CHAPTER VIII
DOWN IN A DEEP HOLE
Daddy hurried into the house with Mirabell and Arnold. The children were eager to show their father into what a funny pickle the Bold Tin Soldier and the Lamb on Wheels had got. Of course, it wasn't exactly a "pickle." I only call it that for fun. It was really the flour barrel into which the two toys had fallen.
"How did it happen?" asked Daddy, as the children brought out their playthings, the Soldier still entangled in the Lamb's wool, and both of them white with flour.
"It happened when we were in the kitchen watching the cook make a cake," explained Mirabell. "I was playing with my Lamb on the floor and I lifted her up to let her see how nice the cake looked."
"But what about your Soldier, Arnold?" asked Daddy.
"Oh, I had set my Soldier Captain on the back of Mirabell's Lamb to give him a ride," explained the little boy.
"I said he could," remarked Mirabell.
"And when she lifted her Lamb up she lifted my Soldier up, too," added
Arnold.
"And then!" burst out Mirabell, laughing, "my foot slipped and I let go of my Lamb on Wheels, and she fell into the flour barrel, and so did Arnold's Bold Tin Soldier."