Papa No-tail, the frog gentleman, was working away in the wallpaper
factory one day, when something quite strange happened to him, and if
you all sit right nice and quiet, as my dear old grandmother used to
say, I'll tell you all about it, from the beginning to the end, and I'll
even tell you the middle part, which some people leave out, when they
tell stories.
Papa No-Tail would dip his four feet, which were something like hands,
in the different colored inks at the factory. There was red ink, and
blue ink, and white ink, and black ink, and sky-purple-green ink, and
also that newest shade, skilligimink color, which Sammie Littletail once
dyed his Easter eggs. After he had his feet nicely covered with the ink,
Papa No-Tail would hop all over pieces of white paper to make funny
patterns on them. Then they would be ready to paper a room, and make it
look pretty.
"I think that is very well done," said the old gentleman frog to himself
as he looked at one roll of paper on which he had made a picture of a
mouse chasing a big lion. "Now I think I will make a pattern of a doggie
standing on his left ear." And he did so, and very fine it was, too.
"Now, while I'm waiting for the ink to dry," said Mr. No-Tail, "I'll lie
down and take a nap." So he went fast, fast asleep on a long piece of
the wall paper that was stretched out on the floor, and this was the
beginning of his trouble.
For, all at once, a puff of wind--not a cream puff, you understand, but a
wind puff--came in the window, and rolled up the wallpaper in a tight
little roll, and the worst of it was that Papa No-Tail was asleep
inside. Yes, fast, fast asleep, and he never knew that he was wrapped
up, just like a stick of chewing gum; only you mustn't ever chew gum in
school, you know.
Well, time went on, and the clock ticked, and Papa No-Tail still slept.
Then a man looked in the window of the wallpaper factory and, seeing no
one there, he thought he would take a roll of paper home with him, to
paste on his little boy's bedroom.
"The next time I come past here, perhaps some one will be in the
office," the man said, "and then I can pay them for the paper," for he
wanted to be very honest, you see. "I'll get Uncle Butter, the goat, to
paste the paper on the wall for me," said the man. Then he reached
inside the room, and what do you think? Why he picked up the very piece
of wallpaper that was wrapped around Papa Chip-Chip--Oh, no, excuse me! I
mean Papa No-Tail. Yes, the man picked up that roll, with Bully's and
Bawly's papa inside, and away he went with it, and the old gentleman
frog was still sound asleep.
Now this is about the middle of his trouble, just as I said I'd tell
you, but we haven't gotten to the end yet, though we will in a little
while.
Home that man went, as fast as he could go, and on his way he stopped at
Uncle Butter's office.
"I have a little wallpapering I want done at my house," the man said to
the old gentleman goat, "and I wish you'd come right along with me and
do it. I have the paper here."
"To be sure I will," said Uncle Butter. So he got his pail of paste, and
gave Billie and Nannie Goat a little bit on some brown paper, just like
jam, and they liked it very much. The goat paper-hanger took his shears,
and his brushes, and his stepladders, tying them on his horns, and away
he went with the man.
Pretty soon they came to the house where the man lived, and his little
boy was there, and very delighted he was when he heard that he was to
have some new paper on his room.
"May I watch you put it on?" he asked Uncle Butter.
"Yes," answered the old gentleman goat, "if you don't step in the paste,
and spoil the carpet."
The little boy promised that he wouldn't, and Uncle Butter went to work.
First he got his sticky stuff all ready, and then he made a little table
on which to lay out and paste the paper.
"Now, we'll cut the roll into strips and fasten it on the wall good and
tight, so that it won't fall off in the middle of the night and scare
you," said Uncle Butter. Then he reached for the roll of paper, and,
mind you, Papa No-Tail was still asleep inside of it. But all at once,
just as the paper-hanger goat was about to pick up the roll, Mr. No-Tail
awakened and was quite surprised to discover where he was.
"My, I never would have believed it," he said, and he wiggled his legs
and arms and made a great rustling sound inside the roll of paper like a
fly in a sugar bag.
"Hello! What's that?" cried Uncle Butter, jumping back so quickly that
he upset his paste-pot.
"What's the matter?" asked the little boy in glad surprise.
"Why, there's something inside that paper!" cried the goat. "See, it's
moving! There must be a fairy inside!"
Surely enough, the paper was rolling and twisting around on the floor in
a most remarkable manner, for Papa No-Tail inside was wriggling and
twisting, and trying his best to get out. But the paper was wound around
him too tightly, and he couldn't get loose.
"Oh, do you think it's a fairy?" asked the little boy eagerly, for he
loved the dear creatures, and wanted to see one.
"Let me out! Oh, please let me out!" suddenly cried Papa No-Tail just
then.
"Of course it's a fairy, my boy!" exclaimed Uncle Butter. "Didn't you
hear it call? Oh, I'm going right away from here! I've pasted all kinds
of paper, but never before have I handled fairy paper, and I'm afraid to
begin now."
He started to run out of the room but his foot slipped in the paste, and
down he fell, and his little table fell on top of him, and the
stepladder was twisted in his horns. And Papa No-Tail was trying harder
than ever to get loose, and the roll of wallpaper rolled right toward
Uncle Butter.
"Don't catch me! Please, don't catch me!" the goat called to the fairy
he supposed was inside. "I never did anything to you!"
Faster and faster rolled the paper, for Mr. No-Tail was wiggling quite
hard now, and he was crying to be let out. Then, all of a sudden, the
paper with the frog in, rolled close to the little boy. The boy was
brave, and he loved fairies, so he opened the roll, and out hopped Mr.
No-Tail, being very glad indeed to get loose, for it was quite warm
inside there.
"Oh my! Was that you in the paper?" asked Uncle Butter, solemnly,
sitting in the middle of the floor, on a lot of paste.
"It was," said Papa No-Tail, as he helped the goat to get up.
"Well, I never heard tell of such a thing in all my life! Never!"
exclaimed the goat, when the frog gentleman told him all about it. Then
Uncle Butter pasted the paper on the wall, and Papa No-Tail hopped home,
and that's the end of the story, just as I promised it would be.
Now in case the pussy cat doesn't wash the puppy dog's face with the
cork from the ink bottle and make his nose black, I'll tell you on the
next page about Bully playing marbles.