SCENE.—A playground, with Carol, Avis, Roy seated on rocks and stumps, talking. Music as curtain rises. Music stops.
Avis. Did you say that she never could grow any larger?
Frank (entering). What’s that? Who never could grow any larger?
Carol. Why, don’t you know? It’s Dorothy Dot. Dear little Dorothy! It’s all because she was enchanted when she was only seven years old, by that dreadful enemy of all Sunshine people—Sir Dismal Dumps!
Frank. O yes, I remember. He is a rascal—that Dismal Dumps. He put one of his magic spells on her—he and his Bugaboo Man together—so she never could grow any larger unless——
Roy. Yes, she never could grow any larger, unless——
Avis. Unless what? Do tell me all about it.
Carol. I thought you knew, Avis. Unless the key is found, the key to Dorothy’s magic treasure-box. The Sunshine Fairies are shut up in the box, and until they are let out we children will all have lots of trouble because of that horrid Dismal Dumps and his Bugaboo Man.
Frank (walking about, his hands in his pockets, looking as if thinking very hard). This is a puzzle that gets me! The box that holds the Sunshine Fairies is locked, and Dismal Dumps stole the key, and keeps it hidden away. But say, wasn’t there something about the box growing, too?
Roy. Why, yes. You see, it’s a magic box, and was meant to grow larger all the time, just as Dorothy was meant to grow larger herself. But, when the key was stolen, it—the box, I mean—stopped growing, and she stopped growing, and now ——