OLD DOCTOR DARNER
[Illustration]
“Ouch! my knee. Such a spill! Oh! look, too, at the big hole in my
stocking!” cried Margaret limping in from school one day. “Whatever
shall I do to mend it?”
On the table beside her stood her work-basket. Margaret just naturally
looked that way for help. She knew where she could find it when in
trouble.
Sure enough, in a second, she saw her little friend, Sir Bodkin, come
hopping quickly out of the basket.
“Well, well, in trouble I see,” he said to Margaret, who looked very
unhappy indeed.
“Oh! you cunning man! I know I never could do without you and your
Fairies!” she cried, now smiling and looking so relieved. “Maybe you can
help me?”
[Illustration]
“Indeed we can. You need a doctor here to make some repairs, I’m
thinking,” he said wisely. Then he went over to the work-basket and
called in a loud voice:
“Doctor Darner! How about a little help here!”
From the work-basket came the sound of scrambling.
“Just so, just so,” replied a gruff voice as a large One-Eyed Fairy came
hustling and bustling out of the work-basket and up to Sir Bodkin and
Margaret.
“Take a good look and give us your advice,” said the King.
Doctor Darner looked very carefully at the torn stocking Margaret held
in her hand.
“Two strands of black darning cotton, please,” he said.
[Illustration: Running around the hole]
Margaret got some out of the work-basket and cut off a length. She
squeezed the thread the same way as she had the wool for Crewel so the
loop would slip easily in Doctor Darner’s eye. Then she put her fingers
on him and he began to sing:
“Hold the stocking stretched on your hand,
While at the edge of the hole I stand.
’Round it now we’ll take a run
To keep it from stretching before the work’s done.
Up and down, across the hole we go;
Run, jump, run, row after row.
From side to side run, weave, run,
Over this thread, under that, till the darning’s done.”
[Illustration: Darning up and down]
Old Doctor Darner and Margaret worked very busily to fill in the great
hole in her stocking. When it was mended, he took a little rest in the
pincushion for a minute. Then he turned to her and said, looking very
wise, indeed:
“Some day, you will learn how to mend other rips, tears, and holes.”
“Oh,” cried Margaret, laughing; “that will be fine ’cause Mother says I
seem always to be needing a dose of thread and needle.” She then tested
the darn in her stocking by pulling it this way and that to see if the
stitches were close enough together, just as Doctor Darner told her to
do. It seemed all right.
[Illustration: Darning across]
“Now your, stocking’s as good as new,” said he, bowing very low.
“Thank you so very much,” said Margaret truly grateful. Then he hurried
away to his place in the needle-book.
“Isn’t he a nice old fellow?” said Margaret to Sir Bodkin when Doctor
Darner had gone.
“Indeed he is, even if he is a little gruff in his manner at times,”
replied the King.
“Mother always wanted me to learn how to mend my stockings and I never
would. Now she’ll be so pleased when I show this one to her mended
instead of torn. Mothers have a lot of unpleasant things to look at
sometimes, don’t they?” she asked the tiny King, who was walking up and
down the table-top in a very kingly manner.
“Indeed they do, My Lady,” he replied, “but I don’t think your mother
will have as many now as she had before you met us.”
[Illustration: “Hold the stocking stretched on your hand”]
“That’s so. I mean to ask her to let me try to darn one of her stockings
and one of Father’s socks, soon. But I am afraid it will be a long time
before I want to try one of Brother’s. He does get the worst holes in
his that I ever saw!” she said shaking her head.
“Boys are that way and have been ever since I can remember. But just
make up your mind some day to try one of his and I am sure you’ll find
it easier than you expected.” Sir Bodkin smiled wisely at his little
mistress. He knew boys, but he also knew that Margaret was a very brave
little girl who wouldn’t let a big hole in a stocking frighten her.
“Thank you, Sir Bodkin. I won’t forget what you say. I’ll run off now
and show Mother how smart I’ve been,” she said as she limped out of the
room. In a second Sir Bodkin heard her running along the hall just as
usual.
“Her knee is mended, too,” he said smiling to himself. Then he took a
good look around to see if everything in the work-basket was in order.
“It’s time we all had an emery plunge,” he was saying to himself as he
slipped quietly into the basket.
[Illustration]