“And they both promised him most solemnly that they would do that very thing, if he would only help them now out of this dreadful, dreadful trouble. So the brown crockery dog jumped up to the top of the funny, twisted handle of the China Mug, and sat there and scratched his head very gravely, and thought and thought, while the beautiful little man walked twice around the China Mug. ‘The very thing!’ at last exclaimed Sir Bow-wow. ‘Now, then, hurry, lovely lady,’ and he put one of his paws over the top of the mug, and then peeped over. ‘Can’t you reach up?’ he asked.
“But the lovely lady down in the bottom of the China Mug, although she stood on all her tip toes couldn’t so much as touch the end of his paw. ‘I shall die here,’ she said, in a faint voice, huddling down in a miserable, little heap, and beginning to weep again.
“‘Nonsense!’ cried Sir Bow-wow, although he was terribly afraid that she would. ‘I’ll think again.’ So he scratched his head once more, and thought, while the beautiful little man walked twice around the China Mug. ‘This time I have it!’ declared the brown crockery dog, and he put his paw over the edge of the mug. ‘Twine the roses in the basket on your arm into a vine, and throw up one end over my paw, and I will pull you up.’
“And the lovely lady stopped crying, and began to laugh, all the while she set to work busily making a vine out of the roses in the basket hanging on her arm; and she twisted the thorns and leaves all in and out so nicely, that before long she had a streaming garland; and she threw up one end of it over the paw of Sir Bow-wow, just as he had told her to do, and, in a minute, there she was standing on the edge of the China Mug, up by the funny twisted handle.
“‘That’s fine!’ cried Sir Bow-wow, so greatly pleased that he wanted to bark; but he didn’t dare for fear of scaring the beautiful little man who was now approaching the funny twisted handle. ‘Hurry and hop down, O lovely lady, and run to your place, for here he comes!’
“So the lovely lady hopped down, and hurried with all her might to her old place on the front of the China Mug, crowding her rose garland into the basket hanging on her arm as she went along. And she had just got there, and was picking up her gown to make a little courtesy, when the beautiful little man came up and stood quite still.
“‘I will make you a bow all the rest of my life,’ he said, bowing away as fast as he could.
“‘And I will courtesy to you as long as I live,’ she said, dropping him a most beautiful one. And so as there was nothing else for him to do, Sir Bow-wow ran to his end of the shelf, and stood up as stiff as ever. And that’s the way we found them all the next morning when we got up and went into the kitchen,” said Polly.