THE LAND OF LOST TOYS.

"I suppose people who have children transfer their childish follies

and fancies to them, and become properly sedate and grown-up. Perhaps

it is because I am an old maid, and have none, that some of my nursery

whims stick to me, and I find myself liking things, and wanting

things, quite out of keeping with my cap and time of life. For

instance. Anything in the shape of a toy-shop (from a London bazaar to

a village window, with Dutch dolls, leather balls, and wooden

battledores) quite unnerves me, so to speak. When I see one of those

boxes containing a jar, a churn, a kettle, a pan, a coffee-pot, a

cauldron on three legs, and sundry dishes, all of the smoothest wood,

and with the immemorial red flower on one side of each vessel, I

fairly long for an excuse for playing with them, and for trying

(positively for the last time) if the lids _do_ come off, and whether

the kettle will (literally, as well as metaphorically) hold water.

Then if, by good or ill luck, there is a child flattening its little

nose against the window with longing eyes, my purse is soon empty; and

as it toddles off with a square parcel under one arm, and a lovely

being in black ringlets and white tissue paper in the other, I wish

that I were worthy of being asked to join the ensuing play. Don't

suppose there is any generosity in this. I have only done what we are

all glad to do. I have found an excuse for indulging a pet weakness.

As I said, it is not merely the new and expensive toys that attract

me; I think my weakest corner is where the penny boxes lie, the wooden

tea-things (with the above-named flower in miniature), the soldiers on

their lazy tongs, the nine-pins, and the tiny farm.

"I need hardly say that the toy booth in a village fair tries me very

hard. It tried me in childhood, when I was often short of pence, and

when 'the Feast' came once a year. It never tried me more than on one

occasion, lately, when I was revisiting my old home.

"It was deep Midsummer, and the Feast. I had children with me of

course (I find children, somehow, wherever I go), and when we got into

the fair, there were children of people whom I had known as children,

with just the same love for a monkey going up one side of a yellow

stick and coming down the other, and just as strong heads for a

giddy-go-round on a hot day and a diet of peppermint lozenges, as

their fathers and mothers before them. There were the very same

names--and here and there it seemed the very same faces--I knew so

long ago. A few shillings were indeed well expended in brightening

those familiar eyes: and then there were the children with me....

Besides, there really did seem to be an unusually nice assortment of

things, and the man was very intelligent (in reference to his

wares:).... Well, well! It was two o'clock P. M. when we went in at

one end of that glittering avenue of drums, dolls, trumpets,

accordions, work-boxes and what not; but what o'clock it was when I

came out at the other end, with a shilling and some coppers in my

pocket, and was cheered, I can't say, though I should like to have

been able to be accurate about the time, because of what followed.

"I thought the best thing I could do was to get out of the fair at

once, so I went up the village and struck off across some fields into

a little wood that lay near. (A favorite walk in old times.) As I

turned out of the booth, my foot struck against one of the yellow

sticks of the climbing monkeys. The monkey was gone, and the stick

broken. It set me thinking as I walked along.

"What an untold number of pretty and ingenious things one does (not

wear out in honorable wear and tear, but) utterly lose, and wilfully

destroy, in one's young days--things that would have given pleasure to

so many more young eyes, if they had been kept a little longer--things

that one would so value in later years, if some of them had survived

the dissipating and destructive days of Nurserydom. I recalled a young

lady I knew, whose room was adorned with knick-knacks of a kind I had

often envied. They were not plaster figures, old china, wax-work

flowers under glass, or ordinary ornaments of any kind. They were her

old toys. Perhaps she had not had many of them, and had been the more

careful of those she had. She had certainly been very fond of them,

and had kept more of them than any one I ever knew. A faded doll slept

in its cradle at the foot of her bed. A wooden elephant stood on the

dressing-table, and a poodle that had lost his bark put out a

red-flannel tongue with quixotic violence at a windmill on the

opposite corner of the mantelpiece. Everything had a story of its own.

Indeed the whole room must have been redolent with the sweet story of

childhood, of which the toys were the illustrations, or like a poem of

which the toys were the verses. She used to have children to play with

them sometimes, and this was a high honor. She is married now, and has

children of her own, who on birthdays and holidays will forsake the

newest of their own possessions to play with 'mamma's toys.'

"I was roused from these recollections by the pleasure of getting into

the wood.

"If I have a stronger predilection than my love for toys, it is my

love for woods, and, like the other, it dates from childhood. It was

born and bred with me, and I fancy will stay with me till I die. The

soothing scents of leaf mould, moss, and fern (not to speak of

flowers)--the pale green veil in spring, the rich shade in summer, the

rustle of the dry leaves in autumn, I suppose an old woman may enjoy

all these, my dears, as well as you. But I think I could make 'fairy

jam' of hips and haws in acorn cups now, if any child would be

condescending enough to play with me.

"_This_ wood, too, had associations.

"I strolled on in leisurely enjoyment, and at last seated myself at

the foot of a tree to rest. I was hot and tired; partly with the

mid-day heat and the atmosphere of the fair, partly with the exertion

of calculating change in the purchase of articles ranging in price

from three farthings upwards. The tree under which I sat was an old

friend. There was a hole at its base that I knew well. Two roots

covered with exquisite moss ran out from each side, like the arms of

a chair, and between them there accumulated year after year a rich,

though tiny store of dark leaf-mould. We always used to say that

fairies lived within, though I never saw anything go in myself but

wood beetles. There was one going in at that moment.

"How little the wood was changed! I bent my head for a few seconds,

and, closing my eyes, drank in the delicious and suggestive scents of

earth and moss about the dear old tree. I had been so long parted from

the place that I could hardly believe that I was in the old familiar

spot. Surely it was only one of the many dreams in which I had played

again beneath those trees! But when I reopened my eyes there was the

same hole, and, oddly enough, the same beetle or one just like it. I

had not noticed till that moment how much larger the hole was than it

used to be in my young days.

"'I suppose the rain and so forth wears them away in time,' I said

vaguely.

"'Suppose it does,' said the beetle politely; 'will you walk in?'

"I don't know why I was not so overpoweringly astonished as you would

imagine. I think I was a good deal absorbed in considering the size of

the hole, and the very foolish wish that seized me to do what I had

often longed to do in childhood, and creep in. I _had_ so much regard

for propriety as to see that there was no one to witness the escapade.

Then I tucked my skirts round me, put my spectacles into my pocket for

fear they should get broken, and in I went.

"I must say one thing. A wood is charming enough (no one appreciates

it more than myself), but, if you have never been there, you have no

idea how much nicer it is inside than on the surface. Oh, the

mosses--the gorgeous mosses! The fretted lichens! The fungi like

flowers for beauty, and the flowers like nothing you have ever seen!

"Where the beetle went to I don't know. I could stand up now quite

well, and I wandered on till dusk in unwearied admiration. I was among

some large beeches as it grew dark, and was beginning to wonder how I

should find my way (not that I had lost it, having none to lose), when

suddenly lights burst from every tree, and the whole place was

illuminated. The nearest approach to this scene that I ever witnessed

above ground was in a wood near the Hague in Holland. There, what look

like tiny glass tumblers holding floating wicks, are fastened to the

trunks of the fine old trees, at intervals of sufficient distance to

make the light and shade mysterious, and to give effect to the full

blaze when you reach the spot where hanging chains of lamps illuminate

the 'Pavilion' and the open space where the band plays, and where the

townsfolk assemble by hundreds to drink coffee and enjoy the music. I

was the more reminded of the Dutch 'bosch' because, after wandering

some time among the lighted trees, I heard distant sounds of music,

and came at last upon a glade lit up in a similar manner, except that

the whole effect was incomparably more brilliant.

"As I stood for a moment doubting whether I should proceed, and a good

deal puzzled about the whole affair, I caught sight of a large spider

crouched up in a corner with his stomach on the ground and his knees

above his head, as some spiders do sit, and looking at me, as I

fancied, through a pair of spectacles. (About the spectacles I do not

feel sure. It may have been two of his bent legs in apparent

connection with his prominent eyes.) I thought of the beetle, and said

civilly, 'Can you tell me, sir, if this is Fairyland?' The spider took

off his spectacles (or untucked his legs), and took a sideways run out

of his corner.

"'Well,' he said, 'it's a Province. The fact is, it's the Land of Lost

Toys. You haven't such a thing as a fly anywhere about you, have you?'

"'No,' I said, 'I'm sorry to say I have not.' This was not strictly

true, for I was not at all sorry; but I wished to be civil to the old

gentleman, for he projected his eyes at me with such an intense (I had

almost said greedy) gaze, that I felt quite frightened.

"'How did you pass the sentries?' he inquired.

"'I never saw any,' I answered.

"'You couldn't have seen anything if you didn't see them,' he said;

'but perhaps you don't know. They're the glow-worms. Six to each tree,

so they light the road, and challenge the passers-by. Why didn't they

challenge you?'

"'I don't know,' I began, 'unless the beetle----'

"'I don't like beetles,' interrupted the spider, stretching each leg

in turn by sticking it up above him, 'all shell, and no flavor. You

never tried walking on anything of that sort, did you?' and he pointed

with one leg to a long thread that fastened a web above his head.

"'Certainly not,' said I.

"'I'm afraid it wouldn't bear you,' he observed slowly.

"'I'm quite sure it wouldn't,' I hastened to reply. 'I wouldn't try

for worlds. It would spoil your pretty work in a moment.

Good-evening.'

"And I hurried forward. Once I looked back, but the spider was not

following me. He was in his hole again, on his stomach, with his knees

above his head, and looking (apparently through his spectacles) down

the road up which I came.

"I soon forgot him in the sight before me. I had reached the open

place with the lights and the music; but how shall I describe the

spectacle that I beheld?

"I have spoken of the effect of a toy-shop on my feelings. Now imagine

a toy-fair, brighter and gayer than the brightest bazaar ever seen,

held in an open glade, where forest-trees stood majestically behind

the glittering stalls, and stretched their gigantic arms above our

heads, brilliant with a thousand hanging lamps. At the moment of my

entrance all was silent and quiet. The toys lay in their places

looking so incredibly attractive that I reflected with disgust that

all my ready cash, except one shilling and some coppers, had melted

away amid the tawdry fascinations of a village booth. I was counting

the coppers (sevenpence halfpenny), when all in a moment a dozen

sixpenny fiddles leaped from their places and began to play,

accordions of all sizes joined them, the drumsticks beat upon the

drums, the penny trumpets sounded, and the yellow flutes took up the

melody on high notes, and bore it away through the trees. It was weird

fairy-music, but quite delightful. The nearest approach to it that I

know of above ground is to hear a wild dreamy air very well whistled

to a pianoforte accompaniment.

"When the music began, all the toys rose. The dolls jumped down and

began to dance. The poodles barked, the pannier donkeys wagged their

ears, the windmills turned, the puzzles put themselves together, the

bricks built houses, the balls flew from side to side, the

battle-doors and shuttlecocks kept it up among themselves, and the

skipping-ropes went round, the hoops ran off, and the sticks went

after them, the cobbler's wax at the tails of all the green frogs gave

way, and they jumped at the same moment, whilst an old-fashioned

go-cart ran madly about with nobody inside. It was most exhilarating.

"I soon became aware that the beetle was once more at my elbow.

"'There are some beautiful toys here,' I said.

"'Well, yes,' he replied, 'and some odd-looking ones, too. You see,

whatever has been really used by any child as a plaything gets a right

to come down here in the end; and there is some very queer company, I

assure you. Look there.'

"I looked, and said, 'It seems to be a potato.'

"'So it is,' said the beetle. 'It belonged to an Irish child in one of

your great cities. But to whom the child belonged I don't know, and I

don't think he knew himself. He lived in a corner of a dirty,

over-crowded room, and into this corner, one day, the potato rolled.

It was the only plaything he ever had. He stuck two cinders into it

for eyes, scraped a nose and mouth, and loved it. He sat upon it

during the day, for fear it should be taken from him, but in the dark

he took it out and played with it. He was often hungry, but he never

ate that potato. When he died it rolled out of the corner, and was

swept into the ashes. Then it came down here.'

"'What a sad story!' I exclaimed.

"The beetle seemed in no way affected.

"'It is a curious thing,' he rambled on, 'that potato takes quite a

good place among the toys. You see, rank and precedence down here is

entirely a question of age; that is, of the length of time that any

plaything has been in the possession of a child; and all kinds of ugly

old things hold the first rank; whereas the most costly and beautiful

works of art have often been smashed or lost, by the spoilt children

of rich people, in two or three days. If you care for sad stories,

there is another queer thing belonging to a child who died.'

"It appeared to be a large sheet of canvas with some strange kind of

needlework upon it.

"'It belonged to a little girl in a rich household,' the beetle

continued; 'she was an invalid, and difficult to amuse. We have lots

of her toys, and very pretty ones too. At last some one taught her to

make caterpillars in wool-work. A bit of work was to be done in a

certain stitch and then cut with scissors, which made it look like a

hairy caterpillar. The child took to this, and cared for nothing else.

Wool of every shade was procured for her, and she made caterpillars of

all colors. Her only complaint was that they did not turn into

butterflies. However, she was a sweet, gentle-tempered child, and she

went on, hoping that they would do so, and making new ones. One day

she was heard talking and laughing in her bed for joy. She said that

all the caterpillars had become butterflies of many colors, and that

the room was full of them. In that happy fancy she died.'

"'And the caterpillars came down here?'

"'Not for a long time,' said the beetle; 'her mother kept them while

_she_ lived, and then they were lost and came down. No toys come down

here till they are broken or lost.'

"'What are those sticks doing here?' I asked.

"The music had ceased, and all the toys were lying quiet. Up in a

corner leaned a large bundle of walking-sticks. They are often sold in

toy-shops, but I wondered on what grounds they came here.

"'Did you ever meet with a too benevolent old gentleman wondering

where on earth his sticks go to?' said the beetle. 'Why do they lend

them to their grandchildren? The young rogues use them as hobby-horses

and lose them, and down they come, and the sentinels cannot stop them.

The real hobby-horses won't allow them to ride with them, however.

There was a meeting on the subject. Every stick was put through an

examination. 'Where is your nose? Where is your mane? Where are your

wheels?' The last was a poser. Some of them had got noses, but none of

them had got wheels. So they were not true hobby-horses. Something of

the kind occurred with the elder whistles.'

"'The what?' I asked.

"'Whistles that boys make of elder sticks with the pith scooped out,'

said the beetle. 'The real instruments would not allow them to play

with them. The elder-whistles said they would not have joined had they

been asked. They were amateurs, and never played with professionals.

So they have private concerts with the combs and curl-papers. But,

bless you, toys of this kind are endless here! Teetotums made of old

cotton reels, tea-sets of acorn cups, dinner-sets of old shells,

monkeys made of bits of sponge, all sorts of things made of

breastbones and merrythoughts, old packs of cards that are always

building themselves into houses and getting knocked down when the band

begins to play, feathers, rabbits' tails----

"'Ah! I have heard about rabbits' tails,' I said.

"'There they are,' the beetle continued; 'and when the band plays you

will see how they skip and run. I don't believe you would find out

that they had no bodies, for my experience of a warren is, that when

rabbits skip and run it is the tails chiefly that you do see. But of

all the amateur toys the most successful are the boats. We have a lake

for our craft, you know, and there's quite a fleet of boats made out

of old cork floats in fishing villages. Then, you see, the old bits of

cork have really been to sea, and seen a good deal of service on the

herring nets, and so they quite take the lead of the smart shop ships,

that have never been beyond a pond or a tub of water. But that's an

exception. Amateur toys are mostly very dowdy. Look at that box.'

"I looked, thought I must have seen it before, and wondered why a very

common-looking box without a lid should affect me so strangely, and

why my memory should seem struggling to bring it back out of the past.

Suddenly it came to me--it was our old Toy Box.

"I had completely forgotten that nursery institution till recalled by

the familiar aspect of the inside, which was papered with proof-sheets

of some old novel on which black stars had been stamped by way of

ornament. Dim memories of how these stars, and the angles of the box,

and certain projecting nails interfered with the letter-press and

defeated all attempts to trace the thread of the nameless narrative,

stole back over my brain; and I seemed once more, with my head in the

Toy Box, to beguile a wet afternoon by apoplectic endeavors to follow

the fortunes of Sir Charles and Lady Belinda, as they took a favorable

turn in the left-hand corner at the bottom of the trunk.

"'What are you staring at?' said the beetle.

"'It's my old Toy Box!' I exclaimed.

"The beetle rolled on to his back, and struggled helplessly with his

legs: I turned him over. (Neither the first nor the last time of my

showing that attention to beetles.)

"'That's right,' he said, 'set me on my legs. What a turn you gave me!

You don't mean to say you have any toys here? If you have, the sooner

you make your way home the better.'

"'Why?' I inquired.

"'Well,' he said, 'there's a very strong feeling in the place. The

toys think that they are ill-treated, and not taken care of by

children in general. And there is some truth in it. Toys come down

here by scores that have been broken the first day. And they are all

quite resolved that if any of their old masters or mistresses come

this way they shall be punished.'

"'How will they be punished?' I inquired.

"'Exactly as they did to their toys, their toys will do to them. All

is perfectly fair and regular.'

"'I don't know that I treated mine particularly badly,' I said; 'but I

think I would rather go.'

"'I think you'd better,' said the beetle. 'Good-evening!' and I saw

him no more.

"I turned to go, but somehow I lost the road. At last, as I thought, I

found it, and had gone a few steps when I came on a detachment of

wooden soldiers, drawn up on their lazy tongs. I thought it better to

wait till they got out of the way, so I turned back, and sat down in a

corner in some alarm. As I did so, I heard a click, and the lid of a

small box covered with mottled paper burst open, and up jumped a

figure in a blue striped shirt and a rabbit-skin beard, whose eyes

were intently fixed on me. He was very like my old Jack-in-a-box. My

back began to creep, and I wildly meditated escape, frantically trying

at the same time to recall whether it were I or my brother who

originated the idea of making a small bonfire of our own one 5th of

November, and burning the old Jack-in-a-box for Guy Fawkes, till

nothing was left of him but a twirling bit of red-hot wire and a

strong smell of frizzled fur. At this moment, he nodded to me and

spoke.

"'Oh! that's you, is it?' he said.

"'No, it is not,' I answered, hastily; for I was quite demoralized by

fear and the strangeness of the situation.

"'Who is it, then?' he inquired.

"'I'm sure I don't know,' I said; and really I was so confused that I

hardly did.

"'Well, _we_ know,' said the Jack-in-a-box, 'and that's all that's

needed. 'Now, my friends,' he continued, addressing the toys who had

begun to crowd round us, 'whoever recognizes a mistress and remembers

a grudge--the hour of our revenge has come. Can we any of us forget

the treatment we received at her hands? No! When we think of the

ingenious fancy, the patient skill, that went to our manufacture; that

fitted the delicate joints and springs, laid on the paint and varnish,

and gave back-hair combs, and ear-rings to our smallest dolls, we feel

that we deserved more care than we received. When we reflect upon the

kind friends who bought us with their money, and gave us away in the

benevolence of their hearts, we know that for their sakes we ought to

have been longer kept and better valued. And when we remember that the

sole object of our own existence was to give pleasure and amusement to

our possessors, we have no hesitation in believing that we deserved a

handsomer return than to have had our springs broken, our paint

dirtied, and our earthly careers so untimely shortened by wilful

mischief or fickle neglect. My friends, the prisoner is at the bar.'

"'I am not, I said; for I was determined not to give in as long as

resistance was possible. But as I said it I became aware, to my

unutterable amazement, that I was inside the go-cart. How I got there

is to this moment a mystery to me--but there I was.

"There was a great deal of excitement about the Jack-in-a-box's

speech. It was evident that he was considered an orator, and, indeed,

I have seen counsel in a real court look wonderfully like him.

Meanwhile, my old toys appeared to be getting together. I had no idea

that I had had so many. I had really been very fond of most of them,

and my heart beat as the sight of them recalled scenes long forgotten,

and took me back to childhood and home. There were my little gardening

tools, and my slate, and there was the big doll's bedstead, that had a

real mattress, and real sheets and blankets, all marked with the

letter D, and a work-basket made in the blind school, and a shilling

School of Art paint box, and a wooden doll we used to call the

Dowager, and innumerable other toys which I had forgotten till the

sight of them recalled them to my memory, but which have again passed

from my mind. Exactly opposite to me stood the Chinese mandarin,

nodding as I had never seen him nod since the day when I finally

stopped his performances by ill-directed efforts to discover how he

did it.

"And what was that familiar figure among the rest, in a yellow silk

dress and maroon velvet cloak and hood trimmed with black lace? How

those clothes recalled the friends who gave them to me! And surely

this was no other than my dear doll Rosa--the beloved companion of

five years of my youth, whose hair I wore in a locket after I was

grown up. No one could say I had ill-treated _her_. Indeed, she fixed

her eyes on me with a most encouraging smile--but then she always

smiled, her mouth was painted so.

"'All whom it may concern, take notice,' shouted the Jack-in-a-box, at

this point, 'that the rule of this honorable court is tit for tat.'

"'Tit, tat, tumble two,' muttered the slate in a cracked voice. (How

well I remembered the fall that cracked it, and the sly games of tit

tat that varied the monotony of our long multiplication sums!)

"'What are you talking about?' said the Jack-in-a-box, sharply; 'if

you have grievances, state them, and you shall have satisfaction, as I

told you before.'

"'----and five make nine,' added the slate promptly, 'and six are

fifteen, and eight are twenty-seven--there we go again! I wonder why I

never get up to the top of a line of figures right. It will never

prove at this rate.'

"'His mind is lost in calculations,' said the Jack-in-a-box,

'besides--between ourselves--he has been "cracky" for some time. Let

some one else speak, and observe that no one is at liberty to pass a

sentence on the prisoner heavier than what he has suffered from her. I

reserve _my_ judgment to the last.'

"'I know what that will be,' thought I; 'oh dear! oh dear! that a

respectable maiden lady should live to be burnt as a Guy Fawkes!"

"'Let the prisoner drink a gallon of iced water at once, and then be

left to die of thirst.'

"The horrible idea that the speaker might possibly have the power to

enforce his sentence diverted my attention from the slate, and I

looked round. In front of the Jack-in-a-box stood a tiny red

flower-pot and saucer, in which was a miniature cactus. My thoughts

flew back to a bazaar in London where, years ago, a stand of these

fairy plants had excited my warmest longings, and where a benevolent

old gentleman whom I had not seen before, and never saw again, bought

this one and gave it to me. Vague memories of his directions for

re-potting and tending it reproached me from the past. My mind misgave

me that after all it had died a dusty death for lack of water. True,

the cactus tribe being succulent plants do not demand much moisture,

but I had reason to fear that, in this instance, the principle had

been applied too far, and that after copious baths of cold spring

water in the first days of its popularity it had eventually perished

by drought. I suppose I looked guilty, for it nodded its prickly head

towards me, and said, 'Ah! you know me. You remember what I was, do

you? Did you ever think of what I might have been? There was a fairy

rose which came down here not long ago--a common rose enough, in a

broken pot patched with string and white paint. It had lived in a

street where it was the only pure beautiful thing your eyes could see.

When the girl who kept it died there were eighteen roses upon it. She

was eighteen years old, and they put the roses in the coffin with her

when she was buried. That was worth living for. Who knows what I might

have done? And what right had you to cut short a life that might have

been useful?'

"Before I could think of a reply to these too just reproaches, the

flower-pot enlarged, the plant shot up, putting forth new branches as

it grew; then buds burst from the prickly limbs, and in a few moments

there hung about it great drooping blossoms of lovely pink, with long

white tassels in their throats. I had been gazing at it some time in

silent and self-reproachful admiration when I became aware that the

business of this strange court was proceeding, and that the other toys

were pronouncing sentence against me.

"'Tie a string round her neck and take her out bathing in the brooks,'

I heard an elderly voice say in severe tones. It was the Dowager Doll.

She was inflexibly wooden, and had been in the family for more than

one generation.

"'It's not fair,' I exclaimed, 'the string was only to keep you from

being carried away by the stream. The current is strong, and the bank

steep by the Hollow Oak Pool, and you had no arms or legs. You were

old and ugly, but you would wash, and we loved you better than many

waxen beauties.'

"'Old and ugly!' shrieked the Dowager. 'Tear her wig off! Scrub the

paint off her face! Flatten her nose on the pavement! Saw off her legs

and give her no crinoline! Take her out bathing, I say, and bring her

home in a wheelbarrow with fern roots on the top of her.'

"I was about to protest again, when the paint-box came forward, and

balancing itself in an artistic, undecided kind of way on two

camel's-hair brushes which seemed to serve it for feet, addressed the

Jack-in-a-box.

"'Never dip your paint into the water. Never put your brush into your

mouth----'

"'That's not evidence,' said the Jack-in-a-box.

"'Your notions are crude,' said the paint-box loftily; 'it's in

print, and here, all of it, or words to that effect; with which he

touched the lid, as a gentleman might lay his hand upon his heart.

"'It's not evidence,' repeated the Jack-in-a-box. 'Let us proceed.'

"'Take her to pieces and see what she's made of, if you please,'

tittered a pretty German toy that moved to a tinkling musical

accompaniment. 'If her works are available after that it will be an

era in natural science.'

"The idea tickled me, and I laughed.

"'Hard-hearted wretch!' growled the Dowager Doll.

"'Dip her in water and leave her to soak on a white soup plate,' said

the paint-box; 'if that doesn't soften her feelings, deprive me of my

medal from the School of Art!'

"'Give her a stiff neck!' muttered the mandarin. 'Ching Fo! give her a

stiff neck.'

"'Knock her teeth out,' growled the rake in a scratchy voice; and then

the tools joined in chorus.

"'Take her out when its fine and leave her out when it's wet, and lose

her in----

"'The coal hole,' said the spade.

"'The hay field,' said the rake.

"'The shrubbery,' said the hoe.

"This difference of opinion produced a quarrel, which in turn seemed

to affect the general behavior of the toys, for a disturbance arose

which the Jack-in-a-box vainly endeavored to quell. A dozen voices

shouted for a dozen different punishments and (happily for me) each

toy insisted upon its own wrongs being the first to be avenged, and no

one would hear of the claims of any one else being attended to for an

instant. Terrible sentences were passed, which I either failed to hear

through the clamor then, or have forgotten now. I have a vague idea

that several voices cried that I was to be sent to wash in somebody's

pocket; that the work-basket wished to cram my mouth with unfinished

needlework; and that through all the din the thick voice of my old

leather ball monotonously repeated:

"'Throw her into the dust-hole.'

"Suddenly a clear voice pierced the confusion, and Rosa tripped up.

"'My dears,' she began, 'the only chance of restoring order is to

observe method. Let us follow our usual rule of precedence. I claim

the first turn as the prisoner's oldest toy.'

"'That you are not, Miss,' snapped the dowager; 'I was in the family

for fifty years.'

"'In the family. Yes, ma'am; but you were never her doll in

particular. I was her very own, and she kept me longer than any other

plaything. My judgment must be first.'

"'She is right,' said the Jack-in-a-box, 'and now let us get on. The

prisoner is delivered unreservedly into the hands of our trusty and

well-beloved Rosa--doll of the first class--for punishment according

to the strict law of tit for tat.'

"'I shall request the assistance of the pewter tea-things,' said Rosa,

with her usual smile. 'And now, my love,' she added, turning to me,

'we will come and sit down.'

"Where the go-cart vanished to I cannot remember, nor how I got out of

it; I only know that I suddenly found myself free, and walking away

with my hand in Rosa's. I remember vacantly feeling the rough edge of

the stitches on her flat kid fingers, and wondering what would come

next.

"'How very oddly you hold your feet, my dear,' she said; 'you stick

out your toes in such an eccentric fashion, and you lean on your legs

as if they were table legs, instead of supporting yourself by my hand.

Turn your heels well out, and bring your toes together. You may even

let them fold over each other a little; it is considered to have a

pretty effect among dolls.'

"Under one of the big trees Miss Rosa made me sit down, propping me

against the trunk as if I should otherwise have fallen; and in a

moment more a square box of pewter tea-things came tumbling up to our

feet, where the lid burst open, and all the tea-things fell out in

perfect order; the cups on the saucers, the lid on the teapot and so

on.

"'Take a little tea my love?' said Miss Rosa pressing a pewter teacup

to my lips.

"I made believe to drink, but was only conscious of inhaling a draught

of air with a slight flavor of tin. In taking my second cup I was

nearly choked with the teaspoon, which got into my throat.

"'What are you doing?' roared the Jack-in-a-box at this moment; 'you

are not punishing her.'

"'I am treating her as she treated me,' answered Rosa, looking as

severe as her smile would allow. 'I believe that tit for tat is the

rule, and that at present it is my turn.'

"'It will be mine soon,' growled the Jack-in-a-box, and I thought of

the bonfire with a shudder. However, there was no knowing what might

happen before his turn did come, and meanwhile I was in friendly

hands. It was not the first time my dolly and I had set together under

a tree, and, truth to say, I do not think she had any injuries to

avenge.

"'When your wig comes off,' murmured Rosa, as she stole a pink kid arm

tenderly round my neck, 'I'll make you a cap with blue and white

rosettes, and pretend that you have had a fever.'

"I thanked her gratefully, and was glad to reflect that I was not yet

in need of an attention which I distinctly remember having shown to

her in the days of her dollhood. Presently she jumped up.

"'I think you shall go to bed now, dear,' she said, and, taking my

hand once more, she led me to the big doll's bedstead, which, with its

pretty bedclothes and white dimity furniture, looked tempting enough

to a sleeper of suitable size. It could not have supported one quarter

of my weight.

"'I have not made you a night-dress, my love,' Rosa continued; 'I am

not fond of my needle you know. _You_ were not fond of your needle, I

think. I fear you must go to bed in your clothes, my dear.'

"'You are very kind,' I said, 'but I am not tired, and--it would not

bear my weight.'

"'Pooh! pooh!' said Rosa. 'My love! I remember passing one Sunday in

it with the rag-doll, and the Dowager, and the Punch and Judy (the

amount of pillow their two noses took up I shall never forget!), and

the old doll that had nothing on, because her clothes were in the

dolls' wash and did not get ironed on Saturday night, and the

Highlander, whose things wouldn't come off, and who slept in his kilt.

Not bear you? Nonsense! You must go to bed, my dear. I've got other

things to do, and I can't leave you lying about.'

"'The whole lot of you did not weigh one quarter of what I do,' I

cried desperately. 'I cannot, and will not get into that bed; I should

break it all to pieces, and hurt myself into the bargain.'

"'Well, if you will not go to bed, I must put you there,' said Rosa,

and without more ado, she snatched me up in her kid arms, and laid me

down.

"Of course it was just as I expected. I had hardly touched the two little

pillows (they had a meal-baggy smell from being stuffed with bran), when

the woodwork gave way with a crash, and I fell--fell--fell--

"Though I fully believed every bone in my body to be broken, it was

really a relief to get to the ground. As soon as I could, I sat up,

and felt myself all over. A little stiff, but, as it seemed, unhurt.

Oddly enough, I found that I was back again under the tree; and more

strange still, it was not the tree where I sat with Rosa, but the old

oak-tree in the little wood. Was it all a dream? The toys had

vanished, the lights were out, the mosses looked dull in the growing

dusk, the evening was chilly, the hole no larger than it was thirty

years ago, and when I felt in my pocket for my spectacles I found that

they were on my nose.

"I have returned to the spot many times since, but I never could

induce a beetle to enter into conversation on the subject, the hole

remains obstinately impassable, and I have not been able to repeat my

visit to the Land of Lost Toys.

"When I recall my many sins against the playthings of my childhood, I

am constrained humbly to acknowledge that perhaps this is just as

well."