{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24379/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24379","id":"gutenberg_24379","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24379","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Humour","Category: Novels","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Fairy tales"],"text":"Produced by David Edwards, Chris Logan and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE\nADMIRAL'S CARAVAN\n\n\nBY\n\n\nCHARLES E. CARRYL\n\n\nAUTHOR OF \"DAVY AND THE GOBLIN\"\n\n\nWITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY\nREGINALD B. BIRCH\n\n\n[Illustration: The Riverside Press]\n\nBOSTON AND NEW YORK\nHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\nThe Riverside Press Cambridge\n\n\nCopyright, 1891, 1892, 1919, and 1920, by The Century Co.\nCopyright, 1920, by Charles E. Carryl\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: \"THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW\nOF HIS LEGS THROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS.\"]\n\n\n\n\nTO CONSTANCE\n\n    Sweet Chatterbox, 't is thou that hast beguiled\n    My fancy, as it drew the little child\n    Who in these pages lives; her gentle ways\n    Are but the reflex of thy round of days.\n    The trip of syllable I held so dear,\n    And all thy small remarks, are treasured here--\n    Charmed by the alchemy of love to stay\n    The while thy blissful childhood slips away.\n    Kind little heart, that knows no selfish thought,\n    Read here the tale that thou, thyself, hast wrought!\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  CHAPTER I\n  Dorothy and the Admiral                                             11\n\n  CHAPTER II\n  The Ferry to Nowhere                                                23\n\n  CHAPTER III\n  The Cruise of the Sideboard                                         32\n\n  CHAPTER IV\n  Tree-top Country                                                    39\n\n  CHAPTER V\n  Bob Scarlet's Garden                                                54\n\n  CHAPTER VI\n  In the Toy-shop                                                     66\n\n  CHAPTER VII\n  The Song in the Dell                                                81\n\n  CHAPTER VIII\n  Something About the Camel                                           95\n\n  CHAPTER IX\n  The Camel's Complaint                                              104\n\n  CHAPTER X\n  The Sizing Tower                                                   112\n\n  CHAPTER XI\n  The Dancing Animals                                                120\n\n  CHAPTER XII\n  The Caravan Comes Home                                             129\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n  \"The Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a\n  view of his legs through his spy-glass\"                   Frontispiece\n\n  Head-piece to Chapter I                                             11\n\n  The Admiral                                                         13\n\n  The Highlander                                                      14\n\n  Sir Walter Rosettes                                                 15\n\n  \"The Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a\n  view of his legs through his spy-glass\"                             19\n\n  \"The Admiral sat up and gazed about with a complacent smile\"        21\n\n  \"'They're entirely different from mine, anyhow,' said\n  the Stork\"                                                          25\n\n  \"It seemed like listening to an enormous cuckoo-clock\"              26\n\n  \"'Dear Me!' she exclaimed, 'here comes all the furniture!'\"         30\n\n  \"The Admiral exclaimed: 'There she is! I can see\n  her quite plainly!'\"                                                34\n\n  \"The sideboard slowly floated along through this\n  strange forest\"                                                     40\n\n  Dorothy makes a call in the tree-top country                        43\n\n  The extraordinary Post-Captain                               47 and 48\n\n  \"He did a little fifing on the edges of the note\"                   49\n\n  \"Sir Peter caught the pirate, and he took him by the neck\"          51\n\n  \"He was walking about with his hands in his waistcoat-pockets\"      55\n\n  \"There were plants loaded down with little pinafores,\n  and shrubs with small shoes growing all over them\"                  57\n\n  \"'Why, the place where I am,' said Dorothy\"                         62\n\n  \"Dorothy started off at once, as fast as she could run\"             64\n\n  \"'It is a shelf!' she exclaimed\"                                    67\n\n  \"The Highlander, with his usual bad luck, had put\n  on his sunbonnet backward\"                                          68\n\n  \"'You know your size does come in dozens, assorted,'\n  continued the Jack\"                                                 75\n\n  \"He sailed away under the bridge\"                                   80\n\n  \"She found it rather trying to her nerves, at first,\n  to meet with rabbits as big as horses\"                              86\n\n  \"--To be chattered at by squirrels a head taller\n  than she herself was\"                                               87\n\n  \"Pushing the leaves gently aside, she cautiously peeped out\"        91\n\n  The Mouse laments                                                   93\n\n  \"And found the Caravan sitting in a row on a little\n  bench at the door\"                                                  96\n\n  \"He dropped his little book, with an appearance of\n  great agitation, and hurried away\"                                 101\n\n  \"A door at the back of the shop opened and they all rushed out\"    102\n\n  Tail-piece to Chapter VIII                                         103\n\n  The Caravan discipline the Camel                                   109\n\n  \"'There isn't any more,' said the Highlander, rather confusedly\"   115\n\n  \"An elephant and a sheep seized her by the hands, and the next\n  moment she was dancing in the ring\"                                123\n\n  The animals crossing over                                          127\n\n  \"By this time they were running so fast that she\n  could hardly keep up with them\"                                    135\n\n  \"It slowly changed to a bird-cage with a robin sitting in it\"      138\n\n  Tail-piece to Chapter XII                                          140\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: HEAD-PIECE TO CHAPTER I.]\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nDOROTHY AND THE ADMIRAL\n\n\nThe Blue Admiral Inn stood on the edge of the shore, with its red brick\nwalls, and its gabled roof, and the old willow-trees that overhung it,\nall reflected in the quiet water as if the harbor had been a great\nmirror lying upon its back in the sun. This made it a most attractive\nplace to look at. Then there were crisp little dimity curtains hanging\nin the windows of the coffee-room and giving great promise of tidiness\nand comfort within, and this made it a most delightful place to think\nabout. And then there was a certain suggestion of savory cooking in the\nswirl of the smoke that came out of the tall, old-fashioned chimneys,\nand this made it a most difficult place to stay away from. In fact, if\nany ships had chanced to come into the little harbor, I believe\neverybody on board of them, from the captains down to the cabin-boys,\nwould have scrambled into the boats the moment the anchors were down and\npulled away for the Blue Admiral Inn.\n\nBut, so far as ships were concerned, the harbor was as dead as a\ndoor-nail, and poor old Uncle Porticle, who kept the inn, had long ago\ngiven up all idea of expecting them, and had fallen into a melancholy\nhabit of standing in the little porch that opened on the village street,\ngazing first to the right and then to the left, and lastly at the\nopposite side of the way, as if he had a faint hope that certain\nseafaring men were about to steal a march upon him from the land-side of\nthe town. And Dorothy, who was a lonely little child, with no one in the\nworld to care for but Uncle Porticle, had also fallen into a habit of\nsitting on the step of the porch by way of keeping him company; and\nhere they passed many quiet hours together, with the big robin hopping\nabout in his cage, and with the Admiral himself, on his pedestal beside\nthe porch, keeping watch and ward over the fortunes of the inn.\n\n[Illustration: THE ADMIRAL.]\n\nNow the Admiral was only a yard high, and was made of wood into the\nbargain; but he was a fine figure of a man for all that, being dressed\nin a very beautiful blue coat (as befitted his name) and canary-colored\nknee-breeches, and wearing a fore-and-aft hat rakishly perched on the\nback of his head. On the other hand, he had sundry stray cracks in the\ncalves of his legs, and was badly battered about the nose; but, after\nall, this only gave him a certain weather-beaten appearance as if he had\nbeen around the world any number of times in all sorts of company; and\nfor as long as Dorothy could remember he had been standing on his\npedestal beside the porch, enjoying the sunshine and defying the rain,\nas a gallant officer should, and earnestly gazing at the opposite side\nof the street through a spy-glass.\n\n[Illustration: THE HIGHLANDER.]\n\nNow, what the Admiral was staring at was a mystery. He might, for\ninstance, have been looking at the wooden Highlander that stood at the\ndoor of Mr. Pendle's instrument-shop, for nothing more magnificent than\nthis particular Highlander could possibly be imagined. His clothes were\nof every color of the rainbow, and he had silver buckles on his shoes,\nand brass buttons on his coat, and he was varnished to such an extent\nthat you could hardly look at him without winking. Then his hair and his\nwhiskers were so red, and his legs were so pink and so fat and so\nlifelike, that it seemed as if you could almost hear him speak; and,\nwhat was more, he had been standing for years at the door of the shop,\nproudly holding up a preposterous wooden watch that gave half-past\nthree as the correct time at all hours of the day and night. In fact, it\nwould have been no great wonder if the Admiral had stared at him to the\nend of his days.\n\n[Illustration: SIR WALTER ROSETTES.]\n\nThen there was Sir Walter Rosettes, a long-bodied little man in a\ncavalier's cloak, with a ruff about his neck and enormous rosettes on\nhis shoes, who stood on a pedestal at old Mrs. Peevy's garden gate,\noffering an imitation tobacco-plant, free of charge, as it were, to any\none who would take the trouble of carrying it home. This bold device was\nintended to call attention to the fact that Mrs. Peevy kept a\ntobacco-shop in the front parlor of her little cottage behind the\nhollyhock bushes, the announcement being backed up by the spectacle of\nthree pipes arranged in a tripod in the window, and by the words\n\"Smokers' Emporium\" displayed in gold letters on the glass; and, by the\nway, Dorothy knew perfectly well who _this_ little man was, as somebody\nhad taken the trouble of writing his name with a lead-pencil on his\npedestal just below the toes of his shoes.\n\nAnd lastly there was old Mrs. Peevy herself, who might be seen at any\nhour of the day, sitting at the door of her cottage, fast asleep in the\nshade of her big cotton umbrella with the Chinese mandarin for a handle.\nShe wasn't much to look at, perhaps, but there was no way of getting at\nthe Admiral's taste in such matters, so he stared through his spy-glass\nyear in and year out, and nobody was any the wiser.\n\nNow from sitting so much in the porch and turning these things over in\nher mind, Dorothy had come to know the Admiral and the Highlander and\nSir Walter Rosettes as well as she could possibly know persons who\ndidn't know her, and who couldn't have spoken to her if they _had_ known\nher; but nothing came of the acquaintance until a certain Christmas eve.\nOf course, nobody knew better than Dorothy what Christmas eve should be\nlike. The snow should be falling softly, and just enough should come\ndown to cover up the pavements and make the streets look beautifully\nwhite and clean, and to edge the trees and the lamp-posts and the\nrailings as if they were trimmed with soft lace; and just enough to\ntempt children to come out, and not so much as to keep grown people at\nhome--in fact, just enough for Christmas eve, and not a bit more.\n\nThen the streets should be full of people hurrying along and all\ncarrying plenty of parcels; and the windows should be very gay with\ndelightful wreaths of greens, and bunches of holly with plenty of\nscarlet berries on them, and the greengrocers should have little forests\nof assorted hemlock-trees on the sidewalks in front of their shops, and\neverything should be as cheerful and as bustling as possible.\n\nAnd, if you liked, there might be just a faint smell of cooking floating\nabout in the air, but this was not important by any means, as it might\nhappen at any time.\n\nWell, all these good old-fashioned things came to pass on this\nparticular Christmas eve except the snow; and in place of that there\ncame a soft, warm rain which was all very well in its way, except that,\nas Dorothy said, \"It didn't belong on Christmas eve.\" And just at\nnightfall she went out into the porch to smell the rain, and to see how\nChristmas matters generally were getting on in the wet; and she was\nwatching the people hurrying by, and trying to fancy what was in the\nmysterious-looking parcels they were carrying so carefully under their\numbrellas, when she suddenly noticed that the toes of the Admiral's\nshoes were turned sideways on his pedestal, and looking up at him she\nsaw that he had tucked his spy-glass under his arm, and was gazing down\nbackward at his legs with an air of great concern.\n\nThis was so startling that Dorothy almost jumped out of her shoes, and\nshe was just turning to run back into the house when the Admiral caught\nsight of her, and called out excitedly, \"Cracks in my legs!\"--and then\nstared hard at her as if demanding some sort of an explanation of this\nextraordinary state of affairs.\n\nDorothy was dreadfully frightened, but she was a very polite little\ngirl, and would have answered the town pump if it had spoken to her; so\nshe swallowed down a great lump that had come up into her throat, and\nsaid, as respectfully as she could, \"I'm very sorry, sir. I suppose it\nmust be because they are so very old.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW OF\nHIS LEGS THROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS.\"]\n\n\"Old!\" exclaimed the Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a view\nof his legs through his spy-glass. \"Why, they're no older than _I_ am\";\nand, upon thinking it over, this seemed so very true that Dorothy felt\nquite ashamed of her remark and stood looking at him in a rather foolish\nway.\n\n\"Try again,\" said the Admiral, with a patronizing air.\n\n\"No,\" said Dorothy, gravely shaking her head, \"I'm sure I don't know any\nother reason; only it seems rather strange, you know, that you've never\neven seen them before.\"\n\n\"If you mean my legs,\" said the Admiral, \"of course I've seen them\nbefore--lots of times. But I've never seen 'em behind. That is,\" he\nadded by way of explanation. \"I've never seen 'em behind before.\"\n\n\"But I mean the cracks,\" said Dorothy, with a faint smile. You see she\nwas beginning to feel a little acquainted with the Admiral by this time,\nand the conversation didn't seem to be quite so solemn as it had been\nwhen he first began talking.\n\n\"Then you should say 'seen 'em before _behind_,'\" said the Admiral.\n\"That's where they've always been, you know.\"\n\nDorothy didn't know exactly what reply to make to this remark; but she\nthought she ought to say something by way of helping along the\nconversation, so she began, \"I suppose it's kind of----\" and here she\nstopped to think of the word she wanted.\n\n\"Kind of what?\" said the Admiral severely.\n\n\"Kind of--cripplesome, isn't it?\" said Dorothy rather confusedly.\n\n\"Cripplesome?\" exclaimed the Admiral. \"Why, that's no word for it. It's\npositively decrepitoodle----\" here he paused for a moment and got\nextremely red in the face, and then finished up with \"----loodelarious,\"\nand stared hard at her again, as if inquiring what she thought of\n_that_.\n\n\"Goodness!\" said Dorothy, drawing a long breath, \"what a word!\"\n\n\"Well, it _is_ rather a word,\" said the Admiral with a very satisfied\nair. \"You see, it means about everything that can happen to a person's\nlegs--\" but just here his remarks came abruptly to an end, for as he was\nstrutting about on his pedestal, he suddenly slipped off the edge of it\nand came to the ground flat on his back.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE ADMIRAL SAT UP AND GAZED ABOUT WITH A COMPLACENT\nSMILE.\"]\n\nDorothy gave a little scream of dismay; but the Admiral, who didn't\nappear to be in the least disturbed by this accident, sat up and gazed\nabout with a complacent smile. Then, getting on his feet, he took a pipe\nout of his pocket, and lit it with infinite relish; and having turned up\nhis coat-collar by way of keeping the rest of his clothes dry, he\nstarted off down the street without another word. The people going by\nhad all disappeared in the most unaccountable manner, and Dorothy could\nsee him quite plainly as he walked along, tacking from one side of the\nstreet to the other with a strange rattling noise, and blowing little\npuffs of smoke into the air like a shabby little steam-tug going to sea\nin a storm.\n\nNow all this was extremely exciting, and Dorothy, quite forgetting the\nrain, ran down the street a little way so as to keep the Admiral in\nsight. \"It's _precisely_ like a doll going traveling all by itself,\" she\nexclaimed as she ran along. \"How he rattles! I suppose _that's_ his\nlittle cracked legs--and goodness gracious, how he smokes!\" she added,\nfor by this time the Admiral had fired up, so to speak, as if he were\nbound on a long journey, and was blowing out such clouds of smoke that\nhe presently quite shut himself out from view. The smoke smelt somewhat\nlike burnt feathers, which, of course, was not very agreeable, but the\nworst of it was that when Dorothy turned to run home again she\ndiscovered that she couldn't see her way back to the porch, and she was\nfeeling about for it with her hands stretched out, when the smoke\nsuddenly cleared away and she found that the inn, and Mr. Pendle's shop,\nand Mrs. Peevy's cottage had all disappeared like a street in a\npantomime, and that she was standing quite alone before a strange little\nstone house.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE FERRY TO NOWHERE\n\n\nThe rain had stopped, and the moon was shining through the breaking\nclouds, and as Dorothy looked up at the little stone house she saw that\nit had an archway through it with \"FERRY\" in large letters on the wall\nabove it. Of course she had no idea of going by herself over a strange\nferry; but she was an extremely curious little girl, as you will\npresently see, and so she immediately ran through the archway to see\nwhat the ferry was like and where it took people, but, to her surprise,\ninstead of coming out at the water side, she came into a strange,\nold-fashioned-looking street as crooked as it could possibly be, and\nlined on both sides by tall houses with sharply peaked roofs looming up\nagainst the evening sky.\n\nThere was no one in sight but a stork. He was a very tall stork with red\nlegs, and wore a sort of paper bag on his head with \"FERRYMAN\" written\nacross the front of it; and as Dorothy appeared he held out one of his\nclaws and said, \"Fare, please,\" in quite a matter-of-fact way.\n\nDorothy was positively certain that she hadn't any money, but she put\nher hand into the pocket of her apron, partly for the sake of\nappearances, and partly because she was a little afraid of the Stork,\nand, to her surprise, pulled out a large cake. It was nearly as big as a\nsaucer, and was marked \"ONE BISKER\"; and as this seemed to show that it\nhad some value, she handed it to the ferryman. The Stork turned it over\nseveral times rather suspiciously, and then, taking a large bite out of\nit, remarked, \"Very good fare,\" and dropped the rest of it into a little\nhole in the wall; and having done this he stared gravely at Dorothy for\na moment, and then said, \"What makes your legs bend the wrong way?\"\n\n\"Why, they don't!\" said Dorothy, looking down at them to see if anything\nhad happened to them.\n\n\"They're entirely different from mine, anyhow,\" said the Stork.\n\n\"But, you know,\" said Dorothy very earnestly, \"I couldn't sit down if\nthey bent the other way.\"\n\n\"Sitting down is all very well,\" said the Stork, with a solemn shake of\nhis head, \"but you couldn't collect fares with 'em, to save your life,\"\nand with this he went into the house and shut the door.\n\n[Illustration: \"'THEY'RE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FROM MINE, ANYHOW,' SAID THE\nSTORK.\"]\n\n\"It seems to me this is a very strange adventure,\" said Dorothy to\nherself. \"It appears to be mostly about people's legs,\" and she was\ngazing down again in a puzzled way at her little black stockings when\nshe heard a cough, and looking up she saw that the Stork had his head\nout of a small round window in the wall of the house.\n\n\"Look here,\" he said confidentially, \"I forgot to ask what your fare was\nfor.\" He said this in a sort of husky whisper, and as Dorothy looked up\nat him it seemed something like listening to an enormous cuckoo-clock\nwith a bad cold in its works.\n\n[Illustration: \"IT SEEMED LIKE LISTENING TO AN ENORMOUS CUCKOO-CLOCK.\"]\n\n\"I don't think I know exactly _what_ it was for,\" she said, rather\nconfusedly.\n\n\"Well, it's got to be for _something_, you know, or it won't be fair,\"\nsaid the Stork. \"I suppose you don't want to go over the ferry?\" he\nadded, cocking his head on one side, and looking down at her,\ninquiringly.\n\n\"Oh, no indeed!\" said Dorothy, very earnestly.\n\n\"_That's_ lucky,\" said the Stork. \"It doesn't go anywhere that it ever\ngets to. Perhaps you'd like to hear about it. It's in poetry, you know.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" said Dorothy politely. \"I'd like it very much.\"\n\n\"All right,\" said the Stork. \"The werses is called 'A Ferry Tale'\"; and,\ngiving another cough to clear his voice, he began:\n\n    Oh, come and cross over to nowhere,\n        And go where\n    The nobodies live on their nothing a day!\n    A tideful of tricks is this merry\n        Old Ferry,\n    And these are the things that it does by the way:\n\n    It pours into parks and disperses\n        The nurses;\n    It goes into gardens and scatters the cats;\n    It leaks into lodgings, disorders\n        The boarders,\n    And washes away with their holiday hats.\n\n    It soaks into shops, and inspires\n        The buyers\n    To crawl over counters and climb upon chairs;\n    It trickles on tailors, it spatters\n        On hatters,\n    And makes little milliners scamper up-stairs.\n\n    It goes out of town and it rambles\n        Through brambles;\n    It wallows in hollows and dives into dells;\n    It flows into farm-yards and sickens\n        The chickens,\n    And washes the wheelbarrows into the wells.\n\n    It turns into taverns and drenches\n        The benches;\n    It jumps into pumps and comes out with a roar;\n    It pounds like a postman at lodges--\n        Then dodges\n    And runs up the lane when they open the door.\n\n    It leaks into laundries and wrangles\n        With mangles;\n    It trips over turnips and tumbles down-hill;\n    It rolls like a coach along highways\n        And byways,\n    But never gets anywhere, go as it will!\n\n    Oh, foolish old Ferry! all muddles\n        And puddles--\n    Go fribble and dribble along on your way;\n    We drink to your health with molasses\n        In glasses,\n    And waft you farewell with a handful of hay!\n\n\"What do you make out of it?\" inquired the Stork anxiously.\n\n\"I don't make anything out of it,\" said Dorothy, staring at him in great\nperplexity.\n\n\"I didn't suppose you would,\" said the Stork, apparently very much\nrelieved. \"I've been at it for years and years, and I've never made\nsixpence out of it yet,\" with which remark he pulled in his head and\ndisappeared.\n\n\"I don't know what he means, I'm sure,\" said Dorothy, after waiting a\nmoment to see if the Stork would come back, \"but I wouldn't go over that\nferry for _sixty_ sixpences. It's altogether too frolicky\"; and having\nmade this wise resolution, she was just turning to go back through the\narchway when the door of the house flew open and a little stream of\nwater ran out upon the pavement. This was immediately followed by\nanother and much larger flow, and the next moment the water came\npouring out through the doorway in such a torrent that she had just time\nto scramble up on the window-ledge before the street was completely\nflooded.\n\n[Illustration: \"'DEAR ME!' SHE EXCLAIMED, 'HERE COMES ALL THE\nFURNITURE!'\"]\n\nDorothy's first idea was that there was something wrong with the pipes,\nbut as she peeped in curiously through the window she was astonished to\nsee that it was raining hard inside the house--\"and dear me!\" she\nexclaimed, \"here comes all the furniture!\" and, sure enough, the next\nmoment a lot of old-fashioned furniture came floating out of the house\nand drifted away down the street. There was a corner cupboard full of\ncrockery, and two spinning-wheels, and a spindle-legged table set out\nwith a blue-and-white tea-set and some cups and saucers, and finally a\ncarved sideboard which made two or three clumsy attempts to get through\nthe doorway broadside on, and then took a fresh start, and came through\nendwise with a great flourish. All of these things made quite a little\nfleet, and the effect was very imposing; but by this time the water was\nquite up to the window-ledge, and as the sideboard was a\nfatherly-looking piece of furniture with plenty of room to move about\nin, Dorothy stepped aboard of it as it went by, and, sitting down on a\nlittle shelf that ran along the back of it, sailed away in the wake of\nthe tea-table.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE CRUISE OF THE SIDEBOARD\n\n\nThe sideboard behaved in the most absurd manner, spinning around and\naround in the water, and banging about among the other furniture as if\nit had never been at sea before, and finally bringing up against the\ntea-table with a crash in the stupidest way imaginable, and knocking the\ntea-set and all the cups and saucers into the water. Dorothy felt very\nridiculous as you may suppose, and, to add to her mortification, the\nStork ferryman suddenly reappeared, and she could see him running along\nthe roofs of the houses, and now and then stopping to stare down at her\nfrom the eaves as she sailed by, as if she were the most extraordinary\nspectacle he had ever seen, as indeed she probably was. Sometimes he\nwaited until the sideboard had floated some distance past him as if to\nsee how it looked, gazed at from behind; and then Dorothy would catch\nsight of him again far ahead, peering out from behind a chimney, as if\nto get a front view of the performance. All this was, of course, very\nimpertinent, and although Dorothy was naturally a very kind-hearted\nlittle child, she was really quite gratified when the Stork finally made\nan attempt to get a new view of her from the top of an unusually tall\nchimney, and fell down into it with a loud screech of dismay.\n\nPresently the street ended at a great open space where the water spread\nout in every direction, like a lake. The day seemed to be breaking, and\nit was quite light; and as the sideboard sailed out into the open water,\nDorothy caught sight of something like a fat-looking boat, floating at a\nlittle distance and slowly drifting toward her. As it came nearer it\nproved to be Mrs. Peevy's big umbrella upside down, with a little party\nof people sitting around on the edge of it with their feet against the\nhandle, and, to Dorothy's amazement, she knew every one of them. There\nwas the Admiral, staring about with his spy-glass, and Sir Walter\nRosettes, carefully carrying his tobacco-plant as if it were a nosegay,\nand the Highlander, with his big watch dangling in the water over the\nside of the umbrella; and last, there was the little Chinese mandarin\nclinging convulsively to the top of the handle as if he were keeping a\nlookout from the masthead.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE ADMIRAL EXCLAIMED: 'THERE SHE IS! I CAN SEE HER\nQUITE PLAINLY!'\"]\n\nThe sideboard brought up against the edge of the umbrella with a soft\nlittle bump, and the Admiral, hurriedly pointing his spy-glass at\nDorothy so that the end of it almost touched her nose, exclaimed\nexcitedly, \"There she is! I can see her quite plainly,\" and the whole\nparty gave an exultant shout.\n\n\"How are you getting on _now_?\" inquired Sir Walter, as if he had had\nher under close observation for a week at least.\n\n\"I'm getting on pretty well,\" said Dorothy, mournfully. \"I believe I'm\ncrossing a ferry.\"\n\n\"So are we,\" said the Admiral, cheerfully. \"We're a Caravan, you know.\"\n\n\"A Caravan?\" exclaimed Dorothy, very much surprised.\n\n\"I believe I said 'Caravan' quite distinctly,\" said the Admiral in an\ninjured tone, appealing to the rest of the party; but no one said\nanything except the Highlander, who hastily consulted his watch and then\nexclaimed \"Hurrah!\" rather doubtfully.\n\n\"I understood what you said,\" explained Dorothy, \"but I don't think I\nknow exactly what you mean.\"\n\n\"Never mind what he means,\" shouted Sir Walter. \"_That's_ of no\nconsequence.\"\n\n\"No consequence!\" exclaimed the Admiral, flaring up. \"Why, I mean more\nin a minute than you do in a week!\"\n\n\"You _say_ more in a minute than anybody could mean in a month,\"\nretorted Sir Walter, flourishing his tobacco-plant.\n\n\"_I_ can talk a year without meaning _anything_,\" said the Highlander,\nproudly; but no one took any notice of this remark, which, of course,\nserved him right.\n\nThe Admiral stared at Sir Walter for a moment through his spy-glass, and\nthen said very firmly, \"You're a pig!\" at which the Highlander again\nconsulted his watch, and then shouted, \"Two pigs!\" with great\nenthusiasm, as if that were the time of day.\n\n\"And you're another,\" said Sir Walter, angrily. \"If it comes to that,\nwe're all pigs.\"\n\n\"Dear me!\" cried Dorothy, quite distressed at all this. \"What makes you\nall quarrel so? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.\"\n\n\"We're all ashamed of one another, if _that_ will do any good,\" said the\nAdmiral.\n\n\"And, you see, that gives each of us two persons to be ashamed of,\"\nadded Sir Walter, with an air of great satisfaction.\n\n\"But that isn't what I mean at all,\" said Dorothy. \"I mean that each one\nof you ought to be ashamed of _himself_.\"\n\n\"Why, we're each being ashamed of by two persons already,\" said the\nAdmiral, peevishly. \"I should think _that_ was enough to satisfy\nanybody.\"\n\n\"But that isn't the same thing,\" insisted Dorothy. \"Each particular him\nought to be ashamed of each particular self.\" This remark sounded very\nfine indeed, and Dorothy felt so pleased with herself for having made\nit that she went on to say, \"And the truth of it is, you all argue\nprecisely like a lot of little school-children.\"\n\nNow, Dorothy herself was only about four feet high, but she said this in\nsuch a superior manner that the entire Caravan stared at her with great\nadmiration for a moment, and then began to give a little cheer; but just\nat this instant the umbrella made a great plunge, as if somebody had\ngiven it a sudden push, and the whole party tumbled into the bottom of\nit like a lot of dolls.\n\n\"What kind of a boat do you call this?\" shouted Sir Walter, as they all\nscrambled to their feet and clung desperately to the handle.\n\n\"It's a paragondola,\" said the Admiral, who had suddenly become very\npale. \"You see, it isn't exactly like an ordinary ship.\"\n\n\"I should think not!\" said Sir Walter, indignantly. \"I'd as lief go to\nsea in a toast-rack. Why don't you bring her head up to the wind?\" he\nshouted as the paragondola took another plunge.\n\n\"I can't!\" cried the Admiral, despairingly; \"she hasn't got any head.\"\n\n\"Then put me ashore!\" roared Sir Walter, furiously.\n\nNow this was all very well for Sir Walter to say, but by this time the\nparagondola was racing through the water at such a rate that even the\nsideboard could hardly keep up with it; and the waves were tossing about\nin such wild confusion that it was perfectly ridiculous for any one to\ntalk about going ashore. In fact, it was a most exciting moment. The air\nwas filled with flying spray, and the paragondola dashed ahead faster\nand faster, until at last Dorothy could no longer hear the sound of the\nvoices, and she could just see that they were throwing the big watch\noverboard as if to lighten the ship. Then she caught sight of the\nHighlander trying to climb up the handle, and Sir Walter frantically\nbeating him on the back with the tobacco-plant, and the next moment\nthere was another wild plunge and the paragondola and Caravan vanished\nfrom sight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTREE-TOP COUNTRY\n\n\nIt was a very curious thing that the storm seemed to follow the Caravan\nas if it were a private affair of their own, and the paragondola had no\nsooner disappeared than Dorothy found herself sailing along as quietly\nas if such a thing as bad weather had never been heard of. But there was\nsomething very lonely about the sideboard now, as it went careering\nthrough the water, and she felt quite disconsolate as she sat on the\nlittle shelf and wondered what had become of the Caravan.\n\n\"If Mrs. Peevy's umbrella shuts up with them inside of it,\" she said\nmournfully to herself, \"I'm sure I don't know what they'll do. It's such\na stiff thing to open that it must be perfectly awful when it shuts up\nall of a sudden,\" and she was just giving a little shudder at the mere\nthought of such a thing, when the sideboard bumped up against something\nand she found that it had run into a tree. In fact, she found that she\nhad drifted into a forest of enormous trees, growing in a most\nremarkable manner straight up out of the lake; and as she looked up she\ncould see great branches stretching out in every direction far above her\nhead, all interlaced together and covered with leaves as if it had been\nmidsummer instead of being, as it certainly was, Christmas day.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE SIDEBOARD SLOWLY FLOATED ALONG THROUGH THIS STRANGE\nFOREST.\"]\n\nAs the sideboard slowly floated along through this strange forest,\nDorothy presently discovered that each tree had a little door in it,\nclose to the water's edge, with a small platform before it by way of a\ndoor-step, as if the people who lived in the trees had a fancy for going\nabout visiting in boats. But she couldn't help wondering who in the\nworld, or, rather, who in the trees, the people went to see, for all the\nlittle doors were shut as tight as wax, and had notices posted up on\nthem, such as \"No admittance,\" \"Go away,\" \"Gone to Persia,\" and many\nothers, all of which Dorothy considered extremely rude, especially one\nnotice which read, \"Beware of the Pig,\" as if the person who lived in\nthat particular tree was too stingy to keep a dog.\n\nNow all this was very distressing, because, in the first place, Dorothy\nwas extremely fond of visiting, and, in the second place, she was\ngetting rather tired of sailing about on the sideboard; and she was\ntherefore greatly pleased when she presently came to a door without any\nnotice upon it. There was, moreover, a bright little brass knocker on\nthis door, and as this seemed to show that people were expected to call\nthere if they felt like it, she waited until the sideboard was passing\nclose to the platform and then gave a little jump ashore.\n\nThe sideboard took a great roll backward and held up its front feet as\nif expressing its surprise at this proceeding, and as it pitched forward\nagain the doors of it flew open, and a number of large pies fell out\ninto the water and floated away in all directions. To Dorothy's\namazement, the sideboard immediately started off after them, and began\npushing them together, like a shepherd's dog collecting a flock of\nrunaway sheep; and then, having got them all together in a compact\nbunch, sailed solemnly away, shoving the pies ahead of it.\n\nDorothy now looked at the door again, and saw that it was standing\npartly open. The doorway was only about as high as her shoulder, and as\nshe stooped down and looked through it she saw there was a small winding\nstairway inside, leading up through the body of the tree. She listened\nfor a moment, but everything was perfectly quiet inside, so she squeezed\nin through the doorway and ran up the stairs as fast as she could go.\n\n[Illustration: DOROTHY MAKES A CALL IN THE TREE-TOP COUNTRY.]\n\nThe stairway ended at the top in a sort of trap-door, and Dorothy popped\nup through it like a jack-in-the-box; but instead of coming out, as she\nexpected, among the branches of the tree, she found herself in a wide,\nopen field as flat as a pancake, and with a small house standing far\nout in the middle of it. It was a bright and sunny place, and quite like\nan ordinary field in every way except that, in place of grass, it had a\ncurious floor of branches, closely braided together like the bottom of a\nmarket-basket; but, as this seemed natural enough, considering that the\nfield was in the top of a tree, Dorothy hurried away to the little\nhouse without giving the floor a second thought.\n\nAs she came up to the house she saw that it was a charming little\ncottage with vines trained about the latticed windows, and with a sign\nover the door, reading--\n\n     THE OUTSIDE INN\n\n\"I suppose they'll take me for a customer,\" she said, looking rather\ndoubtfully at the sign, \"and I haven't got any money. But I'm very\nlittle, and I won't stay very long,\" she added, by way of excusing\nherself, and as she said this she softly pushed open the door and went\nin. To her great surprise, there was no inside to the house, and she\ncame out into the field again on the other side of the door. The wall on\nthis side, however, was nicely papered, and had pictures hanging on it,\nand there were curtains at the windows as if it had been one side of a\nroom at some time or another; but there was a notice pasted up beside\nthe door, reading--\n\n     THE INN-SIDE OUT\n\nas if the rest of the house had gone out for a walk, and might be\nexpected back at any time.\n\nNow, as you may suppose, Dorothy was quite unprepared for all this, and\nshe was looking about in great astonishment when she suddenly discovered\nthat the furniture was at home, and was standing in a rather lonely\nmanner quite by itself in the open field. It was, moreover, the\nstrangest-looking furniture she had ever seen, for it was growing\ndirectly out of the floor in a twisted-up fashion, something like the\ngrapevine chairs in Uncle Porticle's garden; but the oddest part of it\nall was a ridiculous-looking bed with leaves sprouting out of its legs,\nand with great pink blossoms growing on the bed-posts like the satin\nbows on Dorothy's little bed at the Blue Admiral Inn. All this was so\nremarkable that she went over to where the furniture was standing to\ntake a closer look at it; and as she came up alongside the bed she was\namazed to see that the Caravan, all three of them, were lying in it in a\nrow, with their eyes closed as if they were fast asleep. This was such\nan unexpected sight that Dorothy first drew a long breath of\nastonishment and then exclaimed, \"Jiminy!\" which was a word she used\nonly on particular occasions; and, as she said this, the Caravan opened\ntheir eyes and stared at her like so many owls.\n\n\"Why, what are you all doing here?\" she said; at which the Admiral sat\nup in bed, and after taking a hurried look at her through his spy-glass,\nsaid, \"Shipwrecked!\" in a solemn voice and then lay down again.\n\n\"Did the paragonorer shut up with you?\" inquired Dorothy, anxiously.\n\n\"Yes, ma'am,\" said the Admiral.\n\n\"And squashed us,\" added Sir Walter.\n\n\"Like everything,\" put in the Highlander.\n\n\"I was afraid it would,\" said Dorothy, sorrowfully; \"I s'pose it was\nsomething like being at sea in a cornucopia.\"\n\n\"Does a cornucopia have things in it that pinch your legs?\" inquired Sir\nWalter, with an air of great interest.\n\n\"Oh, no,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"Then it wasn't like it at all,\" said Sir Walter, peevishly.\n\n\"It was about as much like it,\" said the Admiral, \"as a pump is like a\npost-captain\"; and he said this in such a positive way that Dorothy\ndidn't like to contradict him. In fact she really didn't know anything\nabout the matter, so she merely said, as politely as she could, \"I don't\nthink I know what a post-captain is.\"\n\n\"I don't either,\" said the Admiral, promptly, \"but I can tell you how\nthey behave\"; and sitting up in bed, he recited these verses:\n\n    Post-captain at the Needles and commander of a crew\n    On the \"Royal Biddy\" frigate was Sir Peter Bombazoo;\n    His mind was full of music, and his head was full of tunes,\n    And he cheerfully exhibited on pleasant afternoons.\n\n[Illustration: THE EXTRAORDINARY POST-CAPTAIN (1).]\n\n    He could whistle, on his fingers, an invigorating reel,\n    And could imitate a piper on the handles of the wheel;\n    He could play in double octaves, too, all up and down the rail,\n    Or rattle off a rondo on the bottom of a pail.\n\n[Illustration: THE EXTRAORDINARY POST-CAPTAIN (2).]\n\n    Then porters with their packages, and bakers with their buns,\n    And countesses in carriages, and grenadiers with guns,\n    And admirals and commodores, arrived from near and far\n    To listen to the music of this entertaining tar.\n\n    When they heard the Captain humming, and beheld the dancing crew,\n    The commodores severely said, \"Why, this will never do!\"\n    And the admirals all hurried home, remarking, \"This is most\n    Extraordinary conduct for a captain at his post.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"HE DID A LITTLE FIFING ON THE EDGES OF THE NOTE.\"]\n\n    Then they sent some sailing-orders to Sir Peter, in a boat,\n    And he did a little fifing on the edges of the note;\n    But he read the sailing-orders, as, of course, he had to do,\n    And removed the \"Royal Biddy\" to the Bay of Boohgabooh.\n\n    Now, Sir Peter took it kindly, but it's proper to explain\n    He was sent to catch a pirate out upon the Spanish Main;\n    And he played, with variations, an imaginary tune\n    On the buttons of his waistcoat, like a jocular bassoon.\n\n    Then a topman saw the Pirate come a-sailing in the bay,\n    And reported to the Captain in the customary way.\n    \"I'll receive him,\" said Sir Peter, \"with a musical salute!\"\n    And he gave some imitations of a double-jointed flute.\n\n    Then the Pirate cried derisively, \"I've heard it done before!\"\n    And he hoisted up a banner emblematical of gore.\n    But Sir Peter said serenely, \"You may double-shot the guns\n    While I sing my little ballad of 'The Butter on the Buns.'\"\n\n    Then the Pirate banged Sir Peter and Sir Peter banged him back,\n    And they banged away together as they took another tack.\n    Then Sir Peter said politely, \"You may board him, if you like\"--\n    And he played a little dirge upon the handle of a pike.\n\n    Then the \"Biddies\" poured like hornets down upon the Pirate's deck,\n    And Sir Peter caught the Pirate, and he took him by the neck,\n    And remarked, \"You must excuse me, but you acted like a brute\n    When I gave my imitation of that double-jointed flute.\"\n\n    So they took that wicked Pirate, and they took his wicked crew,\n    And tied them up with double knots in packages of two;\n    And left them lying on their backs in rows upon the beach\n    With a little bread and water within comfortable reach.\n\n[Illustration: \"SIR PETER CAUGHT THE PIRATE, AND HE TOOK HIM BY THE\nNECK.\"]\n\n    Now the Pirate had a treasure (mostly silverware and gold),\n    And Sir Peter took and stowed it in the bottom of his hold;\n    And said \"I will retire on this cargo of doubloons,\n    And each of you, my gallant crew, may have some silver spoons.\"\n\n    Now commodores in coach-and-fours, and corporals in cabs,\n    And men with carts of pies and tarts, and fishermen with crabs,\n    And barristers with wigs, in gigs, still gather on the strand--\n    But there isn't any music save a little German band.\n\n\"I think Sir Peter was perfectly grand!\" said Dorothy, as the Admiral\nfinished his verses. \"He was so composed.\"\n\n\"So was the poetry,\" said the Admiral. \"It _had_ to be composed, you\nknow, or there wouldn't have been any.\"\n\n\"_That_ would have been fine!\" remarked the Highlander.\n\nThe Admiral got so red in the face at this, that Dorothy thought he was\ngoing into some kind of a fit; but just at this moment there was a sharp\nrap at the door, and Sir Walter exclaimed, \"_That's_ Bob Scarlet, and\nhere we are in his flower-bed!\"\n\n\"Jibs and jiggers!\" said the Admiral, \"I never thought of that. What do\nyou suppose he'll do?\"\n\n\"Pick us!\" said the Highlander, with remarkable presence of mind.\n\n\"Then tell him we're all out,\" said the Admiral to Dorothy in extreme\nagitation, and with this, the whole Caravan disappeared under the bed\nwith all possible despatch.\n\n\"We _are_ out, you know,\" said Dorothy to herself, \"because there's no\n_in_ for us to be in\"; and then she called out in a very loud voice,\n\"We're all out in here!\" which wasn't exactly what she meant to say,\nafter all.\n\nBut there was no answer, and she was just stooping down to call through\nthe keyhole when she saw that the wall-paper was nothing but a vine\ngrowing on a trellis, and the door only a little rustic gate leading\nthrough it. \"And, dear me!--where has the furniture gone to?\" she\nexclaimed, for the curly chairs had changed into flower-pot stands, and\nthe bed into a great mound of waving lilies, and she found herself\nstanding in a beautiful garden.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nBOB SCARLET'S GARDEN\n\n\nBeing in a garden full of flowers at Christmas-time is a very fine\nthing; and Dorothy was looking about with great delight, and wondering\nhow it had all happened, when she suddenly caught sight of a big robin\nwalking along one of the paths, and examining the various plants with an\nair of great interest. He was a very big robin, indeed--in fact, he was\nabout as large as a goose; and he had on a gardener's hat, and a bright\nred waistcoat which he was wearing unbuttoned so as to give his fat\nlittle chest plenty of room; but the most remarkable thing about him was\nthat he was walking about _with his hands in his waistcoat-pockets_.\n\nDorothy had never seen a robin do this before, and she was looking at\nhim in great astonishment, when he chanced to turn around to take a\nparticular look at a large flower, and she saw that he had two\ncaterpillars neatly embroidered on the back of his waistcoat so as to\nform the letters B. S.\n\n[Illustration: \"HE WAS WALKING ABOUT WITH HIS HANDS IN HIS\nWAISTCOAT-POCKETS.\"]\n\n\"Now I wonder what B. S. means,\" she said to herself with her usual\ncuriosity. \"It _stands_ for Brown Sugar, but, of course, it can't be\nthat. Perhaps it means Best Suit, or Bird Superintendent, or--or--why\nit must mean Bob Scarlet, to be sure!\" and clapping her hands in the joy\nof this discovery, she ran after the Robin to take a nearer look at him\nand, if possible, to have a little conversation.\n\nBut Bob Scarlet proved to be a very difficult person to get near to.\nOver and over again Dorothy caught sight of the top of his hat beyond a\nhedge, or saw the red waistcoat through the bushes; but no matter how\nquickly she stole around to the spot, he was always gone before she got\nthere, and she would see the hat or the waistcoat far away, in another\npart of the garden, and would hurry after him only to be disappointed as\nbefore. She was getting very tired of this, and was walking around\nrather disconsolately, when she happened to look at one of the plants,\nand discovered that little sunbonnets were growing on it in great\nprofusion, like white lilies; and this was such a delightful discovery,\nand such an exceedingly interesting circumstance, that she instantly\nforgot all about Bob Scarlet, and started away in great excitement to\nexamine the other plants.\n\n[Illustration: \"THERE WERE PLANTS LOADED DOWN WITH LITTLE PINAFORES, AND\nSHRUBS WITH SMALL SHOES GROWING ALL OVER THEM.\"]\n\nThere was a great variety of them, and they all were of the same curious\ncharacter. Besides the bonnet-bush, there were plants loaded down with\nlittle pinafores, and shrubs with small shoes growing all over them,\nlike peas, and delicate vines of thread with button-blossoms on them,\nand, what particularly pleased Dorothy, a row of pots marked \"FROCK\nFLOWERS,\" and each containing a stalk with a crisp little frock growing\non it, like a big tulip upside down.\n\n\"They're only big enough for dolls,\" chattered Dorothy, as she hurried\nfrom one to the other, \"but, of course, they'll grow. I s'pose it's what\nthey call a nursery-garden. Just fancy--\" she exclaimed, stopping short\nand clasping her hands in a rapture,--\"just fancy going out to pick an\napronful of delightful new stockings, or running out every day to see if\nyour best frock is ripe yet!\" And I'm sure I don't know what she would\nhave said next, but just at this moment she caught sight of a paper\nlying in the path before her, and, of course, immediately became\ninterested in _that_.\n\nIt was folded something like a lawyer's document, and was very neatly\nmarked in red ink \"MEMORUMDRUMS\"; and after looking at it curiously for\na moment, Dorothy said to herself, \"It's prob'bly a wash-list; nothing\nbut two aprons, and four HDKeffs, and ten towels--there's always such a\n_lot_ of towels, you know,\" and here she picked up the paper; but\ninstead of being a wash-list, she found it contained these verses:\n\n    Have Angleworms attractive homes?\n        Do Bumblebees have brains?\n    Do Caterpillars carry combs?\n        Do Dodos dote on drains?\n    Can Eels elude elastic earls?\n        Do Flatfish fish for flats?\n    Are Grigs agreeable to girls?\n        Do Hares have hunting-hats?\n    Do Ices make an Ibex ill?\n        Do Jackdaws jug their jam?\n    Do Kites kiss all the kids they kill?\n        Do Llamas live on lamb?\n    Will Moles molest a mounted mink?\n        Do Newts deny the news?\n    Are Oysters boisterous when they drink?\n        Do Parrots prowl in pews?\n    Do Quakers get their quills from Quails?\n        Do Rabbits rob on roads?\n    Are Snakes supposed to sneer at snails?\n        Do Tortoises tease toads?\n    Can Unicorns perform on horns?\n        Do Vipers value veal?\n    Do Weasels weep when fast asleep?\n        Can Xylophagans squeal?\n    Do Yaks in packs invite attacks?\n        Are Zebras full of zeal?\n\n    P. S. Shake well and recite every morning in a shady place.\n\n\"I don't believe a single one of them, and I never read such stuff!\"\nexclaimed Dorothy, indignantly; and she was just about to throw down\nthe paper when Bob Scarlet suddenly appeared, hurrying along the path,\nand gazing anxiously from side to side as if he had lost something. As\nhe came upon Dorothy, he started violently, and said \"Shoo!\" with great\nvehemence, and then, after staring at her a moment, added, \"Oh, I beg\nyour pardon--I thought you were a cat. Have you seen anything of my\nexercise?\"\n\n\"Is this it?\" said Dorothy, holding up the paper.\n\n\"That's it,\" said the Robin, in a tone of great satisfaction. \"Shake it\nhard, please.\"\n\nDorothy gave the paper a good shake, after which Bob Scarlet took it and\nstuffed it into his waistcoat-pocket, remarking, \"It has to be well\nshaken before I take it, you know.\"\n\n\"Is that the prescription?\" said Dorothy, beginning to laugh.\n\n\"No, it's the postscription,\" replied the Robin, very seriously; \"but,\nsomehow, I never remember it till I come to it. I suppose it's put at\nthe end so that I won't forget it the next time. You see, it's about the\nonly exercise I have.\"\n\n\"I should think it was very good exercise,\" said Dorothy, trying to look\nserious again.\n\n\"Oh, it's _good_ enough, what there is of it,\" said the Robin, in an\noffhand way.\n\n\"But I'm sure there's _enough_ of it,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"There _is_ enough of it, such as it is,\" replied the Robin.\n\n\"Such as it is?\" repeated Dorothy, beginning to feel a little perplexed.\n\"Why, it's _hard_ enough, I'm sure. It's enough to drive a person quite\ndistracted.\"\n\n\"Well, it's a corker till you get used to it,\" said the Robin, strutting\nabout. \"There's such a tremendous variety to it, you see, that it\nexercises you all over at once.\"\n\nThis was so ridiculous that Dorothy laughed outright. \"I should _never_\nget used to it,\" she said. \"I don't believe I know a single one of the\nanswers.\"\n\n\"_I_ do!\" said Bob Scarlet, proudly; \"I know 'em all. It's 'No' to\neverything in it.\"\n\n\"Dear me!\" said Dorothy, feeling quite provoked at herself, \"of course\nit is. I never thought of that.\"\n\n\"And when you can answer _them_,\" continued the Robin, with a very\nimportant air, \"you can answer anything.\"\n\nNow, as the Robin said this, it suddenly occurred to Dorothy that she\nhad been lost for quite a long time, and that this was a good\nopportunity for getting a little information, so she said very politely:\n\"Then I wish you'd please tell me where I am.\"\n\n\"Why, you're _here_,\" replied the Robin, promptly. \"That's what _I_ call\nan easy one.\"\n\n\"But _where_ is it?\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"Where is _what_?\" said the Robin, looking rather puzzled.\n\n[Illustration: \"'WHY, THE PLACE WHERE I AM,' SAID DOROTHY.\"]\n\n\"Why, the place where I am,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"That's here, too,\" replied the Robin, and then, looking at her\nsuspiciously, he added, \"Come--no chaffing, you know. I won't have it.\"\n\n\"But I'm _not_ chaffing,\" said Dorothy, beginning to feel a little\nprovoked; \"it's only because you twist the things I say the wrong way.\"\n\n\"What do you say 'em the wrong way for, then?\" said Bob Scarlet,\nirritably. \"Why don't you get 'em straight?\"\n\n\"Dear me!\" exclaimed Dorothy, now quite out of patience. \"How dreadfully\nconfusing it all is! Don't you understand?--I only want to know where\nthe place is where I am now,--whereabouts in the geography, I mean,\" she\nadded in desperation.\n\n\"It isn't in there at all,\" said Bob Scarlet, very decidedly. \"There\nisn't a geography going that could hold on to it for five minutes.\"\n\n\"Do you mean that it isn't _anywhere_?\" exclaimed Dorothy, beginning to\nfeel a little frightened.\n\n\"No, I don't,\" said Bob Scarlet, obstinately. \"I mean that it is\nanywhere--anywhere that it chooses to be, you know; only it doesn't\n_stay_ anywhere any longer than it likes.\"\n\n\"Then I'm going away,\" said Dorothy, hastily. \"I won't stay in such a\nplace.\"\n\n\"Well, you'd better be quick about it,\" said the Robin, with a chuckle,\n\"or there won't be any place to go away _from_. I can feel it beginning\nto go now,\" and with this remark Bob Scarlet him self hurried away.\n\n[Illustration: \"DOROTHY STARTED OFF AT ONCE, AS FAST AS SHE COULD RUN.\"]\n\nThere was something so alarming in the idea of a place going away and\nleaving her behind, that Dorothy started off at once, as fast as she\ncould run, and indeed she wasn't a moment too soon. The garden itself\nwas already beginning to be very much agitated, and the clothes on the\nplants were folding themselves up in a fluttering sort of a way as she\nran past them; and she noticed, moreover, that the little shoes on the\nshoe-shrub were so withered away that they looked like a lot of raisins.\nBut she had no time to stop and look at such things, and she ran on and\non until, to her delight, she came suddenly upon the little trap-door\nwhere she had come up. There wasn't a minute to spare, and she jumped\ndown into the hole without so much as stopping to look back at the\nvanishing garden, and hurried down the little stairway. It was as dark\nas pitch, and as she ran down, going around and around, on the winding\nstairs, she could hear them folding up behind her like the slats of a\nblind; and she had just time to rush through the door at the bottom,\nwhen the trunk of the tree flapped inward like an empty bag and then\nshot up into the air.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nIN THE TOY-SHOP\n\n\nThe first thing that Dorothy did was to draw a long breath over her\nnarrow escape, and the next thing was to look up into the air to see\nwhat had become of the tree, and she saw the braided floor of the garden\nfloating away, far above her head, with the flapping trunks of the trees\ndangling from it like a lot of one-legged trousers. This was a rather\nridiculous spectacle, and when the floor presently shriveled up into a\nsmall brown patch, like a flying pancake, and then went entirely out of\nsight, she said \"Pooh!\" very contemptuously and felt quite brave again.\n\n[Illustration: \"'IT IS A SHELF!' SHE EXCLAIMED.\"]\n\n\"It wasn't half so solemn as I expected,\" she went on, chattering to\nherself; \"I certainly thought there would be all kinds of phenomeners,\nand, after all, it's precisely like nothing but a big basket of old\nclothes, blowing away. But it's just as well to be saved, of course,\nonly I don't know where I am any more than I did before. It's a kind of\nwooden floor, I think,\" she added, stamping on it with her little shoe;\n\"and, dear me! I verily believe it's nothing but a shelf. It _is_ a\nshelf!\" she exclaimed, peeping cautiously over the edge; \"and there's\nthe real floor ever so far away. I can never jump down there in the\nworld without being dashed to destruction!\"--and she was just thinking\nhow it would do to hang from the edge of the shelf by her hands and then\nlet herself drop (with her eyes shut, of course) when a little party of\npeople came tumbling down through the air and fell in a heap close\nbeside her. She gave a scream of dismay and then stood staring at them\nin utter bewilderment, for, as the party scrambled to their feet, she saw\nthey were the Caravan, dressed up in the most extraordinary fashion, in\nlittle frocks and long shawls, and all wearing sunbonnets. The\nHighlander, with his usual bad luck, had put on _his_ sunbonnet\nbackward, with the crown over his face, and was struggling with it so\nhelplessly that Dorothy rushed at him and got it off just in time to\nsave him from being suffocated. In fact, he was so black in the face\nthat she had to pound him on the back to bring him to.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE HIGHLANDER, WITH HIS USUAL BAD LUCK, HAD PUT ON HIS\nSUNBONNET BACKWARD.\"]\n\n\"We're disguised, you know,\" said the Admiral, breathlessly. \"We found\nthese things under the bed. Bob Scarlet isn't anywhere about, is he?\" he\nadded, staring around in an agitated manner through his spy-glass.\n\n\"About?\" said Dorothy, trying to look serious. \"I should think he was\nabout five miles from here by this time.\"\n\n\"I wish it was five thousand,\" exclaimed Sir Walter, angrily, smoothing\ndown his frock. \"Old Peckjabber!\"\n\n\"Why, what in the world is the matter?\" said Dorothy, beginning to laugh\nin spite of herself.\n\n\"Matter!\" exclaimed the Admiral, his voice fairly trembling with\nemotion; \"why, look here! We was all shrinking away to nothing in that\nwanishing garden. Bob Scarlet himself was no bigger than an ant when we\ncame away.\"\n\n\"And we wasn't any bigger than uncles,\" put in the Highlander.\n\n\"_You're_ not more than three inches high this minute,\" said Sir Walter,\nsurveying Dorothy with a critical air, with his head cocked on one side.\n\n\"Goodness gracious!\" exclaimed Dorothy, with a start. \"It seems to me\nthat's extremely small. I should think that I'd have felt it coming on.\"\n\n\"It comes on sort of sneaking, and you don't notice it,\" said the\nAdmiral. \"_We'd_ have been completely inwisible by this time if we\nhadn't jumped overboard.\"\n\n\"It was an awful jump!\" said Dorothy, solemnly. \"Didn't it hurt to fall\nso far?\"\n\n\"Not at all,\" said the Admiral, cheerfully. \"The falling part of it was\nquite agreeable--so cool and rushing, you know; but the landing was\ntremenjious severe.\"\n\n\"Banged us like anything,\" explained the Highlander; and with this the\nCaravan locked arms and walked away with the tails of their shawls\ntrailing behind them.\n\n\"What strange little things they are!\" said Dorothy, reflectively, as\nshe walked along after them, \"and they're for all the world precisely\nlike arimated dolls--movable, you know,\" she added, not feeling quite\nsure that \"arimated\" was the proper word,--\"and speaking of dolls,\nhere's a perfect multitude of 'em!\" she exclaimed, for just then she\ncame upon a long row of dolls beautifully dressed, and standing on\ntheir heels with their heads against the wall. They were at least five\ntimes as big as Dorothy herself, and had price-tickets tucked into their\nsashes, such as \"2/6, CHEAP,\" \"5_s._, REAL WAX,\" and so on; and Dorothy,\nclapping her hands in an ecstasy of delight, exclaimed: \"Why, it's a\nmonstrous, enormous toy-shop!\" and then she hurried on to see what else\nthere might be on exhibition.\n\n\"Marbles, prob'bly,\" she remarked, peering over the edge of a basket\nfull of what looked like enormous stone cannon-balls of various colors;\n\"for mastodons, _I_ should say, only I don't know as _they_ ever play\nmarbles,--grocery shop, full of dear little drawers with real knobs on\n'em,--'pothecary's shop with _true_ pill-boxes,\" she went on, examining\none delightful thing after another; \"and here's a farm out of a box, and\nall the same funny old things--trees with green shavings on them and\nfences with feet so they'll stand up, and here's the dear fam'ly, same\nsize as the trees and the houses, of course, and--oh! I beg your\npardon,\" she exclaimed, for her frock had touched the farmer and knocked\nhim over flat on his back. \"And here's a Noah's Ark, full of\nhiggledy-piggledy animals--why, what are you doing here?\" she cried,\nfor just at that moment she suddenly discovered the Caravan, all huddled\ntogether at the door of the ark, and apparently discussing something of\nvast importance.\n\n\"We're buying a camel,\" said the Admiral, excitedly; \"they've got just\nthe one we want for the Caravan.\"\n\n\"His name is Humphrey,\" shouted the Highlander, uproariously, \"and he's\ngot three humps!\"\n\n\"Nonsense!\" cried Dorothy, bursting into a fit of uncontrollable\nlaughter. \"There never was such a thing.\"\n\n\"They have 'em in arks,\" said the Admiral, very earnestly. \"You can find\n_anything_ in arks if you only go deep enough. I've seen 'em with\npatriarchs in 'em, 'way down at the bottom.\"\n\n\"Did _they_ have any humps?\" inquired the Highlander with an air of\ngreat interest.\n\nDorothy went off again into a burst of laughter at this. \"He's really\nthe most ignorant little creature I ever saw,\" she said.\n\n\"I thought they was something to ride on,\" said the Highlander, sulkily;\n\"otherwise, I say, let 'em keep out of arks!\" The rest of the Caravan\nevidently sided with him in this opinion, and after staring at Dorothy\nfor a moment with great disfavor they all called out \"Old Proudie!\" and\nsolemnly walked off in a row as before.\n\n\"I believe I shall have a fit if I meet them again,\" said Dorothy to\nherself, laughing till her eyes were full of tears. \"They're certainly\nthe foolishest things I ever saw,\" and with this she walked away through\nthe shop, and was just beginning to look at the toys again, when she\ncame suddenly upon an old dame sitting contentedly in the shop in a\ngreat arm-chair. She was eating porridge out of a bowl in her lap, and\nher head was so close to the edge of the shelf that Dorothy almost\nwalked into her cap.\n\n\"Drat the toys!\" cried the old dame, starting so violently that her\nspectacles fell off her nose into the porridge. \"Drat the new-fangled\nthings!\"--and here she aimed a blow at Dorothy with her spoon. \"They're\nenough to scare folks out of their senses. Give _me_ the old-fashioned\nkind--deaf and dumb and blind and stiff\"--but by this time Dorothy,\nalmost frightened out of her wits, had run away and was hiding behind a\ndoll's sofa.\n\n\"_She's_ a nice person to have charge of a shop,\" she exclaimed\nindignantly, as she listened to the old dame scolding to herself in the\ndistance. \"The idea of not knowing human persons when you see them! Of\ncourse, being so small _is_ rather unusual, and it's really quite\ndangerous, you know,\" she went on, giving a little shiver at the thought\nof what might have happened. \"Just fancy being wrapped up in a piece of\nstiff paper by mistake--shrieking wouldn't do the least good because, of\ncourse, she's deaf as anything--\"\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"How much are you a dozen?\" said a voice, and Dorothy, looking around,\nsaw that it was a Dancing-Jack in the shop-window speaking to her. He\nwas a gorgeous creature, with bells on the seams of his clothes and with\narms and legs of different colors, and he was lounging in an easy\nattitude with his right leg thrown over the top of a toy livery-stable\nand his left foot in a large ornamental tea-cup; but as he was fastened\nto a hook by a loop in the top of his hat, Dorothy didn't feel in the\nleast afraid of him.\n\n\"Thank you,\" she replied with much dignity, \"I'm not a dozen at all. I'm\na single person. That sounds kind of unmarried,\" she thought to\nherself, \"but it's the exact truth.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"'YOU KNOW YOUR SIZE DOES COME IN DOZENS, ASSORTED,'\nCONTINUED THE JACK.\"]\n\n\"No offense, I hope,\" said the Jack, looking somewhat abashed.\n\n\"No--not exactly,\" said Dorothy rather stiffly.\n\n\"You know, your size _does_ come in dozens--assorted,\" continued the\nJack, with quite a professional air. \"Family of nine, two maids with\ndusters, and cook with removable apron. Very popular, I believe.\"\n\n\"So I should think,\" remarked Dorothy, beginning to recover her good\nnature.\n\n\"But of course _singles_ are much more select,\" said the Jack. \"_We_\nnever come in dozens, you know.\"\n\n\"I suppose not,\" said Dorothy, innocently. \"I can't imagine anybody\nwanting twelve Dancing-Jacks all at the same time.\"\n\n\"It wouldn't do any good if they did want 'em,\" said the Jack. \"They\ncouldn't get 'em,--that is, not in _this_ shop.\"\n\nNow, while this conversation was going on, Dorothy noticed that the\nvarious things in the shop-window had a curious way of constantly\nturning into something else. She discovered this by seeing a little\nbunch of yellow peg-tops change into a plateful of pears while she\nchanced to be looking at them; and a moment afterward she caught a\ndoll's saucepan, that was hanging in one corner of the window, just in\nthe act of quietly turning into a battledore with a red morocco handle.\nThis struck her as being such a remarkable performance that she\nimmediately began looking at one thing after another, and watching the\nvarious changes, until she was quite bewildered.\n\n\"It's something like a Christmas pantomime,\" she said to herself; \"and\nit isn't the slightest use, you know, trying to fancy what anything's\ngoing to be, because everything that happens is so unproblesome. I don't\nknow where I got _that_ word from,\" she went on, \"but it seems to\nexpress exactly what I mean. F'r instance, there's a little cradle\nthat's just been turned into a coal-scuttle, and if _that_ isn't\nunproblesome, well then--never mind!\" (which, as you know, is a\nridiculous way little girls have of finishing their sentences.)\n\nBy this time she had got around again to the toy livery-stable, and she\nwas extremely pleased to find that it had turned into a smart little\nbaronial castle with a turret at each end, and that the ornamental\ntea-cup was just changing, with a good deal of a flourish, into a small\nrowboat floating in a little stream that ran by the castle walls.\n\n\"Come, _that's_ the finest thing yet!\" exclaimed Dorothy, looking at all\nthis with great admiration; \"and I wish a brazen knight would come out\nwith a trumpet and blow a blast\"--you see, she was quite romantic at\ntimes--and she was just admiring the clever way in which the boat was\ngetting rid of the handle of the tea-cup, when the Dancing-Jack\nsuddenly stopped talking, and began scrambling over the roof of the\ncastle. He was extremely pale, and, to Dorothy's alarm, spots of bright\ncolors were coming out all over him, as if he had been made of stained\nglass, and was being lighted up from the inside.\n\n\"I believe I'm going to turn into something,\" he said, glaring wildly\nabout, and speaking in a very agitated voice.\n\n\"Goodness!\" exclaimed Dorothy in dismay; \"what do you suppose it's going\nto be?\"\n\n\"I think--\" said the Jack, solemnly,--\"I think it's going to be a\npatchwork quilt,\" but just as he was finishing this remark a sort of\nwriggle passed through him, and, to Dorothy's amazement, he turned into\na slender Harlequin all made up of spangles and shining triangles.\n\nNow this was all very well, and, of course, much better than turning\ninto a quilt of any sort; but as the Dancing-Jack's last remark went on\nwithout stopping, and was taken charge of, so to speak, and finished by\nthe Harlequin, it mixed up the two in a very confusing way. In fact, by\nthe time the remark came to an end, Dorothy didn't really know which of\nthem was talking to her, and, to make matters worse, the Harlequin\nvanished for a moment, and then reappeared, about one half of his\noriginal size, coming out of the door of the castle with an unconcerned\nair as if he hadn't had anything to do with the affair.\n\n\"It's dreadfully confusing,\" said Dorothy to herself, \"not to know which\nof two persons is talking to you, 'specially when there's really only\none of them here\"; but she never had a chance to find out anything about\nthe matter, for in the mean time a part of the castle had quietly turned\nupside down, and was now a little stone bridge with the stream flowing\nbeneath it, and the Harlequin, who was constantly getting smaller and\nsmaller, was standing with one foot in the boat as if he were trying to\nchoose between taking a little excursion on the water and going out of\nsight altogether.\n\n\"Excuse me--but did you say anything?\" said Dorothy, feeling quite sure\nthat there was no time to be lost.\n\n\"All that _I_ said was 'quilt,'\" replied the Harlequin; \"I suppose\nthere's no particular harm in that?\"\n\n\"Oh, dear, no!\" said Dorothy, hastily; \"only it seems a rather queer way\nof beginning a conversation, you know.\"\n\n\"It's as good as any other way if it's all you have to say,\" said the\nHarlequin, and by this time he had both feet in the boat, and had\nevidently decided on the water excursion, for, before Dorothy could\nthink of anything more to say to him, he sailed away under the bridge\nand disappeared.\n\n[Illustration: \"HE SAILED AWAY UNDER THE BRIDGE.\"]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE SONG IN THE DELL\n\n\n\"I'm sorry he's gone,\" said Dorothy to herself, gazing with longing eyes\nafter the Harlequin. \"He wasn't much to talk to, but he was awful\nbeautiful to look at\"; and, having relieved her mind by this remark, she\nwas just starting to take another walk through the shop when she\nsuddenly caught sight of a small door in one corner. It wasn't much\nlarger than a rat-hole, but it was big enough for her to go through, and\nthat, of course, was the important thing; and as she never could bear to\ngo by strange doorways until she knew where they led to, she immediately\nran through this one, and, quite to her surprise, found herself outside\nthe toy-shop.\n\nThere was a steep bank here sloping down from the wall of the shop, and\nDorothy was much interested at discovering that it was completely\novergrown with little green rocking-chairs. They were growing about in\ngreat confusion, and once or twice, when her frock happened to brush\nagainst them, quite an avalanche of them went clattering down the bank\nand broke up at the bottom into curious little bits of wood like\njackstraws. This made climbing down the bank very exciting, but she got\nsafely to the bottom at last, and was just starting off for another\njourney of discovery when she came suddenly upon the toy farm-house\nstanding quite by itself in the open country. None of the family was\npresent except the Farmer, who was standing in front of the house,\nstaring at it in a bewildered way as if he had never laid eyes on it\nbefore. He was a plain-featured man, with a curious little hat something\nlike the lid of a coffee-pot, and with a great number of large yellow\nbuttons arranged on the front of his coat like a row of cream-tarts;\nand, after the manner of all toy-farmers, he was buried to the ankles in\na round piece of wood to keep him from falling over.\n\nNow Dorothy had always particularly wanted to see the inside of a toy\nfarm-house, and, as this seemed to be an excellent opportunity, she\nwalked up to the Farmer and said, very politely, \"Can I see your house?\"\n\n\"I should think you could if you looked at it,\" said the Farmer, staring\nfirst at her and then at the house, as if he were greatly surprised at\nthe question; \"_I_ can see it easily enough.\"\n\n\"But I mean, can I go over it?\" said Dorothy, rather confused by this\nanswer.\n\nThe Farmer rubbed his nose and looked thoughtfully at the roof of the\nhouse for a moment and then said, rather sulkily, \"Yes, I suppose you\ncan, but you must agree not to knock off the chimbleys.\"\n\n\"Dear me,\" said Dorothy, beginning to laugh, \"that isn't what I mean at\nall. I mean, can I go through it?\"\n\nThe Farmer, after turning over this proposition in his mind with great\ndeliberation, got down on his hands and knees and took a long look\nthrough the little door in the front of the house, and then getting up\non his feet again, said, very seriously, \"I don't see anything to\nprevent it; there's another door at the back,\"--and walked gravely away.\nHe did this in a very peculiar way, by a sort of sidelong roll on his\nround wooden block like a barrel being worked along on one end; and, as\nDorothy stood watching this performance with great interest, he\npresently fell over one of the little rocking-chairs, and coming down\nheavily on his back, rolled away on the edge of his block and the rim\nof his little round hat without making the slightest attempt to get on\nhis feet again.\n\n\"I shall look precisely like a elephant with a pagoda on his back,\" said\nDorothy, as she got down on her hands and knees and crawled through the\nlittle door into the house, \"but I'm going to see what it's like while I\nhave the chance. All hollow, right up to the roof, just as I expected,\"\nshe exclaimed. \"I s'pose that's so the fam'ly can stand up when they\ncome inside.\" But there was nothing in the house but a lot of old\numbrellas tied up in bundles and marked \"DANGEROUS,\" and as she didn't\nthink these were very interesting, and as, moreover, her head by this\ntime was out of the door at the back, she crawled through without\nstopping and scrambled up on to her feet again.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Oh, lovely!\" cried Dorothy, clapping her hands in a rapture of delight;\nfor she found herself in a beautiful wood--not a make-believe affair\nlike the toy-farm, but a real wood with soft grass and pads of\ndark-green moss growing underfoot, and with ferns and forest flowers\nspringing up on all sides. The wind was rustling pleasantly in the\ntrees, and the sunlight, shining down through the dancing leaves, made\nlittle patches of light that chased each other about on the grass, and,\nas Dorothy walked along, she felt happier than she had at any time since\nlosing the Blue Admiral Inn. To be sure, it wasn't the easiest matter in\nthe world to get along, for as the trees and the bushes and the blades\nof grass were all of the natural size and Dorothy was no bigger than a\nwren, she fell over a good many twigs and other small obstacles, and\ntumbled down a great many times. Then, too, she found it rather trying\nto her nerves, at first, to meet with rabbits as big as horses, to come\nsuddenly upon quails whistling like steam-engines, and to be chattered\nat by squirrels a head taller than she herself was; but she was a very\nwise little child about such matters, and she said to herself, \"Why, of\ncourse, they're only their usual sizes, you know, and they're sure to be\nthe same scary things they always are,\"--and then she stamped her foot\nat them and said \"Shoo!\" very boldly, and, after laughing to see the\ngreat creatures whisk about and dash into the thicket, she walked along\nquite contentedly.\n\n[Illustration: \"SHE FOUND IT RATHER TRYING TO HER NERVES, AT FIRST, TO\nMEET WITH RABBITS AS BIG AS HORSES.\"]\n\n[Illustration: \"--TO BE CHATTERED AT BY SQUIRRELS A HEAD TALLER THAN SHE\nHERSELF WAS.\"]\n\nPresently she heard a voice singing. It seemed to come from a thick\npart of the wood at one side of the path; and, after hesitating a\nmoment, Dorothy stole into the bushes, and, creeping cautiously along\nuntil she was quite near the sound, crouched down in the thicket to\nlisten.\n\nIt was a very small voice, and it was singing this song:\n\n                    I know a way\n    Of hearing what the larks and linnets say.\n      The larks tell of the sunshine and the sky;\n      The linnets from the hedges make reply,\n    And boast of hidden nests with mocking lay.\n\n                    I know a way\n    Of keeping near the rabbits at their play.\n      They tell me of the cool and shady nooks\n      Where waterfalls disturb the placid brooks\n    That I may go and frolic in the spray.\n\n                    I know a way\n    Of catching dewdrops on a night in May,\n      And threading them upon a spear of green,\n      That through their sides translucent may be seen\n    The sparkling hue that emeralds display.\n\n                    I know a way\n    Of trapping sunbeams as they nimbly play\n      At hide-and-seek with meadow-grass and flowers,\n      And holding them in store for dreary hours\n    When winds are chill and all the sky is gray.\n\n                    I know a way\n    Of stealing fragrance from the new-mown hay\n      And storing it in flasks of petals made,\n      To scent the air when all the flowers fade\n    And leave the woodland world to sad decay.\n\n                    I know a way\n    Of coaxing snowflakes in their flight to stay\n      So still awhile, that, as they hang in air,\n      I weave them into frosty lace, to wear\n    About my head upon a sultry day.\n\nDorothy, crouching down in the thicket, listened to this little song\nwith great delight; but she was extremely sentimental where poetry was\nconcerned, and it happened that when she heard this last verse she\nclasped her hands in a burst of rapture and exclaimed in quite a loud\nvoice, \"Oh, delicious!\" This was very unfortunate, for the song stopped\nshort the instant she spoke, and for a moment everything was perfectly\nsilent; then the little voice spoke up again, and said, \"Who is that?\"\n\n\"It's I,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"It's two eyes, if it comes to that,\" said the little voice; \"I can see\nthem through the bushes. Are you a rabbit?\"\n\n\"No,\" said Dorothy, laughing softly to herself, \"I'm a child.\"\n\n\"Oh!\" exclaimed the voice. It was a very little Oh; in fact, it sounded\nto Dorothy as if it might be about the size of a cherry-stone, and she\nsaid to herself, \"I verily believe it's a fairy, and she certainly can't\nbe a bit bigger than my thumb--my regular thumb, I mean,\" she added,\nholding up her hand and looking at the size of it with great contempt.\n\nThen the little voice spoke up again and said, \"And how big are you?\"\n\n\"I'm about three inches tall,\" said Dorothy; and she was so excited by\nthis time at the prospect of seeing a real live fairy for the first time\nin her life, that she felt as if a lot of flies were running up and down\non the back of her neck.\n\n\"Dear me!\" exclaimed the little voice, expressing great astonishment in\nits small way. \"Why, there's hardly enough of you to put in a corner.\"\n\nDorothy reflected for a moment and then called out, \"But, you know,\n_that_ depends altogether on the size of the corner.\"\n\n\"Oh, no, it doesn't!\" said the little voice, very confidently. \"All\ncorners are the same size if you only get close enough to 'em.\"\n\n\"Dear me!\" said Dorothy to herself, \"how very intelligent she is! I\n_must_ have a look at her\"; and, pushing the leaves gently aside, she\ncautiously peeped out.\n\n[Illustration: \"PUSHING THE LEAVES GENTLY ASIDE, SHE CAUTIOUSLY PEEPED\nOUT.\"]\n\nIt was a charming little dell, carpeted with fine moss, and with\nstrange-looking wild flowers and tall nodding grasses growing about the\nsides of it; but, to Dorothy's astonishment, the fairy proved to be an\nextremely small field-mouse, sitting up like a little pug-dog and gazing\nattentively at the thicket: \"and _I_ think\"--the Mouse went on, as if\nit were tired of waiting for an answer to its last remark--\"_I_ think a\nchild should be six inches tall, _at least_.\"\n\nThis was so ridiculous that Dorothy had to put her hand over her mouth\nto keep from screaming with laughter. \"Why,\" she exclaimed, \"I used to\nbe\"--and here she had to stop and count up on her fingers as if she\nwere doing a sum--\"I used to be eight times as big as _that_, myself.\"\n\n\"Tut, tut!--\" said the Mouse, and the \"tuts\" sounded like beads dropping\ninto a pill-box--\"tut, tut! Don't tell me such rubbish!\"\n\n\"Oh, you needn't _tut_ me,\" said Dorothy. \"It's the exact truth.\"\n\n\"Then I don't understand it,\" said the Mouse, shaking its head in a\npuzzled way. \"_I_ always thought children grew the other way.\"\n\n\"Well, you see,--\" said Dorothy, in her old-fashioned way,--\"you see,\nI've been very much reduced.\" (She thought afterward that this sounded\nrather as if she had lost all her property, but it was the only thing\nshe could think of to say at the time.)\n\n\"I _don't_ see it at all,\" said the Mouse, fretfully, \"and what's more,\nI don't see _you_, in fact, I don't think you ought to be hiding in the\nbushes and chattering at me in this way.\"\n\nThis seemed to Dorothy to be a very personal remark, and she answered,\nrather indignantly, \"And why not, I should like to know?\"\n\n\"Because,\"--said the Mouse in a very superior manner,--\"because little\nchildren should be seen and not heard.\"\n\n\"Hoity-toity!\" said Dorothy, very sharply. (I don't think she had the\nslightest idea of what this meant, but she had read somewhere in a book\nthat it was an expression used when other persons gave themselves airs,\nand she thought she would try the effect of it on the Mouse.) But, to\nher great disappointment, the Mouse made no reply of any kind, and after\npicking a leaf and holding it up to its eyes for a moment, as if it were\nhaving a cry in its small way, the poor little creature turned about and\nran into the thicket at the further side of the dell.\n\n[Illustration: THE MOUSE LAMENTS.]\n\nDorothy was greatly distressed at this, and, jumping out of the bushes\ninto the dell, she began calling, \"Mousie! Mousie! Come back! I didn't\nmean it, dear. It was only an esperiment.\" But there was no answer, and,\nstooping down at the place where the Mouse had disappeared, she looked\ninto the thicket. There was nothing there but a very small squirrel\neating a nut; and, after staring at her for a moment in great\nastonishment, he threw the nut in her face and scampered off into the\nbushes.\n\n\"Nice manners, upon my word!\" said Dorothy, in great indignation at this\ntreatment, and then, standing up, she gazed about the dell rather\ndisconsolately; but there was no living thing in sight except a fat\nbutterfly lazily swinging up and down on a blade of grass. Dorothy\ntouched him with her finger to see if he were awake, but the Butterfly\ngave himself an impatient shake, and said, fretfully, \"Oh, don't,\" and,\nafter waiting a moment, to be sure that was all he had to say, she\nwalked mournfully away through the wood.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nSOMETHING ABOUT THE CAMEL\n\n\nThe wood wasn't nearly so pleasant now as it had been before, and\nDorothy was quite pleased when, after walking a little way, she came in\nsight again of the bank covered with rocking-chairs, and running up, she\nhurried through the little door into the toy-shop.\n\nEverything was just as she had left it, and the stream was running\nmerrily under the castle bridge; but just as she was going by, the\nbridge itself began hitching up in the middle and pawing, as it were, at\nthe banks of the stream in such an extraordinary manner that she stopped\nto see what was going to happen.\n\n\"It's sure to be something wonderous,\" she said to herself, as she stood\nwatching it, and she was quite right about this, for the bridge\npresently turned into a remarkably spirited rocking-horse (dappled, with\nblack spots scattered about), and after rocking back and forth once or\ntwice, as if to be sure it really _was_ a horse, settled down perfectly\nstill as if it never expected to be anything else. In fact, with the\nexception of a large fly, about as big as one of Dorothy's feet, that\nwas buzzing about, everything in the window was now perfectly quiet, and\ndrawing a long breath of relief, she walked away through the shop.\n\n[Illustration: \"AND FOUND THE CARAVAN SITTING IN A ROW ON A LITTLE BENCH\nAT THE DOOR.\"]\n\nAs she walked along on the shelf, she presently came to the grocer's\nshop and found the Caravan sitting in a row on a little bench at the\ndoor. The Admiral had the Camel in his lap, and they were all gazing at\nit with an air of extreme solicitude. It was a frowsy little thing with\nlumpy legs that hung down in a dangling way from the Admiral's knees,\nand Sir Walter was busily employed trying to make it drink something out\nof a bottle.\n\n\"What are you giving him?\" inquired Dorothy, curiously.\n\n\"Glue,\" said the Admiral, promptly. \"He needs stiffening up, you see.\"\n\n\"Goodness gracious, what an awful dose!\" said Dorothy, with a shudder.\n\n\"_That_ doesn't make any difference so long as he won't take it,\" said\nSir Walter; and here he flew into a tremendous passion, and began\nbeating the Camel about the head so furiously with the bottle that\nDorothy cried out, \"Here--stop that instantly!\"\n\n\"_He_ doesn't mind it no more than if he was a bolster,\" put in the\nHighlander. \"Set him up again and let's see him fall down,\" he added,\nrubbing his hands together with a relish.\n\n\"Indeed, you'll do nothing of the sort,\" exclaimed Dorothy, with great\nindignation; and, snatching the Camel from the Admiral's lap, she\ncarried him into the grocer's shop and set him down upon the floor. The\nCamel looked about for a moment with a very mournful expression on his\nface, and then climbed into one of the drawers that was standing open,\nand pulled it to after him as a person might close a door, and Dorothy,\nafter watching this remarkable performance with great wonderment, went\nout again.\n\nThe Caravan had lost no time, and were standing on the bench, putting up\na little sign on the front of the shop with \"CAMEL FOR SALE\" on it, and\nDorothy, trying not to laugh, said, \"Is this your shop?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied the Admiral, with an important air. \"The grocer's been\nsold for a cook because he had an apron on, and we've taken the\nbusiness.\"\n\n\"What are you going to keep?\" asked Dorothy, who was vastly amused at\nthis idea.\n\n\"Why, we're going to keep the shop,\" said the Admiral, climbing down\nfrom the bench and staring at her in great surprise.\n\n\"But you must certainly keep things to sell,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"How can we keep things if we sell 'em?\" inquired Sir Walter.\n\n\"Well, you can't sell anything unless you keep it in the shop, you\nknow,\" persisted Dorothy, feeling that she was somehow or other getting\nthe worst of the argument.\n\n\"Bosh!\" said the Admiral, obstinately; \"you _can't_ keep things you\nsell--that is,\" he added, \"not unless your customers are crazy\"; and\nwith this remark the Caravan went into the shop and shut the door in\nDorothy's face, as if she wasn't worth talking to any longer.\n\nDorothy waited for a moment to see if they were coming out again, and\nthen, as there was a noise inside as if they were piling up the drawers\nagainst the door by way of a barricade, she walked slowly away through\nthe toy-shop.\n\nShe had had such a variety of adventures in the shop by this time that\nshe was getting quite tired of the place, and she was walking along\nrather disconsolately, and wishing there was some way of growing to her\nnatural size, and then getting back again to poor old Uncle Porticle and\nthe Blue Admiral Inn, when, as she went around the corner of the little\napothecary's shop, she came suddenly upon Bob Scarlet. To her great\nsurprise, he was now just about the size of an ordinary robin; but he\nhad on his red waistcoat, and had quite as important an air as ever, and\nhe was strolling about examining the various toys, and putting down the\nprice of everything in a little red book, as if he were thinking of\ngoing into the business himself.\n\n\"Now, I wonder how he ever got to be _that_ size,\" thought Dorothy, as\nshe hid behind a little pile of lead-pencils and watched him over the\ntop of them. \"I suppose he's eaten something, or drunk something, to\nmake him grow, the way they do in fairy stories; because the Admiral\ncertainly said he wasn't any bigger than an ant. And, oh! I wish I knew\nwhat it was,\" she added, mournfully, as the tears came into her eyes at\nthe thought of how small she was, \"I _wish_ I knew what it was!\"\n\n\"If I wasn't a little afraid of him,\" she went on, after she had had a\nlittle cry, \"I'd ask him. But likely as not he'd peck at me--old\npeckjabber!\" and here she laughed through her tears as she thought of\nthe Caravan in their little sunbonnets. \"Or p'r'aps he'd snap me up!\nI've often heard of snapping people up when they asked too many\nquestions, but seems to me it never meant anything so awful as that\nbefore\"; and she was rambling on in this way, laughing and crying by\nturns, when at this moment Bob Scarlet came suddenly upon a fine brass\nbird-cage, and, after staring at it in a stupefied way for an instant,\nhe dropped his little book, with an appearance of great agitation, and\nhurried away without so much as looking behind him.\n\n[Illustration: \"HE DROPPED HIS LITTLE BOOK, WITH AN APPEARANCE OF GREAT\nAGITATION, AND HURRIED AWAY.\"]\n\nDorothy ran after him, carefully keeping out of sight in case he should\nturn around, and as she went by the bird-cage she saw that it was marked\n\"PERFECTLY SECURE\" in large letters. \"And _that's_ what took the conceit\nout of you, mister,\" she said, laughing to herself, and hurried along\nafter the Robin.\n\nAs she caught sight of him again he was just scurrying by the grocer's\nshop, and she could see the faces of the Caravan watching him, over the\ntop of a little half-blind in the window, with an expression of the\ngreatest concern, and the next moment a door at the back of the shop\nopened and they all rushed out. They had on their sunbonnets and shawls,\nand Dorothy saw that the Admiral was carrying the Camel under his arm;\nbut before she could say a word to them they had scampered away and were\nout of sight.\n\n[Illustration: \"A DOOR AT THE BACK OF THE SHOP OPENED AND THEY ALL\nRUSHED OUT.\"]\n\nBy this time the toy-shop itself was all in a commotion. Dolls were\nclimbing down from the shelves and falling over each other; the big\nmarbles had in some way got out of the basket and were rolling about in\nall directions; and Dorothy could see the old dame at the further end of\nthe shop, running about and frantically striking at one thing after\nanother with her spoon. To make matters worse, quite a little army of\ntin soldiers suddenly appeared, running confusedly about, with the\ndrawers from the little grocer's shop upside down on their heads, and\nall calling \"Fire!\" at the top of their voices. As they couldn't see\nwhere anybody was going, or where they were going themselves, it made\nthe situation very desperate indeed.\n\nDorothy was frightened almost out of her wits, but she ran on in a\nbewildered sort of a way, dodging the rolling marbles and upsetting the\ndolls and the soldiers in great numbers, until she fortunately caught\nsight of the little rat-hole of a door, and, rushing through it, she\nhurried down the bank, knocking the green rocking-chairs about in every\ndirection, and ran off into the wood as fast as she could go.\n\n[Illustration: TAIL-PIECE TO CHAPTER VIII.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE CAMEL'S COMPLAINT\n\n\nDorothy ran along until she thought she was quite safe, and then stopped\nto look back and listen. There was a confused sound of shouts and cries\nin the distance, but nothing seemed to be coming after her, so, after\nwaiting a moment to get her breath, she walked quietly away through the\nwood.\n\n\"What a scene of turmoil it was!\" she said to herself. (You see, she was\ntrying to express herself in a very dignified and composed manner, as if\nshe hadn't been in the least disturbed by what had happened.) \"I\npresume--\" she went on, \"I presume it was something like a riot,\nalthough I really don't see what it was all about. Of course I've never\nbeen in a riot, but if it's anything like _that_, I shall never have\nanything to do with one\";--which certainly was a very wise resolution\nfor a little girl to make; but as Dorothy was always making wise\nresolutions about things that were never going to happen, I really\ndon't think that this particular one was a matter of any consequence.\n\nShe was so much pleased with these remarks that she was going on to say\na number of very fine things, when she came suddenly upon the Caravan\nhiding behind a large tree. They were sitting in a little bunch on the\ngrass, and, as Dorothy appeared, they all put on an appearance of great\nunconcern, and began staring up at the branches of the tree, as if they\nhadn't seen her.\n\n\"They've certainly been doing something they're ashamed of,\" she said to\nherself, \"but they can't deceive me with any such behavior as _that_\";\nand just then the Admiral pretended he had just caught sight of her and\nsaid, with a patronizing air, \"Ah! How d' ye do? How d' ye do?\" as if\nthey hadn't met for quite a while.\n\n\"You know perfectly well how I do, and I consider that a very foolish\nremark,\" replied Dorothy, speaking in a very dignified manner, and not\nfeeling at all pleased with this reception; and then noticing that\nHumphrey was nowhere to be seen, she said severely, \"Where's your\nCamel?\"\n\n\"Camels is no good,\" said the Admiral, evasively. \"Leastwise _he_\nwasn't.\"\n\n\"Why not?\" said Dorothy. She said this very sternly, for she felt\nmorally certain that the Admiral was trying to conceal something from\nher.\n\n\"Well, you see,\" said the Admiral, uneasily, \"he talked too much. He was\nalways grumbling.\"\n\n\"Grumbling about what?\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"Oh, about a wariety of things,\" said the Admiral. \"Meals and lodgings\nand all that, you know. I used to try to stop him. 'Cammy,' I says--\"\n\n\"'Cammy' is short for camel,\" explained Sir Walter, and Dorothy laughed\nand nodded, and the Admiral went on--\n\n\"'Cammy,' I says, 'don't scold so much'; but lor! I might as well have\ntalked to a turnpike-gate.\"\n\n\"Better,\" put in Sir Walter. \"_That_ shuts up sometimes, and _he_ never\ndid.\"\n\n\"Oh, jummy!\" said the Highlander, with a chuckle, \"_that's_ a good one!\"\n\n\"But what was it all about?\" persisted Dorothy.\n\n\"_You_ tell her, Ruffles,\" said the Admiral.\n\n\"Well,\" said Sir Walter, \"it was all the same thing, over and over\nagain. He had it all in verses so he wouldn't forget any of it. It went\nlike this:\n\n    \"Canary-birds feed on sugar and seed,\n      Parrots have crackers to crunch;\n    And, as for the poodles, they tell me the noodles\n      Have chickens and cream for their lunch.\n        But there's never a question\n        About MY digestion--\n      ANYTHING does for me!\n\n    \"Cats, you're aware, can repose in a chair,\n      Chickens can roost upon rails;\n    Puppies are able to sleep in a stable,\n      And oysters can slumber in pails.\n        But no one supposes\n        A poor Camel dozes--\n      ANY PLACE does for me!\n\n    \"Lambs are inclosed where it's never exposed,\n      Coops are constructed for hens;\n    Kittens are treated to houses well heated,\n      And pigs are protected by pens.\n        But a Camel comes handy\n        Wherever it's sandy--\n      ANYWHERE does for me!\n\n    \"People would laugh if you rode a giraffe,\n      Or mounted the back of an ox;\n    It's nobody's habit to ride on a rabbit,\n      Or try to bestraddle a fox.\n        But as for a Camel, he's\n        Ridden by families--\n      ANY LOAD does for me!\n\n    \"A snake is as round as a hole in the ground,\n      And weasels are wavy and sleek;\n    And no alligator could ever be straighter\n      Than lizards that live in a creek.\n        But a Camel's all lumpy\n        And bumpy and humpy--\n      ANY SHAPE does for me!\"\n\nNow, Dorothy was a very tender-hearted little child, and by the time\nthese verses were finished she hardly knew whether to laugh or to cry.\n\"Poor old, feeble-minded thing!\" she said, compassionately. \"And what\nbecame of him at last?\"\n\nThere was a dead silence for a moment, and then the Admiral said\nsolemnly:\n\n\"We put him in a pond.\"\n\n\"Why, that's the most unhuman thing I ever heard of in all my life!\"\nexclaimed Dorothy, greatly shocked at this news.\n\n[Illustration: THE CARAVAN DISCIPLINE THE CAMEL.]\n\n\"Well,\" said the Admiral, in a shamefaced sort of way, \"_we_ thought it\nwas a good thing to do--for us, you know.\"\n\n\"And _I_ call it proud and unforgiving,\" said Dorothy, indignantly.\n\"Did the poor creature say anything?\"\n\n\"Not at first,\" said the Admiral; \"but after he got in he said things.\"\n\n\"Such as what?\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"Oh, we couldn't make out _what_ he said,\" replied the Admiral,\npeevishly. \"It was perfectly unintellijibbergibble.\"\n\n\"Kind of gurgly,\" put in the Highlander.\n\n\"Did he go right down?\" inquired Dorothy, very anxiously.\n\n\"Not a bit of it,\" said the Admiral, flippantly. \"He never went down at\nall. He floated, just like a cork, you know.\"\n\n\"Round and round and round,\" added Sir Walter.\n\n\"Like a turnip,\" put in the Highlander.\n\n\"What do you mean by _that_?\" said Dorothy, sharply.\n\n\"Nothing,\" said the Highlander, looking very much abashed; \"only I\nthought turnips turned round.\"\n\nDorothy was greatly provoked at all this, and felt that she really ought\nto say something very severe; but the fact was that the Caravan looked\nso innocent, sitting on the grass with their sunbonnets all crooked on\ntheir heads, that it was as much as she could do to keep from laughing\noutright. \"You know,\" she said to herself, \"if it wasn't for the\nHighlander's whiskers, it'd be precisely like a' infant class having a\npicnic; and after all, they're really nothing but graven images\"--so she\ncontented herself by saying, as severely as she could:\n\n\"Well, I'm extremely displeased, and I'm very much ashamed of all of\nyou.\"\n\nThe Caravan received this reproof with great cheerfulness, especially\nthe Admiral, who took a look at Dorothy through his spy-glass, and then\nsaid with much satisfaction: \"Now we're each being ashamed of by _three_\npersons\"; but Dorothy very properly took no notice of this remark, and\nwalked away in a dignified manner.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE SIZING TOWER\n\n\nAs Dorothy walked along, wondering what would happen to her next, she\nfelt something tugging at her frock, and looking around she saw that it\nwas the Highlander running along beside her, quite breathless, and\ntrying very hard to attract her attention. \"Oh, it's you, is it?\" she\nsaid, stopping short and looking at him pleasantly.\n\n\"Yes, it's me,\" said the Highlander, sitting down on the ground as if he\nwere very much fatigued. \"I've been wanting to speak to you privately\nfor a very long time.\"\n\n\"What about?\" said Dorothy, wondering what was coming now.\n\n\"Well,\" said the Highlander, blushing violently and appearing to be\ngreatly embarrassed, \"you seem to be a very kind-hearted person, and I\nwanted to show you some poetry I've written.\"\n\n\"Did you compose it?\" said Dorothy, kindly.\n\n\"No,\" said the Highlander; \"I only made it up. Would you like to hear\nit?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, indeed,\" said Dorothy, as gravely as she could; \"I should like\nto hear it very much.\"\n\n\"It's called\"--said the Highlander, lowering his voice confidentially\nand looking cautiously about--\"it's called 'The Pickle and the\nPoliceman';\" and, taking a little paper out of his pocket, he began:\n\n    \"There was a little pickle and his name was John--\"\n\n\"Oh, dear!\" exclaimed Dorothy, \"I don't think that will do _at all_.\"\n\n\"Suppose I call him _George_?\" said the Highlander, gazing reflectively\nat his paper. \"It's got to be something short, you know.\"\n\n\"But you mustn't call him _anything_,\" said Dorothy, laughing. \"Pickles\ndon't have any names.\"\n\n\"All right,\" said the Highlander; and, taking out a pencil, he began\nrepairing his poetry with great industry. He did a great deal of\nwriting, and a good deal of rubbing out with his thumb, and finally said\ntriumphantly:\n\n    \"There was a little pickle and he hadn't any name!\"\n\n\"Yes, that will do very nicely,\" said Dorothy; and the Highlander,\nclearing his voice, read off his poetry with a great flourish:\n\n    \"There was a little pickle and he hadn't any name--\n    In this respect, I'm just informed, all pickles are the same.\n    A large policeman came along, a-swinging of his club,\n    And took that little pickle up and put him in a tub.\n\n\"That's rather good about taking him up,\" said the Highlander, chuckling\nto himself; \"so exactly like a policeman, you know.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, indeed,\" said Dorothy, who was ready to scream with laughter.\n\"What's the rest of it?\"\n\n\"There isn't any more,\" said the Highlander, rather confusedly. \"There\nwas going to be another verse, but I couldn't think of anything more to\nsay.\"\n\n\"Oh, well, it's very nice as it is,\" said Dorothy, consolingly; and\nthen, as the Highlander put up his paper and went away, she laughed till\nher eyes were full of tears. \"They are _all_ funny,\" she said at last,\nas she walked away through the wood, \"but I think _he's_ funnier than\nall of 'em put together\"--which, by the way, was not a very sensible\nremark for her to make, as you will see if you'll take the trouble to\nthink it over.\n\n[Illustration: \"'THERE ISN'T ANY MORE,' SAID THE HIGHLANDER, RATHER\nCONFUSEDLY.\"]\n\nBut presently, as she strolled along, she made a discovery that quite\ndrove the Highlander and his ridiculous poetry out of her head. It was a\ntower in the wood; not an ordinary tower, of course, for there would\nhave been nothing remarkable about that, but a tower of shining brass,\nand so high that the top of it was quite out of sight among the\nbranches of the trees. But the strangest thing about it was that there\nseemed to be no possible way of getting into it, and Dorothy was very\ncautiously walking around it to see if she could find any door when she\ncame suddenly upon the Caravan standing huddled together, and apparently\nin a state of great excitement.\n\n\"What is it?\" asked Dorothy, eagerly.\n\n\"Hush!\" said the Admiral, in an agitated whisper. \"We think it's where\nBob Scarlet changes himself\"--and as he said this there was a tremendous\nflapping of wings, and down came Bob Scarlet through the branches and\nlanded with a thump a little way from where they were standing. He was\nas big as a goose again, and his appearance was so extremely formidable\nthat the Caravan, as one man, threw themselves flat on their faces in a\nperfect frenzy of terror, and Dorothy herself hid in the grass, with her\nheart beating like a little eight-day clock. But Bob Scarlet fortunately\npaid no more attention to any of them than if they had been so many\nflies, and, after strutting about for a moment with his usual important\nair, strolled away in the direction of the toy-shop.\n\n\"Now what do you make of _that_?\" said the Admiral, lifting up his\nhead. \"He went in at a little door not five minutes ago, and he wasn't\nany bigger than an every-day bird.\"\n\n\"I'm sure I don't know _what_ to make of it,\" said Dorothy. \"But where\nis the door?\" she added, running around the tower and looking at it on\nall sides.\n\n\"It went up after him,\" said the Admiral, \"like a corkscrew.\"\n\n\"And it's coming down again, like a gimlet!\" shouted the Highlander;\nand, as they all looked up, sure enough there was the little door slowly\ncoming down, around and around, as if it were descending an invisible\nstaircase on the outside of the tower. They all watched this performance\nwith much interest, and as the door touched the ground it opened, and,\nto Dorothy's amazement, out came the little field-mouse.\n\n\"What is it?\" cried Dorothy, as they all crowded around the little\ncreature. \"Do tell us what it all means.\"\n\n\"It's a Sizing Tower,\" said the Mouse, its little voice trembling with\nagitation. \"You get big at the top, and little at the bottom. I wouldn't\ngo up there again--not for a bushel of nuts.\"\n\n\"Were you pretty big?\" inquired Sir Walter.\n\n\"Monstrous!\" said the Mouse, with a little shudder; \"I was as big as a\nsquirrel; and while I was up there, Bob Scarlet flew up and came down\nwith the door, and there I was.\"\n\n\"_That_ was a precious mess!\" remarked the Highlander.\n\n\"Wasn't it now!\" said the Mouse. \"And if he hadn't taken it into his\nhead to come up again and _fly down_, I'd 'a' been there yet.\"\n\n\"Why, it's the very thing for us!\" cried Dorothy, clapping her hands\nwith delight as a happy thought occurred to her. \"Let's all go up and\nget back our regular selves.\"\n\n\"You go first,\" said the Admiral, suspiciously, \"and call down to us how\nit feels.\" But Dorothy wouldn't hear of this; and after a great deal of\narguing and pushing and saying \"_You_ go in first,\" the whole party at\nlast got squeezed in through the little doorway. Then the Mouse sat up\non its hind legs and waved a little farewell with its paws, and the door\nsoftly closed.\n\n\"If we begin to grow _now_,\" said the Admiral's voice in the dark,\n\"we'll all be squeegeed, _sure_!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"What an extraordinary thing!\" exclaimed Dorothy; for they had come out\ninto a street full of houses.\n\n\"What _I_ want to know is what's become of the door,\" said Sir Walter,\nindignantly, staring at a high wall where the door had been, and which\nwas now perfectly blank.\n\n\"I'm sure I don't know,\" said Dorothy, quite bewildered. \"It's really\nquite mysterious, isn't it?\"\n\n\"It makes my stomach tickle like anything,\" said the Highlander, in a\nquavering voice.\n\n\"What _shall_ we do?\" said Dorothy, looking about uneasily.\n\n\"Run away!\" said the Admiral, promptly; and without another word the\nCaravan took to their heels and disappeared around a corner. Dorothy\nhurried after them, but by the time she turned the corner they were\nquite out of sight; and as she stopped and looked about her she\ndiscovered that she was once more in the Ferryman's street, and, to her\ngreat delight, quite as large as she had been when she left the Blue\nAdmiral Inn.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE DANCING ANIMALS\n\n\nIt seemed to be evening again, and, although the Ferryman was nowhere in\nsight, Dorothy knew the place the moment she looked up and saw the\npeaked roofs outlined against the sky. The houses were quaint,\nold-fashioned-looking buildings with the upper parts jutting far out\nbeyond the lower stories and with dark little doorways almost hidden in\nthe shadows beneath; and the windows were very small casements filled\nwith diamond-shaped panes of shining green glass. All the houses were\nbrilliantly lighted up, and there were great iron lamps swung on chains\nacross the street, so that the street itself was almost as bright as\nday, and Dorothy thought she recognized it as a place she had once read\nabout where nobody but astrologers lived. There was a confused sound of\nfiddling going on somewhere, and as Dorothy walked along she could hear\na scuffling noise inside the houses as if the inhabitants were dancing\nabout on sanded floors. Presently, as she turned a corner, she came\nupon a number of storks who were dancing a sort of solemn quadrille up\nand down the middle of the street. They stopped dancing as she came\nalong, and stood in a row gazing gravely at her as she passed by and\nthen resumed their quadrille as solemnly as before.\n\nThe strangest thing about the fiddling was that it seemed to be going on\nsomewhere in the air, and the sound appeared to come from all directions\nat once. At first the music was soft and rather slow in time, but it\ngrew louder and louder, and the fiddles played faster and faster, until\npresently they were going at such a furious rate that Dorothy stopped\nand looked back to see how the storks were getting on in their dancing;\nand she could see them in the distance, scampering up and down the\nstreet, and bumping violently against one another in a frantic attempt\nto keep time with the music. At any other time she would have been\nvastly amused at this spectacle; but just then she was feeling a little\nafraid that some of the astrologers might come out to see what was going\non, and she was therefore quite relieved when the storks presently gave\nup all hope of finishing their quadrille, and rising in the air with a\ntremendous flapping of wings, flew away over the tops of the houses and\ndisappeared. Strangely enough, the sound of the fiddling followed them\nlike a traveling band, and grew fainter and fainter until it finally\ndied away in the distance.\n\nBut the scuffling noise in the houses continued, and Dorothy did just\nwhat you'd suppose such a curious little child would have done--that is,\nshe stole up and peeped in at one of the windows; but she could see\nnothing through the thick glass but some strange-looking shadows bobbing\nconfusedly about inside. Of course you know what she did _then_. In\nfact, after hesitating a moment, she softly opened the door of the house\nand went in.\n\nThe room was full of animals of every description, dancing around in a\nring with the greatest enthusiasm; and as Dorothy appeared they all\nshouted, \"Here she is!\" and, before she could say a single word, the two\nnearest to her (they were an elephant and a sheep, by the way) seized\nher by the hands, and the next moment she was dancing in the ring. She\nwas quite surprised to see that the elephant was no bigger than the\nsheep; and, as she looked about, it seemed to her, in the confusion,\nthat all the animals in the room were of precisely the same size.\n\n[Illustration: \"AN ELEPHANT AND A SHEEP SEIZED HER BY THE HANDS, AND THE\nNEXT MOMENT SHE WAS DANCING IN THE RING.\"]\n\n\"Isn't it rather unusual--\" she said to the Sheep (it seemed more\nnatural, somehow, to speak to the Sheep)--\"isn't it rather unusual for\ndifferent animals to be so much alike?\"\n\n\"Not in _our_ set,\" said the Sheep, conceitedly. \"We all know who's who.\nOf course we have to mark the pigs, as they're so extremely like the\npolar-bears;\" and Dorothy noticed that two pigs, who were dancing just\nopposite to her, had labels with \"PIG\" on them hung around their necks\nby little chains, as if they had been a couple of decanters--\"only,\" she\nthought, \"it would have been 'SHERRY' or 'MADEIRA' instead of 'PIG,' you\nknow.\"\n\n\"I suppose you all came out of a Noah's Ark,\" she said presently, at a\nventure.\n\n\"Of course. Largest size, I believe. How _very_ clever you are!\" said\nthe Sheep, admiringly. \"By the way,\" she added, confidentially, \"do you\nhappen to know what a tapir is?\"\n\n\"I believe it's something to light, like a candle,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"Does it ever go out of its own accord?\" inquired the Sheep.\n\n\"It _ought_ not to,\" said Dorothy.\n\n\"Then that accounts for the trouble we've had,\" said the Sheep, with a\nsatisfied air. \"Those two tapirs dancing over there are always in\neverybody's way, and we've had to _put_ them out over and over again.\"\n\nThis sounded like a joke; but the Sheep was so serious that Dorothy\ndidn't dare to laugh, so she said, by way of continuing the\nconversation, \"I don't see any birds here.\"\n\n\"Oh dear, no!\" exclaimed the Sheep; \"you see, this is really a\nquadrupedrille. Of course _you're_ all right, because it's precisely as\nif you were dancing on your hind feet. In fact,\" she added, nodding\napprovingly, \"you look almost as well as if you were.\"\n\n\"Thank you!\" said Dorothy, laughing.\n\n\"There was a seal that wanted to join,\" the Sheep went on. \"He pressed\nus very hard, but he never made the slightest impression on us;\" and\nthere was a twinkle in the Sheep's eyes as she said this, so that\nDorothy felt morally certain it _was_ a joke this time; but, before she\ncould make any reply, the Elephant called out \"Recess!\" and the animals\nall stopped dancing and began walking about and fanning themselves with\nlittle portfolios which they produced in such a mysterious manner that\nDorothy couldn't see where in the world they came from.\n\n\"Now, look here,\" said the Elephant,--he seemed to be a sort of Master\nof Ceremonies, and the animals all clustered about him as he said\nthis,--\"why can't _she_ dance with the Camel?\" and he pointed out\nDorothy with his portfolio.\n\n\"She can!\" shouted the animals in chorus. \"Come on, Sarah!\"--and the\nCamel, who had been moping in a corner with her head against the wall,\ncame forward with a very sulky expression on her face.\n\n\"Her name is Sahara,\" whispered the Sheep, plucking at Dorothy's frock\nto attract her attention, \"but we call her Sarah to save time. She's\nkind of grumpy now because the other Camel stayed away, but she'll\ntitter like a turtle when she gets to dancing.\"\n\n\"I don't know what relation she is to Humphrey,\" thought Dorothy, as the\nCamel took her by the hand, \"but she's certainly big enough to be his\ngreat-grandmother ten times over.\" Before she had time to think any more\nabout it, however, the Elephant called out, \"Ladies change!\" and the\ndancing began again harder than ever.\n\nIt was a very peculiar dance this time, and, as near as Dorothy could\nmake it out, consisted principally in the animals passing her along from\none to another as if they were each anxious to get rid of her; and\npresently she discovered that, in some unaccountable manner, she had\nbeen passed directly through the fireplace into the next house; but as\nthis house was quite as full of dancing animals as the other, this\ndidn't help matters much except that it got Sarah out of the way--\"and\n_that_,\" said poor little Dorothy to herself, \"is certainly _something_!\"\n\n[Illustration: THE ANIMALS CROSSING OVER.]\n\nJust then the Elephant, who had mysteriously appeared from a pantry in\none corner of the room, shouted out, \"All cross over!\" and the animals\nbegan to crowd out of the house into the courtyard, and then, pushing\nin great confusion through a large gateway, rushed across the street and\ninto the house on the other side of the way. Dorothy was quite taken off\nher feet in the rush, but, watching her chance, she hid behind a large\nchurn that was standing conveniently in the middle of the street; and\nwhen they had all passed in, she ran away down the street as fast as she\ncould go.\n\nShe ran on until she had got quite out of the Ferryman's street, and was\nwalking along in the open country, feeling quite pleased with herself\nfor having so cleverly escaped from the dancing-party without having to\ntake the trouble of saying \"Good night\" to the Elephant, when she saw,\nin the moonlight, something white lying beside the road, and going up to\nit, she discovered it was a letter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE CARAVAN COMES HOME\n\n\nThe letter was lying on a flat stone, with several lumps of sugar laid\non it like paper-weights to keep it from blowing away. It wasn't at all\na nice-looking letter; in fact, it looked as if it had been dragged over\nthe ground for a long distance; and Dorothy, after observing all this,\nwas just turning away when she chanced to look at the address and saw\nthat the letter was intended for her. The address was written in a very\ncramped little hand, and the writing was crowded up into one corner as\nif it were trying to get over the edge of the envelope; but the words\nwere \"TO DOROTHY,\" as plain as possible.\n\n\"What a very strange thing!\" she said to herself, taking up the letter\nand turning it over several times rather distrustfully. \"I don't think\nit looks very nice, but it may be something important, and I s'pose I\nought to read it\"; and saying this, she opened the letter. It was\nprinted in funny little letters something like bird-tracks, and this was\nwhat was in it:\n\n     We are in a bad fix. The fix is a cage. We have been seezed in a\n     outburst of ungovernerubble fury by Bob Scarlet. He says there's\n     been too many robbin pies. He goes on, and says he is going to have\n     a girl pie. With gravy. We shreeked out that we wasn't girls. Only\n     disgized and tuff as anything. He says with a kurdling laff we'll\n     do. O save us. We wish we was home. There is no male and we send\n     this by a noble rat. He is a female.\n\n     THE CARAVAN.\n\n\"Now, _that's_ the most ridiculous letter I ever got,\" said Dorothy,\ngazing at it in blank astonishment; \"and I don't _think_ it's spelled\nvery well either,\" she added rather doubtfully as she read it again;\n\"but of course I must go and help the poor little creatures. I ought to\nfeel frightened, but I really feel as brave as an ox. I s'pose _that's_\nbecause I'm going to help the unfortunate\"; and putting the letter in\nher pocket, she started off.\n\n\"It's perfectly surprising,\" she said to herself as she ran along, \"the\nmischief they get into! They're really no more fit to be going about\nalone than so many infants\"; and she was so pleased with herself for\nsaying this that she began to feel quite large and bold. \"But it was\nvery clever of 'em to think of the rat,\" she went on, \"and of course\n_that_ accounts for the sugar. No one but a rat would ever have thought\nof using sugar for paper-weights. If I wasn't afraid of a rat I'd wish\nit hadn't gone away, though, for I haven't the slightest idea where the\nCaravan is, or which way I ought to go.\"\n\nBut it presently appeared that the noble rat had arranged the whole\nmatter for her; for as Dorothy ran along she began to find lumps of\nsugar set up at intervals like little mile-stones, so that she shouldn't\nmiss the road.\n\n\"It's precisely like Hop-o'-my-thumb and his little crumbs of bread,\"\nshe said, laughing to herself when she saw these, \"only better, because,\nyou see, the birds can't carry them off.\"\n\nThe rat, however, seemed to have had a very roundabout idea of a road,\nfor the lumps of sugar were scattered zigzag in every direction, and, at\none place, led directly through a knot-hole in a fence as if nobody\ncould possibly have any trouble in getting through _that_; but, as the\nlittle mile-stones appeared again on the other side of the fence,\nDorothy scrambled over and ran on. Then she found herself climbing over\nrocks and wading through little puddles of water where the sugar was set\nup on stones in the most thoughtful way, so that it shouldn't melt; and\nin another place the lumps were stuck up in a line on the trunk of a\nlarge tree, and, after leading the way through a number of branches,\nsuddenly descended on the opposite side of the tree into a little bog,\nwhere Dorothy stuck fast for several minutes and got her shoes very much\nsoiled. All this was very provoking, and she was beginning to get a\nlittle out of patience, when the lumps of sugar suddenly came to an end\nat a small stone wall; and, looking over it, she spied the Caravan in\ntheir cage.\n\nThe cage proved to be an enormous rat-trap, and the Caravan, with\nremarkable presence of mind, had put their legs through between the\nwires at the bottom of it, and were walking briskly along, holding up\nthe cage with their hands. The news of this extraordinary performance\nhad evidently been spread abroad, as the Ferryman and a number of\nserious-looking storks were escorting the Caravan with an air of great\ninterest, and occasionally taking to their heels when the Admiral\nchanced to look at them through the wires with his spy-glass. There was\na door, to be sure, in the side of the trap, quite big enough for the\nAdmiral, and Sir Walter, and the Highlander to come out of, all in a row\nif they liked, but they evidently hadn't noticed this--\"and I'm not\ngoing to tell 'em about it, just yet,\" said Dorothy to herself, \"because\nthey deserve to be punished for their capers. But it's really quite\nclever of 'em to put their little legs through in that way,\" she went\non, \"and extremely convenient--that is, you know,\" she added\nthoughtfully, \"so long as they all want to go the same way\"; and, with\nthis wise reflection, she scrambled over the wall and ran after the\nprocession.\n\nThe Admiral and Sir Walter seemed greatly mortified when Dorothy\nappeared, and she saw that Sir Walter was making a desperate attempt to\npull up his legs into the cage as if he hadn't anything whatever to do\nwith the affair. The Highlander, however, who always seemed to have\npeculiar ideas of his own, shouted out \"Philopene!\" as he caught sight\nof her, and then laughed uproariously as if this were the finest joke in\nthe world; but Dorothy, very properly, took not the slightest notice of\nhis remark.\n\n\"How did you ever get into _this_ scrape?\" said she, addressing the\nAdmiral as the head of the family.\n\n\"It was easy enough to get into,\" said the Admiral, peevishly; \"we just\nfell into it through the hole in the top. But there wasn't any scrape\nabout it until we tried to get out again. _Then_ we got scraped like\nanything.\"\n\n\"Needles was nothing to it,\" added Sir Walter, solemnly.\n\n\"Nor cats,\" put in the Highlander.\n\n\"I'm very sorry,\" said Dorothy, compassionately; \"and are you really\ngoing to be made into a pie?\"\n\n\"Oh, dear, no!\" said the Admiral. \"We got excused.\"\n\n\"Excused?\" exclaimed Dorothy, very much surprised.\n\n\"Well, it was something like that,\" said Sir Walter, confusedly. \"You\nsee, Bob Scarlet didn't exactly like to come in here after us--\"\n\n\"Unconquerabubble awersion to cages,\" explained the Admiral.\n\n\"And so he goes off after hooks to pull us out with,\" continued Sir\nWalter--\n\n\"And we inwents this way of going about, and comes away!\" added the\nAdmiral triumphantly.\n\n\"And where are you going now?\" said Dorothy; for by this time they were\nrunning so fast that she could hardly keep up with them.\n\n[Illustration: \"BY THIS TIME THEY WERE RUNNING SO FAST THAT SHE COULD\nHARDLY KEEP UP WITH THEM.\"]\n\n\"We're going to the Ferry,\" said the Admiral, \"and these pelicans are\nshowing us the way\"; and as he said this the whole party hurried through\na little archway and came out at the waterside.\n\nAn old stage-coach without any wheels was floating close up against the\nriver-bank, and quite a little party of the dancing animals was\ncrowding aboard of it, pushing and shoving one another, and all talking\nin the most excited manner; and as Dorothy found herself next to her old\nfriend the Sheep, in the crowd, she inquired anxiously, \"Where are you\nall going?\"\n\n\"We don't know exactly,\" said the Sheep, \"but we've all taken tickets to\ndifferent places so as to be sure of getting _somewhere_\"; and with this\nremark the Sheep disappeared in the crowd, leaving Dorothy very much\nbewildered.\n\nBy this time the Caravan had, by great exertions, climbed up on top of\nthe coach and were sitting there in the cage, as if it had been a sort\nof cupola for purposes of observation; and, indeed, the Admiral was\nalready quite absorbed in taking in various points of interest with his\nglass. The storks, meanwhile, had crowded into the coach after the\nanimals, and had their heads out through all the windows as if there\nwere no room for them inside. This gave the coach somewhat the\nappearance of a large chicken-coop with too many chickens in it; and as\nDorothy didn't fancy a crowd, she climbed up on the box. As she did so,\nSarah, the Camel, put her head out of the front window and, laying it\nin Dorothy's lap, murmured, \"Good-evening,\" and went comfortably to\nsleep. The next moment the fiddles in the air began playing again and\nthe stage-coach sailed away.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDorothy never knew exactly what happened next, because everything was so\nconfused. She had an idea, however, that they were all singing the Ferry\nSong, and that they had just got to a new part, beginning--\n\n    \"It pours into picnics and swishes the dishes,\"\n\nwhen a terrible commotion began on top of the coach, and she saw that\nBob Scarlet had suddenly appeared inside the cage _without his\nwaistcoat_, and that the Caravan were frantically squeezing themselves\nout between the wires. At the same moment a loud roaring sound arose in\nthe air, and the quadrupeds and the storks began jumping out of the\nwindows in all directions. Then the stage-coach began to rock violently,\nand she felt that it was about to roll over, and clutched at the neck of\nthe Camel to save herself; but the Camel had slipped away, and she found\nshe had hold of something like a soft cushion--and the next moment the\ncoach went over with a loud crash.\n\n[Illustration: \"IT SLOWLY CHANGED TO A BIRD-CAGE WITH A ROBIN SITTING IN\nIT.\"]\n\nDorothy gave a little scream as the coach went over, and then held her\nbreath; but instead of sousing into the water as she expected, she came\ndown on top of it with a hard bump, and, very much to her astonishment,\nfound herself sitting up on a carpeted floor. For a moment the\nrat-trap, with Bob Scarlet inside of it, seemed to be floating around in\nthe air like a wire balloon, and then, as she rubbed her eyes and looked\nagain, it slowly changed into a bird-cage with a fat robin sitting in it\non a perch, and peering sharply at her sideways with one of his bright\nlittle eyes; and she found she was sitting on the floor of the little\nparlor of the Blue Admiral Inn, with her little rocking-chair overturned\nbeside her and the cushion firmly clutched in her hand. The coach, and\nthe dancing animals, and the Ferryman and his storks had all\ndisappeared, which was a very fortunate thing, as there wasn't room for\nthem in the parlor; and as for the roaring sound in the air--why, Uncle\nPorticle was fast asleep in his big arm-chair, with his handkerchief\nspread over his face, and I think it more than likely that he had\nsomething to do with the sound.\n\nDorothy stared about for a moment, and then, suddenly remembering the\nCaravan, she jumped up and ran to the window. It was snowing hard, and\nshe saw through the driving snowflakes that the Highlander and Sir\nWalter Rosettes were standing on their pedestals, complacently watching\nthe people hurrying by with their Christmas parcels; and as for the\nAdmiral, he was standing on _his_ pedestal, with a little pile of snow\nlike a sugar-loaf on top of his hat, and intently gazing across the\nstreet through his spy-glass.\n\n[Illustration: TAIL-PIECE TO CHAPTER XII.]\n\nTHE END.","title":"The Admiral's Caravan","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":21799}