Peggy in Toyland

by Archibald Marshall

When Peggy had bathed the baby doll, and dressed it and put it back into its cot, she was taken upstairs again. She found the Woodens and Lady Grace on the balcony, where something interesting was just about to happen.

A Teddy bear had made its appearance in the market-place with an enormous pole, and just as Peggy went out on to the balcony he was balancing it on his head. Then he balanced it on different parts of his body, as he knelt or lay or stooped on the ground. The crowd of dolls who still filled the market-place was absolutely delighted with his performance, and when he shouted out that he would climb up to the top of the pole and balance himself on his head, if somebody would hold it for him, all the gentlemen dolls in the market-place wanted to have the honour of holding the pole for him.

But the Teddy bear said he must choose who should hold the pole himself, and chose out of the crowd four tall wooden dolls with shiny black hats and different coloured robes. Then he looked up at Peggy and the four dolls standing on the balcony of the House of Cards, and waved his paw and made a low bow, and told his four assistants to hold up the pole near the House, so that the ladies could see. The crowd of dolls was pleased at this, for they were sorry for the prisoners, and wanted them to have all the amusement that they could get.

Well, of course you have already understood that the Teddy bear who was so clever at his acrobatic feats was Peggy’s own old Teddy, who had not forgotten her at all, but had evidently chosen this means of getting at them. And the four tall wooden dolls who were helping him were Mr. Noah of the Royal Ark, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. It was rather clever of Teddy to have chosen them out of the crowd, as if he hadn’t known them before. But Teddy was clever, in spite of his flightiness, and faithful, too, as Peggy was very glad to see. She had recognized him at once, but the crowd had not. One Teddy bear is very much like another, unless he happens to be your own, and there were several of them in the crowd itself, as I have already said.

Teddy climbed carefully up to the top of the pole, and when he got there he stood on one foot and waved his paws about, and then changed to the other foot, and kissed his paw to the crowd, and to Peggy and the dolls on the balcony. Peggy was afraid that he might tumble, and almost forgot to listen for anything that he might say when he got near to them. But he seemed quite at home on his pole, and as he turned towards them and kissed his paw, he said in a mysterious voice, “One of you go to the other side.”

That was all he said, and the crowd down below could not have known that he was saying anything at all, he did it so cleverly. He was just on a level with the balcony, and could easily have jumped on to it if he had wanted to. Peggy had thought that perhaps he had meant to do that, so as to be with them, because he could not have got there in any other way. But he was too clever for that, for if he had stepped on to the balcony, all the dolls who had been watching him would have known at once that they had been deceived. And besides, he would only have been locked up with Peggy and the four dolls, and could have done nothing more to help them.

When Teddy had said, “One of you go to the other side,” he turned round again, and then stood on his head on the top of the pole, as he had promised to do. The crowd of dolls was wild with delight, and none of them suspected that he had given a message to the prisoners.

“What does he mean? What are we to go to the other side for?” asked Wooden.

“I expect there is somebody there,” said Lady Grace. “Shall I go?”

“No, I’ll go,” said Wooden’s aunt, who had largely recovered her spirits during Teddy’s performance, and had danced a few steps of a Highland fling on her own account, while he was posturing on the pole.