"Excuse me for asking, but I have not been here very long,
you know," he added.
"Mr. Horatio Mugg is the man who keeps this toy store," explained the
China Cat. "He and his daughters, Angelina and Geraldine, keep us toys
in order, dust us off and sell us whenever any one comes in to buy
playthings."
"Then it seems I am not to stay here always," went on the Trumpeter.
"Well, I like a jolly life, going about from place to place. I had fun
at the North Pole, and now I hope I shall have some fun here. That's why
I blew my trumpet--to start you toys into life."
"We always come to life after dark, and make believe we are alive when
no one sees us," explained the China Cat. "That is one of the things we
are allowed to do. But as soon as daylight shines, or when any one comes
into the store to look at us, we must turn back into toys that can move
only when we are wound up. That is, all except me. I have no springs
inside me--I move of myself whenever make-believe time comes," she
added, and she switched her tail from side to side.
"Well, I have springs inside me," said the Talking Doll, "and also a
little phonograph. When it is wound up I can say 'papa' and 'mama' and
'I am hungry.' But when we are by ourselves, as we are now, I can say
what I please."
"I, too, have springs inside me," said the Trumpeter. "That is how I
blow my trumpet.
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