IT was surprising enough to find that there was any outside, for Sally had fully expected to step down between the doll’s house and the wall. But to find herself on a beautiful country road, flanked on either side by fields of emerald green that stretched away as far as the eye could reach, was far more astonishing still.
On either side of this road stood a row of tall, very stiff, very green trees. They literally stood, for they did not grow out of the ground, but rose out of flat, wooden stands that did not appear more wooden, however, than their shiny, brown trunks. Green and stiff also were the leaves that looked more like curled and painted shavings than anything else. Sally examined them curiously, remembering she had once possessed a toy farm that had contained just such trees as these. She laid her hand against the smooth, glistening trunk, wondering if a brisk breeze would not upset the whole business, and remembering how easily her own farmyard trees had been overturned. These, however, seemed steady enough, and Sally started off at a good pace, determined to investigate the queer country into which she had made so unceremonious an entrance.
As far as she could see, the road stretched ahead of her, glaring white in the noon sunlight, which seemed almost blinding after the subdued light of the doll’s house. Only a moment did she pause to hang the precious golden key upon the string of gold beads that she wore around her neck. Somehow she felt that that dear talisman, the pledge of love between her parents, would be to her a safeguard in time of danger. A sudden fear of losing it assailed her, and she quickly tucked beads and all inside her dress.
Turning for a farewell look at the Walking House, she beheld Bedelia sitting demurely on the doorstep. The door she had closed behind her as she stepped out. Now she jumped up and ran to Sally, who was very much relieved to find the little bear was quite herself again, and slipped her hand affectionately inside Bedelia’s arm. And the two proceeded joyously along the gleaming road.
It was quite warm, for the stiff up-and-down foliage cast little or no shadow, and there was no breeze stirring. Sally was grateful for this as she still felt rather doubtful concerning the stability of the trees. Bedelia, however, expressed it as her opinion that even if one of them did blow over, she and Sally would be well able to stand it up again. But then Bedelia had always been very self-confident.
The two companions trotted along together, stopping occasionally to examine some queer flower or a tree that looked a little different from the common run. Sally noticed that the flowers were all like those that ornamented the windows of Dinah’s kitchen—of crimped and fluted paper, while the little blades of grass appeared to be fashioned from the same material. The whole thing seemed as if it might prove very monotonous, at least if it were going to exist for good and all.
Presently they came to a fine, large field that was fenced in all around, and Sally could not but notice that the fences were all wonderfully like those that had belonged to her own farmyard. In the field were grazing a number of beautiful, placid looking cows and also a good many sheep and goats. They were all wonderfully familiar in appearance. Sally could not understand, although she did later on, why everything she had seen so far suggested either the Noah’s Ark or the farmyard. Both of them had long since been relegated to the dust-bin, defaced and broken beyond any kind of usefulness.
And then Sally spied not very far ahead of them a sign post, which, when they came up to it, exclaimed in a most affable manner, “Five miles to the Palace!” and gently waved one of its arms toward the cross road, on the edge of which it stood.