Mr. Maynard made a dramatic pause, and then pulled quickly on one of the ends of ribbon that hung from his side of the spool. CHAPTER XIX A SPOOL OF YARNS Mr. Maynard pulled the ribbon of which Kitty held the other end, and the little girl jumped as she felt the ribbon move in her hand. But Kitty was usually ready for an emergency. "Violetta Evangeline," she said. "The Princess thought that was the most beautiful name in the world, and I think so, too. Well, then, her father, the King, had the news sent all through the kingdom that his daughter was named at last, and then everybody sent her letters. She had bags and bags full of mail every day, and they had to put on an extra postman. And she had valentines in the mail, and catalogues, and birthday presents, and samples of dresses, and seeds for flowers, and,--and magazines, and,--and,--and one day a little live kitten came to her in the mail, and she was _so_ pleased. So she named the kitten Toodle-Doo, and wherever she went she took the kitten with her. And one day she went off on a long journey, and of course Toodle-Doo went with her. And as they went along,--and went along----" Just here Mr. Maynard pulled another ribbon, and Molly gave a startled jump. So Kitty stopped, and Molly took up the story: "They went along," said she, dropping her voice to a tragic whisper, "on a dark and lonely road. And a great pirate jumped out at them, and cried, 'What, ho! The password?' And Violetta Evangeline didn't know the password, but she guessed at it, and she guessed, 'Crackers and Cheese,' and, as it happened, she guessed just right, and they let her go through." "Through what?" asked King, greatly interested. "Oh! I don't know," returned Molly, carelessly; "through the gate, I s'pose, into the enchanted garden. So she went in, and everything enchanted happened all at once. She was turned into a fairy, and the kitten was turned into a canary bird, and he roosted on the fairy's shoulder, and then he began to sing. And then the enchantment turned him into a music-box, and so Violetta Evangeline didn't have any kitten or any bird or anybody to play with. But just then the Fairy Prince came along, and he said he'd play with her. And he said she could play with his toys. So she went to see them, and they were all made of gold and jewels. His tops were of gold, and his kites were of gold all set with rubies and diamonds." "Huh," said King, "they couldn't fly!" "These kites could," said Molly, quite undisturbed, "because they were enchanted kites, and that made the diamonds as light as feathers." But just then Marjorie's ribbon twitched. She had been waiting for it, and she picked up the story where Molly left off.