"Down the line the army of tumbling pygmies came whirling along, each bearing a tower of snow-white china dishes; and, strange as it may seem, not a dish was broken in the rocky journey.
"The dwarfs were not long in spreading their fine feast before the dolls. They had scarcely begun to pass around the cake when two sturdy-looking dwarfs staggered up the onyx steps of the throne, bearing two heavily laden trays.
"They were followed by four funny-faced little brownies who spread a table before the children, and, winking and blinking and smiling, went merrily about their work.
"When the table was all prepared, the dwarfs placed before each of the children a big turkey-dish piled two feet high with vanilla, strawberry and chocolate ice cream. The four brownies then stepped between them and sat down a wash tub filled with rich chocolate layer cake. Then, with a wild shout of hilarious joy, they slid head first down the golden balustrade and landed upon the grass, turning somersault after somersault as they rolled along on the velvety lawn.
"And such ice cream it was! You could fairly see the rich, yellow cream oozing out of it. Little Maud declared, as she looked at her brother with a delighted smile, that it surely must have been sweetened with honey.
"'My!' she exclaimed, as she tasted it again and again, 'What glorious cream! I could die eating it, but we must save some to take home.' And she tasted it again, with a loud smack of her pretty lips.
"'Aunt Twaddles' leaned far back in her golden chair and, seeming to have overheard little Maud, she straightened up as she exclaimed:
"'Eat plenty of it, my darling! Eat plenty of it! For I have a whole valley full lying over between the mountains.'
"Instantly the children, startled at the very thought, looked up from their delightful repast.
"'A whole valley full!' exclaimed Arthur, but he could say no more, for he had to stop eating to think about it.