The Teddy bears immediately made a rush for the table, falling over each other in their eagerness to get to the chairs, into which they climbed, pulling the napkins out of the rings and confident that a fine meal was awaiting them. Great, therefore, was their dismay, when they were unable to discover the smallest evidence of anything to eat.
This was more amazing than their experience in the library. If people did not eat in the dining-rooms where on earth did they eat?
Bedelia could find no answer for this conundrum propounded by her husband with a tragic gesture. But she was far too hungry to be staggered by conundrums and started on a voyage of discovery, with the result that on the sideboard she espied a silver fruit dish filled with grapes and oranges and a plate filled with biscuits. The grapes they left severely alone as belonging religiously to nurse’s bonnet. But on the oranges and biscuits they feasted until well nigh ready to burst, and finally departed leaving a sorry mess behind them.
Of course they never for a moment thought of turning out the lights, but left them flaring in all the rooms they had visited.
After their hearty meal they were not quite as lively as they had been when hungry and were forced to conduct themselves in a more leisurely manner.
They now decided to mount to the top floor and look into things from the attic down.
Cautiously they toiled up the first flight, for it was a much more difficult task to climb up than it was to hop down from step to step. And at the very top they were confronted by a sight that made them ready to stand on their heads for pure joy.