The Counterpane Fairy Part 7

The King of the Black-Country stared at him, and his eyes were so black and piercing that Teddy felt afraid.

"Are you the great magician?" he asked.

"Yes, I am," answered Teddy, bowing.

"Then let us see some of this magic that we have been hearing about,"

said the King; "and harkye, Magician, if you can make the Princess smile you shall have whatsoever you wish, even to the half of my treasure."

Teddy bowed again, and then he set the chest on the ground, and drawing from his girdle an iron key he unlocked it and put back the lid. There was the paper circus, just as he and Harriett had cut it out: the acrobat and the lovely lady, the horses, the clown, the ring-master,--not one of them was left out.

With his magic wand, Teddy drew upon the ground a circle, and then, while everybody round craned and stretched their necks to see what he was about, he took out the figures and set them, one by one, in the ring. Then he waved his wand over them and cried "Abraca-dabraca-dee!"

All the people stood on tiptoes, and the King himself leaned forward to see,--but nothing happened.

"Abraca-dabraca-dee!" cried Teddy again.

Still nothing happened; he looked around at the crowd of people, at the grim-looking soldiers, and the King, and his heart sank.

"Abraca-dabraca-dee!" he cried for the third time, striking the ground with his wand.

Then a wonderful thing happened. The circle he had drawn upon the ground began to spread, just as a circle does in the water after one has thrown a stone into it. Now it was a great circus ring, and the paper circus itself had changed to a real circus. The clown walked about, joking, with his hands in his pockets; the ring-master cracked him whip; the paper horses were two magnificent steeds, one as black as night, and one as white as milk, that cantered round and round, while the music sounded, and all the people far away on the outside of the ring clapped and applauded.

"Wonderful! wonderful!" cried the King of the Black-Country.

But now there was something more that was wonderful. As the black horse cantered round, Teddy ran to him and leaped upon his back, light as a feather, and there he rode, his black robe with the white figures flying and fluttering around him.

Then, still riding around, he unfastened his gown and threw it from him, and there he was dressed in white and silver, and his magic wand was changed to a little silver whip.

After that he leaped up into the air, and turned a somersault, lighting again upon his horse, while the music played louder and louder.

Teddy rode round and round, now riding backward, now forward, now on one foot, now on his hands with his feet in the air. Then he leaped upright, and putting his fingers to his mouth he gave a shrill whistle. At that the white steed suddenly dashed into the ring and galloped up beside the black one, and now Teddy rode with a foot on each. Faster and faster he rode, crying "Houp-la!" and even the King clapped his hands. Once and twice he rode round the ring and past the platform, but as they came round for the third time, Teddy waved his whip in the air. "Houp-la!" he cried. "Up! up!"

With that his steeds suddenly leaped from the ring and up the steps of the platform to the very top. There Teddy sprang from them and caught the Princess Aureline by the hand. "I have come to rescue you!" he cried, and before the King could move or speak he had set her upon the white horse, he had sprung upon the black, and with a clatter of hoofs they were dashing down the steps and across the square.

Then the King of the Black-Country started to his feet. "Stop them! stop them!" he cried.

The soldiers had been standing as though turned to stone, but at the King's voice they started forward, reaching out to catch the bridles of the horses, but again Teddy raised his magic whip.

"Abraca-dabraca-dee!

As you were once you shall be!"

he cried.

At the magic words every soldier's arm fell by his side, their eyes changed to little black dots, their faces grew rounder, their legs stiffened, and there they stood, nothing more nor less than wooden soldiers just like the one--were they his own soldiers? And the Princess! Was she only the doll that Harriett had forgotten the night before and that Teddy had set up against his knees to watch the show?

Were the streets only black and white silk?

There he was, back in his own room with the little wooden soldiers and the paper circus. There was the square of silk with the book under it, and the Counterpane Fairy sitting on his knees.

"Oh! but, Counterpane Fairy," cried Teddy, "what became of us? Did we get away? Oh, I didn't want to come out of the story just yet!"

"Why, of course you escaped," said the fairy. "How could the King stop you after you had changed his soldiers into wood?"

"And what became of you?" asked Teddy.

"Oh, I took the clown's cap," said the fairy, "for it was the wishing-cap, and fast as you and the Princess rode back to the country of King Whitebeard I was there before you."

Teddy thought for a while and then he heaved a deep sigh. "I wish I really had a circus horse," he said, "and could ride round and have all the people watching and shouting. But what did the Princess say when she found I had rescued her?"

"Hark!" said the fairy, "isn't that your mother coming along the hall? I must be going. Oh, my poor bones! What a hill it is to go down! Oh dear, dear, dear!"

CHAPTER FIFTH. AT THE EDGE OF THE POLAR SEA.

"THE crocuses are up on the lawn," said Teddy's mother, who was standing at the window and looking out. "And just hear that blackbird! I always feel as though spring were really here when I hear the blackbirds sing."

Teddy was still in bed. It seemed to him sometimes that he had spent his whole life lying there in the India-room, under the silk counterpane, and that it was some other Teddy who used to go to school and shout and play with the boys in the street.

"I wish I could go out-of-doors the way I used to," he said.

"So do I," said mamma. "But never mind, darling. The doctor says it won't be so very long now before you can be out again, and this afternoon we'll play some nice game or other that you can play in bed.

Now what would you like it to be?" But before Teddy could answer she added, "Oh dear! There comes Aunt Mariah."

Aunt Mariah lived down at the other end of the village, and she generally came every fortnight to spend an afternoon with Teddy's mother. She always brought her knitting in a bag, and a white net cap that she put on before the gla.s.s as soon as she had taken her bonnet off.

Teddy liked to have her come, her needles flew so fast, and she used to recite to him,--

"A was an archer, and shot at a frog; B was a butcher, and had a great dog."

Then when he was tired of sitting with her and mamma, he could run out-of-doors and play.

But he found it was different to-day from what it had been before. He was still weak from his illness, and after she had told him all the verses that she knew, he grew weary of hearing her talk of Cousin George's wife, and Mrs. Appleby's rheumatism.

His mother saw that he was growing restless and that his cheeks were flushed, so she asked Aunt Mariah to come over to her room to look at some calico she had been buying.

When they had gone Teddy lay for a time enjoying the silence of the room, but after a while it began to seem too still and the clock ticked with a strange loud sound. He wished Aunt Mariah would go away and let mamma come back again. It was so lonely, and he was tired of his books.

He was lying on his back, and presently he drew up his knees, and then over the tops of them he could only see the upper half of the window, and the tips of the pine-trees against the still blue sky outside.

"Oh dear, dear, dear!" said the Counterpane Fairy's voice just behind the hill. "Steeper than ever to-day. Will I ever get to the top?" A minute after he saw her little figure standing on the hill, dark against the sky, and the staff in her hand like a thin black line.

"Oh, dear Counterpane Fairy!" cried Teddy, "have you come to show me another story?"

"Are you sure you want to see one?" asked the Counterpane Fairy.

"Oh, yes, yes, I do!" cried Teddy. "Your stories don't make me feel tired the way Aunt Mariah's do."

The fairy shook her head. "I thought her stories were very pleasant,"

she said.