Dot and Tot of Merryland
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"Let's take some!" cried Tot.
"No, indeed," said Dot, "if we took them they wouldn't be lost any more."
"Won't they ever be found?" asked the boy.
"I think not," replied the Queen. "No one has ever been here but you, and probably no stranger will ever come to this Valley again."
"It's all right for us to come," declared Tot.
"Why?" enquired the girl.
'"Cause we're lost, too!"
"So we are, Tot," said Dot, rather sadly; "but lost people are usually found again, for I don't see any others here."
They walked a little farther on and saw a mass of broken toys lying scattered about. There were dollies, too, for suddenly Tot made a pounce and grabbed up a sorry looking doll with one arm broken, one eye out and a scratched and battered face.
"I've found her!" he cried, joyfully; "I've found Jane! An' I'm going to keep her, too."
"Is it really your doll?" asked the Queen, with some curiosity.
"Course it is," replied Tot; "I lost her."
"Then I do not see why you should not keep her with you; for, being found, she doesn't belong here any more."
"Course not," said the boy, hugging the broken doll in his arms.
"There are a good many gloves and handkerchiefs lost," remarked Dot, looking at the heaps lying around.
"Yes," replied the Queen; "and over at the further side of the Valley are many piles of pocket-books, each pile as big as a haystack. People are so careless with pocketbooks."
"Have they money in them?" asked the girl.
"Some have a great deal of money inside them, and some only a few pennies. Others are stuffed with cards and samples and papers," said the Queen. "I would take you to look at them, but we should have to climb over a hill of lost needles, and I fear our overshoes would not protect us from their sharp points."
"It's always hard to get at money," said Tot, with a sigh.
Among other things lying near her Dot now noticed a hurdy-gurdy, such as she had seen musicians carrying around the streets. There was no monkey with it, and it looked quite old and battered.
"I wonder how long it has been here, she remarked, thoughtfully.
"Play it, and see," suggested the Queen.
So Dot set the hurdy-gurdy up straight and turned the crank, when it began playing in a jerky and wheezy manner a tune called "Silver Threads Among the Gold."
"My! But that's an old tune," said Dot.
"It's rather pretty," declared the Queen, who had never heard the air before. "Play another."
This time the tune was "Little Annie Rooney," and then followed "Captain Jinks" and "Two Little Girls in Blue."
"I guess this hurdy-gurdy was lost before I was born," sighed Dot. "It's certainly very old."
CHAPTER XIX. – The Lost Crowns
Well, shall we return to the boat?" asked the Queen, when they had looked at the lost things a while longer.
"Yes," they answered willingly, for the Valley was a rather sad sight.
So they walked back to the bank, where they took off their overshoes and threw them upon the pile. Then they went down the sloping bank to the river and sat down upon the sand to rest.
"I'm hungry," said Tot.
"I forgot to bring anything to eat," answered the Queen. "But that will not matter. Fetch me your basket from the boat."
Dot brought it to the little lady, who simply waved her fairy wand over it and said:
"Now we shall have a good dinner."
The girl removed the cover and found that the big basket was filled to the brim with dainties of all kinds.
"That's nice," said Tot. "Were all those things in the end of your stick?"
"No one has ever yet discovered," answered the Queen, "how fairies are able to do such wonderful things. In fact, fairies could not explain them clearly if they wished to. So it is best not to ask questions, but to eat freely of these good things and be thankful my magic wand was able to fill the basket."
"All right," said Tot.
Although they enjoyed their dinner, the little party seemed to be unusually silent and thoughtful, and finally Dot asked:
"What shall we do next? We have seen all of the Seven Valleys now."
"When we have finished our dinner we will return to my palace in the Fourth Valley," replied the Queen, gaily.
A long pause followed this remark, and it was broken by Tot saying in a loud and decided voice:
"I want to go home!"
The Queen looked up quickly, with an anxious expression upon her face, and asked, "Do you really?"
"Yes. I want to see my mamma!" declared the boy.
"And leave this beautiful country, where you are a Prince?"
"Yes," said Tot decidedly.
"You surprise me, indeed," said the Queen, "and I am rather disappointed that you are not content to remain in my kingdom." Then she turned to Dot, and enquired: "Do you also wish to return to your home?"
"Well," replied the girl, "I love these beautiful Valleys dearly, and never expect to be as happy again as I have been here. But if Tot goes home of course I must go with him, for his mother left him in my care, you know."
"I am very sorry," said the Queen, after another long pause; "I had hoped to keep you with me always. But in my Kingdom of Merryland no one must be unhappy – it is the law. And if you really wish to return home it would make you unhappy to stay. So," she added, quietly, "you may go whenever you wish."
"How?" asked Tot, excited at the prospect.
"In your boat, of course. You have only to float down the river and through another tunnel to reach the big outside world again. But when you have passed through I shall close up the tunnel forever, so you will never be able to return."
"That's all right," returned Tot, gleefully.
"I shall be sorry never to see you again," said Dot, gently, as she clasped one of the fairy doll's pretty hands in her own. "You have been so kind to us, and I'm sure Tot is as grateful as I am. But he's a boy, you know."
"I know," said the Queen, with a smile.
"Let's go now," urged Tot, as if he couldn't wait a minute, now the matter was decided.
"How can you get to the Fourth Valley if we take the boat?" Dot asked the Queen.
"That will be easy," she answered, pleasantly; "my fairy wand will carry me home."
"Come on, then!" cried Tot, leaping into the boat.
Dot turned to kiss the pretty Queen, who exclaimed: "Be careful of my wax!"
But she stood on her tiptoes and gave the little girl a dainty, airy kiss that just brushed her lips.
"Good-bye my Princess," she said, and turning to the boy, added:
"Good-bye, Prince Tot of Merryland."
"Good-bye," called Tot from the boat. "You're nice, an' I love you. But I love my mamma, too."
"To be sure," answered the Queen, sweetly.
Dot now stepped in beside Tot, and the fairy doll placed the basket in the boat and pushed it away from the shore.
As they floated slowly down the stream the Queen followed along the top of the high bank, as if to keep them in sight as long as possible; and Dot was looking at her almost regretfully when suddenly a thought flashed into her mind. She stood up in the boat and called out:
"You've never told us your name!"
"Haven't I, really?" asked the Queen, as if greatly surprised.
"No," said Dot. "I want to know what it is."
"So do I," yelled Tot, standing up beside the girl and steadying himself by her arm.
"Certainly. I'll tell you now," cried the Queen, still running along the bank. But scarcely had she spoken when she threw up both her hands and screamed:
"Look out for the arch!"
Dot and Tot both turned around to look, but they were too late. A low, gloomy archway was just before them, and as the boat glided into it, the jagged rocks of the roof caught the children and threw them flat upon the bottom of the boat.
In falling, both the pretty gold crowns were knocked from their heads and fell splashing into the dark waters of the river, where they were lost forever.
Dot and Tot lay quite still for a time, while the light in the tunnel turned to twilight, and the twilight turned to utter darkness.
Suddenly they heard a great crash, with the sound of falling rocks and the splashing of water. The boat rocked with a little shiver, but neither of the children spoke, for they knew the Queen had kept her promise and closed up the archway behind them.
Finally Tot whispered, "I've got her yet."
"Who?" asked Dot.
"Jane."
The girl did not reply. She was rubbing her head where the roof had struck it and thinking earnestly of the wonderful country she had just left. Tot might, in time, forget his visit to Merryland, but Dot never would.
"It's goin' to be as long as the first tun'l, Dot," said the boy; and then he curled himself up and fell asleep, while the boat glided swiftly through the dark tunnel, and no sound broke the stillness save the soft rippling of the unseen waters.
CHAPTER XX. – The Voyage Ends
Suddenly Dot, who had also fallen asleep, awoke with a start.
The sun was just sinking in the west, and the boat had left the tunnel while they slept and was slowly floating down the middle of a big river.
The girl at once awakened Tot and they looked carefully along both sides of the river to see if they could find the place where they had come out of the tunnel. But nothing could be seen except a line of low trees growing close down to the water.
"It doesn't make any difference, anyway," said the girl; "for the Queen has closed up the end of the tunnel."
"Where are we?" asked Tot.
"I don't exactly know. But this looks very much like the river that flows past Roselawn."
"Yes!" cried the boy, nodding his head, "I 'member those trees."
"Then," rejoined Dot, slowly, "I think I know how it happened. The Valleys of Merryland are not in a straight line, but lie in the form of a half circle; so in passing through them we have come upon the same river again, only higher up the stream. We'll soon be opposite Roselawn, Tot."
The boy was staring at the bank and did not answer at once. But as the boat swept around a bend in the river he cried:
"Look!" and pointed with his finger to the shore.
Before them were the green banks of Roselawn, and someone had already seen the children, for a boat pushed out from the shore and came rapidly toward them.
A few minutes afterward Dot was closely clasped in her father's arms, while Tot was rapturously kissing the bearded face of Thompson the gardener.
"How do you happen to be at Roselawn, Papa?" Dot asked.
"Miss Bombien telegraphed me you were lost, so I came by the first train and have been searching everywhere for you. Thompson and I had both nearly despaired, for we feared our little ones had been drowned."
"Oh, no," said Dot, "we've only been on a trip to Merryland. But I'll tell you the whole story when we get home."
Mr. Freeland noticed his daughter's round, plump cheeks, slightly sunburned, but with a fresh, rosy tint showing through the skin, and saw how her eyes sparkled and danced with health. Very gratefully he pressed her again to his heart and whispered:
"Wherever you may have been, my darling, the change has restored your health, and that repays me for all my anxiety."
***As they walked up the white-graveled paths of Roselawn, Dot skipped happily along by her father's side, while Tot held fast to the gardener's big finger with one hand and carried Jane in the other.
Soon they came to the place where the path branched off to the gap in the hedge beyond which Tot lived, and he called out, "Good-bye, Dot."
"Good-bye," answered the girl; "I'll see you tomorrow."
But before she had gone far Tot came running up, calling for her to stop.
"Oh, Dot!" he said, "I know what the Queen's name is!"
"Do you?" she asked eagerly. "Tell me, quick!"
"Why it's Dolly, of course," said Tot.
"Of course!" answered Dot, with a smile. "Funny we never thought of that, isn't it?"