“Do hurry, and tell them,” whispered Ben in her ear; so Polly laughed and hastened on.
“‘I’ll help you,’ suddenly said a voice close by on the shelf. The lovely lady bobbing away in the very bottom of the mug, and the beautiful little man crying his eyes out as he walked around and around the China Mug, stopped weeping and screaming to listen with all their ears.
“‘I am Sir Bow-wow,’ declared the voice, which came out, you must know, of Phronsie’s crockery dog that a lady in the centre of Badgertown gave her, when she was a baby, to cut her teeth on. Phronsie used to put his head in her mouth, and bite hard, and that made her teeth come through quicker. Well, he was brown and ugly, and one ear was gone, because she had dropped him a good many times. Oh! and two or three of his toes were broken off; but he was a great help now in this dreadful trouble that had overtaken the lovely lady and the beautiful little man, because he had a good head to think out things.”
“I am so glad Phronsie didn’t bite it off,” said Van with a sigh of relief.
“Well, go on,” said Percy briefly.
“Sir Bow-wow cleared his throat; then he asked sharply, ‘Are you sure you won’t ever say such dreadful things as I heard from you, ever again, in all this world?’
“‘Oh, quite, quite sure!’ said the lovely lady, heaving a long sigh; ‘if you will only get me out of this dismal place, Sir Bow-wow, I will be just as good as I can be.’
“‘And if you will only bring back that lovely lady I will be just as good as I can be,’ said the beautiful little man; ‘Sir Bow-wow, I promise you.’ And they couldn’t hear each other, only what the brown crockery dog said; and he asked again, ‘Are you sure you won’t turn your backs on each other, but you will bow and courtesy as prettily as you always used to?’