Produced by RSPIII and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: Waiting for the Queen. (_Page 131._)] TOP O’ THE WORLD A Once upon a Time Tale By Mark E. Swan Pictures by Hy. Mayer [Illustration] New York E. P. Dutton & Company 31 West Twenty-Third Street COPYRIGHT E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 1908 All Rights Reserved The Knickerbocker Press, New York THE TOP O’ THE WORLD was made into a story by permission of Mr. J. M. Allison from the fanciful extravaganza, THE TOP O’ THE WORLD. Book by Mark E. Swan, Lyrics by James O’Dea, Music by Anna Caldwell and Manuel Klein. TO MY LITTLE NIECE MARION WHO _LOVES_ ICE-CREAM FOREWORD Oh, little ones, with your pink cheeks and shining eyes, come clamber on my knee, put your arms about my neck, and listen with all your ears while I tell you a tale of ONCE UPON A TIME. Illustrations in Color PAGE Waiting for the Queen _Frontispiece_ She Could See Castles in the Coals 4 When One is Sailing a Flying Machine 24 He Walked Deliberately into the Wall 76 In the Cake of Ice 114 They Laughed and Laughed 190 Illustrations in Black and White PAGE Aunt Mary Wore Fluffy Dresses 5 Growly Voice Eats Snowballs 11 Aunt Mary Gets a Sealskin Coat 12 Maida Crept out of Bed 16 The Letter 20 The Birds Came to the Rescue 28 The Wolf Swallows a Tablet of Climate 36 Maida Meets Santa Claus 44 Out Popped Jack-in-the-Box 49 A Duel with Icicles 71 The Walrus Mends the Street 76 “How Do You Do?” in Eskimo 101 The Explorer Turns on the Tropical Climate 115 Maida was Carted away in a Box 139 Fido Flew 142 The Queen Sees Her Face 145 The Gates of the Prison Flew Open 161 Maida 194 THE TOP O’ THE WORLD Chapter I [Illustration] The Wishing Post grows right out of the ground at the Top of the World. Some very wise men with bald heads and long white beards say it isn’t a Wishing Post at all, and call it the North Pole, but Maida knows more about it than they do for she has been there and they haven’t. She really and truly went there in a flying ship, and I can’t begin to tell you all that she saw and all that she did, but I will try and remember as much as I can.