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When Marmaduke heard that, he grabbed tight hold of the Toyman's hand on one side and of his father's on the other, and shouted: "Don't let them get Reddy!" But Father was talking to the man. He called him "Mr. Seymour-Frelinghuysen," and both the boys wondered if all people with fine horses and shiny boots and red coats had to have long, funny-sounding names like that.
It was a great big one with a ship on its face and an anchor on the chain. It resembled the Toyman's, and the children thought it odd that there were two such watches anywhere in the world. "It's getting late," Santa was saying, "I've got a lot of places to visit, but before I go, I want you to sing a song every man Jack."
It was coloured just like peanut-butter and was soft and healing. On each cut he put a little of the salve, then wound the little doggie all up in nice soft bandages too. And Wienerwurst licked the Toyman's hand to show how thankful he was. They made him a little bed, but he didn't stay in that long. The Toyman was such a good doctor that Wienerwurst felt better already.
Marmaduke didn't like that. He was glad when he heard another voice call out, very cheerily. "Here it is, Sonny!" This was a very jolly voice, jollier than any he had ever heard in the world except the Toyman's. The man who owned that voice stood before him, such a funny man, in a baggy white suit, with red spots like big red tiddledy winks all over it. He had a pointed cap all red and white too.
She screamed while it flopped there. It was a little bigger than the Toyman's hand and round and flat and shiny red and gold. No, it was not a goldfish. It was a sunfish. After the Toyman had taken the sunfish from the hook and put another worm on it, he threw the line back into the water. Then all the three children and the two dogs sat watching the little rings in the water around the floaters.
For his body was only two sticks of wood nailed together like a cross. He was dressed in Father Green's old blue trousers and the Toyman's old black coat. His arms were outstretched. But he had lost his hat. His wooden head stuck out. The Toyman picked him up and stood him straight on his one wooden leg. Then he put the old felt hat on his hard head.
Perhaps he was only teasing, but Marmaduke didn't take it quite that way. It seemed very serious. Then suddenly he had a bright idea. "You forgot the Toyman," he shouted, "and that makes another two, for the Toyman an' I are just alike. Didn't Mother say, 'He's nothing but a boy. So I'd sneak Wienie under my coat if it was ol' Noah's ark an' if it was the Toyman's, why he'd let me in anyway."
He was terribly frightened, with water all around him and in his eyes and his nose and mouth. He was choking, but all he thought of, even then, was his little sister, the poor slave. The first thing he knew, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder and heard the Toyman's voice saying, "Hold on, Sonny, you're all right just grab on to me."
The path between them looked like a white road leading up over the hill to the sky. He wished he had someone to talk to. Just then he heard a noise at the door. "Tap, tap, tap" It opened just a little. "Who's there?" said Marmaduke. The door opened wider. And he saw the Toyman's kind face. "Hello, little soldier."
So Marmaduke just stole up softly, and put his face against the Toyman's, and sat down beside him. And then the Toyman's eyes came back from far away and looked down on the little boy and smiled again. "Don't you worry, Toyman," the little boy said to him, "don't you worry about anything. It'll all come out in the wash."
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