The Story of a White Rocking Horse

Title: The Story of a White Rocking Horse

Author: Laura Lee Hope

Release date: August 1, 2004 [eBook #6324] Most recently updated: September 26, 2012

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6324

Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the

Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: White Rocking Horse Races With the Elephant on Skates. Frontispiece]

MAKE BELIEVE STORIES

THE STORY OF A WHITE ROCKING HORSE

BY LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Story of a Sawdust Doll," "The Story of a Bold Tin Soldier," "The Bobbsey Twins Series," "The Bunny Brown Series," "The Six Little Bunkers Series," Etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY L. SMITH

BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE

MAKE BELIEVE STORIES

STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL STORY OF A WHITE ROCKING HORSE STORY OF A LAMB ON WHEELS STORY OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER STORY OF A CANDY RABBIT STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN

THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES

THE BOBBSEY TWINS THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES

CHAPTER I

READY FOR A RACE

One by one the lights went out. One by one the shoppers left the toy department of the store. One by one the clerks rode down in the elevators. At last all was still and quiet and dark—that is, all dark except for a small light, so the night-watchman could see his way around.

"Now we can have some fun!" cried a voice, and it seemed to come from a Calico Clown, lying down in a box next to a Bold Tin Soldier. "Now we can really be ourselves, and talk and move about."

"We can, if we are sure there is no one to watch us," bleated a Lamb on Wheels, who stood on the floor near a White Rocking Horse. "You know, as well as I do, Calico Clown, that we cannot do as we please if there are any eyes watching us," said the Lamb.

"No one can see us," said the Bold Tin Soldier. "I am glad the clerks and shoppers are gone. It will be some time before the watchman comes up here, and my men and I will be glad to move about. All ready there!" he called to his soldiers, for he was captain over a brave company of tin warriors. "Attention! Stand up straight and get ready to march! You have been in your box all day, and now it is time to come out!"

It was true; the Bold Tin Soldier and his men had been in a box on the toy counter all day. For, as you have been told, the playthings cannot make believe come to life nor move about when any human eyes are watching them. They must wait until they are alone, which is generally after dark. That is why you have never seen your doll or your rocking horse moving about by itself.

But now, in the toy store, from which every one had gone, some strange things happened. The Calico Clown stood up near the Candy Rabbit and looked about. Then the Calico Clown banged together the shiny brass cymbals he held in his hands.

"Clang! Bang!" went the cymbals.

"Ha! that sounds like war," cried the Bold Tin Soldier. "Come, my men! Forward—march!"

And then and there the tin soldiers, with their captain holding his shiny tin sword in his hand, marched out of their box and around the toy counter of the big department store.

Yes, I wish you could have seen them; but it isn't allowed, you know. Just the very minute the eyes of a boy or a girl, or, for that matter, a father or mother or aunt, uncle or cousin—just the very moment any one looks, the toys are as still as clothespins.

"Aren't they fine?" cried a Monkey on a Stick, as he scrambled up to the very top of his staff, so he might look over the pile of building blocks that stood near some picture books. "I wish I were a soldier!"

"Oh, no!" exclaimed a Boy Doll.

"You are funnier as a Monkey," remarked the Calico Clown.

"But I am not as funny as you are," laughed the Monkey. "Tell us a joke, that's a good fellow! Tell us something funny, Calico Clown, so we may laugh. We have had no fun all day."

"All right," agreed the Calico Clown, with a smile, as he softly banged his cymbals together. "I'll see if I can think of a joke."

The Bold Tin Soldier and his men stopped marching to listen to what the Calico Clown might say. The Candy Rabbit raised his big ears up straighter, so that he would miss nothing. The Lamb on Wheels gave herself a shake, seemingly so the kinks would come out of her woolly coat, and the Monkey on a Stick swung by his tail.

"Yes, I'll tell you a joke," said the Calico Clown. "It is a sort of riddle. Listen, and see if any of you can answer it."

"The Sawdust Doll was very clever at answering riddles," said the Bold Tin Soldier. "I wish she were here now."

"But she isn't," said the Candy Rabbit. "I liked that Sawdust Doll very much, but she has gone away."

"Yes, some lady bought her for a little girl's birthday," came from the Monkey on a Stick. "You are right, Tin Soldier, that doll was very clever at answering the riddles the Clown used to ask."

"Well, if you don't all stop talking now, how am I going to tell this joke?" asked the Calico Clown crossly. "Now, who is a—"

"I wonder if the Sawdust Doll will come back and see us once again, as she did before?" asked the Lamb on Wheels, not paying much attention to what the Calico Clown said. "Don't you remember, Tin Soldier, how she once came back to us, after she had been sold and taken away?"

"Clang! Bang!" went the cymbals of the Calico Clown.

"What's the matter?" asked the Monkey on a Stick.

"Matter? Matter enough, I should say!" replied the Clown. "Here I am asked to tell a funny joke, and none of you will listen. You keep on talking about the Sawdust Doll. I liked her as much as any one. But she is gone—she was sold away from us. To-morrow some of us may be sold, and never see the others again. Let's be gay and jolly while we can!"

"That's what I say!" exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. "Really, we are not very polite to go on talking when the Calico Clown wants to amuse us with one of his famous jokes. We should listen to him."

"You are right!" cried the Bold Tin Soldier. "Come now," he went on, as he waved his sword over his head, "I do not want to be cross with you, my toy friends, but I command silence! Silence while the Calico Clown tells his joke!"

The toys on the counters and shelves settled down and turned their eyes toward the Clown in his funny calico suit of many colors.

"I'm sure you will all laugh at this joke!" cried the Calico Clown. "It is so funny I have to laugh myself whenever I tell it. Thank you for getting them quiet so they can listen to me, Bold Tin Soldier. I am glad you are a friend—"

"Say, you'd better tell that joke, if you're going to!" broke in the captain. "I don't know how long they'll stay quiet. And I want to march around some more before morning comes and we have to stay in our box all day. You know it is the Christmas season, and any one of us may be bought any day and taken far off. So let us be jolly together while we may. All quiet now, for the Calico Clown's joke!"

"Thank you," returned the funny fellow again. "Now, why is it that when—"

And just then there was a rumbling, rolling sound on the floor of the toy department.

"Dear me!" exclaimed the Candy Rabbit, "can that be the watchman coming so soon?"

They all listened, and heard the noise more plainly. It rumbled and rolled nearer and nearer.

"Dear me!" said the Calico Clown, "I'm never going to get a chance to tell my joke. What is it, Candy Rabbit? Can you see?"

The sweet chap was just going to say he could see nothing, when there came a whinny from a big White Rocking Horse standing on the floor near a lawn swing.

"Oh, you're here at last, are you?" neighed the White Rocking Horse.

"Yes, I'm here," answered a voice, and with it came again the rumbling, rolling sound. "I'm sorry if I am late, but I had to go over in the sporting goods section to get a pair to fit me."

"A pair of what to fit who? Who is it?" asked the Monkey on a Stick, for he had taken a seat behind a pile of building blocks, and could not see very well.

"What's going on here, anyhow?" he asked, as he began to climb up to the top of his stick.

Then all the toys looked at the White Rocking Horse, and they saw, trundling toward him, an Elephant on roller skates.

"Oh, how funny he looks!" laughed the Calico Clown. "Oh, dear me! This is better than any joke I could tell! Oh, how funny!" And the Calico Clown doubled up in such a kink of laughter that his cymbals tinkled again and again.

"What is so funny?" asked the Elephant on roller skates.

"You are," replied the Clown. "Of course we are glad to see you," he added. "And please excuse me for laughing at you. But, really, I cannot help it! You do look so funny! I—I never saw an elephant on roller skates before."

"And I never before was on roller skates," answered the toy Elephant. "I don't believe I'll ever put them on again, either," he said. "But when the White Rocking Horse asked me to race with him, that was the only way I could think of to make it fair, as he is so much faster than I. He said I might put anything I liked on my feet."

"What's this? What's this?" cried the Bold Tin Soldier. "Is there to be a race between an Elephant on roller skates and the White Rocking Horse?"

"Yes," answered the Horse himself, "we are going to have a little race, just for fun, you know. I thought it would be amusing."

"Where are you going to run the race?" asked the Candy Rabbit.

"Down to the elevators and back again," answered the White Rocking Horse. "You see, my friends, it came about in this way," he explained. "The Elephant was always telling how fast he could run. He said the real elephants in the jungle, after whom he is patterned, were swifter than horses. I said I did not think so. I told him I could beat him in a race, so we agreed to try it some night. I said he could put on roller skates if he wished, since I had rockers, like those of a chair, fastened on my hoofs."

The White Rocking Horse was a proud fellow, with his long tail and mane of real hair. Proudly he held up his head. Proudly he rocked to and fro. On his back was a red saddle of real leather.

"Get ready for the race!" called the Calico Clown, clanging his cymbals. "This will be real, jolly fun! Ready for the race!"

The Horse and Elephant stood on a line, which was a crack in the floor, and they were just going to rush toward the elevators when, all of a sudden, the Candy Rabbit cried:

"Hush!"

CHAPTER II

THE RUDE BOY

Suddenly all the toys, who had been crowding to the edges of the shelves and counters to watch the race between the Horse and the Elephant, became very quiet. The Candy Rabbit seemed to shrink down behind the Monkey on a Stick. The Bold Tin Soldier slipped his sword back into its scabbard, and his men lowered their guns. The Calico Clown, who had been about to bang his cymbals together, dropped them to his sides. The Lamb on Wheels, who had just been going to ask a Rag Doll if she did not want to get up on her back, so she might see better, rolled herself under the counter, and the White Rocking Horse and the Elephant on his roller skates looked around in surprise.

"What's the matter?" neighed the Horse. "Why did you call out for us to hush, Candy Rabbit?"

"I thought I heard a noise," was the answer. "Maybe the night watchman is coming. If he is, he must never see us at our play. Something dreadful would happen, if he did."

"Hush! Not so loud!" whispered the Calico Clown. "What you say is very true, Candy Rabbit. We dare not move about or talk if we are looked at by human eyes. But I do not think the watchman is coming."

"How can we be sure the watchman is not looking at us?" whispered the Monkey on a Stick. "I'd like to see this race."

"So would I," said the Calico Clown. "And there is only one way we can be certain the watchman is not here."

"Tell us how!" suggested the Bold Tin Soldier.

"This is the way," answered the Calico Clown. "I will recite that funny riddle I started to give you earlier in the evening. If the watchman is here he will laugh at it, and then well know he is watching us."

"That will be a fine way!" said the Lamb on Wheels. "Go ahead, Calico Clown. Tell us the riddle, and we must all listen to see if the watchman laughs."

"All right I Here I go!" agreed the Calico Clown. He banged his cymbals together and then, in a loud voice, asked: "Why is a basket of soap bubbles like a piece of chocolate cake?"

They all listened after the Calico Clown had asked this riddle. But there was no laugh. It was as quiet in the toy department as if none of the playthings had made believe come to life.

"I guess the watchman isn't there," said the Calico Clown, "or else he would have laughed at my riddle."

"Maybe he is waiting for the answer," said the White Rocking Horse. "I think that must be it, for I don't see anything very funny in the riddle itself. Maybe the watchman is waiting for you to give the answer, and then he'll laugh."

"Oh, I'm sure that is it," said the Elephant. "Go ahead, Calico Clown! Tell us the answer! Why is a basket of soap bubbles like a piece of chocolate cake? If we hear that, maybe we'll laugh, as well as the watchman. What's the answer?"

"That's the funny part of it!" said the Calico Clown. "There is no answer."

"No answer!" cried the White Rocking Horse. "That's a funny riddle!"

"I knew you'd think it was funny," returned the Calico Clown. "That is why I tried so hard to tell it earlier in the evening, to make you all jolly. No, there really is no answer. I don't believe a basket full of soap bubbles is a bit like a piece of chocolate cake. But I just thought I'd ask to see if any of you knew."

He waited a moment, but none of the toys answered.

"And the watchman doesn't seem to know, either," said the Monkey on a Stick. "I guess he can't be here, or he would have laughed, Mr. Calico Clown."

"I'm sure he would," said the joking chap. "It must be all right. No one is looking at us. On with the race!"

"Yes," rumbled the Elephant, away deep down in his trunk, "if we are going to have this race let's get it over with. I must go back to my place among the camels and lions and tigers before morning."

The Elephant, who had borrowed a pair of roller skates to race with the White Rocking Horse, lived in a large Noah's Ark with the other animals from the jungle and the desert.

"Get ready now!" cried the Bold Tin Soldier. "On your marks, Horse and Elephant! I will have one of my men fire his gun as a signal to start the race!"

"Good!" neighed the White Rocking Horse.

Slowly he began to sway back and forth, while the Elephant slid along on his roller skates until both animals stood, once more, on the crack in the floor. When the Candy Rabbit had cried "Hush!" they had both slid back toward the toy counter. Later on the make-believe folk found that the noise was caused by a Jack in the Box springing up quickly to watch the race.

"Bang!" went a toy pop gun. And then the race began!

And such a race as it was! Across the floor, toward the elevators, went the Elephant, gliding along on the roller skates. Back and forth swayed the Rocking Horse, and each time he moved he went a little faster. His tail and mane streamed out in the air and his red saddle of real leather glistened in the light of the one dim electric lamp.

"The Elephant is winning! The Elephant is winning!" cried the Monkey on a Stick. He rather favored the Elephant, for, like the big chap, the Monkey also had come from a jungle.

"The Horse is going faster!" cried the Bold Tin Soldier. "I'm sure the Horse will win the race!" The Tin Captain rather favored the Horse, since all soldiers like horses.

"It is too soon, yet, to tell who will win," remarked the Calico Clown. "They have to go to the elevators and come back to the starting mark—the crack in the floor—before the race is finished. Oh, but this is sport!"

The White Rocking Horse and the Elephant, who wore roller skates, were close together, making their way as fast as they could toward the elevators. This was the half-way mark of the race. The two animals must turn around and come back to the toy counter before it would be known which was the faster. Just now they seemed to be even.

On and on they raced, faster and faster. If you had been there you would have enjoyed it, I am sure. But of course that was not allowed. If you had so much as peeped, even with one eye, the toys would instantly have become as motionless as the pictures in your spelling book.

Back and forth rocked the White Horse. Rumble and roll went the Elephant on his skates. They were close to the elevators in about three minutes after they had started from the crack mark.

"Now they are going to turn around," whispered the Celluloid Doll, as she leaned over the edge of the counter.

"Oh, look!" suddenly called the Monkey on a Stick. "Now the White Rocking Horse will win the race!"

As he spoke there came a loud clattering sound down near the elevators—the halfway mark of the race. All the toys strained their necks to look, and they saw that one of the roller skates had come off the Elephant. He had turned too quickly, and had lost a skate.

"Never mind! Go on! Go on!" cried the Elephant, who was quite a sporting chap in his own way. "Go on with the race! I can beat you on three skates, Mr. Horse!"

"Ho! Ho! We'll see about that!" whinnied the rocking chap, as he made the turn and started back.

The two toys were going along as fast as they could, the rumble of the rockers on the White Horse mingling with the roll of the skates on the Elephant, when, all of a sudden, a brighter light shone in the toy department, the tread of footsteps was heard, and the Calico Clown had just time to shout:

"The watchman! To your places, every one!"

And instantly the toys were as motionless and quiet as mice. The Elephant, even on three skates, had been going so fast that he rolled behind a big pillar all covered with red and green tissue paper, with which the toy section was decorated. And the White Rocking Horse stayed just where he was when the Clown called out. Up among the toy counters and shelves came a big man carrying a lantern. He was the store watchman, and he went about in the different departments each night to see that all was well.

"What's this?" exclaimed the watchman, as he noticed the White Rocking Horse near the elevators. "This toy is out of place! He belongs over near the counter. Some clerk or customer must have left him here when the store closed last night. I'll take him back," and, picking up the White Rocking Horse, the watchman carried the toy back to where it belonged. And the Horse did not dare give even the smallest kick. He dared not show that he had been alive and in a race.

The watchman walked back toward the elevator, and saw the skate that had come off the Elephant's foot. He did not see the Elephant who was hidden behind the pillar.

"Well, I do declare!" exclaimed the watchman. "The clerks here are getting very careless! This roller skate belongs over in the sporting section. I'll take it there."

He picked it up and walked away. When he was gone, and the light of his lantern no longer gleamed, the Calico Clown slowly raised his head.

"Now you can go on with the race," he said.

"No, the race is spoiled for to-night," answered the Horse. "It will soon be daylight, and the clerks and shoppers will be coming in."

"Yes, and I would have to go to the other part of the store to get back my roller skate," said the Elephant. "I find I cannot get along on three. We'll have the race to-morrow night, Mr. Horse."

"That will suit me very well," said the proud, brave steed.