AFTER THE PARTY.
"It's all true," said Gladys in an offended voice. "But, of course,
you needn't believe it if you don't want to. Carlo, I wish you
wouldn't bark."
The two little girls were having tea together, and Gladys had been
telling Freda about _The Golliwog News_.
Freda slapped her sailor doll, Jolly Jack. He was eating much too
fast, she explained. Then she put her arm round Gladys.
"Of course I believe it," she said. "I wish I had been there. Do
you think I could come next time? I should like to see the Gollies'
newspaper, and do you think--do you really think I could go to
Golliwogland and see Jack's gold buttons in the Museum?"
"I don't know," said Gladys. "John James hasn't spoken to me since,
and Adeliza May has been so troublesome you'd never believe. She
tore the dress I made her for the party and I'm worried to death."
"How very vexing!" said Freda, looking severely at Adeliza May. "But
I had a trying time myself this morning. Someone had eaten all the
jam out of my nursery stores. You know the box of things I had last
Christmas with the scales and sweets and little pots of jam? Well, I
had one pot left--black currant it was--and every bit has
disappeared. It's most annoying."
"It is," agreed Gladys, nibbling daintily at her cake, while her
Golliwog stared steadily from the window seat, and Carlo sat up to
beg.
"Then there were Jack's buttons," Freda went on sadly. "I've had to
put trouser buttons on his coat. It's a great shame. He'll never
look such a handsome sailor again. I wish I could get that Teddy.
I'd set Carlo at him."
Carlo, hearing his name mentioned, jumped up and barked. He capered
round and round the room, chased a piece of cake into the window
seat, and knocked John James down.
Gladys and Freda flew to the rescue. There was a general stampede,
and when they were all settled in their places again there was a loud
knock at the front door. The two little girls jumped up.
"Let's run out and look over the bannisters," said Gladys, and off
they trotted.
"It's Mrs. Stapleton," whispered Freda. "I saw the feather in her
bonnet. Oh! and Tommy is with her, and he has brought that hateful
Teddy."
Freda turned quite white. She and Gladys rushed back to the nursery
and shut the door. But the very next minute, Jane, the housemaid,
came up to say that Master Tommy Stapleton had come with his mamma,
and would take tea with Miss Gladys and Miss Freda.
A moment later Tommy marched in.
"Hullo! here we are again," he shouted, putting his big Teddy down
beside Jolly Jack.
"What have you for tea? Any cake left over from the party? I liked
that creamy stuff with the pink sugar on it."
"You are a greedy boy," said Gladys severely; "and you had better
leave your Teddy outside."
"Whatever for?" cried Tommy, seizing his pet and holding him upside
down by one leg. "He's better than your old Golliwog any day."
"He isn't!" cried Gladys. "John James can talk, can't he Freda? And
your Teddy is nothing but a thief."
"That's a bit too tall," said Tommy, getting very red; "but Teddy and
I won't stop here with two silly little girls. Come along, Teddy
Boy," and Tommy walked towards the nursery door.
"But I wanted a bun," screamed the Bear, and he darted across the
room, seized a bun from the table and ate it greedily.
In a moment the Golliwog had jumped off the window seat, and Jolly
Jack leaped from his chair.
"Thump him!" cried Adeliza May. "It was he who tore my dress at the
party, and Miss Gladys thought I did it myself. Hit him, Mr. Jack!
Don't spare him, Mr. Golliwog."
"Not much!" cried Jolly Jack. "We'll let him have it."
And between them they pummelled Teddy's woolly body till he howled
for mercy.
Tommy had come back to the table, and the little girls were much too
startled to speak.
Gladys was the first to find her tongue, and while the three Toys
were having their desperate fight she managed to tell Tommy all about
his Teddy and the gold buttons.
Tommy was horrified. He stuck his hands in his pockets and stood,
with his legs wide apart, considering the situation.
"The young bounder!" he cried.
"But how did he manage to get away?" queried Gladys. "John James
told me last night that he had been captured and put in prison."
"Out on bail, I expect," remarked Tommy, and he explained, rather
grandly, that this was sometimes allowed.
"Carlo's bitten a piece out of his ear!" cried Freda. "Don't you
think he's had enough?"
"I say, just stop that fighting!" commanded Tommy sharply. "Now,
Teddy, my boy, what have you got to say for yourself?"
Jolly Jack and the Golliwog fell back, panting for breath.
The trouser buttons on Jack's dark navy suit were sewn on with white
cotton and made him look slovenly and untidy.
John James' eyes were fierce with anger, and his hair positively
bristled as he sat down in the window seat once more and allowed
Teddy's master to deal with him.
[Illustration: "HE PICKED A DANDELION AND BEGAN TO BLOW AT IT,
COUNTING THE WHILE."]
Tommy sat on the arm of the sofa, with his legs crossed in what he
thought was a very grown-up attitude.
"Now, Teddy," he said, "what is the meaning of this? Is it really
true that you _did_ cut those buttons off Jolly Jack's coat?"
Teddy got down on his knees, and began hitting his head against the
sofa.
"If you please--_bang_--I'm very sorry--_bang_--and I'll never do it
again"--_bang--bang--bang_.
"Hand out those buttons," demanded Tommy, "and leave off hitting your
stupid head in that idiotic way."
"I haven't got them," said Teddy getting up, and beginning to dance
on one toe. "I don't know where they are."
"Why did you take them?" asked Gladys, giving him a little shake.
"I was going to buy a present for Adeliza May," whimpered the Bear.
"How dare you!" screamed Jolly Jack.
"Don't tell stories," began Gladys, and she shook him again. "I
believe I felt something inside his coat," she said suddenly.
"Come here," said Tommy to the Bear in a very loud and awful voice.
Teddy obeyed without a word, and Tommy felt all over his loose brown
coat and found a hard round substance behind his ear.
"What's this?" he said, holding it fast with a piece of Teddy's fur.
"It's a nut," remarked the wicked Bear. "I--er--swallowed it by
accident yesterday, and it went behind my ear, and it's been there
ever since."
"What's this, then?" yelled John James seizing Teddy's leg. "Here's
another nut."
"And another!" cried Jolly Jack who had taken hold of the Bear's
elbow.
Then Teddy saw that the game was up. He opened a small hole in the
lining of his coat, shook himself, and six yellow buttons tumbled on
to the carpet.
Tommy picked them up and handed them to John James.
"I understand you take charge of these," he said.
The Golliwog placed them in an inner pocket for safety and made a
note in his pocket-book.
"But what shall we do with Teddy?" asked Freda. "He ought to be
punished."
"He spoke of buying Adeliza May a present," said Jolly Jack getting
very red in the face.
"He told stories and ate the biggest bath bun," said Gladys.
"Shall I bite him?" asked Carlo eagerly.
"Pop him into the toy cupboard," suggested Tommy holding open the
door.
"I'll do it," said John James, and he and Jolly Jack between them
thrust him in with no very gentle hands, and Tommy turned the key in
the lock.
"You did that pretty well, you two," began Tommy.
But neither John James nor Jolly Jack made any reply.
The Golliwog was sitting in the window with his usual stony stare,
while the sailor doll was lying against the table leg.
The children glanced towards the nursery door and saw that Gladys'
mother and Mrs. Stapleton stood there.
"Time to go home, Tommy," said his mother. "Come along, my son."