Page:The Princess of Cozytown.pdf/15

 "Have a peppermint?" interrupted the knitted doll gentleman, striding up to the owl.

The owl took the peppermint, and chewed and swallowed it gravely. "It's a warning!" he cried suddenly, and tucking his book under his arm, waddled back to the courthouse. "A warning! A warning!" echoed all the Cozytown folk looking at each other with alarm. "It begins with 'G'—" called the owl over his shoulder, and then hurried on faster than ever.

"A warning beginning with G!" growled a Teddy bear irritably. "G—G—G—," said all the Cozytown folk in their high, low and medium voices. Then down they sat upon the benches in front of the pond, and began thinking of all the tings they could think of that began with "G." "Gad, gag, gage, gaiter, gait, gale—gale—I wonder if it's a gale?" murmured the knitted doll gentleman under his breath. "Gargle, garnish, garlic, garret!" came in muffled tones from beneath the lid of the Jack-in-the-box. Indeed, all the Cozytown folk were so busy saying over all the words beginning with "G" that they never noticed the Princess until she was right in the midst of them. Even the swans had stopped swimming about and rested motionless upon the surface of the lake with their necks curved to form the letter "G."

"What you doing?" asked the Princess curiously. "Is it a game?"

"Game," rumbled a Teddy bear gloomily. "Maybe it's a game!" At this minute the Princess' cook Dinah came panting up. She began immediately to make all sorts of queer faces behind the Princess' back, holding her finger to her lips at the same time in a most mysterious manner. No one knew what she meant, but they stopped thinking of the "G" words for a minute and the knitted gentleman ran hastily to release Jack from his box, because the Princess did not like him to be shut up.

He unfastened the catch and out bounced Jack so violently