THE ADVENTURES OF
DIGGELDY DAN
[Illustration: “Who—may—you—be?” exclaimed the four in surprise.
FRONTISPIECE. _See page 135._]
THE ADVENTURES OF DIGGELDY DAN
BY
EDWIN P. NORWOOD
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
A. CONWAY PEYTON
[Illustration]
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1922
_Copyright, 1922_,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved_
Published September, 1922
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
THE HOSFORDS
OF
MEADOW HOUSE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
These tales were first told for the Children’s Page of _The Christian
Science Monitor_, and the author takes this means of acknowledging his
appreciation of the arrangement by which he is privileged to republish
them.
CONTENTS
_Chapter_ _Page_
I In Which Dan Meets the Pretty Lady with the Blue-Blue Eyes 3
II In Which Dan Hears the Message from Too-Bo-Tan 12
III In Which Dan Releases the Animals of Spangleland 18
IV In Which the Animals Elect Officers 25
V In Which Giraffe Gives a Chalk-Talk and the Animals Learn
a New Game 31
VI In Which the Animals Send a Message to the Pretty Lady 37
VII In Which the Animals Meet with a Disappointment and a
Surprise and a Story is Begun 43
VIII In Which the Pretty Lady Continues Her Story 53
IX In Which the Pretty Lady Concludes Her Story 62
X In Which the Pretty Lady Tells of Mysteries and Spangles 70
XI In Which the Animals Play at Circus and Dan Promises a
Story 79
XII In Which Dan Answers the Beckoning Trees 88
XIII In Which Dan Learns of Peanuts and Things 98
XIV In Which Dan Parts with Old Friends and Prepares to Claim
a Reward 108
XV In Which Dan and Gray Ears Arrive at Their Goal 118
XVI In Which Dan Joins the Very Biggest Circus 130
XVII In Which the Animals Entertain an Unexpected Caller 139
XVIII In Which the Pretty Lady Carries a Passenger into the Wide
Wide World 149
XIX In Which Little Black Bear Spends a Night in the Forest 159
XX In Which Little Black Bear Meets Shagg, the Carpenter 169
XXI In Which Little Black Bear Adds Still More to His Story 181
XXII In Which Dan Meets Beader, of the Jumping Dragoons 192
XXIII In Which Dan Spends a Night in the Valley of Tick Tock 204
XXIV In Which Dan is Presented with the Key to the Valley 216
XXV In Which Dan Hears the Clock Strike One 227
XXVI We Say Goodbye to Diggeldy Dan 239
ILLUSTRATIONS
“‘Who—may—you—be?’ exclaimed the four in surprise” _Frontispiece_
In a very twinkling, there appeared the most beautiful
circus lady one ever laid eyes upon _Page_ 10
Away they all went, down through the line „ 35
“Then he picked up his left foot and began to use its
toes for counters” „ 59
And so this strangest of all circuses began „ 83
“Something came from out the air, and swept me square
off my toes” „ 95
Little Black Bear gladly did his tricks over and over
again „ 185
At the boom of “One” the mice fairly rained into the
Great Room „ 235
THE ADVENTURES OF
DIGGELDY DAN
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH DAN MEETS THE PRETTY LADY WITH THE BLUE-BLUE EYES
Had you tiptoed to the very edge of a certain town, on a certain day
not so very long ago, you would have come upon a great sprawling cluster
of big and little tents. And had you held your breath and walked ever so
quietly, you would finally have reached an open space in the very center
of the bigger tents, where stood a small white tent that seemed far more
interesting than all the rest. Just why it seemed so would have been
hard to tell, unless it was because—though there was not so much as a
thimbleful of wind astir—a certain spot in its canvas wall kept bulging
in and out, after the fashion of a curtain in the breeze. At times, this
spot would settle back into place, only to start jiggling a moment
later, just as though there were some one inside the tent, clutching at
its wall and shaking it, much as a monkey rattles the bars to its cage.
As for the open space between the little white tent and all the bigger
circus tents—for the tents were all a part of Spangleland—there was no
sign of life. True, there were gayly dressed men scattered about here
and there—and women, too. But all were fast asleep. Some lay back in
low, canvas chairs strung in a row in the shadow of the tents. Some,
with their chins propped in their hands, were perched like pigeons on
the tongues of wonderful red and golden wagons; while still others lay
at full length on the cool, green grass. The lap of one was covered by a
newspaper and that of another held an open book, just as if their owners
had grown weary of reading and dozed off to sleep, square in the middle
of a sentence.
So there was no sign of life, except the jiggling of the wall of the
round, white tent that stood in the center of all the bigger tents.
Meantime the day was fast making ready for bed. Indeed, the sun was just
on the point of slipping out of sight behind the very largest of all the
bigger tents when, far off in the sky to the west, there appeared—a tiny
black speck. And at this the wall of the round white tent began to
jiggle more violently than before, while a wee little eye appeared,
peeking through a wee little hole in its wall. And, as the wee eye
watched, the speck grew in size and then began to describe little
curves, as if it were bounding up and down as it came. And, for that
matter, so it was. For the speck was a bird on the wing, and it was
headed straight for the tents of Spangleland. On it came, until it had
reached the very edge of the circus town. And then it began to bound up
and down even more than before, and to circle this way and that, as if
to make sure of some certain thing of which it alone knew the secret.
But it flew more slowly now, so that one might have seen—had any been
there to see—that its color was a wondrous blue and of so gorgeous a hue
that the red and golden wagons—which were just at that moment struck by
the sun’s parting rays—must have felt very much ashamed of themselves.
Finally, as if no longer in doubt, the bird fixed its eyes on the little
white tent, and flew straight to the wee hole in its wall. And, as it
reached the tent, it began to call, in the softest voice imaginable:
“O, Dan, Dan, Diggeldy Dan!
O, Dan, Dan, Diggeldy Dan!”
While from behind the wall of the round white tent came the merriest of
voices in reply, singing, almost as softly:
“Here’s Dan, Dan, Diggeldy Dan;
Here’s Dan, Dan, Diggeldy Dan!”
“Then,” said the bird, who had by this time perched itself on the nose
of one of the little round poles that stuck out near the caves of the
round white tent, “come forth at once, sir.”
And at this command the canvas wall of the round white tent was parted
by the very hands of the one who had been jiggling it in his impatience
to put it aside; and, little by little, as if he feared that those who
slept might waken, there appeared the funniest little old man in all the
world.
First came his head, all white and smooth and crowned by a queer round
hat that came to a point at the top. And his ears were white, too, and
so was his face, except for his red, red lips and five curious spots of
red—one on his chin, one on his brow, one on each cheek, and one on the
tip of his long, funny nose. He wore a collar that was all ruffled and
round and a baggy white suit, trimmed with great polka-dot patches, that
might have been likened to very red apples, except for the fact that
half of them were blue.
“Come, come! Make haste there, Dan—if, indeed, you are Diggeldy Dan,”
cried the bird from its perch on the little round pole.
“Quite so, quite so,” chuckled the funny old man. And, suiting himself
to his words, he made a quick skip into the open, danced three steps to
the left and three to the right, and then, doffing his queer, sugar-loaf
hat, made a very grand courtesy in the direction of the bird, saying as
he did so:
“At your service, little messenger.”
“Ah, then you know who I am!” exclaimed the one who had come out of the
west. “But I must be very sure. So tell me, if you can, what rhymes with
this:
“O, Dan, Dan, Diggeldy Dan.”
“Why,” answered the clown—for you must have guessed that he was a
clown—“Why,” he repeated,
“You are the courier from Too-Bo-Tan.”
But though the bird nodded in approval, as if to say, “Yes, yes, that is
correct,” it still seemed reluctant to admit that the man was really
Diggeldy Dan. So it put its head first to one side and then to the
other, and puckered its very blue brows, as if thinking up some further
test. And then it spoke again.
“Diggeldy Dan—if, indeed, you are Diggeldy Dan—who was it told you the
last line of the rhyme?”
“Why,” answered the clown with great readiness, “it was the Pretty Lady
with the Blue-Blue Eyes. She came to me in a dream last night—riding her
White-White Horse through the skies. She wakened me, or at least I
thought she did, by tickling my nose with her slim little whip. She
said: ‘To-morrow, after the circus is over and the great crowd has gone
home to its supper, and after the people of the circus have had their
suppers and are come back to the shady places in and about the big and
little tents, to read and to tell their tales and take their ease, they
will all fall into a very deep sleep—that is, all but Diggeldy Dan.’”
And, at this, the clown paused to take a much-needed breath; for he had
become somewhat excited in telling his story and, to speak the truth,
had quite forgotten to breathe between sentences.
But at a sign from the bird, he went on:
“‘As for you, Dan, Dan, Diggeldy Dan,’ continued the Pretty Lady with
the Blue-Blue Eyes, ‘you will not go to sleep. Instead, you are to hide
in the round white tent that stands in the center of all the bigger
tents, and wait for the messenger who will come out of the west.’ And
then she told me the rhyme. ‘For to-morrow,’ she said, ‘you’ll have been
a clown for a hundred years and a day.’ Yes, that was just what she
said: ‘A hundred years and a day.’ And so I have been. But, what of
that, my pretty bird? For see! I still can dance as merrily and as
lightly as any butterfly that flits o’er the fields in the May!”
As if to prove what he had said, the funny old clown tripped off so very
blithely and so very fast that he bumped smack into one of the red and
golden wagons that stood in the lee of the round white tent.
“Ah, ha!” said the bird, half to itself, and hardly seeming to notice
that the bump into the wagon had sent the clown to the grass on his
back, “you will do, Diggeldy Dan; you will do.”
[Illustration: In a very twinkling there appeared the most beautiful
circus lady one ever laid eyes upon. _Page 10._]
And, with that, it flew from its perch at the top of the little round
pole, while in a very twinkling, there appeared the most beautiful
circus lady one ever laid eyes upon—and with her a White-White Horse
right out of the sky. So that, when Dan picked himself up, and, lifting
one foot, was just about to finish his dance, his red-red lips fell very
far apart and his eyes became almost as large as the polka-dot patches
that covered his white, baggy suit. Indeed, he presented so comical an
appearance—standing there with one foot in the air, and I staring his
visitor most out of countenance—that the Lady leaned forward on her
White-White Horse and burst into so merry a laugh that it sounded like
all the silver tinkle bells in the world.
“Why,” exclaimed Dan, when he had finally found his voice and put down
his foot, “you are the Pretty Lady with the Blue-Blue Eyes!”
“Yes, and the blue bird, too; for it was I, all the while. And now,
Diggeldy Dan, if you will be so good as to come with me to the very edge
of Spangleland, I will tell you the message from Too-Bo-Tan.”
And so the Pretty Lady and the White-White Horse, with Dan walking by
their side, passed slowly along between the big and little tents,
speaking not at all, while the clown kept wondering what it was he was
so soon to hear.