The Wonderful Bed Read online

  THE WONDERFUL BED

  By

  GERTRUDE KNEVELS

  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY HALL CHAMBERLIN

  1912

  Ann was ready to cry and Rudolf had drawn his sword.]

  CONTENTS

  I AUNT JANE'S OLD TOYS

  II THE ANGRY WARMING-PAN

  III A VISIT TO THE GOOSE

  IV THE FALSE HARE

  V REAL LIVE PIRATES

  VI ABOARD THE MERRY MOUSER

  VII CATNIP ISLAND

  VIII MUTINY ON BOARD

  IX CAPTAIN JINKS

  X MEETING A QUEEN

  XI THE GOOD DREAMS

  XII ENTER THE KNIGHT-MARE

  XIII THE BAD DREAMS

  XIV IN THE HOLLOW TREE

  XV COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

  CHAPTER I

  AUNT JANE'S OLD TOYS

  It was beginning to get dark in the big nursery. Outside the windhowled and the rain beat steadily against the window-pane. Rudolf andAnn sat as close to the fire as they could get, waiting for Betsy tobring the lamp. Peter had built himself a comfortable den beneath thetable and was having a quiet game of Bears with Mittens, the cat, forhis cub--quiet, that is, except for an angry mew now and then fromMittens, who had not enjoyed an easy moment since the arrival of thethree children that morning.

  "Rudolf," Ann was saying, as she looked uneasily over her shoulder,"I almost wish we hadn't come to stay at Aunt Jane's alone withoutmother. I don't believe I like this room, it's so big and creepy. Idon't want to go to bed. Especially"--she added, turning about andpointing into the shadows behind her--"especially I don't want to goto bed in that!"

  The big bed in Aunt Jane's old nursery was the biggest and queerestthe children had ever seen. It was the very opposite of the littlewhite enameled beds they were used to sleeping in at their apartmentin New York, being a great old-fashioned four-poster with a canopyalmost touching the ceiling. It was hung with faded chintz, andinstead of a mattress it had a billowy feather bed over which weretucked grandmother's hand-spun sheets and blankets covered by thegayest of quilts in an elaborate pattern of sprigged and spottedcalico patches. The two front posts of the bed were of dark shinywood carved in a strange design of twisted leaves and branches, and toAnn, as she looked at them by the leaping flickering firelight, itseemed as if from between these leaves and branches odd little facespeered and winked at her, vanished, and came again and yet again.

  "Bother!" exclaimed Rudolf so loud that his little sister started."It's just a bed, that's all. It'll be jolly fun getting into it. Ibelieve I'll ask if I can't sleep there, too, instead of in the cot. Iwanted to take a running jump at it when we first came this morning,but Aunt Jane wouldn't let me with my boots on. She said she made thatquilt herself, when she was a little girl. We'll all climb in togetherto-night as soon as Betsy goes, and have a game of something--I daresay we'll feel just like raisins in a pudding!"

  "All the same," said Ann, "I don't think I like it, Rudolf. I wishBetsy would bring the lamp!"

  It was almost dark now, and they could not see, but only hear, Peteras he came shuffling out of his den, dragging his unhappy cub, andprowled around the darkest corners of the room. Being a bear, he wasnot at all afraid, but made himself very happy for a while withpouncing and growling, searching for honey, and eating imaginarytravelers. Then the cub escaped, and Peter tired of his game. Rudolfand Ann heard him tugging at the door of an old-fashioned cupboard ina far corner of the room, and presently he came over to the fire,carrying a wooden box in his arms.

  "Oh, Peter, you naughty boy!" cried Ann. "You've been at the cupboard,and Aunt Jane said expressly we were not to take anything out of it!"

  "You are just like Bluebeard's wife," began Rudolf, but Peter--as washis way--paid no attention to either of them. He put the box down onthe hearth-rug, and got on his hands and knees to open it. Then, ofcourse, the other two thought they might as well see what there was tosee, and all three heads bent over the box. After all it containednothing very wonderful, the cover itself being the prettiest part, Annthought, for on it was painted a bright-colored picture of a littlegirl in a funny, high-waisted, old-fashioned dress, making a curtsy toa little boy dressed like an old gentleman and carrying a toy ship inhis hand. The box was filled with old toys, most of them chipped orbroken. There was a very small tea-set with at least half of the cupsmissing, a wooden horse which only possessed three legs, and theremains of a regiment of battered tin soldiers.

  "How funny the box smells--and the toys, too!" Ann said. "Sort ofqueer and yet sweet, like mother's glove case. I think she said it wassandal-wood. That set must have been a darling when it was new, butthere's only just a speck of blue left and the gilt is every bit gone.These must be Aunt Jane's toys that she had when she was little."

  "That was a long time ago," remarked Rudolf thoughtfully. "I don't seewhy Aunt Jane didn't throw 'em away, they're awful trash, I think.Those soldiers aren't bad, but--"

  Just then Ann's sharp eyes caught Peter as he was about to slip awaywith a little parcel done up in silver paper that had lain all byitself at the very bottom of the box. By this time she and Rudolf hadboth forgotten that they had no more right than Peter to any of thethings in the box, and both threw themselves on their little brother.Peter fought and kicked, but was at last forced to surrender thelittle parcel. Under the silver paper which Rudolf hurriedly toreoff, was layer after layer of pink tissue infolding something whichthe boy, when he came to it at last, tossed on the floor in hisdisgust.

  "Pshaw," he exclaimed, "it's nothing in the world but an oldcorn-cob!"

  "Yes, it is, too," said Ann, picking it up. "It's a doll, the funniestold doll I ever saw!"

  And a strange little doll she was, made out of nothing more or lessthan a withered corn-cob, her face--such a queer little face--paintedon it, and her hair and dress made very cleverly out of the cornshucks. Ann burst out laughing as she looked at the old doll, andturning to her new children, Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida, whichher mother had given her for Christmas, she placed the two beauties onthe hearth-rug, one on each side of the corn-cob, just to see thedifference. This seemed to make Peter very cross. He tried his bestto snatch away the old doll, but Rudolf, to tease him, held him offwith one hand while with the other he seized the poor creature by herlong braids and swung her slowly over the fire.

  "Wouldn't it be fun, Ann," said he, "to see how quick she'd burn?"

  "Oh, you mustn't, Rudolf," Ann cried, "Aunt Jane mightn't like it. Ishouldn't be surprised if she'd punish you."

  At that Rudolf lowered the old doll almost into the blaze, and shewould most certainly have burned up, she was so very dry and crackly,if at that very moment Aunt Jane had not come into the room andsnatched her out of his hand. Rudolf never remembered to have seenAunt Jane so vexed before. Her blue eyes flashed, and her cheeks werequite pink under her silver-colored hair. He expected she wouldscold, but she didn't, she only said--"Oh, Rudolf!" in a ratherunpleasant way, and then, after she had carefully restored thecorn-cob doll to her wrappings, she knelt down and began to gather upthe old toys which the children had scattered over the hearth-rug. Annand Rudolf helped her, and Peter who, though a very mischievous littleboy, was always honest, confessed that he had been the one to open theold cupboard and take out the box. He seemed to feel ratheruncomfortable about it, and after the things had been put away, heclimbed upon Aunt Jane's lap and hid his head upon her shoulder."Never mind, Peter, dear," she said, holding him very tight, "I alwaysmeant to show you my old toys some day. I dare say you children thinkit strange that I have kept such shabby things so long, but when I wasa little girl I did not have such beautiful toys as you have now, andthe few I had I loved very dearly."

  "Was this your nur
sery, Aunt Jane," Ann asked.

  "Yes, dear. I slept all alone in the big bed, and I kept my toysalways in the old cupboard. I spent many and many an hour curled up onthat window-seat, playing with my doll. Yes, I did have others, Ann,but I think I loved the corn-cob doll best of all, perhaps because shewas the least beautiful."

  "Didn't you have any little boys to play with?" Rudolf asked. "Otherboys beside father and Uncle Jim, I mean."

  "There was one little boy who came sometimes," Aunt Jane said. "Helived in the nearest house to ours, though that was a mile away. Thosewere his tin soldiers you saw in the box. He gave them to me to keepfor him when he went away to school, and thought himself too big toplay at soldiers any more."

  "And when he came back from school, did he used to come and see you?"

  "Yes, he used to come every summer till he got big."

  "And what did the little boy do when he got big, Aunt Jane?"

  "When he got big," said Aunt Jane slowly, looking very hard into thefire, "he went away to sea."

  "O-ho!" cried Rudolf. "And when he came back what did he bring you?"

  "He never did come back," said Aunt Jane, and she bent her head lowover Peter's so that the children should not see how shiny wet hereyes were. Ann and Rudolf did see, however, and politely forced backthe dozen questions trembling on the tips of their tongues about thedifferent ways there were of being lost at sea. Rudolf in particularwould have liked to know whether it was a hurricane or sharks orpirates or a nice desert island that had been the end of that littleboy, and he was about to begin his questioning in a roundabout mannerby asking whether sea serpents had often been known to swallow shipswhole, when the door opened, and in came Betsy, Aunt Jane's oldservant. She had the lamp in one hand and the great brass warming-pan,with which she always warmed the big bed, in the other.

  Her arrival disturbed the pleasant group by the nursery fire, andreminded Aunt Jane that it was the children's bedtime. She kissed themgood night, heard them say their prayers, and then went quickly away,leaving Betsy to help them undress. Now this was rather unwise of AuntJane, for Betsy and the children did not get on. She was one of thoseuncomfortable persons who refuse to understand how a littleconversation makes undressing so much less unpleasant. She was notinclined to give Rudolf any information on the subject of seaserpents, nor would she listen to Ann's remarks on how much morefashionable hot-water bottles were than warming-pans. She had even nosympathy for Peter when he wished to be considered a diver going downto the bottom of the sea after gold, instead of a little boy beingbathed in a tin tub.

  Betsy had a horrid way of scrubbing, being none too careful about soapin people's eyes, and Peter came out dreadfully clean. Feeling that heneeded comforting of some sort, he looked about for Mittens anddiscovered him at last, taking a much needed nap behind the sofa.Squeezing the weary cat carefully under one arm, Peter began to climbby the aid of a chair into the big bed. Betsy caught sight of him andguessed his plan. Poor little Peter's hopes were dashed.

  "No you don't, Master Peter," she snapped at him. "Ye don't take nocats to bed with ye--not in this house!" And she grabbed Mittens awayvery roughly, set him outside the door, and shut it with a bang. Aftershe had tucked the bedclothes firmly about the little boy, she turnedher attention to Rudolf and Ann, evidently thinking Peter was settledfor the night--which shows just how much Betsy knew about him. Peterwaited patiently till she was in the depths of an argument with Rudolfwho was trying vainly to make her understand that the dirt upon hisface was merely the effect of his dark complexion. Then Peter slippedout of bed, darted out of the door, and returned in a moment or twowith the unhappy Mittens once more a prisoner beneath his arm. Thistime he managed to conceal the cat from Betsy's sharp eyes.

  At last all three children were in the big bed, Rudolf having refusedto consider sleeping in the cot, and Betsy, after a gruff good night,departed, carrying the lamp with her. Now that the room was indarkness except for the flickering light of the dying fire, Ann'sfears began to come back to her. She sat up in bed and peered roundher into the dark corners.

  "I--I wish Betsy had left the light," she said. "But it would havebeen no use asking her."

  "Not a scrap," said Rudolf. "Not that _I_ mind the dark," he addedhastily, "_I_ rather like it, only don't let's lie stilland--and--listen for things. Let's play something."

  "Shall we try who can keep their eyes shut longest," suggested Ann.

  "Oh, that's a stupid game! Beside Peter would beat anyway, for he'shalf asleep now. Shake him up, Ann."

  When shaken up Peter refused to admit that, he was even sleepy. He wasvery cross, and immediately began to accuse Rudolf of having taken hiscat. This Rudolf--and also Ann--denied. They had seen Peter smuggleMittens into bed the second time, but had supposed he must haveescaped and followed Betsy out.

  "No, he didn't neither," Peter insisted. "I had him after she went. Hewas 'most tamed."

  "Then," said Ann, "he must be in the room and we might as well havehim to play with. Rudolf, I dare you to get up and look for him!"

  And Rudolf got up--just to show he was not afraid. Before steppinginto those dark shadows, however, he armed himself with his tinsword, a weapon he was in the habit of taking to bed with him in caseof burglars, and with this he poked bravely under the bed and in allthe dark corners, calling and coaxing Mittens to come forth. At lastboth he and Ann felt sure the cat could not be in the room.

  "He _must_ have got out somehow," said Rudolf. "Anyway, I sha'n'tbother any more looking for him." Still grasping his sword, he climbedback into the big bed between his brother and sister. Peter was stillcross and grumbly. He kept insisting that Mittens might havedisappeared _inside_ the bed--which was a piece of nonsense neither ofthe others would listen to.

  After some discussion Rudolf and Ann agreed that the very nicest thingto do would be to make a tent out of the bedclothes, and seeing Peterwas again inclined to nod, they shook him awake and sternly insistedon his joining in the game. By tying the two upper corners of thecovers to the posts at the head of the great bed a splendid tent wasquickly made, bigger than any the children had ever played in before,so big that Rudolf, who was to lead the procession into its whitedepths, began to feel just the least little bit afraid,--of what hehardly knew. How high the white walls rose! Not like a snugglybed-tent, but like--like a real white-walled cave. Being a brave boy,he quickly put these unpleasant thoughts out of his mind, and graspinghis sword, crawled on his hands and knees into the dark opening.Behind him came Ann, and behind Ann, Peter.

  "Are you ready?" asked Rudolf. "Then in we go!"