Chapter XVI: Behind the Reindeer

By this time Bab and Meg had sprung to the earth, and they all joined in a cheer of joy.

“Good-bye to you!” cried Mudge. “I’m going back to my father, the Sea Kobold. He has been expecting me for hundreds of years, and he will get me some new scales. Thank you very much for helping me to get away. Good-bye! Good-bye!” And he was off.

The Sea of Glass was close at hand, and Dick imagined that he could see the Sea Kobold’s anxious head sticking up through the hole in the glass, and watching what was happening on shore.

“There’s no time to be lost even now,” declared Bizzybuzz. “Hurry, all of you!”

Several of the men-at-arms had reached the top of the wall, and the children could hear one of them calling for the big key that opened the gate, and horses on which to hunt down the escaping ones.

“Hurry!” said Bizzybuzz, even more anxiously. And they all ran as fast as they could in the direction of the wood.

Bizzybuzz flew on ahead, calling to them to hurry; next came Humpty Dumpty and the Princess,—she holding up her long train and not caring at all that her crown was on the side of her pretty head,—and then Bab, and Meg, and Dick, and Wiggles!

There, at the edge of the wood, was Santa Claus’s sleigh, with his splendid reindeer, waiting impatiently to be off.

As they all climbed into the big sleigh, Dick looked back at the Red City.

“The gate is open!” he exclaimed. “And they have gotten horses too! They are going to try to catch us!”

“Never mind!” laughed Bizzybuzz, overhead, as the reindeer plunged forward eagerly, and the sleigh rocked with the mad motion,—“Never mind! They’ll have a pretty time—horses or no horses—trying to catch up with Santa Claus’s fastest team!”

And then began the craziest, wildest, swiftest drive that anyone ever saw or dreamed of. The horses of the people of the Red City were the fastest in the world, but they were not so fast as the reindeer, and they never quite overtook them. But sometimes they seemed to be drawing very close, and then the Princess would scream, and Wiggles would bark, and the reindeer would toss their antlers and go just a little bit faster. And the racing horses behind, their heads strained forward and their hoofs hardly seeming to touch the ground, would drop back a foot or two. Their riders waved their arms and shouted, and once in a while the occupants of the sleigh could hear threats as to what would happen to them all when they were caught.

On they went,—on, and on, and on! And neither the horses nor the reindeer seemed to be even tired. The reindeer, indeed, seemed to enjoy the race, and their small hoofs actually danced over the earth.

Suddenly they passed a barefooted girl in a green dress, who laughed and waved to them.

“The Idle Princess!” cried Bab.

“Dreams-Come-True!” exclaimed Meg.

“My Fairy of Fancy!” shouted Dick.

“Hush!” said Bizzybuzz. “You don’t know who she is,—you foolish little persons! But whoever she is, she is going to help us now, or I am very much mistaken.”

They all stood up in the sleigh to look, and saw a very wonderful and pretty sight. The girl in the green gown was fastening chains of flowers across the wood-path,—back and forth, back and forth, so that the whole way was simply barred and blocked with roses, and lilies, and daisies, and bluebells, and hyacinths, and sweet peas, and every other delicious blossom that you can think of.

Now along came the people of the Red City, and the girl in the green dress slipped away into the forest; but she probably peeked a little from behind some tree, and saw what happened afterward. The horses plunged at full speed into the maze of flowers that she had prepared for them, and however they might leap and push and struggle and trample, they could not get through the flower-chains. You see, making chains of flowers happened to be the green-gowned girl’s pet hobby, and no one in the world could ever break the chains she made.

But just two riders did manage to force their horses through, and Dick, looking back,—of course that check had given them a splendid advantage,—saw two steeds galloping wildly after them.

“She has kept back all but two!” he said. “Dear Fairy of Fancy!”

“But what are we to do with these?” asked Star, who was always worrying.

“Never fear,” said Bizzybuzz, cheerfully. “These children have too many friends in the Make Believe Land for there to be any danger. Someone else will happen along before long, and see that those two Red City persons have more trouble!”

Now the three children had not realised before that they had made many friends in Make Believe Land, and the thought surprised and pleased them more than they would have believed possible. There was a little warm glow around each of their hearts, and they looked up at little Bizzybuzz gratefully.

“Thank you for telling us that, Bizzybuzz,” said Bab, shyly.

“Telling you!” laughed Bizzybuzz. “You will not need to be told it pretty soon!”

Once more the Red City horses seemed to be gaining upon them. Suddenly two huge owls flew out of the depths of the forest and began to flap around the heads of the galloping horses.

“Who are they?” cried Meg, excitedly.

“Two of your friends,” returned the Goblin.

“Is one Moon-Eyes?” asked Dick.

Bizzybuzz nodded. “And the other,” he said, “is the Tail-less One, the Owl Innkeeper!”

“Oh, how nice of them both!” cried Bab. “They won’t hurt the horses, will they?”

“Oh, dear, no!” said Bizzybuzz. “But they may succeed in driving at least one of them back.”

And indeed that is just what they did. One of the horses shied, and reared, and finally wheeled straight about. The man fell off, and, though he was not at all hurt, was so angry that he almost had a fit. He stood in the centre of the path and shook his fist at the trees on each side of him, as though he suspected them of having had something to do with it.

The horse, with the owls after it, was running home to the Red City as fast as it could possibly go.

The second rider had not stopped to see whether his comrade had been killed or not, and was riding after the sleigh faster than ever.

“I wonder what will happen to _him_,” said Meg.

“Ah, little Miss Meg!” said Bizzybuzz. “You are beginning to trust your friends!”

“Yes,” said Meg, with a sigh. “But really I didn’t think I should ever trust anyone again, after the horrid time I had with Grump!”

“Hollo!” exclaimed Bizzybuzz. “There’s Green-Wings, the Dragon-Fly!”

The big insect came humming into the sleigh, and perched on the dash-board.

“How are you all?” he asked.

“All right. Have you any news worth hearing?” said Bizzybuzz.

“Well, I’ve just come from the Palace of the Wicked King. You know I like to lunch upon the green flowers that grow on that big tree under the Princess’s window. I was sitting happily on one of the lower branches, when a snail came crawling along the limb toward me.”

He paused impressively.

“Well, what of that?” said Bizzybuzz, impatiently. “There are many snails.”

“Not many like this one. The snail seemed lonely, and though I hate all snails, I could not refuse to talk to it when it sat itself down beside me. It talked a great deal of nonsense at first,—all about its departed glory, and how it hated the Wicked King, and stuff of that sort. But finally it told me who it was, or rather, who it had been before it became a snail. It was Grump!”

Of course, this does not surprise _you_, for you have known it all along, but it surprised the children tremendously.

“Poor Grump!” sighed Meg. “He tried to boil me down, and use my soul in a magic essence, but I really think that I am sorry to think that he has got to be a snail for the rest of his life.”

“Look!” cried Bizzybuzz.

Out between the trees on their left stalked a strange animal,—strange, at least, to all of them except Bab and the reindeer.

“Oh, stop the sleigh!” cried Bab. “It’s my dear Wooden Cow!”

“You can’t stop the sleigh,” said Dick. “Look at that man on horseback who is still following us.”

“I think that she is right,” said Bizzybuzz. “It is safe to stop the sleigh, for this beast has evidently been sent by Santa Claus to help us.”

The reindeer seemed to think so too, for they stopped short and even wheeled around. The Wooden Cow approached them with short, stiff steps.

“I have the honour,” she remarked, “to offer you my services. I have come all the way from the far north to help you.”

“Well, there’s no time to lose,” said Bizzybuzz, looking at the quickly nearing figures of the man and the horse. “If you can do anything, please do it soon.”

The Wooden Cow turned away, and walked, with its own wooden dignity, to meet the rider from the Red City. When it was quite close to him, it stopped, and stood motionless in the middle of the path, and stared straight ahead of it at the galloping horseman.

And a queer thing happened.

The horse stopped short. The man on its back became utterly still. There was a sort of a pause, and then the same dreadful change began to come over both horse and man which they had seen come over the Wicked King. They both turned to wood, and the expressions on the two wooden faces—that of the man and the animal alike—were so wicked and cruel and horrid that one could not feel at all sorry that they had been turned to wood.

The Wooden Cow returned with slow and solemn steps to the sleigh. Her horn was still tied on with Bab’s ribbon, and the top of her head was smeared in places with the sticky black paint and saw-dust.

“I hope that is satisfactory?” she said.

They all thanked her, and Bab leaned out of the sleigh to hug her hard.

“You dear old thing!” she said. “How sweet of you to turn up just now to help us!”

“Santa Claus sent you, I suppose?” said Bizzybuzz.

The Wooden Cow looked hurt.

“No one sent me,” she declared. “I heard of the trouble you were in, and I came to see what I could do. I can usually turn people into wood when I don’t like them, and I was grateful to the little girl who put on my horn and chased the Mischief Brownies away. Now that my duty is done, I will go back to Santa Claus’s barn.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, dear Wooden Cow,” cried Bab. “Give my love to Santa Claus when you get home!”

The Cow disappeared among the trees, and the reindeer started forward again.

Finally Bizzybuzz pointed ahead to where a little clearing was shining in a soft, sunset light. In it was a small, pretty cottage, from the chimney of which a thin trail of blue smoke floated up into the sky. In front of it was a gay little garden, and when Humpty Dumpty saw it, he almost wept.

“At last!” said Bizzybuzz, smiling.

XVII

_Mother Goose Once More_