But still they came, from north, east, and west. Many of them were in motor-cars, others were packed into wooden carts, the babies were being wheeled in prams, and many were walking. Some way off Peggy saw a troop of lead soldiers riding down to the shore on black horses, and they looked very fine with the sun shining on their helmets and breastplates.
Lady Grace shaded her eyes and looked at them, too, and Wooden said to her, “Lady Grace, I believe that is Colonel Jim’s regiment.”
Teddy turned round and grinned at them, and said, “What ho, girls!”
Wooden said sharply, “Now behave, Teddy, and don’t let’s have any byplay.”
They all embarked in the toy steamer, and Peggy was pleased to find her own sailor doll acting as captain of it. Very well he did it, too, standing on the bridge and shouting his orders down a tube, while the steamer was loosed from the quay and started off at a splendid pace, making a hundred knots an hour across the blue calm water.
It was a delightful voyage, pleasanter even than the motor drive had been. The sun was shining so brightly, and every one seemed so pleased to be going to Toyland. They could hear the dolls laughing and singing from the other boats, which were all round them. On one of them was a toy piano with five notes, on which a gentleman doll with long hair was playing a tune so difficult that you would never have thought it possible if you had not heard him.
Wooden’s mother and aunt went forward and stood in the bows of the boat as she drove across the sea. They sniffed the salt breeze with rapture, and their brightly-coloured faces glistened in the sunshine. “This,” said Wooden’s mother, “is Life!” And Wooden’s aunt enjoyed it so much that until they came to the other side she said nothing vulgar or common.
But the moment the steamer began to move, although the water was as smooth as it could possibly be, Teddy became as green as pea soup and rushed downstairs to the cabin.
“He’s always like that, poor fellow,” said Wooden. “I suppose it comes from being a bear. He will be all right when we get to the other side.”