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Updated: May 24, 2025
But the next moment the thought came to her of her poor little brother Hector, standing in the hundred-and-first corner of Rumpty-Dudget's tower, with his face to the wall and his hands behind his back. So she said humbly: 'Oh, King of the Gnomes!
At last Harold got the ball to himself, and kept tossing it up and down without letting the others have their turn. Hereupon Hilda and Hector began to run after him to take the ball away from him; but just as they caught up with him he gave the ball a great throw, and it flew clear over the high hedge, and came down with a bounce in Rumpty-Dudget's garden. It wanted three minutes to sunset.
There he stood, trembling in his shoes, as well he might; and in all the corners round about, with their faces to the wall and their hands behind their backs, stood the poor little children that Rumpty-Dudget had caught. But they were not to stand there much longer, for Rumpty-Dudget's hour had come!
And, as they had to keep rubbing the spots first with one hand and then with another, they were continually missing the ball when it was thrown to them; and they did not notice that every time it fell to the ground it struck nearer and nearer to the tall hedge which divided Rumpty-Dudget's land from the Queen's.
Thus time went on steadily, to-morrow always going before to-day, and yesterday invariably bringing up the rear, until a year was past; and what should come round again but Rumpty-Dudget's birthday, the most unlucky day of all the three hundred and sixty five!
But Tom used to say that, unless Hilda and her two brothers would agree always to make the wind blow from the south, the hundred-and-first corner in Rumpty-Dudget's tower would sooner or later be filled. 'How can we make the wind blow one way or the other? Hilda would ask. 'It all depends upon you, nevertheless, Tom would reply. 'Winds do not move of themselves, but people pull them.
But another very long time passed away, and the sound of Rumpty-Dudget's axe sounded nearer, and the forest was dark and full of mystery, and there was no sign yet of Hilda and the cat. 'I never knew before, said Harold to himself, 'that a night was so much longer than a day.
It is always so with the mud that Rumpty-Dudget throws; it seems to grow down into you until it fastens a root in your heart. Such was the effect of Rumpty-Dudget's three mud-spots.
Then the forest too awoke to life and joyousness; the birds sang in the branches, and fragrant flowers, sparkling with dew, glowed in the happy glades with mingled tints of white, blue, and red. So on they went, carrying with them the freshness and perfume of the morning and of spring; and in a wonderfully short time the Golden Ivy had brought them to the gates of Rumpty-Dudget's tower.
'Dear me! that is the way the King of the Gnomes talked, said Hilda, clasping her hands. 'Surely you couldn't have been him? 'Yes, my darlings, said the lady, sitting down and drawing the three children to her lap, 'I am the Queen, your mother; though, by Rumpty-Dudget's spells, I was obliged to leave you, and to be seen by you only in your dreams at night.
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