grounded at the mouth of the river, and King Tommy jumped quickly over the side into the shallow water and was the first to reach the
. He found Queen Helen tied to the mast with a rope. The Queen acted bravely, and the Buccaneers, seeing that she was no cry baby, did not treat her roughly; for although they had tied her to the mast, the ropes were not tight enough to really hurt.”
“Buccaneers always treat brave captives that way,” said another of the Toy people. “It is only the scarey ones that they handle roughly.”
“Probably Queen Helen couldn’t help being a little frightened though,” said the Barley Miller.
“But perhaps she bit her lip and did not show one single particle of it to the Buccaneers,” said Rolie Polie. “That would be just like Helen.” {123}
“Yes,” said one of the Toy people, “I think she was somewhat frightened, because that would be enough to scare any Queen; and when Tommy cut her bonds and set her free, she looked so glad and so excited, that I think she would have cried if there had not been so many people about.”
“When the gates were closed and the lake began to fill, you should have seen the people on the sand bar run!” said a Toy man who was walking by the donkey; and then he laughed long and heartily. “Why, in a jiffy the water was up to their ankles, and I think it would have soon been to their knees had they not waded to the shore, or hastily clambered over the side of the