around. Then he glared at the little old woman and
slowly closed one eye. This was too much. The Grandmother of the Dolls
seized her cane and made a furious attack on Billy-Billy Blackfoot,
but he leaped nimbly out of the way and the cane fell with a whack on
the bald head of the Brown Doll.

At this there was a tremendous uproar. The Brown Doll screamed:
"Murder!" Billy-Billy Blackfoot's tail swelled to twice its natural
size; the hair-brush fell on the floor; the dustpan rattled; the
shovel and tongs staggered out from the chimney-corner and rolled over
on the hearth; the Dolls scrambled and scurried under the bed, and the
little old woman whisked up the chimney like a spark from a burning
log.

When Sweetest Susan raised up in bed to look around she saw Drusilla
sitting on her pallet rubbing her eyes, but Billy-Billy Blackfoot was
sitting by the fireplace washing his face as quietly as if nothing had
happened. At first it seemed to Sweetest Susan that it had all been a
dream, but presently she heard a small voice that came down the
chimney:

"Mr. Thimblefinger! Mr. Thimblefinger! It is nine minutes after
twelve." There was a pause, and then the small voice sounded farther
away, like an echo, "Nine minutes and two seconds after twelve!"

II.

MR. THIMBLEFINGER'S QUEER COUNTRY.

The next morning Sweetest Susan was awake early. She wanted very much
to turn over and go to sleep again, for her eyes were heavy and her
body was tired. But the moment she remembered the wonderful events of
the night before, she sat up in bed and looked around. Drusilla was
still asleep and snoring very loudly, but Sweetest Susan jumped out of
bed and shook her by the shoulder.

"Drusilla! Drusilla! wake up!" cried Sweetest Susan. Drusilla stopped
short in her snoring and turned over with a groan. She kept her eyes
closed, and in a moment she would have been snoring again, but
Sweetest Susan continued to shake her and called her until she
squalled out:--

"Who dat? What you want? Oh, Lordy!"

"Wake up, Drusilla," said Sweetest Susan, "I want to ask you
something."

"Ain't I 'wake? How kin I be any 'waker when I'm 'wake? Oh, is dat
you, honey? I wuz skeer'd 't was dat lil' bit er ol' 'oman. Whar she
gone? Las' time I seed her she wuz des walkin' 'roun' here like she
wuz gwine ter tromple on me. I laid low, I did."

Sweetest Susan clasped her hands together and cried: "Oh, wasn't it a
dream, Drusilla? Did it all happen s