The Wonderful Bed

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The Wonderful Bed

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Knevels, Illustrated by Emily Hall Chamberlin
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Title: The Wonderful Bed
Author: Gertrude Knevels
Release Date: February 16, 2004 [eBook #11116]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
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THE WONDERFUL BED
By
GERTRUDE KNEVELS
[Illustration]
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY HALL CHAMBERLIN
1912

[Illustration: Ann was ready to cry and Rudolf had drawn his sword.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CONTENTS
I AUNT JANE'S OLD TOYS
II THE ANGRY WARMING-PAN
III A VISIT TO THE GOOSE

IV THE FALSE HARE
V REAL LIVE PIRATES
VI ABOARD THE MERRY MOUSER
VII CATNIP ISLAND
VIII MUTINY ON BOARD
IX CAPTAIN JINKS
X MEETING A QUEEN
XI THE GOOD DREAMS
XII ENTER THE KNIGHT-MARE
XIII THE BAD DREAMS
XIV IN THE HOLLOW TREE
XV COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]

CHAPTER I
AUNT JANE'S OLD TOYS

It was beginning to get dark in the big nursery. Outside the wind
howled and the rain beat steadily against the window-pane. Rudolf and
Ann sat as close to the fire as they could get, waiting for Betsy to bring
the lamp. Peter had built himself a comfortable den beneath the table
and was having a quiet game of Bears with Mittens, the cat, for his
cub--quiet, that is, except for an angry mew now and then from Mittens,
who had not enjoyed an easy moment since the arrival of the three
children that morning.
"Rudolf," Ann was saying, as she looked uneasily over her shoulder, "I
almost wish we hadn't come to stay at Aunt Jane's alone without
mother. I don't believe I like this room, it's so big and creepy. I don't
want to go to bed. Especially"--she added, turning about and pointing
into the shadows behind her--"especially I don't want to go to bed in
that!"
The big bed in Aunt Jane's old nursery was the biggest and queerest the
children had ever seen. It was the very opposite of the little white
enameled beds they were used to sleeping in at their apartment in New
York, being a great old-fashioned four-poster with a canopy almost
touching the ceiling. It was hung with faded chintz, and instead of a
mattress it had a billowy feather bed over which were tucked
grandmother's hand-spun sheets and blankets covered by the gayest of
quilts in an elaborate pattern of sprigged and spotted calico patches.
The two front posts of the bed were of dark shiny wood carved in a
strange design of twisted leaves and branches, and to Ann, as she
looked at them by the leaping flickering firelight, it seemed as if from
between these leaves and branches odd little faces peered and winked at
her, vanished, and came again and yet again.
"Bother!" exclaimed Rudolf so loud that his little sister started. "It's just
a bed, that's all. It'll be jolly fun getting into it. I believe I'll ask if I can't
sleep there, too, instead of in the cot. I wanted to take a running jump at
it when we first came this morning, but Aunt Jane wouldn't let me with
my boots on. She said she made that quilt herself, when she was a little
girl. We'll all climb in together to-night as soon as Betsy goes, and have
a game of something--I dare say we'll feel just like raisins in a

pudding!"
"All the same," said Ann, "I don't think I like it, Rudolf. I wish Betsy
would bring the lamp!"
It was almost dark now, and they could not see, but only hear, Peter as
he came shuffling out of his den, dragging his unhappy cub, and
prowled around the darkest corners of the room. Being a bear, he was
not at all afraid, but made himself very happy for a while with
pouncing and growling, searching for honey, and eating imaginary
travelers. Then the cub escaped, and Peter tired of his game. Rudolf and
Ann heard him tugging at the door of an old-fashioned cupboard in a
far corner of the room, and presently he came over to the fire, carrying
a wooden box in his arms.
"Oh, Peter, you naughty boy!" cried Ann. "You've been at the cupboard,