Anytime Tales (13 page)

Of course she saw Florrie on the floor and she picked her up. She saw the sawdust, and she knew what had happened.

“Oh, poor Florrie!” she said. “You’re leaking! I’ll have to get you a nice new body. Sawdust is out of fashion now!”

So she took Florrie away, and the toys didn’t see her for two weeks. When she came back she was quite different! The toy-man had given her a nice fat velvet body, with baby legs and feet. Her dress didn’t fit her any more, so Mother had made her a woollen frock and a bonnet. She looked sweet!

The toys quickly cooked a few buns on the little stove, and held a party to welcome Florrie back. She was so pleased. The toys in the toyshop had laughed at her for being old-fashioned, and had called her “Madam Sawdust”. It was lovely to be back in the nursery, where the toys made a fuss of her.

“I’m so glad to see you all,” said Florrie. “I’m sorry I was silly and stuck-up before. I’m half new and half old now, so I feel quite different. I’d like to join in your games and be friends.”

“You shall, Florrie!” cried everyone; and you should just see them each night, having a lovely time with Florrie. Everybody is pleased that Florrie is so different—except one person.

Katie’s mother is quite sad when she sees Florrie. “I wish you were the old Florrie!” she says. “I don’t seem to know you now! I loved you best when you were filled with sawdust!”

But Katie likes Florrie better now that she is more cuddlesome, so Florrie is really very happy!

Once upon a time there was a big toy duck who sat on a shelf in the toyshop, and was never sold.

He had been pushed behind a big box, and no one knew he was there. He was really a fine duck. He was made of celluloid, and if only he had been put into a bath full of water then you would have seen how beautifully he could float! But ever since he had been in the shop he had sat up on the dark shelf and had never moved from there – he did not even know that he could float!

He had no legs, so he could not get up and walk about at nights as the other toys did. All he could do was to poke his big orange beak out from behind the box, and watch the other toys dancing, shouting and playing together on the floor below.

So you can guess he led a very dull life and was always longing for a little excitement, which never came.

And then one day a doll with a barrow was put up on the shelf near the duck! The wheel of the barrow had broken, so the doll could not be sold. It went by clockwork and when it was wound up it walked along, holding the barrow and pushing it. It was lovely to watch it. But now that the wheel was broken the toy

did not work properly, and the doll was no use either.

“Hallo!” said the duck, in great surprise. “I haven’t seen anyone up on this shelf for years! How did you get here?”

“I’ve been put up here out of the way,” said the doll sadly. “I expect I shall be here for years, too, getting older and dustier each day!”

“I am dusty too,” said the duck. “You would not think that my back was really a bright blue, green and red, would you? Well, it is! But there is so much dust on me that I look grey. I have kept my beak a nice bright orange by rubbing
it
against the back of this box. Oh, doll, it is so exciting to have someone to talk to!”

“Do you suppose everyone will forget about me, as they have forgotten about you?” asked the doll, with tears in her blue eyes.

She was a dear little doll, with a pretty face and shining fair hair. Her hands held the handles of the barrow tightly.

“I expect we shall stay here till we fall to pieces,” said the duck, with a sigh.

“Well, I don’t see why we should!” said the doll, tossing back her hair fiercely. “Surely we can think of a way to escape from this shelf.”

“But where should we go if we did?” said the duck. “You would be put back on the shelf, if the shopkeeper found you again, I am sure.”

“If only I could mend my wheel, I could wheel my barrow away, and go to Toytown,” sighed the doll. “I know the way quite well.”

“Let me have a look at the wheel,” begged the duck. “Perhaps I can think of a way of mending it!”

The doll pulled the barrow round so that the duck could see it. Part of the wheel was actually missing. There was no mending it, that was certain!

“I believe I know what you could do!” said the duck in excitement. “Why not take out that wheel and slip in something else instead—a cotton-reel, for instance. That would make a very strong wheel!”

“I didn’t think of that!” cried the doll. “Oh, duck, that would be just the thing! Tonight I will see what I can do!” So that night the doll tried to get out the broken wheel. The duck helped her by pecking hard, and at last out camp the wheel!

“Good!” cried the duck. “Now climb down to the work-basket on that chair, doll. You are sure to find an empty reel there.”

The doll climbed down. The basket belonged to the shopgirl, and in it she had full reels, half-used ones, and two empty ones. The doll chose the bigger one of the two, and climbed back to the shelf with it. The duck helped her to fit it into the barrow—and hey presto, she could wheel it along beautifully! The reel went round and round just as well as the wheel had done.

“And now I shall go to Toytown,” said the doll happily, taking hold of the handles of the barrow.

“Well, good-bye,” said the duck sadly. “I am glad you are able to go, but I am sorry to lose you.”

“Oh, but you are coming with me!” said the doll laughing.

“How can I do that!” cried the duck. “I have no legs, and cannot walk, and my wings are only painted. They will not fly.”

“Ah, but I shall put you into my barrow and wheel you along with me!” said the kind little doll. “You have helped me, duck, and now I will help you. You are not heavy, and though you will not fit very well into my barrow, still, I think I can manage!”

The duck was too excited to answer! The doll picked him up in her arms, for he was very light, though quite big. She put him on her barrow—he would not go right in for he was too big—but she managed to balance him quite well. Then she wheeled him to the end of the shelf.

Just below the shelf stood a big dolls’ house. The doll cleverly wheeled the barrow from the shelf to the roof of the house, then down the roof to a balcony that jutted out from a bedroom. Then she called to a big teddy bear, and asked him to help her.

“Will you lift down this duck for me, and my barrow?” she asked. “I can quite well climb down myself.”

The big bear was a good-natured fellow, and he lifted down the duck gently, and then the barrow. The cotton-reel fell out, and the bear pushed it in again. The doll quickly climbed down from the balcony, and put the duck in the barrow. They called thank-you and good-bye to the teddy bear, and then off they went on the way to Toytown, the doll wheeling the duck in the barrow.

They journeyed for two nights and a day, and at last they came to Toytown. At the gates stood a wooden policeman.

“What do you want in Toytown?” he asked. “It is very full just now. Unless you have some work to do, doll and duck, I cannot let you in.”

“I’m a gardener doll,” said the little doll. “Can’t you see my barrow and my overall? I’m a very good gardener, I shall soon find work to do.”

“But what about the duck?” asked the policeman. “What work will he do?”

“Oh, he’ll find something!” said the doll. “Do let me in, please, for I am very tired.”

So, grumbling a little, the toy policeman
let
them go through the gates, and the wheelbarrow rumbled down the neat streets of Toytown. Dolls’ houses stood on every side, and toyshops sold their wares. Little farms, with wooden animals and trees were here and there. The doll stopped at the gate of one.

“I think I’ll go in and ask the farmer here if he will let me be his gardener,” said the doll. “I can see one or two trees that have fallen over. I can do a good many jobs here! And I believe I can see a pond that you could float on!”

So she wheeled her barrow, and the duck as well, through the farm gate and went up to the farmer. He was made of wood, but he had very sharp eyes.

“Oh, so you want to be a gardener here, do you?” he said. “Well, I can do with one. I have too much

work to do. Can you feed the chickens and the ducks too, and look after the pigs as well?”

“Oh, yes,” said the doll. “I can do anything. Will you please let the duck in my barrow float on your pond till he too finds some work to do?”

“Very well,” said the farmer. “Take him over there.”

So the duck was taken to a small pond and he floated there in great delight. The pond was very tiny, and the duck almost filled it all. When he floated very hard he made big waves at the edge of the pond, and then all the tiny ducks nearby quacked with fright.

The doll set to work. She was a good gardener, and she did her best to see to the chickens, ducks and pigs too. She enjoyed working in the sunshine, but when it began to rain, and her hair and overall got soaked, she did not like it so much.

“My feet get stuck in the mud,” she complained to the duck. “It is horrid!”

The duck liked the rain. For one thing it made his pond bigger, and that gave him more room. He liked to feel the raindrops, too—but he was sorry for the little doll.

“Have you found me any work to do yet?” he asked the doll.

“No,” said the doll, with a sigh. “It seems very difficult to get work for someone who cannot walk or fly. I am worried about you, duck. The policeman said yesterday that the little ducklings here complained that you take up all the room on their their pond. He said

that you will have to leave Toytown next week if you cannot get any work.”

“Oh dear!” said the duck, in dismay. “That means I shall have to go back to that horrid shelf for the rest of my life!”

“I don’t want you to do that,” said the doll, with tears in her eyes. “I am so fond of you now. And you do look so beautiful since I cleaned you up.”

The duck certainly looked splendid now! The doll had rubbed off all the dirt and dust, and his back shone blue, green and red. He was a fine sight to see. But what was the use of that if he had to go back to bis dark shelf again! It was too bad.

“If only this rain would stop!” said the doll, squeezing the water out of her overall. “I am always wet and always cold now, A-tishoo! A-tishoo!”

“Oh, don’t get a cold!” begged the duck in alarm. “If you have to go to bed, what will become of me? The policeman will turn me out, I am sure.”

“A-tishoo!” sneezed the little doll. “Oh dear, I can’t stop sneezing. A-tishoo!”

Well, that very night the doll was put to bed in the farmhouse by the farmer’s wife, for she really had a shocking cold. The duck swam sadly by himself on the pond, keeping a look-out in case the policeman came along. And sure enough he did! The duck saw him wading across the field to the pond, looking as black as thunder because he was getting so wet and muddy.

“Haven’t you got some work to do yet?” he shouted to the frightened duck. “You great lazy thing! Here you are all day long, floating about doing nothing!

You can leave Toytown on Saturday! Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” said the duck unhappily. The policeman waded off, wishing that the rain would stop. But it didn’t. It went on and on and on, and soon the duck pond was so big that the duck could take a really good swim. The whole field was under water, and all the hens fled to their house at the end of the meadow, whilst the pigs and goats stood huddled together near the farmhouse.