set him down upon the floor. The
Camel looked about for a moment with a very mournful expression on his
face, and then climbed into one of the drawers that was standing open,
and pulled it to after him as a person might close a door, and Dorothy,
after watching this remarkable performance with great wonderment, went
out again.

The Caravan had lost no time, and were standing on the bench, putting up
a little sign on the front of the shop with "CAMEL FOR SALE" on it, and
Dorothy, trying not to laugh, said, "Is this your shop?"

"Yes," replied the Admiral, with an important air. "The grocer's been
sold for a cook because he had an apron on, and we've taken the
business."

"What are you going to keep?" asked Dorothy, who was vastly amused at
this idea.

"Why, we're going to keep the shop," said the Admiral, climbing down
from the bench and staring at her in great surprise.

"But you must certainly keep things to sell," said Dorothy.

"How can we keep things if we sell 'em?" inquired Sir Walter.

"Well, you can't sell anything unless you keep it in the shop, you
know," persisted Dorothy, feeling that she was somehow or other getting
the worst of the argument.

"Bosh!" said the Admiral, obstinately; "you _can't_ keep things you
sell--that is," he added, "not unless your customers are crazy"; and
with this remark the Caravan went into the shop and shut the door in
Dorothy's face, as if she wasn't worth talking to any longer.

Dorothy waited for a moment to see if they were coming out again, and
then, as there was a noise inside as if they were piling up the drawers
against the door by way of a barricade, she walked slowly away through
the toy-shop.

She had had such a variety of adventures in the shop by this time that
she was getting quite tired of the place, and she was walking along
rather disconsolately, and wishing there was some way of growing to her
natural size, and then getting back again to poor old Uncle Porticle and
the Blue Admiral Inn, when, as she went around the corner of the little
apothecary's shop, she came suddenly upon Bob Scarlet. To her great
surprise, he was now just about the size of an ordinary robin; but he
had on his red waistcoat, and had quite as important an air as ever, and
he was strolling about examining the various toys, and putting down the
price of everything in a little red book, as if he were thinking of
going into the business himself.

"Now, I wonder how he ever got to be