These were the last words spoken as the little company passed through the gates and the big cannon boomed {154} out a parting salute. The sun was now low in the sky, casting a golden glow along the path, and making blue shadows gather in the valley.
They had not ridden long, when Mr. Poodle said: “Here we are at home;” and sure enough, as he spoke, Coal Black and Snow White went galloping into Mr. Poodle’s back garden and over the threshold into the toy shop.
“Do you think Rolie Polie will get along all right, Mr. Poodle?” asked Tommy, as they were bidding good night to the toy maker.
“O, yes,” said Mr. Poodle. “Nobody need worry about a King who has Mother Goose near his throne to help him in his ruling.”
“Mother Goose?” repeated Tommy, wonderingly. “Is Mother Goose in Toyville?” “O, yes,” answered Mr. Poodle, “she was the little old dame who led us out of the garden and saved our being captured by Red Beard. And, by the way, Mother Goose said that she hoped on our next journey, we would continue through the Valley of Happiness, until we came to her realm, where she promised there would be awaiting us the finest kind of a good time.”
“O, Tommy, isn’t Mr. Poodle kind to us!” said Helen, her eyes moist with little pearls of happiness. Tommy’s lips trembled when he tried to reply. Mr. Poodle was such a clever man, though, that I guess he knew what kind of a lump had swelled up in Tommy’s throat, for he didn’t say one single word, but held out both his arms, and in a second there were his playmates hugging him so tightly that it was almost as much as he could do to breathe.
The Twenty-first Chapter.
Of the next Morning and how Tommy found a New Joy. Also of the Questions asked by Helen, and of how her Mamma answered.