THEADMIRAL'S CARAVAN

BY

CHARLES E. CARRYL

AUTHOR OF "DAVY AND THE GOBLIN"

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BYREGINALD B. BIRCH

[Illustration: The Riverside Press]

BOSTON AND NEW YORKHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANYThe Riverside Press Cambridge

Copyright, 1891, 1892, 1919, and 1920, by The Century Co. Copyright, 1920, by Charles E. Carryl

[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEWOF HIS LEGS THROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS. "]

TO CONSTANCE

 Sweet Chatterbox, 't is thou that hast beguiled My fancy, as it drew the little child Who in these pages lives; her gentle ways Are but the reflex of thy round of days. The trip of syllable I held so dear, And all thy small remarks, are treasured here-- Charmed by the alchemy of love to stay The while thy blissful childhood slips away. Kind little heart, that knows no selfish thought, Read here the tale that thou, thyself, hast wrought!

CONTENTS

 PAGE

 CHAPTER I Dorothy and the Admiral 11

 CHAPTER II The Ferry to Nowhere 23

 CHAPTER III The Cruise of the Sideboard 32

 CHAPTER IV Tree-top Country 39

 CHAPTER V Bob Scarlet's Garden 54

 CHAPTER VI In the Toy-shop 66

 CHAPTER VII The Song in the Dell 81

 CHAPTER VIII Something About the Camel 95

 CHAPTER IX The Camel's Complaint 104

 CHAPTER X The Sizing Tower 112

 CHAPTER XI The Dancing Animals 120

 CHAPTER XII The Caravan Comes Home 129

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 PAGE "The Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a view of his legs through his spy-glass" Frontispiece

 Head-piece to Chapter I 11

 The Admiral 13

 The Highlander 14

 Sir Walter Rosettes 15

 "The Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a view of his legs through his spy-glass" 19

 "The Admiral sat up and gazed about with a complacent smile" 21

 "'They're entirely different from mine, anyhow, ' said the Stork" 25

 "It seemed like listening to an enormous cuckoo-clock" 26

 "'Dear Me!' she exclaimed, 'here comes all the furniture!'" 30

 "The Admiral exclaimed: 'There she is! I can see her quite plainly!'" 34

 "The sideboard slowly floated along through this strange forest" 40

 Dorothy makes a call in the tree-top country 43

 The extraordinary Post-Captain 47 and 48

 "He did a little fifing on the edges of the note" 49

 "Sir Peter caught the pirate, and he took him by the neck" 51

 "He was walking about with his hands in his waistcoat-pockets" 55

 "There were plants loaded down with little pinafores, and shrubs with small shoes growing all over them" 57

 "'Why, the place where I am, ' said Dorothy" 62

 "Dorothy started off at once, as fast as she could run" 64

 "'It is a shelf!' she exclaimed" 67

 "The Highlander, with his usual bad luck, had put on his sunbonnet backward" 68

 "'You know your size does come in dozens, assorted, ' continued the Jack" 75

 "He sailed away under the bridge" 80

 "She found it rather trying to her nerves, at first, to meet with rabbits as big as horses" 86

 "--To be chattered at by squirrels a head taller than she herself was" 87

 "Pushing the leaves gently aside, she cautiously peeped out" 91

 The Mouse laments 93

 "And found the Caravan sitting in a row on a little bench at the door" 96

 "He dropped his little book, with an appearance of great agitation, and hurried away" 101

 "A door at the back of the shop opened and they all rushed out" 102

 Tail-piece to Chapter VIII 103

 The Caravan discipline the Camel 109

 "'There isn't any more, ' said the Highlander, rather confusedly" 115

 "An elephant and a sheep seized her by the hands, and the next moment she was dancing in the ring" 123

 The animals crossing over 127

 "By this time they were running so fast that she could hardly keep up with them" 135

 "It slowly changed to a bird-cage with a robin sitting in it" 138

 Tail-piece to Chapter XII 140

[Illustration: HEAD-PIECE TO CHAPTER I. ]

CHAPTER I

DOROTHY AND THE ADMIRAL

The Blue Admiral Inn stood on the edge of the shore, with its red brickwalls, and its gabled roof, and the old willow-trees that overhung it, all reflected in the quiet water as if the harbor had been a greatmirror lying upon its back in the sun. This made it a most attractiveplace to look at. Then there were crisp little dimity curtains hangingin the windows of the coffee-room and giving great promise of tidinessand comfort within, and this made it a most delightful place to thinkabout. And then there was a certain suggestion of savory cooking in theswirl of the smoke that came out of the tall, old-fashioned chimneys, and this made it a most difficult place to stay away from. In fact, ifany ships had chanced to come into the little harbor, I believeeverybody on board of them, from the captains down to the cabin-boys, would have scrambled into the boats the moment the anchors were down andpulled away for the Blue Admiral Inn. 

But, so far as ships were concerned, the harbor was as dead as adoor-nail, and poor old Uncle Porticle, who kept the inn, had long agogiven up all idea of expecting them, and had fallen into a melancholyhabit of standing in the little porch that opened on the village street, gazing first to the right and then to the left, and lastly at theopposite side of the way, as if he had a faint hope that certainseafaring men were about to steal a march upon him from the land-side ofthe town. And Dorothy, who was a lonely little child, with no one in theworld to care for but Uncle Porticle, had also fallen into a habit ofsitting on the step of the porch by way of keeping him company; andhere they passed many quiet hours together, with the big robin hoppingabout in his cage, and with the Admiral himself, on his pedestal besidethe porch, keeping watch and ward over the fortunes of the inn. 

[Illustration: THE ADMIRAL. ]

Now the Admiral was only a yard high, and was made of wood into thebargain; but he was a fine figure of a man for all that, being dressedin a very beautiful blue coat (as befitted his name) and canary-coloredknee-breeches, and wearing a fore-and-aft hat rakishly perched on theback of his head. On the other hand, he had sundry stray cracks in thecalves of his legs, and was badly battered about the nose; but, afterall, this only gave him a certain weather-beaten appearance as if he hadbeen around the world any number of times in all sorts of company; andfor as long as Dorothy could remember he had been standing on hispedestal beside the porch, enjoying the sunshine and defying the rain, as a gallant officer should, and earnestly gazing at the opposite sideof the street through a spy-glass. 

[Illustration: THE HIGHLANDER. ]

Now, what the Admiral was staring at was a mystery. He might, forinstance, have been looking at the wooden Highlander that stood at thedoor of Mr. Pendle's instrument-shop, for nothing more magnificent thanthis particular Highlander could possibly be imagined. His clothes wereof every color of the rainbow, and he had silver buckles on his shoes, and brass buttons on his coat, and he was varnished to such an extentthat you could hardly look at him without winking. Then his hair and hiswhiskers were so red, and his legs were so pink and so fat and solifelike, that it seemed as if you could almost hear him speak; and, what was more, he had been standing for years at the door of the shop, proudly holding up a preposterous wooden watch that gave half-pastthree as the correct time at all hours of the day and night. In fact, itwould have been no great wonder if the Admiral had stared at him to theend of his days. 

[Illustration: SIR WALTER ROSETTES. ]

Then there was Sir Walter Rosettes, a long-bodied little man in acavalier's cloak, with a ruff about his neck and enormous rosettes onhis shoes, who stood on a pedestal at old Mrs. Peevy's garden gate, offering an imitation tobacco-plant, free of charge, as it were, to anyone who would take the trouble of carrying it home. This bold device wasintended to call attention to the fact that Mrs. Peevy kept atobacco-shop in the front parlor of her little cottage behind thehollyhock bushes, the announcement being backed up by the spectacle ofthree pipes arranged in a tripod in the window, and by the words"Smokers' Emporium" displayed in gold letters on the glass; and, by theway, Dorothy knew perfectly well who _this_ little man was, as somebodyhad taken the trouble of writing his name with a lead-pencil on hispedestal just below the toes of his shoes. 

And lastly there was old Mrs. Peevy herself, who might be seen at anyhour of the day, sitting at the door of her cottage, fast asleep in theshade of her big cotton umbrella with the Chinese mandarin for a handle. She wasn't much to look at, perhaps, but there was no way of getting atthe Admiral's taste in such matters, so he stared through his spy-glassyear in and year out, and nobody was any the wiser. 

Now from sitting so much in the porch and turning these things over inher mind, Dorothy had come to know the Admiral and the Highlander andSir Walter Rosettes as well as she could possibly know persons whodidn't know her, and who couldn't have spoken to her if they _had_ knownher; but nothing came of the acquaintance until a certain Christmas eve. Of course, nobody knew better than Dorothy what Christmas eve should belike. The snow should be falling softly, and just enough should comedown to cover up the pavements and make the streets look beautifullywhite and clean, and to edge the trees and the lamp-posts and therailings as if they were trimmed with soft lace; and just enough totempt children to come out, and not so much as to keep grown people athome--in fact, just enough for Christmas eve, and not a bit more. 

Then the streets should be full of people hurrying along and allcarrying plenty of parcels; and the windows should be very gay withdelightful wreaths of greens, and bunches of holly with plenty ofscarlet berries on them, and the greengrocers should have little forestsof assorted hemlock-trees on the sidewalks in front of their shops, andeverything should be as cheerful and as bustling as possible. 

And, if you liked, there might be just a faint smell of cooking floatingabout in the air, but this was not important by any means, as it mighthappen at any time. 

Well, all these good old-fashioned things came to pass on thisparticular Christmas eve except the snow; and in place of that therecame a soft, warm rain which was all very well in its way, except that, as Dorothy said, "It didn't belong on Christmas eve. " And just atnightfall she went out into the porch to smell the rain, and to see howChristmas matters generally were getting on in the wet; and she waswatching the people hurrying by, and trying to fancy what was in themysterious-looking parcels they were carrying so carefully under theirumbrellas, when she suddenly noticed that the toes of the Admiral'sshoes were turned sideways on his pedestal, and looking up at him shesaw that he had tucked his spy-glass under his arm, and was gazing downbackward at his legs with an air of great concern. 

This was so startling that Dorothy almost jumped out of her shoes, andshe was just turning to run back into the house when the Admiral caughtsight of her, and called out excitedly, "Cracks in my legs!"--and thenstared hard at her as if demanding some sort of an explanation of thisextraordinary state of affairs. 

Dorothy was dreadfully frightened, but she was a very polite littlegirl, and would have answered the town pump if it had spoken to her; soshe swallowed down a great lump that had come up into her throat, andsaid, as respectfully as she could, "I'm very sorry, sir. I suppose itmust be because they are so very old. "

[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW OFHIS LEGS THROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS. "]

"Old!" exclaimed the Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a viewof his legs through his spy-glass. "Why, they're no older than _I_ am";and, upon thinking it over, this seemed so very true that Dorothy feltquite ashamed of her remark and stood looking at him in a rather foolishway. 

"Try again, " said the Admiral, with a patronizing air. 

"No, " said Dorothy, gravely shaking her head, "I'm sure I don't know anyother reason; only it seems rather strange, you know, that you've nevereven seen them before. "

"If you mean my legs, " said the Admiral, "of course I've seen thembefore--lots of times. But I've never seen 'em behind. That is, " headded by way of explanation. "I've never seen 'em behind before. "

"But I mean the cracks, " said Dorothy, with a faint smile. You see shewas beginning to feel a little acquainted with the Admiral by this time, and the conversation didn't seem to be quite so solemn as it had beenwhen he first began talking. 

"Then you should say 'seen 'em before _behind_, '" said the Admiral. "That's where they've always been, you know. "

Dorothy didn't know exactly what reply to make to this remark; but shethought she ought to say something by way of helping along theconversation, so she began, "I suppose it's kind of----" and here shestopped to think of the word she wanted. 

"Kind of what?" said the Admiral severely. 

"Kind of--cripplesome, isn't it?" said Dorothy rather confusedly. 

"Cripplesome?" exclaimed the Admiral. "Why, that's no word for it. It'spositively decrepitoodle----" here he paused for a moment and gotextremely red in the face, and then finished up with "----loodelarious, "and stared hard at her again, as if inquiring what she thought of_that_. 

"Goodness!" said Dorothy, drawing a long breath, "what a word!"

"Well, it _is_ rather a word, " said the Admiral with a very satisfiedair. "You see, it means about everything that can happen to a person'slegs--" but just here his remarks came abruptly to an end, for as he wasstrutting about on his pedestal, he suddenly slipped off the edge of itand came to the ground flat on his back. 

[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL SAT UP AND GAZED ABOUT WITH A COMPLACENTSMILE. "]

Dorothy gave a little scream of dismay; but the Admiral, who didn'tappear to be in the least disturbed by this accident, sat up and gazedabout with a complacent smile. Then, getting on his feet, he took a pipeout of his pocket, and lit it with infinite relish; and having turned uphis coat-collar by way of keeping the rest of his clothes dry, hestarted off down the street without another word. The people going byhad all disappeared in the most unaccountable manner, and Dorothy couldsee him quite plainly as he walked along, tacking from one side of thestreet to the other with a strange rattling noise, and blowing littlepuffs of smoke into the air like a shabby little steam-tug going to seain a storm. 

Now all this was extremely exciting, and Dorothy, quite forgetting therain, ran down the street a little way so as to keep the Admiral insight. "It's _precisely_ like a doll going traveling all by itself, " sheexclaimed as she ran along. "How he rattles! I suppose _that's_ hislittle cracked legs--and goodness gracious, how he smokes!" she added, for by this time the Admiral had fired up, so to speak, as if he werebound on a long journey, and was blowing out such clouds of smoke thathe presently quite shut himself out from view. The smoke smelt somewhatlike burnt feathers, which, of course, was not very agreeable, but theworst of it was that when Dorothy turned to run home again shediscovered that she couldn't see her way back to the porch, and she wasfeeling about for it with her hands stretched out, when the smokesuddenly cleared away and she found that the inn, and Mr. Pendle's shop, and Mrs. Peevy's cottage had all disappeared like a street in apantomime, and that she was standing quite alone before a strange littlestone house. 

CHAPTER II

THE FERRY TO NOWHERE

The rain had stopped, and the moon was shining through the breakingclouds, and as Dorothy looked up at the little stone house she saw thatit had an archway through it with "FERRY" in large letters on the wallabove it. Of course she had no idea of going by herself over a strangeferry; but she was an extremely curious little girl, as you willpresently see, and so she immediately ran through the archway to seewhat the ferry was like and where it took people, but, to her surprise, instead of coming out at the water side, she came into a strange, old-fashioned-looking street as crooked as it could possibly be, andlined on both sides by tall houses with sharply peaked roofs looming upagainst the evening sky. 

There was no one in sight but a stork. He was a very tall stork with redlegs, and wore a sort of paper bag on his head with "FERRYMAN" writtenacross the front of it; and as Dorothy appeared he held out one of hisclaws and said, "Fare, please, " in quite a matter-of-fact way. 

Dorothy was positively certain that she hadn't any money, but she puther hand into the pocket of her apron, partly for the sake ofappearances, and partly because she was a little afraid of the Stork, and, to her surprise, pulled out a large cake. It was nearly as big as asaucer, and was marked "ONE BISKER"; and as this seemed to show that ithad some value, she handed it to the ferryman. The Stork turned it overseveral times rather suspiciously, and then, taking a large bite out ofit, remarked, "Very good fare, " and dropped the rest of it into a littlehole in the wall; and having done this he stared gravely at Dorothy fora moment, and then said, "What makes your legs bend the wrong way?"

"Why, they don't!" said Dorothy, looking down at them to see if anythinghad happened to them. 

"They're entirely different from mine, anyhow, " said the Stork. 

"But, you know, " said Dorothy very earnestly, "I couldn't sit down ifthey bent the other way. "

"Sitting down is all very well, " said the Stork, with a solemn shake ofhis head, "but you couldn't collect fares with 'em, to save your life, "and with this he went into the house and shut the door. 

[Illustration: "'THEY'RE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FROM MINE, ANYHOW, ' SAID THESTORK. "]

"It seems to me this is a very strange adventure, " said Dorothy toherself. "It appears to be mostly about people's legs, " and she wasgazing down again in a puzzled way at her little black stockings whenshe heard a cough, and looking up she saw that the Stork had his headout of a small round window in the wall of the house. 

"Look here, " he said confidentially, "I forgot to ask what your fare wasfor. " He said this in a sort of husky whisper, and as Dorothy looked upat him it seemed something like listening to an enormous cuckoo-clockwith a bad cold in its works. 

[Illustration: "IT SEEMED LIKE LISTENING TO AN ENORMOUS CUCKOO-CLOCK. "]

"I don't think I know exactly _what_ it was for, " she said, ratherconfusedly. 

"Well, it's got to be for _something_, you know, or it won't be fair, "said the Stork. "I suppose you don't want to go over the ferry?" headded, cocking his head on one side, and looking down at her, inquiringly. 

"Oh, no indeed!" said Dorothy, very earnestly. 

"_That's_ lucky, " said the Stork. "It doesn't go anywhere that it evergets to. Perhaps you'd like to hear about it. It's in poetry, you know. "

"Thank you, " said Dorothy politely. "I'd like it very much. "

"All right, " said the Stork. "The werses is called 'A Ferry Tale'"; and, giving another cough to clear his voice, he began:

 Oh, come and cross over to nowhere, And go where The nobodies live on their nothing a day! A tideful of tricks is this merry Old Ferry, And these are the things that it does by the way:

 It pours into parks and disperses The nurses; It goes into gardens and scatters the cats; It leaks into lodgings, disorders The boarders, And washes away with their holiday hats. 

 It soaks into shops, and inspires The buyers To crawl over counters and climb upon chairs; It trickles on tailors, it spatters On hatters, And makes little milliners scamper up-stairs. 

 It goes out of town and it rambles Through brambles; It wallows in hollows and dives into dells; It flows into farm-yards and sickens The chickens, And washes the wheelbarrows into the wells. 

 It turns into taverns and drenches The benches; It jumps into pumps and comes out with a roar; It pounds like a postman at lodges-- Then dodges And runs up the lane when they open the door. 

 It leaks into laundries and wrangles With mangles; It trips over turnips and tumbles down-hill; It rolls like a coach along highways And byways, But never gets anywhere, go as it will!

 Oh, foolish old Ferry! all muddles And puddles-- Go fribble and dribble along on your way; We drink to your health with molasses In glasses, And waft you farewell with a handful of hay!

"What do you make out of it?" inquired the Stork anxiously. 

"I don't make anything out of it, " said Dorothy, staring at him in greatperplexity. 

"I didn't suppose you would, " said the Stork, apparently very muchrelieved. "I've been at it for years and years, and I've never madesixpence out of it yet, " with which remark he pulled in his head anddisappeared. 

"I don't know what he means, I'm sure, " said Dorothy, after waiting amoment to see if the Stork would come back, "but I wouldn't go over thatferry for _sixty_ sixpences. It's altogether too frolicky"; and havingmade this wise resolution, she was just turning to go back through thearchway when the door of the house flew open and a little stream ofwater ran out upon the pavement. This was immediately followed byanother and much larger flow, and the next moment the water camepouring out through the doorway in such a torrent that she had just timeto scramble up on the window-ledge before the street was completelyflooded. 

[Illustration: "'DEAR ME!' SHE EXCLAIMED, 'HERE COMES ALL THEFURNITURE!'"]

Dorothy's first idea was that there was something wrong with the pipes, but as she peeped in curiously through the window she was astonished tosee that it was raining hard inside the house--"and dear me!" sheexclaimed, "here comes all the furniture!" and, sure enough, the nextmoment a lot of old-fashioned furniture came floating out of the houseand drifted away down the street. There was a corner cupboard full ofcrockery, and two spinning-wheels, and a spindle-legged table set outwith a blue-and-white tea-set and some cups and saucers, and finally acarved sideboard which made two or three clumsy attempts to get throughthe doorway broadside on, and then took a fresh start, and came throughendwise with a great flourish. All of these things made quite a littlefleet, and the effect was very imposing; but by this time the water wasquite up to the window-ledge, and as the sideboard was afatherly-looking piece of furniture with plenty of room to move aboutin, Dorothy stepped aboard of it as it went by, and, sitting down on alittle shelf that ran along the back of it, sailed away in the wake ofthe tea-table. 

CHAPTER III

THE CRUISE OF THE SIDEBOARD

The sideboard behaved in the most absurd manner, spinning around andaround in the water, and banging about among the other furniture as ifit had never been at sea before, and finally bringing up against thetea-table with a crash in the stupidest way imaginable, and knocking thetea-set and all the cups and saucers into the water. Dorothy felt veryridiculous as you may suppose, and, to add to her mortification, theStork ferryman suddenly reappeared, and she could see him running alongthe roofs of the houses, and now and then stopping to stare down at herfrom the eaves as she sailed by, as if she were the most extraordinaryspectacle he had ever seen, as indeed she probably was. Sometimes hewaited until the sideboard had floated some distance past him as if tosee how it looked, gazed at from behind; and then Dorothy would catchsight of him again far ahead, peering out from behind a chimney, as ifto get a front view of the performance. All this was, of course, veryimpertinent, and although Dorothy was naturally a very kind-heartedlittle child, she was really quite gratified when the Stork finally madean attempt to get a new view of her from the top of an unusually tallchimney, and fell down into it with a loud screech of dismay. 

Presently the street ended at a great open space where the water spreadout in every direction, like a lake. The day seemed to be breaking, andit was quite light; and as the sideboard sailed out into the open water, Dorothy caught sight of something like a fat-looking boat, floating at alittle distance and slowly drifting toward her. As it came nearer itproved to be Mrs. Peevy's big umbrella upside down, with a little partyof people sitting around on the edge of it with their feet against thehandle, and, to Dorothy's amazement, she knew every one of them. Therewas the Admiral, staring about with his spy-glass, and Sir WalterRosettes, carefully carrying his tobacco-plant as if it were a nosegay, and the Highlander, with his big watch dangling in the water over theside of the umbrella; and last, there was the little Chinese mandarinclinging convulsively to the top of the handle as if he were keeping alookout from the masthead. 

[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL EXCLAIMED: 'THERE SHE IS! I CAN SEE HERQUITE PLAINLY!'"]

The sideboard brought up against the edge of the umbrella with a softlittle bump, and the Admiral, hurriedly pointing his spy-glass atDorothy so that the end of it almost touched her nose, exclaimedexcitedly, "There she is! I can see her quite plainly, " and the wholeparty gave an exultant shout. 

"How are you getting on _now_?" inquired Sir Walter, as if he had hadher under close observation for a week at least. 

"I'm getting on pretty well, " said Dorothy, mournfully. "I believe I'mcrossing a ferry. "

"So are we, " said the Admiral, cheerfully. "We're a Caravan, you know. "

"A Caravan?" exclaimed Dorothy, very much surprised. 

"I believe I said 'Caravan' quite distinctly, " said the Admiral in aninjured tone, appealing to the rest of the party; but no one saidanything except the Highlander, who hastily consulted his watch and thenexclaimed "Hurrah!" rather doubtfully. 

"I understood what you said, " explained Dorothy, "but I don't think Iknow exactly what you mean. "

"Never mind what he means, " shouted Sir Walter. "_That's_ of noconsequence. "

"No consequence!" exclaimed the Admiral, flaring up. "Why, I mean morein a minute than you do in a week!"

"You _say_ more in a minute than anybody could mean in a month, "retorted Sir Walter, flourishing his tobacco-plant. 

"_I_ can talk a year without meaning _anything_, " said the Highlander, proudly; but no one took any notice of this remark, which, of course, served him right. 

The Admiral stared at Sir Walter for a moment through his spy-glass, andthen said very firmly, "You're a pig!" at which the Highlander againconsulted his watch, and then shouted, "Two pigs!" with greatenthusiasm, as if that were the time of day. 

"And you're another, " said Sir Walter, angrily. "If it comes to that, we're all pigs. "

"Dear me!" cried Dorothy, quite distressed at all this. "What makes youall quarrel so? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. "

"We're all ashamed of one another, if _that_ will do any good, " said theAdmiral. 

"And, you see, that gives each of us two persons to be ashamed of, "added Sir Walter, with an air of great satisfaction. 

"But that isn't what I mean at all, " said Dorothy. "I mean that each oneof you ought to be ashamed of _himself_. "

"Why, we're each being ashamed of by two persons already, " said theAdmiral, peevishly. "I should think _that_ was enough to satisfyanybody. "

"But that isn't the same thing, " insisted Dorothy. "Each particular himought to be ashamed of each particular self. " This remark sounded veryfine indeed, and Dorothy felt so pleased with herself for having madeit that she went on to say, "And the truth of it is, you all argueprecisely like a lot of little school-children. "

Now, Dorothy herself was only about four feet high, but she said this insuch a superior manner that the entire Caravan stared at her with greatadmiration for a moment, and then began to give a little cheer; but justat this instant the umbrella made a great plunge, as if somebody hadgiven it a sudden push, and the whole party tumbled into the bottom ofit like a lot of dolls. 

"What kind of a boat do you call this?" shouted Sir Walter, as they allscrambled to their feet and clung desperately to the handle. 

"It's a paragondola, " said the Admiral, who had suddenly become verypale. "You see, it isn't exactly like an ordinary ship. "

"I should think not!" said Sir Walter, indignantly. "I'd as lief go tosea in a toast-rack. Why don't you bring her head up to the wind?" heshouted as the paragondola took another plunge. 

"I can't!" cried the Admiral, despairingly; "she hasn't got any head. "

"Then put me ashore!" roared Sir Walter, furiously. 

Now this was all very well for Sir Walter to say, but by this time theparagondola was racing through the water at such a rate that even thesideboard could hardly keep up with it; and the waves were tossing aboutin such wild confusion that it was perfectly ridiculous for any one totalk about going ashore. In fact, it was a most exciting moment. The airwas filled with flying spray, and the paragondola dashed ahead fasterand faster, until at last Dorothy could no longer hear the sound of thevoices, and she could just see that they were throwing the big watchoverboard as if to lighten the ship. Then she caught sight of theHighlander trying to climb up the handle, and Sir Walter franticallybeating him on the back with the tobacco-plant, and the next momentthere was another wild plunge and the paragondola and Caravan vanishedfrom sight. 

CHAPTER IV

TREE-TOP COUNTRY

It was a very curious thing that the storm seemed to follow the Caravanas if it were a private affair of their own, and the paragondola had nosooner disappeared than Dorothy found herself sailing along as quietlyas if such a thing as bad weather had never been heard of. But there wassomething very lonely about the sideboard now, as it went careeringthrough the water, and she felt quite disconsolate as she sat on thelittle shelf and wondered what had become of the Caravan. 

"If Mrs. Peevy's umbrella shuts up with them inside of it, " she saidmournfully to herself, "I'm sure I don't know what they'll do. It's sucha stiff thing to open that it must be perfectly awful when it shuts upall of a sudden, " and she was just giving a little shudder at the merethought of such a thing, when the sideboard bumped up against somethingand she found that it had run into a tree. In fact, she found that shehad drifted into a forest of enormous trees, growing in a mostremarkable manner straight up out of the lake; and as she looked up shecould see great branches stretching out in every direction far above herhead, all interlaced together and covered with leaves as if it had beenmidsummer instead of being, as it certainly was, Christmas day. 

[Illustration: "THE SIDEBOARD SLOWLY FLOATED ALONG THROUGH THIS STRANGEFOREST. "]

As the sideboard slowly floated along through this strange forest, Dorothy presently discovered that each tree had a little door in it, close to the water's edge, with a small platform before it by way of adoor-step, as if the people who lived in the trees had a fancy for goingabout visiting in boats. But she couldn't help wondering who in theworld, or, rather, who in the trees, the people went to see, for all thelittle doors were shut as tight as wax, and had notices posted up onthem, such as "No admittance, " "Go away, " "Gone to Persia, " and manyothers, all of which Dorothy considered extremely rude, especially onenotice which read, "Beware of the Pig, " as if the person who lived inthat particular tree was too stingy to keep a dog. 

Now all this was very distressing, because, in the first place, Dorothywas extremely fond of visiting, and, in the second place, she wasgetting rather tired of sailing about on the sideboard; and she wastherefore greatly pleased when she presently came to a door without anynotice upon it. There was, moreover, a bright little brass knocker onthis door, and as this seemed to show that people were expected to callthere if they felt like it, she waited until the sideboard was passingclose to the platform and then gave a little jump ashore. 

The sideboard took a great roll backward and held up its front feet asif expressing its surprise at this proceeding, and as it pitched forwardagain the doors of it flew open, and a number of large pies fell outinto the water and floated away in all directions. To Dorothy'samazement, the sideboard immediately started off after them, and beganpushing them together, like a shepherd's dog collecting a flock ofrunaway sheep; and then, having got them all together in a compactbunch, sailed solemnly away, shoving the pies ahead of it. 

Dorothy now looked at the door again, and saw that it was standingpartly open. The doorway was only about as high as her shoulder, and asshe stooped down and looked through it she saw there was a small windingstairway inside, leading up through the body of the tree. She listenedfor a moment, but everything was perfectly quiet inside, so she squeezedin through the doorway and ran up the stairs as fast as she could go. 

[Illustration: DOROTHY MAKES A CALL IN THE TREE-TOP COUNTRY. ]

The stairway ended at the top in a sort of trap-door, and Dorothy poppedup through it like a jack-in-the-box; but instead of coming out, as sheexpected, among the branches of the tree, she found herself in a wide, open field as flat as a pancake, and with a small house standing farout in the middle of it. It was a bright and sunny place, and quite likean ordinary field in every way except that, in place of grass, it had acurious floor of branches, closely braided together like the bottom of amarket-basket; but, as this seemed natural enough, considering that thefield was in the top of a tree, Dorothy hurried away to the littlehouse without giving the floor a second thought. 

As she came up to the house she saw that it was a charming littlecottage with vines trained about the latticed windows, and with a signover the door, reading--

 THE OUTSIDE INN

"I suppose they'll take me for a customer, " she said, looking ratherdoubtfully at the sign, "and I haven't got any money. But I'm verylittle, and I won't stay very long, " she added, by way of excusingherself, and as she said this she softly pushed open the door and wentin. To her great surprise, there was no inside to the house, and shecame out into the field again on the other side of the door. The wall onthis side, however, was nicely papered, and had pictures hanging on it, and there were curtains at the windows as if it had been one side of aroom at some time or another; but there was a notice pasted up besidethe door, reading--

 THE INN-SIDE OUT

as if the rest of the house had gone out for a walk, and might beexpected back at any time. 

Now, as you may suppose, Dorothy was quite unprepared for all this, andshe was looking about in great astonishment when she suddenly discoveredthat the furniture was at home, and was standing in a rather lonelymanner quite by itself in the open field. It was, moreover, thestrangest-looking furniture she had ever seen, for it was growingdirectly out of the floor in a twisted-up fashion, something like thegrapevine chairs in Uncle Porticle's garden; but the oddest part of itall was a ridiculous-looking bed with leaves sprouting out of its legs, and with great pink blossoms growing on the bed-posts like the satinbows on Dorothy's little bed at the Blue Admiral Inn. All this was soremarkable that she went over to where the furniture was standing totake a closer look at it; and as she came up alongside the bed she wasamazed to see that the Caravan, all three of them, were lying in it in arow, with their eyes closed as if they were fast asleep. This was suchan unexpected sight that Dorothy first drew a long breath ofastonishment and then exclaimed, "Jiminy!" which was a word she usedonly on particular occasions; and, as she said this, the Caravan openedtheir eyes and stared at her like so many owls. 

"Why, what are you all doing here?" she said; at which the Admiral satup in bed, and after taking a hurried look at her through his spy-glass, said, "Shipwrecked!" in a solemn voice and then lay down again. 

"Did the paragonorer shut up with you?" inquired Dorothy, anxiously. 

"Yes, ma'am, " said the Admiral. 

"And squashed us, " added Sir Walter. 

"Like everything, " put in the Highlander. 

"I was afraid it would, " said Dorothy, sorrowfully; "I s'pose it wassomething like being at sea in a cornucopia. "

"Does a cornucopia have things in it that pinch your legs?" inquired SirWalter, with an air of great interest. 

"Oh, no, " said Dorothy. 

"Then it wasn't like it at all, " said Sir Walter, peevishly. 

"It was about as much like it, " said the Admiral, "as a pump is like apost-captain"; and he said this in such a positive way that Dorothydidn't like to contradict him. In fact she really didn't know anythingabout the matter, so she merely said, as politely as she could, "I don'tthink I know what a post-captain is. "

"I don't either, " said the Admiral, promptly, "but I can tell you howthey behave"; and sitting up in bed, he recited these verses:

 Post-captain at the Needles and commander of a crew On the "Royal Biddy" frigate was Sir Peter Bombazoo; His mind was full of music, and his head was full of tunes, And he cheerfully exhibited on pleasant afternoons. 

[Illustration: THE EXTRAORDINARY POST-CAPTAIN (1). ]

 He could whistle, on his fingers, an invigorating reel, And could imitate a piper on the handles of the wheel; He could play in double octaves, too, all up and down the rail, Or rattle off a rondo on the bottom of a pail. 

[Illustration: THE EXTRAORDINARY POST-CAPTAIN (2). ]

 Then porters with their packages, and bakers with their buns, And countesses in carriages, and grenadiers with guns, And admirals and commodores, arrived from near and far To listen to the music of this entertaining tar. 

 When they heard the Captain humming, and beheld the dancing crew, The commodores severely said, "Why, this will never do!" And the admirals all hurried home, remarking, "This is most Extraordinary conduct for a captain at his post. "

[Illustration: "HE DID A LITTLE FIFING ON THE EDGES OF THE NOTE. "]

 Then they sent some sailing-orders to Sir Peter, in a boat, And he did a little fifing on the edges of the note; But he read the sailing-orders, as, of course, he had to do, And removed the "Royal Biddy" to the Bay of Boohgabooh. 

 Now, Sir Peter took it kindly, but it's proper to explain He was sent to catch a pirate out upon the Spanish Main; And he played, with variations, an imaginary tune On the buttons of his waistcoat, like a jocular bassoon. 

 Then a topman saw the Pirate come a-sailing in the bay, And reported to the Captain in the customary way. "I'll receive him, " said Sir Peter, "with a musical salute!" And he gave some imitations of a double-jointed flute. 

 Then the Pirate cried derisively, "I've heard it done before!" And he hoisted up a banner emblematical of gore. But Sir Peter said serenely, "You may double-shot the guns While I sing my little ballad of 'The Butter on the Buns. '"

 Then the Pirate banged Sir Peter and Sir Peter banged him back, And they banged away together as they took another tack. Then Sir Peter said politely, "You may board him, if you like"-- And he played a little dirge upon the handle of a pike. 

 Then the "Biddies" poured like hornets down upon the Pirate's deck, And Sir Peter caught the Pirate, and he took him by the neck, And remarked, "You must excuse me, but you acted like a brute When I gave my imitation of that double-jointed flute. "

 So they took that wicked Pirate, and they took his wicked crew, And tied them up with double knots in packages of two; And left them lying on their backs in rows upon the beach With a little bread and water within comfortable reach. 

[Illustration: "SIR PETER CAUGHT THE PIRATE, AND HE TOOK HIM BY THENECK. "]

 Now the Pirate had a treasure (mostly silverware and gold), And Sir Peter took and stowed it in the bottom of his hold; And said "I will retire on this cargo of doubloons, And each of you, my gallant crew, may have some silver spoons. "

 Now commodores in coach-and-fours, and corporals in cabs, And men with carts of pies and tarts, and fishermen with crabs, And barristers with wigs, in gigs, still gather on the strand-- But there isn't any music save a little German band. 

"I think Sir Peter was perfectly grand!" said Dorothy, as the Admiralfinished his verses. "He was so composed. "

"So was the poetry, " said the Admiral. "It _had_ to be composed, youknow, or there wouldn't have been any. "

"_That_ would have been fine!" remarked the Highlander. 

The Admiral got so red in the face at this, that Dorothy thought he wasgoing into some kind of a fit; but just at this moment there was a sharprap at the door, and Sir Walter exclaimed, "_That's_ Bob Scarlet, andhere we are in his flower-bed!"

"Jibs and jiggers!" said the Admiral, "I never thought of that. What doyou suppose he'll do?"

"Pick us!" said the Highlander, with remarkable presence of mind. 

"Then tell him we're all out, " said the Admiral to Dorothy in extremeagitation, and with this, the whole Caravan disappeared under the bedwith all possible despatch. 

"We _are_ out, you know, " said Dorothy to herself, "because there's no_in_ for us to be in"; and then she called out in a very loud voice, "We're all out in here!" which wasn't exactly what she meant to say, after all. 

But there was no answer, and she was just stooping down to call throughthe keyhole when she saw that the wall-paper was nothing but a vinegrowing on a trellis, and the door only a little rustic gate leadingthrough it. "And, dear me!--where has the furniture gone to?" sheexclaimed, for the curly chairs had changed into flower-pot stands, andthe bed into a great mound of waving lilies, and she found herselfstanding in a beautiful garden. 

CHAPTER V

BOB SCARLET'S GARDEN

Being in a garden full of flowers at Christmas-time is a very finething; and Dorothy was looking about with great delight, and wonderinghow it had all happened, when she suddenly caught sight of a big robinwalking along one of the paths, and examining the various plants with anair of great interest. He was a very big robin, indeed--in fact, he wasabout as large as a goose; and he had on a gardener's hat, and a brightred waistcoat which he was wearing unbuttoned so as to give his fatlittle chest plenty of room; but the most remarkable thing about him wasthat he was walking about _with his hands in his waistcoat-pockets_. 

Dorothy had never seen a robin do this before, and she was looking athim in great astonishment, when he chanced to turn around to take aparticular look at a large flower, and she saw that he had twocaterpillars neatly embroidered on the back of his waistcoat so as toform the letters B. S. 

[Illustration: "HE WAS WALKING ABOUT WITH HIS HANDS IN HISWAISTCOAT-POCKETS. "]

"Now I wonder what B. S. Means, " she said to herself with her usualcuriosity. "It _stands_ for Brown Sugar, but, of course, it can't bethat. Perhaps it means Best Suit, or Bird Superintendent, or--or--whyit must mean Bob Scarlet, to be sure!" and clapping her hands in the joyof this discovery, she ran after the Robin to take a nearer look at himand, if possible, to have a little conversation. 

But Bob Scarlet proved to be a very difficult person to get near to. Over and over again Dorothy caught sight of the top of his hat beyond ahedge, or saw the red waistcoat through the bushes; but no matter howquickly she stole around to the spot, he was always gone before she gotthere, and she would see the hat or the waistcoat far away, in anotherpart of the garden, and would hurry after him only to be disappointed asbefore. She was getting very tired of this, and was walking aroundrather disconsolately, when she happened to look at one of the plants, and discovered that little sunbonnets were growing on it in greatprofusion, like white lilies; and this was such a delightful discovery, and such an exceedingly interesting circumstance, that she instantlyforgot all about Bob Scarlet, and started away in great excitement toexamine the other plants. 

[Illustration: "THERE WERE PLANTS LOADED DOWN WITH LITTLE PINAFORES, ANDSHRUBS WITH SMALL SHOES GROWING ALL OVER THEM. "]

There was a great variety of them, and they all were of the same curiouscharacter. Besides the bonnet-bush, there were plants loaded down withlittle pinafores, and shrubs with small shoes growing all over them, like peas, and delicate vines of thread with button-blossoms on them, and, what particularly pleased Dorothy, a row of pots marked "FROCKFLOWERS, " and each containing a stalk with a crisp little frock growingon it, like a big tulip upside down. 

"They're only big enough for dolls, " chattered Dorothy, as she hurriedfrom one to the other, "but, of course, they'll grow. I s'pose it's whatthey call a nursery-garden. Just fancy--" she exclaimed, stopping shortand clasping her hands in a rapture, --"just fancy going out to pick anapronful of delightful new stockings, or running out every day to see ifyour best frock is ripe yet!" And I'm sure I don't know what she wouldhave said next, but just at this moment she caught sight of a paperlying in the path before her, and, of course, immediately becameinterested in _that_. 

It was folded something like a lawyer's document, and was very neatlymarked in red ink "MEMORUMDRUMS"; and after looking at it curiously fora moment, Dorothy said to herself, "It's prob'bly a wash-list; nothingbut two aprons, and four HDKeffs, and ten towels--there's always such a_lot_ of towels, you know, " and here she picked up the paper; butinstead of being a wash-list, she found it contained these verses:

 Have Angleworms attractive homes? Do Bumblebees have brains? Do Caterpillars carry combs? Do Dodos dote on drains? Can Eels elude elastic earls? Do Flatfish fish for flats? Are Grigs agreeable to girls? Do Hares have hunting-hats? Do Ices make an Ibex ill? Do Jackdaws jug their jam? Do Kites kiss all the kids they kill? Do Llamas live on lamb? Will Moles molest a mounted mink? Do Newts deny the news? Are Oysters boisterous when they drink? Do Parrots prowl in pews? Do Quakers get their quills from Quails? Do Rabbits rob on roads? Are Snakes supposed to sneer at snails? Do Tortoises tease toads? Can Unicorns perform on horns? Do Vipers value veal? Do Weasels weep when fast asleep? Can Xylophagans squeal? Do Yaks in packs invite attacks? Are Zebras full of zeal?

 P. S. Shake well and recite every morning in a shady place. 

"I don't believe a single one of them, and I never read such stuff!"exclaimed Dorothy, indignantly; and she was just about to throw downthe paper when Bob Scarlet suddenly appeared, hurrying along the path, and gazing anxiously from side to side as if he had lost something. Ashe came upon Dorothy, he started violently, and said "Shoo!" with greatvehemence, and then, after staring at her a moment, added, "Oh, I begyour pardon--I thought you were a cat. Have you seen anything of myexercise?"

"Is this it?" said Dorothy, holding up the paper. 

"That's it, " said the Robin, in a tone of great satisfaction. "Shake ithard, please. "

Dorothy gave the paper a good shake, after which Bob Scarlet took it andstuffed it into his waistcoat-pocket, remarking, "It has to be wellshaken before I take it, you know. "

"Is that the prescription?" said Dorothy, beginning to laugh. 

"No, it's the postscription, " replied the Robin, very seriously; "but, somehow, I never remember it till I come to it. I suppose it's put atthe end so that I won't forget it the next time. You see, it's about theonly exercise I have. "

"I should think it was very good exercise, " said Dorothy, trying to lookserious again. 

"Oh, it's _good_ enough, what there is of it, " said the Robin, in anoffhand way. 

"But I'm sure there's _enough_ of it, " said Dorothy. 

"There _is_ enough of it, such as it is, " replied the Robin. 

"Such as it is?" repeated Dorothy, beginning to feel a little perplexed. "Why, it's _hard_ enough, I'm sure. It's enough to drive a person quitedistracted. "

"Well, it's a corker till you get used to it, " said the Robin, struttingabout. "There's such a tremendous variety to it, you see, that itexercises you all over at once. "

This was so ridiculous that Dorothy laughed outright. "I should _never_get used to it, " she said. "I don't believe I know a single one of theanswers. "

"_I_ do!" said Bob Scarlet, proudly; "I know 'em all. It's 'No' toeverything in it. "

"Dear me!" said Dorothy, feeling quite provoked at herself, "of courseit is. I never thought of that. "

"And when you can answer _them_, " continued the Robin, with a veryimportant air, "you can answer anything. "

Now, as the Robin said this, it suddenly occurred to Dorothy that shehad been lost for quite a long time, and that this was a goodopportunity for getting a little information, so she said very politely:"Then I wish you'd please tell me where I am. "

"Why, you're _here_, " replied the Robin, promptly. "That's what _I_ callan easy one. "

"But _where_ is it?" said Dorothy. 

"Where is _what_?" said the Robin, looking rather puzzled. 

[Illustration: "'WHY, THE PLACE WHERE I AM, ' SAID DOROTHY. "]

"Why, the place where I am, " said Dorothy. 

"That's here, too, " replied the Robin, and then, looking at hersuspiciously, he added, "Come--no chaffing, you know. I won't have it. "

"But I'm _not_ chaffing, " said Dorothy, beginning to feel a littleprovoked; "it's only because you twist the things I say the wrong way. "

"What do you say 'em the wrong way for, then?" said Bob Scarlet, irritably. "Why don't you get 'em straight?"

"Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy, now quite out of patience. "How dreadfullyconfusing it all is! Don't you understand?--I only want to know wherethe place is where I am now, --whereabouts in the geography, I mean, " sheadded in desperation. 

"It isn't in there at all, " said Bob Scarlet, very decidedly. "Thereisn't a geography going that could hold on to it for five minutes. "

"Do you mean that it isn't _anywhere_?" exclaimed Dorothy, beginning tofeel a little frightened. 

"No, I don't, " said Bob Scarlet, obstinately. "I mean that it isanywhere--anywhere that it chooses to be, you know; only it doesn't_stay_ anywhere any longer than it likes. "

"Then I'm going away, " said Dorothy, hastily. "I won't stay in such aplace. "

"Well, you'd better be quick about it, " said the Robin, with a chuckle, "or there won't be any place to go away _from_. I can feel it beginningto go now, " and with this remark Bob Scarlet him self hurried away. 

[Illustration: "DOROTHY STARTED OFF AT ONCE, AS FAST AS SHE COULD RUN. "]

There was something so alarming in the idea of a place going away andleaving her behind, that Dorothy started off at once, as fast as shecould run, and indeed she wasn't a moment too soon. The garden itselfwas already beginning to be very much agitated, and the clothes on theplants were folding themselves up in a fluttering sort of a way as sheran past them; and she noticed, moreover, that the little shoes on theshoe-shrub were so withered away that they looked like a lot of raisins. But she had no time to stop and look at such things, and she ran on andon until, to her delight, she came suddenly upon the little trap-doorwhere she had come up. There wasn't a minute to spare, and she jumpeddown into the hole without so much as stopping to look back at thevanishing garden, and hurried down the little stairway. It was as darkas pitch, and as she ran down, going around and around, on the windingstairs, she could hear them folding up behind her like the slats of ablind; and she had just time to rush through the door at the bottom, when the trunk of the tree flapped inward like an empty bag and thenshot up into the air. 

CHAPTER VI

IN THE TOY-SHOP

The first thing that Dorothy did was to draw a long breath over hernarrow escape, and the next thing was to look up into the air to seewhat had become of the tree, and she saw the braided floor of the gardenfloating away, far above her head, with the flapping trunks of the treesdangling from it like a lot of one-legged trousers. This was a ratherridiculous spectacle, and when the floor presently shriveled up into asmall brown patch, like a flying pancake, and then went entirely out ofsight, she said "Pooh!" very contemptuously and felt quite brave again. 

[Illustration: "'IT IS A SHELF!' SHE EXCLAIMED. "]

"It wasn't half so solemn as I expected, " she went on, chattering toherself; "I certainly thought there would be all kinds of phenomeners, and, after all, it's precisely like nothing but a big basket of oldclothes, blowing away. But it's just as well to be saved, of course, only I don't know where I am any more than I did before. It's a kind ofwooden floor, I think, " she added, stamping on it with her little shoe;"and, dear me! I verily believe it's nothing but a shelf. It _is_ ashelf!" she exclaimed, peeping cautiously over the edge; "and there'sthe real floor ever so far away. I can never jump down there in theworld without being dashed to destruction!"--and she was just thinkinghow it would do to hang from the edge of the shelf by her hands and thenlet herself drop (with her eyes shut, of course) when a little party ofpeople came tumbling down through the air and fell in a heap closebeside her. She gave a scream of dismay and then stood staring at themin utter bewilderment, for, as the party scrambled to their feet, she sawthey were the Caravan, dressed up in the most extraordinary fashion, inlittle frocks and long shawls, and all wearing sunbonnets. TheHighlander, with his usual bad luck, had put on _his_ sunbonnetbackward, with the crown over his face, and was struggling with it sohelplessly that Dorothy rushed at him and got it off just in time tosave him from being suffocated. In fact, he was so black in the facethat she had to pound him on the back to bring him to. 

[Illustration: "THE HIGHLANDER, WITH HIS USUAL BAD LUCK, HAD PUT ON HISSUNBONNET BACKWARD. "]

"We're disguised, you know, " said the Admiral, breathlessly. "We foundthese things under the bed. Bob Scarlet isn't anywhere about, is he?" headded, staring around in an agitated manner through his spy-glass. 

"About?" said Dorothy, trying to look serious. "I should think he wasabout five miles from here by this time. "

"I wish it was five thousand, " exclaimed Sir Walter, angrily, smoothingdown his frock. "Old Peckjabber!"

"Why, what in the world is the matter?" said Dorothy, beginning to laughin spite of herself. 

"Matter!" exclaimed the Admiral, his voice fairly trembling withemotion; "why, look here! We was all shrinking away to nothing in thatwanishing garden. Bob Scarlet himself was no bigger than an ant when wecame away. "

"And we wasn't any bigger than uncles, " put in the Highlander. 

"_You're_ not more than three inches high this minute, " said Sir Walter, surveying Dorothy with a critical air, with his head cocked on one side. 

"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed Dorothy, with a start. "It seems to methat's extremely small. I should think that I'd have felt it coming on. "

"It comes on sort of sneaking, and you don't notice it, " said theAdmiral. "_We'd_ have been completely inwisible by this time if wehadn't jumped overboard. "

"It was an awful jump!" said Dorothy, solemnly. "Didn't it hurt to fallso far?"

"Not at all, " said the Admiral, cheerfully. "The falling part of it wasquite agreeable--so cool and rushing, you know; but the landing wastremenjious severe. "

"Banged us like anything, " explained the Highlander; and with this theCaravan locked arms and walked away with the tails of their shawlstrailing behind them. 

"What strange little things they are!" said Dorothy, reflectively, asshe walked along after them, "and they're for all the world preciselylike arimated dolls--movable, you know, " she added, not feeling quitesure that "arimated" was the proper word, --"and speaking of dolls, here's a perfect multitude of 'em!" she exclaimed, for just then shecame upon a long row of dolls beautifully dressed, and standing ontheir heels with their heads against the wall. They were at least fivetimes as big as Dorothy herself, and had price-tickets tucked into theirsashes, such as "2/6, CHEAP, " "5_s. _, REAL WAX, " and so on; and Dorothy, clapping her hands in an ecstasy of delight, exclaimed: "Why, it's amonstrous, enormous toy-shop!" and then she hurried on to see what elsethere might be on exhibition. 

"Marbles, prob'bly, " she remarked, peering over the edge of a basketfull of what looked like enormous stone cannon-balls of various colors;"for mastodons, _I_ should say, only I don't know as _they_ ever playmarbles, --grocery shop, full of dear little drawers with real knobs on'em, --'pothecary's shop with _true_ pill-boxes, " she went on, examiningone delightful thing after another; "and here's a farm out of a box, andall the same funny old things--trees with green shavings on them andfences with feet so they'll stand up, and here's the dear fam'ly, samesize as the trees and the houses, of course, and--oh! I beg yourpardon, " she exclaimed, for her frock had touched the farmer and knockedhim over flat on his back. "And here's a Noah's Ark, full ofhiggledy-piggledy animals--why, what are you doing here?" she cried, for just at that moment she suddenly discovered the Caravan, all huddledtogether at the door of the ark, and apparently discussing something ofvast importance. 

"We're buying a camel, " said the Admiral, excitedly; "they've got justthe one we want for the Caravan. "

"His name is Humphrey, " shouted the Highlander, uproariously, "and he'sgot three humps!"

"Nonsense!" cried Dorothy, bursting into a fit of uncontrollablelaughter. "There never was such a thing. "

"They have 'em in arks, " said the Admiral, very earnestly. "You can find_anything_ in arks if you only go deep enough. I've seen 'em withpatriarchs in 'em, 'way down at the bottom. "

"Did _they_ have any humps?" inquired the Highlander with an air ofgreat interest. 

Dorothy went off again into a burst of laughter at this. "He's reallythe most ignorant little creature I ever saw, " she said. 

"I thought they was something to ride on, " said the Highlander, sulkily;"otherwise, I say, let 'em keep out of arks!" The rest of the Caravanevidently sided with him in this opinion, and after staring at Dorothyfor a moment with great disfavor they all called out "Old Proudie!" andsolemnly walked off in a row as before. 

"I believe I shall have a fit if I meet them again, " said Dorothy toherself, laughing till her eyes were full of tears. "They're certainlythe foolishest things I ever saw, " and with this she walked away throughthe shop, and was just beginning to look at the toys again, when shecame suddenly upon an old dame sitting contentedly in the shop in agreat arm-chair. She was eating porridge out of a bowl in her lap, andher head was so close to the edge of the shelf that Dorothy almostwalked into her cap. 

"Drat the toys!" cried the old dame, starting so violently that herspectacles fell off her nose into the porridge. "Drat the new-fangledthings!"--and here she aimed a blow at Dorothy with her spoon. "They'reenough to scare folks out of their senses. Give _me_ the old-fashionedkind--deaf and dumb and blind and stiff"--but by this time Dorothy, almost frightened out of her wits, had run away and was hiding behind adoll's sofa. 

"_She's_ a nice person to have charge of a shop, " she exclaimedindignantly, as she listened to the old dame scolding to herself in thedistance. "The idea of not knowing human persons when you see them! Ofcourse, being so small _is_ rather unusual, and it's really quitedangerous, you know, " she went on, giving a little shiver at the thoughtof what might have happened. "Just fancy being wrapped up in a piece ofstiff paper by mistake--shrieking wouldn't do the least good because, ofcourse, she's deaf as anything--"

 * * * * *

"How much are you a dozen?" said a voice, and Dorothy, looking around, saw that it was a Dancing-Jack in the shop-window speaking to her. Hewas a gorgeous creature, with bells on the seams of his clothes and witharms and legs of different colors, and he was lounging in an easyattitude with his right leg thrown over the top of a toy livery-stableand his left foot in a large ornamental tea-cup; but as he was fastenedto a hook by a loop in the top of his hat, Dorothy didn't feel in theleast afraid of him. 

"Thank you, " she replied with much dignity, "I'm not a dozen at all. I'ma single person. That sounds kind of unmarried, " she thought toherself, "but it's the exact truth. "

[Illustration: "'YOU KNOW YOUR SIZE DOES COME IN DOZENS, ASSORTED, 'CONTINUED THE JACK. "]

"No offense, I hope, " said the Jack, looking somewhat abashed. 

"No--not exactly, " said Dorothy rather stiffly. 

"You know, your size _does_ come in dozens--assorted, " continued theJack, with quite a professional air. "Family of nine, two maids withdusters, and cook with removable apron. Very popular, I believe. "

"So I should think, " remarked Dorothy, beginning to recover her goodnature. 

"But of course _singles_ are much more select, " said the Jack. "_We_never come in dozens, you know. "

"I suppose not, " said Dorothy, innocently. "I can't imagine anybodywanting twelve Dancing-Jacks all at the same time. "

"It wouldn't do any good if they did want 'em, " said the Jack. "Theycouldn't get 'em, --that is, not in _this_ shop. "

Now, while this conversation was going on, Dorothy noticed that thevarious things in the shop-window had a curious way of constantlyturning into something else. She discovered this by seeing a littlebunch of yellow peg-tops change into a plateful of pears while shechanced to be looking at them; and a moment afterward she caught adoll's saucepan, that was hanging in one corner of the window, just inthe act of quietly turning into a battledore with a red morocco handle. This struck her as being such a remarkable performance that sheimmediately began looking at one thing after another, and watching thevarious changes, until she was quite bewildered. 

"It's something like a Christmas pantomime, " she said to herself; "andit isn't the slightest use, you know, trying to fancy what anything'sgoing to be, because everything that happens is so unproblesome. I don'tknow where I got _that_ word from, " she went on, "but it seems toexpress exactly what I mean. F'r instance, there's a little cradlethat's just been turned into a coal-scuttle, and if _that_ isn'tunproblesome, well then--never mind!" (which, as you know, is aridiculous way little girls have of finishing their sentences. )

By this time she had got around again to the toy livery-stable, and shewas extremely pleased to find that it had turned into a smart littlebaronial castle with a turret at each end, and that the ornamentaltea-cup was just changing, with a good deal of a flourish, into a smallrowboat floating in a little stream that ran by the castle walls. 

"Come, _that's_ the finest thing yet!" exclaimed Dorothy, looking at allthis with great admiration; "and I wish a brazen knight would come outwith a trumpet and blow a blast"--you see, she was quite romantic attimes--and she was just admiring the clever way in which the boat wasgetting rid of the handle of the tea-cup, when the Dancing-Jacksuddenly stopped talking, and began scrambling over the roof of thecastle. He was extremely pale, and, to Dorothy's alarm, spots of brightcolors were coming out all over him, as if he had been made of stainedglass, and was being lighted up from the inside. 

"I believe I'm going to turn into something, " he said, glaring wildlyabout, and speaking in a very agitated voice. 

"Goodness!" exclaimed Dorothy in dismay; "what do you suppose it's goingto be?"

"I think--" said the Jack, solemnly, --"I think it's going to be apatchwork quilt, " but just as he was finishing this remark a sort ofwriggle passed through him, and, to Dorothy's amazement, he turned intoa slender Harlequin all made up of spangles and shining triangles. 

Now this was all very well, and, of course, much better than turninginto a quilt of any sort; but as the Dancing-Jack's last remark went onwithout stopping, and was taken charge of, so to speak, and finished bythe Harlequin, it mixed up the two in a very confusing way. In fact, bythe time the remark came to an end, Dorothy didn't really know which ofthem was talking to her, and, to make matters worse, the Harlequinvanished for a moment, and then reappeared, about one half of hisoriginal size, coming out of the door of the castle with an unconcernedair as if he hadn't had anything to do with the affair. 

"It's dreadfully confusing, " said Dorothy to herself, "not to know whichof two persons is talking to you, 'specially when there's really onlyone of them here"; but she never had a chance to find out anything aboutthe matter, for in the mean time a part of the castle had quietly turnedupside down, and was now a little stone bridge with the stream flowingbeneath it, and the Harlequin, who was constantly getting smaller andsmaller, was standing with one foot in the boat as if he were trying tochoose between taking a little excursion on the water and going out ofsight altogether. 

"Excuse me--but did you say anything?" said Dorothy, feeling quite surethat there was no time to be lost. 

"All that _I_ said was 'quilt, '" replied the Harlequin; "I supposethere's no particular harm in that?"

"Oh, dear, no!" said Dorothy, hastily; "only it seems a rather queer wayof beginning a conversation, you know. "

"It's as good as any other way if it's all you have to say, " said theHarlequin, and by this time he had both feet in the boat, and hadevidently decided on the water excursion, for, before Dorothy couldthink of anything more to say to him, he sailed away under the bridgeand disappeared. 

[Illustration: "HE SAILED AWAY UNDER THE BRIDGE. "]

CHAPTER VII

THE SONG IN THE DELL

"I'm sorry he's gone, " said Dorothy to herself, gazing with longing eyesafter the Harlequin. "He wasn't much to talk to, but he was awfulbeautiful to look at"; and, having relieved her mind by this remark, shewas just starting to take another walk through the shop when shesuddenly caught sight of a small door in one corner. It wasn't muchlarger than a rat-hole, but it was big enough for her to go through, andthat, of course, was the important thing; and as she never could bear togo by strange doorways until she knew where they led to, she immediatelyran through this one, and, quite to her surprise, found herself outsidethe toy-shop. 

There was a steep bank here sloping down from the wall of the shop, andDorothy was much interested at discovering that it was completelyovergrown with little green rocking-chairs. They were growing about ingreat confusion, and once or twice, when her frock happened to brushagainst them, quite an avalanche of them went clattering down the bankand broke up at the bottom into curious little bits of wood likejackstraws. This made climbing down the bank very exciting, but she gotsafely to the bottom at last, and was just starting off for anotherjourney of discovery when she came suddenly upon the toy farm-housestanding quite by itself in the open country. None of the family waspresent except the Farmer, who was standing in front of the house, staring at it in a bewildered way as if he had never laid eyes on itbefore. He was a plain-featured man, with a curious little hat somethinglike the lid of a coffee-pot, and with a great number of large yellowbuttons arranged on the front of his coat like a row of cream-tarts;and, after the manner of all toy-farmers, he was buried to the ankles ina round piece of wood to keep him from falling over. 

Now Dorothy had always particularly wanted to see the inside of a toyfarm-house, and, as this seemed to be an excellent opportunity, shewalked up to the Farmer and said, very politely, "Can I see your house?"

"I should think you could if you looked at it, " said the Farmer, staringfirst at her and then at the house, as if he were greatly surprised atthe question; "_I_ can see it easily enough. "

"But I mean, can I go over it?" said Dorothy, rather confused by thisanswer. 

The Farmer rubbed his nose and looked thoughtfully at the roof of thehouse for a moment and then said, rather sulkily, "Yes, I suppose youcan, but you must agree not to knock off the chimbleys. "

"Dear me, " said Dorothy, beginning to laugh, "that isn't what I mean atall. I mean, can I go through it?"

The Farmer, after turning over this proposition in his mind with greatdeliberation, got down on his hands and knees and took a long lookthrough the little door in the front of the house, and then getting upon his feet again, said, very seriously, "I don't see anything toprevent it; there's another door at the back, "--and walked gravely away. He did this in a very peculiar way, by a sort of sidelong roll on hisround wooden block like a barrel being worked along on one end; and, asDorothy stood watching this performance with great interest, hepresently fell over one of the little rocking-chairs, and coming downheavily on his back, rolled away on the edge of his block and the rimof his little round hat without making the slightest attempt to get onhis feet again. 

"I shall look precisely like a elephant with a pagoda on his back, " saidDorothy, as she got down on her hands and knees and crawled through thelittle door into the house, "but I'm going to see what it's like while Ihave the chance. All hollow, right up to the roof, just as I expected, "she exclaimed. "I s'pose that's so the fam'ly can stand up when theycome inside. " But there was nothing in the house but a lot of oldumbrellas tied up in bundles and marked "DANGEROUS, " and as she didn'tthink these were very interesting, and as, moreover, her head by thistime was out of the door at the back, she crawled through withoutstopping and scrambled up on to her feet again. 

 * * * * *

"Oh, lovely!" cried Dorothy, clapping her hands in a rapture of delight;for she found herself in a beautiful wood--not a make-believe affairlike the toy-farm, but a real wood with soft grass and pads ofdark-green moss growing underfoot, and with ferns and forest flowersspringing up on all sides. The wind was rustling pleasantly in thetrees, and the sunlight, shining down through the dancing leaves, madelittle patches of light that chased each other about on the grass, and, as Dorothy walked along, she felt happier than she had at any time sincelosing the Blue Admiral Inn. To be sure, it wasn't the easiest matter inthe world to get along, for as the trees and the bushes and the bladesof grass were all of the natural size and Dorothy was no bigger than awren, she fell over a good many twigs and other small obstacles, andtumbled down a great many times. Then, too, she found it rather tryingto her nerves, at first, to meet with rabbits as big as horses, to comesuddenly upon quails whistling like steam-engines, and to be chatteredat by squirrels a head taller than she herself was; but she was a verywise little child about such matters, and she said to herself, "Why, ofcourse, they're only their usual sizes, you know, and they're sure to bethe same scary things they always are, "--and then she stamped her footat them and said "Shoo!" very boldly, and, after laughing to see thegreat creatures whisk about and dash into the thicket, she walked alongquite contentedly. 

[Illustration: "SHE FOUND IT RATHER TRYING TO HER NERVES, AT FIRST, TOMEET WITH RABBITS AS BIG AS HORSES. "]

[Illustration: "--TO BE CHATTERED AT BY SQUIRRELS A HEAD TALLER THAN SHEHERSELF WAS. "]

Presently she heard a voice singing. It seemed to come from a thickpart of the wood at one side of the path; and, after hesitating amoment, Dorothy stole into the bushes, and, creeping cautiously alonguntil she was quite near the sound, crouched down in the thicket tolisten. 

It was a very small voice, and it was singing this song:

 I know a way Of hearing what the larks and linnets say. The larks tell of the sunshine and the sky; The linnets from the hedges make reply, And boast of hidden nests with mocking lay. 

 I know a way Of keeping near the rabbits at their play. They tell me of the cool and shady nooks Where waterfalls disturb the placid brooks That I may go and frolic in the spray. 

 I know a way Of catching dewdrops on a night in May, And threading them upon a spear of green, That through their sides translucent may be seen The sparkling hue that emeralds display. 

 I know a way Of trapping sunbeams as they nimbly play At hide-and-seek with meadow-grass and flowers, And holding them in store for dreary hours When winds are chill and all the sky is gray. 

 I know a way Of stealing fragrance from the new-mown hay And storing it in flasks of petals made, To scent the air when all the flowers fade And leave the woodland world to sad decay. 

 I know a way Of coaxing snowflakes in their flight to stay So still awhile, that, as they hang in air, I weave them into frosty lace, to wear About my head upon a sultry day. 

Dorothy, crouching down in the thicket, listened to this little songwith great delight; but she was extremely sentimental where poetry wasconcerned, and it happened that when she heard this last verse sheclasped her hands in a burst of rapture and exclaimed in quite a loudvoice, "Oh, delicious!" This was very unfortunate, for the song stoppedshort the instant she spoke, and for a moment everything was perfectlysilent; then the little voice spoke up again, and said, "Who is that?"

"It's I, " said Dorothy. 

"It's two eyes, if it comes to that, " said the little voice; "I can seethem through the bushes. Are you a rabbit?"

"No, " said Dorothy, laughing softly to herself, "I'm a child. "

"Oh!" exclaimed the voice. It was a very little Oh; in fact, it soundedto Dorothy as if it might be about the size of a cherry-stone, and shesaid to herself, "I verily believe it's a fairy, and she certainly can'tbe a bit bigger than my thumb--my regular thumb, I mean, " she added, holding up her hand and looking at the size of it with great contempt. 

Then the little voice spoke up again and said, "And how big are you?"

"I'm about three inches tall, " said Dorothy; and she was so excited bythis time at the prospect of seeing a real live fairy for the first timein her life, that she felt as if a lot of flies were running up and downon the back of her neck. 

"Dear me!" exclaimed the little voice, expressing great astonishment inits small way. "Why, there's hardly enough of you to put in a corner. "

Dorothy reflected for a moment and then called out, "But, you know, _that_ depends altogether on the size of the corner. "

"Oh, no, it doesn't!" said the little voice, very confidently. "Allcorners are the same size if you only get close enough to 'em. "

"Dear me!" said Dorothy to herself, "how very intelligent she is! I_must_ have a look at her"; and, pushing the leaves gently aside, shecautiously peeped out. 

[Illustration: "PUSHING THE LEAVES GENTLY ASIDE, SHE CAUTIOUSLY PEEPEDOUT. "]

It was a charming little dell, carpeted with fine moss, and withstrange-looking wild flowers and tall nodding grasses growing about thesides of it; but, to Dorothy's astonishment, the fairy proved to be anextremely small field-mouse, sitting up like a little pug-dog and gazingattentively at the thicket: "and _I_ think"--the Mouse went on, as ifit were tired of waiting for an answer to its last remark--"_I_ think achild should be six inches tall, _at least_. "

This was so ridiculous that Dorothy had to put her hand over her mouthto keep from screaming with laughter. "Why, " she exclaimed, "I used tobe"--and here she had to stop and count up on her fingers as if shewere doing a sum--"I used to be eight times as big as _that_, myself. "

"Tut, tut!--" said the Mouse, and the "tuts" sounded like beads droppinginto a pill-box--"tut, tut! Don't tell me such rubbish!"

"Oh, you needn't _tut_ me, " said Dorothy. "It's the exact truth. "

"Then I don't understand it, " said the Mouse, shaking its head in apuzzled way. "_I_ always thought children grew the other way. "

"Well, you see, --" said Dorothy, in her old-fashioned way, --"you see, I've been very much reduced. " (She thought afterward that this soundedrather as if she had lost all her property, but it was the only thingshe could think of to say at the time. )

"I _don't_ see it at all, " said the Mouse, fretfully, "and what's more, I don't see _you_, in fact, I don't think you ought to be hiding in thebushes and chattering at me in this way. "

This seemed to Dorothy to be a very personal remark, and she answered, rather indignantly, "And why not, I should like to know?"

"Because, "--said the Mouse in a very superior manner, --"because littlechildren should be seen and not heard. "

"Hoity-toity!" said Dorothy, very sharply. (I don't think she had theslightest idea of what this meant, but she had read somewhere in a bookthat it was an expression used when other persons gave themselves airs, and she thought she would try the effect of it on the Mouse. ) But, toher great disappointment, the Mouse made no reply of any kind, and afterpicking a leaf and holding it up to its eyes for a moment, as if it werehaving a cry in its small way, the poor little creature turned about andran into the thicket at the further side of the dell. 

[Illustration: THE MOUSE LAMENTS. ]

Dorothy was greatly distressed at this, and, jumping out of the bushesinto the dell, she began calling, "Mousie! Mousie! Come back! I didn'tmean it, dear. It was only an esperiment. " But there was no answer, and, stooping down at the place where the Mouse had disappeared, she lookedinto the thicket. There was nothing there but a very small squirreleating a nut; and, after staring at her for a moment in greatastonishment, he threw the nut in her face and scampered off into thebushes. 

"Nice manners, upon my word!" said Dorothy, in great indignation at thistreatment, and then, standing up, she gazed about the dell ratherdisconsolately; but there was no living thing in sight except a fatbutterfly lazily swinging up and down on a blade of grass. Dorothytouched him with her finger to see if he were awake, but the Butterflygave himself an impatient shake, and said, fretfully, "Oh, don't, " and, after waiting a moment, to be sure that was all he had to say, shewalked mournfully away through the wood. 

CHAPTER VIII

SOMETHING ABOUT THE CAMEL

The wood wasn't nearly so pleasant now as it had been before, andDorothy was quite pleased when, after walking a little way, she came insight again of the bank covered with rocking-chairs, and running up, shehurried through the little door into the toy-shop. 

Everything was just as she had left it, and the stream was runningmerrily under the castle bridge; but just as she was going by, thebridge itself began hitching up in the middle and pawing, as it were, atthe banks of the stream in such an extraordinary manner that she stoppedto see what was going to happen. 

"It's sure to be something wonderous, " she said to herself, as she stoodwatching it, and she was quite right about this, for the bridgepresently turned into a remarkably spirited rocking-horse (dappled, withblack spots scattered about), and after rocking back and forth once ortwice, as if to be sure it really _was_ a horse, settled down perfectlystill as if it never expected to be anything else. In fact, with theexception of a large fly, about as big as one of Dorothy's feet, thatwas buzzing about, everything in the window was now perfectly quiet, anddrawing a long breath of relief, she walked away through the shop. 

[Illustration: "AND FOUND THE CARAVAN SITTING IN A ROW ON A LITTLE BENCHAT THE DOOR. "]

As she walked along on the shelf, she presently came to the grocer'sshop and found the Caravan sitting in a row on a little bench at thedoor. The Admiral had the Camel in his lap, and they were all gazing atit with an air of extreme solicitude. It was a frowsy little thing withlumpy legs that hung down in a dangling way from the Admiral's knees, and Sir Walter was busily employed trying to make it drink something outof a bottle. 

"What are you giving him?" inquired Dorothy, curiously. 

"Glue, " said the Admiral, promptly. "He needs stiffening up, you see. "

"Goodness gracious, what an awful dose!" said Dorothy, with a shudder. 

"_That_ doesn't make any difference so long as he won't take it, " saidSir Walter; and here he flew into a tremendous passion, and beganbeating the Camel about the head so furiously with the bottle thatDorothy cried out, "Here--stop that instantly!"

"_He_ doesn't mind it no more than if he was a bolster, " put in theHighlander. "Set him up again and let's see him fall down, " he added, rubbing his hands together with a relish. 

"Indeed, you'll do nothing of the sort, " exclaimed Dorothy, with greatindignation; and, snatching the Camel from the Admiral's lap, shecarried him into the grocer's shop and set him down upon the floor. TheCamel looked about for a moment with a very mournful expression on hisface, and then climbed into one of the drawers that was standing open, and pulled it to after him as a person might close a door, and Dorothy, after watching this remarkable performance with great wonderment, wentout again. 

The Caravan had lost no time, and were standing on the bench, putting upa little sign on the front of the shop with "CAMEL FOR SALE" on it, andDorothy, trying not to laugh, said, "Is this your shop?"

"Yes, " replied the Admiral, with an important air. "The grocer's beensold for a cook because he had an apron on, and we've taken thebusiness. "

"What are you going to keep?" asked Dorothy, who was vastly amused atthis idea. 

"Why, we're going to keep the shop, " said the Admiral, climbing downfrom the bench and staring at her in great surprise. 

"But you must certainly keep things to sell, " said Dorothy. 

"How can we keep things if we sell 'em?" inquired Sir Walter. 

"Well, you can't sell anything unless you keep it in the shop, youknow, " persisted Dorothy, feeling that she was somehow or other gettingthe worst of the argument. 

"Bosh!" said the Admiral, obstinately; "you _can't_ keep things yousell--that is, " he added, "not unless your customers are crazy"; andwith this remark the Caravan went into the shop and shut the door inDorothy's face, as if she wasn't worth talking to any longer. 

Dorothy waited for a moment to see if they were coming out again, andthen, as there was a noise inside as if they were piling up the drawersagainst the door by way of a barricade, she walked slowly away throughthe toy-shop. 

She had had such a variety of adventures in the shop by this time thatshe was getting quite tired of the place, and she was walking alongrather disconsolately, and wishing there was some way of growing to hernatural size, and then getting back again to poor old Uncle Porticle andthe Blue Admiral Inn, when, as she went around the corner of the littleapothecary's shop, she came suddenly upon Bob Scarlet. To her greatsurprise, he was now just about the size of an ordinary robin; but hehad on his red waistcoat, and had quite as important an air as ever, andhe was strolling about examining the various toys, and putting down theprice of everything in a little red book, as if he were thinking ofgoing into the business himself. 

"Now, I wonder how he ever got to be _that_ size, " thought Dorothy, asshe hid behind a little pile of lead-pencils and watched him over thetop of them. "I suppose he's eaten something, or drunk something, tomake him grow, the way they do in fairy stories; because the Admiralcertainly said he wasn't any bigger than an ant. And, oh! I wish I knewwhat it was, " she added, mournfully, as the tears came into her eyes atthe thought of how small she was, "I _wish_ I knew what it was!"

"If I wasn't a little afraid of him, " she went on, after she had had alittle cry, "I'd ask him. But likely as not he'd peck at me--oldpeckjabber!" and here she laughed through her tears as she thought ofthe Caravan in their little sunbonnets. "Or p'r'aps he'd snap me up!I've often heard of snapping people up when they asked too manyquestions, but seems to me it never meant anything so awful as thatbefore"; and she was rambling on in this way, laughing and crying byturns, when at this moment Bob Scarlet came suddenly upon a fine brassbird-cage, and, after staring at it in a stupefied way for an instant, he dropped his little book, with an appearance of great agitation, andhurried away without so much as looking behind him. 

[Illustration: "HE DROPPED HIS LITTLE BOOK, WITH AN APPEARANCE OF GREATAGITATION, AND HURRIED AWAY. "]

Dorothy ran after him, carefully keeping out of sight in case he shouldturn around, and as she went by the bird-cage she saw that it was marked"PERFECTLY SECURE" in large letters. "And _that's_ what took the conceitout of you, mister, " she said, laughing to herself, and hurried alongafter the Robin. 

As she caught sight of him again he was just scurrying by the grocer'sshop, and she could see the faces of the Caravan watching him, over thetop of a little half-blind in the window, with an expression of thegreatest concern, and the next moment a door at the back of the shopopened and they all rushed out. They had on their sunbonnets and shawls, and Dorothy saw that the Admiral was carrying the Camel under his arm;but before she could say a word to them they had scampered away and wereout of sight. 

[Illustration: "A DOOR AT THE BACK OF THE SHOP OPENED AND THEY ALLRUSHED OUT. "]

By this time the toy-shop itself was all in a commotion. Dolls wereclimbing down from the shelves and falling over each other; the bigmarbles had in some way got out of the basket and were rolling about inall directions; and Dorothy could see the old dame at the further end ofthe shop, running about and frantically striking at one thing afteranother with her spoon. To make matters worse, quite a little army oftin soldiers suddenly appeared, running confusedly about, with thedrawers from the little grocer's shop upside down on their heads, andall calling "Fire!" at the top of their voices. As they couldn't seewhere anybody was going, or where they were going themselves, it madethe situation very desperate indeed. 

Dorothy was frightened almost out of her wits, but she ran on in abewildered sort of a way, dodging the rolling marbles and upsetting thedolls and the soldiers in great numbers, until she fortunately caughtsight of the little rat-hole of a door, and, rushing through it, shehurried down the bank, knocking the green rocking-chairs about in everydirection, and ran off into the wood as fast as she could go. 

[Illustration: TAIL-PIECE TO CHAPTER VIII. ]

CHAPTER IX

THE CAMEL'S COMPLAINT

Dorothy ran along until she thought she was quite safe, and then stoppedto look back and listen. There was a confused sound of shouts and criesin the distance, but nothing seemed to be coming after her, so, afterwaiting a moment to get her breath, she walked quietly away through thewood. 

"What a scene of turmoil it was!" she said to herself. (You see, she wastrying to express herself in a very dignified and composed manner, as ifshe hadn't been in the least disturbed by what had happened. ) "Ipresume--" she went on, "I presume it was something like a riot, although I really don't see what it was all about. Of course I've neverbeen in a riot, but if it's anything like _that_, I shall never haveanything to do with one";--which certainly was a very wise resolutionfor a little girl to make; but as Dorothy was always making wiseresolutions about things that were never going to happen, I reallydon't think that this particular one was a matter of any consequence. 

She was so much pleased with these remarks that she was going on to saya number of very fine things, when she came suddenly upon the Caravanhiding behind a large tree. They were sitting in a little bunch on thegrass, and, as Dorothy appeared, they all put on an appearance of greatunconcern, and began staring up at the branches of the tree, as if theyhadn't seen her. 

"They've certainly been doing something they're ashamed of, " she said toherself, "but they can't deceive me with any such behavior as _that_";and just then the Admiral pretended he had just caught sight of her andsaid, with a patronizing air, "Ah! How d' ye do? How d' ye do?" as ifthey hadn't met for quite a while. 

"You know perfectly well how I do, and I consider that a very foolishremark, " replied Dorothy, speaking in a very dignified manner, and notfeeling at all pleased with this reception; and then noticing thatHumphrey was nowhere to be seen, she said severely, "Where's yourCamel?"

"Camels is no good, " said the Admiral, evasively. "Leastwise _he_wasn't. "

"Why not?" said Dorothy. She said this very sternly, for she feltmorally certain that the Admiral was trying to conceal something fromher. 

"Well, you see, " said the Admiral, uneasily, "he talked too much. He wasalways grumbling. "

"Grumbling about what?" said Dorothy. 

"Oh, about a wariety of things, " said the Admiral. "Meals and lodgingsand all that, you know. I used to try to stop him. 'Cammy, ' I says--"

"'Cammy' is short for camel, " explained Sir Walter, and Dorothy laughedand nodded, and the Admiral went on--

"'Cammy, ' I says, 'don't scold so much'; but lor! I might as well havetalked to a turnpike-gate. "

"Better, " put in Sir Walter. "_That_ shuts up sometimes, and _he_ neverdid. "

"Oh, jummy!" said the Highlander, with a chuckle, "_that's_ a good one!"

"But what was it all about?" persisted Dorothy. 

"_You_ tell her, Ruffles, " said the Admiral. 

"Well, " said Sir Walter, "it was all the same thing, over and overagain. He had it all in verses so he wouldn't forget any of it. It wentlike this:

 "Canary-birds feed on sugar and seed, Parrots have crackers to crunch; And, as for the poodles, they tell me the noodles Have chickens and cream for their lunch. But there's never a question About MY digestion-- ANYTHING does for me!

 "Cats, you're aware, can repose in a chair, Chickens can roost upon rails; Puppies are able to sleep in a stable, And oysters can slumber in pails. But no one supposes A poor Camel dozes-- ANY PLACE does for me!

 "Lambs are inclosed where it's never exposed, Coops are constructed for hens; Kittens are treated to houses well heated, And pigs are protected by pens. But a Camel comes handy Wherever it's sandy-- ANYWHERE does for me!

 "People would laugh if you rode a giraffe, Or mounted the back of an ox; It's nobody's habit to ride on a rabbit, Or try to bestraddle a fox. But as for a Camel, he's Ridden by families-- ANY LOAD does for me!

 "A snake is as round as a hole in the ground, And weasels are wavy and sleek; And no alligator could ever be straighter Than lizards that live in a creek. But a Camel's all lumpy And bumpy and humpy-- ANY SHAPE does for me!"

Now, Dorothy was a very tender-hearted little child, and by the timethese verses were finished she hardly knew whether to laugh or to cry. "Poor old, feeble-minded thing!" she said, compassionately. "And whatbecame of him at last?"

There was a dead silence for a moment, and then the Admiral saidsolemnly:

"We put him in a pond. "

"Why, that's the most unhuman thing I ever heard of in all my life!"exclaimed Dorothy, greatly shocked at this news. 

[Illustration: THE CARAVAN DISCIPLINE THE CAMEL. ]

"Well, " said the Admiral, in a shamefaced sort of way, "_we_ thought itwas a good thing to do--for us, you know. "

"And _I_ call it proud and unforgiving, " said Dorothy, indignantly. "Did the poor creature say anything?"

"Not at first, " said the Admiral; "but after he got in he said things. "

"Such as what?" said Dorothy. 

"Oh, we couldn't make out _what_ he said, " replied the Admiral, peevishly. "It was perfectly unintellijibbergibble. "

"Kind of gurgly, " put in the Highlander. 

"Did he go right down?" inquired Dorothy, very anxiously. 

"Not a bit of it, " said the Admiral, flippantly. "He never went down atall. He floated, just like a cork, you know. "

"Round and round and round, " added Sir Walter. 

"Like a turnip, " put in the Highlander. 

"What do you mean by _that_?" said Dorothy, sharply. 

"Nothing, " said the Highlander, looking very much abashed; "only Ithought turnips turned round. "

Dorothy was greatly provoked at all this, and felt that she really oughtto say something very severe; but the fact was that the Caravan lookedso innocent, sitting on the grass with their sunbonnets all crooked ontheir heads, that it was as much as she could do to keep from laughingoutright. "You know, " she said to herself, "if it wasn't for theHighlander's whiskers, it'd be precisely like a' infant class having apicnic; and after all, they're really nothing but graven images"--so shecontented herself by saying, as severely as she could:

"Well, I'm extremely displeased, and I'm very much ashamed of all ofyou. "

The Caravan received this reproof with great cheerfulness, especiallythe Admiral, who took a look at Dorothy through his spy-glass, and thensaid with much satisfaction: "Now we're each being ashamed of by _three_persons"; but Dorothy very properly took no notice of this remark, andwalked away in a dignified manner. 

CHAPTER X

THE SIZING TOWER

As Dorothy walked along, wondering what would happen to her next, shefelt something tugging at her frock, and looking around she saw that itwas the Highlander running along beside her, quite breathless, andtrying very hard to attract her attention. "Oh, it's you, is it?" shesaid, stopping short and looking at him pleasantly. 

"Yes, it's me, " said the Highlander, sitting down on the ground as if hewere very much fatigued. "I've been wanting to speak to you privatelyfor a very long time. "

"What about?" said Dorothy, wondering what was coming now. 

"Well, " said the Highlander, blushing violently and appearing to begreatly embarrassed, "you seem to be a very kind-hearted person, and Iwanted to show you some poetry I've written. "

"Did you compose it?" said Dorothy, kindly. 

"No, " said the Highlander; "I only made it up. Would you like to hearit?"

"Oh, yes, indeed, " said Dorothy, as gravely as she could; "I should liketo hear it very much. "

"It's called"--said the Highlander, lowering his voice confidentiallyand looking cautiously about--"it's called 'The Pickle and thePoliceman';" and, taking a little paper out of his pocket, he began:

 "There was a little pickle and his name was John--"

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Dorothy, "I don't think that will do _at all_. "

"Suppose I call him _George_?" said the Highlander, gazing reflectivelyat his paper. "It's got to be something short, you know. "

"But you mustn't call him _anything_, " said Dorothy, laughing. "Picklesdon't have any names. "

"All right, " said the Highlander; and, taking out a pencil, he beganrepairing his poetry with great industry. He did a great deal ofwriting, and a good deal of rubbing out with his thumb, and finally saidtriumphantly:

 "There was a little pickle and he hadn't any name!"

"Yes, that will do very nicely, " said Dorothy; and the Highlander, clearing his voice, read off his poetry with a great flourish:

 "There was a little pickle and he hadn't any name-- In this respect, I'm just informed, all pickles are the same. A large policeman came along, a-swinging of his club, And took that little pickle up and put him in a tub. 

"That's rather good about taking him up, " said the Highlander, chucklingto himself; "so exactly like a policeman, you know. "

"Oh, yes, indeed, " said Dorothy, who was ready to scream with laughter. "What's the rest of it?"

"There isn't any more, " said the Highlander, rather confusedly. "Therewas going to be another verse, but I couldn't think of anything more tosay. "

"Oh, well, it's very nice as it is, " said Dorothy, consolingly; andthen, as the Highlander put up his paper and went away, she laughed tillher eyes were full of tears. "They are _all_ funny, " she said at last, as she walked away through the wood, "but I think _he's_ funnier thanall of 'em put together"--which, by the way, was not a very sensibleremark for her to make, as you will see if you'll take the trouble tothink it over. 

[Illustration: "'THERE ISN'T ANY MORE, ' SAID THE HIGHLANDER, RATHERCONFUSEDLY. "]

But presently, as she strolled along, she made a discovery that quitedrove the Highlander and his ridiculous poetry out of her head. It was atower in the wood; not an ordinary tower, of course, for there wouldhave been nothing remarkable about that, but a tower of shining brass, and so high that the top of it was quite out of sight among thebranches of the trees. But the strangest thing about it was that thereseemed to be no possible way of getting into it, and Dorothy was verycautiously walking around it to see if she could find any door when shecame suddenly upon the Caravan standing huddled together, and apparentlyin a state of great excitement. 

"What is it?" asked Dorothy, eagerly. 

"Hush!" said the Admiral, in an agitated whisper. "We think it's whereBob Scarlet changes himself"--and as he said this there was a tremendousflapping of wings, and down came Bob Scarlet through the branches andlanded with a thump a little way from where they were standing. He wasas big as a goose again, and his appearance was so extremely formidablethat the Caravan, as one man, threw themselves flat on their faces in aperfect frenzy of terror, and Dorothy herself hid in the grass, with herheart beating like a little eight-day clock. But Bob Scarlet fortunatelypaid no more attention to any of them than if they had been so manyflies, and, after strutting about for a moment with his usual importantair, strolled away in the direction of the toy-shop. 

"Now what do you make of _that_?" said the Admiral, lifting up hishead. "He went in at a little door not five minutes ago, and he wasn'tany bigger than an every-day bird. "

"I'm sure I don't know _what_ to make of it, " said Dorothy. "But whereis the door?" she added, running around the tower and looking at it onall sides. 

"It went up after him, " said the Admiral, "like a corkscrew. "

"And it's coming down again, like a gimlet!" shouted the Highlander;and, as they all looked up, sure enough there was the little door slowlycoming down, around and around, as if it were descending an invisiblestaircase on the outside of the tower. They all watched this performancewith much interest, and as the door touched the ground it opened, and, to Dorothy's amazement, out came the little field-mouse. 

"What is it?" cried Dorothy, as they all crowded around the littlecreature. "Do tell us what it all means. "

"It's a Sizing Tower, " said the Mouse, its little voice trembling withagitation. "You get big at the top, and little at the bottom. I wouldn'tgo up there again--not for a bushel of nuts. "

"Were you pretty big?" inquired Sir Walter. 

"Monstrous!" said the Mouse, with a little shudder; "I was as big as asquirrel; and while I was up there, Bob Scarlet flew up and came downwith the door, and there I was. "

"_That_ was a precious mess!" remarked the Highlander. 

"Wasn't it now!" said the Mouse. "And if he hadn't taken it into hishead to come up again and _fly down_, I'd 'a' been there yet. "

"Why, it's the very thing for us!" cried Dorothy, clapping her handswith delight as a happy thought occurred to her. "Let's all go up andget back our regular selves. "

"You go first, " said the Admiral, suspiciously, "and call down to us howit feels. " But Dorothy wouldn't hear of this; and after a great deal ofarguing and pushing and saying "_You_ go in first, " the whole party atlast got squeezed in through the little doorway. Then the Mouse sat upon its hind legs and waved a little farewell with its paws, and the doorsoftly closed. 

"If we begin to grow _now_, " said the Admiral's voice in the dark, "we'll all be squeegeed, _sure_!"

 * * * * *

"What an extraordinary thing!" exclaimed Dorothy; for they had come outinto a street full of houses. 

"What _I_ want to know is what's become of the door, " said Sir Walter, indignantly, staring at a high wall where the door had been, and whichwas now perfectly blank. 

"I'm sure I don't know, " said Dorothy, quite bewildered. "It's reallyquite mysterious, isn't it?"

"It makes my stomach tickle like anything, " said the Highlander, in aquavering voice. 

"What _shall_ we do?" said Dorothy, looking about uneasily. 

"Run away!" said the Admiral, promptly; and without another word theCaravan took to their heels and disappeared around a corner. Dorothyhurried after them, but by the time she turned the corner they werequite out of sight; and as she stopped and looked about her shediscovered that she was once more in the Ferryman's street, and, to hergreat delight, quite as large as she had been when she left the BlueAdmiral Inn. 

CHAPTER XI

THE DANCING ANIMALS

It seemed to be evening again, and, although the Ferryman was nowhere insight, Dorothy knew the place the moment she looked up and saw thepeaked roofs outlined against the sky. The houses were quaint, old-fashioned-looking buildings with the upper parts jutting far outbeyond the lower stories and with dark little doorways almost hidden inthe shadows beneath; and the windows were very small casements filledwith diamond-shaped panes of shining green glass. All the houses werebrilliantly lighted up, and there were great iron lamps swung on chainsacross the street, so that the street itself was almost as bright asday, and Dorothy thought she recognized it as a place she had once readabout where nobody but astrologers lived. There was a confused sound offiddling going on somewhere, and as Dorothy walked along she could heara scuffling noise inside the houses as if the inhabitants were dancingabout on sanded floors. Presently, as she turned a corner, she cameupon a number of storks who were dancing a sort of solemn quadrille upand down the middle of the street. They stopped dancing as she camealong, and stood in a row gazing gravely at her as she passed by andthen resumed their quadrille as solemnly as before. 

The strangest thing about the fiddling was that it seemed to be going onsomewhere in the air, and the sound appeared to come from all directionsat once. At first the music was soft and rather slow in time, but itgrew louder and louder, and the fiddles played faster and faster, untilpresently they were going at such a furious rate that Dorothy stoppedand looked back to see how the storks were getting on in their dancing;and she could see them in the distance, scampering up and down thestreet, and bumping violently against one another in a frantic attemptto keep time with the music. At any other time she would have beenvastly amused at this spectacle; but just then she was feeling a littleafraid that some of the astrologers might come out to see what was goingon, and she was therefore quite relieved when the storks presently gaveup all hope of finishing their quadrille, and rising in the air with atremendous flapping of wings, flew away over the tops of the houses anddisappeared. Strangely enough, the sound of the fiddling followed themlike a traveling band, and grew fainter and fainter until it finallydied away in the distance. 

But the scuffling noise in the houses continued, and Dorothy did justwhat you'd suppose such a curious little child would have done--that is, she stole up and peeped in at one of the windows; but she could seenothing through the thick glass but some strange-looking shadows bobbingconfusedly about inside. Of course you know what she did _then_. Infact, after hesitating a moment, she softly opened the door of the houseand went in. 

The room was full of animals of every description, dancing around in aring with the greatest enthusiasm; and as Dorothy appeared they allshouted, "Here she is!" and, before she could say a single word, the twonearest to her (they were an elephant and a sheep, by the way) seizedher by the hands, and the next moment she was dancing in the ring. Shewas quite surprised to see that the elephant was no bigger than thesheep; and, as she looked about, it seemed to her, in the confusion, that all the animals in the room were of precisely the same size. 

[Illustration: "AN ELEPHANT AND A SHEEP SEIZED HER BY THE HANDS, AND THENEXT MOMENT SHE WAS DANCING IN THE RING. "]

"Isn't it rather unusual--" she said to the Sheep (it seemed morenatural, somehow, to speak to the Sheep)--"isn't it rather unusual fordifferent animals to be so much alike?"

"Not in _our_ set, " said the Sheep, conceitedly. "We all know who's who. Of course we have to mark the pigs, as they're so extremely like thepolar-bears;" and Dorothy noticed that two pigs, who were dancing justopposite to her, had labels with "PIG" on them hung around their necksby little chains, as if they had been a couple of decanters--"only, " shethought, "it would have been 'SHERRY' or 'MADEIRA' instead of 'PIG, ' youknow. "

"I suppose you all came out of a Noah's Ark, " she said presently, at aventure. 

"Of course. Largest size, I believe. How _very_ clever you are!" saidthe Sheep, admiringly. "By the way, " she added, confidentially, "do youhappen to know what a tapir is?"

"I believe it's something to light, like a candle, " said Dorothy. 

"Does it ever go out of its own accord?" inquired the Sheep. 

"It _ought_ not to, " said Dorothy. 

"Then that accounts for the trouble we've had, " said the Sheep, with asatisfied air. "Those two tapirs dancing over there are always ineverybody's way, and we've had to _put_ them out over and over again. "

This sounded like a joke; but the Sheep was so serious that Dorothydidn't dare to laugh, so she said, by way of continuing theconversation, "I don't see any birds here. "

"Oh dear, no!" exclaimed the Sheep; "you see, this is really aquadrupedrille. Of course _you're_ all right, because it's precisely asif you were dancing on your hind feet. In fact, " she added, noddingapprovingly, "you look almost as well as if you were. "

"Thank you!" said Dorothy, laughing. 

"There was a seal that wanted to join, " the Sheep went on. "He pressedus very hard, but he never made the slightest impression on us;" andthere was a twinkle in the Sheep's eyes as she said this, so thatDorothy felt morally certain it _was_ a joke this time; but, before shecould make any reply, the Elephant called out "Recess!" and the animalsall stopped dancing and began walking about and fanning themselves withlittle portfolios which they produced in such a mysterious manner thatDorothy couldn't see where in the world they came from. 

"Now, look here, " said the Elephant, --he seemed to be a sort of Masterof Ceremonies, and the animals all clustered about him as he saidthis, --"why can't _she_ dance with the Camel?" and he pointed outDorothy with his portfolio. 

"She can!" shouted the animals in chorus. "Come on, Sarah!"--and theCamel, who had been moping in a corner with her head against the wall, came forward with a very sulky expression on her face. 

"Her name is Sahara, " whispered the Sheep, plucking at Dorothy's frockto attract her attention, "but we call her Sarah to save time. She'skind of grumpy now because the other Camel stayed away, but she'lltitter like a turtle when she gets to dancing. "

"I don't know what relation she is to Humphrey, " thought Dorothy, as theCamel took her by the hand, "but she's certainly big enough to be hisgreat-grandmother ten times over. " Before she had time to think any moreabout it, however, the Elephant called out, "Ladies change!" and thedancing began again harder than ever. 

It was a very peculiar dance this time, and, as near as Dorothy couldmake it out, consisted principally in the animals passing her along fromone to another as if they were each anxious to get rid of her; andpresently she discovered that, in some unaccountable manner, she hadbeen passed directly through the fireplace into the next house; but asthis house was quite as full of dancing animals as the other, thisdidn't help matters much except that it got Sarah out of the way--"and_that_, " said poor little Dorothy to herself, "is certainly _something_!"

[Illustration: THE ANIMALS CROSSING OVER. ]

Just then the Elephant, who had mysteriously appeared from a pantry inone corner of the room, shouted out, "All cross over!" and the animalsbegan to crowd out of the house into the courtyard, and then, pushingin great confusion through a large gateway, rushed across the street andinto the house on the other side of the way. Dorothy was quite taken offher feet in the rush, but, watching her chance, she hid behind a largechurn that was standing conveniently in the middle of the street; andwhen they had all passed in, she ran away down the street as fast as shecould go. 

She ran on until she had got quite out of the Ferryman's street, and waswalking along in the open country, feeling quite pleased with herselffor having so cleverly escaped from the dancing-party without having totake the trouble of saying "Good night" to the Elephant, when she saw, in the moonlight, something white lying beside the road, and going up toit, she discovered it was a letter. 

CHAPTER XII

THE CARAVAN COMES HOME

The letter was lying on a flat stone, with several lumps of sugar laidon it like paper-weights to keep it from blowing away. It wasn't at alla nice-looking letter; in fact, it looked as if it had been dragged overthe ground for a long distance; and Dorothy, after observing all this, was just turning away when she chanced to look at the address and sawthat the letter was intended for her. The address was written in a verycramped little hand, and the writing was crowded up into one corner asif it were trying to get over the edge of the envelope; but the wordswere "TO DOROTHY, " as plain as possible. 

"What a very strange thing!" she said to herself, taking up the letterand turning it over several times rather distrustfully. "I don't thinkit looks very nice, but it may be something important, and I s'pose Iought to read it"; and saying this, she opened the letter. It wasprinted in funny little letters something like bird-tracks, and this waswhat was in it:

 We are in a bad fix. The fix is a cage. We have been seezed in a outburst of ungovernerubble fury by Bob Scarlet. He says there's been too many robbin pies. He goes on, and says he is going to have a girl pie. With gravy. We shreeked out that we wasn't girls. Only disgized and tuff as anything. He says with a kurdling laff we'll do. O save us. We wish we was home. There is no male and we send this by a noble rat. He is a female. 

 THE CARAVAN. 

"Now, _that's_ the most ridiculous letter I ever got, " said Dorothy, gazing at it in blank astonishment; "and I don't _think_ it's spelledvery well either, " she added rather doubtfully as she read it again;"but of course I must go and help the poor little creatures. I ought tofeel frightened, but I really feel as brave as an ox. I s'pose _that's_because I'm going to help the unfortunate"; and putting the letter inher pocket, she started off. 

"It's perfectly surprising, " she said to herself as she ran along, "themischief they get into! They're really no more fit to be going aboutalone than so many infants"; and she was so pleased with herself forsaying this that she began to feel quite large and bold. "But it wasvery clever of 'em to think of the rat, " she went on, "and of course_that_ accounts for the sugar. No one but a rat would ever have thoughtof using sugar for paper-weights. If I wasn't afraid of a rat I'd wishit hadn't gone away, though, for I haven't the slightest idea where theCaravan is, or which way I ought to go. "

But it presently appeared that the noble rat had arranged the wholematter for her; for as Dorothy ran along she began to find lumps ofsugar set up at intervals like little mile-stones, so that she shouldn'tmiss the road. 

"It's precisely like Hop-o'-my-thumb and his little crumbs of bread, "she said, laughing to herself when she saw these, "only better, because, you see, the birds can't carry them off. "

The rat, however, seemed to have had a very roundabout idea of a road, for the lumps of sugar were scattered zigzag in every direction, and, atone place, led directly through a knot-hole in a fence as if nobodycould possibly have any trouble in getting through _that_; but, as thelittle mile-stones appeared again on the other side of the fence, Dorothy scrambled over and ran on. Then she found herself climbing overrocks and wading through little puddles of water where the sugar was setup on stones in the most thoughtful way, so that it shouldn't melt; andin another place the lumps were stuck up in a line on the trunk of alarge tree, and, after leading the way through a number of branches, suddenly descended on the opposite side of the tree into a little bog, where Dorothy stuck fast for several minutes and got her shoes very muchsoiled. All this was very provoking, and she was beginning to get alittle out of patience, when the lumps of sugar suddenly came to an endat a small stone wall; and, looking over it, she spied the Caravan intheir cage. 

The cage proved to be an enormous rat-trap, and the Caravan, withremarkable presence of mind, had put their legs through between thewires at the bottom of it, and were walking briskly along, holding upthe cage with their hands. The news of this extraordinary performancehad evidently been spread abroad, as the Ferryman and a number ofserious-looking storks were escorting the Caravan with an air of greatinterest, and occasionally taking to their heels when the Admiralchanced to look at them through the wires with his spy-glass. There wasa door, to be sure, in the side of the trap, quite big enough for theAdmiral, and Sir Walter, and the Highlander to come out of, all in a rowif they liked, but they evidently hadn't noticed this--"and I'm notgoing to tell 'em about it, just yet, " said Dorothy to herself, "becausethey deserve to be punished for their capers. But it's really quiteclever of 'em to put their little legs through in that way, " she wenton, "and extremely convenient--that is, you know, " she addedthoughtfully, "so long as they all want to go the same way"; and, withthis wise reflection, she scrambled over the wall and ran after theprocession. 

The Admiral and Sir Walter seemed greatly mortified when Dorothyappeared, and she saw that Sir Walter was making a desperate attempt topull up his legs into the cage as if he hadn't anything whatever to dowith the affair. The Highlander, however, who always seemed to havepeculiar ideas of his own, shouted out "Philopene!" as he caught sightof her, and then laughed uproariously as if this were the finest joke inthe world; but Dorothy, very properly, took not the slightest notice ofhis remark. 

"How did you ever get into _this_ scrape?" said she, addressing theAdmiral as the head of the family. 

"It was easy enough to get into, " said the Admiral, peevishly; "we justfell into it through the hole in the top. But there wasn't any scrapeabout it until we tried to get out again. _Then_ we got scraped likeanything. "

"Needles was nothing to it, " added Sir Walter, solemnly. 

"Nor cats, " put in the Highlander. 

"I'm very sorry, " said Dorothy, compassionately; "and are you reallygoing to be made into a pie?"

"Oh, dear, no!" said the Admiral. "We got excused. "

"Excused?" exclaimed Dorothy, very much surprised. 

"Well, it was something like that, " said Sir Walter, confusedly. "Yousee, Bob Scarlet didn't exactly like to come in here after us--"

"Unconquerabubble awersion to cages, " explained the Admiral. 

"And so he goes off after hooks to pull us out with, " continued SirWalter--

"And we inwents this way of going about, and comes away!" added theAdmiral triumphantly. 

"And where are you going now?" said Dorothy; for by this time they wererunning so fast that she could hardly keep up with them. 

[Illustration: "BY THIS TIME THEY WERE RUNNING SO FAST THAT SHE COULDHARDLY KEEP UP WITH THEM. "]

"We're going to the Ferry, " said the Admiral, "and these pelicans areshowing us the way"; and as he said this the whole party hurried througha little archway and came out at the waterside. 

An old stage-coach without any wheels was floating close up against theriver-bank, and quite a little party of the dancing animals wascrowding aboard of it, pushing and shoving one another, and all talkingin the most excited manner; and as Dorothy found herself next to her oldfriend the Sheep, in the crowd, she inquired anxiously, "Where are youall going?"

"We don't know exactly, " said the Sheep, "but we've all taken tickets todifferent places so as to be sure of getting _somewhere_"; and with thisremark the Sheep disappeared in the crowd, leaving Dorothy very muchbewildered. 

By this time the Caravan had, by great exertions, climbed up on top ofthe coach and were sitting there in the cage, as if it had been a sortof cupola for purposes of observation; and, indeed, the Admiral wasalready quite absorbed in taking in various points of interest with hisglass. The storks, meanwhile, had crowded into the coach after theanimals, and had their heads out through all the windows as if therewere no room for them inside. This gave the coach somewhat theappearance of a large chicken-coop with too many chickens in it; and asDorothy didn't fancy a crowd, she climbed up on the box. As she did so, Sarah, the Camel, put her head out of the front window and, laying itin Dorothy's lap, murmured, "Good-evening, " and went comfortably tosleep. The next moment the fiddles in the air began playing again andthe stage-coach sailed away. 

 * * * * *

Dorothy never knew exactly what happened next, because everything was soconfused. She had an idea, however, that they were all singing the FerrySong, and that they had just got to a new part, beginning--

 "It pours into picnics and swishes the dishes, "

when a terrible commotion began on top of the coach, and she saw thatBob Scarlet had suddenly appeared inside the cage _without hiswaistcoat_, and that the Caravan were frantically squeezing themselvesout between the wires. At the same moment a loud roaring sound arose inthe air, and the quadrupeds and the storks began jumping out of thewindows in all directions. Then the stage-coach began to rock violently, and she felt that it was about to roll over, and clutched at the neck ofthe Camel to save herself; but the Camel had slipped away, and she foundshe had hold of something like a soft cushion--and the next moment thecoach went over with a loud crash. 

[Illustration: "IT SLOWLY CHANGED TO A BIRD-CAGE WITH A ROBIN SITTING INIT. "]

Dorothy gave a little scream as the coach went over, and then held herbreath; but instead of sousing into the water as she expected, she camedown on top of it with a hard bump, and, very much to her astonishment, found herself sitting up on a carpeted floor. For a moment therat-trap, with Bob Scarlet inside of it, seemed to be floating around inthe air like a wire balloon, and then, as she rubbed her eyes and lookedagain, it slowly changed into a bird-cage with a fat robin sitting in iton a perch, and peering sharply at her sideways with one of his brightlittle eyes; and she found she was sitting on the floor of the littleparlor of the Blue Admiral Inn, with her little rocking-chair overturnedbeside her and the cushion firmly clutched in her hand. The coach, andthe dancing animals, and the Ferryman and his storks had alldisappeared, which was a very fortunate thing, as there wasn't room forthem in the parlor; and as for the roaring sound in the air--why, UnclePorticle was fast asleep in his big arm-chair, with his handkerchiefspread over his face, and I think it more than likely that he hadsomething to do with the sound. 

Dorothy stared about for a moment, and then, suddenly remembering theCaravan, she jumped up and ran to the window. It was snowing hard, andshe saw through the driving snowflakes that the Highlander and SirWalter Rosettes were standing on their pedestals, complacently watchingthe people hurrying by with their Christmas parcels; and as for theAdmiral, he was standing on _his_ pedestal, with a little pile of snowlike a sugar-loaf on top of his hat, and intently gazing across thestreet through his spy-glass. 

[Illustration: TAIL-PIECE TO CHAPTER XII. ]

THE END.