NO sooner had Helen and Tommy walked through the gateway than a peculiar shivery feeling went running up and down their backs, and even to the tips of their fingers and toes. This lasted only for a second or two, and its cause they could not guess. Indeed, there was no time to give the matter any thought before something very strange happened. When Captain Pinkle, Captain Poddle and the others passed through the Toyville gateway, quick as a wink, every one of them grew to be as big as Tommy and Helen. At first Tommy and Helen thought it was themselves that had become as small as the Toy people, but after looking around a little, {42} it could easily be seen that their companions were really the ones who had changed.

“Duck your heads, everybody!” cried Mr. Poodle; “here comes a cloud that will knock your hats off!” And sure enough, there was a great fleecy white cloud, like a big ball of thistle down, rolling and tumbling across the sky, and so close to their heads that Tommy and Helen could almost touch it by stretching out their hands.

“This must be a very high hill,” said Tommy.

“Yes, indeed,” answered Mr. Poodle. “Why it is nearly as high as the sky.” Then he asked Tommy to line up the soldiers, and said he would fire a salute so the Toyville people would know of their arrival.

After the salute had been fired, the company resumed their journey, and as there was no longer any danger of losing the way, Mr. Poodle bade the soldiers take the lead. Tommy and Helen were sure that they had again heard someone laughing in the bushes, but as Mr. Poodle paid no attention, the matter was soon forgotten. A funny curly road ran down over the hillside, twisting and turning and bobbing here and there, just as if it wanted to get into as many nooks and corners as possible, which was not a bit of wonder either, for nowhere in all the world could be found a hillside as beautiful.

“We must now travel down this long curly road,” said Mr. Poodle. Then he asked Helen and Tommy if they were glad they had come on the journey and if they were getting at all tired.

“Yes, indeed, we are glad, Mr. Poodle,” said Helen and Tommy, both speaking at once. “And we are not the least tiny bit tired, either.” {43}

“That is good,” said the little toymaker. “It is a long walk down the hill to the city of Toyville, but I think you will not mind that, for there are so many new sights to be seen.”

At first the road wound through a grove of beautiful trees thickly covered with sweet blossoms of every color of which a body might think. Then it entered a wonderful orchard, where were rows and rows of trees all loaded with ripe fruit. Fruit? Well, that is what it was called in Toyville, but over across the hills, back where Helen and Tommy lived, it would be called candy. There were bonbons, all of cream and chocolate; there were lovely fat white marshmallows, luscious and ripe, which hung in big juicy clusters, waiting to be picked; there were sugar plums, the finest and biggest that grow on trees anywhere in the land. Not a single tree in the whole orchard but what had this fine fruit all bursting ripe, and so much on every branch and twig that they were almost breaking off and tumbling to the ground.

Two funny little men were seen gathering the fruit in a great wooden tray with long handles. “Pick all you want,” they said to Tommy and Helen. “Eat all you want, too. It will not make you a bit ill, as city candy would, and for every one we pick, two grow in its place.”

The men did not have to say those words twice. Indeed, they hardly had time to say them even once, before Helen and Tommy were under the trees and stuffing their pockets bursting full; what they couldn’t put in theirs they stuffed in Rolie Polie’s, which were very big and held almost as much as a quart. The grass that grew between the trees of the orchard was nearly as soft as velvet, and {44} when any of the ripe fruit fell to the ground, it didn’t get at all broken. There were some shade trees growing in the orchard, too. Mr. Poodle said they were planted there to keep the warm sun from shining on the fruit daytimes, because the sun might make the fruit melt.

“These fleecy white clouds also help to keep the sun off,” said Mr. Poodle. “That is why they are so big.”

“I thought clouds made it rain,” said Tommy. “Don’t the clouds make it rain, Mr. Poodle?”

“Oh yes,” said Mr. Poodle, “of course that is the way it is back in our land, but here it never rains. You see the Toy people do not like to be out in the wet; it would spoil their games and all their fun, so here it is always sunshiny.”

“And can the Toy people play out of doors all the time?” asked Helen. “Don’t they ever need to go in the house, Mr. Poodle?”

“Not on account of rain, dear,” answered Mr. Poodle. “Of course people go in their houses to sleep at night, but the Toy boys and girls are never called in to go to bed at half past seven, just when they are having the most fun; their mothers allow them to stay up until almost nine o’clock, or at least until eight.”

Tommy and Helen thought that it would be fine to live in that kind of a city, and told Mr. Poodle they know the Toy children must be very happy.

“You are right,” said Mr. Poodle. “I am sure the Toy children are happy; everyone in Toyville is happy.”

While Tommy and Helen were talking in this way with Mr. Poodle, the road went on twisting about a bend and presently brought them into a rolling bit of pasture land, strewn with buttercups and daisies. But that was not all {45} the pasture contained. No, for, feeding beside a red pump was a pink barley pig, also some barley cows, and sheep, and at the far end of the pasture were two tame barley deer. A barley rabbit, startled by the approaching footsteps, went skipping across the road, almost under the very toes of Rolie Polie. My, but Rolie Polie was scared, and stopped so quickly that he almost tumbled and tucked his nose in the dust before he could get his balance.

The little clown then began to laugh and the next minute away he went over the hedge and through the pasture, chasing the rabbit as fast as ever his legs could carry him, with never a thought for danger.

Now Rolie Polie was dressed in his clown’s suit of red and white; and no sooner did he enter the pasture than one of the animals lifted its head and gave a great bellow. {46}

“Oh, the bull, the barley bull!” yelled Mr. Poodle. “Look out, Rolie Polie! Run for a tree, or the bull will catch you!”

But Rolie Polie was thinking only of the rabbit and squirrel, and never once heard the barley bull until it was almost upon him. Mr. Poodle now knew that one of two things would surely happen: either Rolie Polie would be overtaken by the bull, or, in trying to escape, he would be forced to the edge of the cliff and tumble over.

“We must hurry to the rescue!” cried the little toymaker, and with one bound he went through the hedge, quickly followed by Tommy. Helen stood and watched them from the roadway. She would have gone to the rescue too, but really, barley bulls are very scary animals, and as Helen had on her red dress, she thought it best not to get too near.

The bull was now only a few yards behind Rolie Polie, and all the shouting of Mr. Poodle and Tommy made not the least bit of difference to its mad gallop. It saw only the bright colors of the little clown’s costume, and madly bellowing, it never slackened its speed one tiny particle. Indeed, the shouting may have made it run even faster.