you saying?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing!" said Belinda.

"That is not true," he answered; "you said some words; say them again."

And as Belinda repeated the words the boy lifted up the sack quite
easily, and cut the string that fastened it, with his knife. And his
clothes changed even as Belinda's had done. He wore now a sort of helmet
with a plume of feathers in it, and a slashed dress; and he knelt down
and opened the mouth of the sack. Ah! was not Belinda astonished, for
out rushed the toys--such toys--all of them able to move about. One of
them, a man on horseback, galloped away over a bridge, in the distance;
another ran up the mountain with a donkey following after him. A woman
and a little child next rushed down into the valley, so did a boy with a
dog that did not look like a dog running behind him.

[Illustration]

To all of these the youth said--

"Now be kind,
Find, find, find!"

Belinda gazed in astonishment, for never had she seen such toys before.

"Now," said the boy, as a white horse with a cart behind it emerged from
a heap of carriages and toy soldiers, "jump in, and you and I will drive
about the world till we find Blanche."

"But we can't possibly get in," returned Belinda; "it is too small for
one, certainly for two."

"Do not be stupid," said the boy; "almost all mischief comes from
stupidity; get in whilst I hold the horse."

How Belinda got into the little cart she did not know; but in it she was
with the boy beside her, and he was driving as fast as he could go. And
there was plenty of room for both.

The toy soldiers had mounted their horses and were riding behind them
and at the side of them, for the boy had said--

"Mount quickly, guards."

And as they went along, Belinda presently heard the man on horseback and
the woman and all the magic toys come clattering after them as hard as
they could come.

"Ah!" observed the boy; "we are on the right path; the King has sent
them after us."

"The King!"

"Yes; did you not see a toll-man on the bridge?"

"No," answered Belinda; but she whispered to herself, "a king in
disguise; wise, prize, size."

"You are getting more sensible," said the boy, as he drove faster and
faster till the white cart-horse seemed to turn into a race-horse, he
went so swiftly.

"There will be an accident," said Belinda.

And so there was, for the cart-wheel flew off, and down went the cart,
and Belinda and the boy were tumbled into a ditch, whe