ared. Davy peered anxiously over the edge of the brim;
but the Goblin was nowhere to be seen, and the little boy found himself
quite alone.

[Illustration: "I'M A COCKALORUM," HE SOFTLY MURMURED.]

Strange-looking birds now began to swoop up and chuckle at him, and
others flew around him, as the hat spun along through the air, gravely
staring him in the face for a while, and then sailed away, sadly
bleating like sheep. Then a great creature, with rumpled feathers,
perched upon the brim of the hat where the Goblin had been sitting, and,
after solemnly gazing at him for a few moments, softly murmured, "I'm a
Cockalorum," and flew heavily away. All this was very sad and
distressing, and Davy was mournfully wondering what would happen to him
next, when it suddenly struck him that his legs were feeling very cold,
and, looking down at them, he discovered, to his great alarm, that the
crown of the Goblin's hat had entirely disappeared, leaving nothing but
the brim, upon which he was sitting. He hurriedly examined this, and
found the hat was really nothing but an enormous skein of wool, which
was rapidly unwinding as it spun along. Indeed, the brim was
disappearing at such a rate that he had hardly made this alarming
discovery before the end of the skein was whisked away, and he found
himself falling through the air.

He was on the point of screaming out in his terror, when he discovered
that he was falling very slowly and gently swaying from side to side,
like a toy-balloon. The next moment he struck something hard, which gave
way with a sound like breaking glass and let him through, and he had
just time to notice that the air had suddenly become deliciously scented
with vanilla, when he fell crashing into the branches of a large tree.

CHAPTER III.

IN THE SUGAR-PLUM GARDEN.

The bough upon which Davy had fallen bent far down with his weight, then
sprang back, then bent again, and in this way fell into a sort of
delightful up-and-down dipping motion, which he found very soothing and
agreeable. Indeed, he was so pleased and comforted at finding himself
near the ground once more that he lay back in a crotch between two
branches, enjoying the rocking of the bough, and lazily wondering what
had become of the Goblin, and whether this was the end of the Believing
Voyage, and a great many other things, until he chanced to wonder where
he was. Then he sat up on the branch in great astonishment, for he saw
that the tree