top them! stop
them!" he cried.

The soldiers had been standing as though turned to stone, but at the
King's voice they started forward, reaching out to catch the bridles of
the horses, but again Teddy raised his magic whip.

"Abraca-dabraca-dee!
As you were once you shall be!"

he cried.

At the magic words every soldier's arm fell by his side, their eyes
changed to little black dots, their faces grew rounder, their legs
stiffened, and there they stood, nothing more nor less than wooden
soldiers just like the one--were they his own soldiers? And the
Princess! Was she only the doll that Harriett had forgotten the night
before and that Teddy had set up against his knees to watch the show?
Were the streets only black and white silk?

There he was, back in his own room with the little wooden soldiers and
the paper circus. There was the square of silk with the book under it,
and the Counterpane Fairy sitting on his knees.

"Oh! but, Counterpane Fairy," cried Teddy, "what became of us? Did we
get away? Oh, I didn't want to come out of the story just yet!"

"Why, of course you escaped," said the fairy. "How could the King stop
you after you had changed his soldiers into wood?"

"And what became of you?" asked Teddy.

"Oh, I took the clown's cap," said the fairy, "for it was the
wishing-cap, and fast as you and the Princess rode back to the country
of King Whitebeard I was there before you."

Teddy thought for a while and then he heaved a deep sigh. "I wish I
really had a circus horse," he said, "and could ride round and have all
the people watching and shouting. But what did the Princess say when she
found I had rescued her?"

"Hark!" said the fairy, "isn't that your mother coming along the hall? I
must be going. Oh, my poor bones! What a hill it is to go down! Oh dear,
dear, dear!"

CHAPTER FIFTH. AT THE EDGE OF THE POLAR SEA.

"THE crocuses are up on the lawn," said Teddy's mother, who was standing
at the window and looking out. "And just hear that blackbird! I always
feel as though spring were really here when I hear the blackbirds sing."

Teddy was still in bed. It seemed to him sometimes that he had spent his
whole life lying there in the India-room, under the silk counterpane,
and that it was some other Teddy who used to go to school and shout and
play with the boys in the street.

"I wish I could go out-of-doors the way I used to," he said.

"So do I," said mamma. "But never mind, darl