PEGGY IN TOYLAND
BY
ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
Author of “Exton Manor,”
“Sir Harry,” etc.
_ILLUSTRATED BY
HELEN M. BARTON_
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1920
COPYRIGHT, 1920,
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
TO
KATHLEEN ANN
I DEDICATE THIS STORY
WHICH WAS BEGUN FOR HER MOTHER
KATHLEEN NOEL
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I INTRODUCES PEGGY AND SOME OF HER FRIENDS 1
II PEGGY’S SURPRISING ADVENTURE BEGINS 16
III THE ROYAL ARK AND THE BAD BEHAVIOUR OF
WOODEN’S AUNT 31
IV MOMENTOUS NEWS IS BROUGHT BY A DUTCH DOLL 46
V ARRIVAL AT THE ROYAL PALACE OF DOLLTOWN 59
VI KING SELIM HOLDS AN AUDIENCE 74
VII THEY ALL GO TO PRISON 90
VIII PEGGY BATHES A BABY AND HAS A SURPRISE 107
IX THEY DISCUSS A PLAN OF ESCAPE 124
X PEGGY TALKS TO A ROYAL PRISONER 137
XI THE RELEASE OF PEGGY AND WOODEN 151
XII PEGGY STAYS IN A REAL DOLLS’ HOUSE 165
XIII THE DOLLS TALK IT ALL OVER 176
XIV THE ESCAPE 190
XV THE PURSUIT 203
XVI COLONEL JIM ATTEMPTS A RESCUE 216
XVII THE BATTLE 227
XVIII THE SIEGE 238
XIX SELIM IS CAPTURED 252
XX THE LAST 264
PEGGY IN TOYLAND
PEGGY IN TOYLAND
I
INTRODUCES PEGGY AND SOME OF HER FRIENDS
Peggy was just eight years old. She had very long rather straight hair,
blue eyes, a dear little pudgy nose, and a small mouth. She lived with
her father and mother in a nice house in the country with a big garden
round it. It was about five miles from the sea, and she was sometimes
taken there in the motor-car, to paddle and to play on the sands.
The place she used to go to had only one house near it. This was a
large bungalow belonging to some friends of Peggy’s father and mother.
It was built right on the beach, but there was a little lawn beside it,
and on the edge of the lawn were two wooden figures that had been once
figure-heads of ships. They were both ladies, and it was difficult to
tell whether they were old or young, because one of them had had her
nose broken off, and the other had lost every bit of paint off her
face. But there was something agreeable in the appearance of both of
them, and Peggy used to think she would have liked to know them when
they were leading a more active life, perched up in the very front of
the ships to which they belonged, and travelling over the sea to all
sorts of strange places. But they still looked over the sea, which was
better than being broken up and burnt, with the rest of the ships; and
of course they always looked in one direction, straight across the
water to the big Island on the other side of it.
Peggy had never been to the Island, and when she was playing on the
sands she would sometimes look at it, and wonder what it was like
there. She could see a little town and a little church, and a few
houses scattered about among the hills; and she wondered what sort of
people lived in them.
Well, when she was eight years old she found out, and she also got to
know a good deal more about the two wooden ladies of the bungalow. What
she found out was so remarkable that it is doubtful if any little girl
has ever seen anything like it before, and I am going to tell you the
story of it.
But before I begin I must say this: that if Peggy had not had a kind
heart she would never have found out anything. I do not mean to say
that she was never naughty; but she was never naughty in that most
horrid of all ways, by being cruel or unkind. She had several pets--two
rabbits and four guinea-pigs, a bantam cock and hen, two white pigeons,
and a kitten, which she liked best of them all. If she had once been
cruel to any of these pets, just to see what they would do, it is quite
certain that she would never have been taken to the Island. And if she
had made fun of old people or poor people, she would never have gone
either, because that is an extremely unkind and horrid thing to do.
But Peggy had never done any of these things, because she was a really
kind little girl, and if something horrid inside her whispered: “Now,
just be a little bit cruel,” she was almost as much ashamed of it as if
she had really been cruel, and she never listened to the whisper for a
moment. So when she was eight years old she was taken to the Island in
the extraordinary way I am going to tell you about.
Peggy had a good number of toys, and amongst them two dolls, which will
now engage our attention.
The elder of the two was a wooden doll, which she had had for some
time, and the story of this doll is rather interesting.
[Illustration]
When Peggy was five years old she had a doll given her called Rose.
Rose was well-dressed, in clothes that would come on and off; and
rather a nice hat came with her. But somehow Peggy could not get
to like her much. She took her about everywhere for quite a week,
undressed her every night and dressed her again every morning, and
sometimes gave her a bath, but not with water in it, because her body
was stuffed, although her head was composition. She also took her out
in the new pram that had been given to her at the same time, and put up
the hood if it was sunny. In fact she did everything that a nice little
girl could to make Rose feel that she had come to a kind and loving
home.
But at the end of a week she didn’t feel that Rose really loved her.
Most little girls know dolls like that. You may do all you can for
them, and they don’t seem to appreciate it at all. Well, Rose was one
of those dolls.
One morning Peggy went out with her nurse, and took Rose with her
in the pram. They went down through the village, and along the road
on the other side, and presently they came to a cottage where a lot
of children lived. Their mother was not very kind to them, and so
they were not very kind to each other, but were always fighting and
squabbling.
One of these children was a girl a year older than Peggy, called Mabel,
and just as Peggy and her nurse came up to the cottage they saw Mabel
banging the head of an old wooden doll on the hard road.
Now children and dolls are sometimes naughty, and must be corrected,
but their heads should never be banged against anything hard. There
are plenty of ways of correcting them without doing that, and every
nice mother knows it. Peggy knew it as well as anybody, although she
was a year younger than Mabel; so directly she saw what was being done
she cried out to her nurse how cruel it was.
[Illustration]
Mabel stopped beating the wooden doll’s head against the road, and
stared at Peggy, and at Rose, who was sitting in the pram; and she must
have fallen in love with Rose at first sight, because her face became
quite different when she looked at her.
While Mabel was looking at Rose, Peggy was looking at the wooden doll;
and the more she looked the more her heart went out to her. She was
not what you would call a beautiful doll, and perhaps never had been.
One of her legs had been amputated at the knee, one of her arms at the
shoulder, and the other at the elbow. Her face was round and open; so
were her eyes. Her nose was gone. The less said about her hair the
better; she would never need another shampoo. She was dressed in a
loose frock of spotted red flannel, tied round the waist with an old
piece of black hair-ribbon.
Such was this doll, who was destined to play so large a part in Peggy’s
life, as she first saw her; and it may seem odd to some people that she
should instantly have loved her. Perhaps being such a kind little girl,
and feeling so dreadfully sorry to see the doll so badly treated, had
something to do with it; but it could not have been only that. No,
there was something about this wooden doll which made Peggy love her at
once, and when you have read this story, perhaps you will be able to
understand what it was.
Peggy told Mabel that she ought not to knock her doll’s head on the
road, and Mabel pointed at Rose, and said: “If I had a doll like that,
I wouldn’t want to knock ’er ’ead on the road.”
It was then that the idea first came to Peggy that she would much
rather have the wooden doll than Rose; and she asked her nurse if she
might give Rose to Mabel, and ask Mabel to give her the wooden doll
instead.
Nurse said: “The idea of such a thing!” and told Peggy to come on. Of
course she was right not to let Peggy exchange dolls there and then,
because she didn’t know whether Peggy’s mother would like it. But
where she was wrong was when she said, “Fancy wanting to exchange a
beautiful doll like Rose for an ugly old wooden thing like that!” She
didn’t understand that what she called beauty had nothing to do with it
at all. You don’t love a person for their looks, but just because you
can’t help loving them. And Peggy was quite right to love the wooden
doll more than Rose, as afterwards turned out.
Fortunately, Peggy’s mother understood these things better than the
nurse. The end of it was that Peggy was allowed to give Rose to Mabel,
with all her clothes except the hat, which had come on the same
birthday as she had, but had not belonged especially to her. And Mabel
gave Peggy the wooden doll, but without its red flannel dress, which
Peggy’s mother thought might contain germs.
Now that the wooden doll belonged to Peggy she had to give her a name.
She called her Daffodil, because the daffodils were out in the garden
when she came. But the name never stuck to her. She was always called
Wooden in the family circle; and presently it was forgotten that she
had ever had any other name.
The first thing that happened to her was that she underwent an
operation for restoring the limbs that were lost. It was a serious
operation, and she was under chloroform for about a week. The
chauffeur, whose name was Herbert, performed the operation, and when
it was over Wooden had two arms and two legs just like everybody else.
One of the legs sometimes came off at the knee, and both arms at the
elbows. But Herbert, accustomed to making quick repairs, was always
ready to perform other minor operations, and Wooden was seldom without
her full number of limbs for long together.
Wooden went through the usual illnesses, and was carefully nursed by
Peggy. Perhaps she suffered rather more than most dolls, but Peggy’s
father was a doctor, and there was always help at hand if anything
serious happened. And of course Peggy knew more about cases, and
nursing, than other little girls whose fathers were not doctors. Wooden
had whooping-cough, croup, mumps, scarlet-fever, chicken-pox, measles,
German-measles, swollen glands, general debility, bronchitis, typhoid,
and lung trouble, all in the ordinary way. For some little time she
was a spinal case, and had to be kept on her back. But she was always
good and uncomplaining through her ailments, and Peggy loved her more
because she was a trifle delicate than if she had always been in robust
health.
In fact, the longer Peggy had Wooden the more she loved her. She played
with her more than with her other dolls, and Wooden was always the one
she took to bed with her. Peggy had a large Teddy bear, which she also
loved and took to bed with her. But there could be no jealousy between
Wooden and Teddy, because they were so different. If Peggy sometimes
dressed Teddy up in a jacket and skirt belonging to Wooden, it was
always treated as a joke. As a rule he went about with nothing on but
his own thick fur.
[Illustration: Peggy had a large Teddy bear]
Wooden had all the clothes of Peggy’s dolls’ wardrobe to wear, if they
fitted her, and was better dressed than most dolls. And as everybody
liked her when they once came to know her, she had plenty of things
given her as time went on. When Miss Clay came to the house for a week
or two to sew, she would generally make something for Wooden out of
the material left over. Once she made her a purple velvet jacket, and
once a tailor-made skirt. As for nightgowns, and petticoats, and things
like that, trimmed with lace, and sometimes with pink and blue ribbon,
Wooden was so well supplied that Peggy’s father said her laundry bill
was becoming quite a serious item. So it will be seen that Wooden was
very much better off than when she had belonged to Mabel, and had only
had one red flannel dress.
We now come to the other doll of Peggy’s, of whom mention has been made.
Her name was Lady Grace. She came on Peggy’s eighth birthday, and was
really a beautiful doll, as everybody who saw her bore witness. She had
been born in France, although she herself was English, and the clothes
that came with her were finer than any of Wooden’s. Her face was wax,
and she had beautiful hair. Her eyes opened and shut, and she had the
sweetest little hands and feet, with pink toes and fingertips.
Peggy loved her at once. This was not altogether because of her beauty,
for Rose had been beautiful--though not so beautiful as Lady Grace--and
Peggy had never been able to love Rose at all. There was something
about Lady Grace which made Peggy feel that she must look after her and
pet her. And she never felt, as she had felt with Rose, that all her
petting was of no use. Lady Grace might not say much, but she showed
that she was grateful to Peggy for all the care she took of her by
being always sweet and good; though she was, as I have said, rather
helpless.
Now, although Peggy loved Lady Grace from the first, it must not be
supposed that she loved Wooden any the less. It was just as it is with
children. When a new baby comes, the mother adores it, but she loves
her other children just as much as she did before.
But, just at first, it must be confessed that Wooden had rather less
attention; and if she had not been so sensible she might have felt
jealous. I don’t think she did, or she would have told Peggy so
afterwards. She probably knew exactly how things were, and that, when
Lady Grace had been made to feel quite at home, her turn would come
again.
Well, one night when Peggy went to bed, she took Lady Grace and Teddy
with her, and left Wooden on the top of a chest of drawers with all her
clothes on. And then Wooden might have felt a little sad, because it
was the first time that such a thing had ever happened to her; and she
might have begun to wonder whether, after all, Peggy loved her quite as
much as she had done before.
But fortunately for this story, which might not otherwise have been
written, as you will presently see, soon after Peggy had been tucked
up and left to go to sleep, she remembered that she had not undressed
Wooden. So she called her nurse, who was in the next room with the door
a little open, and asked her to give Wooden to her.
The nurse would not let her have two dolls in bed with her. Teddy
didn’t matter because he was so soft. So Peggy asked her to put
Lady Grace in the dolls’ cot, and give her Wooden instead. She felt
dreadfully sorry that she had forgotten about Wooden, and wanted to
make it up to her. Lady Grace would have to get used to sleeping in the
cot some time or other, and Peggy thought she might just as well begin
now.
So Peggy went to sleep hugging Wooden in her arms; and Teddy lay on his
back on the pillow on the other side of her, with one paw stuck up in
the air and the rest of him under the bedclothes.
By-and-by the nurse came in to look at her, and then went to bed in the
next room. Then her father and mother came in and kissed her, but she
did not wake up. Then the house became quiet and dark, and everybody in
it was fast asleep.
And then things began to happen.
[Illustration]
II
PEGGY’S SURPRISING ADVENTURE BEGINS
Peggy was awakened by the noise of a motor outside. It sometimes
happened that her father had to go out at night, and she heard the car
start off. But she generally went to sleep again as soon as ever the
noise had died away.
But this time the car, instead of standing throbbing for a few minutes
before the door, and then starting off down the drive and leaving
everything as quiet and still as before, seemed to be coming nearer
and nearer. In fact, it seemed as if it was being driven right into
the room, and made such a noise that Peggy opened her eyes. And when
she did open them, she opened them very wide indeed, for the car _was_
in the room, standing right at the foot of the bed. And who should be
driving it but Teddy, whom she had last seen lying on the pillow by her
side?
And that was not nearly all, for everything was changing all
around her. The apple-blossoms on the wall-paper had become real
apple-blossoms, and were dancing in a bright spring breeze; the ceiling
had melted away into blue sky; and suddenly the little birds that had
been sitting in a long row on the bough which ran round the top of the
paper flew up all together and filled the air with their singing.
[Illustration: The apple-blossoms on the wall-paper had become real
apple-blossoms]
Peggy sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. When she looked again there
was Wooden standing by the side of the bed, smiling at her.
“Get up, dear,” said Wooden in the kind and gentle voice that Peggy had
known she would speak in if she ever spoke at all. “I am going to take
you to Toyland.”
Teddy spoke at the same moment. He waved a paw in the air and said,
“What ho! What larks!” and sounded his motor-horn.
Now the moment that Wooden and Teddy spoke, Peggy left off being
surprised altogether. Everything seemed quite natural, and she jumped
up full of pleasure at the idea of an adventure.
The moment her feet had touched the floor, lo and behold! she was fully
dressed, in a clean blue over-all, with her outdoor shoes and her big
straw hat trimmed with daisies. Her face and hands were washed, her
nails scrubbed, and her teeth cleaned; and her long hair, which was
always plaited for the night, was brushed and tied up with her blue
ribbon.
“Come along, dear,” said Wooden, taking her hand. “We must start at
once. Are you quite ready, Lady Grace?”
“Yes,” said a soft, musical voice. Peggy looked towards the
dressing-table, and there was Lady Grace pinning on her hat. She came
and kissed Peggy. “I am sure you will like Toyland, dear,” she said,
“and it is a great honour to be taken there.”
Both Wooden and Lady Grace seemed to be grown up all of a sudden, and
ready to take care of Peggy, instead of her taking care of them. Lady
Grace had on the beautiful French clothes in which she had come, and
Wooden was dressed in her purple velvet jacket and her grey tailor-made
skirt. She wore the straw hat that had come at the same time as Rose,
and looked very nice altogether, but a little different, because her
nose was now perfect, and her face and eyes and hair had got all their
colour back. She had a wonderfully kind and simple expression of face,
and Peggy felt that it would be quite safe to go anywhere with her.
[Illustration]
Teddy was also life-size. Peggy had always known that he was of a very
cheerful nature, for his face had always seemed to be laughing at some
joke. But he seemed to be rather forward in his manners, for as Lady
Grace kissed Peggy he said with a sort of crow, “What ho, girls! You
jump up and sit alongside me, my lady, and we’ll have a nice little
chat as we go along.”
“Be careful, Teddy,” said Wooden in a warning voice.
“Oh, I’ll be careful all right,” said Teddy encouragingly. “Oh, what
larks we’re going to have!”
Lady Grace got up in front of the car, and Peggy and Wooden behind. It
was not Peggy’s father’s car, but a toy one which had been given to
her. But it was now big enough to hold all four of them comfortably.
Teddy sounded his horn and gave a whoop of joy, and the car drove
straight out of the bedroom into the garden, though how it got there
from her nursery on the first floor Peggy could never remember.
Now, although it had been winter when Peggy went to bed, and the
thermometer on the pergola outside had registered two degrees of frost,
it had suddenly become the most delicious spring and summer weather
combined. When Peggy saw the garden she clapped her hands with delight.
Never was seen such a blaze of colour. Everything was out at once--all
the trees, and all the shrubs, and all the flowers. The house was
smothered in roses and honeysuckle and clematis. The daffodils were
dancing in the grass. The rhododendrons and azaleas flamed against
the green of the darker shrubs. Every flower in the long border was
in full bloom, from the scarlet anemones of the early spring to the
yellow sunflowers and Michaelmas daisies of the late autumn; and so
were the lilacs, white and purple, the guelder roses, the syringas,
the may-trees and laburnums, the pink almond, and the Pyrus Malus
Floribunda, which was Peggy’s favourite tree, though she never quite
got its name right. There were thousands of blooms in the rose garden;
the climbing roses trained over the pergola were as gay as gay could
be; and even the newly-planted nut-walk had grown twelve feet in a few
hours, and made a shady green tunnel through which you could see the
park beyond.
But there was not much time to take in all the wonders of the garden,
for Teddy whirled them through it in no time, out into the road and
down to the village. The car seemed to be going faster than Peggy’s
father’s big new one, but it travelled so easily and so smoothly that
Peggy, who was a little nervous of motors going very fast, said, “What
a nice drive we’re having!” As they passed the clock over the Abbey
gateway the hands were pointing to twelve o’clock, and Peggy, who
could of course tell the time, knew somehow that it was really twelve
o’clock at night, and not twelve o’clock in the daytime, although the
sun was shining with all its might. And as they turned and drove up
the village street all the windows had their blinds down, and there
were no people about.
[Illustration]
“Where are we going?” Peggy asked.
“We are going to Toyland,” said Wooden. “We all go there every night
when people are asleep, and it is a lovely place; I am sure you will
like it, dear. And I must tell you that it is very seldom we are
allowed to take little girls there. When you were so kind to me, and
rescued me from Mabel, I told the Queen about it, and asked if I could
bring you. And she said that if you went on being kind to me for three
years and a week I might bring you; but if you once grew tired of me
and neglected me, the three years and a week would have to begin all
over again. You can’t think how I have been looking forward to it,
dear. Yesterday I was able to tell the Queen that you had never once
neglected me, and Lady Grace said the same. She is one of the Queen’s
ladies-in-waiting, and she thinks a deal of her. So the Queen said, ‘I
shall be very glad to see such a nice little girl. Bring her tomorrow.’”
When Wooden told her this Peggy remembered that she had not been
_quite_ so attentive to Wooden since Lady Grace had come, and wondered
what would have happened if she had left her to sleep on the chest of
drawers with all her clothes on that very night. It would have been
too awful if she had had to begin the three years and a week all over
again, after so nearly getting through it once.
But Wooden did not refer to that at all, and Peggy felt grateful to
her, and took hold of her hand and squeezed it. And Wooden squeezed
Peggy’s hand in return, and smiled at her and said again, “Toyland is a
wonderful place. I am sure you will like it.”
When they had passed through the village Teddy took the road towards
the sea. He drove very well, and talked all the time to Lady Grace,
sometimes leaning towards her and saying something in his gruff, hearty
voice, and sometimes throwing his head back and laughing loudly.
Lady Grace seemed to be receiving his attentions kindly, but Wooden
looked a little anxious, and leant forward sometimes and joined in the
conversation.
“Lady Grace is engaged to Colonel Jim of the Lifeguards,” she explained
to Peggy. “The Queen takes a great interest in the young couple, and I
promised her that I would give an eye to Lady Grace. The Queen trusts
me, you know, dear.”
“Shall I see the Queen?” asked Peggy. “What is she like?”
“She is not very well,” said Wooden sadly. “I don’t know whether you
will be able to see her, but I hope so.”
“What is the matter with her?” asked Peggy.
“Well they told me last night at the Palace that they were afraid she
had a mump.”
“What is that?”
“Why, you know all about that, don’t you? You have had mumps
yourself--several of them. If a doll has more than one it is generally
fatal. But I quite hope that the Queen has not got any; and if she is
better I am sure she would like to see you. You asked what she was
like. Well, she is wax, of course, and she is about a hundred years
old, or perhaps a thousand, or a million, but quite as beautiful as
ever. She was one of the first wax dolls ever born, and they made her
Queen because they admired her so.”
“Is there an elective monarchy in Toyland?” asked Peggy, who had got on
quite a long way in history.
Wooden did not seem to understand the question fully, but she answered
in her soothing voice, “No, dear, all the animals are tame; you need
not be afraid of any of them.”
They drove on towards the sea, and when they got within sight of it
Peggy cried out, and clapped her hands with pleasure.
For the sea was full of boats crowded with dolls all going to the
Island. It was the prettiest sight. There were hundreds of toy yachts
with their white sails, steam-boats and motor-boats and clockwork boats
and rowing boats, and even boats made of paper, and walnut shells. The
sun was shining brightly on this gay scene, and the water was as calm
as possible, so that there was no chance of anybody being seasick.
“Why, they are all going over to the Island!” said Peggy. “Are we going
there, too?”
“Oh, yes,” said Wooden. “The Island is Toyland; I forgot that you
didn’t know that. That is where all the dolls live. Those who are
finished with your world live there always, and the others go there
every night. At least it is night with you, but of course it is day
with us. And when it is day with you it is night with us.”
“Like Australia,” suggested Peggy.
“Yes, dear,” said Wooden. “I like it very much.”
“But if you go to Toyland every night, and it is day there, you never
have any real night at all,” said Peggy.
“No, dear,” said Wooden reflectively. “I suppose not.”
When they reached the shore Teddy turned to the right. “Are we going to
the Bungalow?” asked Peggy.
“That is where we shall set sail for Toyland,” said Wooden. “And, you
know, I have two relations there.”
Peggy could not think what she meant for the moment. Then she
remembered the two wooden figure-heads, and asked Wooden if they were
her relations. Wooden said they were. One was her mother and one was
her aunt. “I’m sure you will like mother, dear,” she said. “Aunt has
wonderful high spirits, and doesn’t always behave as she ought, through
picking up sailors’ ways. But she says herself she never did no harm to
nobody, so we must overlook it.”
It was well that Wooden had given Peggy this warning about her aunt, or
Peggy might have been rather surprised at her behaviour when the car
drew up before the grass-plot by the Bungalow. The two figure-heads,
now full length and moving about freely, were waiting for them, and
when she saw them coming Wooden’s aunt gave a loud screech and rushed
forward to meet them, but caught her foot on a root of gorse and fell
full length in front of the car.
Teddy very cleverly stopped the car at once, or he might have run over
her. Then he jumped down and lifted up Wooden’s aunt, who was not hurt
at all, but screeched with laughter again. Teddy seized her round the
waist and waltzed up and down the grass with her, kicking up his legs
and being very silly. Peggy was surprised to see him going on like
that, but Wooden’s aunt seemed to enjoy it thoroughly, and when he had
finished she sat plump down on the grass, with her legs sticking out in
front of her, and simply roared with laughter, and said, “Lawks! you
_are_ a one!”
In the meantime Wooden had introduced Peggy to her mother, who was as
fresh as paint could make her, but had a weather-beaten look, too, and
a husky voice, owing to her having taken so many sea voyages that the
fog had got into her throat. She said that she was very pleased to see
Peggy, because she had heard a lot about her, and when they got on to
the boat they must have a nice long talk.
“Aunt seems in very good spirits today, mother,” said Wooden, looking
at her doubtfully as she was being danced about the grass by Teddy.
Wooden’s aunt was really being rather common, and Wooden would not
like Peggy to think that her relations were common.
Just at that moment Wooden’s aunt sat down on the grass in the rather
vulgar way already described, and Wooden’s mother said to her sharply,
“Now, Polly, do adone now, and remember what company you’re in. Get up,
and come and be introduced to the little lady.”
So Wooden’s aunt came and shook hands with Peggy, and gave her a
smacking kiss, which tasted of salt. “Dear little precious! Bless her!”
she said in quite a kind voice, which made Peggy like her a little
better. “Lawks, Maria! _She_ ain’t one to mind a body having a bit o’
fun.”
[Illustration]
III
THE ROYAL ARK AND THE BAD BEHAVIOUR OF WOODEN’S AUNT
Lying tied to one of the groins, which seemed to have widened out into
a sort of pier, was a rakish-looking clockwork steamer, with a red hull
and a broad white line above it, all very smart and clean.
“Why, it’s my very own steamer,” cried Peggy, “just as it was when it
was new, only much bigger.”
“Yes, dear,” said Wooden. “We use it every night to take us across to
Toyland. You didn’t know that. You will see all your other toys when we
get across, and some of them are coming with us.”
“Is the man who shoots pennies into my money-box coming?” asked Peggy.
“Yes,” replied Wooden. “He is the Queen’s head game-keeper. He shot the
three china hares that stand on the nursery mantelpiece. He shot them
with the sixpences you got out of the Christmas pudding.”
The steamer and the pier beside it were now crowded with doll sailors
and doll passengers preparing to take the journey across the water
to Toyland, and the road along the beach in both directions was full
of dolls hurrying to the various starting-places. Every row of piles
along the shore had turned into a pier, and scores of boats were moored
alongside them, in which dolls were embarking.
But still they came, from north, east, and west. Many of them were in
motor-cars, others were packed into wooden carts, the babies were being
wheeled in prams, and many were walking. Some way off Peggy saw a troop
of lead soldiers riding down to the shore on black horses, and they
looked very fine with the sun shining on their helmets and breastplates.
Lady Grace shaded her eyes and looked at them, too, and Wooden said to
her, “Lady Grace, I believe that is Colonel Jim’s regiment.”
Teddy turned round and grinned at them, and said, “What ho, girls!”
Wooden said sharply, “Now behave, Teddy, and don’t let’s have any
byplay.”
They all embarked in the toy steamer, and Peggy was pleased to find
her own sailor doll acting as captain of it. Very well he did it, too,
standing on the bridge and shouting his orders down a tube, while the
steamer was loosed from the quay and started off at a splendid pace,
making a hundred knots an hour across the blue calm water.
[Illustration]
It was a delightful voyage, pleasanter even than the motor drive had
been. The sun was shining so brightly, and every one seemed so pleased
to be going to Toyland. They could hear the dolls laughing and singing
from the other boats, which were all round them. On one of them was
a toy piano with five notes, on which a gentleman doll with long hair
was playing a tune so difficult that you would never have thought it
possible if you had not heard him.
Wooden’s mother and aunt went forward and stood in the bows of the boat
as she drove across the sea. They sniffed the salt breeze with rapture,
and their brightly-coloured faces glistened in the sunshine. “This,”
said Wooden’s mother, “is Life!” And Wooden’s aunt enjoyed it so much
that until they came to the other side she said nothing vulgar or
common.
But the moment the steamer began to move, although the water was as
smooth as it could possibly be, Teddy became as green as pea soup and
rushed downstairs to the cabin.
“He’s always like that, poor fellow,” said Wooden. “I suppose it comes
from being a bear. He will be all right when we get to the other side.”
Very soon the voyage was over, and the toy steamer came alongside a
quay carpeted with red felt. There were many other landing stages
all along the shore, at which other boats were landing their doll
passengers; but the steamer was the only one which came alongside this
special quay. It was decorated with flowers and flags, and round it
stood a row of wooden soldiers, with shiny black bearskins, red coats,
and spotless white trousers. They lined three sides of the square, and
looked very smart, all of exactly the same height, and all standing at
attention.
Wooden seemed to be rather embarrassed as the steamer made fast
alongside this gaily decorated quay. “This is the royal quay,” she said
to Peggy. “Only the Queen uses it. There must be some mistake.” And she
asked the captain why they were landing there.
“Orders, ma’am, orders,” said the captain briefly, touching his cap.
“I expect,” said Lady Grace, “that it is to do honour to our little
visitor.” She put her hand on Peggy’s shoulder and smiled at her.
Wooden’s honest face beamed with pleasure. “Now, I do call that kind of
Her Majesty,” she said, “very kind indeed.”
The wooden soldiers all presented arms as Peggy stepped off the steamer
between Lady Grace and Wooden, while Wooden’s mother and aunt followed
them, and Teddy came up from below no longer looking green, but quite
cheerful again and grinning all over. One of the soldiers let off
his gun by mistake. He had only lately joined the regiment, and did
not quite understand the words of command. The captain of the wooden
soldiers boxed his ears soundly, and nobody took any further notice
of the episode, which, however, had far-reaching effects, as will
presently appear.
Directly the party had landed, a band struck up and led the way along
a broad carpeted passage, which was also lined on one side by wooden
soldiers. On the other side was the water, for the royal quay was at
the mouth of a broad river, and a little farther on was another quay
towards which they were going. And here Peggy saw an extraordinary and
pleasing sight.
There was a large, gaily decorated Noah’s Ark lying at the second quay.
At each end of the house on the Ark was a big platform. The one in
front was shaded by a gaily striped awning. There was also a carpet on
it, and big pots of flowers, and comfortable chairs and little tables.
On the platform at the back stood Mr. Noah in a long yellow robe, and
Mrs. Noah in a blue robe. Mr. Noah had taken off his black shiny hat,
and was bowing low, as Wooden and her party approached the Ark.
But the most curious thing of all was the long line of animals that
were standing two and two along the towing-path by the river. They were
all in charge of the rest of Mr. Noah’s family, and were harnessed
to the Ark, which they were evidently going to pull. There were two
elephants and two camels, giraffes, zebras, cows, hyenas, leopards, and
a lot more, all much the same size; and at the head of the procession
were two antelopes. Hovering round the Ark were a great number of
birds--wild geese, and rooks and parrots and peacocks and canaries and
budgeree-gars and others, all flying in pairs.
[Illustration: On the platform at the back stood Mr. Noah and Mrs. Noah]
“The Queen’s own Ark,” said Lady Grace. “It must have been sent down
for somebody. I wonder who.”
“Do you think it could be for a specialist?” Peggy asked. “They do send
for them, you know, if anybody is ill.”
“Oh, I do hope her mump isn’t worse,” said Wooden.
“I expect it’s sent down for me,” said Wooden’s aunt, with her vulgar
laugh. “She knowed I was coming all right.”
“Now, Polly, behave,” said Wooden’s mother. “Mr. and Mrs. Noah are
looking at us.”
Mr. Noah advanced to the side of the Ark and bowed to Wooden. “I have
been ordered to bring the Ark down for you and your party,” he said. “I
hope we shall have a nice trip up the river.”
Wooden turned to Peggy with a pleased smile on her face. “Now that is
an honour,” she said. “I am so pleased, dear. It is a most lovely ark
inside.”
Then she asked Mr. Noah how the Queen was, and he shook his head and
was just going to tell her how the Queen was when Wooden’s aunt gave a
wild whoop, and picking up her skirts ran along the quay, kicking her
feet out in front of her, and shouting, “Come on, girls! Here’s larks!”
And I am sorry to say that Teddy joined her, and they danced up the
quay together and rushed down the bridge from the bank to the ark,
jostling each other and quite spoiling everything by their behaviour.
“Oh dear, oh dear!” said Wooden’s mother in a vexed voice, “Really,
Polly does carry on something awful.”
But Mr. Noah only laughed and said, “I like a little fun sometimes.”
Then he led the way to the platform in the front of the ark, and Mrs.
Noah walked by Peggy and said to her, “I like your face very much. I am
sure we shall be friends.”
The captain of the wooden soldiers now gave some words of command, and
all his troops fell into their places ready to march alongside the
ark. Mr. Noah blew a whistle, and his sons made themselves very busy
unfastening ropes, pushing the ark out into the river, and getting
ready to start the animals. Mr. Noah blew his whistle again when the
ark was clear of the shore, and with a great deal of shouting and
cheering, the procession of animals started off, and pulled the ark at
a good pace up the river.
It was a very pleasant journey. The air was warm and the sky was
blue. All the different animals that were pulling the ark were very
interesting to look at, and the birds that flew in couples overhead
were very pretty, too, and sang most melodiously.
They had not travelled very far before a smart servant doll in cap and
apron came out of the house in the ark, and said, “Would you like to
take a little light refreshment?”
Wooden’s aunt instantly jumped up from her chair and said, “I’m always
ready for my grub.” Then she pushed in front of all the others and
rushed into the house in the most vulgar and objectionable manner. And
again, I am sorry to say, Teddy followed her.
[Illustration]
Wooden blushed with annoyance at the behaviour of her relative, and
Wooden’s mother said in an angry voice, “It is really too much. But
please don’t think because she is my daughter’s aunt that she is
my sister. Quite the reverse. I wouldn’t own her. My poor brother
married much beneath him. He was a wooden Scotchman of irreproachable
character, outside a tobacconist’s shop, and a perfect gentleman in
every way.”
Peggy smoothed the wounded feelings of Wooden and her mother, and said
it didn’t matter. “I think I had better say a word to Teddy,” she said.
“He is not behaving nicely.”
“Oh, she leads him on,” said Wooden’s mother, who was still very much
annoyed.
“Teddy has always been flighty, for a bear,” said Wooden. “I haven’t
liked to say anything, dear, but I think it would be a good thing if
you were to speak to him. He would pay attention to you.”
When they got inside the house of the ark they found a most beautifully
furnished apartment, with big windows on either side, through which the
scenery on the banks of the river could be observed as they went along.
On the table was spread a most sumptuous repast. There was a dish of
chicken, consisting entirely of wishing-bones; there was a pudding made
of one gigantic chocolate cream; there were little baby bananas growing
on a live tree in the middle of the table; there were sandwiches of
toast and butter and watercress and blackberry jam and potted prawns,
all mixed up together in the most ingenious manner, and very seductive
to the palate; there was a birthday cake and a wedding cake; there was
a jelly that tasted of violets and another that tasted of carnations;
there were delicious drinks, from the sweet and comforting chocolate
of the cold north to the iced sherbet of the burning south; there were
dozens of crackers, and every one of them contained a beautiful toy,
a motto, a cap of coloured paper decorated with gold and silver, and
a small but valuable piece of jewellery. In short, there was every
delicacy of the season, and all in the utmost profusion.
Wooden’s aunt was already deep in the repast when they got inside. She
was purple in the face, and beginning to breathe heavily.
“Such greed I never saw,” said Wooden’s mother, eyeing her severely.
“She has not even washed her hands.”
Teddy, however, was nowhere to be seen, and the servant-doll said that
he had gone out by another door into Mr. Noah’s cabin. Mr. Noah had
invited him to have a steak and onions with him. Peggy was rather glad
not to have to rebuke him before company, for she was fond of Teddy.
She thought that if he were kept away from Wooden’s aunt he would
probably behave all right.
The servant-doll had led them into a nice airy bedroom, which opened
out of the main saloon, and Peggy washed her hands, and then put on a
very pretty pinafore made of lace and chiffon, which the servant-doll
gave her. When they were all ready they went into the saloon and sat
down at the table, and much enjoyed their repast, while the ark was
drawn rapidly along the winding river.
Unfortunately their enjoyment was marred by the continued bad behaviour
of Wooden’s aunt, who went on as if she had really never been in
respectable company before. When she could eat no more--and that was
not for a long time--Wooden’s mother gave her a dose of Gregory powder,
which she always carried about with her for such emergencies, or she
would probably have died. As it was she felt very ill, and said so in a
thoroughly vulgar manner.
Wooden was most distressed at her behaviour, but she was so
kind-hearted that she could not help making excuses for her.
“Greediness and vulgarity and vanity are her only failings, poor
thing,” she said. “Otherwise she has a very charming character. We all
have our little weaknesses, and we must not think too much of them.”
“I’m ashamed of her,” said Wooden’s mother. “And I shall tell her so
to her face directly she regains consciousness.”
For Wooden’s aunt was now stretched on one of the luxurious sofas of
the saloon in a state of complete collapse.
“Let us leave her there,” said Lady Grace. “She will be better when we
arrive at Dolltown.”
[Illustration]
IV
MOMENTOUS NEWS IS BROUGHT BY A DUTCH DOLL
They left Wooden’s aunt in the saloon and went on deck again, and
seated themselves in the comfortable chairs under the awning, from
which they could observe the scenery. This was very beautiful.
They were now going through a mountain gorge. The river was narrow
here, but deep. The mountains came steeply down into the water, and
on one side of the river was a road cut in the rock, along which all
the animals were walking two by two, pulling the ark at a smart pace.
Perched up on the mountains here and there were pretty wooden Swiss
chalets, large and small; and numberless clean wooden cows, with bells
round their necks, were browsing in the mountain pastures, which were
gay with flowers. The wooden peasants who were looking after them
showed great interest in the progress of the ark. They came running
down the steep paths to see who was on board, and shouted and waved
their hats in their excitement.
[Illustration: On the mountains here and there were pretty wooden Swiss
chalets]
By-and-by they had passed through the mountains, and had come to a
perfectly flat country, planted with wooden poplars of a vivid green.
Here and there were farms--dear little wooden houses with doll-farmers
living in them, and taking care of more wooden animals, cows and
horses, and sheep and pigs. After a time they came to a small town
consisting of streets of dolls’ houses, with a church built of toy
bricks.
“Oh, I would like to go into one of those dear little houses,” said
Peggy. “Can’t we stop here, Wooden?”
“We shall see much better dolls’ houses than those when we get to
Dolltown,” said Wooden. “I have got a very nice dolls’ house myself,
bigger than any of those. I shall take you there, dear, and you will
occupy the spare room. And I will show you the Queen’s Palace, which is
finer than any of them.”
At this moment Mrs. Noah came forward, and stood by them smiling, as if
she would like a little conversation.
“Won’t you sit down, Mrs. Noah?” said Lady Grace politely; and Mrs.
Noah thanked her and sat down.
Mrs. Noah was a large smiling woman who liked to make friends. She
smiled at Lady Grace, and Wooden, and Wooden’s mother, and Peggy, and
then said suddenly, “I thought you’d like to know how it all was.”
Of course they would like to know how it all was, though they didn’t
quite know what she meant. So they smiled back at her, and then she
began.
“Of course he is wood,” she said, “begging your pardon, Lady Grace, and
I ought to like him on that account. But the truth is that I don’t, and
can’t.”
There was a little pause, and then Wooden’s mother said, nodding her
head wisely, “Ah, I know who you mean, and I don’t much like him
either. I suppose because he’s a foreigner.”
Wooden shook her head, but said nothing. Lady Grace said, “I hate him;
but then I’m wax, you see.”
Peggy wondered who they were talking about, but just as she was going
to ask Wooden, Mrs. Noah looked at her, and said, “Why, bless me! the
little lady must be thinking that we’re talking in riddles.”
And then she told the following story:--
Some time before, a ship had been wrecked on the coast of Toyland, and
all its passengers drowned except King Selim. He had been brought to
Dolltown, and, because he was a king, Queen Rosebud had given him a set
of rooms in her palace, where he had lived very comfortably ever since.
“What was he King of?” asked Peggy.
Mrs. Noah hesitated. “I really don’t know, dear,” she said. “Do you
know, Wooden?”
“No,” said Wooden. “I never thought of asking.”
It seemed that nobody else had ever thought of asking either. They knew
he must be a king because he said he was. Besides, he wore a crown.
Everybody was very sorry for him, because his Queen had been drowned
when the ship had been wrecked, but when some time had passed and he
had got over that, he had become rather interfering, and he was not so
much liked now as he had been, especially by the Waxes. For although
all the dolls in Toyland generally lived happily together, still
there was always apt to be a little feeling between the Waxes and the
Woodens. The Waxes thought the Woodens were rather common, and the
Woodens thought the Waxes were rather stuck up.
“Of course, speaking for myself,” said Mrs. Noah, “I’ve never had no
quarrel with a Wax in my life, and, if I may say so, have as many
friends among the Waxes as I have among the Woodens.”
She looked at Lady Grace, who said, “The Queen has always disliked
having anything said against the Woodens, and has often told me that if
she had not been born Wax she would have liked to be born Wood.”
There were murmurs of approbation at this speech, and Wooden’s mother
said, “Wax is as wax does, I always say. If all was as polite as the
Queen, there wouldn’t be no trouble at all. But you haven’t told us
about the Queen’s health yet, Mrs. Noah.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Noah, “it’s my belief that the Queen is dead.”
“Dear, dear!” said Wooden’s mother. “And such a nice lady as she was,
too.”
“What makes you think that, Mrs. Noah?” asked Lady Grace. “Surely I
should have heard of it if it had been true.”
“Well, perhaps you would, Lady Grace,” said Mrs. Noah. “Anyhow, she
is alarmingly ill, and has appointed King Selim regent, to act in her
place until she gets better. And if she dies, King Selim is to reign in
her place. You see, the Queen having no children, naturally the only
other royal person in Toyland has to reign instead of her.”
“Is that the law in Toyland?” asked Peggy.
Mrs. Noah looked at her affectionately. “Bless your pretty face, what
questions you do ask, dear,” she said. “I don’t know nothing about the
law, but it’s what King Selim says, and of course he knows, or else he
wouldn’t say it.”
“Oh, no,” said Wooden decisively. “Some people don’t like him, but he
isn’t as bad as that. Was it him that ordered the royal barge to meet
us, Mrs. Noah?”
“Yes, it was,” said Mrs. Noah. “Now I must be getting back to my old
man. He says there ain’t no flavour in his pipe unless I fill it for
him.”
“I hope the Queen isn’t really dead,” said Wooden, when Mrs. Noah had
left them. “That would indeed be a sad pity. Look, dear, you can see
Dolltown now. It won’t be long before we are there now.”
The ark had turned a bend in the river, and Peggy could see across the
flat plains a large town with an enormous tower standing in the middle
of it.
“That is the House of Cards,” said Wooden, in answer to her question.
“It stands in the middle of the market-place, and is thirteen stories
high.”
“What is it used for?” asked Peggy.
“It is used for going to the top of, dear,” replied Wooden. “You get a
magnificent view of the surrounding country, and when you have looked
at it you come down again.”