“Gotta natch a sap, Peg,” Wag muttered thickly, as they halted on a little hill.
“Natch a sap? What’s that?” asked the Wooden Doll anxiously. Wag made no answer—just flopped on his side and in a minute was asleep and snoring tremendously.
“Oh!” whispered Peg, pulling herself gently from beneath the sleeping rabbit. “He meant snatch a nap.”
She laughed softly and seated herself under a small tree. The birds were beginning to waken and their singing filled Peg Amy with delight. “How wonderful it all is,” she murmured, gazing up at the little ruffly pink clouds. “How wonderful it is to be alive!”
“Hello! Mr. Robin!” she called gaily, as a bird flew to a low bush beside her. “Are your children quite well?”
The robin swung backward and forward on his swaying branch; then burst into his best morning song.
“Oh!” cried Peg Amy, clasping her wooden hands, “I’ve heard that before! But how could I?” she reasoned, “I’m only a Wooden Doll and this is the first morning I have been alive. But then, how did I know it was a robin?”
Peg rubbed her wooden forehead in perplexity, for it was all very puzzling indeed. Below their little hill stretched the lovely land of the Winkies, with its great green forests and little yellow villages. The wind sent the leaves dancing above Peg’s head and the early sunbeams made lovely patterns on the grass.
“I’ve seen it before!” gasped the Wooden Doll breathlessly. “The trees, the birds, the houses and everything!” Springing to her feet she ran awkwardly from bush to tree, touching the leaves and bending over the flowers as if they were old friends. Had it not been for the squeaking of her wooden joints, Peg would almost have forgotten she was a Wooden Doll, for at the sight of the lovely green growing things something warm and sunny seemed to waken in her stiff wooden breast. “I’ve been alive before,” said Peg Amy over and over.
Suddenly, through the still morning air, came a loud, shrill laugh. Peg, who had been standing with her cheek pressed closely against a small tree, swung around quickly—so quickly in fact that she fell over and lay in a ridiculously bent double position before the new-comers.