FullReads

“Dear me,” said the Chocolate Man, and he let go the lollypop door handle, “I’m sorry. I thought you’d like to stay here.”

“Don’t feel badly about it,” said Mary Louise as he shook hands and said good-by. “I must find my way home. I’ve no time to lose.”

“Heigh ho, this is a big river,” she exclaimed a little later as she stood on the bank of a swiftly flowing stream.

“There isn’t any bridge, how can you get across,
There isn’t any boat and you haven’t any horse
That could swim across this river with you upon its back,
So I guess you’ll have to turn about and go back upon your track,”

sang a cross voice.

“She won’t have to do anything of the sort,” answered a kind voice and a little white duck in a boat rowed up to the bank.

“Come, jump aboard,” quacked Commodore Drake, for that was the name of this duck sailor.

Mary Louise jumped in and away they went down the river to the deep blue sea. And after a while, maybe a mile, and perhaps a little more, they came to the restless ocean.

“Now,” said the duck, with a wheezy, breezy quack, “I’ll take you to the Hotel Wave Crest.”

Presently they came to an island where a lovely coral building shone pinky bright in the rays of the sun. Right in front of it were two bell buoys who rang little bells to tell the man who owned the hotel that somebody wanted a room with a fresh salt water bath.

As soon as Commodore Drake had fastened the little boat to the wharf, he and Mary Louise walked up the steps and into Wave Crest Hotel.

When the proprietor, a nice old Dolphin, saw Mary Louise’s lovely sea green coat, he at once asked where she had bought it.

“The King of the Crabs gave it to me.”

“You don’t tell me,” exclaimed the old Dolphin. “Do you know that coat is a magic one?”

“What can it do?” asked Mary Louise, even more surprised than you are.

“Why, anybody who wears it can swim like a fish,” answered the good-natured Dolphin. “It’s better than a pair of water wings,” and he turned over three times and began to sing,

“Oh, many a mile I’ve swum in the sea
Like a hoop that rolls on the ground,
Over and over and over again,
Round and around and around,
But I always come right side up at last,
Out in the deep blue sea,
You bet I can do the loop de loo
High diddle diddledy dee.”

As he finished speaking, the good-natured Dolphin turned a somersault, and after that I guess he thought he’d done enough to amuse Mary Louise, and the little white sailor duck, so he went inside the hotel and stood at the desk behind the big register book.

Just then a great whale came swimming by, blowing a stream of water high in the air. Maybe a piece of seaweed had tickled his nose, for when a whale spouts he’s really sneezing, I’m told.

And after that a pretty Cat Fish began to purr, and I guess she would have asked Mary Louise a lot of questions if all of a sudden a Dog Fish hadn’t barked, which so frightened the pussy cat fish that she went into her room and locked the door, dropping the kin in her vanity bag which she hid under her pillow.

“If you’ll stay awhile,” said the old Dolphin, “I’ll give you the finest fish dinner you ever ate,

“A whale fish steak,
And some sea gull eggs,
And a pint of sea cow’s milk,
Green sea weed sauce
And water cress
And oysters served on silk.”

But, would you believe it, little Mary Louise didn’t feel hungry. Instead she asked the duck sailor to take her back to the boat and to sail away, over the ocean’s misty spray, until they should come to the Land of Nod where sleep is sent by the Little Dream God.

As soon as she and the little white duck reached this wonderful little land, they became sleepy and their eyes winked and blinked and pretty soon they both lay down on the soft grass and went sound to sleep. And then the twinkle, twinkle star shone down with its pretty golden eye and sang a sleepy lullaby,

“Over the ocean cool and sweet
Up to the sea grass’s waving feet
Blows the wind from the rainbow west
Whispering low, ‘It is time for rest.'”