“‘As long as we do right the Golden Portal will never close. Farewell.’
“With these words he turned and walked toward the mountain door. The parents hurried to their homes, to find the boys ordering out the wooden soldiers, and the dolls drowsily smiling into mother eyes and listening to the far-away lullaby of the dear Pied Piper.”
As the Story Elf finished she again vanished, and during the silence that followed the dolls thought they still heard the Piper’s far away lullaby.
“How lovely to bring the children home again. I’m glad she told us about it, for I always felt sorry for the parents and the dear little lame boy all alone.
“Perhaps we may, but now we must go on with _our_ stories.
“You know an old poem tells us little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. Therefore, since Sugar is classed so closely with Spice, we might let that sweet lady talk to us for a while.”
The fat Sugar Lady now came forward, and with a quick jerk of her skirts, showing her slippered feet, made an old-fashioned courtesy.
[Illustration: “Sometimes it is gingerbread, or maybe plump brown cookies”]
“Isn’t she dear!” cried one and another, as they gazed admiringly at the quaint figure all dressed in white, which sparkled like frost on the window pane. Dainty bunches of rosebuds adorned her bonnet, and altogether she was a sweet picture.
“My dears,” she cried, well aware of the admiration she excited.
“I know I am sweet as well as you do, but lest I become over-proud I will show you my real self growing, which really isn’t anything to look at.”
As she talked she untied her bonnet strings and untwisted one of the curls that bobbed about her snowy neck. The audience was startled to hear a squeak like the dying gasp of a rubber balloon.
As the squeak lingeringly died away, Sugar grew thinner and taller, and presently there she was turned into a long yellow sugar cane.
A shout of laughter greeted this transformation, as Sugar Cane made an elaborate bow, beaming upon them as though delighted to see them.
“Allow me to make you acquainted with Mrs. Sugar’s better half,” he said.
“Butter half, you mean,” shouted Vinegar.
“Throw in a little flour and a few eggs and we’ll have a birthday cake.”