or a moment with his usual important
air, strolled away in the direction of the toy-shop.

"Now what do you make of _that_?" said the Admiral, lifting up his
head. "He went in at a little door not five minutes ago, and he wasn't
any bigger than an every-day bird."

"I'm sure I don't know _what_ to make of it," said Dorothy. "But where
is the door?" she added, running around the tower and looking at it on
all sides.

"It went up after him," said the Admiral, "like a corkscrew."

"And it's coming down again, like a gimlet!" shouted the Highlander;
and, as they all looked up, sure enough there was the little door slowly
coming down, around and around, as if it were descending an invisible
staircase on the outside of the tower. They all watched this performance
with much interest, and as the door touched the ground it opened, and,
to Dorothy's amazement, out came the little field-mouse.

"What is it?" cried Dorothy, as they all crowded around the little
creature. "Do tell us what it all means."

"It's a Sizing Tower," said the Mouse, its little voice trembling with
agitation. "You get big at the top, and little at the bottom. I wouldn't
go up there again--not for a bushel of nuts."

"Were you pretty big?" inquired Sir Walter.

"Monstrous!" said the Mouse, with a little shudder; "I was as big as a
squirrel; and while I was up there, Bob Scarlet flew up and came down
with the door, and there I was."

"_That_ was a precious mess!" remarked the Highlander.

"Wasn't it now!" said the Mouse. "And if he hadn't taken it into his
head to come up again and _fly down_, I'd 'a' been there yet."

"Why, it's the very thing for us!" cried Dorothy, clapping her hands
with delight as a happy thought occurred to her. "Let's all go up and
get back our regular selves."

"You go first," said the Admiral, suspiciously, "and call down to us how
it feels." But Dorothy wouldn't hear of this; and after a great deal of
arguing and pushing and saying "_You_ go in first," the whole party at
last got squeezed in through the little doorway. Then the Mouse sat up
on its hind legs and waved a little farewell with its paws, and the door
softly closed.

"If we begin to grow _now_," said the Admiral's voice in the dark,
"we'll all be squeegeed, _sure_!"

* * * * *

"What an extraordinary thing!" exclaimed Dorothy; for they had come out
into a street full of houses.

"What _I_ want to know is what's become of