ROLIE POLIE could not understand why the Toy people cheered, and he wondered at their hasty departure. Then he crawled out from behind the bags and went to the door of the mill. There the returning Toy people found him, his clothes powdered white with barley meal and his face full of wonderment.

Well, the end of the matter was just this: Rolie Polie, astride his little donkey and loaded down with garlands of roses, was carried off to the Castle. By his side walked the Miller, now wearing his best clothes, and as happy a little body as there was in all the town. {122}

On the way the people told him of what had happened, and how, when the gates were opened, the water ran out from the lake and made the river so shallow, that the first thing the Buccaneers knew, the Black Rover stranded high and dry on a gravelly sand bar, with no possible chance to escape capture.

“But,” interrupted one of the Toy people, “Buccaneers are clever ones when it comes to getting out of a tight place, and it did not take them long to climb over the side of their ship and run for the woods.”

“The four rogues had good legs for running, too,” said another of the Toy people.

“Had any harm come to Queen Helen?” asked the Miller of Dee.

“Oh no,” answered one of his companions. “You see the Royal Yacht grounded at the mouth of the river, and King Tommy jumped quickly over the side into the shallow water and was the first to reach the Black Rover. He found Queen Helen tied to the mast with a rope. The Queen acted bravely, and the Buccaneers, seeing that she was no cry baby, did not treat her roughly; for although they had tied her to the mast, the ropes were not tight enough to really hurt.”

“Buccaneers always treat brave captives that way,” said another of the Toy people. “It is only the scarey ones that they handle roughly.”

“Probably Queen Helen couldn’t help being a little frightened though,” said the Barley Miller.

“But perhaps she bit her lip and did not show one single particle of it to the Buccaneers,” said Rolie Polie. “That would be just like Helen.” {123}

“Yes,” said one of the Toy people, “I think she was somewhat frightened, because that would be enough to scare any Queen; and when Tommy cut her bonds and set her free, she looked so glad and so excited, that I think she would have cried if there had not been so many people about.”

“When the gates were closed and the lake began to fill, you should have seen the people on the sand bar run!” said a Toy man who was walking by the donkey; and then he laughed long and heartily. “Why, in a jiffy the water was up to their ankles, and I think it would have soon been to their knees had they not waded to the shore, or hastily clambered over the side of the Black Rover.”

“That was a fine race the two boats had back to the landing pier,” said another Toy man. “The pirate ship is a fast boat, but I think the Royal Yacht is faster, and I don’t believe the Black Rover could have beaten but for being so skilfully handled. Tommy certainly knows how to get speed out of a boat.”

When Rolie Polie came into the presence of the King, and the story was told of how everything had happened, King Tommy said: “Rolie Polie, you shall have a fine reward for this; three times your tricks have saved us sorrow. I am going to give you a medal and make you Captain of my Royal Guards. Go now and change this clown’s dress for a new uniform.”

“Your Highness,” said Mr. Poodle, after Rolie Polie had thanked the King and departed, “I think the Miller of Dee also deserves a reward, for, from what I hear, he has acted most nobly; taking blame when he thought that it would save Rolie Polie, and as graciously according credit when {124} he found the opening of the gates had brought honor and the praise of his fellow Toy people.”

“That is true,” said the King. “I will make the Miller of Dee my first assistant Prime Minister.”

The little Miller thanked the King, then laughed and said: “I think the place for me is in the mill, simply grinding my barley corns.”

Mr. Poodle then told King Tommy that a good Miller was a very handy fellow to have in the Kingdom, especially one who had something more beneath his cap than the dust upon his hair, as without doubt this one had. {125}

Tommy felt that there might be some truth in what the toymaker said, but he told Mr. Poodle he thought that such a noble deed certainly deserved a reward.

“That is true,” replied Mr. Poodle; “and now I would suggest that, as a reward to the Miller, you make this a holiday, to be observed every year and to be called the Miller’s Holiday.”

Tommy said that would be fine, and immediately issuing the order, Heralds were soon proclaiming it throughout the city.

The Toy people shouted and cheered at these words of the Heralds, as they were all fond of holidays, and so thought the King had found a fine way to reward their friend, the good Miller of Dee.

As for the Miller, he felt very much embarrassed, but at last found words to thank the King, and then started off home to talk it all over with his neighbors. A big man the Miller was in his neighbors’ eyes now, you may be sure; all were glad enough to rub shoulders with him, and no one minded the white barley dust on his clothes, I can tell you, which was very nice for the little Miller.

Meanwhile the three Buccaneers, led by Long Jim, the crafty courtier, made their way back to Grumbletown. Their clothes had been badly torn by the wild scramble through the bushes; while brambles and briars had made sad havoc with their faces, so that altogether it was four sorry, dilapidated looking specimens that now appeared before King Red Beard.

“Blunderheads!” That is what Red Beard called Long Jim and the three Buccaneers, not once but a dozen times. Then he called them “noodle skulls,” and, last of all, he {126} called them “four big cowardly babies,” which certainly was a hard name to give, even to wicked Buccaneers.