mean, please?” asked Mary Frances.
“Patience and Perseverance―Bring―Success,” answered Fairy Lady.
“Enter,” said Big Thimble, opening the gates, and Mary Frances and
Mary Marie, and Fairy Lady walked in.
Everybody was there! Scissors Shears, Silver Thimble, Pen Cil, Needle
Book, and all the others.
My! they were delighted to see them, and gathered about, asking all
kinds of questions.
[Illustration: “You’re a Work Basket”]
“How does it seem to be a basket?” asked Scissors Shears.
[Illustration: “It’s lovely to be able to speak”]
“I feel just a little wooden,” said Mary Frances, “and rather too
large around for my arms,―but very contented.”
“Oh, Bees Wax,” laughed Tommy Pin Cushion, talking to Mary Marie,
“you always had a waxen look to me.”
“It is lovely to be able to speak,” said Bees Wax, otherwise Mary
Marie. “I would like to thank Mamma, and you all―”
“Here comes His Majesty!” exclaimed Scissors Shears. Everybody bowed
toward the ground except Fairy Lady, and Mary Frances Work Basket,
and Mary Marie Bees Wax.
Mary Frances looked up.
Coming between two huckleberry bushes (trees, Mary Frances thought
them) was an airship made of golden basketry. Gracefully down it
floated, with a little zdud! zdud! sound, and in it sat―Mary Frances
knew him in a minute―the King of Fairy Thimble Land!
His coat was of green and gold, but it was so glossy and fine that
Mary Frances thought it was spun of cobwebs. He held a long golden
needle in his hand.
[Illustration: “Oh, Bees Wax,” laughed Tommy Pin Cushion]
[Illustration: Mary Frances was herself again―but a very tiny self]
[Illustration: “Attention!” roared the King]
Mary Frances was herself again―but a very tiny self and fine that
Mary Frances thought it was spun of cobwebs. He held a long golden
needle in his hand.
“Where are they?” he asked.
“Your Majesty,” said Fairy Lady, “here they are!”
“Oh,” said the King of Thimble Land to Mary Frances Work Basket, and
Mary Marie Bees Wax. “Step up and bow!”
Mary Frances tried to kneel, thinking this was proper, but the King
touched her with his wand; then he touched Bees Wax.
Mary Frances was herself again―but a very tiny self―not so large as
Sewing Bird Fairy Lady,―and beside her was a little girl with golden
curls, just half as tall as Fairy Lady.
“Mother!” said the tiny little thing, smiling to Mary Frances.
“Attention!” roared the King of Thimble Land.
“I beg your Majesty’s pardon,” said Mary Frances, “but she’s never
spoken to me before―and”―
“That will do,” said the King. “If a doll is more important than
I,―sew her up!”
“In what, Your Majesty?” asked Bod Kin.
[Illustration: “I beg your Majesty’s pardon”]
[Illustration: “I didn’t mean it that way!”]
“Oh, no, no!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “I didn’t mean it that way!”
“You better not!” said the King. “But I understand,”―he added,
seeing Mary Frances look sad. “You must know I understand how you
feel,
“When you see
All her lost dresses,
On this tree,”
and he pointed to a little tree nearby. There were all Mary Marie’s
pretty lost clothes!
“You may take them with you,” said the King, smiling.
“Never in all the years of Thimble History,” he went on, “have we
been so interested in any little girl. I borrowed these to show some
other little girls what patience and perseverance will do.
“Now, I am going to bestow on you one of my loveliest gifts; for I saw
all your beautiful work, and the Grand Sampler! A prize indeed, you
shall have! From to-day, the Needle-of-Don’t-Have-to-Try is yours―to
keep! We give one something like it to all good girls who try to do
their best, but yours is the Fairy Needle-of-Don’t-Have-to-Try.
[Illustration: “You may take them with you”]
[Illustration: “We’d love to keep you longer”]
“And one more surprise! You may tell your mother about us, and
explain about the dolly’s clothes. Please pack them all, attendants!”
“Here’s the suit case!” said Fairy Lady, handing out Mary Marie’s
little suit case, “and over there is the trunk. Put the caps in the
tray, remember!”
“You have saved us from being Never-Nevers,” continued the King,
“because you kept the secret until you finished the lessons. And now,
that you are going―here is a bag of useful gifts for you to open
when you reach home. Pack the bag in the suit case, attendants.”
“We’d love to keep you longer―you, and sweet Mary Marie―but your
Grandma has called you twice. You may show her all the pretty things
you’ve made, when you get home. Let us know when you want us again,
unless you wish” (and the King laughed) “to say forever―Good-bye.
Who’ll say Good-bye forever?” he asked.
“Oh, Your Majesty, not I!” said Mary Frances.
[Illustration: “Pack the bag in the suit case, attendants”]
“Not I!” answered every one of the Thimble People.
* * * * *
Mary Frances opened her eyes. Did Sewing Bird or Dick Canary sing,
“Not I!”
[Illustration: Out the window―and across the blue sky]
[Illustration: CHAPTER XXXIV]