Dot and Tot of MerrylandBaum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
Science
Dot and Tot of Merryland
Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
Fantasy fiction
Scollops, as the knitted boy seemed named, bowed again and murmured,
"Your Majesty shall be obeyed." Then, turning to Tot, he took his
hand and led him from the room. The hand felt soft and woolly to Tot,
but he did not object to it, for Scollops had a merry expression to
his face that won the little boy's heart at once.
"Where are we going?" he asked, as they began to mount the stairs.
"To the laughing chamber," replied Scollops; and having reached the
top of the stairs, they walked down a long hallway and entered a room
so odd and pretty that Tot stopped short and gazed at it in
astonishment.
In many ways it was like an ordinary room, for it contained a
dresser, a bed, chairs and a table. But upon the wall were painted
hundreds of heads of children--boys and girls of all countries, with
light and dark hair, straight and curly hair, blue and black and
brown and gray eyes, and all with laughing faces. The posts of the
bed were also carved into laughing baby faces; the chairs and the
dresser showed a face upon every spot where there was a place for
one, and every face throughout the whole room had a smile upon it. To
match the rest of the furniture, the carpet had woven upon it in
bright colors all kinds of laughing children's faces, and the effect
of the queer room was to make Tot himself laugh until the tears roll
down his cheeks.
When the boy had looked the room over and seen all the faces,
Scollops helped him to wash his hands and face, to comb his hair and
to brush his clothes, and when this task was finished, the woolly
doll said:
"I will now show you why this room is called the laughing chamber.
Lie down upon the bed a moment--but don't get your shoes against the
clean covers."
Tot lay down upon the bed, and at once heard a sweet, tinkling chorus
of laughter coming from every part of the room. It was so delightful
and soothing that he listened to it rapture. Softly his eyes closed,
and in another moment he would have been sound asleep had not
Scollops raised him to his feet and said:
"It is not time for sleep yet, for you haven't had your dinner. But
the laughing faces will make you slumber peacefully when the time
comes, and give you pleasant dreams, too."
CHAPTER 11
The Palace of Wonders
No sooner had Scollops taken Tot from the drawing room than the Queen
touched her bell a second time, and in answer to the summons a neatly
dressed doll maid entered the room and made her bow before her pretty
mistress. This maid was a pleasant looking little person; but Dot
noticed her eyebrows were painted upon her face, and her hair seemed
painted on, too, only the little white cap nearly covered it, so it
didn't show much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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