“Did you ever see anything so perfectly sweet in all your life?” cried the girls in chorus.
“No, we never did since it is all candy and consequently would be sweet,” said Harold.
“This must be where most of the Christmas candies come from,” said the Princess.
“I wish I could carry away that cherry tree,” said Ione. “See how perfect it is, its bark of brown maple sugar, its leaves of pistache candy and its fruit the real cherries candied. My! but they are good, just taste one.”
After eating all they cared for and drinking at the different fountains, they went to the edge of the island and then flew away toward what looked like a large amethyst. Mercury explained that it was “The Isle of Toys.”
As they approached this island they saw, bordering its coast line, a diminutive city set on seven hills like ancient Rome. At its wharfs lay beautiful little steamers, while tiny sailboats went speeding by, sailing through the blue ether as smoothly as if on the water. They saw also, hurrying crowds of the prettiest doll-faced people imaginable. And why should they not be pretty and look like dolls when they were dolls, only living ones that could both walk and talk. Dolls of all kinds and conditions, Mercury explained, were the only inhabitants of this Island of Toys.
Back from the coast, in the interior of the isle, lived the large dolls; in the mountains, the Indian dolls; in the hot part, the African dolls; in the cold part, the Esquimaux; in the tea-growing district, the Chinese, and so on, for every race of man was represented by these tiny creatures who lived, worked, and talked exactly as these races of people do on Earth. In fact, here was a good place to study the different peoples of the globe for, as Ione said, “Here you have the whole world in a nut-shell.”
The dolls that landed from the little steamers at the wharfs represented as many different nationalities as one sees crossing the renowned bridge at Constantinople; the one where rumor says one can see every nationality on the globe pass every hour in the day.
“Ione, do look at that Turkish doll with his baggy, yellow satin trousers, red fez, and long pipe!” said the Princess.
“Yes, but he is not half as cute as that Chinaman with the long pig-tail and paper umbrella, who is fanning himself as he walks,” she answered.