IN SCRUB-UP LAND 3MLOUS ryTM F !!! The Adventures of NANCY AND NICK IN SCRUB-UP-LAND OLIVE ROBERTS BARTON The NANCY AND NICK Series BY OLIVE ROBERTS BARTON Illustrated By E. R. Higgins NANCY AND NICK IN SCRUB-UP-LAND IN THE LAND-OF-DEAR-KNOWS- WHERE IN HELTER-SKELTER-LAND IN THE LAND-OF-NEAR-BY IN TOPSY-TURVY-LAND PROPERTY OF THE NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRADY E PROPERTY NEW YORK SOCIETY LIES IT WAS NOW SCRAMBLE SQUIRREL'S TURN TO GET SPRING-CLEANED THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 73329B ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1940 Copyright, 1921, By George H. Doran Company Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS силити I THE MAGICAL MUSHROOM . . . . . . . . II II THE TWINS MEET RUBADUB . . . . . . . . 19 III ROBIN Gets SPRING-CLEANED . . . . . . . IV THE ERRAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . V. THE FAIRY QUEEN'S PALACE. ... VI MR. MORNING STAR Wakens Mr. Sun . . . . . 49 VII THE STORY OF BILL BLACKBIRD . . . . . VIII Ben BUNNY GETS SPRING-CLEANED. SQUIRREL Too . . . . . . SCRAMBLE . . . . 68 IX SCRAMBLE SQUIRREL RETURNS . . . . . . . X Ben BUNNY'S BARGAIN . . . . . . . . . 84 XI MR. GRUBBY GROUNDHOG . . . . . . . . . 92 XII MR. SLEEPY WHATSHISNAME . . . . . . . . 105 XIII THE BIRD OF PARADISE . . . . . . . . . 118 XIV . . . . . . . 128 CASPER CATBIRD DISAPPEARS. [vii] هو ته اسان اداره CONTENTS CHAPTER XV THE EASTER BUNNY . . . . . . . . . . 136 XVI PHIL FROG GETS TAILORED . . . . . o . 146 XVII The Little Silk Pillow .... XVIII A QUEEN IN A Velvet CLOAK ... ... 164 XIX SLEEKER SWALLOW'S EVENING CLOTHES . . . . 172 XX SPRING AT LAST . . . . . . . . . . . i 180 [vii] NANCY AND NICK IN SCRUB-UP-LAND NANCY AND NICK nut tree in the meadow, that was the first thing they saw a large, plump, round mushroom with a lovely pale pink lining to his hat. “Hello!" cried Nick, dropping onto his knees beside him. “How did you get here?” “That's what I'd like to know," answered the Mushroom, in dismay. “I've made a dreadful mistake, some way, and I'm trying to think how I did it. Goodness, but it's chilly!" And he shivered as well as a mushroom can. Nancy didn't know much about seasons nor growing things, or she wouldn't have asked, “Don't you like our meadow, Mr. Mushroom? And if you're cold, why don't you wear some clothes like the other flowers do?” The Mushroom laughed at this. “Thank you, little lady, for the compliment. That's the very first time I've ever been called a flower.” And he bowed grandly, tipping his pink-lined hat like a duke. “No, I don't usually need many clothes, they're such a bother, besides I never go where it's so very cold. At least I never did before.” And he shivered again. “As for liking your meadow—I have two good reasons for not wish- [12] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND magical, my dears, how else do you suppose you could understand what I say? Did you ever hear a Mushroom talk before?” The children admitted that they hadn't. WE Propolitana I WO M4611 E RHIGGINS "GOOD MORNING, CHILDREN,” SAID THE MUSHROOM. "I'M GLAD YOU CAME SO BARLY.” Suddenly an idea popped into Nick's head. “Couldn't we go, Mr. Mushroom? Couldn't Nancy and I go to help Mr. Rubadub?" “For goodness sake!” exclaimed their new friend in surprise. “I never thought of such a thing! The idea fairly makes me dizzy! Quite dizzy! Yet, why not? Mr. Rubadub needs help, [15] NANCY AND NICK spring's coming fast, and he hasn't got the first robin ready yet. You're willing, and if the Fairy Queen's willing, it's as simple as X. Y. Z. I'll find out and let you know by to-morrow, kiddies. If it's all right I'll bring the Green Shoes along. They'll take you any place in Fairyland. Put me down now, Nancy, and run along home and meet me here to-morrow." Quite excited, the children laid their new friend carefully behind a stone, then scampered back to the house, wondering what the Fairy Queen would say to their plan and never think- ing, for some queer reason, of asking Mother for her consent at all! The next morning bright and early, they were back under the tree searching eagerly for their little acquaintance of yesterday. Sure enough, there he was behind the stone where they had left him, just as though he had never been away! But what was that beside him, looking for all the world like some very bright green plants just sprung through the earth? Shoes! The dearest, oddest, queerest, cunningest shoes you can imagine! The twins danced for joy. [16] NANCY AND NICK hands, everybody! Now, Green Shoes, to Scrub- Up-Land, if you please!” A quick lifting, a faint fanning of the breeze in their faces (not the blustery March wind, at all) and the twins and the Magical Mushroom were on their way to Rubadub's domain—a far, far corner of Fairyland. [18] NANCY AND NICK dripping bright green paint; but both brushes were having a vacation at present, until the poor fairyman could get some order into his unruly customers and get to work again. "Hey there!” he was calling to the pussy-wil- low which was shoving the snow-drop out of the way. "If you don't stop your fussing I'll never get through. My goodness! It will be the Fourth of July before I get the first birds ready at this rate, and people will wonder what's wrong with Scrub-Up-Land. Now do be good. One at a time, please.” Just then he saw the twins and the Magical Mushroom, and his face brightened wonderfully. Over he came right away, the best he could with so many creatures hanging onto his coat-tails. "How ddo, folks,” said he, dropping his brushes and holding out both hands. “I'm mighty glad to see you. I suppose you saw my advertisement in the 'Gossamer Gazette."" "No," answered Nick truthfully. “We didn't. Is that a newspaper?" Rubadub's smile faded. “Yes,” said he in a disappointed tone. “I need help, so I put in a [22] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND notice, hoping some one would see it. In fact, when I saw you, I was sure my plan had worked. Either that, or else when I waved my wand this morning and made a wish, the Fairy Queen E.R. HIGGINS "HOW D'DO, POLKS," SAID RUBADUB. heard it and sent you in answer. But the old thing must be worn out, I reckon.” And he sighed dismally. But Nancy comforted him at once. “Don't you worry, Mr. Rubadub!” she said brightly. “We are helpers, and your wand can't be worn out at all.” And then she told him all about the [23] NANCY AND NICK Magical Mushroom losing his way and happen- ing along in the meadow at the very minute they ran out to play. Rubadub's smile came back. “Why, I de- clare!” he exclaimed. “Isn't this lovely, my dears! Was it at seventeen and three-quarter ticks past mid-morning?" The twins weren't sure. “Because if it was,” he went on, “that's the precise time at which I waved my wand. I re- member, because when I had finished waving it, I looked at my sun-flower clock and it was eighteen ticks after. I'll take excellent care of that good old stick after this, if that's what it can do. Can you paint, children?”. "Yes," answered Nancy with pride. ""I've filled up all the O's and A's in 'The Adventures of 'Lizabeth Anne,' and Nick painted the cat's tail pink once.” “Well, well! That's what I call luck,” cried their new host. “Helpers who can really paint, only— ” he added gravely, "we don't put pink tails on things unless they belong there, and”- meaningly, with a glance at the robin and cat- i 10 [24] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND birds"the only O's we need to fill are the mouths of noisy folks who won't wait their turn." This quieted the racket for a moment or two, and Rubadub had a chance to say: “I keep a big picture-book of birds and ani- mals; all the flowers, too, and if you follow it when you're fixing the creatures up, you can't go wrong. Just come along with me, please.” Rubadub turned and went along a crooked path, all the creatures crowding close and screaming again that they wanted to get spring- cleaned, Nancy and Nick and the Magical Mush- room trooping after. They turned a corner in a few minutes and the fairyman pointed to a group of buildings. “There are my workshops,” he explained, “paint- shop, store-room, barber-shop and laundry. Everything for everybody, and you've no idea how dirty and shabby some of these fellows get, off in their Dreamland Home during the winter months.” The children gazed in open-mouthed wonder at everything they saw, and as they drew nearer they thought of a poem in one of their books: [25] NANCY AND NICK ting up high-jinks in the Land-Where-Spring- Is-Coming and forgetting his manners entirely. But I hope he doesn't do like that lazy, fat, old rascal Wally Woodchuck, or, as I suppose you've heard him called, Grubby Groundhog. He's got two names, you know, and some day I'll tell you why. But, anyway, I sent Wally out one day in February when it was cold enough to freeze the sun, just because he coaxed and coaxed until I had to. And what, my dears, do you s'pose he did! Saw his shadow, and just because he thought that was bad luck, he crept into his hole again and went back to Dreamland, and when he crawled out again last week, he came back to get spring-cleaned all over again, and didn't I have to launder him from heel to head.” Just then Robin Redbreast flew up onto Nancy's shoulder, pointing to page one in the “Bird-Book.” “I told you so!” he insisted. “Don't you see that my picture comes first, which shows that spring can't really come until I arrive? Please fix me now, won't you? Just a little brown paint on my jacket, a touch of yellow on [28] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND my bill and a dab of red on my waistcoat and I'm finished. My goodness! What are you going to do with that tub of water and soap-suds ?" “Give you a bath!” laughed Nancy, reaching up for him, before he could fly away. “It isn't nice to put on new clothes before you wash. And you're as dusty as a miller, Robin, grubbing for worms down South. If I painted you on top of all that dust, when the first April shower came along, you'd run, like my gingham dresses do in the wash sometimes. And folks would think you were some strange variety. “What's this? they'd say, 'that the people down South have sent us this year, instead of a robin? How'd you like that?" Robin hung his head. “I suppose you're right,” he said. “Well, go ahead, only please don't get soap up my bill or into my eyes, will you? And as for my ears, they aren't dirty at all, being away down under my feathers.” Nancy patted him. “Dear old robin, I'll not hurt you. Don't be afraid ”. And in no time at all, she had Robin Red- breast the gayest of birds, his waistcoat a brave [29] NANCY AND NICK red, his coat shining like new brown satin, and his bill as yellow as a daffodil. He was quite a dandy, I assure you, and I'm afraid he began to strut a bit as people are apt to do when they are well-dressed. He ran over his trills then, up the scale and down, practicing his evening song and his rainy- day song, his nest-building song, and the song by which he wakened the babies in the morning. Then away he flew out of the gate of Scrub- Up-Land to the Land-Where-Spring-Was- Coming, with a gay “Chirrup." "Good-by,” called the twins and the Magical Mushroom, while Rubadub stood with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “I hope he gets there all right,” he said, “and that that old rascal Jack Frost doesn't chase him. But he's such a sly fox, you can't tell when he'll come popping out." Now, while Nancy had been spring-cleaning Robin Redbreast, Nick had been busy brushing up the katkins for the pussy-willows. Rubadub had showed him where he kept pieces of fur to [30] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Nancy and Nick went back to their painting, Rubadub to his scrubbing, and the Magical Mushroom was trying to be useful by keeping peace among the impatient creatures still clamor- ing to be gone. Being able to speak any kind of language, he was the very person for this. Be- sides, he was very wise and quite a philosopher. He kept telling them that “All things come to him who waits,” and “Who laughs last laughs best,” and “All's well that ends well,” and a lot of things like that. He thought he just about had things settled when Bill Blackbird croaked out, “Yes, but it's the early bird that gets the worm.” And at that the hubbub started all over again. I wonder who was the most impatient, the boys and girls in the Land-Where-Spring-Was- Coming, or the animals and birds and flowers who wished to get there? [33] "BLOWING BLIZZARDS!" EXCLAIMED RUBADUB, "WHEB1 ABB THE YELLOW OWES?" CHAPTER IV: THE ERRAND City children look for crocuses on their lawns as a sign of spring, the same as country children look for katkins on the willows, so it was quite necessary to get these little flowers painted with purple and gold as fast as possible. The twins worked and worked, setting each blossom in the row with the others when it was finished. By and by Rubadub left off scrubbing Snoopy Skunk (who did need it most awfully) and peeped in to see how they were getting along. [84] NANCY AND NICK leaves on the trees also, which we always mix with yellow when they first appear. Now what?" "Why is it so hard to get?" asked Nick. “Per- haps our Green Shoes could help us, couldn't they?" Rubadub pounded his hands together sud- denly, as he had a habit of doing when pleased, and his face grew radiant. “Why, that's the very ticket, Nickie!” he cried. “The very ticket! Suppose you and Nancy take some little buckets to the Fairy Queen's Palace over on the other side of Fairyland and get me about two quarts. She makes it herself out of sunshine, you know, and if Mr. Sun has been out much lately, she'll likely have quite a lot. There's another thing! Those fairies haven't come back yet from the willow-grove, and I'm getting worried about them. I wish you'd go around that way and see what's keeping them. I need them right away to stick some fuzzy buds on the alders and to wake up some of the sleepy grass under the ground. It doesn't know the snow's gone yet!” "Perhaps,” suggested Nancy, "if you waved your wand, the fairies would come back.” [36] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Rubadub grew sober. "Yes, I know I could do that, but the Fairy Queen thinks we're lazy if we depend upon wands too much. Likely as not she'd say, "There's that good-for-nothing Rubadub again, waving that wand of his! I wonder what he wants now! If he keeps on, he'll wear it out, surely. When I put him in charge of Scrub-Up-Land I expected him to do a few things for himself, and if he's going to let me do all his work for him, I may as well dismiss him and get some one else who can.' That's what she'd say,” and he raised his eyebrows comically. The twins laughed. “That doesn't sound like the kind Fairy Queen, Mr. Rubadub. Would she be as cross as that?" Rubadub laughed, too. “No, I'm only joking,” he said, “only I make it a point never to bother the Queen when I can help it. She's 80 busy, poor soul, and whenever any of her helpers like myself wave our wands, it's like ringing your telephone-bell. She's got to stop whatever she's doing and find out what's wanted. Don't you [37] NANCY AND NICK want to go for the paint and to hunt for the lost fairies?” "Oh, yes, yes, yes!” declared Nick, hopping around excitedly. “We'd love to, shouldn't we, Nancy? Only we thought your wand might get the lost fairies more quickly.” “They're not far away, I think you'll find,” said Rubadub, nodding mysteriously. “Now, here are your buckets. You'd better be off.” In a twinkling the Green Shoes lifted the twins into the air, the empty paint-buckets clutched in their hands, and the Magical Mushroom close beside them. “I think,” said he, "that we are going to have an adventure. I sort of feel it in my, in my”—he was going to say, "bones,” but remembering that he hadn't any, he had to think of another word—“in my insides,” he finished. “It's just like your Grandpa's rheumatism, which always informs him of a coming storm. Yes, I'm quite sure we are going to have an adventure.” Along they all whizzed, as fast as the fastest air-ship, on their way to the Fairy Queen's Palace. Only, instead of going straight, as the bees do, they asked the Green Shoes to take them [38] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND around by the willow-grove in the Land-Where- Spring-Was-Coming. As they approached, it was plain to be seen that something was wrong. Very wrong! The VI. . . S ER HIGGINS STANDING OVER THE PAIRIES WAS THAT KNAVE, JACK FROST ! place looked dark and gloomy and altogether un- happy, not a bit as though winter were over and spring were on the way. Mr. Sun was no- where to be seen, and the air was so cold they shivered with the chill of it. Besides, Robin Redbreast was nowhere to be seen either, nor the March Hare nor Wally Woodchuck, and last but most important of all, there wasn't a single [39] NANCY AND NICK katkin anywhere. The twigs were as bare as eggs; they were not even varnished yet. Where could the missing fairies be? What could have happened to them? “Aha,” said the Magical Mushroom, sus- piciously, looking around on all sides. “Aha!” And then he pointed to an old hollow stump. “Just as I thought,” he nodded, "the sly old rascal!” And following his glance the twins saw all the little fairies huddled together in a bunch, buds and glue and all! And standing over them, punching and teasing them dreadfully, was no other than that knave, Jack Frost! [40] E.R. HIGGINS "T'D BE A NICE ONE TO LET THEY COME IN AND SPOIL MY FUX,” SAID JACE Most. CHAPTER V: THE FAIRY QUEEN'S PALACE ALTHOUGH Jack Frost was a tricky fellow, nobody minded his pranks in the fall and winter. Folks said, “There's a time and place for every- thing and Jack Frost is all right in his place.” When he painted over newly cleaned windows with his fantastic patterns, they were quite patient with him (of course they were lovely pic- tures, I must admit that) and when he cracked water pitchers, and fastened down pump- handles, and made little creeks stand still, they humored him and hardly fussed a bit. “It's win- [41] NANCY AND NICK ter and he has a right to do as he pleases," they said. But when the Spring Fairy was just over the hill, and Jack Frost was supposed to gather up his strings (for tying pump-handles) and ham- mers (for breaking water-pitchers), and paint- brushes (for painting ferns on the windows), and then skidaddle in the opposite direction, most generally his disposition got mean. Oh, so mean I can't tell you! He didn't want to go, and he'd linger and linger, and after people had their straw hats all dusted off for warm weather, and the parlor-curtains down to clean house, they'd get pretty cross because he poked round so long. He'd hide, you see, and when people thought he'd gone for good, he'd jump out at them, and blow down their necks and nip at their fingers. No wonder they got out of sorts! But the worst of it was, he was always snoop- ing around on the lookout for Robin Redbreast and the first pussy-willows, so that he could scare them away. If he once let the birds and the buds get a chance, he knew that the Spring Fairy [42] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND would hurry over the hill and he couldn't stay much longer. "Aha!” said the Magical Mushroom, "so this is the trouble! I thought Jack Frost was back of it all. Jack!” he called sharply. “Stop an- noying those fairies right away, and let them out of that old stump, or I'll tell the Fairy Queen at once." But Jack only laughed impudently, pinching a little fairy's toes hard. “I'm not afraid of the Fairy Queen,” he mocked. “She's too busy to bother with the weather, anyway. Besides, I'm a sort of a fairy myself and I do as I please. Do you think I'm going to let the Spring Fairy chase me away until I'm quite ready? No, sir! She's right over the top of that hill—I've seen her peep- ing, and so's the robin you scrubbed up so fine. I've heard his airish chirp. And Belinda Blue- bird is right at his heels! I'd be a nice one to let them all come in and spoil my fun. No, sir, here I am and here I intend to stay." Very brave words indeed, were they not, but blustery. And when people get blustery it's a pretty sure sign they're afraid of something. The [43] NANCY AND NICK Magical Mushroom perceived this, as he was a very shrewd old chap, but just what it could be that Jack was afraid of, he couldn't think for a minute. Then he had it. It popped into his head, like a shot, the thing Jack was afraid of, and he laughed softly. "Come, kiddies," he said to the twins quickly, taking their hands again. "Bring your buckets and wish yourselves to the Fairy Queen's Palace right away." And Jack, looking after them, frowned in a worried way. He very much suspected trouble. But we must follow the little travelers and see what happened after they had left Jack Frost. Away they whizzed faster than your engine on its shiny tin track, and before you could write your name they had arrived at the Fairy Queen's front gate. Nimble Toes, her doorman, let them in and took them straight to the queen, who had been very busy talking to the polka-dot elephant from Topsy-Turvy-Land, but she turned at once and welcomed her new guests. She was exquisitely beautiful and looked ex- [44] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND actly as Nancy had hoped she would look, with lovely kind eyes that smiled almost all of the time, and wonderful wavy hair. And as for her gown, it was woven of silver gossamer and had taken a hundred years to make. ETC. HIGGINS. THE FAIRY QUEEN WAS EVER 80 PUT OUT ABOUT IT. When she heard the disgraceful way in which Jack Frost was behaving, she was ever so put out about it. "My, oh my!” she exclaimed so emphatically that her crown slid sideways and she had to stop to straighten it. “Here I've been so busy I haven't had time to notice what is going on in the Land-Where-Spring-Is-Coming. [45] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND their empty buckets, "that's what our errand is about. We haven't any yellow paint for the spring flowers at all.” “Then,” nodded the Fairy Queen, “there's only one thing to do. Mr. Sun must be found at once. Somebody must hunt him up for me, and tell him how much he is needed.” “May we go?” asked Nick quickly. “It's such fun traveling. The Queen looked too astonished to speak. “You!” she exclaimed, after her breath came back. “Yes, ma'am, Nancy and me! We've got our Green Shoes and the Magical Mushroom won't let us get lost. Will you?” he said confidently turning to his faithful little fairy friend. “Ahem!” coughed the Mushroom. “It—it's quite a large order, Nickie, but if her Majesty says so, I'll try anything once. It shouldn't be hard. The only thing is that as Mr. Sun is not to be seen, it's hard to tell exactly what direction to go.” By this time the Queen had had time to think it over, and she nodded encouragingly. "You're [47] NANCY AND NICK brave children," she smiled, "and I believe you can do it. If you go to the home of Mr. Morn- ing Star, I'm sure he can direct you. I have his address." And she called to Twinkle Pen, her secretary, to go get it out of her desk. "Here it is, your Graciousness," that fairy re- plied shortly, after rummaging in the drawer marked "Stars." And the Fairy Queen read aloud, "Corner of Dawn Avenue and Eastern Road, Earlymorn. You may leave your buckets here until you return. Good-by, now, kiddies, you'd better be off so we can get our little fairies out of trouble as soon as possible." Then she kissed them both and shook hands with the Magical Mushroom, calling to the South Wind to guide them, and in a trice the Green Shoes had lifted them far above the Palace towers. [48] UP AND UP ASD UP THEY WENT, THE SOUTH WIND GUIDING. CHAPTER VI: MR. MORNING STAR WAKENS MR. SUN Up and up and up they went, the South Wind guiding them, and floating as gently as thistle down on the kindly breeze. After quite a few minutes of traveling, they arrived at Dawn Ave- nue, and after a few seconds more they dis- covered where it crossed Eastern Road. Sure enough, right on the corner was a very shiny house, with points sticking in all directions, like a chestnut-burr, or a lantern on a very dark night, when the rays point out like fine needles. [49] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Once inside, and after a nice dish of porridge, which seems to be the only thing star-people and moon-people care about, serving the same to their guests, the twins told the whole story to Mr. Morning Star and asked if he could help them. "Sure I can!” he promised them at once. “Old Man Sun is a fine fellow and a good friend of mine, for we've been chums all our lives. But I'll tell you a secret—he's getting lazy in his old age, and when he gets to bed some nights in his comfortable cloud-blankets, all gray and soft and woolly, with a nice pink counterpane on top, he rolls over and snores and sleeps so hard he never hears his alarm-clock at all in the morning. He's slept two weeks come Sunday, and he's surely rested by this time. I tell you what I'll do I've an excellent plan.” And Mr. Morning Star shook and laughed about something which seemed to tickle him mightily. "I'll ring his telephone bell,” chuckled he. “And Mr. Sun can't shut it off like he can the alarm-clock, and go to sleep again. That's just what I'll do." “Ting-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling!” rang Mr. Star, [51] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND "My, my! is that so?” interrupted Mr. Sun anxiously. “What's the trouble?” Then Nickie took Mr. Star's place at the 'phone and gave Mr. Sun the Fairy Queen's message. ER HIGGINS THERE WAS MR. SUN, LOOKING VERY STERN INDEED. "Well, I declare!” exclaimed Mr. Sun, “I have trouble with that fellow Jack Frost every year. So he's at it again! You go back now and tell the Fairy Queen that I'll fix everything in a jiffy, and not to worry any more.” So the twins and the Mushroom left Mr. Morning Star's house after thanking him, and [53] NANCY AND NICK the South Wind and the Green Shoes took them safely to earth again. But on their way to the Fairy Queen's Palace they passed the willow- grove again, and, stopping for a little while, this is what they saw and heard. A sunbeam fell suddenly across Jack Frost's feet and he looked up in alarm. Well he might be frightened, for there was Mr. Sun himself looking right at him very sternly indeed. Jack hung his head, for he knew he'd been doing wrong, and that he had no business there in the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming. He looked around slyly. “I'll just step be- hind these trees,” he thought, "until Mr. Sun goes away, and then I'll come out again.” But Mr. Sun wasn't to be fooled. “Come back here, you scamp!” he called sharply.“What are you leaving your hammer for?” (The hammer Jack used on water pitchers!) "Oh, did I forget it?' exclaimed the foxy fel- low, coming back and pretending to be surprised. “I'll just stick it into my pocket.” Which he did, and then sneaked behind the trees again. But Mr. Sun wasn't going to be fooled that [54] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND way, either. “Come back here, you fraud,” he commanded sternly. “What are you leaving your string for?” (The string Jack Frost tied down pump-handles with!) "Oh, did I forget that, too?” declared Jack in pretended surprise. “I'll just roll it up and stick it in my other pocket.” Which he did, and then sneaked off again. But Mr. Sun was getting tired of his philan- dering, and he knew perfectly well what the fellow was trying to do. “Come now, you rogue!” he cried crossly. “Take your paint- brush, too, while you're at it and be gone for good.” (The paint-brush for marking up win- dows!) That was the end. Jack gathered up all his belongings and shuffled out of the forest and down the road and disappeared in the distance for good and all! The willow-bud fairies jumped out of the old stump where Jack had them cornered, and began gluing on the katkins as fast as they could, first varnishing the branches a lovely shiny brown. The Spring Fairy, a lovely maiden in a robe of [55] NANCY AND NICK white cloud-gossamer, eyes like the deep blue of the sky, and hair spun of sunbeams, came dancing happily, with Robin Redbreast perched on one shoulder and Belinda Bluebird on the other. Then the twins continued on their way to the Fairy Queen's Palace, for their buckets of yel- low paint. Dear knows what Mr. Rubadub would be thinking, off in Scrub-Up-Land, with no help at all, and all the creatures impatient to be spring-cleaned. They asked their little Green Shoes to hurry as fast as they could. [56] SI) L C.R.HIGGINS MIHANI GOODNESS! CRIED RUBADUD, WHEN HE SAW THE TWINS COMING. CHAPTER VII: THE STORY OF BILL BLACK- BIRD “THANK goodness!” cried Rubadub, when he saw the twins coming. He mopped his face with his handkerchief and breathed a loud sigh of relief. “I'd just about given you up, kiddies, and was quite despairing about the yellow paint. I've been trying to make up my mind whether to color the daffodils pink or blue, and whether the buttercups and dandelions would look better red or lavender. When it came to daisies and pansies and marigold and wood-sorrel and mustard and primrose and fox-glove and zenias and 'sturtiums [57] NANCY AND NICK and cut-and-come-again,” he stopped for breath _“I didn't dare to think the colors I'd have to make them. My, but I'm glad you're here safe and sound! These creatures are nearly driving me crazy.” Nancy and Nick set their buckets on the ground and rolled up their sleeves once more, while the Magical Mushroom started in to make peace. "You'll all have to be patient!” he told them, "for everything has its turn in the Land- Where-Spring-Is-Coming. If the goldfinch ap- peared first instead of Robin Redbreast, people would think he was Robin come in a borrowed coat, and Mr. Goldfinch wouldn't get a bit of credit for being himself, and if the peewee got in ahead of the warbler, the bird-books would all have to be written over again. You'll just have to wait, my friends, that's all.”. Well, Nancy and Nick got the crocuses and early wood-flowers started off safely at last, and were just beginning the daffodils, when Mr. Rubadub toted over Chris Crow. “He won't behave at all,” complained the fairyman, “and he bothers me so! I wonder if you won't fix him [58] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND up for me and get him out of the way. He's a general nuisance every year, he's so afraid that Farmer Smith will plant his corn before he ar- rives. I can't convince him that it will be two months vet before the farmer thinks of such a thing, but it's no use and he's giving me a head- ache with his screeching. His picture is on page fifteen of the “Bird-Book” and the stove-polish -I mean crow-polish—is on the middle shelf.” “We'll fix him!” nodded Nick, and Chris flapped down off Rubadub's shoulder like a spoiled baby having his own way. "And trim his wings,” suggested Rubadub. “The rough bark on the dead hickory-tree where he lives has nearly ruined them.” Now, what happened hasn't a thing to do with this story, except that it had a result, which was very important. When Nancy was clipping with her little sharp scissors, Chris gave a jerk and his wing got a dreadful clip. It didn't hurt much, but it made the wing crooked, and with Mr. Crow having such a reputation for straight flying, it made him furious. “Now, see what you've done,” he scolded. “I'll [59] NANCY AND NICK never be able to fly straight again as long as I live!” And he went on and on and on at such a rate that the twins were nearly distracted. Even when Nancy evened it up by clipping the other wing, he wasn't satisfied and aired his feel- ing so loudly that all the birds came hurrying. Mr. Crow was just flying out of the gate, when Bill Blackbird arrived with his usual croak, to see what the trouble was about and when he saw Chris disappearing around the corner as shiny as a new overshoe, cawing as though his life de- pended upon it, Bill couldn't believe his eyes. “Well, I never!” he exclaimed indignantly. “I never in all my life!” And he went over into a corner and sulked. He'd been furious about Robin Redbreast and Belinda Bluebird getting out of Scrub-Up-Land ahead of him, to begin with, not that he envied Robin his brick-colored front or Belinda her new blue jacket and orange-dyed blouse—not he—but he did want to get out to get some nice juicy bugs, and they wouldn't let him go until he was finished. When he saw Chris Crow flapping his way to [60] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming, that was the limit of his patience. Bill could endure it no longer, and he decided to think up a plan that would hurry things up a bit. “What's the E.R.HIGGINS “MY NAME'S OLIVER ORIOLE," TIBBED BILL BLACKBIRD. use of having brains," he boasted, "if you don't use them?” So he sat and sat, and thought and thought, gazing over Nick's shoulder at the Big Bird-Book, when suddenly he hit on an idea that almost tickled him to death. "Chk! Chk! Chk!” he tittered to himself creakily in his rusty wagon-wheel voice. “I'll fool them all yet. Just one more peep at the [61] NANCY AND NICK “Bird-Book” and I'll know exactly what to do!” Now Bill was smart, but he had a poor memory, and when a person intends to deceive people, he must be sure that his memory is in good working order. Of course he might have deceived Nancy and Nick, but the Magical Mushroom was a wise old fairy and you had to get up pretty early in the morning if you wanted to fool him. This was his plan! He thought that if his name came so far down on the list that he wasn't going to get out of Scrub-Up-Land until Decoration Day maybe, why he'd pretend he was somebody else, and thus stand a better chance to get away early to the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming. So he tiptoed up quite close and had a good look at the “Bird-Book” with its lovely colors, which the twins and Rubadub were copying onto the real birds in their turn. On the page before him was a beautiful bird, all brilliant orange and black, whom Bill recognized at once. “So that's the person who is to get his freedom next!” thought Bill jealously. “Well, I'll just pretend [62] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND I'm he, then I'll get fixed up at once. Me for the Land-Where-Spring-Is-Coming and the nice juicy bugs 'n' all!” Well, pretty soon Nick finished Sid Song Sparrow's gray shirt, which he fastened on with little brown studs; then he handed him his brown cap. As Sid flew away whistling happily into the sunshine, Nick called, “Next” just like they do in your Daddy's barber-shop, when it's some- body's turn to get his hair cut. That was Bill's chance! He stepped right up out of line like you've seen cheeky people do at a ticket-window, when they haven't any right to at all, and said, “That's me, I guess.” He was too much excited to bother with grammar. Nick took a good look at Bill, then at the pic- ture in the “Bird-Book.” “What's your name?" he asked. “Oliver Oriole,” fibbed Bill. "I guess that's right,” nodded Nick, doubt- fully, looking at the book again, “but you don't look it. You must have got pretty dirty down south, Mr. Oriole, to be so black now, although [63] NANCY AND NICK I must say you've grown some. Just wait until I get the orange paint.” In a few minutes Bill was looking exactly like the picture in the “Bird-Book," as gorgeous as a July sunset. When he caught a glimpse of him- self in the mirror he was so delighted, he swelled up until he nearly burst. "Fine feathers certainly do make fine birds, don't they!” he remarked, smoothing his vest. If he had only kept quiet, no doubt he would have been out of Scrub-Up-Land in about five more seconds, following Robin Redbreast, and Belinda Bluebird and Chris Crow to the Land- Where-Spring-Was-Coming. But Bill's voice sounded like—just Bill's and not another thing in the world, or Fairyland, and the Magical Mushroom heard him, as he came in just then for some soap for Rubadub to wash the dirt off the mole's nose. “What's that?” he inquired curiously, looking Bill over from foot to head. Bill repeated his remark. “Who is this gentleman?" the Mushroom asked Nick. [64] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND “Oh, that's a mistake,” the Mushroom an- swered. “The wind blew the leaves over with- out Nickie noticing. No, Bill Blackbird was next on the list. Turn back, Nick, and see if I'm not right.” Bill groaned. What a goose he'd been and what a wretched memory he had! Why hadn't it occurred to him that orioles don't get to the Land-Where-Spring-Is-Coming until the mid- dle of May? He was dreadfully ashamed of himself. “I'm Bill Blackbird,” he had to confess then. “I'm not Oliver Oriole at all and I wish you'd rub off all this paint that doesn't belong on me.” Which they did at once, and Bill flew off in his dingy rusty winter clothes. If you can get close enough to him, you'll find I'm right. NEW YORK CIXIETY LIBRARY [67] E.R.HIGGINS “WELL, I NEVER !" EXCLAIMED RUBADUB IN SURPRISE. "OUT WITH IT, BOTE OF YOU." CHAPTER VIII: BEN BUNNY GETS SPRING- CLEANED, SCRAMBLE SQUIRREL, TOO RUBADUB, the fairyman, next called to Ben Bunny that it was his turn to get spring-cleaned. Ben is first cousin to the March Hare, you know, and, to whisper a secret, had already been to the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming, having made several trips there from Dreamland, even during the winter months, when spring was as far off as the Equator. But he did need a good scrubbing now and he knew it, for the way to Dreamland is under- ground. Besides, he'd been asleep a long time [68] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND and you do get tousled when you are asleep, and you always need washing and combing when you waken. And another besides! Ben had still an- other reason for coming to see Rubadub, and you shall hear it. Scramble Squirrel was with him, and Scramble had the same reason Ben had for coming. He, too, had been wintering in, or near, Dreamland, spending quite a generous portion of his time in a bedstead of tree-roots, with his pantry (or one of his pantries at least) right beside him, so he could reach out and help himself to food without disturbing the covers. He needed scrubbing as much as Ben Bunny-combing, too, his tail was so tangled. But both had something on their minds besides being spring-cleaned. So when Rubadub called Ben, Scramble came running, too. “You two are sights,” grinned the fairyman, dipping his scrubbing-brush (the hedgehog) into a bucket of suds. “If dirt were a penny a pound, you'd both be millionaires." For awhile he was very busy lathering and scrubbing and rinsing and rubbing, until the [69] NANCY AND NICK friends looked as spick and span as laundry baskets. “You'll do now. Run along and have a good time, the pair of you,” nodded Rubadub, throw- ing down his big towel and standing back to admire his work. But they didn't move, Ben and Scramble didn't. They just looked at each other with sheepish grins and never lifted a toe. “'S wrong?" asked the fairyman in surprise, suddenly growing sober. “Aren't you satisfied? What have I left out? Bay rum, or hair oil, or Eau de Cologne? It isn't considered polite any more to get too smelled up." “Go on,” giggled Scramble, “tell ’m!” “No, you!” begged Ben, his little pink nose wriggling in a most embarrassed way and blush- ing quite red. “Well, I never!” exclaimed Rubadub in sur- prise. "Have you two beauties lost your senses? What's wrong? Out with it, both of you.” Ben hopped up on one side then, and Scramble to the other and whispered something into the fairyman's ears at precisely the same instant. [70] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND “You're queer ones, sure enough,” said Ruba- dub, looking too flabbergasted for words. “Nancy and Nick, come here at once, will you? I've something to tell you." The twins came running. “What do you think!” he told them. “These two have got a notion. Ben wants to exchange his long ears for Scramble's fine tail and Scramble is just as anxious to exchange his tail for Ben's beautiful ears." The secret was out at last and now you know the real reason these friends had for wishing to come to Scrub-Up-Land. The twins clapped their hands and danced around in great glee. “Won't they look funny," laughed Nick, stopping suddenly, "you're going to do it, aren't you, Mr. Rubadub?” The master of Scrub-Up-Land laid his finger beside his nose and thought deeply. “Yes, I'd like to,” he said slowly, "only the Fairy Queen doesn't like these flipperty-gibbet notions the creatures take sometimes. Besides, the place for them to go when they wish to try a new stunt is Topsy-Turvy-Land.” [71] NANCY AND NICK It was the wise old Magical Mushroom who decided the matter. "I believe," he said, "I'd let them try it. The Fairy Queen wishes every one to be happy, and sometimes the only way people can be happy is to find out how foolish they've been." "That's so," agreed Rubadub. "All right, you two rascals. I'll exchange your ears and tail. Come here! Where's that wand of mine?" A few magical words, and presto, the change was made! Scramble wiggled Ben's long ears delightedly, and Ben swished Scramble's bushy tail around, too pleased for anything. "Oh, thank you, Mr. Rubadub," they said over and over again, bowing their gratitude. "We'll be going now, if you don't mind." Then they started for the gate, intending to go back to the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming, the fairy- man and the twins looking after them. "Would you mind doing me a favor?" asked Rubadub, turning to the twins, when the queer little creatures had disappeared. "We'll do anything you ask us, Mr. Ruba- [72] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND dub," answered Nancy obligingly. “Won't we, Nick?" You know what Nick said to that, so Rubadub went on. “Your Green Shoes will take you any. las E.R.HIGGINS PRESTO, THE CHANGE WAS MADE ! where, as you know, so how would it do for you to follow those two scalawags and find out how they are getting along. If they get into trouble I'd like to know it, so I can help them out, and I have a pretty good notion I'll be needed. They're both too proud to come begging if things go wrong, and I'd like you to keep an eye on them for a time.” [73] NANCY AND NICK "Indeed we shall,” they promised promptly, and instantly asked their Green Shoes to follow Scramble. . When Ben and his squirrel friend had left the gate it was necessary for them to part company, as they lived in opposite directions. So of course the twins could only follow one at a time. Whisk! Instantly they were lifted into the air, the Magical Mushroom and all, and set down directly in the middle of a little green path in the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming. Right ahead, tearing along as fast as he could go, was Scramble Squirrel. Only, had the twins not known all about him, they should never have recognized him at all, with Ben Bunny's great long ears stuck on top of his head, and his tail as gone as yesterday. When he stopped at the maple-tree, the chil- dren suddenly remembered a woodpecker's house in the same tree, two floors above Mr. Squirrel's, so in a trice they wished themselves into it, as Mr. Woodpecker had not arrived yet, and there was nobody at home. [74] 1001 E.R.HIGGINS "oh !SHRIEKED MRS. SQUIRREL, PAINTING PROMPTLY, CHAPTER IX: SCRAMBLE SQUIRREL RETURNS SCRAMBLE SQUIRREL started to climb the maple-tree where he lived, his house being about half way up in a deep, roomy hole. Nancy and Nick, peeping from Will Wood- pecker's old house above, could see Mrs. Squir- rel, too, briskly getting lunch, for she was expecting her husband home that day from Scrub-Up-Land. She had put out all the best tidies, and had made excellent dessert, which was now cooling in the kitchen, for the twins could [75] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND But although he got a little further this time -smash! Down he came again like a brick. He wasn't hurt badly this time either, but he was so mortified that he neither looked to right nor left, but jumped right up and made a dash for the tree again, determined, if possible, to find out what was the matter, and also de- termined to get up to his house where Samantha and the good smells v He mopped his face with his little red hand- kerchief, panting for breath. “My!!he gasped. “Do you 'spose it's because I haven't my tail for a balancer? My clutchers are all right, I'm sure, for Rubadub sharpened them all on his big grindstone.” And he looked at his long sharp claws proudly. Then something on top of his head suddenly began to feel heavy and queer, and he put up his paw to investigate. What could it be some big acorns or some pine-cones that had fallen onto him? Or some burrs that had stuck when he fell? But the minute he touched them he knew! He'd completely forgotten about Ben Bunny's long ears. [77] NANCY AND NICK "Jiminy Christmas!" he exclaimed impa- tiently, "so that's it! These heavy old things are going to spoil my climbing, are they? Well, not if I can help it. I'll just have to learn that I'm heavier in front than behind now, and learn also to be very careful. I shall have to do that, or else I'll have to learn to climb up backwards." Well, to make a long story short, by clutching and scratching and straining, Scramble did get up the tree, or almost up, for it suddenly oc- curred to him to surprise his wife, although why she hadn't heard him long ago, I'm sure I don't know. But it might be that she was rattling stove lids or something in the kitchen. She was about to set some acorn muffins on the table when the tips of two long ears appeared suddenly in the doorway and a voice cried, "Boo!" very loudly. "Oh!" shrieked Mrs. Squirrel, fainting promptly, the muffins spilling everywhere. And no wonder! It was the first time in her life she had ever heard of a rabbit climbing a tree. Of course she recovered quickly after Scramble had thrown a cup of water over her, [78] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND but when she heard what her husband had done she made an awful fuss. “It gives me a head- ache to look at you,” she said. “What will you be doing next?” 2 E.R. HIGGINS OUT POPPED SCRAMBLE AND TORE FOR SAFETY. “Never mind!” Scramble comforted her, try- ing to pretend that he was quite satisfied with his bargain. “It will come out all right, my dear, see if it doesn't. These ears of Ben's are very handsome, you must confess.” Mrs. Squirrel hadn't anything to say to that, and so the matter ended. Time passed, and as Scramble predicted, he [79] NANCY AND NICK he stopped licking his chops, looking very disap- pointed. And then he raised his eyes. "Ah ha!” he exclaimed softly to himself, and smiled again. “Not Scramble Squirrel, but Ben Bunny, if I'm not mistaken.” For the tips of two long brown ears were sticking right out of the top of the stump. Scramble had forgot- ten about them completely. Dear knows what would have happened if the twins hadn't been watching, and decided that if they were to save their foolish little friend, some- thing would have to be done quickly. “Oh, do chase him away, Nick,” whispered Nancy, just as Fleety was thinking of reaching and grabbing those two lovely looking ears in his mouth. Nick picked up a stone and threw it, not knowing of anything else he could do. But it was the very thing. Fleety was so startled he jumped about a yard and the dry twigs under his feet snapped and crackled loudly. That was a warning to Scramble, who knew then that he was discovered. Out he popped at the other side [82] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND of the stump, and I wish you could have seen him tear for the nearest tree-trunk, and safety. “My goodness!” he panted. “That was a tight squeak. These ears will be the end of me yet, if I don't hunt up Ben and beg him to let me out of my bargain. I wonder if he will?” It was for Nancy and Nick to find out. [88] E-R-HIGGINS MRS. BUNNY DROPPED HER BEST SALAD-BOWL. CHAPTER X: BEN BUNNY'S BARGAIN AFTER the twins saw Scramble Squirrel leap nimbly from one tree-top to another until he was safely home, they asked their Green Shoes to take them to Ben Bunny's house, so they could report to Rubadub about the other half of their errand. Ben had been delayed, and when they arrived he was just reaching home. They slipped be- hind a bush because they were sure that Ben would feel better if he thought no strangers were around. It never occurred to them that they [84] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND were eavesdropping. Really, I've a doubt if they knew what the word even meant. Mrs. Blossom Bunny was washing the dishes when her husband arrived, as she had given him up an hour ago, and eaten her lunch alone. In he rushed, right into the kitchen, swish- ing Scramble's long tail for very joy at the thought of getting home again, but it gave Mrs. Bunny such a turn that she dropped her best salad-bowl and smashed it to smithereens. “Good land alive!” she cried, dropping into a chair. “But you did scare me, Scramble Squir- rel! You don't generally come in without knock- ing, and I thought you were a burglar at first.” Ben laughed at that. “Take another good look at me, Blossom,” he suggested, “and see who you think I am now.” So Blossom looked hard. She even put on her specks and looked, and when she saw it was her very own husband, Ben, without his beauti- ful ears and with a regular scrubbing-brush of a tail instead, she couldn't speak for amazement. “I traded with Scramble,” he explained, "for several reasons. First, I can get away from [85] NANCY AND NICK Fleety Fox easier without those everlasting long ears to give away my hiding hole. And second, because perhaps I can learn to climb a tree with this handsome long tail to balance me. Besides, my dear, you'll find it useful, no doubt, to clean house with. Some dust-brush, eh?” Mrs. Bunny didn't say much for she was a wise soul and knew that the only way to con- vince Ben was to let him find out things for him- self. As for a dust-brush— Already she was wondering how she'd ever put things to rights, for whenever Ben moved he knocked something over. Dust-brush, indeed! About as much as your mother could make use of a street-sweeper in the house! But anyway, she didn't say much, giving Ben a good dinner of warmed-over victuals and tell- ing him all the gossip. When he had finished he wiped his mouth on his napkin, he folded it nicely, his napkin, not his mouth, I mean, and then said he believed he'd go out and practice. "Practice! Practice what?" asked Brs. Bunny. “Why, climbing, of course,” said he. “What [86] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND else have I got this tail for, if not to learn to climb?": Again Mrs. Bunny wisely said nothing. Wasn't she fine? So out he went, knocking over two chairs, and pushing all the pictures crooked on the wall. It really kept his wife a whole day doing out the house again! But he hopped along happily, wriggling his nose and swishing Scramble's tail, until he came to a tree that looked easy to climb. “Surely with this tail to balance me, and such nice rough bark,” he said, “I can get up without any trouble at all.” But although he had chosen a hickory-nut tree, which Scramble Squirrel or Cob Coon could have shinnied up in no time, Ben was going to have troubles of his own. Try as he would, and hang on as he could, he couldn't get up higher than a very few inches. “Shucks!” he cried finally. “This tail's no good. It only pulls me down. Whatever made me trade my ears for it, I wonder? They were such good listeners, [87] NANCY AND NICK too! Now I can't tell how close Fleety Fox might be." Just as he said it, he spied a shadow almost be- side him, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. "Jimineezers!” he exclaimed, “there's the old fel- low now.” And without stopping to mention just exactly who the "old fellow” might be, he streaked off to the briar-tangle as fast as he could hop. If he reached it, he knew he would be pretty safe, for Fleety Fox hated the briar tangle and never went in if he could help it. Suddenly Ben chuckled to himself. "Ho, ho!” he bragged. “Who's wise now?" And he wished Mrs. Blossom were there to see him. “Who knew enough to get rid of my long ears which were always sticking up and giving away my hiding hole, and to exchange them for a tail which is really no trouble at all, even if it doesn't help me to climb? I did," chuckled he. He flopped into the edge of the thicket, “ha- haing" and "ho-hoing” to himself and thinking how safe he was going to be. But—what do you think? He forgot that eight long inches had been added to his length, and that Scramble's [88] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND bushy tail was sticking out quite as plainly as the nose on the parson's face. He had indeed! And the first idea he had that he wasn't alto- gether out of the reach of the enemy, was when he felt a sharp nip behind him. ER.HIGGINS "JIMINEEZERS!” HE EXCLAIMED. “THERE'S THE OLD FELLOW vow." “Ouch!” he screamed, jumping so hard that he landed right in the midst of the brambles, which hurt him some more, although there he was indeed quite safe. And he shivered and shook so you'd have thought it was threshing time, and that poor Ben was trying to shake the briars loose. [89] NANCY AND NICK And this was what the twins heard him mutter when his teeth stopped chattering long enough for him to talk. “I—I'm going to hunt up Scramble Squirrel the minute I get out of here, and tell him to take his stupid tail back. The idea of me giv- ing up my beautiful ears that always told me when danger was a mile away! If I'd had them to-day, I'd never have let that wily old fox get near me, and if I'm not mistaken, I will have them before I'm a day older.” When he was quite sure that Fleet had got tired of waiting and had gone home, Ben slipped out to tell Blossom the news. But she never said a word, mind you. Wasn't she wonderful? But somebody else knew about it, too_two little people and a fairy, who had seen and heard everything. Back they hurried to Scrub-Up- Land, with the Magical Mushroom, to tell Mr. Rubadub that the two animal friends had made a bad bargain and were ever so sorry about the whole thing. The fairyman smiled sagely. “All's well that ends well,” said he, waving his wand. "If I'm [90] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND not mistaken, they're happy again right this min- ute.” And away off in the Land-Where-Spring- Was-Coming two foolish little creatures got their own property back and vowed they'd always be satisfied in the future. It seemed almost as though they had been dreaming that they had been so foolish. [91] 71 2 "AND," SHE ADDED, SHAKING HER FINGER, “YOU'D BETTER MEND YOUR MANNERS AND NOT BE SO CURIOUS AND YELL 'WHO' AT EVERYBODY WHO PASSES." CHAPTER XI: MR. GRUBBY GROUNDHOG "Say, kiddoes!” said Mr. Rubadub, rubbing a spot of soapsuds off the end of his nose, “would you object to doing another errand for me? I'm too busy to go myself, and if somebody doesn't rout the good-for-nothing old scalawag out, spring will be here and he'll be as dusty as a camel” “Who?” asked Nick. “Who will be as dusty as a camel, Mr. Rubadub; who's a scalawag ?” “Oh, didn't I tell you?” exclaimed Rubadub. "Mr. Groundhog of course, Grubby Groundhog. The old fellow stuffs out his sides with corn ’n' [92] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND acorns 'n' sweet apples, also any green stuff that he can get ahold of in Farmer Smith's sass-patch garden, and when he hasn't left a smidgen of anything for anybody else, he hies him off to his hole underground and sneaks away to Dream- land for six solid months. Personally, I don't think Dreamland can be much of a place, be- cause the creatures who spend the winter there are the dustiest and muddiest and dirtiest of them all. The birds who come from the South and the creatures who spend their time snooping 'round the winter woods like Ben Bunny and Scramble Squirrel, don't get half as dirty. Of course, Ben and Scramble do make trips to Dreamland once in a while, if things get too frosty for them, but they don't stay long at a time.” “We'll be ever so glad to go, Mr. Rubadub,” said Nancy obligingly, unpinning her apron and telling Mr. Owl, whom she had just finished spring-cleaning, to be careful of his light shirt- front, and to try to keep his house in better order than he had done last year. “And," she added, shaking her finger, "you'd better mend [93] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND and muddy. But the card in the door-plate didn't say a word about Grubby Groundhog living there. All it said was “Wally Woodchuck-His House." There wasn't anyone 'round to ask, so Nick and Nancy rang the doorbell. But as nobody answered it they gave the door a little push and walked in. My, but it was dark and stuffy in- side of Mr. Woodchuck's hall! The place cer- tainly needed a good airing. And it was the most puzzling place you ever saw, the very puzzlingest! Here was another doorway and a hall; there was another hallway and a door; here it went up; over yonder it curved around; and on beyond it straightened out! As nobody was to be seen, Nancy called out, “Mr. Woodchuck, Mr. Woodchuck!" And Nick sang out, “Where are you, Wally Woodchuck? We want to ask you something." For they wanted to ask where Grubby Ground- hog lived. But there wasn't any answer. After that they came to a room, and inside the [95] NANCY AND NICK room on a bed of straw—they could see through the crack-someone was sleeping, and snoring. "Bz-z-z-z-z-z!” he went. “Bz-z-z-z-z-z! Sn-r-r-r-r-r! Bz-Z-Z-Z-z-z!” And then turned over on the other side. Nick went in and walked over quite close to the bed. “I–Ibeg your padron, sir,” he said to the sleepy old tousled person on the bed. “But I'd like to ask you something." "Bz-z-z-z-z-z! Sn-r-r-r-r-r!” was all the an- swer he got. “Poke him!” said Nancy. “He doesn't look very happy. Maybe he's dreaming something horrid, and he'd like us to wake him.” So Nick poked him. "Hey! What's that!” demanded the tousley person, sitting up in bed, and rubbing his eyes, and yawning. "Were you dreaming?" asked Nancy, forget- ting for the moment that they particularly wished to ask about Grubby Groundhog. “Yes!” answered the other. “I had a dread- ful dream about soap and water. Ugh!” [96] NANCY AND NICK was his house, but we saw your name on the door instead. Did he move away?” "I've always lived here,” stated the thin tousled person. “Yes, I'm Mr. Woodchuck." “Oh, then," went on Nick, “can you tell us where Mr. Groundhog lives?” “Whatta you want him for?” asked Mr. Wood- chuck. "Did somebody• leave him a fortune, or is it something less pleasant?” “Mr. Rubadub of Scrub-Up-Land sent us for him. It's time for him to get spring-cleaned, past time, really, and he hasn't showed up yet." "Humph!" said Mr. Woodchuck under his breath. “I knew that dream I had about soap and water meant something." Then he asked out loud, “Did Mr. Rubadub tell you what Grubby Groundhog looks like?” “Yes," put in Nancy eagerly. "He said he was fat and lazy and selfish.” Mr. Woodchuck made a face. “In-deed!” said he. "Why, do you know him?" asked Nick. "Perhaps I do and perhaps I don't,” answered [98] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Mr. Woodchuck evasively. "There are so many folks around that I get them mixed." The twins looked disappointed. "Oh, we're so sorry!" said Nancy. "But if you can't help us, we mustn't stay. We'll have to be going. Perhaps some of your neighbors will know where Mr. Groundhog lives and they can tell us." Mr. Woodchuck pricked up his tiny ears at this. "Why—why, perhaps I'd better go along then!" he offered. "You see I know most people and I understand their language and—" "Oh," answered Nancy, "that's all right. We can understand, too. Our friend, the Magical Mushroom, gives us the power of understanding everybody. He gave us a charm just before we left Scrub-Up-Land, which is the same as though he was right with us. It's a piece of the pink lining out of his hat." And she fished it out of her little pocket. "But," insisted Mr. Woodchuck with a wor- ried look. "I think that I'd better go anyway. You—you might get lost." "We'll be very glad to have you, knowing where folks live 'n' all," declared Nick. "Only [99] NANCY AND NICK we didn't wish to bother you, looking as weak as you do.” "I'm hungry, that's all," answered Mr. Wood- chuck. "Have you been sick?” asked Nancy. “No, only asleep. I've slept for six months.” "Six months!” cried the twins together. “Why that's the way Mr. Groundhog does!” “Ahem!” coughed Mr. Woodchuck behind his hand. "Let's be going.” So out they filed. “I'll run ahead and ask folks, and save you the trouble,” said Mr. Woodchuck. “I'll ask the owl first. He lives over there in that tree." And he ran ahead, sat up on his hind legs, and whistled. Pretty soon Oscar Owl stuck out his head, but what he said the twins couldn't hear, he was so far away. · Pretty soon Wally Woodchuck hobbled back (he was so thin he couldn't walk right) and shook his head. “Oscar couldn't give me any news of Grubby Groundhog,” he said. “Says he knows him well, though.” WS [100] NANCY AND NICK don't seem to be able to tell me a thing about him. I'll run along ahead now and ask Chris Crow. If he doesn't know, nobody does, and you may as well return to Scrub-Up-Land and tell Mr. Rub- adub and his soap and water, I mean tell Mr. Rubadub, that Grubby can't be found.” Before Nancy and Nick could say a word, he was off again. But the twins had decided by this time that they would do a little inquiring themselves, and no sooner had Wally departed for the old hick- ory-tree where Chris Crow made his home, than they wished themselves after him. They landed on the other side of the tree, and being small (you see the shoes had made them very small in order to get into Mr. Woodchuck's house) neither Chris nor Wally noticed them. And this is the way they heard the dusty, tousley Woodchuck person ask that old fraud of a Chris Crow if he knew anything about Grubby Groundhog's whereabouts:- “St! St! Oh, Chris!” went Wally. Chris stuck out his black head. “'Lo!” he answered. “'Lo, Grubby!” [102] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Mister Woodchuck put his hand to his mouth, "Sh! Not so loud!” he whispered. “Don't gimme away. There's two folks here from Scrub-Up- Land; Rubadub sent 'em for Grubby Ground- hog and they don't know I am that person. I told 'em I'd ask you if you knew Grubby and I ran ahead so they couldn't hear. They don't know that I've got two names, and they are looking for somebody who's fat. They don't know that I'm fat in the fall and lean in the spring. Also they don't know how I hate to get spring-cleaned. I'm so hungry I'd rather eat a good meal. The sass-patch garden is start- ing to come up and the wheat's green as any- thing. Now don't tell, will you?” “Tee, hee,” snickered Mr. Crow. “'Deed I won't, Grubby. That scrubbing business is no fun. And they might clip your tail crooked, like they did my wings.” Nick looked at Nancy and Nancy looked at Nick. What a lot they had discovered in the last few minutes! Wishing themselves large enough to pull a certain tousled person along with them, Nick [103] NANCY AND NICK took a firm hold of one of Grubby Groundhog's ears, and Nancy seized the other. "Come along, Grubby," they commanded. "No more tricks, either. You've fooled us long enough. Everybody will like you better when you're clean. Then you may come back here and eat as much as you like all spring and summer." And what could Grubby, or Wally, or what- ever you wish to call him, do, but go? [104] NANCY GOT THE FAN AT ONCE. CHAPTER XII: MR. SLEEPY WHATSHISNAME “Who's this?” asked Rubadub, pushing his cap onto the back of his head and jerking his thumb at a creature all huddled up behind a stone. Nancy and Nick came running. “Looks like Mr. Fox,” said Nancy, “his nose is so pointy.” "No,” contradicted Nick. "Look at his ears! They aren't big enough for Fleety Fox. Mr. Rubadub, don't you know?" Rubadub shook his head. “No, I don't. Never saw the gentleman before in all my life,” said he. [105] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Fleet doesn't go to Dreamland in the winter, even for a week's vacation. He is so afraid that he'll miss something or someone or a meal-that he snoops around all winter long, and the snow keeps him clean.' They do say that the underground road to Dreamland is most untidy, and as Fleet never goes he never gets dirty. "It can't be Corny Coon, either," went on Rubadub thoughtfully, "for Corny has a tail like the brush in a carpet-sweeper, and it's as striped as a stick of peppermint-candy.” So there they were, just where they began, nobody knowing who the stranger was, or where he came from. Rubadub and Nancy and Nick asked all the creatures in Scrub-Up-Land if they'd ever seen him, but nobody had, until the cuckoo-bird hap- pened along. “I don't know his name," said the cuckoo-bird, thoughtfully cocking his head on one side, “but I'm sure I've seen him down South. I think he's the very fellow who asked me if I knew where there was a persimmon-tree. He [107] NANCY AND NICK must have been hunting for a persimmon-tree and wandered in here by mistake." "Either that, or when he saw so many of the birds coming from the South, he decided that there must be something special going on up North here and so he followed them," suggested Nancy. It was a long speech and a bright idea for such a little girl. Rubadub smiled. "That's just exactly it," said he, "and the journey on foot has tired him." "It's a long way to come just for a soap-and- water bath," said Nick. "Oh, there's no doubt that he made a mistake," said the cuckoo-bird. "He meant to go to the Land - Where - Spring - Is - Coming, I suppose. Someone told him, likely, that there might be a persimmon-tree there." Well, they all talked and talked and guessed and guessed about the strange creature, where he came from, where he might be going, and why he slept so soundly. For, through all the conversation, Mr. Whateverhisnamewas never batted an eye-lid. "He's the very quietest sleeper I ever saw," [108] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND said Rubadub watching him closely. “Why, you can't even see him breathe!” The twins stooped and watched too. It was true. He was very different from all the sleepers MR. POSSUM GOT THE SPRING-CLEANING OF HIS LIFE, they had seen before, whose sides generally went out and in or up and down with each breath. He sort of reminded Nancy of her bisque doll, Jane, whose eyes closed when you laid her down. She never moved when she slept, but stayed in the same position, still and cold, until you picked her up again. [109] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND pulling, they managed to get His Sleepiness or His Faintiness or whatever his name was, strung up by the tail. Rubadub twisted it (the tail) ’round the tree-limb, and do you know, he never even had to tie it, for it stayed just where Rub- adub put it without a knot or anything, just as though it had been accustomed to hanging onto tree-limbs all its life, the tail I mean. “Now then, everybody!” said Rubadub, step- ping back, “stand away and give him air. Nancy, you run and get a fan and fan him, and Nickie, you watch to see if he flickers his eyes. I'm go- ing to look at my watch and see how long he faints.” Nancy got the fan at once and everybody took a turn fanning Mr. Whateverhisnamewas hang- ing up there by his tail. Nick watched his eyes for some sign of his waking, and Rubadub count- ed the seconds. But do you know, the fairyman got to a hundred, then to three hundred and still the creature didn't make a sign. He just hung there with his head down like an old coat hung upside down on a hook. "Well, I never!” declared Rubadub finally, [111] NANCY AND NICK putting away his watch and chain. "The harder you fan and the more I count, the sounder he sleeps. Really this is the faintest faint I ever heard of in all my life. There! There! It's no use fanning. Everybody stop. We'll have to think of something else. Here, all of you, help me unwind him and we'll lay him down again." So with some more lifting and heaving and dragging and bumping, they got him down again just where he was before, and stretched him out on the ground. "I know of something else 'ts good for faints," piped up Markie Muskrat again. "It's cold water. If you rub his hands and face and wrists with cold water, most likely that'll fetch him. Dr. Mink says it's a fine thing." "All right, we'll try it," said Rubadub. "Nickie, run and get a bucket of cold water at once, and Nancy get some little white rags." In ever so short a time the twins returned with all the things and everybody set to work again. Nancy wrung out her little cloths in the cold water and handed them 'round to everybody and [112] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Mr. Whateverhisnamewas must have thought (if he could think at all when he was so fainty) that a nice cool spring shower had come along and found him without an umbrella. Nancy sprinkled water on his face and laid a cool cloth on his forehead, Mr. Rubadub laid another one on the back of his neck, Nick wet his feet and Muff Mole looked after his hands, Mark Muskrat wet his tail, and the other creatures sprinkled him all over. But not a bit of use was any of it! He slept on and on and on. Or I should say, perhaps, he fainted on and on and on. “Does anybody know of anything else to do?" asked Rubadub. Tillie Toad said she'd heard of smelling-salts, whatever that meant. So Rubadub hurried off to one of his cupboards and brought back two bottles. One was marked “Smelling Salts” and the other one was marked “Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia.” He poured some "Spirits of Ammonia” into a teaspoon and opened Mr. Whatshisname's mouth and let it (the ammonia) run down his throat. Then he held the smelling salts to Mr. [113] NANCY AND NICK Whatshisname's nose, and waited. Everybody waited. In fact they'd all waited so long they were getting tired of waiting. But Mr. Whateverhisnamewas didn't budge. He didn't wink or breathe or move. Mr. Rubadub sighed. “I give it up,” he said at last. "I think he must be dead." “Goodness!” said Nancy. “Wouldn't that be too bad! Do you suppose he walked too far?" Just then the cuckoo-bird who had started to fly away, came back and perched on the tree again, beckoning for the fairyman to come close. “Say!" whispered he. “I just happened to think of something. It never occurred to me until you said 'dead,' Mr. Rubadub, but I've been putting two and two together, and persimmon-trees and one thing 'n' another together, and I'm pretty sure that this Mr. Whatshisname here is a friend of a friend of mine, and he's very peculiar. Very! When he doesn't want to do anything or when he's afraid folks will do something he doesn't like, he can play dead better 'n' Fido, the trick dog. I'll bet you anything that we can wake him up!” [114] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND The cuckoo bird whispered the words into Rubadub's ear, just loud enough for Nancy and Nick to hear, but not loud enough for anyone else. And he went on telling them some other things that brought the smile back to Rubadub's brow. “All right!” whispered the fairyman back to the cuckoo-bird. “I'll try it. You'd better stay here to see how it works.” Then he called loudly, “Nancy, Nick, Markie Muskrat, everybody, come here!” Everybody came crowding close. "Now listen carefully,” said Rubadub. "I guess that our friend here must be pretty sick. He's so sick that I'm afraid that we can't make him better, ourselves, so we'll have to send for the doctor. And we don't want the doctor to think that we don't know how to take care of a patient, do we?” Everybody said he didn't want such a thing to happen. "Well then,” nodded Rubadub, “the most im- portant thing of all in nursing is cleanliness. We must make the patient as clean as a soap-bubble [115] NANCY AND NICK before the doctor comes. In order to do that, we must give him a good scrubbing with several kinds of soap, soap-suds, soap-powder, and soap- flakes. Now, who will go and get the soap?” "I! I! I!” came several voices at once, each person clamoring to help. “I'll go. We'll all go." “That's fine!” answered Rubadub. “Now lis- ten to what I tell you.” One by one they departed, even Nancy and Nick and the fairyman himself, leaving Mr. Sleepy Whatshisname still and silent behind the big stone. But Rubadub and the twins only went a little way. They stopped and hid behind a tree trunk to see what would happen. And something did happen! The sleepy creature who had caused so much excitement and commotion, or rather the creature who had pretended to be so sleepy, opened one wary eye, then the other, and looked around. Then he lifted his nose, then his head and his tail, and the very next thing wasn't he standing on all four feet, quietly peering in every direction. See- [116] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND ing nobody he started to grin. “Didn't I fool them, though?” he snickered. “Didn't I have the whole kaboodle of them completely hoodwinked! But I'd better be going before they bring all that soap-powder 'n' soap-flakes 'n' stuff. I've no intention of getting the nasty stuff in my eyes and mouth and nose, and don't you forget it. Next time Mr. Philander 'Possum follows the birds and comes to a place like this, you'll know he's losing his mind. I guess I won't go North at all. I'll just slip out of the gate and go South again. I haven't seen a single persimmon- tree since I left home.” With that Mr. Philander ’Possum (for that's what Mr. Sleepy Whatshisname's name really was) started for the gate, but Rubadub and the twins were too quick for him. They stepped out and stopped him, and as all the others returned just then with forty kinds of soap and some more water, Mr. 'Possum got the spring-clean- ing of his life. He still tells the story to his grandchildren, with many chuckles, as a good joke on himself. [117] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND out. Jerking his thumb back toward the door he said under his breath, "A very important per- son is here! Very! No other than the Bird of Paradise. She wishes to get her spring clothes made." When he came in looking as mysterious as a penny prize package, the twins had put down their brushes and crayons, and waited with bated breath to hear the wonderful news he had to tell. "Huh!" said Nick now, in a disappointed tone, quite impolitely, I'm afraid. "I never heard of her. Who's she?" And he picked up a sharp lit- tle file to make Will Woodpecker's bill just the right shape for hammering on the trees. And Nancy said, "Is that the yellow stuff they wear on hats?" And she started chalking Will's white wings to make 'em still whiter. "Such remarks!" said Rubadub shocked. "I'm perfectly amazed. But after all perhaps it's lit- tle wonder that you know so little about her Highness. Birds of Paradise don't belong in our country, but live many thousands of miles away. That is why it is so unusual and such an honor to have this lady select us to fix her up. Especial- [119] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND and the fairyman got busy hunting out all their finest materials. There were wonderful feath- ers that Rubadub said he had been saving for umpty-some years, for occasions such as this, paint of the loveliest rainbow shades, silver pow- der, gold powder, and what not! For the Bird of Paradise you must know, children, just as Rubadub said, is the grandest bird in all the world. Indeed Nancy and Nick nearly lost their breath when the fairyman showed them her lovely picture in the “Bird-Book.” Next they lowered all the shades, for Ruba- dub said she had asked especially to have it dark, and when everything was ready the fairyman opened the door. And in walked the stranger! Of course the light was very dim but there was quite enough of it to see that the visitor was certainly not so gorgeous as her picture. Really she was quite plain, being dressed altogether in dull brown. · The Magical Mushroom took a good look at her and then whispered to Nancy that to his mind her name might as well be Bird of the Barnyard, [121] NANCY AND NICK as Bird of Paradise, and he was also about to say some more uncomplimentary things, when the lady herself apologized. “I've come a long way, so of course I just wore my traveling clothes,” she said. “But when I return, no doubt the weather will be quite fine, so I may wear my new gown home. Can you begin right away?" Rubadub bowed and said that they could and would, and showing her the picture in the "Best Bird-Book," asked if that were the kind of a dress she wished. He brought it quite close so she could see plainly. “Y–y-yes!” gasped the brown bird. "Is that really and truly the Bird of Par- ” And then, quite haughtily, “Oh! I mean, that's ex- actly what I wish. You may begin at once.” Well, everybody got busy at once primping up the little brown bird. First of all they painted her bill a lovely sky-blue (just like the picture), then they colored her feet an exquisite pink (also like the picture). The feathers on her back and sides and breast they made white and gold and purple and green, and then fastened long, grace- [122] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND ful, orange-colored plumes below her wings. (All just like the picture.) Last of all they shook gold and silver powder over her and fastened a strip of velvet about her E.R.HIGGINS "ME, BIDDY HEN,” SAID THE MOST DISHEVELED CREATURE YOU EVER SAW, throat, which finished her off completely. Be- hold what a gorgeous creature the little brown bird had become! Cinderella changed into a princess! “Now come over and see yourself, please,” said Rubadub proudly, leading her to the mirror. “Do you like your new gown?” "I—is that really me?” she cried, when her [123] NANCY AND NICK own bedecked image met her eyes. “Oh, oh, oh! I'm surely the grandest creature alive, now. I mean,” hastily, “it feels better to have one's best clothes on." And then, as is the way with the "newly rich" often, she grew suddenly haughty again. “Open the door!” she commanded sharply. "How do you expect me to half see in this awful gloom?” "But you said the light hurt your eyes,” Nick reminded her. “Well, what if I did?” she snapped. “They're better. Good gracious! Do I have to explain everything I do?” "My! my!” The Magical Mushroom shook his head soberly. “Some people certainly do change their manners with their clothes, don't they!” "Oh, do stop talking so much," answered Mrs. Bird of Paradise wearily, “and show me how to hold up my train. I must be going at once.” "Oh, don't you know how?” asked the wise old Mushroom quickly, winking at Rubadub. “Be- sides, you don't need to hold it up when you fly." [124] NANCY AND NICK see if she isn't back by to-morrow.” And he smiled a wise smile. "Shall we follow her?" asked Nancy and Nick eagerly. “Perhaps we can help her.” Rubadub shook his head. “No, I think not; she'd only think you were interfering. The only way to do with some folks is to leave 'em alone." But the Mushroom was wrong. The Bird of Paradise didn't even wait until the next day. That very evening the door opened a crack, and a head looked in; a head with one eye swollen, and all the feathers on it, the head, not the eye, sticking out forty ways for Sunday. “May I come in?” asked a meek voice. "Sure!” cried Rubadub, opening the door wider. “Who is it?” “Me, Biddy Hen,” said the most dishevelled- looking creature you ever saw. “Would you mind taking all this stuff off and making me over into a plain chicken again? Nobody at home knows me, and they won't let me in. I'm 'most starved, and I'm tired to death. These old feather dusters trip me at every step, and Cockadoodle, my husband, called me a trollop. [126] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Oh, dear, why was I ever so silly as to wish to be beautiful?" “Handsome is as handsome does,” Rubadub comforted her. "I reckon you're right,” she sighed, “but I've brought up five families, and no one ever asked me for my photograph yet.” Everybody got to work then, and took off all the ruined finery, and Mrs. Biddy Hen went home to her family, a sadder and wiser bird. (127) IN SCRUB-UP-LAND to come to the barber-shop as fast as he could, and take his turn. But no Casper came, not a feather of him, and neither did he answer to his name. So they searched for him everywhere, behind the doors, under the empty paint-pots, on top of the ladders and outdoors, too. But there wasn't a sign of him. Suddenly there was a terrific rumpus from somewhere, quarreling and scolding, as though every creature in Christendom had a grievance and was airing it. Evidently some one had called Mr. Frog names, and he was answering back. “You're dumb,” he croaked, "you're dumb, you're dumb!” He acted awfully mad. Then another voice shrilled a denial. It sounded exactly like Biddy Hen. “I'm not at all, I'm not at all!" she cackled. "I'm just as smart as you, I'm just as smart as you, I'm twice as smart as you!” "Stop your fussing, aren't you ashamed!” came the oriole's voice. “Why? Why? Why?” wondered the kill- deer. [129] ly as si world. u s about to Fairy "W? iously. "Sh *Ermeling E ST 1 cunot would hid in crack. like t "A JOSmis dose so "We peck "I way pain you custo all t. > D Smee." rmping up 2- a and e picture), m mar the fina IN SCRUB-UP-LAND ful, orange-colored plumes below her wings. (All just like the picture.) Last of all they shook gold and silver powder over her and fastened a strip of velvet about her . yo co.. diorming E.R.HIGGINS "ME, BIDDY HEN," SAID THE MOST DISHEVELED CREATURE YOU EVER SAW, throat, which finished her off completely. Be- hold what a gorgeous creature the little brown bird had become! Cinderella changed into a nincess! come over and see yourself, please,” said qudly, leading her to the mirror. in own?" cried, when her IN SCRUB-UP-LAND back here, when they've been away, some of them for a month?” A wise look came into Rubadub's eyes, but he said nothing except, “Whose turn is it to get spring-cleaned?” E.R. HIGGINS A SMALL GRAY FIGURE TALKING AND SCOLDING WITH THE VOICES. “Casper Catbird's, Mr. Rubadub," Nancy told him. "And have you got him?" “No, not yet. When we started to search for him all the fussing started, and we thought we'd better stop it first. But we don't know where [188] NANCY AND NICK to go. We can't tell where any of the sounds come from.” "Exactly!” nodded the fairyman beckoning, "Ex-act-lee! Come on, we'll search for whom- ever we can find. I don't think it will be very hard to catch the offender-I mean offenders.” "Here's one now,” called Nick in a minute, pointing to Philip Frog, snoring peacefully un- der a burdock. “But he's asleep,” smiled Rubadub, "how can he be making so much racket?" It was true. Phil had no more idea of quar- reling than I have at this minute, and I'm feeling pretty friendly indeed! Mysterious, wasn't it? On they went, following Rubadub, and all the while getting nearer and nearer to the noises. Sometimes the quarreling would stop and the sawing would begin—the two sounds never hap- pening at the same time. Pretty soon the fairyman put his finger on his lips, and began to tippety-tiptoe, which meant for everybody to be very quiet; and the little Green Shoes could slip along with no noise at all, let me tell you. [134] MANAN RUBADUB CALLED THE TWINS AND THE MAGICAL MUSHROOM TO Em AND HELD A COUNCIL. CHAPTER XV: THE EASTER BUNNY SPRING was getting along pretty well by this time. Since Jack Frost had sneaked off to his home at the North Pole, or in the sky or wherever it was he lived, and let the fairy helpers work unhindered, they had worked more busily than bees in a clover patch; and with all the katkins out, the fuzzy buds on the alders, little red blos- soms on the maple-trees, and green buds blanket- ing all the bushes and shrubs, the Land-Where- Spring-Was-Coming looked like the Fairy Queen's private bower. [186] NANCY AND NICK I'm sure they weren't Christmas presents for anybody. But there were still other nest builders. In- door ones! Little chubby nest-builders, who scampered up to attics and searched for bright- colored baskets (or at least they had been bright a year ago) and then, when they found them, scrubbed them up and tied on bows and tiptoed into the best parlor and hid 'em—and tiptoed out again! Knowing this and taking a squint at his cal- endar, Rubadub called the twins and the Magi- cal Mushroom to him and held a long council. "It's time for the Easter Bunny,” he an- nounced. “High time! He's due in the Land- Where-Spring-Is-Coming the day after to-mor- row." "But,” said Nancy, “he isn't here yet. We can't clean him up when he isn't here!" "No," smiled Rubadub, “but he will be. Don't think he ever forgets when the kiddies are ex- pecting him. He's on his way now from Dream- land. Anyway, what's the matter with getting (188) IN SCRUB-UP-LAND the eggs ready for him—and the candy chickens, and bunnies?” The twins clapped their hands. “Oh, that will be grand! Do you really do all that in Scrub- Up-Land, Mr. Rubadub?" “Who else, if I don't?” he replied. "And do please tell us how he carries every- thing,” they coaxed. “Is he like the Magical Fox who rode the Prince on his tail?” "Now how could he do that when he hasn't any tail to speak of !” exclaimed the fairyman in sur- prise. “Certainly not. The fairy helpers go along in thousands loaded down like Santa Claus. They open the windows and unlock doors, and find the nests, and presto! in the morning the kiddies find wonderful things. Of course the Easter Bunny knows where everybody lives and takes charge of everything, but since the world has got so big, he has to have help.” “How-do-you-do, everybody,” said a cheery voice just then, and turning they beheld the Easter Bunny himself smiling in the doorway. He was in high good-humor, and said he was very glad to meet the twins. "Fine weather,” he [139] NANCY AND NICK went on, rubbing his paws together, “fine and clear and Easterish. I think we owe it all to our young friends here, for going to see Mr. Sun and having him chase that fellow Jack Frost.” And he again turned his friendly eyes on Nancy and Nick, who thanked him delightedly. “Anything ready?” he inquired, looking round with a business eye. . “Not yet,” apologized Rubadub, “but we are just going to commence on the chocolates.” “I'm glad I got here in time,” said the Easter Bunny nodding wisely, “to tell you not to make too much sweet stuff.” Rubadub raised his brows. “H’m!” he said. “Sugar? Scarce?" “No!” answered the Bunny. “Stomach-ache! Plenty!" Then they both laughed. “Well, that's too bad!” said the fairyman, shak- ing his head. "The kiddies all have such a sweet tooth. I hate to disappoint 'em.” “Oh, I don't mean to be stingy with them, the dears,” said the Easter Bunny hastily. “I cer- tainly mean to give them enough sweets for one [140] NANCY AND NICK isfaction. The Fairy Queen's own idea! Got plenty of cotton?” "Oodles!" answered the fairyman, which in every-day language means “a great deal.” Well, everybody got to work right away, the Easter Bunny himself tying on an apron and pitching in. Eggs were dyed every color of the rainbow, and some with fancy figures of birds and flowers on top. Little peeps with yellow bills and beady eyes were turned out by hundreds, and little ducks that looked so real, you feared they were about to rush for the water. There were sugar bunnies, however, in spite of all the "Easter Bunny's" warning. Rubadub said that if he knew children, they would rather take a chance on the doctor, than do without a sugar bunny. So sugar bunnies there were-lovely ones of all sizes with beads of white icing festooned de- liciously all over them. And jelly beans! Mil- lions of them to put inside the make-believes whose heads came off. And last but most important of all, were the wonderful crystal eggs with pink fluting and a [142] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND sugar rose, and a little window in the end, where you put one eye and saw shepherdesses tending sheep, and milkmaids leading bossies through brooks. Everything got finished finally, the last job being to dye green paper and straw grass for the baskets, and then the making of the baskets themselves! For of course sometimes Easter- baskets get lost from year to year in the attic, and so of course the Easter Bunny has to take a great supply. A very great supply! At last everything was ready, and the Easter Bunny made a most elaborate toilet for the trip. His brown coat was beautifully brushed and his white waistcoat laundered until it glistened like snow. Oh, the elegant fellow was quite a dandy, particularly when Rubadub tied a red satin cravat round his neck. Then the fairies came buzzing from their duties in the forests and meadows and gardens in the Land-Where-Spring-Was-Coming, eager to help with the baskets of goodies that were to bring joy to so many little hearts. The Easter Bunny himself was loaded to the eyes with so [148] NANCY AND NICK many baskets that he looked like a market-truck. Away they all went then, when Mr. Sun had gone to bed and thousands of pairs of little eyes had closed dutifully in the Land-Where-Easter- Was-Coming. The little fairies flitted along through the twilight with their mysterious bur- dens to be left stealthily behind parlor-curtains and dining-room chairs and even under beds, where little bare feet would run pattering to hunt for them in the morning. Rubadub looked after the fairy helpers and the Easter Bunny, then turned to Nancy and Nick and suggested that they take a vacation. "Suppose,” said he, “that you go home for Easter. I can get along in great shape until Monday. Besides, you know, you mustn't ever come to help me when your parents might need you, or when you're to have a holiday.” “Oh, they never miss us at all!” said Nancy. “They like us to play outdoors in the meadow and this is quite as near, you know.” Another thing Nancy didn't think about. Fairy days and hours are quite different from our days and hours. So it was altogether likely [144] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND that the children hadn't been missed for an instant. But the Green Shoes took them home right away, setting them down in the Green Meadow near the house. That night when their mother came in, ever so softly, two little figures were tucked cozily away in bed, with eyes shut tight. She kissed them good-night and patted their tousled heads tenderly. “Tired out,” she whis- pered, smoothing the covers. “Busy little people!” Wasn't she right, though! And at that, she little guessed how hard they had been working. Never mind! Their reward was waiting for them downstairs, hidden snugly away behind the portieres in the hall. At that very minute some- thing went lippety-lopping down the path to the gate. The figure could be plainly seen in the light from the living-room windows, had any one thought to look. It was brown and glistening white and could it be possible—there was a dash of scarlet. It looked almost like a red satin bow. [145] E.R. HIGGINS PHIL DIDN'T MOVE A STEP. CHAPTER XVI: PHIL FROG GETS TAILORED Many birds and animals were still in Scrub- Up-Land waiting to be spring-cleaned. So of course Nancy and Nick hurried back the very first minute they could get away. Rubadub was so glad to see them he almost cried, at least he blew his nose quite loudly, but it may have been because he didn't know of any- thing else to do. Nancy tied on her apron, and Nick rolled up his sleeves and looked around. “What is there to do now, Mr. Rubadub?” he asked, waving a greeting to all the creatures crowding round to welcome them. [146] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND “Let's see!” cried Rubadub, “Oh, yes, there's one fellow who should have been out of here weeks ago, but strange to say he doesn't seem to mind whether he goes out or not. Like Casper Catbird, he's disappeared and I can't find him. It's Philip Frog." “Why!” exclaimed Nick. “Don't you remem- ber, he was sleeping behind the door when we were hunting for Casper. Perhaps he's there yet." "Never thought of it!” declared the fairyman, brushing out Corny Coon's tail, and telling him to “begone and good luck.” “That's exactly where he is. Come on and we'll find him right away.” Away they all trooped to the door behind which Phil lay peacefully snoring with his head on a little white pillow. “Yes, sir, there he is,” said Rubadub, pointing toward the sleeper in an exasperated sort of way. Nick tiptoed over close to Phil's ear, and yelled, "Boo,” as loudly as he could, which was pretty loud. Phil smiled broadly in his sleep, a wide sweet [147] NANCY AND NICK smile, and murmured drowsily. “That's lovely, Miss Pollywog! Simply lovely! Would you mind singing that last beautiful note again?” The twins were very much astonished at such an answer. At first they thought Phil was play- ing a joke on them, but another loud snore proved the contrary. Nick gave him a little poke -no, a good-sized poke—and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Wake up, you! Hey, wake up, I say!" It was really quite loud enough to waken the park monument, but the sleepy fellow merely turned over and smiled more broadly than ever, murmuring dreamily, “Oh, adorable creature! How I love the touch of your soft hand! Such wonderful tenderness! Won't you sing that ex- quisite melody to me again?” "Well, I never!” exclaimed Rubadub, looking around the crowd to see how they took it. “Sing- ing pollywogs! Adorable creatures! Soft hands! Humph! Either Mr. Frog must have a double case of spring-fever or else he's been eating pie and cheese before going to bed, to make him dream like that. Wait! I bet I can [148] NANCY AND NICK "Maybe!" Phil nodded. "But I don't see why, when I know how to spring-clean myself." "Ha, ha!" laughed Rubadub. "That's good, Philip. I suppose you think that all you have to do is to leap into Lily Pond and you'll be as clean as a blade of grass. Perhaps you will, sir, but how about your last year's suit fading? It's as brown and spotty as an autumn leaf, and wrinkled, too. All the water in Lily Pond and Ripple Creek and even Briny Ocean couldn't make your coat bright and green as it used to be, nor whiten your vest. What you need is a good laundry and some expert dyers, like Nancy and Nick here. Also a good tailor like myself. At your service, sir!" "Expert dyers!" grinned Phil, blinking at the twins with his sleepy eyes. "Perhaps they are, but didn't you know that I am the original dyer myself. It was I who invented the beautiful shade of bull-frog green so popular with my friends. And as for tailoring, I don't know of any one who can make coat and breeches to fit like I can." [150] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Rubadub lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “Then why did you come here?” he asked. "I must have made a mistake,” answered Phil. “When I left Dreamland I was scarcely awake “HOW COULD YOU DO IT?” HE CRIED, “WITHOUT ANYTHING TO WORK WITA.” and when I started to hop toward the Land- Where-Spring-Was-Coming I probably turned to the left instead of to the right, being too sleepy to read the signs.” The fairyman was thoughtful for a minute. “H'm!” he said aloud. “Your case is most un- usual. Most! I hardly know what to do. If (151) IN SCRUB-UP-LAND you a little later,” he put them off. “Just now I'd like a little time to myself, if you don't mind, to sort of think things over. I haven't got wide- awake enough yet to do a thoroughly good job, I'm afraid; suppose I call you when I'm ready.” “Very well!” said Rubadub as they all moved toward the door, “but mind you don't go to sleep again, sir, you're late enough as it is.” After they had closed the door, Philip became suddenly active. He wasn't a bit sleepier than you are at this minute, unless it's bed-time, and if that's the case you probably aren't sleepy at all. He peeled off his clothes, his old wrinkled brown ones that Rubadub said looked like an autumn leaf, and lo and behold, didn't he have underneath the loveliest, freshest, pale-green spring suit you ever saw on a frog, and not a wrinkle in it. Phil looked fully ten years younger. It was a case, almost, as Bill Black- bird had said, of "fine feathers making fine birds," only as frogs have no feathers, of course it was more correct to say, “Fine skins make fine frogs." And then he did the most remarkable thing, [153] NANCY AND NICK which showed how hungry poor Philip was. He swallowed his old clothes, lining, buttons, pockets, and all. Whether he had indigestion afterwards or not I can't say, but if he did, he most likely took a dose of arrow-root bitters, which is so bad that any one taking it imme- diately forgets that he has a pain. Rubadub and the twins hadn't taken twenty steps when the door opened and Philip called after them. "Ha!” exclaimed Rubadub, turning suddenly, as much as to say, “I told you so. Have you changed your mind, Mr. Frog?" “No, I've changed my clothes," answered Phil. The fairyman gasped, then hurried back, scarcely able to believe his eyes. “But how could you do it?” he cried, "without anything to work with? You didn't know where the needles or anything were.” “Oh, grinned Phil. “I carry my own things, besides didn't I tell you I was an expert tailor? When once I make up my mind to do anything, it's done and that's all there is to it." [154] NANCY AND NICK line. "After you're sunned and properly beaten, I'll let Bobby Blue Jay carry you to the Land- Where-Spring-Is-Coming so that all the birds can divide you up and make mattresses for their babies. It's so hard for them to get cotton and wool bits, that I'm sure that silk is almost un- heard of. Won't they be happy!" At this the little pillow gave such a jerk that it fell from her grasp completely and landed at her feet. As Nancy stooped to pick it up, she heard a funny sound and looking up she saw the Magical Mushroom snickering fit to kill. "I don't see what there is to laugh at," she declared crossly. "Just because this silly pillow keeps jiggling out of my hands. You're both queer," she declared, jerking the pillow up again and starting off for the line, "but I promised Mr. Rubadub to help, and if cleaning up his pil- lows isn't helping, please tell me what is?" Quite some words for sweet, good-tempered little Nancy who loved everything and every- body but who did not like to be laughed at, espe- cially when there wasn't a thing that was funny. The Magical Mushroom straightened up at once [158] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND i and followed her, looking as solemn as an owl, but there was still a merry little twinkle away down in the corner of one eye, if you got close enough to see it, and had a spy-glass! Nancy pinned the little pillow on the clothes- line quite securely with a whole row of clothes- pins, for if it could flop so easily right out of her hands she decided it must be a very unusual pillow and needed to be fastened tight. All the while Mr. Magical Mushroom was watching and never saying a word, but by this time there was a twinkle away down in both eyes. Nancy wished he would go away and not stand around so much, especially when he wasn't help- ing anyway, and I'm afraid that as she stooped to pick up a good stout switch she made a face at him. When we're cross at anybody, we usually take it out on something or somebody else. And so, being cross at her fairy friend, the little girl gave the little silk pillow a great whack with all her might right in its plumpest part, and another and another and another. Suddenly she realized that sounds were coming [159] NANCY AND NICK from the pillow, and she stopped with her arm in midair. "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" it was crying. "Please stop, and I'll come out as fast as I can. I didn't mean to be so slow. I'll hurry, really I shall, if you'll only please wait." "Goodness!" cried Nancy, dropping the switch, almost too surprised to speak. "W—what is it? Who is it?" "I'll tell you in a minute, just as soon as I get my head out," answered a voice, "only do please send Mr. Blue Jay away first." "He isn't here," the little girl assured whom- ever it was inside the pillow, "so you may come out whenever you wish. There's nobody here but the Magical Mushroom and he won't hurt you." The twinkle in the Mushroom's eyes had deepened to a smile, and Nancy glanced at him remorsefully, feeling that she had been wrong to get so cross. Just then there was a tearing sound and a head poked out of a hole at the end of the pillow, a head with two great beady black eyes, which looked around anxiously as though to make sure [160] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND that Nancy was entirely right about Mr. Bobby Blue Jay. "Here's part of me,” nodded the head, in a friendly way. “The rest of me is coming soon, just as soon as I can get untangled. ERHIGGINS “OH, YOU BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY !" EXCLAIMED NANCY. These threads are wrapped around me all sorts of ways.” Then slowly an arm stretched itself out, then another arm, and then, a long slim body pulled itself out with difficulty. Lastly came a couple of legs and the creature dropped to the ground leaving the little pillow-slip flopping flat and empty on the line. [161] ER HIGGINS “WE CALL IT FLOWER POLLEN," INSISTED NICK. CHAPTER XVIII: A QUEEN IN A VELVET CLOAK NANCY had painted the wake-robin and violets and Nick was finishing the May-flowers, coloring the tiny petals a beautiful shel:-pink and waxing the smooth green leaves, then sprinkling over the blossoms some drops of Fairyland Fancy Per- fume. They were working hard, as Rubadub was anxious to get through so he could clean up the shop and lock the gate of Scrub-Up-Land until next year. Nearly all the birds had gone to the Land- Where-Spring-Was Coming, the bobolink, gold- [164] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND wouldn't be fine weather until the clover blossoms were out, and that's what her errand was about, in Scrub-Up-Land, to see if she couldn't hurry things up a little and get the clover sent right away to the Land-Where-Spring-Was Coming. "So far," said she, "there isn't a thing worth tasting. How long will it be before honeysuckle- time?" and she buzzed hungrily. “It's about the last,” announced Nick. “Honeysuckle is always in bloom about rose time, I think. But if you'll wait, I'll ask Mr. Rubadub." “Oh, never mind,” said the visitor peevishly. “If I can't have it right this minute, I don't care when I get it. But now that I'm here, I'll have you dust me up a bit, for my velvet and gold cloak is very much travel-stained from my long journey. Come here, little girl, and take my things, will you?” She said it kindly enough but Nancy couldn't help shivering again. She did wish the Queen didn't look quite so much like Mrs. Bee. But she took the little bags her Majesty handed her, quite bravely. [167] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND herself hastily—"until I show them where my kingdom is to be this year. Now, little girl, if you'll hand me my honey-bag, and flour-sack and my sewing-basket, I'll be going. That's it, thank you. And, little boy, will you please look around and see if Sleeker Swallow is out of the way? He's my worst enemy and I can't start until he is safely out of the road." Nick told her the coast was clear, so away she buzzed exaetly like a motor, out of the gate of Scrub-Up-Land and off to the Land Where- Spring-Was-Coming. At the gate she stopped for an instant to wave farewell. "Write to me some time," she called. "You'll find my address in the dictionary under the A's." "I think," said the Magical Mushroom, wisely, "that you'd be quite as sure, children, to find it under the bee's. That was Mrs. Queen-Bee her- self." [171] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND Nancy and Nick were rolling down their sleeves and getting ready to go home, for the Magical Mushroom said it was so beautiful and warm and green now in the Green Meadow, that they must get back and have some romps. The Green Shoes said they were ready to go at a mo- ment's notice, and it looked as though the children would be saying good-by to Rubadub for a year, very shortly, when there was a rushing of wings and in flew Sleeker Swallow in his evening clothes. And, mind you, it was morning. "Am I too late?” he asked, anxiously, when he had got his breath. “I didn't realize that time was going so, and here I've been playing out on the ocean, having the most fun grabbing things off the top of the water. It just occurred to me that it must be time to get spring-cleaned, so here I am. Have the dandelions gone yet?” “Yes, they went yesterday,” nodded Rubadub. "My, my!” exclaimed Sleeker. "I should have gone then, too. People always look for us together. Have the bees gone?” “Mrs. Queen-Bee went yesterday, too,” an- swered the fairyman. [173] NANCY AND NICK “Then I shall have to hurry,” cried Sleeker. "I do love bees so.” Nancy thought it queer that he should like them so well when she distinctly remembered Queen Avis as saying that she didn't wish to come across Mr. Swallow on her way home. But suddenly she caught a greedy gleam in the bird's eye, and she knew. If he looked so hungry when he just said bees, how would he look and act when he saw them? But he changed the subject. “I wish to speak about my clothes,” said he, in a complaining tone. "Here I am all dressed up like a society person, when I'm not one at all.” “Tut, tut!” said Rubadub, shaking a finger at him. “Well, I don't care!” said Sleeker, crossly. “I'm not a dickey-bird, living in a gold cage, taking baths in a gravy dish, and eating seeds out of a vase.” “Your clothes look very nice,” said Nick, walk- ing around him admiringly. Sleeker shrugged his well-tailored shoulders. "Nice! That isn't the question. Does your [174] NANCY AND NICK "To cut off his coat-tails,” answered Nancy kindly. “He doesn't like them." “Not so fast,” advised Rubadub, “I'll have to think about it first.” Then evidently he made up his mind more quickly than he intended, for he added, “All right. Go ahead, Nancy. We'll give this chap his wish and put on a pair of loose overalls. I think myself that he'll be better dressed for the things he has to do. The only thing is that we're closing, and if he changes his mind, like Mrs. Hen and Ben Bunny and Scramble Squirrel, he can't come back to be done over. He'll have to wait until next year.” “Oh,” cried Sleeker, delightedly, “I'm sure I won't change my mind. How can I ever thank you enough, Mr. Rubadub, for giving me my wish?” “By being satisfied,” answered the fairyman. “Come on into the tailor-shop and we'll rig you up a pair of overalls right away. And that suit you've got on, we'll put away in camphor-balls until next year.” “Oh, just throw it away!” said Sleeker, care- [176] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND to the gate he turned a complete somersault. “What's the matter with him?" the twins asked Rubadub. “The air gets under his loose clothes and up- sets him, just the same as if you'd put a bag over the body of an aeroplane,” announced the wise fairyman, looking up for the last time. Then he lifted Sleeker's suit off the ground and folded it carefully. "Shall I sleep here to-night?" offered the Mushroom just then, when Rubadub had hung the key to the tailor-shop on a big nail outside the door. “No,” said the fairyman, looking at his watch. "You'd better take the children home, and I'll stay." “But,” cried Nick, “I thought you were all through. Everybody's gone!" "Do you really think that last chap won't be pounding at the gate at sunrise?” asked the fairy- man in surprise. “Did you think he was gone for good?" “Yes, sir!” said the children, still wondering. “Well then, you haven't learned as much about people as I thought you had,” returned Rubadub. [179] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND now that you know the Magical Mushroom. I predict your adventures have just begun. But there's one thing you may do for me if you will." “Oh, yes, of course we'll do anything for you, dear old Mr. Rubadub,” cried Nancy, throwing her arms around the fairyman and hugging him tight. Rubadub was so surprised he dropped his pipe, and when he stooped to pick it up, off went his hat, and it was some time before he got settled again. "I'm not so old," he smiled. “I'm only a hundred. The other fairies think I'm scarcely grown up yet. You see in fairyland we grow young instead of old. I'm a hundred years young." Nancy and Nick had no answer to this sur- prising statement, and Rubadub laughed. “Don't mind my foolish talk, kiddies. But I'm glad you want to do something more for me. I sort of thought I'd worked you to death and you'd be wanting to get away. Would you, will you, go after that foolish swallow and see what becomes of him? If it were not for his silly [181] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND where the red berries hung, but not a foothold could he get. Worse still, his lovely stiff tail feathers, which he always dug into the rough places to hold him up, were gone, too, along with POOR SLEEKER WOULD HAVE PERISHED IN ANOTHER SECOND IF NICE HADN'T GRABBED HIM. his fine "evening-suit” as he called it, and he couldn't stick on long enough to get one bite. Back he came looking hungrier and more sorrow- ful than ever. "Perhaps if you visited your chimney relations you told us about,” suggested Nancy, “they could give you some dinner.” [185] NANCY AND NICK "I did,” he nodded, “but just as I was about to eat, I lost my balance and fell down into Mr. Man's stove. The ashes nearly choked me and I'd an awful time getting out alive. “I haven't built my home under the barn eaves yet, either, as I'm too weak to carry the mud. I've a good notion to go to sea and stay there. I sort of look like a sailor anyway in these loose clothes, so I guess that's where I belong. Good- by, everybody. Here I go." And Sleeker flapped away toward Briny Ocean. “Quick!” cried the Mushroom. “We'll have to follow him, children, as Rubadub wishes us to keep an eye on him.” The Green Shoes then whisked them off through the air to a low sandy beach which curved around a sheltered bay. The sun shone brightly on the water and the breeze ruffled it into tiny waves; sea-gulls circled slowly, darting down now and then for a hapless fish come too near to the top for his own safety; and tiny bugs and insects winged near to the water. But, was that a gull, that awkward, flapping, [186] IN SCRUB-UP-LAND rolling creature, trying to catch something close to the waves? "It's Sleeker Swallow again," exclaimed Nick recognizing him at once. The children and their fairy friend watched him trying his best to get a meal, usually such easy sport for this skillful hunter. They had watched him other summers skimming over Lily Pond and it was hard to believe that he was the same bird. Suddenly something happened. The breeze, playing with the waves, had rolled them higher and higher, and one with a little white cap on top, caught Sleeker as he swooped for a dainty bite, and pulled him into the water. “Oh,” screamed Nancy, "he'll drown. Save him, somebody.” “Our Shoes!” cried Nick quickly, wishing him- self out where his little feathered friend was struggling Just in time, too! Poor Sleeker would have perished in another second if Nick hadn't grabbed him and wished them both on dry land again. “Goodness!” sputtered Sleeker, catching his [187] Che DARCY AND DICK SERIE