"Where will you go?" he asked.
"There is only one way for us to go—through that archway into Merryland, as you call it. We are not strong enough to pull the boat upstream, so we must let it float where it will."
"It will be a terrible disgrace to me," said the Watch-Dog of Merryland, in a solemn voice, "if you escape me. What will the Queen say when she knows I have watched here three hundred years without seeing anyone, and then allowed the first strangers who came along to pass through the archway?"
"I do not see that she can blame you," returned Dot. "You say yourself you would be unable to stop us if we decided not to mind you. So the Queen can only blame us for not minding you."
"That is true," said the old man, more cheerfully.
"Want somethin' t'eat?" inquired Tot, holding out a slice of jellycake.
"Dear me!" said the Watch-Dog, taking the cake in his hand and looking at it with much curiosity. "What is it?"
"Eat it," said Tot; "it's good."
"But I can't eat," replied the old man. "I don't know how. I've never eaten anything in my life."
"Not even when you were a little boy?" Tot asked, in wonder.