The Wonderful Bed Part 9

They were all three ashamed to speak to her, and especially Rudolf who remembered only too clearly all the unkind things he had said about the corn-cob doll, and how very, very near he had come to roasting her over the nursery fire! Whatever would happen, thought he, if any of her subjects who seemed to stand in such awe of her, should find out that attempt on their Queen's life? Captain Jinks would probably think imprisonment on bread and water entirely too good for him, probably it would be slow torture.

"Answer her majesty," muttered the captain in his ear, "or I'll have your head cut off!"

Still Rudolf, blushing fiery red, and not knowing what to say, continued to stare down at his toes. Peter put his thumb in his mouth, Ann hung down her head; neither of them was any better off.

The little tin captain stepped eagerly forward. "Shall I give orders to prepare for the execution, your Majesty?" he began, in a voice full of pleased excitement. "These suspicious persons are already under arrest. They would furnish very excellent targets for the artillery practise? If it should please your Majesty to offer a prize for the best shot? Or, if your Majesty is in a _hurry_, now, a nice dip in boiling oil would finish them off very neatly!"

"Be quiet, Jinks," said the Queen frowning. "You talk so much I can't think. If it wasn't for those tiresome revolutions in my capital city, I believe I'd banish you. Let me see, how many of them have you suppressed for me?"

"Exactly twelve, your Majesty," answered Jinks with a low bow, "and I beg to announce that we are at this moment on the brink of the thirteenth--baker's dozen, your Majesty."

"Oh, it's the baker this time, is it?" asked the Queen with a sigh.

"What's the matter with _him_, Jinks?"

"Same old trouble, your Majesty. Your court, those doll ladies in particular, have become so haughty--"

"Naughty, you mean, Jinks," corrected the Queen.

"So haughty _and_ naughty, your Majesty, that they've absolutely refused to eat their crusts. Did anybody, I ask your Majesty, ever hear the likes of that?"

There was a moment's silence. The Queen shook her head. The children tried to appear at their ease, but they were not. Ann looked particularly uncomfortable. She was not fond of her crusts.

"Well, go on, Jinks, what else?" said the Queen.

"Well, your Majesty, this keeps the baker busy day and night baking 'em bread, not to speak of the cakes and pies, and he says he feels he hadn't orter stand it any longer. He's going to strike. As for the populace, your Majesty, they only get the stale loaves or none at all, and they're wild, your Majesty, very wild indeed."

"I suppose they are, Jinks," sighed the Queen.

"And the worst of it is, your Majesty, we're very short of soldiers.

The Commander-in-Chief"--both Jinks and the sergeant drew themselves up and saluted at the name--"has taken a whole company to the seaboard for to repel the cat pirates, and very fierce them pirates are, I've heard tell. We may have to send him reinforcements at any time."

"The Commander-in-Chief, Jinks," said the Queen haughtily, "is a great general. He will manage the pirates and the baker, too, if you can't do it. And if the worst should come to the worst before he gets back, why I'll just abdicate, that's all, and the baker can be king and much good may it do him." She turned to the children and smiled at them.

"Now," she said, "you shall come with me and I will show you where I used to live before I was a Queen."

The corn-cob doll waved her hand, gave an order, and immediately the carriage in which sat Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida was turned and driven back to where the children stood.

"These ladies will enjoy a walk," said the Queen.

Very sulkily the two elegant doll-ladies got out of their carriage, not daring to disobey, and pa.s.sed by Ann, noses in the air, without so much as a nod.

"Never mind them, dears," said the Queen kindly. "They don't know any better. Now jump in!"

The children obeyed, hardly able to believe in their good luck, and in another moment, much to the surprise and indignation of Captain Jinks, they were rolling away from him, the Queen riding close beside their carriage.

"You are safe now," said she, "at least until the revolution begins.

If Jinks should fire his cannon, that's a sign it's starting, but don't worry"--as she saw that the children were looking rather alarmed--"I dare say it will blow over without a battle. And now I want you to look about you, for I don't think you have ever seen anything like this before."

They had not indeed, and as their shyness wore off, the children began to ask the Queen a great many questions. Was this her capital city they were coming to? Were those the stores where all the dolls'

clothes in the world came from? Was it real water in the little fountain playing in the middle of the square? All this time they were being carried swiftly through the streets of the neatest, prettiest, little, toy town any one could wish to see. Both sides of the main street were lined with little shops, and as the children leaned out of the carriage for a brief glimpse into their glittering windows, they saw sights that made them long to stop and look more closely.

There were clothing shops, shoe shops, candy shops, a very grand-looking milliner's establishment where the children were amused to catch a glimpse of Angelina-Elfrida and Marie-Louise trying on hats, and a gaily decorated doll theater where a crowd of dolls were pushing their way in to see a Punch and Judy show. There were markets where busy customers thronged to buy all sorts and kinds of doll eatables, turkeys and chickens the size of sparrows and humming-birds, yellow pumpkins as big as walnuts, red-cheeked apples like cranberries, cabbages fully as large as the end of your thumb, and freshly baked pies as big around as a penny.

Peter's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he pa.s.sed all these good things without hope of sampling any of them! The last shop they pa.s.sed was that of the royal baker, and they noticed that its windows were boarded up, while a crowd of common dolls stood about in front of the door, muttering angrily.

But now the business part of the town was left behind, and the children were being driven through street after street of gaily painted, neatly built, little houses with gardens full of tiny bright-colored flowers, stables, garages--everything complete that the heart of the most exacting doll in the world could desire. Ann and Peter were quite wild about it all, and even Rudolf condescended to admire. Now the houses were left behind and they entered a little park, where tiny artificial lakes glittered and stiff little trees were set about on the bright green gra.s.s. In the center of this park stood the doll palace. It was pure white, finished in gold, and had real gla.s.s windows in it, and white marble steps leading up to it, and high gilded gates where a guard of soldiers turned out to present arms, and a band was beginning to play. The rest of the procession turned in at the gates of the palace, but rather to the children's disappointment, the Queen gave their coachman orders to drive on.

"You may see my palace afterward, if we have time," she said, "but I want to take you first of all to see my dear old home where I used to live when I was a girl, when the little mother took care of me."

The children looked at one another. Then Peter said boldly: "Was that when you were Aunt Jane's doll? You weren't a Queen _then_, were you?"

"No, indeed," answered her majesty, smiling. "I was just an ugly little doll, the happiest, best-loved little doll in all the world, and with the dearest little mother. But here we are, and you shall see for yourself what a snug home I had."

The old doll house looked neat enough from the outside, to be sure, but I am afraid if the children had run across it in the attic at Aunt Jane's they would have taken it for a couple of large packing-boxes set one upon the other. Once inside, however, they forgot how impatient they had been to see the palace and its gorgeous furnishings, they were so interested and amused by the homely furnishings and neat little arrangements so proudly displayed to them by the Corn-cob Queen.

She led the children through one room after another, explaining each thing as they pa.s.sed it. Those little muslin curtains at the windows, the little mother had hemmed them all herself. It was she who had made that wonderful cradle out of cardboard, with sheets from a pair of grandfather's old pocket-handkerchiefs, she who had pieced that tiniest of tiny patchwork quilts! In the kitchen that neat set of pots and pans made from acorns and the sh.e.l.ls of walnuts was the work of her hands, a.s.sisted, perhaps, by the penknife of a certain little boy.

That blue and white tea-set on the pantry shelves--the children recognized it at once as having come out of the sandal-wood box--why it was almost worn out from the number of cups of tea the old doll and her little mother had taken together in the good old days!

"It's just the dearest little house in the world," sighed Ann, when, after having seen and admired everything to their heart's content, they took their places in the carriage again, "and we don't wonder you love it! The things that come straight from the toy shops are not really half so nice as the things you fix yourself--we understand now.

But I suppose," she added thoughtfully, "you find it much grander being a Queen?"

"Grander, perhaps," sighed the corn-cob doll, "but a great deal more of a nuisance. However--"

Just then the pop of a toy cannon interrupted the Queen's speech. They had driven back almost to the palace, and could see a crowd of common dolls of all kinds and sizes gathering on the green in front of the gilded gates. At the same moment a troop of soldiers, headed by the little tin captain, came running from the direction of the town evidently with the intention of putting a stop to the disturbance.

"The revolution," said the Queen calmly, "just as I expected. Now I am afraid I shall have to send you out of town."

"But why?" Rudolf began in his arguing voice. "We don't _want_ to go.

We want to stay and fight on your side, and I'm sure we'd be very useful! Why I'd just as lief command your army as not, and--"

"Thank you very much," said the Corn-cob Queen, "but what would Captain Jinks say to that? He is in command, you know. And if he _should_ fail me, why the Commander-in-Chief will soon be back from capturing the cat pirates."

"Who is this fellow you call the Commander-in-Chief, anyway?" Rudolf interrupted crossly.

The Queen looked him straight in the eye. "I hope," she said, "that you may all be allowed to see him some day, if you are good. He is a _great_ soldier. He never sulks, and always obeys without asking questions. That is more than some little boys do." Rudolf hung his head, and the Queen added hastily: "But now I see that Captain Jinks and the baker are going to hold a conference. I must go and join them.

Your coachman will drive you out of town the back way. Now where would you like to go?"

"Back to our Aunt Jane, please," said Ann quickly. "Can you tell us the way?"

"No," said the Queen, "I mustn't, but I have a friend who is a dream-keeper just over the border, and I think he may be able to help you. I'll tell the coachman to drive you there. Now good-by!"

"Good-by, good-by!" called the children. The coachman touched up the horses, they were whirled away in a cloud of dust through which they looked back regretfully at the queenly figure on the little wooden horse who waved her hand again and again in kindly farewell. They saw her joined by Captain Jinks and by a stout person in a white cap and ap.r.o.n who handed the Queen what seemed to be some kind of doc.u.ment printed upon a large sheet of pie crust.

"That was the Baker, I guess," said Rudolf, "and I dare say what he was handing her was the declaration of war! Oh, what a shame it is we are going to miss all the fun!"

"And the refreshments," sighed Peter. "We _always_ do! I never did taste a declarashun of war, but it looked awful good. The very next time I see one, I'm going to--"

But what Peter was going to do Ann and Rudolf did not hear, for at that moment they were all three nearly spilled out of the little carriage by the furious rate at which their driver turned a corner.

They had left the dolls' city far behind them and were out on the long brown road that led past the little tent where the children had been arrested by Jinks and the sergeant. Now they were out in the open country hurrying past the wonderful bright-colored plains, past fields of pink and purple, blue and green and yellow, white and scarlet, faster and faster all the time, the horses rushing along with such curious irregular jerks and bounds that it was almost impossible for the children to keep their seats, and they expected at each moment to be dumped in the middle of the road.