Part 13 (1/2)

”Why, to march and drill and look pretty, of course,” answered the Queen. ”I thought everyone loved to see soldiers march.”

”I suppose they do,” said the girl.

”No one should wish to hurt such brightly dressed creatures,”

continued her Majesty, ”nor should a soldier wish to harm anyone else.”

”Yet the wooden Captain at the gate threatened to stick his sword into us,” declared the child.

”That's different,” replied the Queen. ”The wooden soldiers are guardians of the Valley, and it is their duty to threaten and scare folks. But had the Captain really hurt you with his sword, I should have had the quarrelsome fellow chopped into kindling wood. He's quite dry and would burn nicely.”

They sat for some time watching the pewter soldiers drill, and finally the entire army marched away again. When they had gone, the little village seemed as silent and deserted as it had been before.

CHAPTER 12 Prince Tot and Princess Dot

”Now,” said the Queen, ”you must come to my throne room and be adopted.”

So she led the way and they followed her to a beautiful apartment, large and grand, with high ceilings set with precious stones. In the middle of the room stood the Queen's magnificent throne.

Seating herself among the cus.h.i.+ons of the throne, her Majesty touched a bell which brought Scollops running in.

”Send to me all the people of my household, as quickly as possible,”

commanded the Queen of Merryland. ”I am about to perform an important ceremony, and they must all witness my act.”

Scollops bowed and retired, and the Wax Doll turned to Dot and Tot and remarked, ”I've never adopted anyone before so I don't know exactly the form of ceremony I ought to employ; but I shall do the best I can, and that ought to be satisfactory to you.”

”Oh, yes,” said Dot. ”I suppose so.”

”Does it hurt?” asked Tot.

”Does what hurt?”

”To be 'dopted.”

”I hope not,” said the little Queen; ”I shall try to be as gentle as possible.”

The members of the household now entered the room and the children found there were a good many of them. All were dolls of some sort; but Dot noticed the Queen was the only wax doll in the Valley, so far as she had seen. Among the household servants the cooks were black dolls, the chambermaids were china dolls, and the others seemed mostly made of wood, although there was one elderly doll that was clearly papier-mache. These knelt down in a circle before the Queen and remained in this humble position during the Ceremony of Adoption.

Her Majesty began by making a speech, in which she told how the strangers had been carried by accident into Merryland.

”It was not their fault,” she said, ”but when I consulted my thinking machine I found I must do one of two things--either turn them into dolls by means of my fairy wand, or else adopt them as my children.

They seem so much bigger and prettier than dolls that I have decided to adopt them, so I have called all my people in to witness my act.”

The servants of the household loudly applauded this speech, and one of the chambermaids clapped her hands so earnestly that she broke off one of her little fingers.

”Dot Freeland,” now said the Queen, in a solemn voice, ”kneel down upon my footstool.”

Dot was a little frightened, for never before had she heard the Queen speak in any voice but a laughing one; but she knelt down obediently, and the Queen placed upon her head a small golden crown with four points, each point being tipped with a flas.h.i.+ng gem. Then the Queen said:

Thou art made a Princess now By this crown upon thy brow; All must bow to thy command, Who reside in Merryland; And my daughter thou shalt be, Living long and happily.