Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-06-28
A Visit to Toy Town.
From Aunt Judy's Magazine.

From Aunt Judys Magazine
ssOh, dear! whatever is the use of do
ing dull, old lessons this hot weather."
Here came a long yawn and stretch,
and a longing glance of the drowsy blue
eyes towards the playhouse in the
corner; and then once more the inky
little fingers commenced their weary
journey over the copy-book.
"Delays are dangerous, u, d, l, 2, 3,
A. I wish Miss Bruce would not set
such dull copies, and put In those stu
pid figures at the end to fill up the line.
Thin up strokes, thick down strokes, dot
your is and cross your is Delays
are '"-blot-sputter. And then some
how or other the words in Rosies copy
turned.into "Dolls are deightful,' and
somebody called out, "Come along,
Rosie; I'm off to Toy Town"
Rosie had never heard Of Toy Town
before; but, strange to say, she did not
fell at all surprised, but jumped up In
a great hurry, saying: Yes, I'll come;
it's not very far, is it? Nurse is so cross
if I am late for tea, and [ do hate be-
ing scolded."
Soon they were jogging along the
road together, and Rosie found out that
her companions name was Good
child, and that she was the youngest Of
a larg family of little boys and girls,
who had all set of to go to Toy Town,
but had never got there and had come
home disappointed. There were Miss
Giddy and Miss Idle, and Master Jack
Dawdle and little Willie Willful and
Ned Obstinate; but none of then had
ever got to Toy Town.
"Why not?" inquired Rosie.
"Oh, because they wouldn't go the
right way, you know. There's only one
way to Toy Town; but it's rather a
long way, and they all got tired. But I
mean to go on to the end; so I have
put on my plodding shoes, and Aunt
Industry has given me a nice strong
stick called Paying Attention. to help
me over the gates and stiles"
Rosie thought it all sounded very
nice, and resolved to go on to the end
too; and as they went along, Good-child
told her about Toy Town and its pleas
ures It's all games and fun and holi-
days there" she said; and its all toys
everywhere, and you can play from
morning till night. All the trees are
Christmas-trees, and the houses are
baby-houses and Noah's arks; and the
carts are musical carts, with red wheels
and spotted horses, and little sacks in
them full Of red coal; and the trains go
by clock-work, and have white wool
coming out of the engines to look like
smoke. Boys generally like Rocking
horse Road best, because it's near
where the soldier live-tin ones, you
know Real soldiers live In a barrack;
but the toy ones have a box because
it's shorter word, but it's very grand
all the same, with a glass top, and they
march about all IN one position to the
sound of penny trumpets and whistles
and drums, with sugar plums inside.
Then there is Mr.. Jack in the box. He
lives halfway between Punch and Judy
and the babies's part, where yellow
plush parrots, with feathers on their
heads and button eyes, fly up and down
piece of elastic, and make rafting
noise inside; and there are woolly lambs
on green stands, and nice soft dolls, that
do to be sucked and can't break. But
the best place for dolls is next to Skip
ping-Rope Square, after you pass the
Bricks and Picture-books. Some peo-
pie call it Little Girls End and that
are several families of dolls.
There's Lady Wax's family. That's
the grandest of all. Many of them
have real hair, and eyes that open and
shut, and they wear clothes to take off
Then there are the Woods, and the
Rags, and the Clutches, and the Chinas,
all of them very nice in different ways
The Woods are SO strong, though they
are generally rather plain. The Chinas
are capital people for washing, and
many of the Miss Rags squeak beauti-
fully when they are pinched."
[ wish we were there p cried Rosie;
and just as she spoke, they turned down
q lane, which looked very long.
"Is this the way to Toy TOWN." she
asked; "it looks very dull"
eyes" said Goodchild; this is Les
son-book Lane, and Toy Town lies at
the other end Of it,
"Does it take Iong?"
"That depends upon how fast you
go, and how often you STOP" And, as
she spoke, Goodchild began running
along a straight, narrow-path, called A,
b, G, and Rosie ran after, finding it easy
enough.
g It's all very we'll for you and me"
said Goodchild; "but know little
girl called Laura Lazy, who would not
go even this little way; SO she had to be
sent to very ugly place, called the
Corner with no one to speak to but
little Dommy Ounce, who is the stupid
est boy in the world"
Soon they came into broad place
called Reading Road, and this too
Rosie did not mind much, though she
did not like having - climb over Spell
ling stile, which she thought very dull,
and could not see the use of, though
Goodchild assured her that she would
never get along Reading Road any
other way. Neither did she like going