“Yes, dear,” said Wooden. “I like it very much.”
“But if you go to Toyland every night, and it is day there, you never have any real night at all,” said Peggy.
“No, dear,” said Wooden reflectively. “I suppose not.”
When they reached the shore Teddy turned to the right. “Are we going to the Bungalow?” asked Peggy.
“That is where we shall set sail for Toyland,” said Wooden. “And, you know, I have two relations there.”
Peggy could not think what she meant for the moment. Then she remembered the two wooden figure-heads, and asked Wooden if they were her relations. Wooden said they were. One was her mother and one was her aunt. “I’m sure you will like mother, dear,” she said. “Aunt has wonderful high spirits, and doesn’t always behave as she ought, through picking up sailors’ ways. But she says herself she never did no harm to nobody, so we must overlook it.”
It was well that Wooden had given Peggy this warning about her aunt, or Peggy might have been rather surprised at her behaviour when the car drew up before the grass-plot by the Bungalow. The two figure-heads, now full length and moving about freely, were waiting for them, and when she saw them coming Wooden’s aunt gave a loud screech and rushed forward to meet them, but caught her foot on a root of gorse and fell full length in front of the car.
Teddy very cleverly stopped the car at once, or he might have run over her. Then he jumped down and lifted up Wooden’s aunt, who was not hurt at all, but screeched with laughter again. Teddy seized her round the waist and waltzed up and down the grass with her, kicking up his legs and being very silly. Peggy was surprised to see him going on like that, but Wooden’s aunt seemed to enjoy it thoroughly, and when he had finished she sat plump down on the grass, with her legs sticking out in front of her, and simply roared with laughter, and said, “Lawks! you are a one!”
In the meantime Wooden had introduced Peggy to her mother, who was as fresh as paint could make her, but had a weather-beaten look, too, and a husky voice, owing to her having taken so many sea voyages that the fog had got into her throat. She said that she was very pleased to see Peggy, because she had heard a lot about her, and when they got on to the boat they must have a nice long talk.
“Aunt seems in very good spirits today, mother,” said Wooden, looking at her doubtfully as she was being danced about the grass by Teddy. Wooden’s aunt was really being rather common, and Wooden would not like Peggy to think that her relations were common.