Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse

by Ursula Moray Williams

  “Oh, dear, how very unlucky we are!” said the miner’s little boy, when they had been jostled right out of the crowd; and he wandered down the road in which they found themselves, too sad to mind where it led. The little wooden horse trundled at his heels, wondering if there were any fortunes to be made in a city already so full of people.

  They had both lost heart, so they were quite taken by surprise when the road led them straight into the Palace yard. There, pulled up before the door, was the beautiful coach, drawn by ten – no, nine white horses, for the tenth stood by, held by a groom, its head drooping, great tears welling in its beautiful eyes, while a broken horseshoe lying on the cobbles showed at once what was the matter.

  Beside the coach, on the Palace steps, stood the King and Queen and the ten little Princes and Princesses, as sad a royal family as could be imagined or seen, for it was quite clear that the nine white horses that were left could not pull the massive coach alone, and some of the children would have to be left behind.

  “We will try once more,” said the King, looking anxiously at the great golden clock that towered over the Palace. “Take your places, children, behind your mother, and we will see if after all the horses can manage to pull us all.”

  The King and the Queen took their places; the royal footmen scrambled up at the back, for they could not be left behind; the little Princes helped their sisters into their seats, and climbed in themselves. All their little eyes sparkled, but their faces were anxious. Could the horses pull them all?

  The grooms let go the heads of the nine white horses. Nine flashing manes tossed in the air, nine tails, white like floss silk, swished about their prancing legs, as with a mighty clatter and trampling the loyal creatures put their shoulders to the collar and heaved at the great coach. With a mighty effort they drew it a few feet over the cobbles, and then they came to a standstill, pawing the ground and shaking their heads, as though to say, “We have done our best!”

  “They will never draw us all round the city,” said the King. “And we are already twenty minutes late. We cannot disappoint the people. One at least of the children must remain behind, unless a tenth horse is brought within three minutes. You say you have inquired everywhere?”

  “Everywhere, your Majesty,” the grooms replied. “All the horses have gone into the country for the harvest.”

  The King now turned to his children, most of whom were in tears.

  “Belinda, you must come: you and Ivor are the eldest. Helena, April, and Merlin had better come, and the twins: we cannot separate them. And Robin and Marigold: we promised them last year, and I will not break my word. Then, Madeleine, you are the youngest. You must stay behind.”

  The youngest Princess, with tears streaming down her cheeks (though she tried in vain to hide them in her pocket-handkerchief), stumbled out of the coach, and without a backward look at her luckier brothers and sisters fled up the stairs into the Palace. The Princes and Princesses wept in sympathy, the Queen wiped a tear from her cheek, and the King gnawed at his moustache. The footmen and grooms might not show their feelings, but all the pleasure was gone out of their bearing; and as for the horses, they turned their heads mournfully towards the Palace entrance, and the sorrow in their beautiful eyes said plainly, “We did our best. Please don’t blame us, dear Princess.”

  The coachman whipped up the horses, who strained once more at their golden harness, and the coach rumbled heavily across the cobbles towards the entrance to the yard. It had not rolled twenty yards before the horses came suddenly to a standstill.

  “What is it now?” cried the King, who was getting impatient, while the youngest two remaining Princesses, at a look from their mamma, prepared to scramble down and follow their sister without further delay. But a footman who had run at once to the horses’ heads now came running back to the King in some excitement.

  “If you please, your Majesty, there’s a strange little wooden horse has come into the yard from no one knows where, and he says can he take the place of your Majesty’s tenth horse? He says he is a quiet little horse, and strong, and he thinks he may suit your Majesty well, and he’s worked in the mines, your Majesty, and in the fields, and he can pull like any ten horses, he says.”

  “Harness him at once!” roared the King, for the hands of the golden clock pointed to the half-hour, and far off in the city he could hear the murmur of the people awaiting their King. So while the grooms rapidly harnessed the little wooden horse at the head of the nine white horses the eldest Prince ran indoors to tell his sister to dry her eyes and wash her face quickly, for she had to come after all. And while all the fuss was about the miner’s little boy crept under the royal coach and clung to the axle like a little monkey, but he was seen by the groom, who brought him to the King, who told him to jump up behind with the footmen, for if his little wooden horse was as strong as he announced himself he could pull them all with ease. So all was smiles and laughter in the coach as the Princes and Princesses wiped their eyes and blew their noses and hugged their little sister, and the footmen sat up like two white candles, with the miner’s boy between them, and the King smiled and the Queen smiled, and the horses sprang forward, led by the little wooden horse, the heavy wheels turning like windmills, for it was true that the little wooden horse knew how to pull.

  Three times round the city they drove, while the people cheered themselves hoarse. They cheered the King, they cheered the Queen, they cheered the ten little Princes and Princesses. They cheered the nine white horses and the beautiful coach, spinning along as smoothly as silk, and over and over again they cheered “the King’s little wooden horse” who led them all.

  When at last they drove back to the Palace the King ordered the miner’s boy and the little wooden horse to be comfortably housed in the kitchen apartments for as long as they liked to stay. Next day he would reward them both. Before they went indoors the youngest Princess ran and flung her arms round the neck of the little wooden horse.

  “If it hadn’t been for you I would have been left at home!” she said to him. “Don’t go away at once! Let me see you again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next!” And she blew a hundred kisses down his little wooden ears before her elder sisters called her indoors.

  10

  The Little Wooden Horse Runs a Race

  The little wooden horse slept most soundly among the ten white horses, the kindest creatures in the world. They could not do enough to make him feel at home and comfortable – very different from the rough, ill-mannered pit ponies that had treated him so badly.

  In the morning he lay for a long time awaiting the miner’s little boy, while the grooms watered and fed the white horses with much singing and laughter. When the miner’s boy did not come the little wooden horse got up from his comfortable bed of straw and trundled out into the yard to see what he could see. He was noticed almost directly by a fat housekeeper.

  “Hey!” she cried. “Here’s the little wooden horse again! Why, my little fellow, you are out of luck this morning, for your young master had hardly finished his soup last night before his father appeared, all nasty and black from the mine – very angry too! He took the boy straight home again without a word, and here you are left all alone. Well, well, well!”

  The little wooden horse was most distressed to hear what had happened. He was just about to trundle out of the yard and make his way home after the miner’s little boy when a footman came out into the yard and called to him.

  “The King wishes to reward you for the services you rendered to him yesterday,” he said.

  The little wooden horse followed the footman sadly into the royal Palace, along white corridors where his four wheels whispered on velvet carpets and even the coins inside his little wooden body lay still as mice. Presently he came into the King’s room, where too were the Queen and the ten little Princes and Princesses.

  “Well, my little fellow, I am glad to see you!” said the King. “I am going to give you two golden sovereigns for your work yesterday,
and here is another that you will give to your young master to reward him for having such a clever little wooden horse and for bringing him into my city. Now we are all going into the country to see the races. Will you come with us?”

  “Oh, do come with us!” begged the little Princes and Princesses at once.

  “Oh, do come with us!” echoed the youngest Princess, Madeleine, long after the others, so that they laughed at her, all except the little wooden horse, who thought her very sweet indeed.

  He put the money that the King had given him into the hole in his neck, and when he found that the races lay on the road to the mine he agreed to come and spend the day with the King and the Queen and the ten little Princes and Princesses before returning to the house of his friend the miner’s boy.

  So by and by they all set off in the royal coach again, for by now the tenth horse had a new shoe and the coach bowled along merrily. The little wooden horse trotted along behind, listening to the chatter of the ten little Princes and Princesses, who were talking about the races, all except the youngest Princess, Madeleine, who chattered to her marionette doll, and peeped over the side of the coach every now and then to smile at the little wooden horse and make sure he was still there.

  The races were very fine and splendid. The little wooden horse had never seen so many beautiful animals gathered together as the gleaming racehorses that pranced up and down the course. The little Princes and Princesses ran about looking at them all, except the youngest Princess, Madeleine, who was not allowed to wander about alone, but sat close to her mother’s side and chattered to her marionette doll, whom she had brought with her for company.

  The races were run, the Princes and Princesses shouted with excitement, the little wooden horse stamped his wooden legs and rattled his wooden wheels. For the moment he wished he were not a little wooden horse at all, but a real, live satin-coated racehorse that could race in front of the King with a jockey no bigger than a monkey on his back.

  As the last race drew near the little Princes and Princesses grew more and more noisy, for this was their race. All, that is to say, except the youngest Princess, Madeleine, who was too young to have a race of her own, and hugged her marionette doll, sitting a little wistfully beside her mother and wondering if she could manage to keep awake this year all the way home. She wondered too if Ivor, who was her favourite brother, would win the race and the award of a Golden Trophy that the King gave to the winner among his children, as well as the ten guineas to the winner among the jockeys who rode for them. She wondered what would happen if one of the twins’ jockeys came in ahead of the other, or whether Merlin would win, as he did last year, or Belinda, who wanted to so badly!

  Up came the nine jockeys on nine beautiful horses. They paused, prancing, before the King and the Queen and the ten little Princes and Princesses – also the little wooden horse, who was standing by the youngest Princess’s, Madeleine’s, feet, as quiet and solemn as a little wooden owl.

  “I ride for the Princess Belinda!” announced the first jockey, mounted on a superb grey horse, as he passed slowly down to the starting-post with a pink ribbon tied to his sleeve, so that they could watch him all the way.

  “I ride for the Prince Ivor!” cried a second jockey, with a scarlet ribbon, on a coal-black horse with a flashing eye.

  “I ride for the Princess Helena!” cried a third, on a red horse with a white ribbon.

  “And I for the Princess April!” cried a fourth, riding a yellow horse with a white ribbon.

  “I ride for the Prince Merlin!” announced the fifth jockey, showing his purple ribbon as he pranced by on a piebald horse.

  The sixth and seventh jockeys raised their voices together. “We ride for the Princes Sebastian and Llewellyn!” they called loudly.

  They were riding two brown horses, as alike as two peas, bearing the same silver ribbon.

  The last two jockeys, on dun- and dove-coloured ponies, with orange and royal blue ribbons, called in turn:

  “I ride for the Prince Robin!”

  “I ride for the Princess Marigold!”

  But the youngest Princess, Madeleine, had no one to ride for her, and she could not help looking a little sad as she sat beside her mother, the Queen, wishing that she too were seven years old, and old enough to hear someone calling out, “I ride for the Princess Madeleine!”

  The King was clapping the jockeys and the beautiful horses on their way to the starting-post when he felt a gentle tap on his knee, and there stood the little wooden horse.

  “If you please, your Majesty,” said the little wooden horse, “may I ride for the Princess Madeleine?”

  At this the eyes of the youngest Princess, Madeleine, grew round with wonder and excitement, while the King laughed kindly.

  “Well, that is an idea!” he said. “She is not yet seven years old, but then you are only a little wooden horse. But where will you find a jockey?”

  The little wooden horse’s painted eyes fell on the marionette doll that the youngest Princess, Madeleine, had dropped in her excitement.

  The King laughed more than ever, but he allowed the little Princess to prop up her marionette doll upon the back of the little wooden horse, and the pair of them trotted away to the starting-post.

  “Ha! Ha! Ha! Look at the little wooden horse coming to race for the Princess Madeleine!” whinnied the racehorses, while the jockeys slapped their sides with glee, and rolled about in their saddles, mimicking the marionette doll, who was a very poor rider indeed.

  “Get ready!” called the groom at the post, lining up the horses ready to start them off.

  The little wooden horse remembered that he bore no coloured ribbon, but the youngest Princess, Madeleine, had tied her rose-pink hair ribbon about the neck of the marionette doll, while there was also his own red saddle and blue stripes. No Princess could wish for better colours!

  “Go!”

  The horses bounded forward with a flashing of delicate legs, and a rattle of wheels that came from the little wooden horse alone. With his wooden head eagerly forward, his wooden ears pricked, he racketed over the ground side by side with the horses of the twin Princes and the Princess Helena. A little way ahead Prince Ivor’s black horse ran like a streak of lightning, while close behind him Prince Merlin’s piebald seemed to cut the air with its speed.

  The little wooden horse could hear the excited cries and shouts of the ten little Princes and Princesses, watching from beside their father’s chair.

  “Go on, my black one!” cried the Prince Ivor above all the rest, and below him echoed the tiny voice of the youngest Princess, Madeleine.

  “Please win! Please win, my little wooden horse!”

  The little wooden horse quickened his pace, just as it seemed that Princess April’s yellow horse would pass him. His wheels spun round as he overtook Princess Belinda’s grey and galloped side by side with Princess Helena’s red horse.

  “Now this is a strange thing!” he said to himself. “Here am I, a quiet little horse, quite content to stay at home beside my master, riding in a race for a Princess, and hoping to win a Golden Trophy!”

  As he thought this a terrible thing happened, for with a little click! out flew one of the nails with which the miner had secured his new wheel, while the wheel itself clattered away under the twinkling legs of the nine galloping horses.

  Now the little wooden horse was galloping cloppetty, cloppetty, cloppetty, clack! cloppetty, cloppetty, cloppetty, clack! while the marionette doll on his wooden back rolled from side to side, as though at any minute he might roll off altogether.

  Behind him the little Princes and Princesses cried out, “Oh! Oh! Look what has happened to Madeleine’s little wooden horse! Now he will lose the race!”

  This made the little wooden horse more determined than ever to win the race for the youngest Princess, Madeleine, who was silent now; so, telling the marionette doll to sit fast, he bounded forward, cloppetty, cloppetty, cloppetty, clack! cloppetty, cloppetty, cloppetty, clack! on his
three wheels, till he had overtaken all the horses except Prince Ivor’s, Princess Marigold’s, and the brown horses belonging to the twin brothers, who were determined to reach the winning-post together.

  The little wooden horse heard the youngest Princess cry out again, under the louder voices of her brothers and sisters, “Go on! Go on! Do please win, my little wooden horse!”

  “Why, a horse can gallop very well on three wheels after all!” said the little wooden horse, who was making the dust fly as he bounded along.

  Bang! Just at that moment another wheel flew off, for the miner’s nails were not meant to hold the wheels of a racehorse; and now the little wooden horse was galloping cloppetty, cloppetty, clack, clack! cloppetty, cloppetty, clack, clack! and the other horses were coming up fast behind.

  The Prince Ivor’s black horse turned round to jeer at him.

  “Hullo, wooden wheels!” he laughed. “And only two of them at that!” He thought it most amusing to be racing against a little wooden horse with only two wheels left to gallop on.

  The little wooden horse was angry at being mocked by the big black horse, who was leading all the others. In spite of the loss of his two back wheels he galloped along, with the marionette doll swaying and bouncing on the red-painted saddle, and overtook the Princess Marigold’s dove-coloured horse – cloppetty, cloppetty, clack, clack! cloppetty, cloppetty, clack, clack! – and now only the black horse and the twin Princes’ brown ones lay between him and the winning-post.

  “Look what has happened to Madeleine’s horse! He only has two wheels now!” cried the nine little Princes and Princesses. But the youngest Princess, Madeleine, said nothing at all, except that under her breath she was whispering, “Oh, please do win, my little wooden horse!” Both her little hands were clasped, while her eyes were as round as blue periwinkles.