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+Project Gutenberg's Seven O'Clock Stories, by Robert Gordon Anderson
+
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+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Seven O'Clock Stories
+
+Author: Robert Gordon Anderson
+
+Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7802]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 18, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEVEN O'CLOCK STORIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, Ted Garvin
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+                     SEVEN O'CLOCK STORIES
+
+                              BY
+
+                    ROBERT GORDON ANDERSON
+
+
+
+
+                     TO JEAN AND MALCOLM
+
+            TO WHOM THESE STORIES WERE FIRST TOLD
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+FIRST NIGHT
+THE THREE HAPPY CHILDREN
+
+SECOND NIGHT
+THE PLAYMATES OF THE THREE HAPPY CHILDREN
+
+THIRD NIGHT
+NOISY FOLKS
+
+FOURTH NIGHT
+JUST BEFORE SUPPER
+
+FIFTH NIGHT
+THE TOYMAN
+
+SIXTH NIGHT
+THE WILLOW WHISTLE
+
+SEVENTH NIGHT
+MR. SCARECROW
+
+EIGHTH NIGHT
+THE PRETTIEST FAIRY STORY IN THE WORLD
+
+NINTH NIGHT
+ANOTHER TRUE FAIRY STORY
+
+TENTH NIGHT
+THE HAPPY ENDING OF THE ORIOLE'S STORY
+
+ELEVENTH NIGHT
+MOTHER HEN AND ROBBER HAWK
+
+TWELFTH NIGHT
+ABOUT DUCKIE THE STEPCHILD AND THE LITTLE SHIP
+
+THIRTEENTH NIGHT
+THE TALL ENEMY
+
+FOURTEENTH NIGHT
+THE SLEIGH AND THE TINY REINDEER
+
+FIFTEENTH NIGHT
+JACK FROST AND THE MAN-IN-THE-MOON
+
+SIXTEENTH NIGHT
+SLOSHIN'
+
+SEVENTEENTH NIGHT
+THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN
+
+EIGHTEENTH NIGHT
+THE JOLLY CLOWN
+
+NINETEENTH NIGHT
+WIENERWURST'S BRAVE BATTLE
+
+TWENTIETH NIGHT
+THE LIONS OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"AND THERE ON THE HILL SAT A JOLLY OLD MAN, ROUND AND FAT,
+WITH A PIPE IN HIS MOUTH AND A SACK ON HIS BACK"
+
+"THE THREE HAPPY CHILDREN LIVE IN THE COUNTRY"
+
+"WIENERWURST CAUGHT A PRETTY PIGEON BY ITS TAIL AND BIT IT"
+
+"THE DUCKS, THE SWANS, AND THE GEESE ARE VERY FOND OF THE
+POND, BUT THEIR COUSINS THINK IT A DREADFUL PLACE"
+
+"PRIMROSE, DAISY, BUTTERCUP, AND OLD BLACK-EYED SUSAN WALKED
+INTO THE BIG BARN"
+
+"ON THE LINE SOMETHING WRIGGLED. IT WAS ROUND AND SHINY
+AND GOLD"
+
+"THE TOYMAN WORKED WITH HIS KNIFE VERY CAREFULLY"
+
+"'THERE, OLD WOODEN TOP,' THE TOYMAN SPOKE TO MR.
+SCARECROW STERNLY"
+
+"THE THREE HAPPY CHILDREN SET TO WORK WITH THE THREE
+SHINY RAKES"
+
+"THE ORIOLES WERE VERY HAPPY BIRDS"
+
+"FATHER AND MOTHER ORIOLE TAUGHT THEM TO FLY"
+
+"THE EVIL EYE OF ROBBER HAWK LOOKED DOWN AT THE
+FRIGHTENED WHITE WYANDOTTES"
+
+"THE WIND FILLED THE SAILS OF THE LITTLE SHIP AND OFF SHE
+WENT"
+
+"ON THROUGH THE SNOW THE TALL ENEMY MARCHED"
+
+"HITCHED TO THE SLEIGH WERE TWO TINY BROWN REINDEER WITH
+YELLOW HORNS"
+
+"HE HAD ONE FRIEND LEFT, LITTLE WIENERWURST"
+
+"THE TIGER LOOKED AT ALL THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE WINDOWS
+AND DOORS"
+
+"THE TOYMAN SAW MARMADUKE WAY UP ON THE BACK OF THE BIG
+ELEPHANT"
+
+"QUICK AS A FLASH THE BIG DOG JUMPED AT LITTLE WIENERWURST"
+
+"HE WASN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING WHEN HE WAS SAFE IN THE
+TOYMAN'S ARMS"
+
+
+
+
+FIRST NIGHT
+
+THE THREE HAPPY CHILDREN
+
+
+Not once upon a time but just now, in a white house by the side of a road,
+live three happy children.
+
+Their mother and father gave them very odd names, for two old uncles and
+one aunt, which pleased the old people very much. Their names are all
+written in the big family Bible,--Jehosophat Green, Marmaduke Green, and
+Hepzebiah Green.
+
+Jehosophat is just seven years old. His birthday comes on Thanksgiving Day
+this year. It does not come on Thanksgiving Day every year, of course. See
+if you can guess why.
+
+Marmaduke is five, "going on six," he always says. Little Hepzebiah, who
+toddles after her brothers, tells everyone who comes to visit that she is
+"half-past three." She heard her brother say this once and she imitates all
+he does and says. Perhaps that is why her father calls her a "little
+monkey."
+
+These happy children all live in the country. They do not know much about
+elevated trains and subways and automobiles and moving pictures but they
+do know a great deal about flowers and birds and chestnuts and picnics and
+lots of things which you would like too, if you lived in the country.
+
+Each place you see has its advantages. All good is not found in the
+country, nor all in the city. If we keep both eyes open we will see lots of
+enjoyable and beautiful things wherever we are.
+
+The house in which Jehosophat and Marmaduke and Hepzebiah live is large. It
+has many rooms to sleep in and eat in and play in. It is painted white and
+has wide windows with green blinds.
+
+Around the house are large trees. The branches seem to pat the house
+lovingly and to protect the children when the sun is too hot or the rain
+comes down too fast.
+
+They are fine for swings and bird-houses, these trees, and some throw down
+acorns and others cones and soft pine needles for the children to play
+with.
+
+Behind the house and gardens are red barns, chicken yards--and oh lots of
+animals,--the three dogs, Rover, Brownie, and little yellow Wienerwurst and
+all the rest. You will come to know them later. Each has his funny ways and
+queer tricks just like people. Around the house are fields with growing
+plants and oh--we almost forgot the pond where Jehosophat and his brother
+sail boats.
+
+Mother, that is Mrs. Green, is not too thin nor yet too plump. She is just
+what a mother ought to be, with kind, shining eyes, and soft cheeks. She
+is always cooking things or doing things for Jehosophat and Marmaduke and
+little Hepzebiah.
+
+Father--the neighbours call him Neighbour Green--is very strong. He can
+lift big weights and manage bad horses. He can do lots of work and yet
+somehow he finds time to do things for the children too.
+
+His eyes are blue, while mother's are brown. When he laughs, Marmaduke
+thinks it sounds like the church-bells on Sunday. Once he had a
+moustache but that went when mother said he would look younger without
+it. Now sometimes, when he works hard, he does not have time to shave
+every day. On Sunday mornings Hepzebiah loves to watch him take the
+brush and cup. The cup has flowers painted on it. When he turns the
+brush in the cup it makes something like whipped cream, or the top of
+mother's lemon pies.
+
+And after he takes it off with the razor his face is red and shiny and
+smooth. Hepzebiah always likes to kiss her father, but she likes to kiss
+him best on Sunday mornings.
+
+Tonight you have met all the family so we must stop for the clock says
+"after seven." Tomorrow we will meet all the animals and they are really
+part of the family too.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND NIGHT
+
+THE PLAYMATES OF THE THREE HAPPY CHILDREN
+
+
+The three happy children have many playmates, who live in the barnyard.
+Some have four feet and some only two, but _these_ have two wings
+besides to make up for the missing feet.
+
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah like the dogs best. And just as
+there are three children so there are three dogs. Let's shake hands with
+them, one by one.
+
+The great big dog is named Rover, the middle-sized one Brownie, and the
+little yellow curly one Wienerwurst.
+
+A wise fellow is Rover. From a cold country called Newfoundland his great
+grandfather came. And he seems to think life is a very serious matter. His
+coat is black with snow-white patches. His hair curls a little. It feels
+very soft when you lay your head against it.
+
+He doesn't play as much as the other two doggies. But once when Hepzebiah
+fell in the pond after her doll, Rover swam in and caught her dress in his
+mouth and brought her to shore. Not long after that Mr. Green gave him a
+new shiny collar.
+
+Brownie is a terrier and is coloured like his name. He is a frisky dog and
+often chases the horses and buggies that go up and down the road in front
+of the house. Sometimes the drivers lash at him with their long whips but
+he is too quick for them and scampers out of their reach.
+
+The funniest doggie in all the world is little yellow Wienerwurst. He is
+even more full of mischief than Brownie and loves to run after all the
+other animals in the barnyard.
+
+When the pigeons fly down from their little house on the top of the barn to
+take an afternoon walk and perhaps pick up a few extra grains of corn, this
+little yellow doggie spoils all their fun. He soon sends them flying back
+to their house on the roof, where they chatter and coo in great excitement.
+But they do not lose their tempers like "Mr. Stuckup," the turkey, or old
+"Miss Crosspatch," the guinea-hen with the ugly voice.
+
+Once little Wienerwurst caught a pretty pigeon by its tail and bit it. Then
+Mr. Green took him over his knee, just as he did Jehosophat when he threw a
+stone at the window, and spanked little Wienerwurst.
+
+Each dog has a house. One is big, one middle-sized, and one small, and
+each has a door to fit the doggie who lives there. Their houses are called
+kennels, and they are something like the pigeon's home way up on the roof.
+
+The pigeons are very pretty, grey and white and pink coloured. When the sun
+shines brightly their necks shine too, like the rainbow silk dress which
+Mrs. Green wears whenever there is a wedding.
+
+One pair of the pigeons sit a great deal of the time on the ridge-pole of
+the barn and swell out their chests like proud, fat policemen. Farmer Green
+calls them pouter pigeons.
+
+They do not have harsh voices like the guinea-hen or the old black crows
+which steal the corn from the field when Mr. Scarecrow gets tired and goes
+to sleep. (We will introduce you to Mr. Scarecrow some evening very soon.)
+But the voices of the pigeons are soft and low like mother's, especially
+when Hepzebiah is sick and she sings her to sleep.
+
+They will not have much to do with the chickens, these pigeons. Perhaps
+they are like the people who live on the top floor of tall city houses and
+do not go down often to talk with the people in the streets.
+
+What a lot of chickens Farmer Green has! Almost two hundred, if they would
+ever stay still long enough for Jehosophat to count them. They are called
+White Wyandottes and they are very white and plump, with combs as red as
+geraniums.
+
+You know there are many kinds of chickens just as there are many kinds
+of people, English, French, and Americans. Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth
+Rocks, Cochins, and Leghorns are some of the chicken family names, but
+Jehosophat's father does not believe in mixing families, he says, so only
+the White Wyandottes live on the Green farm.
+
+Jehosophat and Marmaduke love the big rooster best. The red comb on the
+top of his head has teeth like a carpenter's saw, and is so large it
+will not stand up straight. His white tail curves beautifully like the
+plumes on the hats of the circus ladies. When he throws back his head,
+puffs out his throat, and calls to the Sun, he is indeed a wonderful
+creature.
+
+The little chicks are the ones Hepzebiah loves best. She can hold them in
+her two hands like little soft yellow balls or the powder puffs which Nurse
+uses on new little babies. The little chicks have such tiny voices, crying
+"cheep, cheep, cheep," almost the way the crickets do all through the
+night.
+
+The chickens have cousins who--but there goes the clock--so that is
+tomorrow night's story.
+
+
+
+
+THIRD NIGHT
+
+NOISY FOLKS
+
+
+Do you remember what we were telling about last night when that little
+tongue told us to stop? The little tongue in the Clock-with-the-Wise-Face
+on the mantel?
+
+Oh yes, the first cousins of the chickens who lived in the yard of the
+three happy children.
+
+Their first cousins are called ducks. Most of them are white but a few
+are black. Their coats are very smooth, and the skin under them sends out
+little drops of oil like drops of perspiration. This keeps the water and
+the rain from wetting the ducks through and through. You have heard people
+say sometimes: "The way water runs off a duck's back." Well, now you know
+the reason why.
+
+In rainy weather Hepzebiah wears a blue waterproof with a little hood but
+the ducks do not need anything like that. Their everyday coats of white
+and black are just as good. If the White Wyandottes cannot get under the
+chicken coop or the barn quick enough when it rains, their feathers are all
+mussed up but the ducks seem always dressed in their best.
+
+Their bills are different from their relatives'. They are not short and
+pointed like the chicken's but broad and long.
+
+And they have what are called web feet. Between the toes are pieces of
+skin, thick and tough like canvas. These web feet are like small oars or
+paddles. With them they can push against the water of the pond and swim
+quite fast.
+
+The ducks are very fond of the pond but their cousins think it a dreadful
+place.
+
+"Cluck, cluck," say the White Wyandottes, "what a foolish way of spending
+your time, sailing on the water when there are fat, brown worms to dig for
+in the nice earth!"
+
+You see animals, like people, like different things. The world wouldn't be
+half so interesting if we all liked the _same_ things, would it?
+
+The other night Jehosophat felt very foolish when he came in to supper. His
+mother looked behind his ears and said: "Why you are just as afraid of the
+water as the chickens."
+
+Did you ever hear of such a thing!
+
+Now the chickens have _second_ cousins too. Their second cousins are
+the white geese.
+
+They live on the other side of the tall fence that looks as if it were made
+of crocheted wire. Sometimes Jehosophat's father opens the gate in the
+fence and lets the geese wander down to the pond. A silly way they have
+of stretching out their long white necks and crying, "Hiss, hiss!" This
+frightens Hepzebiah who always runs away. Then the geese waddle along in
+single file, that is one by one, like fat old ladies crossing a muddy
+street on their way to sewing society.
+
+Jehosophat says that the chickens have third cousins too,--the swans. There
+they are, way out on the pond, sailing along like white ships. Their necks
+are very long and snowy white and they bend in such a pretty way. And their
+soft white wings look something like the wings of the angels on the
+Christmas cards.
+
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah do not like one barnyard neighbour
+very much. It is the guinea-hen. She has a grey body, plump as a sack of
+meal, with little white speckles, a funny neck and such a small head with a
+tuft on top. She screeches horribly and Marmaduke calls her "Miss
+Crosspatch."
+
+But the turkey with his proud walk is just funny. And yet Farmer Green says
+he hasn't any sense of humour. Ask _your_ father how that can be if he
+is funny.
+
+"Mr. Stuckup" the children call the turkey. He walks along slowly, swinging
+from side to side. His feathers are brownish-black or bronze, and his tail
+often spreads out like a fan. He has the funniest nose. It is red and soft
+and long and flops over his bill on his chest.
+
+He calls "gobble, gobble, gobble," all the time, yet he does not gobble as
+much as the busy White Wyandottes all around him who are forever looking
+for kernels of corn or worms or bugs.
+
+But who is this magnificent creature coming along over the lawn under the
+cherry-tree? Uncle Roger, who sails around the world in a great ship with
+white sails, gave him to the children. He brought him from a land very far
+across the seas.
+
+He is the peacock and is all green and gold and blue. On his head is a
+little crown of feathers. His tail, too, can spread out like a fan the way
+"Mr. Stuckup's," the turkey's, does. But it is ever so much more beautiful.
+It is green and has hundreds of blue eyes in it. The three children call
+him the "Party Bird" for he is always so dressed up, but their father says
+he is "a bit of a snob." He means that he is vain and will not have much to
+do with his plainer neighbours of the barnyard--
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." There goes the clock again.
+
+Tomorrow night, if you are good all day, we will tell you about the rest
+of the barnyard friends of the three happy children. Then the next night,
+about the exciting things that happened to them.
+
+Good-night! Sweet Dreams!
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH NIGHT
+
+JUST BEFORE SUPPER
+
+
+In the afternoon the sun grows tired of his hot walk across the sky. Beyond
+the Green farm are the blue hills behind which he sleeps each night.
+
+When he is almost there the three happy children go down to the barn to
+watch their four-footed friends come home.
+
+Sometimes Frank, the hired man who helps Farmer Green, is late and does
+not go for the cows. All day long they have been in pasture. Sometimes
+they eat the grass and pink clover. Sometimes they wade in the little
+brook which flows there. But when it grows late, even if Frank does not
+come, they know it is supper time and leave the pasture.
+
+When they reach the barnyard fence they stand outside calling to be let in.
+Then Frank comes and lets down the bars. They walk into the yard and
+through the doors into the big red barn.
+
+There are ten cows but Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah love four of
+them better than the rest. Their names are "Primrose," "Daisy,"
+"Buttercup," and "Black-eyed Susan."
+
+Now just as there are different kinds of chickens so there are several
+kinds of cows--Guernseys, Jerseys, Alderneys, and Holsteins.
+
+"Primrose," "Daisy," and "Buttercup" are Jerseys and are a pretty brown.
+"Black-eyed Susan" belongs to the Holsteins and is black and white.
+"Black-eyed Susan" gives more milk than her companions but their milk has
+richer cream.
+
+Each cow has a stall to sleep in. In front of each is a box or manger.
+Frank climbs up the tall ladder to the loft, which is the second story of
+the barn, and throws down the hay. Then he takes his sharp pitchfork and
+tosses a lot of hay in each manger. You would never think cows could eat
+so much. One box of shredded-wheat would do for all the Green family and
+visitors too, but "Primrose" and "Daisy" and all the rest each eat enough
+hay to fill many shredded-wheat boxes.
+
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah love to stand in the doorway of the
+barn and smell the hay as the cows chew it. It is very sweet smelling.
+
+They do not go too near the stalls, for while the cows are eating their
+supper, they switch their tails to keep off the flies. Once "Black-eyed
+Susan" switched her tail across Marmaduke's face. It felt like a whip and
+he ran away crying. But "Susan" didn't mean it for she is a very gentle
+cow.
+
+And once Jehosophat came too near old "Crumplety Horn," the white cow with
+the twisted horn. She kicked at Jehosophat and over went the pail of milk
+which his father had almost full.
+
+The children like to see their father and Frank sit on their three-legged
+stools in the stalls and milk the cows. The milk spurts into the pails and
+it sounds very pleasant.
+
+The milk is very warm when it comes from the cows so Farmer Green puts
+it in great cans as tall as Jehosophat. Then he carries the cans to the
+spring-house where it is cool, and leaves them overnight by the well. The
+children will drink some of it in the morning. Tonight they will drink
+_this morning's_ milk, which is cool now.
+
+About the time the cows come home the horses come back too.
+
+First comes "Hal" the red roan. A red roan is a horse that is red-coloured,
+sprinkled with little grey hairs. Then there is "Chestnut" who is called
+that because he is coloured like chestnuts when they are ripe in the fall,
+and "Teddy," the buckskin horse. He is tan-coloured and has a black stripe
+on his backbone. Farmer Green got him from the West. There is a little mark
+called a brand on his flank which tells that.
+
+"Old Methuselah" and "White Boots" do not do much work now. "Old
+Methuselah" is all white. He was pretty old when Farmer Green bought him so
+he was nicknamed for the oldest man in the Bible. "White Boots" is a bay
+mare. That means a red-brown mother horse. She has four white feet. By her
+side runs a little black colt with funny legs. Jehosophat gave him
+_his_ name, "Black Prince."
+
+"Hal" and "Teddy" and "Chestnut" are very tired for they have been pulling
+the plough, the wagon, or doing some farm work all day.
+
+Very glad they are to get their heavy leather collars and harness off and
+rest in the cool barn. They have hay to eat but they have been working hard
+so they have oats besides. Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah eat oats
+too but theirs are flattened out and cooked. We call it oatmeal. The oats
+for the horses are not flat but round like little seeds, and are not cooked
+on any stove. Farmer Green cuts the stalks in the oat field. Then he takes
+them to the threshing-machine, which knocks the little oats off the stalks.
+Then they are put in bags to keep for the horses.
+
+But the little black colt with the funny long legs does not eat them.
+_He_ gets milk from his mother. He is just a baby horse, you see, but
+when he gets bigger he will have oats and hay too.
+
+Now all the animals are busy eating, the pigs with their curly tails, the
+sheep, the lambs, the cows, the little calves, the horses, and the colt
+with the funny legs. It is time for the three happy children to have their
+supper so they run back to the house. Soon, very soon, they will be fast
+asleep in Slumberland, which is where the Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face
+says you should be now. Good-night.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH NIGHT
+
+THE TOYMAN
+
+
+Farmer Green has a man who helps him plough, feed the cows and horses,
+and with all the work on the farm. His name is Frank, but Jehosophat,
+Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah call him "the Toyman."
+
+Winter nights around the fire he makes wonderful toys for them.
+
+His knife is like a fairy's wand. With it he whittles boats for Jehosophat,
+kites for Marmaduke, and dolls for Hepzebiah. He paints them pretty colours
+too. So I think they gave him the right sort of nickname when they called
+him "the Toyman."
+
+He hasn't many clothes and no house of his own and no relatives of any
+sort. He isn't exactly a handsome man. But the three happy children love
+the Toyman very much.
+
+Yesterday he sat by the edge of the pond. On one side sat Jehosophat,
+Marmaduke, and big Rover. On the other side sat Hepzebiah, Brownie, and
+little yellow Wienerwurst.
+
+They were all looking down at the water of the pond. It was very clear.
+
+"Keep still, Wienerwurst," said the Toyman, "or you will scare the fishes."
+
+They were swimming through the waters. Near the banks were little baby
+fishes, hundreds of them, called minnows. They had a nickname too,
+"minnies." Out farther, once in a while, the children saw a fish shining
+like gold. It was a sunfish or "sunny" as they sometimes called it. And the
+Toyman told them all about these fishes and the perch, too, and the long
+pickerel and the wicked carp, who hunts the other fish and kills them.
+
+Then all at once the Toyman put his hands in his pockets. Mother Green says
+his pockets are like ten-cent stores. They are so full of all sorts of
+things.
+
+The three children watched him closely. First came a piece of wood with a
+fishline wound around it.
+
+Then with his knife he cut three poles and near the top of each a little
+notch. The fishlines were tied around the poles. At the other end he put
+little curved fish-hooks, and about two feet above them little pieces of
+lead, called "sinkers." The sinkers were to keep the hooks near the bottom
+of the pond where the fish stay most of the time.
+
+Then from his pockets the Toyman took three pretty things which he had made
+the night before. They were whittled of wood and shaped like lemons with
+sharper points. The red and blue one was tied on Jehosophat's line, the red
+and yellow one on Marmaduke's, and the blue and yellow on little
+Hepzebiah's.
+
+"What are those pretty things?" asked Marmaduke.
+
+"Floaters," the Toyman answered. "Watch and you will see what we do with
+them."
+
+"Now you keep still, you Wienerwurst, or we will put you back in the
+kennel," called the Toyman to the little yellow dog, who felt very frisky
+and wanted to bark all the time.
+
+By the feet of the Toyman was a tin can. He put in his hand and pulled out
+a worm. This was put on Jehosophat's hook, another on Marmaduke's, and
+another on Hepzebiah's.
+
+Then the Toyman threw the three hooks in the water. The two boys held their
+poles tight but the Toyman had to help little Hepzebiah hold her pole, for
+her hands were too small.
+
+"Now quiet, everybody!" said the Toyman once more and they all sat watching
+the red and blue, the yellow and blue, and the red and yellow floaters out
+on the water.
+
+"When the floater goes under, you will know that a fish is biting at the
+worm on the hook."
+
+The Toyman had no sooner said this than he called out loud:
+
+"Watch 'er!"
+
+The red and yellow floater was pulled way under the water. The string on
+Marmaduke's pole tightened and the pole bent.
+
+Three times the floater went under the water.
+
+Then Marmaduke threw his pole back quickly and the hook came out of the
+water. On it something wriggled. The thing fell plop into Hepzebiah's
+lap. She screamed while it flopped there. It was a little bigger than the
+Toyman's hand and round and flat and shiny red and gold. No, it was not a
+goldfish. It was a sunfish.
+
+After the Toyman had taken the sunfish from the hook and put another worm
+on it, he threw the line back into the water.
+
+Then all the three children and the two dogs sat watching the little rings
+in the water around the floaters. Sometimes farther out they saw larger
+rings, and a fish feeling pretty happy, because of the cool September
+weather, would jump out of the water and turn a somersault through the air.
+
+Then all of a sudden the blue and yellow floater went under and little
+Hepzebiah caught a sunfish, too.
+
+Jehosophat felt disappointed because he was the oldest and hadn't caught
+any fish at all. But the afternoon was not gone when he felt a big tug at
+his line. It took him a long time to pull that fish in. When the hook came
+out of the water a long wriggly thing was on it.
+
+"Oo, oo, it's a snake," screamed little Hepzebiah.
+
+"No, it's only an eel," said the Toyman, "he won't hurt you."
+
+But he had to take it off Jehosophat's hook himself, the eel was so
+slippery and wriggled so. Before the sun went down, the children had each
+caught two fish. There were three sunfish, two perch, and the wriggly eel.
+
+The Toyman cleaned them all. And Mother fried them with butter and flour
+in a pan. It was a good supper they had that night, for they had caught it
+themselves. When supper was over three little heads were nodding and soon
+the three happy children were taking a little sail way on into Dreamland.
+That is a beautiful place where you would like to go too. So you had better
+follow them quickly. Perhaps you can catch up with them. Good-night.
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH NIGHT
+
+THE WILLOW WHISTLE
+
+
+The Toyman sat by the pond under the "Crying Tree." That is what Marmaduke
+calls it, though the Toyman says it is a weeping willow. It's leaves are
+a very pretty green, much lighter than the leaves of the other trees. And
+the branches bend over till they reach the water. They really do look like
+showers of tears. Sometimes little leaves fall into the water and float
+away like silver-green boats, rowed by tiny fairies.
+
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah came up to the "Crying Tree."
+
+"What are you doing, Toyman," asked Marmaduke.
+
+"Watch and you will see."
+
+They were always asking him that question and he was always telling them to
+watch and see.
+
+So they did.
+
+In his hand he had his knife, which could make as many things as a fairy's
+wand. It had four blades and a corkscrew.
+
+The Toyman cut some thin branches from the tree. From these he cut three
+pieces, each about as long as his first finger and about as thick as his
+little finger.
+
+One end of each piece of wood he cut like the stern of a boat, then he cut
+a notch near the end.
+
+Then he worked with his knife very carefully. Soon the green bark came off
+each little piece of wood. The bark came off whole, like a little roll of
+green paper.
+
+"See," said the Toyman, "the bark is the skin of the tree and in spring the
+sap which is the blood of the tree flows fast. It isn't coloured red, it
+is just like light juice, but it makes the bark slip off this wood very
+easily."
+
+On the grass he laid the round pieces of green bark. Then he took the white
+bits of wood which had been under the bark and he whittled away at the
+ends. Soon he was through.
+
+Then he slipped the pieces of bark, which looked so much like little
+rolled-up green papers, back on the white pieces of wood.
+
+They fitted perfectly.
+
+One he gave to Jehosophat, one to Marmaduke, and one to Hepzebiah.
+
+"What are they?" asked Marmaduke.
+
+"I know," said his brother Jehosophat, "they are whistles."
+
+"Yes," said the Toyman. "They are willow whistles. Now put them in your
+mouths and blow."
+
+Each put the end of his whistle in his mouth and blew.
+
+It sounded very pretty, the three whistles--and then--what do you think?
+
+Not far from the weeping willow or the "Crying Tree," was an elm tree. It
+was taller than the willow and darker green.
+
+In it something shone very bright--like an orange, only it moved.
+
+"It's an oriole," said the Toyman.
+
+They looked hard and, sure enough, there among the leaves was the prettiest
+bird they had ever seen. He had an orange-coloured body and black wings.
+
+His nest was on the end of a branch. It was grey-coloured and hung low like
+a little bag, made of knitted grey wool. Father and Mother Oriole had made
+it themselves. Mother Oriole is there sitting in it on little eggs.
+
+But Father Oriole heard the three willow whistles and he turned and began
+to whistle back--oh such a pretty song. It was really prettier than the
+sound of the three willow whistles for it had different notes and a tune
+like the songs Mother plays on the piano.
+
+"We must watch that nest," said the Toyman. "Some day soon we will see the
+baby orioles."
+
+But there--the Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face is scolding again. So the
+story must stop for tonight.
+
+When you're asleep if you listen very hard, maybe you can hear the three
+happy children blowing the willow whistles, and maybe the beautiful oriole
+will answer back.
+
+Good-night.
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH NIGHT
+
+MR. SCARECROW
+
+
+Under the big oak by the brook sat the three happy children with Rover,
+Brownie, and little yellow Wienerwurst. They were watching the Toyman cut
+the ripe corn.
+
+"Isn't that funny?" said Jehosophat.
+
+"What's funny?" asked Marmaduke.
+
+"Wot's funny?" repeated Hepzebiah.
+
+"Oh! I was just thinking," said Jehosophat, "how he seems just Frank when
+he's ploughing or harrowing or cutting the corn. But when he's through work
+and tells us stories or makes us things, why then he is the Toyman."
+
+"Yes," his brother agreed. "He looks as if some fairy godmother changed him
+nights and Sundays."
+
+But they were rudely interrupted.
+
+"Caw, caw!" said a voice.
+
+It was a rascal's voice.
+
+"Caw, caw!" said another.
+
+The Toyman jumped. He shook his fist.
+
+"You old thief!" he called.
+
+"Rogue, rogue, rogue!" growled Rover in his deep voice.
+
+"Run, run, run!" barked Brownie.
+
+"Rough, rough--rough, rough!" said little Wienerwurst in his funny voice.
+
+"There he is," said the Toyman, "Mr. Jim Crow and all his wicked chums. See
+there!"
+
+All the children looked in the direction in which his finger pointed. Over
+in the far corner of the field a flock of crows flew up from the waving
+corn. A white horse, drawing a buggy, was trotting along the road by the
+side of the cornfield. The driver had scared Mr. Jim Crow and all his
+chums. They flapped their big black wings as they flew. And they flew very
+straight, not like the pretty barn-swallows with their dark-blue wings. The
+swallow is a happy bird and skims and dances in the air like a fancy skater
+on the ice. But Mr. Jim Crow flies like an arrow. That is because he is
+always up to some mischief and forever running away when someone finds
+him out.
+
+"Caw, caw!" he called.
+
+"Caw, caw!" called all his black mates.
+
+The Toyman ran to the fence and picked up a shotgun. It had two barrels
+that shone in the sun.
+
+"Bang, bang!" went the gun.
+
+One black spot dropped to the earth like a stone.
+
+The Toyman ran out in the cornfield. He bent over until his straw hat was
+hidden by the waving corn.
+
+Soon he came back. From his hand Mr. Jim Crow hung head downward. He
+was very still.
+
+"Oo, oo! You've hurted him!"
+
+Little Hepzebiah began to cry.
+
+"Don't cry," said the Toyman, patting her head. "Mr. Jim Crow was a bad
+fellow. You couldn't teach him any lessons."
+
+"What did he do?" Marmaduke asked.
+
+"He stole all the corn and you wouldn't have any nice muffins if he had had
+his way. I never shoot the orioles or the robins or the swallows or any of
+the birds with consciences."
+
+"What is a conscience?"
+
+"Oh a little clock inside you, like the
+Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantel. It tells you when it is time to
+stop," explained their friend.
+
+And Jehosophat and Marmaduke looked as if they knew just what he meant.
+But Hepzebiah was too little yet to understand.
+
+"See, Mr. Jim Crow is long and black. He has a bad eye."
+
+So he buried Mr. Jim Crow under the oak tree while the children watched.
+
+After that the Toyman said:
+
+"I reckon Mr. Scarecrow has fainted."
+
+"Who's Mr. Scarecrow?" asked the three happy children. "Is he Mr. Jim
+Crow's cousin?"
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the Toyman. "That is a good one. No, Mr. Scarecrow is
+the policeman of the cornfield. Let's go over and set him on his pins
+again."
+
+So again he walked through the rows between the cornstalks and they came to
+a little clear place in the middle of the field.
+
+There, flat on his back, lay Mr. Scarecrow.
+
+He too looked as if he were dead. But he was not.
+
+For his body was only two sticks of wood nailed together like a cross. He
+was dressed in Father Green's old blue trousers and the Toyman's old black
+coat. His arms were outstretched. But he had lost his hat. His wooden head
+stuck out.
+
+The Toyman picked him up and stood him straight on his one wooden leg. Then
+he put the old felt hat on his hard head.
+
+"There, old wooden top," the Toyman spoke to him sternly. "Don't leave your
+beat."
+
+But Marmaduke was puzzled.
+
+"How could he scare Mr. Jim Crow away like a policeman? He can't run with
+that wooden leg."
+
+"Silly," said Jehosophat, for he was older than Marmaduke and knew Mr.
+Scarecrow very well.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha, that's another good one," said the Toyman. "Of course he can't
+run. But when all the Crows see him standing up in the cornfield they think
+he is a real man. They are afraid Mr. Scarecrow will shoot. For they know
+that things that wear coats and hats often have guns. And guns have killed
+their chums. So they do not come very near when Mr. Scarecrow is around."
+
+"Caw, caw!" sounded the old rascals again. But the crows were far away. The
+three happy children could see them way up in the old chestnut tree over on
+the edge of their neighbour's wood.
+
+In the fork of two high branches was a great round nest--oh ever so much
+bigger than the thrush's and the oriole's. It was a crow's nest. Sailors
+often call the little turret built around the mast, where they stand and
+look out over the sea, a "crow's nest." It looks something like that.
+
+But Mr. Jim Crow's chums didn't come near the cornfield that day.
+
+At night, when they were ready for bed, Jehosophat said to Marmaduke:
+
+"I wonder if old Mr. Scarecrow is out there now."
+
+"Course he is," his brother assured him.
+
+"Let's see!"
+
+So they jumped out of bed and, in their white nightgowns, tiptoed over the
+floor to the window. The Old-Man-in-the-Moon was up. He looked as round
+and fat as a pumpkin in the sky.
+
+He winked at them.
+
+The Old-Man-in-the-Moon made it very bright so that they could see.
+
+Sure enough, way out in the cornfield stood Mr. Scarecrow.
+
+His hat and coat were on and he was standing up like a man, very straight
+and still. His arms were outstretched to tell Mr. Jim Crow's chums that he
+was ready for them.
+
+But though they are thieves, the Black Crows are not night burglars and
+they were fast asleep in the nests in the wood.
+
+The Man-in-the-Moon winked at them three times, once with his right eye,
+once with his left eye, then again with the right.
+
+And the three happy children thought they heard him say three times:
+
+"Back to bed, back to bed, back to bed!"
+
+Then they heard the sound of bells. Seven times they sounded. It was from
+the church over in the town,--the big white church with the long finger
+pointing at the sky. And the Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantel,
+answered back.
+
+So they obeyed the old yellow Man-in-the-Moon and scampered like little
+white mice back to bed.
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH NIGHT
+
+THE PRETTIEST FAIRY STORY IN THE WORLD
+
+
+"Tell me a story--a fairy story," said Jehosophat to his Mother.
+
+The three happy children loved really true stories and fairy stories too.
+Sometimes they wanted one, sometimes the other. Sometimes the Toyman
+mixed his stories up so it was hard to tell which they were.
+
+This morning it was spring. The sun was warm and Jehosophat felt very lazy.
+
+"No," said Mother. "I have too much work to do. But if you will help me dry
+the dishes I won't tell you but I'll _show you_ one of the prettiest
+fairy stories in the world."
+
+"It is true too," she added.
+
+"Mother, how can that be," said Marmaduke. "A fairy story that is a true
+story?"
+
+"Just be patient," she replied, "and you will see."
+
+So the boys took the dish towels and helped dry the dishes, without any
+accidents. But little Hepzebiah was too small, so she sat on the floor with
+her finger in her mouth and watched them.
+
+"Come," said Mother Green when they were through.
+
+Out in the vegetable garden, back of the raspberries they went.
+
+"See there," said Mother.
+
+Three square little garden plots with nice brown earth were waiting for
+seeds.
+
+"Father dug them for you--one for Jehosophat, one for Marmaduke, and one
+for Hepzebiah."
+
+The three happy children couldn't help but think that was fine.
+
+Just then along came Father.
+
+His arms were full.
+
+He had three little rakes, three little hoes, and three little spades.
+
+The three happy children did not need to ask whom they were for.
+
+"But where's the fairy story, Mother?"
+
+"That you will make," she said. "The jolly old Sun, the gentle Rain, and
+brown Mother Earth will help you."
+
+Jehosophat laughed.
+
+"Oh! I see now. But we can't finish that fairy story all in one day."
+
+"No, it takes time and it takes work. But it's a prettier story than any in
+books. And you can make it come true yourselves."
+
+Then Marmaduke piped up:
+
+"What do we do first?"
+
+"Well," his Mother explained, "your Father has dug the ground for you. You
+must rake it first, make it smooth and even. Mind, no hard lumps now!"
+
+So the three happy children set to work with their three shiny rakes.
+Father had to help Hepzebiah, of course.
+
+Then when the earth was smooth and fine, like brown powder, they made
+little furrows or lines in the earth. In other parts of the little gardens
+they scooped out tiny holes with their hoes.
+
+Out of his pockets Father took some square envelopes. On them were printed
+pretty flowers and ripe vegetables.
+
+"There," said Mother, "are the pictures of the _end_ of the fairy
+story. But you'll never know the end unless you try hard."
+
+Father tore open the envelopes and sowed the seeds in Hepzebiah's garden,
+some in the little holes, some in the furrows. Then he let the two boys sow
+their own gardens.
+
+After the envelopes were all empty and the seeds all scattered they covered
+them over with the fine brown soil.
+
+"The little seeds must sleep for a while," said their Mother, "like babies
+in a big brown bed."
+
+So every day the three children watched. And the Sun shone and sometimes
+the gentle Rain came. They did not feel sad when she was weeping, for
+Mother told them she was a fairy too, not so jolly as the Sun but gentle
+and kind. Jolly Sun, gentle Rain, and Mother Earth--they were all fairies
+whom God had sent to help make the story come true.
+
+Sometimes it was hard to finish breakfast, they were so anxious to see what
+had happened in the little gardens during the night. Sometimes they even
+forgot to ask Mother to "please excuse" them and they had to be called back
+to the table, for that was very impolite.
+
+At last one wonderful morning, as they stood around the flower beds,
+Jehosophat said:
+
+"There's Chapter Two!"
+
+"What's that?" asked Marmaduke who didn't quite understand.
+
+"Oh, just another step in the fairy tale."
+
+"Where?"
+
+He pointed to one of the gardens.
+
+From the brown earth a little green head poked out.
+
+Little Hepzebiah danced for it was in her garden, and toddled off to tell
+Mother.
+
+Next day there were five more little heads, some in each of the gardens.
+They were light in colour and seemed weak but somehow the jolly old Sun and
+brown Mother Earth took care of them as parents take care of babies. And
+sometimes the gentle Rain came to water them with her tears. So they grew
+strong and soon the gardens were covered with an army of sturdy little
+green spears.
+
+"It looks like a brown pincushion with green needles and pins," said
+Jehosophat.
+
+And the weeks passed and still the three good fairies worked hard over
+them to help them live and grow up to be real vegetables and flowers. They
+worked away very quietly, these three good fairies, as all good people
+work, without any noise, without any fuss.
+
+One day Farmer Green came back from a visit to the town.
+
+With him he brought three green watering-pots.
+
+"You must do some more work, yourselves," he told them as he handed each
+one of the shiny green cans. "You must water them when the Rain fairy is
+tired, pull up the bad weeds that steal the food Mother Earth keeps for the
+flowers, and you must keep the soil loose around the roots, so that the
+drops can sink way down deep. The more work you do the better you will like
+your flowers when they do come. And the taller and prettier they will be."
+
+So the little green stalks grew tall and strong. Then the little buds came.
+
+And one by one the buds opened into flowers. And the flowers had on their
+petals all the colours of the rainbow in the sky.
+
+And the children took turns filling the vase on the supper table. They were
+very proud of their flowers when their father leaned over and smelled them.
+
+"My, how sweet they smell!" he would say every time. "I don't think I
+_ever_ saw such flowers."
+
+And when their vegetables came to the table--round plump red radishes,
+crisp curling lettuce leaves, juicy tomatoes, and rows of peas in the pod,
+like the little toes of the neighbour's baby, Father Green would say:
+
+"I never did eat such vegetables!"
+
+Then he would smile over at Mother.
+
+And Marmaduke, after his turn one night, whispered to his mother--
+
+"It _was_ a pretty fairy story, Mother. And we made it come true
+ourselves."
+
+"Yes, with the help of God and His fairies--the jolly Sun, the gentle Rain,
+and brown Mother Earth. But the best part of it all is that _your own_
+hands helped."
+
+But the Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantle thought that the
+children understood now. So he stopped this advice with his silver tongue.
+
+And Mother, too, agreed that it was late. So she kissed them good-night and
+tucked them under the coverlids as they had covered the tiny seeds in their
+brown beds.
+
+
+
+
+NINTH NIGHT
+
+ANOTHER TRUE FAIRY STORY
+
+
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah were very happy as they watched the
+fairy story of the flowers. They were happier still because they helped it
+grow. But of course that did not take all of their time. So one morning
+when Marmaduke had eaten up all of his oatmeal and the cream, which
+Buttercup had given him, he laid his spoon down and said:
+
+"Won't you show us another story, 'cause we can't watch our gardens all day
+long?"
+
+"Yes," said Mother, "let me think what it will be."
+
+So Mother thought awhile.
+
+"I'll get Mother Nature to show you another story. But you can't help with
+this one. You'll just have to watch. It's made by the birds themselves."
+
+Then she looked at the calendar.
+
+"Why, it's the fourteenth of May. He ought to be here pretty soon."
+
+"Who ought to be here soon?" asked Jehosophat.
+
+"Why, the Oriole, the Baltimore Oriole, on his way back from the South,
+where he lives all winter."
+
+"How do you know he'll come soon?" the three children asked, all in the
+same breath.
+
+"He always comes back about the middle of May. City folks call May first
+'Moving Day,' but the fifteenth is the Oriole's Moving Day."
+
+So Mother led them out of the front door.
+
+"Just sit in that swing or play with the pine needles and watch that elm.
+Don't make too much noise now! Maybe he'll come today."
+
+And the children played in the front of the house all the morning and
+looked up at the dark green leaves of the elm every once in a while. But no
+bright little bird messenger came.
+
+They were very much disappointed but Mother said:
+
+"Never mind, tomorrow is his Moving Day and I think he'll come then. He is
+usually pretty prompt."
+
+That night Uncle Roger came to the house with Aunt Mehitable. As a special
+treat the children were allowed to stay up late and hear Uncle Roger's
+stories of the great sea.
+
+They stayed up very late, although the
+Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantle spoke several times. So
+next morning they were very tired. The sun was warm and while Jehosophat,
+Marmaduke and Hepzebiah sat on the porch they fell asleep. Jehosophat's
+head nodded against one post, Marmaduke's against another post, while
+little Hepzebiah fell asleep between them on the floor of the porch.
+
+"Wow, wow, wow," growled Rover, "let's go out in the barnyard and chase the
+White Wyandottes. It's no fun playing with sleepy children."
+
+"Wow, wow, wow!" answered Brownie and little Wienerwurst together, and this
+in dog's language means "Yes."
+
+So they romped away to the barnyard to chase the frightened White
+Wyandottes.
+
+That was not a good thing for the chickens but it was a good thing for the
+children. For if the dogs had not run away they might have missed something
+very wonderful.
+
+What do you think it was?
+
+First they heard pretty strains of music. It was something like a song and
+something like a whistle.
+
+They looked up in the elm tree.
+
+There, shining among the dark green leaves, was a pretty thing with orange
+and black feathers. He whistled away as if he did not have a care in the
+world.
+
+And they did not have to be told--they knew who it was. It was their old
+friend, the Oriole.
+
+He didn't stay still very long ever, for he was a busy fellow. But once he
+swung on a twig for a little while. They saw that he was almost as big as a
+robin, with head and shoulders of black, the wings black too, and most of
+his tail. But the rest of his body was like the prettiest orange-coloured
+velvet they had ever seen. He was singing something like this:
+
+  "What a fine day, what a fine day.
+  I can sing and build, for work is play."
+
+And every once in a while he would fly over to the apple tree and hop from
+branch to branch between the pink and white blossoms, looking for food.
+He was very fond of those caterpillars in the tree, you see. In between
+mouthfuls he would whistle just part of his song,
+
+"A-ver-y-fine-day!"
+
+Then he would take another bite, hop to another branch and whistle again:
+
+"A-ver-y-fine-day!"
+
+He certainly seemed to be happy over the beautiful weather.
+
+Then he would whistle again as if he were talking to someone.
+
+The three sleepy children listened.
+
+"Now that nest, dear, now that nest, dear. We must build that nest, before
+we rest."
+
+To whom could he be talking?
+
+They looked around. And there, hopping about on a spray of beautiful apple
+blossoms, was another bird. It was Mother Oriole. She was almost like
+Father Oriole, only her coat was not as bright as his. It is funny the
+way birds are dressed, isn't it? What would you think if some Sunday
+_your_ Father went to church in a black coat with a yellow vest, while
+Mother wore some very dull colour? You would laugh. But that is the way
+with birds. The father bird always wears brighter colours than the mother.
+
+The three happy children were glad that the mother bird had come with the
+father bird up from the sunny South. They heard him whistle again:
+
+  "In the Winter we go South, dear,
+  But in the Spring to the North we wing."
+
+Then together they flew back to the elm. They were house-hunting. Back on
+the roof of the barn there was a little house of wood with doors for the
+pretty pigeons, but there were no houses of any kind on the old elm. Still
+the Orioles did not worry about that. They were not lazy, oh no!
+
+They were just looking for a place to build. They must have found it, for
+the Oriole sang again (he was always changing his song):
+
+  "My dear, my dear,
+  Sunny--quiet--lovely--here."
+
+He had chosen a branch about thirty feet from the ground. Mother Oriole
+quietly answered back that it suited her perfectly. They both flew down
+to the ground, then back to the tree. And every time they travelled they
+had little pieces of grass or bark in their bills. But Mother Oriole did
+most of this work, which was quite proper, for mothers always do most of
+the work about the house, don't they? Father Oriole, you see, was more
+interested in getting fat beetles and caterpillars for food. And that was
+quite right too. But once he sang out louder than ever, for he had found a
+bit of string from Jehosophat's broken kite.
+
+"The very thing, the very thing," he said to her.
+
+And once Mother Oriole found, caught in the shutter, little threads of
+Hepzebiah's hair.
+
+Then the three happy children woke up. They rubbed their eyes. They had
+been dreaming in the warm sun.
+
+But their dream was true and the fairy story was true.
+
+For there were the two birds, very pretty and very much alive. They were
+busily flying to the earth again and back to the elm branch. And they were
+carrying the materials for their new home in their beaks.
+
+They perched on the branch and crocheted with their beaks. Yes, crocheted
+the little bits of bark and string and grass and hair into a tiny nest.
+Hanging down from the branch, it looked like the pretty soft grey bags
+which ladies carry, only it was very small.
+
+And between whiles Father Oriole would whistle in delight and Mother Oriole
+would answer back quietly.
+
+They were very happy birds and were quite content with the warm sun and
+the cool elm leaves and the pretty apple blossoms and their breakfast and
+dinner and supper. And they were very grateful to the good God who had
+given these things to them, grateful and happy as all little children
+should be.
+
+But that is not the end of the fairy story. No, that is--but the
+Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantel won't let us tell any more.
+His silver voice says:
+
+"Ting--ting--ting--ting--ting--ting--ting," which means:
+
+"Tell--that--tale--a--noth--er--time."
+
+So good-night.
+
+
+
+
+TENTH NIGHT
+
+THE HAPPY ENDING OF THE ORIOLE'S STORY
+
+
+All stories should have an ending. It's fine, isn't it, when they end
+happily?
+
+And this story of the Orioles did end happily--oh, so happily!
+
+It was this way, you see.
+
+The little grey house on the elm was finished.
+
+It hung down from the end of the green branch, under the leaves. It looked
+both like a fairy house and a little crocheted bag.
+
+Now for some days Mother Oriole didn't go out very much. She stayed in her
+little house.
+
+But Father Oriole kept about his work, hunting for the little brown
+crawling things and the green crawling things that made their food.
+
+He would whistle every once in a while to tell Mother Oriole that he was
+near. Sometimes it was just a few notes to say:
+
+  "I'm still here--my dear,
+  Still here, still here, still here."
+
+Sometimes:
+
+  "All right, my love!"
+
+Sometimes just:
+
+  "All's well!"
+
+But if a strange man came too near the tree his song was sharp and angry.
+
+  "Look out, look out, look out!
+  He's a rogue, an awful rogue, look out, I say!"
+
+But somehow he didn't seem to mind the children.
+
+"Why does Mother Oriole sit so quietly on her nest?" Marmaduke asked his
+own mother.
+
+"I wish I could lift you up so that you could see. But the nest is too high
+up. It's out of harm's way. Dicky Means, who has a cruel heart and robs
+birds' nests, can't reach it way up there!"
+
+"What's in it, Muvver?" asked little Hepzebiah. You see her little tongue
+didn't work just right. She never could say words with "th" in them.
+
+"Little eggs, dear. They are white, with little dark spots and funny dark
+scrawls on them as if somebody had tried to write with a bad pen."
+
+Then Marmaduke asked:
+
+"And is she keeping them warm?"
+
+"Yes, so that they will hatch out. They will, very soon now."
+
+So for a number of days in the warm weather, and in the rainy weather too,
+Mother Oriole sat faithfully on her nest. Bird mothers and the mothers of
+little children are always very patient. Then came one fine morning when
+the sun was particularly jolly and bright, and the blossoms smelt very
+sweet and were beginning to fall from the trees. The three happy children
+stood under the elm and looked up at the tiny hanging nest.
+
+They heard new noises, strange noises.
+
+It sounded like babies.
+
+Yes, the little Oriole babies had broken their shells and had been born at
+last.
+
+They didn't have many clothes on. But some day their feathers will be as
+pretty as their father's.
+
+How they did cry for food! Somehow baby Orioles cry more than other bird
+babies. They seem to want to eat all the time.
+
+And how Father Oriole did work to keep them fed, whistling every once in a
+while to make things pleasant for his family! I wonder if they appreciated
+all the things he and Mother Oriole did for them. And the days passed and
+the little birds grew fatter on the bugs and the beetles which their father
+brought, just as fat as the little boys or girls on their oatmeal and bread
+and milk, which their fathers work hard to earn for them.
+
+The little Orioles were certainly noisy little birds, and when they cried
+sometimes the children saw funny little heads and beaks poking out of the
+nest.
+
+Then more days passed and Father and Mother Oriole taught them to fly, just
+as Father and Mother Green had taught little Hepzebiah to walk. Marmaduke
+remembered how his Mother had held Hepzebiah and Father stood a little way
+off. Then Hepzebiah had started. She was a little frightened at first but
+she made the journey. It was only a few steps and her father caught her
+before she fell. She tried this often and soon she could take a great many
+steps.
+
+And that was something like the way Father and Mother Oriole taught their
+children to fly. The parent birds would fly to a branch a little way off.
+Then they would call the little birds. And one by one they would fly to the
+branch. Their wings were weak at first like Hepzebiah's little feet. But
+soon they grew strong and before many weeks had gone they could fly as fast
+as the old birds. And before the summer was over they were as big as their
+parents. You see birds have shorter lives than real people. They do not
+live so many years. So they have to grow up quickly or they wouldn't have
+much time for work and play, would they?
+
+So the children decided that the story of the Orioles was a very pretty
+fairy story, indeed, and they liked it better because it was true.
+
+And they found others--oh, so many stories like it.
+
+For sometimes Mother and sometimes Father and sometimes the Toyman
+showed them other little bird homes.
+
+They climbed a ladder and found the barn-swallow's nest plastered under the
+eaves of the barn. They liked the barn swallow who flew through the air,
+almost as if he were so happy that he danced as he flew. And his dress was
+so pretty, for he was dark blue on top, brown on the throat, and his little
+stomach was white. His tail was forked too, cut like the coat of the man in
+the circus who cracked the whip and made the horses perform tricks.
+
+The barn swallow's nest was so cunningly made. It was plastered of mud and
+grass, and had a soft grass lining. The little eggs in it were white and
+had tiny brown spots.
+
+Right near the bay window, in the thick lilac tree, Marmaduke spied Red
+Robin's nest. He was a great friend of theirs. They always liked the cheery
+way he hopped over the lawn, and his cheery red vest, and his song which
+always said:
+
+  "Che-eer up--che-eer up!"
+
+His eggs were the prettiest of all, a greenish blue, a robin's-egg blue,
+the dressmakers call it. Mother Green's summer dress was coloured just like
+it.
+
+And in a bush by the roadside, Hepzebiah spied the brown thrush's nest. His
+eggs were blue and spotted with brown.
+
+And in the elderberry tree they found the grey cat-bird's nest. He was a
+funny bird, always crying like a lost pussy. And his eggs were green-blue.
+
+So in the fields and the woods Jehosophat, Marmaduke and Hepzebiah saw
+all kinds of birds and all kinds of nests and all kinds of eggs. They
+saw them because their eyes were bright and sharp as yours must be too
+when you go into the beautiful country.
+
+And from the eggs funny little birds were born and grew up and flew and
+sang.
+
+And so the three happy children decided that the really true fairy stories
+of Mother Nature were the prettiest of all.
+
+And oh--we almost forgot! Perhaps we can tell the rest before that
+Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantel tells us to stop.
+
+Over near Neighbour Brown's fence they were peeping through the green
+leaves at the song-sparrow's nest. Mother was with them and they saw
+someone come out of their neighbour's house.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to see her?" the strange lady whispered to Mother.
+
+"Oh yes," Mother whispered back, "but they mustn't wake her up."
+
+Who could they be talking about? Then they went through the gate.
+
+"Be very quiet," said Mother as they entered the door, "and you'll see the
+end of another true fairy story."
+
+So they tiptoed in.
+
+There in a bed lay Mrs. Brown, looking very happy.
+
+And curled up in her arm she had--well, what do you think she had?
+
+A little sleeping baby!
+
+Like the little Orioles Baby had been born just a few days ago.
+
+"That," said Mother, "is the prettiest fairy story of all."
+
+And the children thought so too.
+
+There--we've finished just in time. We hear the Little Clock. There goes
+his silver tongue now.
+
+Good-night! Sweet Dreams.
+
+
+
+
+ELEVENTH NIGHT
+
+MOTHER HEN AND ROBBER HAWK
+
+
+Jehosophat and Marmaduke were whispering together.
+
+"Let's try it," said Jehosophat.
+
+"An' see what happens," added Marmaduke.
+
+So they tiptoed into the House of the White Wyandottes and placed the big
+duck's eggs in with the smaller eggs under the setting hen.
+
+Mother Hen did not like that, oh no!
+
+She stirred in her nest. All her feathers puffed up and she looked very
+much hurt.
+
+"Duck, duck, duck!" sniffed she scornfully. And to herself she added: "What
+a mean way to treat a decent, respectable hen!" For White Wyandottes are
+very particular and very exclusive.
+
+But after the two little imps had tiptoed out of her house, she made the
+best of a bad matter. She couldn't kick the big duck's eggs out of the nest
+in the box. The sides of the box were too high. So she settled down on her
+eggs again.
+
+"I must keep my very own warm, anyway," she decided.
+
+About three weeks later there was much excitement in the House of the White
+Wyandottes. From the nest in the box came little noises.
+
+"Chip, chip, chip," sounded faintly from inside the eggs. And before the
+sun climbed over the Big Gold Rooster, who swung on the weather-vane on the
+barn, all the new little chickens had broken their eggs.
+
+"How nice it is to be born!" they cheeped together in a merry chorus, as
+they arrived in the wonderful world.
+
+Very proud of her family was Mother Wyandotte when the little yellow balls
+began to run about. A few days later she was prouder still when they
+scampered this way and that, pecking at little bugs and ants. They worked
+hard for their breakfasts and dinners and suppers.
+
+Even Father Wyandotte, the great white rooster with the magnificent red
+comb and curling white plumes on his tail, forgot that other rooster of
+whom he was so jealous. For the rooster who was always perched on the
+weather-vane on the barn was up so high and he shone like gold.
+
+But now Father Wyandotte was not jealous. He walked around in his lordly
+way, cocking his eye at his little yellow sons and daughters as they chased
+the fat little bugs.
+
+At first he would not say just how proud of them he was. He did not like to
+tell all his feelings at once. Sometimes he thought fighting and crowing
+better than being a family man. But all of a sudden he flew up on the
+tallest fence-post he could find, and flapped his wings. He threw back his
+head, opened his yellow beak, and crowed up at that gold rooster:
+
+"Sure, sure, sure! You couldn't do it, you couldn't do it--couldn't do it,
+do."
+
+No, the Gold Rooster on the weather-vane on the top of the barn, though he
+shone like the sun, could neither crow nor raise a family.
+
+But Mother Wyandotte didn't bother about anything so high in the sky as the
+sun and the rooster. She was busy playing nurse-maid to her little yellow
+children and helping them find food.
+
+But in the afternoon she did look up at the sky. That was when something
+like a dark shadow sailed in the air far above the home of the White
+Wyandottes.
+
+It was a great bird with wide-stretched wings, much bigger than Jim Crow.
+He sailed in circles, while his evil eye looked down at the frightened,
+scampering White Wyandottes.
+
+"Um!" How he would like a nice chicken for lunch!
+
+"Robber Hawk!" called all of Mother Hen's uncles and aunts in the barnyard.
+
+"Robber Hawk!" screamed all of her great-uncles and great-aunts too.
+
+"Robber Hawk!" screamed all of her cousins, first, second, and third.
+
+Loud and long barked Rover and Brownie. And little Wienerwurst stopped
+chasing the pretty pink pigeons.
+
+And even Mr. Stuckup, the turkey, had to join in the hubbub.
+
+"Horrible robber, horrible robber," he gobbled.
+
+But Mother Wyandotte had called to her children. She opened her wings and
+under them quickly in fright they ran, all huddling together. Her wings
+hardly seemed large enough to cover them all, but she took them all in,
+every one of her children.
+
+She was a nervous old thing, but she was a good mother, and good mother
+hens, good animal mothers, and our own mothers too, never seem to think of
+themselves when there is danger around. They just look out for their little
+ones.
+
+"Robber Hawk, robber! Shan't touch 'em--robber!" she said.
+
+Then--quick as a wink--there was another loud noise, just like that day
+when Jim Crow fell in the cornfield.
+
+"Bang, bang!"
+
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke and Hepzebiah jumped.
+
+They looked around.
+
+There stood the Toyman with the gun at his shoulder.
+
+Little puffs of smoke like white feathers floated away from the muzzles of
+the gun.
+
+"Winged him, anyway!" cried the Toyman.
+
+They looked up.
+
+Robber Hawk wasn't sailing in the sky any longer.
+
+He was falling, falling, like a stone--just like Jim Crow.
+
+"The Toyman's a good shot," exclaimed Jehosophat. "My, how I wish I could
+shoot like that!"
+
+Mother Green came to the back door.
+
+She called to the Toyman:
+
+"He's fallen on the barn, Frank."
+
+"Roof, roof, roof!" barked little Wienerwurst to explain it more clearly.
+
+Sure enough, Robber Hawk dropped on the roof of the barn, right by the Gold
+Rooster who swung on the weather-vane.
+
+The Toyman scratched his head.
+
+"Quite a climb for these stiff legs," said he.
+
+But he fetched a tall ladder and placed it against the side of the barn.
+
+The three children watched him, their heads bent back so far that they
+almost snapped off.
+
+Mother held the ladder at the foot, for nobody wanted anything ever to
+happen to the Toyman.
+
+"Careful!" she warned him.
+
+"All right, Mis' Green," he said. "I haven't been up in the maintop for
+nothing."
+
+You see, once upon a time, he had been a sailor. There was nothing that the
+Toyman hadn't done.
+
+He reached the top of the ladder, then swung out on the roof. At last he
+reached the ridge.
+
+There stood the Gold Rooster, never crowing or saying anything at all. And
+under him lay Robber Hawk, and he didn't say anything either.
+
+Carefully the Toyman climbed down from the ridge of the barn, holding the
+rascal in his hands. Then one by one down the rungs of the ladder he came.
+
+When he reached the ground Jehosophat, Marmaduke and Hepzebiah
+gathered round.
+
+Robber Hawk hung limp from the Toyman's hand.
+
+His dark brown feathers never stirred. His white breast with its dark bars
+and patches never moved.
+
+"Robber Hawk," spoke the Toyman, "your old curved beak will never feed on
+any more good chicken."
+
+Then he turned to the children.
+
+"We must bury him by Jim Crow."
+
+So Jehosophat, Marmaduke, Hepzebiah, Rover, Brownie, Wienerwurst and
+the Toyman marched with Robber Hawk on towards the cornfield.
+
+There by the side of Jim Crow they buried him.
+
+And the Toyman took two pieces of wood. On these he cut with his knife:
+
+    JIM CROW
+  KILLED 1918
+     THIEF
+
+     ROBBER HAWK
+     KILLED 1918
+  THIEF AND MURDERER
+
+At their heads he placed the two boards side by side.
+
+"There we will leave them," the Toyman spoke sternly, "as a warning to all
+evil-doers."
+
+So they walked back slowly to the House of the White Wyandottes where
+Mother Hen clucked contentedly once more and all the yellow chickens ran
+around, chasing the little bugs in their game of hide-and-seek. A fine game
+it was too, only it was more interesting for the chickens than the bugs,
+you see.
+
+The three happy children noticed that one of the little yellow fellows was
+larger than the others. He--
+
+"Ting--ting--ting--ting--ting--ting--ting!"
+
+"End--that--tale--to--mor--row--night."
+
+So says the Little Clock. He must be obeyed. So good-bye for a little
+while.
+
+
+
+
+TWELFTH NIGHT
+
+ABOUT DUCKIE THE STEPCHILD AND THE LITTLE SHIP
+
+
+In the door of the workshop stood the three happy children, watching the
+Toyman.
+
+It was one of the very nicest places on the whole farm. Tools of all sorts,
+bright and sharp, lay on the table. Lumber of every kind lay piled against
+the walls. The shelves were filled with cans of paint. All the colours of
+the rainbow were in those cans. The children could tell that by the pretty
+splashes of the paint dripping down their sides.
+
+Back and forth, back and forth swung the arms of the Toyman. He was very
+busy over something--something very important it must be, for he never
+talked, only worked and whistled away.
+
+"Oh dear! I wish I knew what it was," sighed Marmaduke. Anyway he knew it
+was something for _them_. Father Green had given the Toyman a holiday,
+all for himself, to do as he liked. And _of course_ he'd make
+something for _them_.
+
+On the edge of the table was a vise, a big tool with iron jaws. In the
+iron jaws was a block of wood. The Toyman screwed the vise--very tight--so
+tight the wood couldn't budge. Then he shaved this side of the block, then
+the other side, with a plane, a tool with a very sharp edge. Clean white
+shavings fell on the floor, some of them twisting like Hepzebiah's curls.
+
+"I wonder what it's going to be," Marmaduke repeated.
+
+Jehosophat was pretty sure he knew.
+
+"I'll bet it's a boat," he said.
+
+The Toyman chuckled.
+
+"Right you are, Son. It's the Good Ship--well, let's see. All boats have a
+name, you know. What do you think would be a good name for a fine ship?"
+
+Jehosophat had one, right on the tip of his tongue.
+
+"The Arrow."
+
+The Toyman thought this over.
+
+"That isn't bad," said he.
+
+Then he turned to Marmaduke.
+
+"What's your idea for a name, little chap?"
+
+Marmaduke thought and thought. He looked out through the door and saw
+the Party Bird, the vain Peacock, parading up and down, showing off its
+beautiful tail, and "Peacock" was the only name he could think of.
+
+Jehosophat laughed out loud.
+
+"That's no name for a boat."
+
+And Marmaduke had to shout back--as little boys will, losing his temper:
+
+"_'Tis too!_"
+
+The Toyman stopped the quarrel, just as he always did, with something
+pleasant or funny he said. Then he leaned over and picked up three chips of
+wood.
+
+"I'll write the names on these little chips," he explained, "and we'll
+choose."
+
+Putting his hand on Hepzebiah's sunny curls, he asked that little girl:
+
+"What name do _you_ think would be nice for the boat?"
+
+Now Hepzebiah really didn't know just what it all was about. But she had
+heard Marmaduke say "Peacock," so she took her finger out of her mouth just
+long enough to point at the Guinea-hen, who was screeching horribly out in
+the barnyard.
+
+"The Guinea-hen! Ha, ha! That's a good one!" The Toyman was forever saying
+that and laughing at the funny things the children said.
+
+Hepzebiah, thinking that this was a nice sort of a game, took her finger
+out of her mouth and pointed again--this time out at the pond where the
+swans were sailing, like pretty white ships themselves.
+
+"The very thing," exclaimed the Toyman. "White Swan's a _fine_ name
+for a boat!"
+
+And he wrote "White Swan" on one chip, "Peacock" on another, and "Arrow"
+on the last. Then he held them towards the children.
+
+"The smallest must choose first," he said, and Hepzebiah took one of the
+little white pieces of wood from the Toyman's hand. He turned it over and
+read:
+
+"White Swan."
+
+"We'd go a good ways before we'd get a better name," he decided. "When
+the boat's all finished and all sails set, she'll sail away just like a
+swan; you see if she doesn't."
+
+The hull of the boat was finished now, and on the bow, at the very front,
+he nailed a thin little stick, with tiny nails. This was the bowsprit.
+
+On the keel at the very bottom, he fastened a piece of lead so she wouldn't
+"turn turtle"--turn over, he meant, when her sails were set and the wind
+blew too hard.
+
+Then choosing some sticks--very carefully, for they must be straight--he
+tucked the boat under his arm and, with the three children close at his
+heels, walked over to the pond and sat down under the Crying Tree, where
+the sun shone bright and warm.
+
+Out came the magic knife and he whittled away at the little sticks;
+whittled and whistled and smiled all the time.
+
+Sliver after sliver of the wood fell on the ground. Sometimes one would
+drop into the water and float away like a fairy canoe, with the green
+willow leaves that fell from the Crying Tree.
+
+So under the magic knife the little ship grew and grew, till the masts were
+fitted too, and set fast and tight in the clean smooth deck.
+
+"But where are the sails?" asked Jehosophat impatiently.
+
+A funny answer the Toyman made.
+
+He just said:
+
+"Hold your horses, Sonny."
+
+The teacher in the Red Schoolhouse up the road would have reproved him
+for this, but the children thought whatever the Toyman said was all right.
+
+Of course he meant not to be too impatient and--but just then the dinner
+horn sounded, way out over the pond and over the fields, and the children
+ran into the house, just as you would have done too.
+
+It didn't take long to finish dinner that day. For desert they had
+blackberry pie, very juicy and nice, and they didn't even wait to wash the
+red marks of that pie from their faces but just ran for the Crying Tree.
+
+The Toyman felt in all of his six big pockets. And out came needles and
+thread, and pieces of clean muslin besides.
+
+Stitch, stitch, stitch went his fingers, for a thousand stitches or more.
+And bye and bye the sails were all cut and sewed and fitted on the three
+little masts.
+
+Then the Toyman stopped.
+
+"We haven't christened her yet," he said. "We should have done that long
+ago."
+
+In his pockets he rummaged again, those pockets which always held just the
+right thing. It was a small bottle this time, all filled with tiny pink
+pills. Much nicer these were, the children thought, than that yellow stuff
+in the big bottle they hated so.
+
+The Toyman poured the little pills out.
+
+"What's the use of medicine on a nice day like this," said he.
+
+And he filled the bottle with water and put back the stopper.
+
+"When ships are launched," he explained, "folks break a bottle over the bow
+when they name her."
+
+"All right, I'll do that," said Jehosophat, but the Toyman stopped him.
+
+"Hold on there, Sonny, that's the _ladies'_ job."
+
+Then he called Hepzebiah and gave her the bottle.
+
+"Now, little girl, you stand here and say: 'I christen thee White Swan.'"
+
+But, "I ckwithen Wite Thwan" was the best she could do.
+
+"Now drop the bottle!"
+
+She opened her fingers and, sure enough, the little bottle fell right on
+the deck and broke all in little pieces, and the glistening drops splashed
+over the bow, and so the good ship "White Swan" got her name.
+
+Into the water the Toyman pushed the little ship. The wind filled her sails
+and off she went, racing away before the wind to join the beautiful birds
+for whom she had been named.
+
+Around the pond and over the bridge went the Toyman, to the other side.
+When the ship reached the opposite shore he swung it around and sent it
+back on the return voyage. The "White Swan" had reached port safely, when
+the Toyman said:
+
+"It's funny what different opinions folks have. Some like the water and
+some don't. Now the swans and the ducks, and that little ship, and the
+fish, and the froggies, and Uncle Roger, and you and I, we think it's fine.
+But Mr. Stuck-up, and Miss Crosspatch, and Old Mother Wyandotte, and Mis'
+Fizzeltree, why they won't go near it at all."
+
+"That _is_ funny," said Jehosophat.
+
+Then the Toyman added:
+
+"Just listen to that."
+
+Old Mother Wyandotte was right near them, clucking in fright.
+
+"Don't--don't--don't you do it!" she was calling to one of her children who
+was looking longingly at the cool pond.
+
+Around her were all her children, fast growing up now. They were all soft
+and white but one. Like good little chickens they were looking for bugs,
+all but one.
+
+_He_ was the little fellow they had noticed before, the funny little
+fellow with a longer bill than the rest, and the odd-looking feet. His soft
+downy back was turning black. And he was starting for that pretty water
+shining in the pond.
+
+Jehosophat looked him all over.
+
+"Why, he looks like a duck."
+
+"What did you expect?" laughed the Toyman. "He is a duck. Old Mother
+Wyandotte thinks he's her child, but he's only a step-child. Ha! Ha!
+Somebody must have put another egg in her nest."
+
+Over in the garden were pretty flowers called Bleeding Hearts. They
+were very pink, and Jehosophat's face turned the very same colour. Well
+_he_ knew who had stolen into the House of the White Wyandottes and
+put that big duck's egg under Old Mother Hen. And now it had turned out
+a real little duckling, that black little fellow Mother Wyandotte was
+scolding so.
+
+"Don't--don't--don't--don't you do it," she was shouting still.
+
+But little black Duckie had made up his mind. He was headed straight for
+that shining water.
+
+Around Mother Wyandotte gathered all her relatives to talk over the matter.
+They were disgusted. That one of their family should disgrace them so!
+
+"Respectable chickens spend their time on the ground," said Granny
+Wyandotte with a toss of her comb, "and never, never get wet, if they can
+help it, not even their feet."
+
+"True--true--quite true," all the Wyandotte Aunties agreed.
+
+But their second cousins and the third cousins too, the ducks and the geese
+and the swans, said they were wrong.
+
+"Little Duckie's a sensible chap. What better place can there be to play in
+than that nice cool pond?"
+
+And all the fishes swimming around, from the big pickerel down to the
+littlest "minnie," waggled their fins and tails to show they agreed too,
+while the froggies on the lily-pad croaked:
+
+"Gomme on--gomme on!"
+
+They were giving little Duckie a warm invitation to play in the water, you
+see.
+
+Duckie was right at the edge now and Mother Hen, who was really his
+step-mother, made one last appeal, but the ducks one and all called:
+
+"Back, back, back!"
+
+They weren't talking to Duckie. They meant the White Wyandottes. They were
+taking his part, you see, though not for one minute did they guess he was
+_their_ child, _their very own_.
+
+Duckie appreciated that too. Perhaps Old Father Drake, the head of all the
+Duck family, wouldn't let Step-father Wyandotte punish him that night if he
+did try the water.
+
+I don't believe Step-father Wyandotte really cared very much. At first he
+was a little mad but, after scolding a little, he shouted:
+
+"Through, through, through--I'm through with yooooooouuu."
+
+He wouldn't have anything more to do with little Duckie. I guess he
+suspected he was just a step-child after all. So he just grumbled to
+himself as he speared a fat tumble-bug with his beak:
+
+"Ur, ur--I don't care!"
+
+He had enough children anyway. But the Gold Rooster on the top of the barn
+looked down, laughing at him. He couldn't really laugh, you know, or flap
+his wings, but he swung from west to southwest and back again, as if to
+say:
+
+"I knew it. I knew it. They fooled you!"
+
+Old Father Drake, the head of the duck family, started for the water.
+Mother Duck and all the little ducks went in too. They were going to show
+Duckie the way.
+
+He just couldn't stand it any longer. So--_plopp_ in he went and
+paddled around after the others, and ducked his head under the water to
+catch his dinner, just as a real duckling should.
+
+"Better than grubbing for bugs in the dirty earth, this nice clean cool
+water," quacked he, and he was as happy as happy could be.
+
+The Toyman was looking at him with a smile on his face.
+
+"He's just like me," he said at last, and the children, surprised at that,
+asked all together:
+
+"_Who's_ like you?"
+
+"That little duck there."
+
+"Like you!" Jehosophat shouted. "Why he doesn't look like you at all!"
+
+The Toyman puffed away on his corncob pipe before he answered:
+
+"Oh _inside_ he's the same. I was just like him when I was a kid. I
+had a step-mother, too, and she and all the step-uncles and aunts scolded
+and scolded, and whipped me besides, because _I_ wanted to go to sea
+on a great big ship."
+
+"What did you do?"
+
+They didn't really need to ask that question, for hadn't the Toyman been
+most everywhere, and hadn't he told them many a story about the great sea
+and the ships?
+
+"Yes, they all said I would drown or become a wicked bad man."
+
+Marmaduke thought he would like to do something to those step-uncles and
+aunts who treated the Toyman so badly.
+
+"They don't know what they're talking about," he shouted. "You're good as
+anybody in the world."
+
+"Thank you, little feller," replied the Toyman, patting his head. "But they
+said I would, just the same. They talked just like those old Wyandottes
+there.
+
+"But I fooled them all," he went on. "And one night, when it was dark, just
+a few stars out, I climbed out of bed and jumped out of the window and ran
+away.
+
+"I walked and I walked, miles and miles, till I came to a big town by the
+sea. There were lots of big ships at the docks, and I asked a man, with a
+great big beard, to take me too. So he took me on board, and I was a little
+cabin boy. But bye and bye I got to be a real sailor, and I sailed all
+over the world in the ship, and saw lots of people, yellow, and black, and
+brown, and funny places and queer houses and--"
+
+"Be careful, Frank!"
+
+They all turned at once. There was Mother, standing right near them. All
+the time she had been listening, near the Crying Tree.
+
+"Now, Frank," she repeated, "be careful or you'll put _notions_ in
+those children's heads, and some day they'll be running away from
+_me_."
+
+Still she didn't look cross, and she smiled at the Toyman, especially when
+he answered:
+
+"Not from a mother like you, Mis' Green. How about it, kiddies?"
+
+And Marmaduke and Jehosophat were very sure they never could run away--not
+even to sea in a beautiful ship. So they kissed her and hugged her too.
+
+Now the froggies were singing their evening song. The sun was getting close
+to his home in the west. Little Duckie and his real mother and father came
+out of the water and waddled off towards the barn. The Swans folded their
+wings and came to the shore. So the Toyman brought the ship to the harbour
+and anchored her for the night.
+
+
+
+
+THIRTEENTH NIGHT
+
+THE TALL ENEMY
+
+
+It was the first snowfall. The grey sky was filled with little white
+feathers dancing down--down--down.
+
+"Look at the snowflakes," exclaimed the three happy children, all in one
+breath.
+
+"Yes," said their Mother, "the snow has come. In the spring and summer
+Mother Earth works very hard. It takes so much of her strength, feeding the
+millions of plants from her brown breast. By fall she is very tired and in
+winter she takes things quite easy.
+
+"Then the gentle Rain Fairy feels sorry for Mother Earth. She turns her own
+tears to snow-flakes, and scatters them over her. They weave a soft white
+comforter to keep her warm. And it keeps the seed babies, sleeping in
+Mother Earth's brown breast, all snug and warm too."
+
+All that day and all night the snow fell. And all the next day and the next
+night--and the third day and the third night too.
+
+Then all of a sudden it stopped, and the three happy children woke in the
+morning, and looked out of the window.
+
+"Why the snow's most as high as Wienerwurst's house!" cried Jehosophat.
+
+Then they all trooped in to breakfast.
+
+"We will make forts," said Jehosophat.
+
+"Hooray!" exclaimed Marmaduke.
+
+"The very thing!" added Mother.
+
+And Wienerwurst, curled up by the rosy kitchen stove, barked, "Woof, woof,
+woof."
+
+Now this means a lot of things. But this time it meant, "Good, good, good."
+
+So the three happy children hurried through their oatmeal. They hurried so
+fast that they had three little pains. Jehosophat had one right under his
+belt, Marmaduke one in the centre of his blouse, Hepzebiah one under her
+little red waist.
+
+Mother came in from the kitchen. She looked at the empty bowls.
+
+"What! All gone already! Look out or you'll each have to take a big
+table-spoonful of the yellow stuff in that bottle."
+
+There it stood, on the kitchen mantel. She pointed right at it. They hated
+it worse than most anything in the world.
+
+"I'm all right," said Jehosophat; and
+
+"I'm not sick," protested Marmaduke; and
+
+"Pain's all gone," cried Hepzebiah.
+
+It was funny how the sight of that bottle frightened the three little pains
+away.
+
+Mother smiled. It was a funny smile. Then she said:
+
+"Now, on with your things!"
+
+Jehosophat sat on the floor and pulled on his new rubber boots, which
+reached almost to his waist. On the stool sat Marmaduke, putting on his,
+and Mother helped little Hepzebiah with her wee little ones.
+
+Over Jehosophat's head went a red sweater, over Marmaduke's a green, and
+over Hepzebiah's curls one of blue. Then wristlets and mittens and coats
+and caps, and out into the deep white snow they tramped.
+
+"Forward march!" said a voice.
+
+They looked. It was the Toyman.
+
+"The enemy is about to attack," he explained sternly.
+
+"Where's the enemy?"
+
+"You can't see them. But they're advancing fast. Up with the fort. Double
+quick!"
+
+So at double quick they marched to the barnyard, and began work with their
+shovels.
+
+My! how they dug! Fast flew the snow. And the Toyman packed it down hard,
+and shaped it into the walls of a big strong fort.
+
+It was odd, too, how the Toyman could find time to help. For he had lots of
+work to do. But then the enemy was coming!
+
+Rover and Brownie and Wienerwurst scampered around in the snow. They were
+not of much help. All they did was to bark--bark--bark.
+
+"Hush!" commanded the Toyman. "We must keep quiet so the enemy won't know
+where we are."
+
+So they dug and they dug and packed the snow hard. Soon the walls were as
+high as Jehosophat's shoulders, and the fort was all ready.
+
+The Toyman stopped and said:
+
+"Now for the ammunition."
+
+"What's ammunition?'
+
+"Watch."
+
+The Toyman took a handful of snow and crushed it hard between both hands.
+When he had finished he opened his fingers. In his palm was a round white
+ball. Then another he made and another. And the three little soldiers,
+Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah, made lots too. They piled them in the
+corner of the fort, until they had a heap like the iron balls around the
+cannon in the town park.
+
+"Now," commanded the Toyman. "March to the barracks and get warm" (he
+pointed at the house). "I'll watch and call when the enemy comes."
+
+Into the house they went, and dried their mittens and warmed their hands.
+And each had a cup of nice warm milk.
+
+After a while there was a loud knock at the door, and the sound of a horn.
+
+Mother opened the door a little way.
+
+The horn sounded again. Then the voice spoke loudly:
+
+"Fall in," it said. "_The enemy comes_!"
+
+Quickly the three little soldiers put on their mittens and caps, and
+buttoned their coats, and hurried to the fort.
+
+They looked around. They could not see anybody with a horn. And the Toyman
+was gone.
+
+Over the walls of the fort they peeked.
+
+There stood six soldiers staring at them. The six soldiers stood very
+still. They were all white, but their eyes were black like pieces of coal,
+and they stared hard at the three little soldiers within the fort. Over
+their shoulders were six long round things.
+
+"Guns," said Jehosophat.
+
+They looked around for the Toyman. He did not come. Their hearts beat fast.
+
+"We're not afraid," shouted Jehosophat at the white soldiers. "Come on, you
+enemy!"
+
+With that they heard a sound far off.
+
+_Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat._
+
+"What's that?" cried the smallest little soldier. And Captain Jehosophat
+answered:
+
+"Drums, drums,
+
+"The enemy comes!"
+
+Then he laughed. He had made a rhyme without thinking anything about it.
+
+But he stopped laughing. It was no time for play. There was hard work
+ahead. Those six white soldiers in front of the fort were ready to attack.
+And there were more coming.
+
+"Load!" he commanded.
+
+Each little soldier took up a snowball.
+
+_Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat_.
+
+The drums sounded nearer now.
+
+_Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat_.
+
+Around the house came the sound of the drum.
+
+Over the walls of the fort they peeked--very carefully.
+
+There was a man marching. He looked something like the Toyman. But could
+it be? No, for he was so changed. The man had a horn around his neck, and
+a feather in his hat, and his face was stern. He was whistling "Yankee
+Doodle." It sounded like a fife, and all the time he was beating the drum
+with all his might.
+
+_Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat_.
+
+On through the snow the Tall Enemy marched. He reached the six white
+soldiers who stood so still, with their guns over their shoulders.
+
+He stopped and called out to the three little soldiers in the fort in a
+loud voice:
+
+"SURRENDER OR WE ATTACK!"
+
+"_Never_!" was the brave answer of Captain Jehosophat.
+
+"_Fire_!" he commanded.
+
+Then he let a snowball fly.
+
+He hit the Tall Enemy right in the face.
+
+Then Marmaduke let another snowball fly.
+
+That hit one of the white soldiers and knocked his black eye out.
+
+And Hepzebiah threw her snowball. She tried very hard. But it didn't go
+very far and didn't do any damage.
+
+Jehosophat looked worried at that. He couldn't depend on Hepzebiah at all.
+That left but two of them--against so many--and on came the Tall Enemy with
+the feather in his cap, still beating his drum.
+
+_Rat-a-tat-tat_. _Rat-a-tat-tat_. _Rat-a-tat-tat_.
+
+The little soldiers must fight bravely now.
+
+Fast flew the snowballs.
+
+He was very near.
+
+Then Marmaduke picked up the last snowball. He took good aim for it was the
+last of their ammunition. Then he let it fly. It hit the Tall Enemy Man
+right over his heart.
+
+He fell in the snow.
+
+"You've done for me!" he called in a weak voice.
+
+Then the three little soldiers shouted and ran out of the fort.
+
+There in the snow lay the dying enemy.
+
+"You've won," he said in a sad voice. "I surrender."
+
+"Hurrah, we've won!" they shouted. Then they stopped. They felt very sorry
+for the enemy, for after all he had been very brave.
+
+They bent over him.
+
+Then something happened. All of a sudden the enemy seized the three little
+soldiers in his arms.
+
+And he laughed! Yes, laughed.
+
+And hugged them all at once.
+
+And the three little soldiers laughed happily too. For the Tall Enemy had
+been the Toyman all the time and the six silent soldiers were only made of
+snow.
+
+Behind his heels they trudged into the house. But the Toyman had to carry
+the littlest soldier in his arms. She was very cold and very tired.
+
+But the three happy children ate a very good dinner and a very good supper
+too, that day, for they were very hungry. And they had earned it after the
+brave fight in the fort.
+
+"Ting-ting." He's always on time, that Little Clock. So Good-night!
+
+
+
+
+FOURTEENTH NIGHT
+
+THE SLEIGH AND THE TINY REINDEER
+
+
+Marmaduke had played too long in the snow.
+
+He was very wet.
+
+He was very cold.
+
+And he felt very funny and hot all over.
+
+"Mother, my throat's got a rubber ball stuck in it," he said.
+
+Mother looked at it.
+
+"No, dear, there's no rubber ball there, but your throat's all swollen and
+there are little spots in it. You mustn't get up today."
+
+Marmaduke lay very still for a while. Soon he heard sleigh-bells tinkling
+past the window, then far down the road. Father had hitched Teddy, the
+buckskin horse, to the big sleigh and was going for the Doctor.
+
+Away ticked the clock. After a while-a long time it seemed--Marmaduke heard
+the sleigh-bells again, at first far off, then coming nearer and nearer,
+until they jingled before the porch--then stopped. He heard voices and the
+sound of feet upon the porch, shaking off the snow.
+
+The door opened and into the bedroom came the Doctor. He had a face all
+rosy from the cold. His eyes were black and so sharp that they looked right
+through Marmaduke. But they were kind eyes and his voice had a pleasant
+chuckle in it.
+
+The Doctor came and sat on the edge of the bed.
+
+"Well, well! How's my little soldier? Wounded in the battle or just playing
+possum?"
+
+Then Marmaduke opened his eyes.
+
+After the Doctor had talked a while about lots of different things, before
+Marmaduke knew it, there was something like a spoon or a shoe-horn in his
+throat and the Doctor was telling him to say "Ah!"
+
+"This isn't school," thought Marmaduke, "why does he make me say that?"
+
+But he forgot to be frightened, for the Doctor was saying so many funny
+things all the time.
+
+Then he opened his black bag. It was full of little bottles, packed neatly
+in rows. Marmaduke wished he would forget and leave it behind. It would be
+fine to play with.
+
+Mother brought two glasses and the Doctor poured some drops from one
+bottle into a glass, then from another bottle into another glass. And he
+said something to Mother in a low voice--Marmaduke could not hear what it
+was--then he patted the little soldier on the head and said good-bye.
+
+Again the sleigh-bells sounded and away he drove.
+
+But the sleigh-bells never stopped. They kept sounding all the night, long
+after Teddy was back in his stall and the big sleigh was in the shed. You
+see Marmaduke was very sick and "out of his head."
+
+Seven days passed and seven nights. He began to feel better, but he was
+very lonely, for Jehosophat and Hepzebiah had gone to Uncle Roger's to stay
+while he was sick.
+
+Very small he felt in the big bed in the front room, and very, very lonely.
+He looked out of the window at the big elms. They were covered with white
+snow like fur. There were many trees standing in rows. The path between
+them looked like a white road leading up over the hill to the sky.
+
+He wished he had someone to talk to.
+
+Just then he heard a noise at the door.
+
+"Tap, tap, tap"
+
+It opened just a little.
+
+"Who's there?" said Marmaduke.
+
+The door opened wider. And he saw the Toyman's kind face.
+
+"Hello, little soldier."
+
+"'Llo, Toyman," replied the little boy, and his voice sounded very small
+and very weak.
+
+The Toyman sat by the bed a while. Then he got up and stirred the fire.
+Showers of pretty gold and red sparks scampered up the chimney. After that
+he spread a paper on the floor, not far from the fire-place.
+
+Then his pockets he searched, those big pockets which Mother said were
+always like five and ten cent stores, they were so full of things.
+
+Out came some pieces of wood. Out came his knife--that magic knife with the
+five blades. Marmaduke was always glad when he saw that knife for then
+something nice was sure to happen.
+
+Up came the big blade and snapped back. And the Toyman began to whittle,
+whittle away. Sometimes he used the big blade, sometimes the small one.
+
+Marmaduke watched him, all eyes.
+
+And as the Toyman whittled sometimes he whistled, and sometimes he sang a
+funny song in a funny voice. You see he could make rhymes as well as toys.
+
+And this is what he sang:
+
+  THE TOYMAN'S SONG
+
+  1
+
+  "When a little boy's sick
+    And stays in bed,
+  And things feel queer
+    Inside his head.
+
+  2
+
+  "He cannot work,
+    He cannot play;
+  It's hard to pass
+    The time away.
+
+  3
+
+  "Don't make much fuss
+    An' talk a lot;
+  No questions ask
+    'Bout what he's got.
+
+  4
+
+  "They'll ask him that
+    When Doctor comes,
+  So just sit still
+    Like good, ole chums.
+
+  5
+
+  "An' take your knife
+    An' make him toys--
+  This knife knows what
+    Will please small boys.
+
+  6
+
+  "Horses and lions,
+    An' tops and rings,
+  An' kites and ships,
+    An' pretty things.
+
+  7
+
+  "We'll paint 'em red
+    An' yeller an' blue.
+  Work away, ole knife,
+    He's watchin' you!"
+
+That's a new song and a very nice one, thought Marmaduke, as he watched the
+Toyman whittling away by the red fire.
+
+The little white slivers and shavings covered the paper now. He couldn't
+see just what that knife was making. But that was nice, too, for then it
+would be a surprise. And there's nothing finer in the world than a real,
+beautiful surprise.
+
+Then his head grew very tired, and his eyes began to droop till they were
+tight shut and he fell asleep.
+
+The Toyman looked at him and smiled.
+
+"Poor little feller!" he said. Then he closed his knife, and picked up the
+paper and the shavings and the surprise, and out of the room he tiptoed.
+
+Out to the workshop he went, and opened the door.
+
+On the shelves were brushes of different sizes and cans of paint of all
+colours.
+
+He took down three of the cans, humming to himself:
+
+  "We'll paint 'em red
+  An' yeller an' blue."
+
+"A little brown would go well too," he added as he took down another can.
+
+He worked away with his paint brushes until the surprise was finished. Then
+he placed it on the work-table to dry.
+
+The next afternoon there was another tap at the bedroom door.
+
+But Marmaduke didn't answer. He was taking his afternoon nap. So the Toyman
+slipped in and put the surprise at the foot of the bed. After that he sat
+by the fire, watching the little sick soldier. He sat very still, stirring
+the embers just once in a while to keep the room warm.
+
+At last Marmaduke opened his eyes, a little at first, then wider.
+
+The very first thing that he saw at the bottom of the bed was a tiny
+sleigh. The body was bright blue and the runners were red. And what do you
+think--in front, hitched to it, were two tiny brown reindeer with yellow
+horns! They looked so much alive that Marmaduke thought any minute they
+would start running away--away over the comforter, out of the window, and
+up the snow-covered hill.
+
+The Toyman came over to the bed. Marmaduke curled his little fingers around
+his friend's hand. The hand was brown and hard, but it was a nice hand,
+Marmaduke thought.
+
+"We're good ole chums, aren't we?" he said to the Toyman.
+
+"You bet we are," the Toyman answered.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTEENTH NIGHT
+
+JACK FROST AND THE MAN-IN-THE-MOON
+
+
+Once, twice, thrice nodded Marmaduke's head.
+
+The red flames of the fire kept dancing, dancing all the time. Very bright
+looked the little sleigh at the foot of the bed, very brave the tiny
+reindeer.
+
+But look! Something moved--just a little.
+
+The "nigh" little reindeer was stamping his foot and tossing his antlers.
+
+And the other little reindeer tossed his horns and stamped his foot too.
+
+On their backs the sleigh-bells jingled, merrily like fairy bells.
+
+The red and blue sleigh moved a little--just a little.
+
+It began to slide slowly, over the comforter.
+
+Marmaduke was worried. He didn't want the pretty sleigh and the reindeer to
+run away. He might never see them again.
+
+"Wait!" he shouted.
+
+"Whoa--you villains!" It was a strange little voice that ordered the
+reindeer.
+
+The red and blue sleigh stopped short.
+
+Marmaduke rubbed his eyes.
+
+The strange little voice spoke again.
+
+"Jump in," it said.
+
+And there in the front seat of the toy sleigh sat a funny little chap,
+about as big as the Toyman's thumb--no bigger. He wore a pointed cap that
+shone like tinsel on a Christmas tree. He wore a white coat that sparkled
+too.
+
+"Who are you?" asked the little sick boy. "That's _my_ sleigh. You
+shan't run off with it."
+
+And the funny voice under the white cap answered.
+
+"Jump in, then, and take a ride."
+
+"Tell me who you are, first," Marmaduke insisted.
+
+"My name's Jack."
+
+"Jack what?"
+
+"Jack Frost--you ought to know _that_!"
+
+Tinkle, tinkle went the bells The reindeer lifted their hoofs higher and
+pawed at the comforter. They shook their antlers impatiently. The little
+driver jumped up and down in the seat as if he were sitting on pins and
+needles.
+
+More worried than ever was Marmaduke.
+
+"How can I get in that sleigh?" he asked the imp of a stranger. "I'm too
+big."
+
+The little chap only chuckled. It was a very mischievous chuckle. Then he
+said:
+
+"Take a good look at yourself."
+
+Marmaduke did.
+
+My, how he had shrunk! He was no bigger than a brownie, no bigger himself
+than the Toyman's thumb.
+
+"How did that happen?" he said,
+
+"Oh, the dream fairy did that," said Jack. "She likes to play tricks on
+people. It's lots of fun. But shake a leg, shake a leg!"
+
+With that he shook the reins himself, and the bells jingled again, and the
+reindeer grew more eager every second, snorting impatiently.
+
+Once more Marmaduke looked down at himself. No, his eyes had made no
+mistake. He was small enough now to sit on that little red seat with the
+tiny driver.
+
+So he popped out from the covers. The folds of the blanket looked as big as
+mountains, the lumps of the comforter as high as the hills. Over them he
+scrambled and he sprawled till he reached the little red and blue sleigh.
+
+Then he jumped in.
+
+The driver could be very impudent, but he took good care of Marmaduke just
+the same, for the boy had been very sick and might catch cold. So Jack
+pulled the white robe over his passenger's knees, and tucked him in all
+snug and warm.
+
+"Gee-up, gee-up!" he called to the tiny reindeer.
+
+Marmaduke was frightened. What a horrible crash there would be when they
+slid from the high bed to the floor.
+
+But nothing like that happened at all. Away off the bed, over the bright
+rag carpet, and past the red fire, safely and swiftly they trotted. Below
+the window they paused. Pretty silver ferns and trees covered the panes and
+sparkled in the firelight. The window was closed, but that did not matter
+at all.
+
+"Up with you!" yelled Jack Frost.
+
+Slowly, as if by magic, up went the window sash! Over the sill galloped the
+reindeer. And after them ran the toy sleigh with Jack Frost and Marmaduke
+on the red seat.
+
+Over the porch, too, they went.
+
+Then something did happen.
+
+"Now look at yourself," said Jack Frost, cracking his whip.
+
+Marmaduke did not hear him at first. He was admiring that whip. It was only
+a long icicle, and all Jack had to do was to touch the reindeer with its
+point to make them run faster and faster.
+
+"Look at yourself," he repeated.
+
+Marmaduke obeyed.
+
+"Why, I'm as big as I used to be!"
+
+Jack laughed and replied:
+
+"The dream fairy does love to play tricks on folks!"
+
+Yes, the sleigh had grown as large as his father's sleigh; the reindeer as
+big as Teddy, the buckskin horse. The tossing horns were as high as the
+reindeer's in the Zoo, and Jack Frost was as big as Jehosophat now.
+
+"I'm sorry that Jehosophat and Hepzebiah are not along," said Marmaduke to
+himself, "they're going to miss some fun"
+
+He looked ahead through the trees Up over the hill the snow path
+stretched--up to the dark blue sky and the stars. Millions of them there
+were and they were all twinkle-winking at him. And the Old Man-in-the-Moon,
+just over the hill, kept winking at him too.
+
+Jack Frost turned to Marmaduke.
+
+"Where would you like to go _most_?"
+
+Marmaduke didn't need to think, he had his answer all ready.
+
+"I'd like to visit the Old Man-in-the Moon."
+
+"It's a bit of a drive," replied Jack, "but Old Yellow Horns and Prancing
+Hoof are fast goers. Gee-up! Gee-up!" he shouted at them, touching their
+flanks with the icicle whip. So fast they went they scarcely seemed
+to touch the snow, and on up the hill they rode towards the laughing
+Man-in-the-Moon.
+
+Then suddenly there came such a barking, a yelping, a neighing, a mooing, a
+clucking, a gobbling, a squealing, a squawling, as you never heard before.
+
+Around jerked Marmaduke's head.
+
+There, behind the sleigh, running and leaping and paddling and waddling and
+frisking and scampering came a strange procession. There were Rover and
+Brownie and little Wienerwurst, Teddy and Methusaleh and all the horses,
+Primrose, Daisy, Buttercup, Black-Eyed Susan and all the cows. He could see
+_their_ tongues hanging out--it was so hard to keep up with the dogs
+and the horses.
+
+"Moo--moo, slow--slow!" called the poor cows.
+
+And behind them ambled the sheep and the curley-tailed pigs; waddled the
+ducks and the geese; Miss Crosspatch, the Guinea Hen, and Mr. Stuckup, the
+turkey; and, at the very end, all of the White Wyandottes, the fathers and
+the mothers, and the little yellow children, and their grandfathers and
+grandmothers, and all their uncles and aunts, and their cousins, first,
+second, and third--every last one of them.
+
+My--what a fuss and a clatter they made!
+
+There was a long long line of them, stretching down the hill and down the
+white road over the snow.
+
+Marmaduke laughed and exclaimed to Jack Frost:
+
+"Why, they look just like the procession of the animals when they came out
+of the Ark."
+
+"Yes, I remember them," replied Jack. "And Old Noah too. I used to pinch
+their ears and pull their tails o' nights."
+
+Marmaduke looked surprised.
+
+"You! Why, that was _hundreds_ of years ago! You can't be as old as
+all that."
+
+But Jack only smiled a superior smile
+
+"Sure I am. Why I'm as old as the world!"
+
+"Old as that Man-in-the-Moon?" continued Marmaduke, and the odd little
+fellow replied:
+
+"Just as old."
+
+Marmaduke looked up at the moon sailing far above them. And the old man,
+sitting there on the moon-mountain, nodded as much as to say that Jack was
+quite right.
+
+Now the sleigh reached the top of the hill just where it touches the sky.
+
+Surely there they would stop.
+
+But no--
+
+"This sleigh can run on air just as well as on snow," the odd little driver
+explained.
+
+Another touch of the icicle whip, a jingle of bells, a snort from the
+reindeer, and they were off--off through the air towards the sailing moon.
+
+Marmaduke was so interested in looking up that he didn't see little
+Wienerwurst run ahead of all the animals. That doggie beat them all to the
+top of the hill. And when he came to the top he just jumped out in the air
+and landed safe on the runner of the sleigh, and curled up there and hid
+and didn't make any noise.
+
+It was very clear high up in the air, and Marmaduke looked down.
+
+The houses had shrivelled all up. As small as Wienerwurst's own little
+house they seemed. And the trees were as small as plants in the garden.
+
+He looked down again. The earth was far below them.
+
+By the white steeple of the church they flew. In the steeple was a little
+window. The bell-rope hung out. Jack jerked it as they went past.
+
+  "_Ding, dong--
+  Something's wrong_."
+
+So spoke the deep voice of the old bell. He was a hundred years old, and
+such strange things had never happened in his life before.
+
+And the minister threw up his window and stuck his head out. And the
+minister's wife stuck her head, in her nightcap, out of the window, too.
+And the sexton ran out in the snow, in his shirt-tail, to see what was the
+matter.
+
+And all the other people, in the farmhouses and in the town houses, threw
+up their windows or ran out of doors to see where the fire was.
+
+Then, after looking all around the houses and barns and the haystacks, they
+looked up at the sky and saw Marmaduke in the sleigh, racing towards the
+moon
+
+They were very funny, like little toy people, all looking up and pointing
+at the sky and all shouting at once.
+
+But Marmaduke didn't care--he was having the time of his life!
+
+Then a still stranger and funnier sight he saw,--all the animals on the
+top of the hill--the horses, the dogs, the cows, the sheep, the pigs,
+the ducks, the geese, the turkeys, and the White Wyandottes, all sitting
+on their haunches and barking or neighing or howling or squawking at
+Marmaduke, as on--up and up--he went, a-sailing through the sky.
+
+But he missed his little pet doggie. Where _could_ he be?
+
+He was worried about that until all of a sudden he heard a little bark and
+looked behind, and there on the red runner, hanging on for dear life, was
+little Wienerwurst. Marmaduke reached down, and picked him up by the scruff
+of his neck, and set him on his lap, under the robe, so that he wouldn't
+catch cold.
+
+So Wienerwurst too had the time of his life, and his little pink tongue
+hung out in delight as they raced toward the moon.
+
+They hadn't gone more than a hundred miles or so, when something strange
+floated past them--a cloud all puffy and soft and white, like the floating
+islands in the puddings Mother makes.
+
+The reindeer nearly ran into it. That would have been too bad, for the
+sleigh would have torn it in two. And as they passed, Marmaduke saw little
+baby angels lying there, curled up in the cloud, fast asleep, with their
+wings folded.
+
+A whole fleet of the clouds passed by and there was only clear air ahead of
+them, they thought, but no!
+
+"Bang." They had bunked into something high up in the sky.
+
+"Very careless," said Jack Frost, as he pulled on the reins.
+
+It was very bright, and Marmaduke blinked hard.
+
+Ahead of them lay another island, but this one was round and flat and shiny
+like a gold shield, with a little hill in the centre. And there upon the
+hill sat a jolly old man, round and fat, with a pipe in his mouth and a
+sack on his back.
+
+"Hello, old Top!" said Jack Frost.
+
+"Good evening, you mischief-maker," replied the Man-in-the-Moon. "What are
+you up to now?"
+
+"Oh, I've brought one of the little earth children to see you. This is
+Marmaduke Green. He's been sick, so I thought I'd give him a ride."
+
+"Oh, ho! That's it. You _do_ do someone a good turn now and then,
+after all."
+
+Then the old man turned to Marmaduke.
+
+"Howdy," he said, "I hope you'll get better very soon."
+
+"Thank you," replied Marmaduke politely. He was so well brought up that he
+didn't forget his manners, even up high in the sky.
+
+"Well, here's something to play with when you get back to earth," said the
+Old Man-in-the-Moon. And he reached his hand inside the sack on his back,
+and pulled out a fistful of bright gold pennies--oh, such a lot of them!
+
+Marmaduke reached for them. But alas! he was in too much of a hurry, and
+they spilled out of his hand and rolled right over the edge of the moon.
+Down, down, down, through the sky they dropped, past the stars and the
+clouds, down, down, down to the earth.
+
+There were all the animals still, on the top of the hill, looking up at the
+moon. And one of the bright pennies landed on Black-eyed Susan's nose. She
+was a timid old cow and she was startled. And she was still more frightened
+at the howling, the barking, the squawking, which the animals set up, one
+and all.
+
+So frightened was she that she jumped. So hard did she jump that she leaped
+way over the hill and over the clouds and the stars.
+
+"There's that critter again," complained the Man-in-the-Moon.
+
+On, with her tail spread out behind her, and her legs sprawling in the sky,
+came old Black-eyed Susan, straight towards them. Jack Frost and Marmaduke
+jumped back; the Old Man-in-the-Moon moved a little too. They were afraid
+she would land on their toes.
+
+But she didn't.
+
+"She's still pretty chipper," observed the old man. "That's a great jump.
+Most beats the record"
+
+So it did, for she sailed right over them, coming down on the other side of
+the moon, hitting one poor little star on the way with her hoof, and
+putting out its light entirely.
+
+And down, down old Susan fell till she hit the earth and lay there, panting
+and mooing so loud that the people on earth thought it was thunder, and
+shut their windows tight for fear of the rain.
+
+"Well!" said the Old Man-in-the-Moon, blowing clouds of smoke from his
+pipe, "that's over. Now here's some more pennies. Be careful this time," he
+warned him.
+
+And from his sack he drew forth another great handful of gold pennies. How
+they did shine! But as Marmaduke reached for them, Jack Frost jiggled his
+elbow with his icicle whip--and again they rolled over the edge of the
+moon.
+
+And again Marmaduke was too eager. He ran after them, and Wienerwurst ran
+too, and when they reached the edge they couldn't stop themselves at all.
+
+They were falling, down, down through the sky. A hundred somersaults they
+turned. Marmaduke tried to hold on to a cloud, but his hands went right
+through it. He tried to hold on to the stars, but he missed every one.
+
+Then suddenly--bang went his head against the church steeple - - - and all
+the stars danced - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+
+Then he woke.
+
+He looked around. Why-he was sitting up in the bed, his very own bed, by
+the red fire!
+
+It was just a trick of the dream fairy's, after all.
+
+But it was all right, for at the foot of the bed rested the little red and
+blue sleigh and the tiny reindeer, just as still as still could be.
+
+And at the side of the bed stood Father and Mother--and the Toyman.
+
+They seemed very happy.
+
+
+
+
+SIXTEENTH NIGHT
+
+SLOSHIN'
+
+
+Of course Marmaduke grew well again, and back from Uncle Roger's came
+Jehosophat and Hepzebiah. They came back in the old creaking buckboard with
+Methuselah the old, old white horse, and the Toyman.
+
+No sooner had they jumped to the ground than Marmaduke asked, very proudly:
+
+"Where do you think _I've_ been?"
+
+"You've been sick."
+
+Marmaduke shook his head.
+
+"That's not what I mean," he said. "I've been to see the Old
+Man-in-the-Moon."
+
+"_Now_ you're telling _stories_" jeered Jehosophat. "You've just
+been in _bed_ all the time."
+
+"I'm _not_ telling any stories," said his brother stoutly. "I tell
+you, I _have_ been to visit the Old Man-in-the-Moon."
+
+But Jehosophat wouldn't believe him.
+
+"That's a _whopper_," said he.
+
+Marmaduke turned to his friend, the Toyman.
+
+"I _have_ been there, haven't I?"
+
+"Where?" said the Toyman.
+
+"To see the Old Man-in-the-Moon."
+
+"Of course you have," his good old chum replied, "and a heap of wonderful
+things you saw."
+
+The Toyman never laughed at the wonderful things they had done, nor at
+the marvellous things they had seen--no never, for he understood little
+children.
+
+Now Jehosophat _had_ to believe him. He asked lots of questions, while
+Hepzebiah listened, her eyes growing as round as big peppermint drops.
+
+So Marmaduke showed them the little red and blue sleigh, and told them
+all about the little driver, Jack Frost. And he didn't forget about old
+Black-eyed Susan's great jump, nor the gold pennies, either.
+
+Jehosophat felt just a little jealous. Perhaps that is why he was naughty
+that day.
+
+And this is how it all happened:
+
+It was in the afternoon. Jehosophat was coming home from the schoolhouse,
+which was up the road about a mile, a long way from the
+White-House-with-the-Green-Blinds where the three happy children lived.
+
+With him walked four of his friends--Sophy Soapstone and Sammy Soapstone,
+who lived on the farm by the Old Canal; Lizzie Fizzletree, who lived on the
+turnpike; and Fatty Hamm, who lived by the river road.
+
+Sammy Soapstone had blue eyes and tow hair which stood up straight on his
+head. It was as stiff as the curry comb with which the Toyman brushed the
+horses. Sophy Soapstone had blue eyes, too, and two neat little pigtails
+down her back.
+
+But Lizzie Fizzletree had black eyes and hair that stuck out in all
+directions. She had more safety-pins on her dress than a neat little girl
+should ever have. And her stockings were forever coming down.
+
+Fatty Hamm was so round and so plump that he looked as if he had pillows
+under his clothes. And though he was only twelve he had two chins. Every
+once in a while he would eat so much that a button would pop off.
+
+He was eating apples now.
+
+One, two, three, four, five, he ate. He did not offer one to his friends,
+_not even the core_!
+
+Another apple he took. That made six!
+
+Pop went a button and--splash--it landed in a puddle of brown water.
+
+For three days it had rained, washing the white snow away. The ruts in the
+road were full of these puddles, nice and brown and inviting.
+
+Sammy's eyes and Jehosophat's eyes followed the button as it landed in the
+water, making little rings which grew larger all the time.
+
+"Let's slosh," said Sammy.
+
+"Let's!" cried Lizzie Fizzletree, "it's lots of fun, sloshin'."
+
+Into a big puddle marched Sammy Soapstone, and after him marched Lizzie and
+Sophy, and at the end of the procession waddled Fatty.
+
+"Slop, slosh, slop, slosh," they went through puddle after puddle.
+
+Glorious fun it was. Showers of spray flew all over the road.
+
+But Jehosophat walked on ahead in the middle of the road. Hadn't his mother
+told him, particularly, _not_ to get his feet wet?
+
+"Come on in, it's fine!" they all shouted at Jehosophat.
+
+"Aw, come on!" Sammy Soapstone repeated, and Fatty called:
+
+"'Fraidcat!"
+
+At that Jehosophat turned around. He just couldn't stand being called
+"'fraidcat."
+
+So _slosh, slosh_, into the biggest brown puddle he could find he
+went.
+
+_Slosh, slop, slop, slosh_!
+
+Over his rubber tops went the water. Fine and cool it felt.
+
+Splash went the water over the road. And he kicked it over Fatty till the
+round fat legs were drenched too.
+
+Then all the boys bent over the puddle, and scooped up great handfuls of
+water, and threw them over each other.
+
+It was a great battle. And when it was finished and they were soaked to the
+skin, they splashed up the road, shouting and singing.
+
+I guess they went into every last puddle between the schoolhouse and the
+White-House-with-the-Green-Blinds by the side of the road.
+
+They had reached it now.
+
+All-of-a-sudden Jehosophat felt very funny near the pit of his stomach.
+Something was sure to happen now.
+
+In front of the house marched Mr. Stuckup, the Turkey. His chest was stuck
+out and his tail feathers were spread out too, like a great big fan. He was
+having a lovely parade all by himself.
+
+"Rubber, rubber, rubber," he gobbled.
+
+Jehosophat looked down at his feet. He felt guilty--but he thought it was
+very mean of Mr. Stuckup to call attention to his wet rubbers that way.
+
+"Keep quiet," Jehosophat shouted. "You don't need to _tell_ on me!"
+
+"Rubber, rubber, rubber," gobbled Mr. Stuckup just the same.
+
+Jehosophat kicked at him with his wet feet, and tried to grab the fat red
+nose that hung down over the turkey's beak.
+
+At that old Mr. Stuckup's feathers ruffled in anger, and he hurried off,
+still gobbling "rubber, rubber, rubber," as loud as he could.
+
+Around the house sneaked Jehosophat, trying hard not to be seen.
+
+Half-way to the back door, who should he meet but a procession of the
+Foolish White Geese.
+
+By this time Jehosophat was not only wet clear through, he was angry clear
+through too, so he kicked at them.
+
+They stretched out their long white necks and called:
+
+"Hiss! Hiss! Hissssssss!!"
+
+They might be very foolish, these White Geese, but they were sensible
+enough to know that Jehosophat ought to have been ashamed of himself that
+afternoon.
+
+To make matters worse, the sun was shining now. He sparkled so brightly on
+the Gold Rooster on the top of the barn, that Father Wyandotte flapped his
+wings and cried to all the world:
+
+"Look, look, look, look! You're going to get it--hurroo!"
+
+And all the White Wyandottes took up the cry:
+
+"Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut--you'll get it."
+
+Jehosophat wished he were as small as Hop-o'-my-Thumb, so that he could
+creep through the keyhole and never be seen at all.
+
+But he had one friend left--little Wienerwurst, who frisked up to him just
+then, wagging his tail. He didn't scold Jehosophat at all, partly because
+he was so often up to mischief himself. And then little Wienerwurst always
+stuck by his friends anyway.
+
+For a while nothing more happened, and Jehosophat tiptoed in at the back
+door. Mother was nowhere to be seen, so over the floor he sneaked.
+
+At every step the water oozed out and _slop, splosh, slop, splosh_,
+still went his shoes.
+
+But he reached his room safely, then quickly he rummaged in the drawers of
+the bureau.
+
+Quiet as a mouse he took off his wet clothes, and put them in the darkest
+corner of the big closet. Quiet as a mouse he drew on the clean dry ones.
+
+But someone was calling:
+
+"Jehosophat--_Je-hos'-o-phat_!"
+
+No answer made he.
+
+"Jehosophat--_Je-hos'-o-phat_!"
+
+No longer could he hide. So, making his face look as bold and as innocent
+as possible, he walked into the dining-room.
+
+But somehow, though he tried to look innocent, I guess he really looked
+guilty.
+
+"Jehosophat Green, what _have_ you been doing?" asked Mother. Her eyes
+were almost always kind but they were a little stern just then.
+
+Jehosophat tried another look on his face, for you can try different looks
+on your face just as you try different hats on your head. This time he
+tried the one that folks call "unconcern," a look as if he had no troubles
+at all, as if he had nothing to hide.
+
+"Aw, just playin'," he answered his mother.
+
+Then his mother asked a very strange question:
+
+"Where's the party?"
+
+Jehosophat _was_ surprised. "Party" sounded fine.
+
+"What party, Mother?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know," his mother replied. "I just thought you were dressed up for
+one."
+
+And he looked down at his clean suit and his Sunday best shoes. And from
+out the corner of his eye he saw wet places on the floor and muddy tracks,
+about as big as his feet.
+
+No answer now had Jehosophat. He guessed he would go into the parlour. So
+he sat down at the marble-topped table, and looked at the picture book
+which Uncle Roger had given him. It was full of great white ships sailing
+the blue sea.
+
+For a moment he almost forgot all his troubles, so interested was he in
+looking at those great ships and their sails and all the wonderful fish.
+
+Then suddenly he remembered.
+
+He looked out through the door into the dining-room.
+
+Mother wasn't saying anything. She was just busy. That was all.
+
+But had she forgotten?
+
+Somehow Jehosophat did not like the sad look on her face.
+
+He went and shut the door. He thought he would feel more comfortable if he
+couldn't see Mother's eyes. Then he sat down to look at the picture book
+again. But he felt more miserable than ever.
+
+Bang! he shut the book too. It was very strange. The things that usually
+made him so happy weren't any fun at all just then.
+
+Then he looked up at the mantel.
+
+Above it hung a great picture. There was a man in a cocked hat. He had on a
+fine uniform and he rode a tall white horse. Jehosophat knew very well who
+that was. It would be _his_ birthday tomorrow--George Washington's
+birthday. The teacher had told them all about it that very afternoon.
+
+She had told them a story, too, about a hatchet and a cherry tree--and--a
+lie!
+
+The man on the horse looked down from the picture. The eyes were very
+stern.
+
+A lie!
+
+Yes, that was just what he had told to Mother. He had told a lie, and acted
+a lie.
+
+Though there was no one else in the room but the great man in the big
+picture, Jehosophat's cheeks grew very red. A lump came into his throat.
+
+Now he never could be president nor have a sword--and ride a big white
+horse--and call "Forward March" to the whole army. No--never!
+
+To the window he went, and pressed his nose against the pane. The clouds
+were grey. It all seemed very dark and not at all cheerful as the world
+ought to be.
+
+Once more he looked up at the picture.
+
+And as he looked at the eyes of the man in the picture, they told him to do
+something.
+
+He decided to do it. And as soon as he decided he felt better--not
+_all_ better--but better.
+
+And out into the dining-room he marched. He had to close his fists tight,
+for it is very hard sometimes to tell people you've done wrong to them,
+especially if they are people you love.
+
+"Mother," he said--not very loud.
+
+She looked up.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Mother--I----"
+
+He stopped. Mother looked up. She saw his lip tremble a little and wanted
+to take him in her arms. But she didn't just then. He must tell what he had
+to tell, first.
+
+"Mother--I told a lie--I got my feet wet--sloshin'--and I said I was
+playin' when I changed my clothes--an' I'm sorry an'--an'--I'll never do
+it again."
+
+Then Mother did take him in her arms and she kissed him and hugged him too.
+
+"Well--I love my little boy all the more for this. It was very wrong to
+disobey, worse still to tell a lie. But it was hard to tell me your own
+self about it and you were brave."
+
+So she kissed him. And her eyes weren't sad any more.
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTEENTH NIGHT
+
+THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN
+
+
+Mother Green and Father Green were fast asleep in the
+White-House-with-the-Green-Blinds. The Toyman was fast asleep too. Rover
+and Brownie and Wienerwurst lay curled up in their kennels, with their eyes
+tight shut. On their poles in _their_ house all the White Wyandottes
+perched like feathery balls, their heads sunk low on their breasts. On
+the roof cuddled the pretty pigeons, all pink and grey and white. In the
+barn Teddy, and Hal, and Methuselah, and Black-eyed Susan, and all the
+four-footed friends of the three happy children, rested from the cares of
+the day. Hepzebiah never stirred in her crib, and Jehosophat lay dreaming
+of something very pleasant.
+
+But the crickets, and the katydids, the scampering mice, and the big-eyed
+owls, and the little stars, snapping their tiny fingers of light up in the
+sky, and Marmaduke--_they_ were awake.
+
+He had played very hard that day and he had leg-ache. Mother had rubbed it
+till it felt better and he fell asleep, but now it began to hurt again and
+he woke up. The Little-Clock-with-the-Wise-Face-on-the-Mantel struck, not
+seven times but four. It was long past midnight--_it was four o 'clock in
+the morning_!
+
+But Marmaduke didn't call his mother. He thought that it would be too
+bad to wake her up from that nice sleep. So he just tried to rub his leg
+himself.
+
+It was then that he heard that far-off noise like a rumble of thunder. But
+it wasn't thunder. It was something rolling over the bridge down the road.
+
+Marmaduke sat up in bed and looked out of the window into the dark shadows
+of the trees.
+
+There was another rumble, and another and another. There must be, oh, so
+many wagons rolling by in the night. Then he heard the sound of horses'
+hoofs on the road, the clank of rings and iron trace chains.
+
+He rubbed his eyes this time and looked hard out into the darkness.
+
+Yes, he could see the tops of the big wagons, moving slowly past, under the
+trees and over the road.
+
+It was a strange procession and he just had to jump out of bed, forgetting
+all about his leg-ache. He ran to the window, pressing his little turned-up
+nose against the panes.
+
+Though it was dark still it must have been near morning. The moon was just
+going down behind the Church-with-the-Long-White-Finger, that finger which
+always kept pointing at the sky. The Old Man-in-the-Moon looked very tired
+and peaked after sitting up so late.
+
+There were so many of the wagons and so many horses. They must stretch
+way back to the school-house, and miles and miles beyond that, Marmaduke
+thought.
+
+The horses seemed very tired, for they plodded along slowly in the dark,
+and the drivers almost fell asleep, nodding on their seats. They looked
+just like black shadows.
+
+Under the axles of the wagons were lanterns, swinging a little and throwing
+circles of light on the road.
+
+Now and then one of the drivers spoke roughly to the horses. And sometimes
+Marmaduke heard strange noises like the sleepy growls of wild animals.
+Perhaps they were in those wagons!
+
+Then Marmaduke laughed. He knew what it was. They were circus wagons! The
+circus was coming to town! The Toyman had told him all about it, that very
+day.
+
+Once, one of the animals roared and the others answered back. Their noise
+was louder than the rumble of the wagon-wheels on the bridge. Marmaduke was
+frightened. But the roaring stopped, and all he could hear was the noise of
+all those wheels on their way up the road by the river.
+
+Then the last wagon passed and Marmaduke went back to bed and fell asleep.
+
+But the long procession rolled on and on till it reached the church. There
+was a large field nearby. Into it the wagons turned and all the horses were
+unhitched.
+
+Then the cooks started fires in the stoves on the cook-wagons, and all the
+strange men and women had coffee. And then, just as the Sun was coming up
+and the night was all gone, they went to work.
+
+Up in the centre of the field they raised three tall poles. They were
+almost as high as the Long White Finger of the Church. They drove many
+stakes into the ground. And around the tall poles they stretched almost
+as many ropes as there are on a ship.
+
+Then they unrolled the white canvas and, when the Sun was just a little way
+up in the sky and the morning was all nice and shiny and bright, the great
+white tents were ready for the circus.
+
+Back in the White-House-with-the-Green-Blinds, Marmaduke was eating his
+oatmeal. He asked a question that he very often asked:
+
+"What do you think _I_ saw?"
+
+"Another dream?" said Jehosophat.
+
+"No, it was _real_," replied Marmaduke. "I saw a lot of wagons,
+hundreds 'n thousands, in a big line miles long. And there were wild
+animals in the wagons."
+
+"I'll bet that was a _dream_," his big brother insisted, but the
+Toyman said:
+
+"No, it wasn't a dream, it was the circus coming to town."
+
+Then Father spoke up:
+
+"That's so, I most forgot."
+
+He looked at the Toyman:
+
+"Frank," he said, "I've got to go over to the Miller farm to buy some
+yearling steers. You'll have to take the youngsters to that circus."
+
+The Toyman didn't seem worried about that. He looked just "tickled," "like
+a boy himself," Mother said.
+
+So, after dinner, old Methuselah was hitched up, and away they drove,--the
+Toyman, Jehosophat, Hepzebiah, and Marmaduke, with little Wienerwurst, as
+usual, in back. He was very happy, barking at all the carriages hurrying up
+the road to the circus.
+
+They came to the field with the big white tents and were just going to turn
+in, when they heard music way off in the streets of the town.
+
+"Why, I most forgot," said the Toyman to Jehosophat. "There's the circus
+parade over on Main Street. In the big city they have the parade and the
+circus all in one big building, but in the country towns they have the
+parade first in the street, and the performance after, in the tents."
+
+"Tluck, tluck!" he called to Methuselah, and jog, jog, jog, the old horse
+trotted into town. In Uncle Roger's barn the Toyman unhitched him, and
+gave him some hay and some oats too, for it was a grand holiday. Then
+hand-in-hand the Toyman and the three happy children hurried over to Main
+Street.
+
+So many people were crowded on the sidewalk that the children could hardly
+see. But Jehosophat ducked under the stomachs of two big fat men and sat on
+the curb-stone. And the Toyman held Marmaduke on one shoulder and Hepzebiah
+on the other. He was very strong. From their high perch they could look
+right over the heads of all the people at that great circus parade.
+
+Hark! They were coming!
+
+First the band. They were dressed in gay uniforms of red and blue, with
+gold tassels too, and bright brass buttons.
+
+Ahead of them marched the leader of the band--the tall Drum Major. He had
+on a high fur cap, twice as big as his head. In his hand he swung a long
+black cane, called a "baton." It had a gold knob on it, bigger than a
+duck's egg.
+
+He raised the cane and the music began!
+
+_Trrat----trrat----trrat--trrat--trrat_! went the little drums.
+
+_Boom----boom---boom--boom--boom_! went the big bass drum.
+
+_hum_--
+
+_hum_--
+
+_hum_--
+
+_Hum_--
+
+_hum--hum_!
+
+sounded the shiny horns.
+
+_ter-loo_
+
+_ter-loo_
+
+_ter-loo_
+
+_Loo-loo-loo_
+
+_ter-loo-loo_!
+
+gaily whistled the little fifes.
+
+Then they all sounded together in a grand crash of music that made all the
+people happy and excited, and they almost danced on the sidewalk.
+
+And all the time the tall Drum-Major kept twirling that baton with the gold
+knob on it till Jehosophat's eyes most popped out of his head.
+
+My! how he could twirl it!
+
+But other wonderful things were coming now, marching by very
+swiftly,--ladies on horses that pranced and danced; cowboys on horses that
+were livelier still; a giant as tall as the big barber's pole; and a dwarf
+no higher than that tall giant's knee.
+
+And great grey elephants, all tied together by their trunks and their
+tails; and zebras like little horses painted with stripes; and cages on
+wagons, full of funny monkeys, making faces at all the people; and lions
+and tigers, walking up and down and showing their sharp teeth.
+
+Then something happened!
+
+One of the circus men must have been sleepy that morning, for he hadn't
+fixed the lock on that cage just tight. And the big tiger felt very mean
+that day. He snarled and he snarled, and he jumped at the bars of his cage.
+
+Open came the door. Out leaped that wicked tiger right on the street, and
+the people ran pell mell in all directions.
+
+The two fat men were so frightened that they fell flat on their stomachs.
+The barber shinnied up his pole, and hung on for dear life to the top.
+The baker-man tumbled into the watering-trough, and all the rest rushed
+higgledy-piggledy into the houses and stores.
+
+The Toyman picked up Hepzebiah, Marmaduke, and Jehosophat, hurried them
+into the candy-store, and shut the door tight.
+
+It was full of beautiful candies,--chocolate creams and peppermint drops,
+snowy white cocoanut cakes, black and white licorice sticks, and cherry-red
+lollypops. But the three children never noticed those lovely candies at
+all. They just looked out of the glass door at that tiger, walking up and
+down the street, a-showing his teeth and a-swishing his tail.
+
+The tiger looked at all the people behind the windows and doors. They were
+all shivering in their boots, and he didn't know which one to choose. Then
+he looked up at the man on the barber-pole, and he was shivering too.
+
+Then all of a sudden the tiger stopped.
+
+"_Girrrrrrrrrrrhhh_!"
+
+He saw the butcher shop.
+
+The door was open. Some nice red pieces of beef hung on the hooks.
+
+He licked his chops and ran into the shop and jumped up at the first piece
+of beef and ate it all up. He never saw the stout butcher, who was hiding
+under the chopping block. The butcher's face was usually as red as the
+beef, but now it was as white as his apron, and his feet were shaking as
+fast as leaves in the wind.
+
+But just as the tiger was gobbling the last morsel up, down the street
+galloped a cowboy on a swift horse. He stopped right in front of the
+butcher shop.
+
+Out went his hand.
+
+In it was a rope all coiled up.
+
+Around his head he twirled it, in great flying loops. Then he let it fly.
+
+And it fell around that wicked tiger's head and neck, just as he was
+finishing his dinner.
+
+Then the circus men came with big steel forks, and they ran at that tiger,
+and they tied him all up in that rope very tight, and put him back in the
+cage on the wagon, while he growled and growled and growled.
+
+So the parade started again and all of the people came out of their
+hiding-places, all but the fat men who hurried off home, as soon as they
+found their breath, and the old ladies who said they guessed they'd go to
+missionary meeting after all. A circus parade was too heathenish.
+
+Soon it was all over, and the rest of the people hurried off to the field
+with the big white tents.
+
+And what they saw there we will tell you tomorrow night.
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTEENTH NIGHT
+
+THE JOLLY CLOWN
+
+
+Marmaduke was lost. There was such a crowd around those tents! He wriggled
+between lots of pairs of legs, but nowhere could he find the Toyman's.
+
+Near the door of the tent stood a man with a big black moustache, and a
+silk hat on his head. He was selling tickets. The Toyman went up to him.
+
+"Howdy," said the Toyman.
+
+"Howdy, pardner," replied he.
+
+"I'd like four tickets. Here is the money. One whole ticket and three half
+tickets too."
+
+The man counted the money and gave him the tickets. Then the Toyman asked:
+
+"Did you see a little boy 'bout this high, with a little yeller dog?"
+
+The man with the big black moustache and the tall silk hat shook his head.
+
+"Sorry I can't oblige you, pardner. I've seen lots of kiddies but nary a
+one with a yeller dog."
+
+"Well then," said the Toyman, "will you kindly show these youngsters to
+their seats while I look for that little lost boy and his dog?"
+
+"Certainly, be most pleased," was the answer, for all circus men are very
+polite on Circus Day.
+
+So the man with the black moustache and the tall silk hat called a man in a
+red cap. Jehosophat took Hepzebiah by the hand, and the man in the red cap
+led them into the big tent. He showed them their seats, and they sat down
+in the very front row.
+
+Outside, the Toyman kept looking, looking everywhere. There was no sign of
+Marmaduke's tow head nor of little yellow Wienerwurst.
+
+_They_ were on the other side of the tent, outside too, mixed up with
+men and women they didn't know, and hundreds of boys and girls. They could
+see other men too, with striped shirts and loud voices, standing in small
+houses. And the small houses looked just like little stores, and on the
+counters were good things to eat,--popcorn, peanuts, cracker jack, and
+something cool in glasses, like lemonade but coloured like strawberries.
+Loud did the men shout, trying to sell those good things to everybody who
+came near.
+
+But Marmaduke couldn't buy even _one_ peanut. He didn't have any
+money. How was he ever going to get into that circus!
+
+Oh, where was the Toyman?
+
+But he didn't cry. You know he didn't. He just shut his teeth hard, and
+winked and winked.
+
+At last Wienerwurst gave a little bark. He saw a little hole, and
+Wienerwurst always liked little holes. It was under the tent and just his
+size. Right into it he crawled. All Marmaduke could see of his doggie now
+was his little tail like a sausage. The rest of him was under the tent.
+Thump-thump-thump went the tail. And Marmaduke knew it must be pretty nice
+inside.
+
+Then the tail, too, disappeared. So down on his stomach went the little boy
+and crawled right in after his doggie.
+
+The tent had several big rooms and he was in one of them. On every side
+were big cages with iron bars.
+
+"_Girrrrrrrrrrrhhh_!" went something in one of the cages.
+
+That wicked runaway tiger!
+
+Marmaduke ran past all the cages very fast until he came to another room.
+In it were lots of queer funny people.
+
+He heard another voice, not like the runaway tiger's, but one just happy
+and pleasant, though very deep.
+
+"Well, look who's here!" it said.
+
+That was a funny thing to say, Marmaduke thought, and he looked up.
+
+He had to look up ever so high. There was the tall giant, sitting on a
+great big chair. Big were his feet and his legs and his hands, and big were
+his chin and his nose and his hat. Still he didn't look cross like the
+giants in the story-books, just nice and kind.
+
+Marmaduke stared up at him and he smiled down at Marmaduke.
+
+It was very hot and the big giant took off his hat to wipe his forehead.
+He set his hat down. He didn't look where he put it and it went over
+Marmaduke's head and nearly covered him up. He couldn't see any sunlight.
+It was all dark inside that hat.
+
+"Let me out," he shouted. And he heard someone say:
+
+"What's in your hat?"
+
+"There _was_ a little boy around here," the giant replied. "Maybe I've
+covered him up."
+
+The giant leaned down and picked up his hat, and took it off the little
+boy. Very glad was Marmaduke to see the light once more.
+
+The giant bowed low to apologize and the great chair creaked.
+
+"Very careless of me," he said. "A thousand pardons, Sir!"
+
+Marmaduke felt very happy. It was fine to be called "Sir" by a great big
+giant like that.
+
+Then he felt himself being lifted up, and there he sat on the giant's knee.
+The giant told him a story and gave him a big ring from his finger. It was
+so large that Marmaduke could put his whole arm through it.
+
+Then another voice spoke. It was a little tiny voice this time--no bigger
+than a mouse's squeak or a cricket's "Good-night."
+
+Marmaduke looked down from the giant's knee.
+
+"Hello, little fellow," squeaked the funny little voice.
+
+No, it was not Jack Frost. It was a dwarf, all dressed in a crimson velvet
+gown, with a gold crown on her head. The top of the crown wasn't even as
+high as the giant's knee. My, but she _was_ little!
+
+Marmaduke was just going to say, "Little, _huh_! I'm as big as
+_you_ are!" But he didn't. That wouldn't have been quite right when
+all these circus people were so very polite to him.
+
+So all he said was:
+
+"Good-afternoon!"
+
+And the little tiny lady in the crimson gown gave him something too,--a
+silver button from her dress. Then the giant handed him over to a lady who
+sat next. A very funny lady was she, for she had a woman's voice and a
+woman's dress and a woman's hair, too, but on her chin was a long, long
+beard, just like a man's.
+
+The bearded lady kissed Marmaduke. He didn't like that, she tickled so.
+
+He didn't go very near the one who sat next. Yet _she_ was a very
+pretty lady with blue eyes and golden hair, but around her arms and neck
+instead of necklaces were curled up snakes!
+
+"They won't bite, little boy," she said smiling. "Look out for the
+_snakes in the grass_, but don't mind these. They can't hurt you at
+all."
+
+With that she handed him some candy.
+
+Marmaduke's hands were so full now, with the candy and the big ring and the
+silver button, that he didn't know what to do.
+
+Just ahead of him was little Wienerwurst's tail. The very thing! So he put
+that big ring over that little tail. That felt so funny that Wienerwurst
+tried to reach his tail and that round shiny thing on it.
+
+Around and around he went in a circle, trying to bite it off. He looked
+as if his head and tail were tied together. Like a little yellow
+merry-go-round, whirling so swiftly after itself, was he. All the strange
+circus people laughed and cheered and the giant clapped his huge hands till
+they sounded like thunder.
+
+All of a sudden the ring rolled off Wienerwurst's tail, and Marmaduke went
+scrambling after it. It rolled right near the lady--and all those snakes!
+
+Marmaduke didn't like _that_. He was glad when he heard another voice
+call out, very cheerily.
+
+"Here it is, Sonny!"
+
+This was a very jolly voice, jollier than any he had ever heard in the
+world except the Toyman's.
+
+The man who owned that voice stood before him, such a funny man, in a baggy
+white suit, with red spots like big red tiddledy winks all over it. He had
+a pointed cap all red and white too. And his face was all painted white,
+with long black eyebrows and a wide, wide, red mouth.
+
+This was the way Marmaduke met Tody the Clown.
+
+They had a long talk together and he seemed to understand little boys, just
+like the Toyman.
+
+"It must be fine to always live in a circus," said Marmaduke. "Wish I did."
+
+"Well, Sonny, when you grow up, maybe you can," replied Tody the Clown.
+
+Marmaduke looked at the wide mouth with its funny smile.
+
+"You're always happy, aren't you?"
+
+Tody nodded and answered:
+
+"Sure--anyway _almost_ always."
+
+"Don't you ever feel cross or have any troubles?"
+
+Tody threw back his head at that and laughed way out loud.
+
+"Sure I do," said he. "A heap of troubles, but I just think of all the
+little girls and boys like you that I've got to make happy. Then I try hard
+to make 'em laugh and--"
+
+"An' what?"
+
+"Why all my troubles fly away, quick as a wink," laughed Tody. "Yes,
+just as quick as I do this." And _quicker_ than a wink he turned a
+somersault. He turned a whole lot of somersaults and then he took Marmaduke
+on his shoulder and galloped around the tent and they had a glorious time.
+
+But the music was sounding out in the big tent just next them--drums and
+horns and bugles and fifes. The circus would start in a minute now and all
+the fun would be over.
+
+"Where's your ticket, Sonny?" asked Tody.
+
+"I haven't any," Marmaduke explained. "I've lost the Toyman--and he's got
+my ticket an'--an'--I can't go in."
+
+"Don't you worry about that. You'll have the _best seat in the whole
+circus_." And Tody turned another somersault just to make him laugh.
+Then he looked down at little Wienerwurst.
+
+"But they won't let any doggies in there. We'll just tie him to this pole."
+
+Marmaduke shook his head and tried hard to keep the tears back. Just one
+little one rolled down his right cheek But that was on the other side of
+Tody. Maybe Tody saw it anyway, for when Marmaduke said to him,--"Then I
+can't go in either, my little pet doggie would feel so badly," the jolly
+Clown answered:
+
+"Well, we'll just have to fix it up some way. Can y' keep him quiet?"
+
+"Quiet as a mouse," answered Marmaduke, "quiet as Mother Robin when she
+sits on her nest."
+
+And Wienerwurst barked out loud just to show how quiet he could be.
+
+Tody spoke to another man. This one had on a bright red vest, red as Father
+Robin's. He looked at the boy and the dog. His voice wasn't as pleasant as
+Tody's nor the giant's, but what he said was all right.
+
+It was just "Sure!" and Marmaduke and Wienerwurst slipped inside the big
+tent, right near the front, where they could see all the wonderful things
+that went on.
+
+Wienerwurst sat pretty quiet on his lap and together they watched the
+elephants stand on their heads, and the men way up in the air turn
+somersaults on little swings, and the ladies in bright spangles gallop
+round and round the ring, and the monkeys and the clowns do tricks--and
+everything.
+
+Tody was the funniest and happiest of all, and he made all the children
+laugh and shout and clap their hands. Even Johnny Cricket, the lame boy,
+who had come a long way to see the circus, smiled.
+
+Marmaduke and Wienerwurst were so excited that they forgot all about
+Jehosophat and Hepzebiah and the Toyman.
+
+After a while Tody turned a somersault, a cartwheel, and a flipflop, and
+landed right near their seat.
+
+"How would you like to ride on an elephant?" he whispered in Marmaduke's
+ear.
+
+Of course Marmaduke answered:
+
+"Better 'n anything I _ever_ did."
+
+So Tody took him by the hand and led him into the little tent and put
+a little pointed cap on his head, just like Tody's own. Then he lifted
+Marmaduke into a big seat on top of Jumbo, the big elephant. And out they
+marched under the tent and round and round the ring.
+
+Marmaduke could look down on all the rows of people. He was up quite high
+and their faces looked small, but he could tell Jehosophat, and Hepzebiah,
+and Sammy Soapstone, and Sophy, Lizzie Fizzletree, and Fatty Hamm, too. And
+_there_ was the Toyman walking around, looking everywhere for him.
+
+"'Llo, Toyman," he shouted, and the Toyman looked up and saw Marmaduke in
+his little pointed cap, way up on the back of the big elephant.
+
+The Toyman waved his hand and smiled. I guess he was very glad to find that
+Marmaduke wasn't lost after all.
+
+But Jehosophat was wishing that _he_ had been lost, so that he could
+have had that fine chance to be part of the circus.
+
+Suddenly there was a chorus of barks. Marmaduke had forgotten all about
+Wienerwurst.
+
+He turned around to look for him and leaned back so far that he almost
+fell flop off the elephant's back. Tody caught him just in time or there
+_would_ have been trouble.
+
+The trick dogs were coming into the circus now. Some of them were walking
+on their hind legs.
+
+Marmaduke listened.
+
+There were so many different barks! Just as many as there were dogs,--deep
+or squeaky, smooth or creaky, rough or happy, gruff or snappy, and one that
+Marmaduke knew the very minute he heard it.
+
+"_Run--run--run--run--runrunrun_!"
+
+Yes, he knew that little voice. He could tell little Wienerwurst's bark
+anywhere. Somehow it was different from any doggie's in the world. There he
+was, frisking and scampering and biting at the other dogs' tails, just in
+fun.
+
+"_Run--run run--run--runrunrun_!"
+
+And that is just what they did, right into the circus ring where the man in
+the red cap held out big hoops of paper above the dogs' heads.
+
+The first dog jumped through one hoop, and the second dog jumped through
+another. Then the man in the red cap held up a third hoop bigger than all
+the rest.
+
+Another dog, a long tall greyhound, got ready to take his turn, but I guess
+Wienerwurst decided all-of-a-sudden that _he_ wasn't going to be left
+out. He just gave the tail of that big dog a little nip, and when the
+big dog turned around to see what was the matter, why Wienerwurst jumped
+through the hoop all by himself.
+
+So pleased was he that he ran round the ring, looking up at the people in
+their seats, with his little pink tongue hanging out in delight.
+
+A great doggie was Wienerwurst.
+
+But soon it was all over and the people left their seats, and walked out of
+the tent to their homes and their suppers.
+
+Tody the Clown just wouldn't let Marmaduke and little Wienerwurst go. He
+invited them and his brother and sister and the Toyman, too, to have supper
+in the tent.
+
+At a long table they sat, with Tody, and the big giant, and the little
+teeny dwarf, and the Lady-with-the-Long-Long-Beard, and the
+Lady-with-the-Necklace-of-Snakes. But she put the snakes away and Marmaduke
+wasn't afraid at all.
+
+Tody the Clown sat by his side and kept his plate full and his cup full
+too. He didn't forget little Wienerwurst either. _He_ had a nice big
+bone all for himself.
+
+But the time came to say "Good-bye," which they did, to one and all of the
+kind circus people.
+
+Tody the Clown didn't kiss Marmaduke. He just shook hands. Marmaduke was
+glad of that. He felt like a real man now. For hadn't he been part of a
+circus and ridden on an elephant! I guess so!
+
+All Tody said to him was:
+
+"Good-bye, pardner, you just keep smiling and make people happy, and you'll
+be a circus man too, one of these days."
+
+So the Toyman hitched up "old Methuselah," and the three happy children
+rode home together, falling asleep in the buggy before ever they reached
+the White-House-with-the-Green-Blinds by the side of the road.
+
+When you visit that place ask Marmaduke to show you the silver button and
+the big giant's ring. He keeps them still in his little bureau. But the
+candy was gone, oh, long ago.
+
+
+
+
+NINETEENTH NIGHT
+
+WIENERWURST'S BRAVE BATTLE
+
+
+Mr. Sun must have known that it was Jehosophat's birthday, he made it so
+bright, not too sunny nor yet too cool.
+
+The three children, Mother, Father, and the Toyman, were all crowding
+about something which stood in front of the barn. The three tails of three
+doggies wagged as if they thought it was fine. Mr. Stuckup came to take a
+look. So did Miss Crosspatch and the Wyandottes; and the pigeons flew down
+from their house on the roof and perched on its seat.
+
+It was something for Jehosophat, of course. It was his birthday, and he had
+tried hard to be good ever since he had had that talk with the tall man on
+the white horse in the picture.
+
+It was something he had always wanted,--a little cart with a real live pony
+in the shafts. And the pony was all dressed in new harness, spick and span
+and shiny.
+
+Not very tall was the little pony. His ears twitched just on a level with
+Jehosophat's head.
+
+Jehosophat put his arm around his neck and patted his black coat, which was
+almost as shiny as the harness itself. He looked at the tail. It was nearly
+a yard long and very thick. That pony was certainly handsome. And Father
+had given him--cart, harness, and all--to Jehosophat for his birthday, for
+his very own, to keep just as long as the pony lived. And that was the
+finest present any boy could have--ever.
+
+The name was a very important matter. The boys each had a dozen they could
+think of, but Mother and Father and the Toyman couldn't think of any. At
+least they wouldn't give any suggestions. They thought it was Jehosophat's
+right to name his own pony.
+
+It was settled at last,--"Little Geeup." Where-ever Jehosophat got that
+name nobody knew. I really believe he read a story once about a horse
+called that. Or perhaps he remembered one of the circus ponies with the
+same name. Anyway, that was the one he chose. So it can't be changed now,
+any more than Jehosophat's own, or Marmaduke's, or Hepzebiah's.
+
+A moment more they looked Little Geeup all over, from the black mane on his
+neck down his sleek back to his fine full tail. A moment more they looked
+at the little cart, its bright red body with the blue lines around it,
+the wheels and spokes, which were bright yellow, and the shafts and the
+whiffletrees, which were yellow too.
+
+Then they got in. Little Hepzebiah sat on the seat with Jehosophat. He
+proudly held the reins. Marmaduke sat behind, his legs hanging over the
+tail-board, with Wienerwurst wriggling on his lap.
+
+"Tluck, tluck," called Jehosophat. Little Geeup obeyed. The yellow wheels
+turned, and down the driveway they went, Father and the Toyman hurrying
+alongside, Rover and Brownie barking behind.
+
+There were lots of fine carriages out that day, but never so fine a turnout
+as that little red cart with the yellow wheels and the black pony in the
+shafts.
+
+Jehosophat didn't have to learn how to drive Little Geeup. Father had often
+let him drive Old Methuselah when they went to town, and the little black
+pony was quite safe.
+
+At last Father and the Toyman stopped and waved good-bye. So off the
+children drove, up the road by the river.
+
+"Where shall we go?" asked Jehosophat.
+
+Now Marmaduke was thinking over something Tody the Clown had told
+him--about making other folks happy.
+
+"Let's take Johnny Cricket for a ride," he suggested.
+
+The driver agreed, so they turned from the road by the river and drove up a
+lane. At the end was a house. It was a very small house and a poor one too.
+Here lived Johnny Cricket, the lame little fellow, who never could run or
+play like the three happy children.
+
+There wasn't much furniture in his home, or much money either, hardly
+enough to buy him new crutches, to say nothing of toys that little boys
+like.
+
+"Whoa!" called Jehosophat, in front of the gate.
+
+Then he got out and knocked at the door.
+
+It opened. Johnny's Mother was there.
+
+Jehosophat took off his hat.
+
+"Good-morning, Mrs. Cricket, can we take Johnny for a ride in my new cart?"
+
+"Of course," replied she. "My! Won't Johnny be glad to go for a ride in
+that pretty cart! He's been very lonesome."
+
+So out hobbled Johnny, all smiles. Crunch, crunch, crunch went his crutch
+down the gravel walk.
+
+"Hepzebiah, you'll have to sit in the back with Marmaduke," commanded the
+owner of the little cart.
+
+So the little girl climbed over the back of the seat and sat with Marmaduke
+and Wienerwurst. And they helped Johnny in carefully, and off they drove up
+the lane, enjoying the woods and the nice warm sun. Johnny enjoyed it ever
+so much, but not more than they. I guess the three children were quite as
+happy, for to make others happy brings the best sort of happiness.
+
+At last they turned round and drove back.
+
+They were just trotting past the Miller Farm when they heard a great growl.
+
+Over the fields, with great leaps, a big dog was running. Now Jake Miller's
+dog, Prowler, was the worst dog in the neighbourhood. Often the three
+children had heard Father say "He ought to be shot."
+
+And there he was--running straight towards them, and little Wienerwurst had
+jumped over the tailboard and out of the wagon, and was trotting alongside.
+
+"_Urrururur_," growled Prowler. He had almost reached the gate. He
+was long and big, and really looked more like a savage animal than a dog.
+Pieces of chain hung from his neck and dragged alongside in the earth as he
+ran. He must have broken away from his kennel.
+
+Through the gate he bounded, then stopped still and growled in suspicion.
+
+"_Out--out--out_!" he seemed to be saying. He thought they had no
+right in front of his home, not even when they were driving on the road,
+which was free to all.
+
+The three happy children and Little Geeup didn't like the looks of things
+very much.
+
+"Here, Wienerwurst--come here," called Marmaduke. He wanted his little dog
+to jump back in the wagon and be safe.
+
+But Wienerwurst was no coward. Besides, he was a friendly little fellow,
+and liked to be polite to everybody, dogs and people too, even if sometimes
+he did chase the pretty pink pigeons and the White Wyandottes. But that was
+just in fun, of course.
+
+So he just stood still and looked at the big bad dog and wagged his tail in
+a friendly way, and smiled.
+
+But that big bad dog Prowler didn't appreciate that at all. He opened his
+big jaws and showed his teeth and gave a deep growl.
+
+"_Out--out--out_!" he repeated.
+
+And then Wienerwurst gave his tail a wag, and advanced a step or two.
+
+Quick as lightning Prowler jumped at him.
+
+Wienerwurst didn't run. Yet he was so little and the other dog was so big.
+And his ear hurt too, where the other dog bit him.
+
+The big dog was jumping at him again and again and biting him too, but I
+guess Wienerwurst must have heard Father and the Toyman tell the boys once
+never to start a fight, but always to stand up for one's rights, and never
+to be a coward, or run away.
+
+That Prowler had no right at all to tell him to get off the road nor to
+bite him!
+
+And so, though he was only a yellow dog and small and weak, Wienerwurst
+barked bravely and tried his best to fight off the big dog.
+
+It wasn't a very happy chorus of growls and barks and squeals. It sounded
+something like this:
+
+"_Gurrrrr--gurrr-uh--ow--ow--gurr--gurr--ow--wuf--ar--gurr--ow--wow--uh-
+wuf--xxx--x_!!!"
+
+Jehosophat pulled on the reins.
+
+"We must stop that," said he. "Hepzebiah you sit here."
+
+Out he jumped, but his brother was ahead of him, for Marmaduke loved
+Wienerwurst even more than they did.
+
+At the big dog's collar they pulled, and they grabbed tight hold of his
+chain, trying to drag him away so that he wouldn't hurt little Wienerwurst.
+But he was very strong, that wicked bad dog. They couldn't budge him at
+all.
+
+But just then they heard the sound of wheels. They were glad.
+
+Help was coming at last!
+
+A wagon drove up. It was the country postman, who delivered the mail to the
+farms, in a wagon.
+
+"Whoa!" the postman shouted and out he jumped with his whip!
+
+He ran straight for the big dog, and out of the gate ran Jake Miller too.
+I guess he felt ashamed of himself for keeping such a dog as Prowler. The
+two men grabbed the chain and whipped the big bad dog till he let go of
+Wienerwurst and ran back to his kennel.
+
+Tenderly the two boys lifted their little friend into the cart, and drove
+home as fast as they could.
+
+They forgot all about the pony and the fine new cart, just thinking of
+their poor hurt doggie.
+
+Mother and the Toyman brought water in a basin, and the Toyman poured
+something from a bottle, which coloured the water all dark. With a little
+clean rag he washed out the cuts on Wienerwurst's face and the back of his
+neck.
+
+Then out to the workshop he went and brought back a little can. He
+unscrewed the top and took out some of the salve inside. It was coloured
+just like peanut-butter and was soft and healing. On each cut he put a
+little of the salve, then wound the little doggie all up in nice soft
+bandages too. And Wienerwurst licked the Toyman's hand to show how thankful
+he was.
+
+They made him a little bed, but he didn't stay in that long. The Toyman was
+such a good doctor that Wienerwurst felt better already. Still he didn't
+play very much that day.
+
+Mother sent the Toyman over to the Cricket farm to ask Johnny's mother to
+let her boy stay for the night.
+
+He did--for _three whole days_--and great fun they had with Little
+Geeup, and the red dogcart, and the little lame boy, giving Wienerwurst
+rides to make him all well.
+
+And Father and the Toyman made Jake Miller chain up the wicked dog--very
+tight this time--with a chain that would never break.
+
+And soon that bad dog died, which was a good thing too. Nobody wasted many
+tears on him.
+
+But little Wienerwurst got well and strong, and chased the pretty pink
+pigeons--in fun of course--just as fast as ever he did.
+
+
+
+
+TWENTIETH NIGHT
+
+THE LIONS OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+By the fire sat the Toyman.
+
+He must have been seeing things in the flames, for he kept looking, looking
+all the time.
+
+He was all alone, for Father and Mother Green had gone to town to see a
+fine wedding. It was not often that they stayed out so late, but this was
+a grand event. And they knew the three happy children would be safe in the
+Toyman's care.
+
+They were all in the next room. Jehosophat and Hepzebiah were sound
+asleep--but not Marmaduke. He was sitting up, a little bit of a fellow in a
+big bed.
+
+Outside, old Giant Northwind roared and roared. Now he seemed to be running
+around and around the house, faster than any train. Now he stopped to knock
+at the door and bang at the window panes. Now he trampled on the roof,
+knocking off pieces of slate and a brick from the chimney, which fell,
+_crash_, through the glass cover of the little greenhouse.
+
+Marmaduke did not like the sounds cruel Giant Northwind made. And it
+was very dark in the room. To tell the truth he was just a little bit
+frightened. But he didn't say anything at all. For the Toyman had told him
+always to be "game." That was a funny word, but Marmaduke knew what it
+meant. A brave little boy must not cry even if he _is_ afraid.
+
+Still the Giant Northwind kept running round and round the house with great
+leaps. And the windows creaked, and the trees thumped the house with their
+branches.
+
+Suppose the Giant should break in and carry him 'way, 'way off!
+
+The door of the next room was open. Through it he could see the bright
+fire. Higher and higher leaped the flames, as if they wanted to jump up the
+chimney and join the Northwind in his mad race.
+
+Very comfy and bright looked the fire. Very funny were the shadows on
+the wall, dancing and bowing to each other and jumping up and down like
+Jacks-in-the-Box.
+
+One shadow was like a man's, as tall as the ceiling.
+
+Had Giant Northwind gotten in the house at last!
+
+Marmaduke shivered and crept out of bed--and hurried into the next room.
+He kept as far away from that giant shadow as he could. But he never cried
+out. He was very brave.
+
+On and on against the wall he tiptoed towards the chair by the fire, where
+the Toyman sat, thinking his strange thoughts.
+
+The Toyman felt a tug at his sleeve. He looked around. There stood
+Marmaduke, pointing at the shadow.
+
+That shadow was so big and Marmaduke was so small.
+
+"Don't let him get me!" the little boy cried.
+
+The Toyman reached down and in a second Marmaduke was safe in his arms.
+
+"There's nobody here but me," said the Toyman.
+
+Loud the Giant Northwind howled and roared, while the flames leaped up the
+chimney.
+
+"Look there!" cried Marmaduke. "There he is!!"
+
+And again he pointed to the shadow on the wall.
+
+"The Giant Northwind has got in our house!"
+
+But the Toyman only laughed, hugging him tighter.
+
+"That's not old Northwind, that's only my shadow," he explained.
+
+Then Marmaduke laughed too.
+
+"Tell me a story, Toyman," he asked, "'bout that ole Giant Northwind."
+
+"It might scare you," the Toyman answered.
+
+Marmaduke only shook his head.
+
+"Nothing makes me scared when I'm _here_," he said. He wasn't afraid
+of giants, or ogres, or wild animals, or anything, when he was safe in the
+Toyman's arms.
+
+For a while he looked up into his face. The Toyman's hair stood up, all
+funny and rough. He was always running his fingers through it. His face
+had wrinkles like hard seams, and it was as brown as saddle leather from
+working outdoors. But Marmaduke thought that nowhere in the world was there
+so kind a face, except his Mother's.
+
+The Toyman put down his corncob pipe and began:
+
+"Once upon a time, long time ago, before your mother was born, or your
+grandmother, or your great-grandmother either, there was a King. He was
+King of all the Winds. And he lived in a great big cave up in a high
+mountain."
+
+"Was the mountain as high as the church steeple?" asked Marmaduke.
+
+"Oh, higher than that--as high as a lot of church steeples, stuck one on
+top of another," the Toyman explained.
+
+"Sometimes the King of the Winds took a little snooze in his cave, and then
+everything was quiet. But when he woke up he would go out of his cave,
+raisin' ructions all over the world.
+
+"There was a lot of work for him to do, east and west, south and north. He
+tossed the branches of the trees and made 'em crack, and he made the waves
+in the ocean turn somersaults, and blew the wooden ships across the sea,
+and chased the cloud-ships across the sky.
+
+"And he had a lot of little chores too, like drying the clothes on Mondays,
+and waving the flags on Fourth of July, and sailing little boy's kites high
+in the air.
+
+"When the King of the Winds was a young fellow, it was all great fun. But
+after a while the trees grew bigger and bigger, and the ships taller and
+taller, and there were so many clouds that he got very tired. He was
+getting pretty old and he ached in all of his bones.
+
+"So he said to himself, said he:
+
+"'I'll let the kiddies do the work, and rest for a spell in my cave on the
+mountains.'
+
+"There were four of 'em--two boys and two girls--and each had a name, of
+course. Southwind and Westwind were the girls, Eastwind and Northwind the
+boys, two strapping big fellows.
+
+"So he called his children together and sat in the door of his cave.
+
+"First he took a big pinch o' snuff. That was a very bad habit folks had in
+those days.
+
+"_Kerchoo_! he sneezed, and blew two big clouds out of the sky.
+
+"_Kerchoo_!!! he sneezed again, and turned upside down a whole fleet
+of ships in the ocean.
+
+"_Kerchoooooo_!!!! he sneezed a third time, and blew off the roofs
+from all the houses in the city, a hundred miles away.
+
+"When he was all through his sneezing he said to his children:
+
+"'Get ye out to the four corners of the earth and take up my business.'
+
+"Now for a cane the old King used a tree with the branches pulled off. He
+picked it up and pointed to the south.
+
+"'Southwind, you go there.'
+
+"She was a pretty little thing, with blue eyes and roses in her hair. And
+she answered him sweet as you please, 'All right, Daddy,' and out she
+danced.
+
+"Then with the big tree cane, the old King pointed to the west.
+
+"'Westwind, there is your place,' he said.
+
+"A very pretty girl too was Westwind, with kind eyes and a soft smile. Her
+voice was soft and low, and she answered in a whisper:
+
+"'Good-bye, Daddy dear.'
+
+"She kissed him on the forehead, and floated away to her new home in the
+west.
+
+"Then the two boys came before the old King. The big tree cane pointed
+east.
+
+"'Get to work over there, Eastwind,' commanded the old King.
+
+"Now Eastwind was a strong fellow, but he was surly and cross and he didn't
+obey very quickly. So his father the King picked up his tree cane in a rage
+and whacked him across the shins, and out Eastwind ran, crying and yelling
+till the trees of the forests sobbed too. And he cried so hard that rivers
+of tears ran from his eyes and over the earth.
+
+"Once more the old King picked up his big tree cane, and said to the eldest
+of his sons:
+
+"'Northwind, your home is right here in the North.'
+
+"Bigger even than his brother was Northwind. Strong were his muscles, and
+his whiskers and hair were covered with icicles. When he breathed, millions
+of snowflakes danced from his mouth.
+
+"_Brrrrrrr_!! how one shivered when he was around.
+
+"Then the old King's hand trembled and the big cane dropped to the floor.
+He laid him down in the cavern and breathed his last. He had been a great
+King but he was deader than a doornail now.
+
+"So his four children took up his work.
+
+"Up and down the south country wandered Southwind, with her rosebud mouth
+and golden hair. And wherever she went she scattered posies and violets
+upon the earth.
+
+"Back and forth over her country floated Westwind with her soft smile and
+gentle voice. She whispered lullabies to little children, and laid cool
+hands on sick people's foreheads. She blew little boy's kites up ever so
+high above the church steeple, and tried never to break them. And she blew
+the white ships gently across the ocean. Folks liked to travel the waters
+whenever she was about.
+
+"But they didn't like Eastwind very much. Sometimes he was all right,
+but usually he was bent on mischief, making trouble for every man Jack.
+The seas he would tumble about, turn over the ships, and drown the poor
+sailors. He would call his grey clouds together and they would weep till
+the rivers were full. Then he would blow the rivers over the banks, and
+spoil the gardens, and break the bridges, and drown the poor sheep, and all
+the rest of the animals too.
+
+"But the most cruel of all was Giant Northwind. Where his heart ought to
+be was a chunk of ice. Sometimes he was pleasant enough, but most often he
+was hard and unkind. He would breathe on people, and freeze their noses and
+toeses, and leave many a poor fellow stiff on the snow.
+
+"Northwind grew and grew till he was the biggest giant on earth. Most as
+tall as a mountain himself was he, and when he raised his arm he could
+nearly touch the sky. He kept walking up and down the earth, roaring and
+hollering fit to blow his lungs out. And how he could travel! He could go
+clear around the world in about a week.
+
+"One fine day he went out for a walk and he saw Mr. Sun riding up high
+in the sky. Mr. Sun was a strange sort of a chap, all dressed up in gold
+armour. The gold armour shone so bright you could never see his eyes or his
+nose or his mouth, when he walked in the sky.
+
+"Giant Northwind grew very jealous of Mr. Sun. He wanted that fine suit of
+gold armour, for all he had himself was his long whiskers and his fur coat
+of snow.
+
+"At Mr. Sun he shook his fist.
+
+"Mr. Sun only laughed at him.
+
+"'Ho, ho!' he said, 'Ho, ho!' and again 'Ho, ho!'
+
+"'Ho, ho! you say,' mimicked Northwind, very angry, 'soon you will laugh on
+the other side of your mouth. I will blow you out and people can't see your
+fine suit of gold armour any more.'
+
+"'Ho, ho!' Mr. Sun laughed back. 'Just try it and see. Might as well save
+your breath.'
+
+"That made Northwind very mad. So he took a deep breath until his chest
+puffed way out like a big balloon.
+
+"Then he let go. All the hills in the north country shook at that roar.
+
+"And the clouds came hurrying out of the mountains and covered the sky so
+you couldn't see the Sun and his fine suit at all.
+
+"'Ho, ho!' laughed the Northwind.' Now you will laugh on the other side of
+your mouth, Mr. Sun.'
+
+"Then he sat him down in his cave to enjoy himself.
+
+"But what was that!
+
+"There was a little hole in the clouds. Through the chink he saw gold
+shining. Then more and more gold. In a few moments Mr. Sun was riding up in
+the sky, as big as life.
+
+"'Ho, ho!' said Mr. Sun, 'who laughs last, laughs best.'
+
+"Then old Giant Northwind grew madder and madder, madder than a hornet,
+yes, just as mad as Mother Wyandotte when Wienerwurst chased her into the
+brook.
+
+"He took a deep breath, did Giant Northwind, so deep that he almost burst
+his lungs. He blew and he puffed and he puffed and he blew till the whole
+sky was filled with grey clouds. And you couldn't see Mr. Sun and his fine
+suit of gold armour at all.
+
+"Then down he would sit in his cave to enjoy himself for a spell, but by
+and by, sure as shooting, Mr. Sun would come back again.
+
+"So, for a hundred years, Northwind tried to blow out the Sun. But at last
+he gave it up as a bad job.
+
+"When he was still a middling young fellow, only about a thousand years old
+or so, he went walking up and down the earth one night, just after dark.
+
+"He came to a great forest. In it he saw something bright, like a little
+piece of the Sun. Now he was taller than the tallest tree in the forest, so
+he got down on his knees to peek between the trunks and see better. People
+were sitting around the bright little piece of the Sun, and warming their
+hands, and cooking their supper. Of course it was only a merry fire, but
+Giant Northwind was sure it was a piece of the Sun that had fallen on the
+Earth. He had been so busy trying to blow him out of the sky that he hadn't
+noticed these little fires much before.
+
+"But he had grown very cross as he knelt there, looking through the trees,
+and he said to himself, said he:
+
+"'Ho, ho! That's one of the Sun's children. I'll blow that out anyway.'
+
+"And he took a deep breath and puffed his cheeks out.
+
+"_Whurrrooooo_! he breathed on that little piece of the Sun.
+
+"But the little fire just laughed and leaped higher and higher.
+
+"So he took a real deep breath this time, till he filled all his chest, and
+it stuck way out like the strong man's in the circus.
+
+"_Whurrrrrrooooooooooooooo_!!!! he roared, but the little flames just
+danced in the air, as bright and as merry as could be.
+
+"The more he blew the bigger grew the fire, and the sooner the people had
+their suppers.
+
+"Then for years and years the old Giant stamped up and down the Earth,
+trying to put out those little pieces of the Sun. And he couldn't do it at
+all. Like their father, the Sun, the little fires just laughed at him.
+
+"At last Northwind said to himself, said he: "'I know what I'll do, I'll
+get me some big grey wolves to put out those fires.'
+
+"So a-hunting he went, up into the biggest forests of the world, so dark
+that people called them 'the Forests of Night.' And they were full of
+fierce grey wolves.
+
+"With his strong hands he caught a hundred wolves and drove them back to
+his cave.
+
+"Then one dark night when the people were sitting around their fires, so
+cozy and nice, he untied the wolves and roared out:
+
+"'Wolves, put out those fires!'
+
+"And the fierce grey wolves ran out of the cavern, and snapped and snarled
+at the little fires. But they couldn't put them out. So back they came to
+the cave, with their tongues hanging out and their tails between their
+legs.
+
+"'Good-for-nothings,' roared Northwind, 'I'll get me some tigers.'
+
+"Again he went stalking over the Earth till he reached the great deserts,
+which the people called 'the Deserts Without End.' Here he caught a
+thousand fierce tigers and drove them back to his cave.
+
+"The next night, while the people were talking and singing around the
+little fires, he let the tigers loose.
+
+"'Tigers,' roared he, 'put out those fires.'
+
+"They ran out of the cave, making a terrible noise, and they raced up and
+down the earth, with their sharp teeth gleaming, and their tails lashing.
+At the fires they snarled, and growled, and roared, and tried to beat out
+the flames with their paws. But they were only burned for their trouble.
+And so the tigers too slunk back to the cave, with their heads hanging down
+and their tails between their legs.
+
+"Once more the Northwind stalked forth and hunted through the highest
+mountains he could find, so high that people called them 'the Roof of the
+World.' Ten thousand lions he caught, the fiercest in all the Earth. He
+tied them together by their tails, ten at a time, and drove them back to
+his cave.
+
+"And he sent them out too.
+
+"'Lions, put out those fires!'
+
+"Such a terrible roar those lions roared that the whole Earth shook.
+Through the forests they raced, leaping through the wild tree tops, lashing
+their tails, and shaking their shaggy manes. And they leaped at the fires,
+but they couldn't do any better. Those big lions just couldn't put the
+little fires out.
+
+"Beside himself with rage was old Northwind now. So he sent them all out,
+wolves and tigers and lions wild, and he rushed on at their head.
+
+"But never, never can they put the little fires out, so you needn't worry
+at all."
+
+The Toyman stopped and Marmaduke listened.
+
+"Hark!"
+
+Yes, there were the grey wolves now, howling down the chimney. There were
+the wild tigers, snarling at the window panes and leaping at the door.
+
+Hark! How the knobs rattled!
+
+And there were the wild lions, rushing and roaring through the tree-tops.
+
+And round and round and round the house raced old Giant Northwind himself.
+
+But all the while, in the fireplace the little red flames danced merrily,
+never afraid at all.
+
+Marmaduke jumped. Something was whining and scratching at the door.
+
+Was it a wolf?
+
+The voice he heard was too small and weak.
+
+He knew who _that_ was.
+
+"Toyman," he shouted, "that's my little pet doggie, out in the cold. Those
+bad wolves an' tigers an' lions 'll eat him up."
+
+So they ran to the door, the Toyman and little Marmaduke. And he wasn't
+afraid at all. And they let little Wienerwurst in, and saved him from the
+grey wolves and the wild tigers and the fierce lions of the Northwind.
+
+Little Wienerwurst barked happily and curled himself up by their feet, in
+front of the warm fire.
+
+After that Marmaduke spoke only once before he fell asleep.
+
+"You never had any little boys, did you, Toyman?"
+
+On the Toyman's face was a funny look as he answered:
+
+"No, little feller, I never had any little boys."
+
+Marmaduke reached up his hand and patted the Toyman's rough, kind face.
+
+"Don't worry, Toyman," he said, "_I'll_ be your little boy."
+
+Little Wienerwurst was sound asleep, so Marmaduke just had to fall asleep
+too, happy and safe in the Toyman's arms, by the little red fire that the
+wind could never put out.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Seven O'Clock Stories, by Robert Gordon Anderson
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEVEN O'CLOCK STORIES ***
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