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“What’s going on here, anyhow?” he asked, as he began to climb up to the top of his stick.

Then all the toys looked at the White Rocking Horse, and they saw, trundling toward him, an Elephant on roller skates.

“Oh, how funny he looks!” laughed the Calico Clown. “Oh, dear me! This is better than any joke I could tell! Oh, how funny!” And the Calico Clown doubled up in such a kink of laughter that his cymbals tinkled again and again.

“What is so funny?” asked the Elephant on roller skates.

“You are,” replied the Clown. “Of course we are glad to see you,” he added. “And please excuse me for laughing at you. But, really, I cannot help it! You do look so funny! I–I never saw an elephant on roller skates before.”

“And I never before was on roller skates,” answered the toy Elephant. “I don’t believe I’ll ever put them on again, either,” he said. “But when the White Rocking Horse asked me to race with him, that was the only way I could think of to make it fair, as he is so much faster than I. He said I might put anything I liked on my feet.”

“What’s this? What’s this?” cried the Bold Tin Soldier. “Is there to be a race between an Elephant on roller skates and the White Rocking Horse?”

“Yes,” answered the Horse himself, “we are going to have a little race, just for fun, you know. I thought it would be amusing.”

“Where are you going to run the race?” asked the Candy Rabbit.

“Down to the elevators and back again,” answered the White Rocking Horse. “You see, my friends, it came about in this way,” he explained. “The Elephant was always telling how fast he could run. He said the real elephants in the jungle, after whom he is patterned, were swifter than horses. I said I did not think so. I told him I could beat him in a race, so we agreed to try it some night. I said he could put on roller skates if he wished, since I had rockers, like those of a chair, fastened on my hoofs.”

The White Rocking Horse was a proud fellow, with his long tail and mane of real hair. Proudly he held up his head. Proudly he rocked to and fro. On his back was a red saddle of real leather.

“Get ready for the race!” called the Calico Clown, clanging his cymbals. “This will be real, jolly fun! Ready for the race!”

The Horse and Elephant stood on a line, which was a crack in the floor, and they were just going to rush toward the elevators when, all of a sudden, the Candy Rabbit cried:

“Hush!”

CHAPTER II

THE RUDE BOY

Suddenly all the toys, who had been crowding to the edges of the shelves and counters to watch the race between the Horse and the Elephant, became very quiet. The Candy Rabbit seemed to shrink down behind the Monkey on a Stick. The Bold Tin Soldier slipped his sword back into its scabbard, and his men lowered their guns. The Calico Clown, who had been about to bang his cymbals together, dropped them to his sides. The Lamb on Wheels, who had just been going to ask a Rag Doll if she did not want to get up on her back, so she might see better, rolled herself under the counter, and the White Rocking Horse and the Elephant on his roller skates looked around in surprise.

“What’s the matter?” neighed the Horse. “Why did you call out for us to hush, Candy Rabbit?”

“I thought I heard a noise,” was the answer. “Maybe the night watchman is coming. If he is, he must never see us at our play. Something dreadful would happen, if he did.”

“Hush! Not so loud!” whispered the Calico Clown. “What you say is very true, Candy Rabbit. We dare not move about or talk if we are looked at by human eyes. But I do not think the watchman is coming.”