Along the Lane came the Ice Cream Man, twanging his bicycle bell with gusto. In the garden of Admiral Boom, at the corner, a ship’s bell clanged through the frosty air. And Miss Lark, in the Next Door drawing-room, tinkled her little breakfast bell, while the two dogs barked and howled.
Clang-clang! Tinkle-tinkle! Ding-dong! Bow-wow!
Everybody in the world was ringing a bell. The echoes clashed and chimed and rhymed in the chilly midnight dark.
Then all of a sudden, there was silence. And out of the stillness, solemn and deep, the sound of a great clock striking.
“Boom!” said Big Ben.
It was the first stroke of Midnight.
At that moment something stirred in the Nursery. Then came the sound of clattering hooves.
Jane and Michael were wide awake in an instant. They both sat up with a start.
“Goodness!” said Michael.
“Gracious!” said Jane.
For before them lay an astounding sight. There on the floor stood the Golden Pig, prancing about on his golden hind trotters and looking very important.
Plump! With a heavy muffled thud, Alfred the Elephant landed beside him. And, leaping lightly from the top of the cupboard, came Pinnie the Monkey and the old Blue Duck.
Then, to the children’s astonishment, the Golden Pig spoke.
“Will somebody kindly put on my tail?” he enquired in a high, shrill voice.
Michael flung himself out of bed and rushed to the mantelpiece.
“That’s better,” remarked the Pig, with a smile. “I’ve been most uncomfortable ever since Christmas. A Pig without a tail, you know, is almost as bad as a tail without a Pig. And now,” he went on, as he glanced round the room, “are we all ready? Then, hurry, please!”
As he spoke he pranced daintily to the door, followed by Alfred, Pinnie and the Duck.
“Where are you going?” Jane cried, staring.
“You’ll soon see,” answered the Pig. “Come on!”
In a flash they had flung on gowns and slippers and were following the four toys down the stairs and out through their own Front Door.
“This way!” said the Pig, as he pranced across Cherry Tree Lane and through the Gates of the Park.
Pinnie and the Blue Duck danced beside him, wildly squealing and quacking. And after them lumbered Alfred the Elephant with Jane and Michael at his grey-flannel heels.
Above the trees hung a round white moon. Its gleaming silver rays poured down on the wide lawns of the Park. And there on the grass was a throng of figures, moving backwards and forwards in the shimmering light.
Alfred flung up his flannel trunk and eagerly sniffed the air.
“Ha!” he remarked delightedly. “We’re safely inside, Pig, don’t you think?”
“Inside what?” asked Michael curiously.
“The Crack,” said Alfred, flapping his ears.
The children stared at each other. What on earth could Alfred mean?
But the Pig was beckoning them towards him with a wave of his golden trotter; and bright forms flickered behind and around them as they hurried to the lawn.
“Excuse us, please!” said three small shapes as they brushed against the children.
“The Three Blind Mice,” explained Alfred, smiling. “They’re always under everyone’s feet!”
“Are they running away from the Farmer’s Wife?” cried Michael, very surprised and excited.
“Oh, dear, no! Not tonight,” said Alfred. “They’re hurrying to meet her. The Three Blind Mice and the Farmer’s Wife are all inside the Crack!”
“Hullo, Alfred – you got in safely!”
“Why, it’s dear old Pinnie!”
“What, the Blue Duck too?”
“Hooray, hooray! Here’s the Golden Pig!”
There were cries of welcome and shouts of joy as everyone greeted everyone else. A Tin Soldier who was marching past saluted the Pig, and he waved his trotter. Pinnie shook hands with a pair of birds whom he hailed as Cock Robin and Jenny Wren. And the Blue Duck quacked at an Easter Chicken half-in and half-out of its egg. As for Alfred, he flung up his trunk in all directions and loudly trumpeted greetings.
“Aren’t you cold, my dear? It’s chilly tonight!” A gruff voice spoke behind Jane’s shoulder.
She turned to find a bearded man dressed in the strangest garments. He had goatskin trousers, a beaver cap and a large umbrella of rabbit-tails. Behind him, with an armful of furs, stood a black, half-naked figure.
“Friday,” said the bearded man, “oblige me by giving this lady a coat.”
“Suttinly, Massa! Ah aims to please!” And the great black creature, with a graceful movement, flung a sealskin cloak about Jane’s shoulders.
She stared.
“So you’re—” she began, and smiled at him shyly.
“Of course I am,” said the tall man, bowing. “Please call me Robinson! All my friends do. Mr Crusoe sounds so formal.”
“But I thought you were in a book!” said Jane.
“I am,” said Robinson Crusoe, smiling. “But tonight someone kindly left it open. And so I escaped, you see!”
Jane thought of the books on top of the toy cupboard. She remembered how Mary Poppins had opened them before she put out the light.
“Does it happen often?” she questioned eagerly.
“Alas, no! Only at the end of the year. The Crack’s our one and only chance. But, excuse me! I must speak to—”
Robinson Crusoe turned to greet a curious egg-shaped little man who was hurrying past on spindly legs. His pointed head was as bald as an egg and his neck was muffled in a woollen scarf. He stared inquisitively at the children, as he greeted Robinson Crusoe.
“Good Gracious!” cried Michael in surprise. “You’re igzackly like Humpty-Dumpty!”
“Like?” shrilled the little man haughtily. “How can anyone be like himself, I’d like to know? I’ve heard of people being unlike themselves – when they’ve been naughty or eaten too much – but never like. Don’t be so silly!”
“But – you’re quite whole!” said Michael, staring. “I thought Humpty-Dumpty couldn’t be mended.”
“Who said I couldn’t?” cried the little man angrily.
“Well, I just thought – er – that all the King’s horses and – er – all the King’s men—” Michael began to stammer.
“Pooh – horses! What do they know about it? And as for the King’s men – stupid creatures! – they only know about horses! And because they couldn’t put me together, it doesn’t say no one else could, does it?”
Not wishing to contradict him, Jane and Michael shook their heads.
“As a matter of fact,” Humpty-Dumpty went on, “the King himself mended me – didn’t you – heh?”
He shrieked the last words at a round fat man who was holding a crown on his head with one hand and carrying a pie-dish in the other.
“He’s just like the King in Mary Poppins’ story! He must be Old King Cole!” said Jane.
“Didn’t I what?” the King enquired, carefully balancing his pie and his crown.
“Stick me together!” shrieked Humpty-Dumpty.
“Of course I did. Just for tonight, you know. With honey. In the Queen’s parlour. But you really mustn’t bother me now. My Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds are going to sing and I have to open the Pie.”