THE GAY LITTLE TOWN OF BO-PEEP
Santa Clausstood on the front steps of his Snow Palace at the very tip-top of the North Pole.
Softly, very softly, the great door behind him swung open and out rushed the Brownies, pulling on their scarlet caps, fastening their mittens, and laughing and shouting and calling as they came.
‘Santa Claus! Santa Claus!’ shouted the Brownies. ‘Here we come, Santa Claus! Here we all come!’
‘What does this mean?’ asked Santa Claus in surprise, his eyes twinkling with fun. ‘Why aren’t you hard at work upstairs, making toys? Come, come, now!’
And Santa Claus laughed in spite of himself to see his Brownies turning somersaults in the soft snow.
‘Oh, Santa Claus, we want a holiday!’ shouted the Brownies. ‘We don’t feel like working at all. We want a holiday, Santa Claus. Do say that we may.’
‘Yes, yes, indeed,’ nodded Santa Claus, laughing again to see his Brownies’ antics in the snow. ‘You will work all the better for a little fun. Be off, every one.’
So off they went, three by three, each little group of Brownies with a plan of its own.
Sharpeyes, the little errand boy, Merrythought, the very best toy-maker of them all, and little Crusty, who was in charge of the reindeer, ran off to call on a nearby family of seals.
Mischief, Nimbletoes, and Fleetfoot scampered down to a great smooth stretch of snow back of the stable where the eight tiny reindeer lived.
‘We want to run races, Santa Claus,’called they, ‘more than anything else in the world.’
Kindheart, Silvertongue, and Sweet-Tooth, chief of the candy cooks, stood for a moment wondering just where they would go.
‘We mean to take a long walk,’ said Silvertongue to Santa Claus, who stood by their side. ‘Tell us where to go, Santa Claus, for we don’t know.’
‘Have you ever been to the Town of Bo-Peep?’ asked Santa Claus. ‘I would go there, if I were you. It used to be a gay, merry little Town, but you will find it very different now. Stay as long as you like. There may be some work for you to do.’
So the three Brownies set off for the Town of Bo-Peep.
‘It is too far to walk all the way,’ said Santa Claus. ‘You had better borrow my handkerchief for a sail.’
A gentle breeze was blowing, and as the Brownies held up Santa Claus’s great white handkerchief, with S.C. embroidered in the corner, the wind filled the handkerchief like a sail and took them steadily along.
It was great fun to skim over the ground and surprising to see how quickly they traveled. They soon left the cold and snow behind. Presently the grass grew green and the sun shone warm and the three little Brownies put down the great handkerchief and tripped merrily along the road hand in hand.
‘I smell the sea,’ said Sweet-Tooth, who, being a cook, had a very sharp nose.
On they ran, and at a turn in the road they came upon the sea, wide and blue and sparkling under a summer sky. Far out in the water stood a Lighthouse. Below the road stretched the beach, a longcurve of firm, white sand, and back of the beach lay the little Town of Bo-Peep.
It was a pretty little Town with red roofs and chimney pots, and each little house had its own gay little garden plot.
But the Town was quiet, no one walked about the streets. And though the tide was low and the cool wet sand lay bare, not a single child was playing on the beach.
‘They have all gone away,’ said Kindheart. ‘The Town seems empty to-day.’
‘Perhaps they have gone on a picnic,’ suggested Silvertongue, ‘or for a sail across the bay.’
But Sweet-Tooth shook his head.
‘The mothers are at home,’ said he. ‘I can see the smoke rising from the chimneys and I think I can smell baking bread.’
‘Let us go down into the town,’ saidKindheart, ‘and look about. Santa Claus said there might be work to do.’
Down in the town the three little Brownies walked quietly along, past the neat houses, past the gay flower-beds, until they came to a little shop, and here the Brownies stood stock still on the sandy road.
It was a Candy Shop. At least a big sign over the door said so. But the blinds were pulled down and the door was shut tight and there was a card in the window that read
NO CANDY SOLD HERE
The Brownies looked at one another. Sweet-Tooth’s face wore a horrified look. He couldn’t speak. He managed to peep under the window-shade, but all the window held was a dismal row of empty glass candy jars.
‘It must be there are no children inthe Town,’ said Silvertongue in a low voice.
And Kindheart and Sweet-Tooth could only nod their heads in reply.
A few steps beyond the Candy Shop they came upon another little store. ‘TOY SHOP’ was painted on the window. But here too the blinds were down and the door locked fast and thick dust covered the doorstep and the window-ledge. Kindheart stood on tiptoe and read a card tacked on the door.
NO TOYS SOLD HERE
‘What can be the matter?’ whispered the Brownies. ‘Who ever heard before of a Town where no children lived?’
Down on the beach crept the Brownies and here strange signs were sprinkled as thick as blackberries wherever they might look.
NO PADDLING ON THIS BEACH
said a bright blue sign stuck in the sand here and there.
The Brownies read this aloud and tears came into gentle Kindheart’s eyes.
‘I never saw a better beach for paddling,’ said he, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand.
‘Listen to this!’ cried Silvertongue, standing before a scarlet sign that was repeated all along the shore.
NO SAND BUILDING ALLOWED
read the scarlet sign in great black letters that all could see.
‘What about this?’ called Sweet-Tooth, capering before a green sign over which he had just stubbed his toe.
NO DIGGING ON THIS BEACH
‘That is what the sign says. But I can’t believe it. I am going straight through this Town until I see what they have done with the children here.’
The Brownies did not have far to go to find the children. A stone’s throw from the beach stood the school-house, a dingy red brick building with a tall iron fence all roundabout.
Under the fence squeezed the Brownies. They wanted to read a great golden sign over the school-house door.
THIS SCHOOL OPEN FROMNINE UNTIL SIX O’CLOCK
Sweet-Tooth read the sign aloud and would have tumbled to the ground in his surprise if Silvertongue and Kindheart had not caught him by the arm.
‘That means all day!’ gasped Sweet-Tooth. ‘They have to go to school all day!’
Through the school-house window they could see the heads of the children, little brown and yellow and black heads, both curly and straight. Indeed onelittle red head lay on the window-sill, fast asleep.
‘Tired out, and no wonder,’ murmured Silvertongue, which was a very harsh speech for him.
Out of the window floated the voices of the children droning sleepily over and over again—
‘Two times one are two,Two times two are four,Two times three are six.’
‘Two times one are two,Two times two are four,Two times three are six.’
‘Two times one are two,
Two times two are four,
Two times three are six.’
The Brownies didn’t speak another word that afternoon. They sat down round the corner of the school-house with their backs against the wall and watched the clock in the church tower tick the sunny hours away.
At last the clock struck six.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The school-house door opened andout trooped the children. As they started home, the Brownies followed and watched them as they went.
Some of them peeped in the Toy Shop window and rattled the latch. Some of them stood on tiptoe and knocked the knocker on the Candy Shop door. Some of them ran away from their big brothers and sisters and sat on the beach and made holes in the sand with their fingers and piled up little heaps. And some of the children even ran down and put their toes in the water, they did so want a little pleasure and fun.
But their big brothers and sisters were frightened.
‘The King will see you!’ said they. ‘Come home! The King will catch you!’
So the Children were taken home, and soon after their supper the candles were lighted in their bedrooms and the Browniescould see the children in their night-gowns going to bed.
As it grew dusk, the Brownies sat flat on the lonely beach with no one but the sandpipers and the seagulls to keep them company.
What did it all mean? Who was the King? Why were the children treated so?
The light in the Lighthouse across the bay blazed out and Kindheart sprang to his feet.
‘I am going to borrow that little boat,’ said he, pointing to a white boat pulled up on the beach, ‘and row over to the Lighthouse. Perhaps some one there can tell us what it is all about.’
When they reached the Lighthouse two figures ran down to the shore and helped them from the boat.
One was that of a little man who smelled strongly of peppermint candy.
‘He is the Candy Man,’ said Sweet-Tooth in a flash. And so he proved to be.
The other figure was that of a neat little lady who held a half-made doll’s dress in her hand.
‘The Toy Lady,’ said Silvertongue and Kindheart in a breath. And this was so too.
The Candy Man and the Toy Lady both talked at once, they were so excited at seeing the Brownies and so anxious to tell their tale.
‘It is the new King’s fault,’ said they, together. ‘He won’t have a bit of noise. He doesn’t want the children to romp and be noisy, and that is why they must go to school all day and never play on the beach. That is why he sent us over here to live. He doesn’t want the children to eat candy nor to play with toys. All the King does from morning till night is to think of different things we mustn’t do andthen make signs to tell us so. Bo-Peep Town used to be a gay and merry place to live in, but now we are miserable, just miserable. And the children simply long to have us come back again.’
The Brownies and the Toy Lady and the Candy Man sat up almost all night talking things over. Of course matters couldn’t go on as they were. And once they had made up their minds what to do, they fell to work.
For two days and nights they worked as hard as ever they could. The Candy Man and Sweet-Tooth made candy, all kinds. Silvertongue and Kindheart and the Toy Lady made toys—boats and pails and shovels and all sorts of sand toys, fish and stars and patty-pans and cones.
Then early one morning, when it was darkest, just before dawn, they filled their little boat with toys and candy and rowed over to the mainland.
The Brownies first helped the Toy Lady and the Candy Man to open their little shops and place the toys and candy inside.
Then Silvertongue and Kindheart and Sweet-Tooth stole into the Palace and up to the bedroom where the King and his little Queen lay sleeping side by side.
They were thoughtful little Brownies, you must admit. They packed a bag of clothes for the King and Queen. They even remembered their golden crowns and put them in too.
Then they carried the sleeping King and Queen down to the little boat, rowed them over to the Lighthouse, and left them there.
Next morning when the children went to school there was a new sign on the door.
NO SCHOOL TO-DAY
Some one spied the Toy Shop. Thedoor was wide open. The window was filled with brand-new toys, and a fresh sign was fluttering in the breeze.
PENNY TOYS SOLD HERE
At first the children crowded round and stared. Then they sped to the Candy Shop. That was wide open, too, every glass jar filled to the brim with the most delicious candy ever seen.
‘The sign! The sign!’ shrieked the children.
There it was, shining and new.
PENNY CANDY SOLD HERE
Down to the beach ran the children, screaming as they ran. They were so excited they had forgotten the King.
The beach was covered with glittering new signs.
PLEASE PADDLE ON THEBEACH
GOOD SAND FOR BUILDINGHEREKINDLY DIG ON THIS BEACH
The children scarcely knew what to do first. Some ran to the Toy Shop, others to the Candy Man to taste his fine new wares. How glad they were to see their old friends, the Toy Lady and the Candy Man, once more! Some of the children settled down to dig, some of them fell to building in the sand, while many of them pulled off their shoes and stockings and happily splashed and paddled about in the cool green waves.
Every one took a holiday, fathers and mothers too. And that night, when dusk fell, they were still romping and playing and enjoying themselves on the beach.
Suddenly, out blazed the light from the Lighthouse and the figures of the King and the Queen stood on the shore.
‘We like it here!’ shouted the King, making a great deal of noise for such a quiet man. ‘We mean to stay! It is quiet here! We never want to live in the Town again!’
The King and the Queen waved their hands good-bye. They had reached the Lighthouse door when the King turned back.
‘Our crowns!’ he shouted. ‘You may have them! We don’t want them any more!’
And he tossed them one by one into the sea.
When the crowns came floating in on the beach, the people picked them up and gave them to the Toy Lady and the Candy Man.
‘Please be our King and Queen,’ said they.
But the Toy Lady and the Candy Man shook their heads.
‘I would rather sell toys than be a Queen,’ said the Toy Lady.
‘I would rather make candy than be a King,’ said the Candy Man.
So, since they had no King nor Queen, the people locked the front door of the Palace and threw the key away. The crowns they fastened over the Toy Shop and the Candy Shop because they looked well hanging there.
Bo-Peep Town became overnight what it had always been before, a gay and lively and pleasant place in which to live.
And Silvertongue and Kindheart and Sweet-Tooth went home happy, but not any more happy than Santa Claus when he heard what they had done.