But herein he made a mistake. The Elephant never forgot an insult, but paid it back upon the first opportunity.
The opportunity, in this case, was not long in arriving; it came, indeed, all too soon for the Officer’s taste.
It occurred in this way.
One day a little boy came into the shop and asked to look at some soldiers, upon which the shopwoman showed him the wooden warriors.
“No, I don’t like them,” he said; “they have to move all the same way at once. It is very stupid of them. Have you no others?”
“Not just at the moment,” replied the shopwoman. “We are expecting some more. They should have been here several days ago.”
“Then I’ll take a train,” said the boy. “But it is very funny that you should have such a poor lot of soldiers as these.”
“That silly remark will make the Toys less afraid of us,” thought the Officer to himself with some alarm. “I shall make the men practise sword-drill in the most open fashion for several hours. This will remind the world that we are not to be trifled with.”
But it is one thing to make a resolution and quite another thing to carry it into effect. This the Officer was to experience ere the day was over.
For in putting the Soldiers back into their place the shopwoman happened to hit the Officer with some force against a dolls’ house. Being a very hard blow it knocked him off the platform, and, unnoticed by her, he fell on his back upon the counter.