The Voyage Ends
Suddenly Dot, who had also fallen asleep, awoke with a start.
The sun was just sinking in the west, and the boat had left the
tunnel while they slept and was slowly floating down the middle of a
big river.
The girl at once awakened Tot and they looked carefully along both
sides of the river to see if they could find the place where they had
come out of the tunnel. But nothing could be seen except a line of
low trees growing close down to the water.
"It doesn't make any difference, anyway," said the girl; "for the
Queen has closed up the end of the tunnel."
"Where are we?" asked Tot.
"I don't exactly know. But this looks very much like the river that
flows past Roselawn."
"Yes!" cried the boy, nodding his head, "I 'member those trees."
"Then," rejoined Dot, slowly, "I think I know how it happened. The
Valleys of Merryland are not in a straight line, but lie in the form
of a half circle; so in passing through them we have come upon the
same river again, only higher up the stream. We'll soon be opposite
Roselawn, Tot."
The boy was staring at the bank and did not answer at once. But as
the boat swept around a bend in the river he cried:
"Look!" and pointed with his finger to the shore.
Before them were the green banks of Roselawn, and someone had already
seen the children, for a boat pushed out from the shore and came
rapidly toward them.
A few minutes afterward Dot was closely clasped in her father's arms,
while Tot was rapturously kissing the bearded face of Thompson the
gardener.
"How do you happen to be at Roselawn, Papa?" Dot asked.
"Miss Bombien telegraphed me you were lost, so I came by the first
train and have been searching everywhere for you. Thompson and I had
both nearly despaired, for we feared our little ones had been
drowned."
"Oh, no," said Dot, "we've only been on a trip to Merryland. But I'll
tell you the whole story when we get home."
Mr. Freeland noticed his daughter's round, plump cheeks, slightly
sunburned, but with a fresh, rosy tint showing through the skin, and
saw how her eyes sparkled and danced with health. Very gratefully he
pressed her again to his heart and whispered:
"Wherever you may have been, my darling, the change has restored your
health, and that repays me for all my anxiety."
* * *
As they walked up the white-graveled paths of Roselawn, Dot skipped
happily along by her father's side, while Tot held fast to the
gardener's big finger with one hand and carried Jane in the other.
Soon they came to the place where the path branched off to the gap in
the hedge beyond which Tot lived, and he called out, "Good-bye, Dot."
"Good-bye," answered the girl; "I'll see you tomorrow."
But before she had gone far Tot came running up, calling for her to
stop.
"Oh, Dot!" he said, "I know what the Queen's name is!"
"Do you?" she asked eagerly. "Tell me, quick!"
"Why it's Dolly, of course," said Tot.
"Of course!" answered Dot, with a smile. "Funny we never thought of
that, isn't it?"
End of Project Gutenberg's Dot and Tot of Merryland, by L. Frank Baum