the royal quay was a great open space carpeted with red felt, and decorated with palms and flowers. wooden soldiers were standing all round the square, and inside it was a royal carriage with six wooden horses, and servants in scarlet liveries. a little troop of lead soldiers on black horses was drawn up by the carriage, and looked very gallant with their scarlet tunics, silver breastplates and helmets and waving plumes. lady grace blushed when she saw that the head of the troop was colonel jim, and said to peggy, “the rather nice-looking officer is a friend of mine, dear. i will introduce him to you when i get an opportunity.”
behind the wooden soldiers was a great crowd of dolls, all cheering themselves hoarse as the royal ark was being tied up by the quay, and the bridge was being run out. peggy noticed that there were no wax dolls among them, and rather wondered at this, but had not time to ask about it in the excitement of the moment.
[pg 61]
just by the landing stage was a little group of gentlemen dolls. the most important person in it was an old gentleman doll of patriarchal aspect. he had no beard, but his head was completely bald, and he was dressed in a long gown of black velvet. as soon as the bridge between the quay and the ark was put into position, he came forward with his party on to the platform of the ark, and bowed low before wooden, who happened to be standing a little in front of the rest.
“welcome, your majesty,” he said, “to the capital of your kingdom of toyland. i will explain why i thus address you later.”
wooden was quite taken back, and could only stammer out, “but mr.—mr.—i don’t know your name, but——”
“my name is norval,” said the old gentleman doll. “and i am the lord chancellor of your majesty’s kingdom.”
“but why do you call me your majesty, mr. norval?” asked wooden.
“lord norval, at your majesty’s pleasure,” corrected the lord chancellor. “i address you as a queen because king selim, successor to our late lamented queen rosebud, has intimated his intention of marrying you, and in these matters i feel that one cannot[pg 62] begin too soon. besides, it is his majesty’s pleasure that you should be paid every possible honour, as his highly respected bride to be.”
“but lord noodle!” stammered wooden, getting his name a little wrong in her perplexity, “this gentleman said that it was my aunt here that the king wanted to marry.”
she indicated the dutch doll, and the lord chancellor looked at him in anger. “did you say that?” he asked.
wooden’s aunt broke in before the dutch doll could speak. “yes, he did say it,” she said. “and i ain’t going to give up my selim for nobody. him and me has always been friendly like, and i wasn’t a bit surprised to hear he wanted to marry me. why should he want to marry a young thing like wooden, i should like to know? why she’s like a kid beside of him! it’s me that’s going to be queen, not her.”
“captain cook,” said the lord chancellor to a lead soldier of his party, “arrest this dutchman for telling a lie, and arrest this woman for telling another.”
“what, me!” cried wooden’s aunt. “how dare you accuse me of telling a lie, you old creature with a head like an egg? how dare you? what lie have i told?”
[pg 63]
“arrest her again for insulting the lord chancellor,” said lord norval. “you said you were going to be queen, and that’s a lie. king selim wouldn’t look at you. he has confided to me that he has been in love with—with—i suppose i had better say princess wooden, for some time, and has reason to believe that she is not indifferent to him.”
“well, he has looked at me sometimes,” said wooden, “but i’m sure i never gave him any encouragement. i don’t like him very much, lord noodle. he’s a foreigner, you see, and i don’t like foreigners. couldn’t it be arranged for him to marry my aunt, as she’s ready for him! i’d rather it was her than me.”
the lord chancellor looked muddled. “i couldn’t say anything without consulting his majesty,” he said. “he might consent; but then again he might not. the best way will be for us all to go up to the palace, as already ordered, and ask him. i am sorry your aunt will have to appear there under arrest, but as she has committed a crime, or rather two crimes, that can’t be helped.”
the situation was certainly awkward. nobody quite seemed to know what to do about it. but peggy, who had been listening with great interest to what had been said, ventured to make a suggestion. “if wooden’s[pg 64] aunt does marry the king,” she said, “then she wouldn’t have told a story, would she?”
everybody brightened up, and the lord chancellor said, “that is one of the cleverest things i ever heard said. but who is this ingenious and attractive-looking young lady, may i ask?”
wooden explained to him who peggy was, and he bowed low to her, and said he was proud to make her acquaintance. “well, after what you have pointed out,” he said, “i have no difficulty in unarresting this lady for telling a lie. but she has also insulted a high official. she said that my head was like an egg. it may be or it may not be, but nobody could say that it was a polite thing to point out.”
he looked at peggy as if he expected her to make another suggestion, and would not be sorry if she made it.
peggy could think of nothing better to say than, “i like eggs myself, especially if they are new-laid.”
the lord chancellor caught at this instantly. “did you have a new-laid egg in your mind when you referred to my head, madam?” he asked of wooden’s aunt.
wooden’s aunt, who was looking much more subdued than usual, standing by the officer who had arrested[pg 65] her, said, “well, there’s one thing i never would do, and that’s tell a lie. i can’t rightly say that i had a new-laid egg in my mind, because i won’t deceive you, i don’t know where my mind is. i went to sea early, and never had much schooling, and never learnt no physiognomy. there may be a new-laid egg in my mind, or there may not. i wouldn’t like to say.”
“what i would suggest to you, madam,” said the lord chancellor, “is that in likening my head to an egg you didn’t mean an old-laid egg, or an addled egg, or a bad egg, or anything of that sort. if it is like an egg at all, it was a fresh egg you meant.”
“oh, lawks, yes,” said wooden’s aunt. “i’d never be one for insulting a gentleman. i know what’s due to myself and my family better.”
“then that is quite enough for me,” said the lord chancellor, evidently greatly relieved. “captain cook, unarrest this lady completely.”
“and the dutch doll, too,” said peggy, pleased at having succeeded so well.
“and the dutch doll, too, of course, captain cook,” said the lord chancellor. “and my advice to you, sir, is to make yourself scarce. you have had a narrow escape, and let it be a lesson to you.”
the dutch doll, whose knees had been knocking together[pg 66] with fright, picked up the skirts of mr. noah’s second-best yellow robe, and ran away as fast as he could. he poked in between two of the wooden soldiers[pg 67] guarding the quay, and was lost in the crowd. but he was an honest doll, for the next morning mr. noah received back his second-best robe by parcel’s post, with a note of thanks, which he could not read, as it was written in double-dutch.
the party was now ready to land and get into the royal carriage, but just as they had stepped off on to the red carpet on the quay, the lord chancellor’s eyes fell upon lady grace, whom he seemed not to have noticed before.
his face darkened, and he said, “why, what is this? a wax doll at large, after the royal proclamation that all waxes are to be imprisoned! captain cook, do your duty instantly.”
captain cook stepped forward to arrest lady grace, who shrank away from him, while wooden and her mother and aunt began to protest volubly against such an outrage, for they were all friendly to lady grace, who had always treated them with perfect politeness.
peggy felt dreadfully frightened at the moment at all the hubbub, and at the idea of poor lady grace being taken off to prison; but just as she was trying to think what she could do to stop it there was an unexpected diversion. colonel jim, the officer in charge of the lifeguards standing by the royal carriage, rode[pg 68] forward with a clatter of harness and accoutrements, and said in a loud voice, “unhand that lady!”
there was a moment’s pause. then the lord chancellor said, “colonel jim, you are taking a great deal upon yourself. you know what the royal proclamation was. all waxes are to be arrested and sent to prison.”
“what for?” asked colonel jim, with soldierly brevity.
“the general charge against them,” said the lord chancellor, “is giving themselves airs.”
“has lady grace ever given herself airs?” asked colonel jim.
“no, that she never has,” said wooden’s mother indignantly. “i will say this for her, wax or no wax, that a nicer-spoken or nicer-behaved lady never stept.”
“and she was a great favourite of queen rosebud’s, besides,” said wooden. “she thought the world of her.”
and even wooden’s aunt showed up well in the emergency. “if i’m to be queen,” she said, “i shall have lady grace as my own lady-in-waiting. she shall put in my hairpins for me, which i never could do rightly myself. and how’s she to do that if she’s in prison?”
colonel jim rode back to his troop without saying[pg 69] another word. but his interference had been successful, for the lord chancellor said, “under the circumstances, i will not have lady grace arrested now. she can come with us to the palace, and we will see what the king has to say about it.”
then wooden and her mother and aunt, and lady grace and peggy got into the royal carriage, and the lord chancellor and his suite got into two other carriages. colonel jim and his life guardsmen formed themselves on either side, and with a clash and a glitter, the little procession started. the wooden soldiers all presented arms, and made a way through for them, and they drove off the quay and into the streets of dolltown.
peggy had been rather surprised that the dolls had not shown more grief at the sudden death of the queen, though all of them had certainly spoken very nicely about it when the news had first come to them, and were evidently sorry that she had died. but she now began to understand that dolls do not take things in quite the same way as human beings. for one thing, there were no signs of mourning in the streets, but on the other hand there were flags on some of the houses, and all the people seemed to be out of doors watching for the royal procession, and when it appeared they[pg 70] cheered heartily, and seemed as happy and pleased as possible. this was all the more remarkable because, if what the lord chancellor had said was true, which of course it was, as he would never have told a lie, all the wax dolls in the place had already been sent off to prison, and you might have thought that that would have sobered the rest. but even the four dolls in the carriage seemed to have forgotten it, and also the unpleasant episode of lady grace nearly being taken off to prison, too. they were all anxious to point out to peggy the interesting sights to be seen on either side of them, and had nothing to say about anything else, not even about what might happen when they arrived at the royal palace. and as they seemed able to forget everything but the pleasure and interest of the moment, peggy was able to do so, too.
what she saw of dolltown enchanted her. it was like all the toys she had ever had, and her friends had had, and she had seen in shop-windows, all become real, and not only that, but of a size to be used. all little girls know what it is to wish that they could sometimes live in their own dolls’ houses, especially in the big ones, where there are staircases that they could go up and down if only they were of the right size, and all sorts of nice furniture, and dinner-sets and tea-sets,[pg 71] and other things which they would like to use themselves and not always be making believe with. well, in dolltown, and in fact in the whole of toyland, there was no making believe. everything was as real as real, even the smallest things for the smallest dolls. peggy could have used everything she saw herself, and it was really quite thrilling and delightful to feel that she could pretend to be a doll if she wanted to, and have all the fun for herself that little girls give to their dolls.
just outside the royal quay was a large station, with platforms and signal boxes and bridges and lines of rails all complete, and a train waiting there with a bright green clockwork engine, ready to go off into the country. one of peggy’s boy cousins had collected a splendid railway plant—his relations always gave him things for it at christmas and on his birthdays—and peggy had often wished she could go for a ride in it all round his playroom floor, and be shunted and go under the little tunnels, and stop at the stations, just as the tin soldiers he put into the carriages did. well, it would be just as much fun going in this railway system, and she could get into the toy carriages just as easily as her cousin’s tin soldiers.
they crossed over the river on one of those suspension[pg 72] bridges that you see in shop-windows, and then climbed a hill into the town. at the beginning of the hill was a large toy fort, crammed with tin soldiers, who were looking over the parapet and cheering them as they passed.
then they went through a street of shops, and the joints of meat hanging in the butchers’ shops, and the fish lying on the slabs of the fishmongers’ shops, and the stores in the grocery shops were all real; and specially attractive were the highly-coloured fruits.
as for the shops where they sold the baby-clothes, they were too delightful. but the first one they passed brought a most disturbing thought to peggy. she turned to wooden and said, “oh, wooden, dear, where are all the long-clothes babies! surely they haven’t been cruel enough to send them to prison, too!”
“oh, no, dear,” said wooden decidedly. “nobody is cruel in toyland.”
peggy did not feel quite so sure of that, considering that lady grace had nearly been sent to prison already for being wax; and of course most long-clothes babies are wax, or composition. “then where are they!” she asked.
“they are all having their morning sleep, dear,” said wooden’s mother, and peggy had to be content.
[pg 73]
when they reached the more important streets of dolltown, most of the houses were built of wooden or terra-cotta bricks, and very fine some of them were. but this part of the town was rather silent and deserted, for the owners of most of the fine houses were wax, and they had all been taken off to prison.
at last they reached the royal palace. it was a most gorgeous building, built of ivory, with windows made of enormous diamonds and rubies and emeralds and sapphires, all glittering in the sun.
the carriages drew up underneath an ivory porch. the lord chancellor was at the door of the royal one as soon as it was opened. “i will conduct you straight to his majesty,” he said.
