 
# The Tree Of Ticket Leaves

by

Larry Good

"Are you surprised I can read?"

--The Tackling Dummy

The Tackling Dummy Press

**SMASHWORDS EDITION**

**Copyright © 2013 by Larry Good, All Rights Reserved.**

**Smashwords Edition, License Notes**

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

# ACROSS THE MISTERCALD

Book One:         _The Tree of Ticket Leaves_

Book Two:        The Land of Walking Through Cake

Book Three:      A Favor for Sticktight

Book Four:       The Flying Buffalo Unicorn

Book Five:        Pumphrey The WaterSpout

Book Six:          The Land of Now and Later
All rights reserved.

Cover Designer: Todd Hebertson

Digital book(s) (epub and mobi) produced by Booknook.biz.

A forest is just a field of trees.

--The Land of Fields
This book is dedicated to my fantastic son Adam.

Hi Adam!

# Across The Lands

Chapter One    Suddenly!

Chapter Two    The Tackling Dummy

Chapter Three    The Practice Field

Chapter Four    Himself!

Chapter Five    Free!

Chapter Six    He Wasn't Not Large!

Chapter Seven    The Autumnforest

Chapter Eight    The Land of Learning Feet

Chapter Nine    The Land of Handwriting Speech

Chapter Ten    The Land of Claustrophobic Air

Chapter Eleven    The Land of Other Places

Chapter Twelve    The Land of Fields

Chapter Thirteen    Good Luck

Chapter Fourteen    A Border Like Amelia

Chapter Fifteen    The Beautiful Paperstorm

Chapter Sixteen    The Help Button

Chapter Seventeen    Boomerang Bowling Balls!

# Chapter I:

_SUDDENLY!_

"Aquamarine oranges."

Standing in Aunt Amelia's front yard, Meri spoke out loud to herself in the bright sunshine. At the same time, she glanced at the fields and forests around her aunt's house.

She liked the way they made a green circle.

However there wasn't an orange on any of the trees so plentifully placed around her--much less an _aquamarine_ orange. There wasn't a single _visible_ reason for _anyone_ to be saying, "Aquamarine oranges."

There was lots of air--pleasant sunlit space--because she was in the country.

She liked the words she had just thought of, and she repeated them softly again to herself as she began walking along the country road toward the small town just ahead.

"Aquamarine oranges."

Soon she was approaching houses.

It was Amelia. She smiled, as she always did when she remembered that her aunt had the same name as the town--and also the county.

But she was no longer paying that much attention to what she could see.

She was playing the new game she had made up. It was called _Suddenly!_

The bright words lifted her spirit.

Glancing to the side appreciatively at the fields and pastures and woods going by in the warm sunshine, suddenly she spun her head around and looked straight ahead.

Another idea had just come into her mind!

The sudden motion made her light brown hair fly up briefly.

She said these words aloud, too, to imagine them better.

"Aquamarine _apples_."

Seeing the strangely colored apples in her mind, she continued to walk.

She liked them just as much as the oranges!

"No, a little more, I think," she said out loud, because she knew there are apple trees in Amelia County, which she was very fond of.

Small bright bubbles of tar were oozing up here and there from the country road in the warm summer sunshine.

"I'm glad I didn't come barefoot," she thought, looking down at her new white tennis shoes.

She always enjoyed the short walk on this road between her Aunt Amelia's house and the street where she and her parents lived. It wasn't that far away.

Today, though, the walk was the least enjoyable that it had ever been--and _that_ was why she was playing her new game. It helped her to feel better.

Then she remembered something.

She remembered that her father had once explained to her that _aquamarine_ means _sea water_. _Aqua_ means _water_ and _marine_ is a word referring to the _ocean._ She had never forgotten!

She also remembered thinking it's especially nice in just one word to have water, the ocean, and a beautiful color.

She loved that word.

But this time it sadly reminded her that, _at that very moment_ , while she was walking along, her parents were on a voyage to England--on a _whole_ _ocean_ of sea water. The day before, they had sailed out onto it in a pretty white passenger ship called the _USS Steady_.

By this time, she knew, the ocean was all around them, in every single direction!

The problem was that _Meri was supposed to be on the ocean too._ She was supposed to be with her parents! That was why this walk to town was the least enjoyable ever!

*

In fact, just then her mother and father were standing at the stern of the _USS Steady_ , looking out at the seemingly unending water behind them moving steadily away.

The wake, several moments of bubbles and whitened water, quickly blended into the ocean.

As it slowly disappeared, Meri's parents were both thinking the same thing. As the wake floated away, so did their daughter. Every second, Meri was a little more distant.

But they didn't talk about her out loud. Neither one dared to mention her. It was too hard. _It was hard enough_ _just thinking about what had happened the day before_.

*

The three of them, Meri and her parents--and even her Aunt Am who was staying behind--had all looked forward to this trip for months. And then, on the very morning they were supposed to drive through the early countrysides--by all the forests, by ponds drifting up mist like fragile fountains, through busier and busier traffic-- _yesterday morning_ -- _Meri had suddenly gotten sick!_

Or at least, she had all the symptoms of being sick. They seemed severe, and her parents were dismayed. Meri was also frightened at the unspoken thought that she might not be able to go.

Aunt Amelia, who was called from her nearby house in the country, and who of course came immediately, thought they--the symptoms--might be, at least partly, the result of so much excitement before the trip. She knew her niece. But she also admitted--she _had_ to--that a bug might have come along too, because Meri's temperature--accompanying her nausea--was over 101degrees Fahrenheit.

_It was hard to understand what actually had happened!_ Because only a few hours after Meri's parents had left, her symptoms were--gone!!!

But by then it was too late. The ship had sailed.

_Whatever_ _had really happened_ , before they left it just didn't seem possible to take their daughter in a car all the way to Norfolk, Virginia. She was throwing up too badly.

Of course her parents were agonizing about whether to try to take her anyway. They didn't want her to be unbearably disappointed, as they knew she would be. They knew how she would feel if they had to leave her behind. And they didn't want to be disappointed, either.

One idea that had occurred to them was that, if they could only somehow get her safely on the ship, they could put her to bed immediately in the cabin.

She would probably recover quickly, they believed.

But, suppose she had something contagious?

Meri's tears then broke her parents' hearts, and her voice made the final decision.

"I'm too sick to go," she admitted, throwing up and then looking back up at them with a face that broke both of their hearts again.

Her parents were just about destroyed. Her mother sat on the edge of the bed and put her arms around her daughter, spoiling the suit she had so carefully picked out to wear on the ship the first day. Her father's eyes were just noticeably wet, but this time he didn't make any attempt to inconspicuously dry them as he normally would have.

Her mother and father looked at each other. Through their eyes, they each knew what the other was deciding.

_None_ of them would go to England!

They were unwilling to leave their daughter that ill and so unbearably disappointed at the same time. Even though her father, a geography teacher, had had a special dream all of his life to cross the mighty Atlantic on a ship--and this would probably be his only opportunity.

It was at this point that, as emotionally devastated as she was, and feeling pitifully sick to her stomach, Meri suspected what they were thinking and refused to allow them to stay behind simply because she now had to.

Unselfishly, she told them it would be all right. She loved her Aunt Am immensely, she reminded them, and they--she and her Aunt--would have a lot of fun together following their trip on maps. Because of her father, Meri actually liked maps. He had been showing them to her all of her life.

She had a vivid imagination, and a strong will, and so her parents weren't surprised at all when she then claimed that she might even come to England by herself--on her own--when she was better--and meet them there.

"You'll see," she stated with a strange confidence in her voice that comforted even herself in spite of the obviously ridiculous idea.

"I know the way," she reminded them.

And, of course, because of their love of maps, she did.

But her parents didn't take these words, filtered through a fever, seriously at all. They were what any admirable girl full of spirit might say in a crisis-- especially a girl overwhelmed with a sudden crushing disappointment!

Their daughter's spirit lifted theirs. And they also hadn't failed to notice her unquestionable kindness.

So, with tears in both of their eyes, broken hearts, and incredible reluctance, they left their beloved daughter behind.

It was sad for them in ways they were unwilling even to think about as they drove slowly down the street. Because deep down inside--and perhaps even not so deep--they knew England had already lost its most important attraction.

# Chapter II:

_THE TACKLING DUMMY_

It was good that they didn't see Meri choking with sobs as they disappeared down the street.

And then, she became even more ill. Aunt Amelia hurried her to the doctor, who, after examining her and also hearing the special circumstances, prescribed going to bed and some disagreeably tasting medicine.

"Don't try to go to England by yourself," Aunt Am said softly to the dim figure lying motionless in the bed, just before closing the door. She knew it wasn't necessary, but she loved her niece too much not to say those words just in case.

Alone, Meri began to think. Her spirits were lifted. Of course she knew she couldn't go to England on her own, and she smiled at her aunt for asking her not to go. But it was an idea that she playfully liked having in her mind. It would be fun to imagine that nonexistent trip!

Aunt Am also relaxed. She knew Meri wouldn't try to go anywhere by herself--especially as far as--and as impossible as--England!

"She's a good child--the very best. No, I don't have to worry about her," she said almost out loud as she reached her favorite room, the kitchen. But she did wonder with a little surprising concern what she herself would have done, at the same age, if the same circumstances had happened to her.

Her eyes sometimes open and sometimes not, Meri began thinking disconnectedly about her own special trip to England. How could it happen?

Not, she knew. But the thought did come to her that there probably _was_ a way-- somehow. If only she knew what it was! Finally, she fell asleep.

The next day, after resting deeply all night, even during a few spectacular dreams, Meri woke up in perfect health.

"She could have gone anyway," her aunt realized with a mixture of relief and sadness that Meri had lost her trip probably because she was looking forward to it so much.

But it was too late.

*

Meri continued her walk along the uneven country road with its occasional shiny bubbles of tar in the sunshine. She was ready to stop thinking about _aquamarine_ --for the moment at least--and go on with her game.

When closer to the town--almost there--she looked back at the various fields she had passed and the forests beyond them, all green.

The August sun was noticeably warm. It was a beautiful day.

"Anchor maps," she suddenly said out loud, looking into the clear air straight ahead of her, and vaguely at the sky above, at the same time. Below, she was aware of the town's first sidewalk.

She liked the idea of a map for anchors to follow. That was funny!

"Or maybe anchors with maps _on them_ or _all over_ them," she went on, knowing no other decoration on an anchor would be so appropriate.

She smiled.

And then, because _anchor_ and _ankle_ are so similar, her mind suddenly changed the idea to

"Ankle maps."

Abruptly she glanced toward her own ankles, which she couldn't see because of the white socks she was wearing with her also white tennis shoes.

The socks looked neat. As she looked, however, she imagined a very pretty map, continued from one ankle to the next, of a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean--perhaps even of her own trip to England. As she walked along the sidewalk, she _left the maps on her ankles._

_Suddenly!_ was actually a very simple game.

All that was required was to think--suddenly, or all at once--of any two (or even more) words without any connection between them. You Suddenly! put them together. Then, you see what idea you've gotten by accident! That was how you could think of something as normally unthinkable as _ankle maps_!

It's always fun to say the new idea out loud, too.

Sometimes Meri would say the new idea quietly in her mind, if she were with someone who wasn't playing, or if for some reason her spirits weren't quite as high as normal. The new idea would then usually raise her spirits.

Once she had unexpectedly said, "Feather duster lightning" and laughed out loud at the idea of soft friendly lightning that somehow helps to keep everything a little cleaner.

Continuing now along the sidewalk as she reached the town, Meri _was_ feeling better, she noticed. It helped that she _always_ liked this walk--in either direction!

It was then that she correctly realized that _all_ of her ideas in the game _Suddenly!_ were about the ocean. In fact, b _oth_ words of _anchor maps_ were.

That realization made her think of her parents again. She pictured in her mind their pretty white ship, surrounded by all the swells and perhaps even a dolphin.

Her Aunt Am hadn't been so sure she should go on this particular walk so soon. "It might bring back too much of her disappointment," she thought. Because what Meri planned to do was walk across _her own yard_. The house would be empty, of course, and the sight of it empty wouldn't be easy.

But seeing the house wasn't why she was going, although she loved her home.

No, there was something _about_ _the yard_ that she wanted to see! Not surprisingly, it had something to do with geography.

Her father had carried his love of geography much farther than his classes at the high school. In the middle of rural Virginia, in a country county about 120 miles from the invincible Atlantic, he had also established his own _Institute of Geographical Discovery_ to honor geography.

And to honor discoverers.

And then, through his personality and a resourceful mind, he had made it come very much alive although it was so far from the ocean.

He actually held classes and other events for the public throughout the year and especially in the summers. He planned visits by interesting scholars and fascinating speakers. His inspiring creative displays of a geographical nature attracted wide attention because he was successful in persuading a variety of interesting artists and enthusiastic people to come to help him.

Because of his zeal for geography and the popularity of his programs and displays at the institute, and because of the quality of his writing and speaking, the institute and he himself had slowly become known-- _far beyond the little town of Amelia, Virginia_.

Anyone with an interest in geography was welcome. He himself was contagiously easy to talk to and unendingly friendly, as well as excitingly serious about geography. Everyone kept coming back, and new people kept arriving. Even in the middle of rural Virginia--in the middle of the country, _far from the invincible ocean_ --and even as a high school teacher--he had become respected as a geographer.

Meri was an interesting part of it, too, in a very special way. When she was born, not by accident she was given the pretty first name of _meri_ , and and the equally pleasant middle name of _dian_. Together they just happened to spell "meridian," for the imaginary geographical circles of the earth's surface.

Small letters for her name had even been used on her birth certificate. At Meri's mother's insistence, though, for respectability a space had been left between them on the document. Being quite good-natured, and loving his daughter, however, Meri's father often called her _meridian_ anyway, using the geographical pronunciation.

It was the favorite name of both of them for her.

On those rare occasions when he was displeased with her for some reason, she didn't hesitate to look up at him and remind him softly, "Remember, I'm a _meridian_." He never could quite remain dissatisfied with her after that.

It was his daughter's name, in addition to his institute and his writings, that had led to his invitation to England.

A letter had arrived one day inviting him to give a presentation at a geographical conference there. It was a dream come true for him--neither Meri nor her mother could believe his excitement. He was actually going to see for himself the watery pathways of the early Atlantic explorers!

Importantly, a conspicuous P.S. at the end of the letter had added, in mysterious handwriting:

_"And could you be sure to bring meridian too? We want to meet a real one!"_

But there was one more thing that had brought him attention, too, although he had done it for his love of geography and not for publicity at all, although he didn't mind it for his institute and especially for geography.

He had added a beautiful grass lawn around their home, and on this lawn, according to his designs Meri's mother had planted beautiful lines of flowers that represented the voyages of the famous explorers.

Meri's mother was especially good with growing things, and these designs, which over time had gradually become more and more accurate and interesting, as well as more and more beautiful, attracted crowds--especially in the summers when they were blooming.

People loved to drive by their home. They often even got out of their cars to walk around the unusual and exquisite patterns with geographical significance. Meri's mother had to work hard to keep the grass attractively green. But she didn't mind at all.

Months in advance, Meri's mother had additionally planted an exciting line of special flowers to represent their own voyage, and it was this special feature of the yard that Meri planned to look at _every_ day until her parents got to England. She knew it would help her feel closer to them.

She intended to try to figure out _exactly_ where they were on her mother's own map and look at that _flower_ or _spot of grass_ and imagine what they were doing and saying.

As she walked along--as full as her mind already was--Meri suddenly made a very simple decision that had nothing at all to do with her game or her yard or her parents' voyage. She didn't realize it was an idea that was about to dramatically change her life.

She had seen something _unusual, even sympathetic_ , at the practice field the other day, a painful sight that had remained curiously alive in her imagination. She decided to stop by there first, just for a few moments, for another look. It was right on the way.

As usual, the door to the high white board fence around the practice field wasn't locked when she reached it.

Opening it a crack, she glanced inside.

Players were all over the field, in their helmets and practice uniforms, as she had expected, because she had been hearing the unmistakable sounds of practice from the sidewalk. These sounds had reminded her of what she had seen.

But she didn't know if that painful and sympathetic sight would still be there.

But it was! She saw him right away!

Hanging down from a rope, looking pitiful and sadly shabby, was a worn out old fashioned tackling dummy. She had never noticed him until the other day.

He had looked so pitiful she hadn't forgotten about him, and now, not going to England, she wanted to see him again. Now that she had time.

He wasn't real, but there was something strange and appealing about the look on his face. He was so dejected. He had been tackled many times, quite clearly, in countless practices like this one. There wasn't much left of him. Every area of his canvas was full of holes and rips of all sizes. His canvas still covered him, but just barely. Meri could see the cotton through it. The fabric that did remain was thin and faded.

She knew he couldn't last much longer.

He _looked_ far far worse than Meri had _felt_ the morning before, when her parents had driven down the street, leaving her behind.

The difference, though, was that she had gotten a little better.

There was no reason to think he ever would.

# Chapter III:

_THE PRACTICE FIELD_

Through the cracked door, Meri looked around the field. The many activities of practice were all going on at the same time. Lines of players were awaiting different drills revealed by sudden movement following spoken signals. The players blocked or tackled each other or the blocking sled, or went out for passes, or ran rapidly on tiptoe through double rows of tires, looking very weird. The lines kept changing as the players, finishing one drill, ran to the next one. From all over the field came a mixture of varied shouts of approval, teasing remarks, laughter and other sounds.

It was a hot day. The noise of the practice impressed the young girl. The first game was the very next night, she knew, and the team was preparing for it with the heightened enthusiasm at the beginning of a season. Their zeal made the activities more lively and unquestionably more entertaining to watch.

The August light had become dazzling, and the heat almost intense, even though it was still only the middle of morning. The practice had been scheduled to begin with some of the coolness left over from the night's softly flowing breezes and the dew. But all that had been heated away.

Stepping inside, Meri gladly stopped within the shade cast by the high white fence. She didn't envy the football players in their sweat-soaked uniforms.

Just then, however, the coach's whistle brought relief. The practice was over. The chattering of the players instantly became more relaxed and playful.

Many began running toward the locker room, unbuttoning their chin straps and taking off their helmets on the way. Meri was certain the air felt wonderful against their wet hair.

A few straggled, not having the energy left to propel themselves faster than a walk through the sheeting sunlight.

Suddenly Meri was startled to see the remaining players, five or six, collect in front of the tackling dummy.

After every practice, the coach allowed any player who wished to demonstrate extra effort to tackle this strange dummy.

Because it was voluntary, it was a way the players had to let the coach know how much they wanted to play--and for the coach to find out.

At first he was disappointed at the small number that had lined up for this final drill. Usually there were more, but this particular day _was_ _exceptionally_ hot, even for August. Actually he was always pleased when _any_ remained--when _any_ player chose extra effort.

The tackling dummy made it possible in a way that was also fun for everyone--except the tackling dummy.

For a long time--since he had bought him--the coach had been pleased that he had gotten the tackling dummy. It added a lightness to the end of practice, and provided extra information to him about his players' attitudes. Unfortunately, however, this dummy was just about worn out. He had waited almost too long to replace him.

In the shade of the fence, unnoticed by anyone, Meri slowly moved closer.

The battered dummy was suspended by a rope, attached to his back by a clip that went up to a pulley used to bring him back into position after each tackle. It allowed his feet to almost touch the grass, but not quite.

Standing to the side, the coach observed his inventive tackling apparatus with satisfaction.

The entire assembly had been constructed by the school shop according to his instructions. The silver-colored rubber tubing on the side poles prevented the players from being hurt if they failed to tackle the canvas man successfully. The pulley operated with tension to release enough rope to allow the real player and the dummy to go scattering across the ground together, as in an actual tackle.

When the tackler let go and got up, the pulley mechanism elevated the dummy into position again. The coach would then align him in the right direction, ready to absorb the next collision. The old frayed rope that held him up had _also_ once been painted silver. But now it was frazzled and no special color. It too had become more and more damaged by countless tackles--like the tackling dummy.

Meri had been mildly shocked recently when she had looked into the stadium during a practice. She hadn't expected to see an intriguing canvas man hanging down on a rope. Although he wasn't real, the look on his face had saddened her. It was almost as if he knew what was happening to him.

She wondered what he would look like if she walked right up to him.

"Not good," she answered herself quickly.

He existed only to be tackled.

Because she had such a vivid imagination, for fun she began to think about him in more lively ways.

She considered what it would be like if he could _talk_ , knowing it would be fascinating to talk to a tackling dummy.

" _I can't imagine what he would say!"_ she decided.

She began to wish he _could_ talk, so she could find out!

Standing in the shade by the high fence, watching him being tackled one more time, Meri wondered if she would _ever_ have a chance to walk over to him. They had unhooked him and taken him back to the locker room after practice the other day.

"It would be too painful to see him up close, anyway," she decided.

"And he probably looks worse every day," she added. A huge puffball of cotton escaped from him every time he was tackled, filling the air with an enormous sphere of cotton particles.

The separations throughout his canvas were especially visible. They were getting larger.

As Meri watched, a heartbreakingly huge cloud of cotton floated down in the air where he had been.

Thank goodness only one player was left!

The previous tackler had steadied the poor dummy himself, saying "Okay," before he left. He was feeling good because his tackle had knocked such a splash of particles into the air.

Observing, and pitying the tackling dummy, Meri forgot--for the moment anyway--about being left behind by her parents. She had forgotten completely about the _USS Steady_ , even at that moment floating toward England without her aboard.

She even wondered, in her imagination, about his name.

"What would it be," she pondered, "if he had one? What would be a good name for a tackling dummy?"

She paused to think about it. But she couldn't think of anything. _Tackling dummy_ was the only name that sounded right.

She had noticed, before, that the players were especially happy when the dummy exploded into a huge and exciting cloud. For this reason, she had seen one or two get into line a second--and even a third--time. She realized, even from a distance, that they were competing among themselves to produce the most dramatic effect.

Sometimes the coach was even called upon to give a decision--if the dramatic cloud of white, shooting out of the many holes in the worn-out tackling dummy's canvas, was larger than the one before--or an earlier one?

Meri didn't realize how much of a pleasure it was for a player to be able to tackle, for a change, a figure not wearing pads and not running toward him. It was a dream tackle. Recently, since the tackling dummy was losing so much cotton, and had become easier to grasp, it was much more fun to tackle him!

Putting her hands into the pockets of her bib overall jeans shorts, Meri instantly smiled, feeling the smoothness of the long distance telephone card her Aunt Amelia had given her that morning. It was to call her parents in London. She was going to, just as soon as she found out the number! But they had to arrive in England first, of course! This thought raised her spirits for a moment. But then she had to try again not to think about being left behind.

"You know what you can do--so do it for the first time!! No less. Remember tomorrow night," Meri, awakened from her thoughts, heard the coach encouraging the _last player waiting to tackle._ He was extremely large, and a little awkward, but young--in his first season--and desperately wanting to participate in the big game the following night! He had stayed after practice, on purpose, to do everything that he could to have an opportunity to play.

The number on his bulky faded practice jersey, with funny misshapen shoulder pads underneath, was 50.

"Finally!" Meri thought to herself. He was the last one. She had held her breath with each lunge forward. The tackling dummy had withstood ten tackles so far, and was still up in the air.

He had lasted this long!

Perhaps, after all, she would walk over to where he was today--after the last tackle.

The coach was holding his whistle in his hand. He usually kept it in his mouth. But he had taken it out because he especially wanted to encourage this player. So far young number 50 had been timid and awkward in practice. But he had size, he was trying hard, and the coach thought he had potential.

So he continued with his inspirational comments which were always different for each player. His ability to talk to each player uniquely was one of the reasons for his continued success.

"Look at him!" he said of the pitiful tackling dummy. "There isn't much left of him, is there? And look at that rope--it doesn't look like it could hold _any_ dummy up after one more tackle! Let's see if you can do what nobody else has been able to do today! Let's see if you can end his career!"

The heavy guard got set into a stance that didn't look quite right, even to Meri. But there was a determination about it. His motivation was evident. He had looked at Meri before he descended, and the pink color of his face, from all of his exertions in the heat, gave even greater evidence of his motivation.

Tilting his head up, he looked straight at the waiting--and helpless--tackling dummy.

"Hut! Hut! _Hut!!"_ signaled the coach, unconsciously putting the whistle back into his teeth afterward.

Sensitive to being the only player on the field, and having the _full_ attention of the coach--something he hadn't hoped for--and responding to the special words he had just heard, young but large number 50 charged forward with surprising force. Even in his awkwardness, he left his feet and sailed through the air.

The tackling dummy just hung there.

And then came the impact.

An _absolutely huge_ explosion of white burst forth! The rope pulled taut. And then it did what had been expected many times that day--but hadn't.

It snapped!

The ungainly but now victorious player went scattering and rolling over in a comical pile of arms and legs on the grass.

The tackling dummy was twisted around and balled up, his legs and arms bent back upon themselves.

"Hmmmm!!" complimented the coach, smiling with the whistle still in his teeth. "T _hat_ _was_ a tackle!"

His eyes were especially satisfied, knowing that eventually he was going to get a lot of good out of this new player.

The coach's assistant, wearing the same dark blue and orange University of Virginia football jersey that he _always_ wore, more proudly than he ever acknowledged, walked up. He too, like the coach, was wearing shorts in the hot weather. A meaningful look, including a grin, signaled to the coach that he too knew how hard this young player was trying.

The practice on the mostly deserted field was now completely over.

The new player, still on the ground, sat up, slowly gathering himself.

"Thanks," he mumbled, having heard the coach's compliment. But he was feeling some new aches and pains because the tackle, which had flown so out of control, had stretched him in many ways his body wasn't used to yet.

"20 laps around the field for ruining my dummy," the coach added, as he and the assistant stopped briefly by the pathetic heap that had been the tackling dummy. Grasping the metal clip attached to the short piece of worn-out rope dangling back over the dummy's shoulder and partly around his twisted neck, he ripped the loop right out of the fabric instead of releasing the catch.

There was no longer any need to preserve the useless ruined dummy.

The loop wasn't that hard to pull out because of the weakness of the canvas. These last two holes immediately became lost among many others. After a quick look at what the rope looked like where it had broken, the coach tossed it and the clip, with the loop still dangling from it, back onto the crumpled figure.

The young guard was starting to get up. Overjoyed at his good tackle, surprising even himself, he at first overlooked the unfairness of the unexpected sentence.

Then he thought about it. Even if he wanted to play, it was just too unfair.

_"20 laps, in this heat, and for doing something good?!!_ " he reluctantly blurted out.

"Just kidding," the coach grinned. But he would have allowed the ninth grader to run the laps if he had accepted them. "Great tackle," he added, pulling the large boy up onto his feet with one hand. "Go ahead now. And let's see if you can do as good a job in the game tomorrow night."

The boy's feet almost didn't touch the grass, he was so excited about his successful performance before the coach and especially by the coach's words that _he was going to get to play!_ The coach had even teased him, personally! He ran across the field with as much energy as at the _beginning_ of practice!

The coach and his assistant watched him, grinning, and then both looked down again at the wrecked tackling dummy. Neither, obviously, had ever seen him look so bad before. They actually felt sorry for him for a second. The coach remembered when he had been completely new.

But, "Leave him," he said carelessly. "He's no good now."

In the past the assistant had always been careful to unsnap him right away after practice to carry him inside, to prevent vandalism. But that was no longer necessary.

"I've actually got a new one ordered, if you can believe it," the coach continued. "I decided to have a new one made. We'll get rid of this one later. It doesn't matter what happens to him now."

And they started walking across the field toward the locker room.

Meri had a chance to see the tackling dummy up close!

She hesitated, however.

She didn't know if she wanted to see him like that!

# Chapter IV:

_HIMSELF!_

The two coaches heading to the locker room both waved to Meri.

Her father was on the faculty of the high school--so they had seen her many times before. All of the faculty members were fond of her because she was so approachable.

Then they went on because it was time to give out game uniforms for the following night. The day before the first game was always one of the most important ones.

Meri waved in her usual friendly way. Then she just stood there listening to their tones as they walked on, although she couldn't understand them. She watched their aluminum cleats showing bright dots on the undersides of their shoes as they departed. Finally they disappeared around the corner of the permanent bleachers, still absorbed in conversation about the approaching game.

Then Meri looked back toward the tackling dummy.

She stiffened. Her eyes widened.

_She was stunned_!

To her unbelievable astonishment, the tackling dummy was now slowly limping toward the fence at the far end of the field.

"Wait!" she mindlessly called toward the gray figure. She was already running toward him, not believing what she was seeing! Her heart was beating fast.

Full of wonder, all she could think of to add, was, "Where are you going?"

She still couldn't believe that he was walking. But he was! As she ran, she reached her hand into the right pocket of her bib overall jeans shorts again, making sure the long distance phone card wasn't working itself out. She didn't want to lose it.

The tackling dummy turned around momentarily with alarm. But then he relaxed when he saw it was the young girl. Noticing the rest of the field, he was glad they were the only ones on it.

"To England," he replied as she caught up, looking at her curiously. His eyes were the best preserved part of him.

Amazement was still in her own eyes. But then his words struck her.

Had he said he was going to England?

"That couldn't be," she decided, in her mind. What she was seeing already seemed far too unreal. He couldn't be going to England, too!

But,

"Why are you going to England?" she asked anyway, breathing hard. For the first time, she was able to see him face to face, as she had wished.

Regrettably, his canvas was even worse than she had imagined. Her heart almost broke when she saw all the holes and tears in it. The fabric that wasn't torn seemed dangerously thin and threadfully weak. She began to try not to look at him too directly as she spoke.

"Look at me," he suggested reluctantly, not realizing how close his request was to her actual thoughts and feelings.

"Do you see my canvas?"

"Yes," answered the girl falteringly, looking him straight in the eyes so she wouldn't have to look at the rest of his canvas. She didn't quite understand what his question had to do with his going to England.

Reading her face with his well preserved eyes, he realized she was trying to connect his two statements.

"Do you know anything about geography?" he then asked.

"This conversation is really getting quite daffy," Meri thought. But she was glad they seemed to be returning to the subject of England and away from the subject of his canvas.

"Why, yes," she answered, pleased that he had asked. For it was a subject that she knew _a lot_ about. Briefly she told him about her father and his love of geography, and that therefore she had been learning about it all her life. Talking fast in her excitement, she also mentioned the Institute of Geographical Discovery--and then, finally--the trip to England that she had just missed.

It was _his_ moment to be incredulous! It _really_ was quite a coincidence!

"That is so too bad," he sympathized, starting to walk toward the fence again, knowing it wasn't a good idea for him to be standing out in the open for too long.

Meri followed right along, as he had supposed.

"But to finally answer your question--I'm _from_ England. And there's something I desperately need to do there." He glanced just a moment back toward the tackling apparatus that he had just been tackled so violently off of.

He was glad of the distance now between him and it!

He really didn't have any hard feelings about being tackled. He just wanted, from now on, not to be. He thought these thoughts without mentioning them to Meri.

She was walking along with him, her mind in a whirl. She couldn't believe all of this was really happening!

She didn't quite know what to do or say!

For a few moments, she was actually speechless as she thought about it all. The tackling dummy was _already_ on his way to England--the very place she needed to go! With a jolt in her stomach, she then remembered what she had told her parents just before they had left-- _about finding her own way to England and meeting them there!_

They hadn't objected.

Was there really a way for her to get to England after all?

"Let me explain a little more," the tackling dummy continued, noticing the bewilderment and the lights in her eyes. Not just his eyes, but all the features on his painted face were the best preserved of all his canvas, because the tackling had damaged his body badly--but not his head as much.

"You see," he continued, with the connection between canvas and England at last becoming clear, "in the days when England was a great seafaring country, I'm sure you can understand there must have been many many shops in London, and in the other cities and towns of that country--especially near the coasts--that made the canvas for all the ships' sails. There were lots of ships, and they all moved by sails. Just think of all the canvas on all the English ships on all the oceans of the world then. And then imagine what all the winds and all the storms were doing to that canvas every day. They were wearing it out!"

He felt good about these words, because he identified with the canvas on those ships--especially when the storms were battering it. It must have been like being tackled.

Meri's vivid imagination followed him, to all those ships at sea, all over the world, during countless storms.

"Well," her new friend continued, enjoying this talk, because he had never really had one before, "when new technologies came along--you know, like steam--and ships stopped using so much canvas for sails, the shops--to stay in business--had to start making _other_ things out of canvas. They were forced to. And through all the years, a few of the shops survived. Eventually, as time came down to the present, I was made out of canvas in one of the very few that were left, before being carried over here in the hold of a great cargo ship, with many other things. It was quite an interesting trip. But I would have preferred to see the ocean.

"Now that I'm ruined," he continued, glancing down at himself in a worried way, "the only thing I know to do is go back to England, try to find the shop I was made in, and somehow arrange to be covered again. If I don't, I know I won't last much longer. I haven't got that much time left. I've _got_ to get to England!"

His eyes looked serious with a concern he hadn't yet shown.

But they grew more optimistic again when he said, "If I could, I'd like to have _exactly_ the same type of canvas again. Then I would truly be like new again-- _and this time it would be for me!"_

Meri liked very much the spirit in his face when he said this. Her heart unquestionably identified with him. When she had wondered what a tackling dummy might say, she had never expected anything like this!

"But what a long and dangerous trip he's planning," she thought. She knew something about geography. And about people.

"How can he ever get to England?" she wondered, glancing over at him. "And if he does, how can he find precisely the right shop?" Her vivid imagination helped her to understand the great challenges he faced.

The tackling dummy noticed that she was thinking and the troubled look on her face. He looked anxiously down at his damaged canvas again. He was well aware that his future didn't look promising.

"I wish we had known about _you_ before my parents went to England," Meri told him. "They needed to take _you_ --since _I_ couldn't go. _They already had a ticket!_ And an extra bed in the cabin! I would have felt much better--if I couldn't go--if I knew you were taking my place."

She told him about seeing him recently, and of thinking about him, including what his name might be. To spare his feelings, she didn't mention how sorry she had felt for him.

He reacted with energy to her words. "I saw you at that practice," he confessed, "and I wondered about you. You looked so nice over there by the entrance. I wondered what you were doing. I wished you would walk over. But you left at the end of the practice, when I had to go back to the locker room as usual. And you can call me just _Tackling Dummy_. I don't think I'd be comfortable with anything else."

"That's just what I thought!" she said, looking up at him. She was amazed to hear about the _other_ side of their brief relationship. She hadn't known it, but her friendship with the Tackling Dummy had already been going on for several days!

At this point in the conversation, they reached the high white fence at the farthest end of the field. The Tackling Dummy climbed up, and extending his hand down, helped his new friend up too. Sitting on the top, they both gazed around for a moment. The Tackling Dummy looked back once more at the field where he had spent so much time, and smiled. Then he dropped safely down to the pine needles on the other side.

"I'm finally free," he thought. A new feeling came over him. Stationing himself carefully, he practically caught Meri so that she would land softly. She wasn't nearly as tall as he was.

"England is that way," said the young girl, standing beside him. She _was_ pointing east. Because of her father, she knew.

"But before you go, could we talk for a moment?" she added. Her voice was wavering. She was suddenly uncertain.

"I was wondering," she continued unevenly. "I mean, you know I need to go to England, too, as I told you." She hesitated, looking troubled. She hadn't really had enough time for her thoughts, which were mainly emotions and wishes.

"Do you think--before they left, I told my parents I was going to find my own way and meet them there. I didn't really think it would be possible. But now--you're going."

She left hanging, unsaid in the air, the words that she really wanted to say. But he understood exactly what she meant. He was no dummy.

Meri knew she hadn't said it right. _She hadn't really said it at all!_ But her heart was almost in her throat with excitement and uncertainty as she fantasized about actually going to England with him! And she had doubts, too, as anyone would, in such a confusing situation. Should she go? What a trip it would be! What adventures would they have?

She wished she could settle down her emotions and think just a little more clearly. She was having trouble, for one reason, because the thrill of just talking to him was so overwhelming! She had had _months_ before to think about going to England with her parents. But now she had only _seconds_ to decide whether to try to go with him or not!

Of course she had thought about going with him as soon as he had stated his destination! _Anyone_ in her situation would have, _anyone_ who had also just been left behind, as she had! And _especially_ after he had explained so clearly about needing new canvas, and the shops, and all that!

The Tackling Dummy had been looking around at the new view. It had been a long time since he had had any views except the unchanging Practice Field and the inside of the drab, cold, and gray locker room where he was kept.

Now he could see some of the country! Many trees were actually nearby!

But he stopped to look at Meri's face during her awkwardly expressed wish. It wasn't really a request, it was more a wish hanging in the air _between_ a desire and a request she hadn't made yet. There was a look of concern in his eyes. He too knew what a long way he had to go, because he had had an almost unlimited time to think in the locker room and on that rope.

He had to get to the ocean somehow, and he was lucky it was only 150 miles away. It shows his predicament that this distance was his _good_ luck! Then he had to figure out a way to cross that huge body of water. The difficulty of _that_ needn't even be mentioned. And then, if he got to England, he would have a whole new set of problems. How would he ever be able to find that shop-- _his shop_ -- again?

It would be an adventure _, there was no doubt!_ Being a tackling dummy would certainly create all sorts of special _extra_ problems. He smiled indulgently at that idea, because _he still would rather be a tackling dummy than anything else_ , as long as he was free.

He just didn't have any choice. He wanted to find out about life. And that meant, _first of all_ , obtaining canvas so that he could continue to _be_ a tackling dummy.

As for Meri, it would be perfect to have her on the trip. He would love to have someone like her to share his adventures. He was already quite fond of her. She was such a nice person. And she knew something about geography, too!

But, he also knew that he could never put her in danger; and his trip, without any doubt, would involve constant danger.

And there was something else, too.

Having spent so much of his life up to that point just thinking, he was a little wise, although his life had been contained. He knew why Meri had to decide not to go. A hint of sadness and disappointment became visible in his eyes for the tiniest part of a second as he thought of this inevitable reason.

" _Can_ you?" he asked gently, looking down at his new friend. He searched her eyes, which he had been thinking were especially pretty, with his canvas ones.

"I mean, if I said yes, you can go, _would you be able to go?_ Didn't you say that you're staying with your Aunt Amelia?"

It was the right question. He knew that her Aunt Amelia didn't yet know about this new trip--hadn't been told, hadn't been asked. When he saw the immediate look of uncertainty in her eyes, the recognition, the instant disappointment, he kindly looked away, out of courtesy, from his new friend. He made believe he was glancing at the attractive countryside of Amelia. He knew she needed a moment to recover herself.

He also started walking. He didn't want her disappointment to become too painful, and he thought that walking along in these pleasant surroundings might help a little. At the same time, he took his very first steps toward the Atlantic Ocean.

He was interested in getting even farther away from the Practice Field.

They could talk for a few more minutes as they walked along, but then, he knew, he would have to go.

As he walked, and she unconsciously began walking along beside him, he quickly looked over at her. He was glad she hadn't spoken yet. Because when she did, he knew it would be time to say goodbye.

He had never had any respect from _anyone_ before. _Until he met her._ Glancing over again at his new friend, who looked as if she were going to begin crying at any moment--noticing her light brown hair move gently in a breeze--he suddenly realized something.

He suddenly realized she was the _only_ friend he had ever had.

At first he had been extremely concerned about _her_. And he still was. But now he began to be concerned about _himself_ , too.

How, after all of his tackles, was he going to be able to say goodbye to the only friend he had ever had?

# Chapter V:

_FREE!_

Slowly they walked farther away from the high white fence.

Meri was very quiet. In her mind she desperately analyzed the situation one more time:

She knew she couldn't go to England without telling her aunt _. That would be a terrible thing for her to do!_ She didn't even want to think about how much her aunt would worry _if she didn't come home_. And how would her parents feel if _they_ were told she was missing?

And especially when they were out on the ocean!

She couldn't do that to them.

But what about _permission?_

She thought, "I just can't ask my aunt, ' _Do you think you could give me permission to go to England with my friend the Tackling Dummy?'"_

And about that, she also knew it wouldn't be fair to ask her new canvas friend to be seen by her aunt or anyone else, for proof of what she was saying. It would be too dangerous for him.

"And it would be for nothing anyway."

With her quick mind, Meri realized that her aunt _couldn't_ possibly let her go _even if she did see the Tackling Dummy!_ She couldn't agree to _anything_ that would mean even _the slightest risk_ for her niece _._ She was responsible for her! It was her job to protect her from danger. And she also loved her very much.

So how could she let her go on a trip with a battered Tackling Dummy, _all the way to England_ --including finding a way, now unknown, across a great ocean?!

"NO!--no way!"

"It's impossible," Meri realized, devastated. _It was totally clear she couldn't go._ The only reason she had taken this long to admit it was that the trip to England had meant so much to her.

Not revealing the exact moment her decision became final, Meri kept on walking beside her new friend through a few sunny pine trees that were a kind of border between the school property and a planted field. She liked the pine needles on the ground, and the little branches, with small pine cones still attached to them, that snapped pleasantly beneath their feet.

But a huge pain was getting itself ready inside her--to knock her down again, when the Tackling Dummy left her behind. Probably worse than the day before even, because this time she was also going to lose forever the chance to get to know her unique new friend.

It would be her _second totally shattering disappointment_ in two days!

The Tackling Dummy hadn't been talking. He felt very sorry for her. It bothered him that, being so kind herself, Meri had just lost not _one_ , but _two_ trips to England. He didn't yet know exactly what to say to her, because this was actually his first conversation with someone other than himself, and he was uncertain at first. But then, he decided to try.

But Meri kept on talking. "When I was sick, and couldn't go to England with my parents," she told him with a make-believe brightness on her face and in her voice, trying to stay cheerful as they slowly walked along, "I said to my parents that I was going to England by myself and meet them there. I didn't really mean it. I was just trying to make them feel better about leaving me. They were so upset! And I felt so bad--in several ways!

"But now I _do_ have a way to go--an exciting way. What could be more exciting than to go to England with a Tackling Dummy? With you. Can you imagine the adventures we would have?! Together. I know it would be difficult sometimes-- _a lot_ of times, really--but I also think we could do it! Don't you? Somehow? If we had a chance to try?" She looked up at him. _She so desperately wanted to go with him_! She so desperately wanted to try this great adventure! She also knew he would need help, and she hated to think of him without it.

But it was no use. Her decision was all over her face. And it was all over _his_ kind face, too, as she looked up at him! She realized that he already knew!

She wasn't going!

He nodded his painted face with quiet understanding as she looked up at him and unnecessarily explained, "I just can't go without asking! And I can't ask about you! I don't think I should say anything about you until I know you're safe! And now I probably never will--know you're safe!" She almost choked trying to say these last three words.

The Tackling Dummy winced at the pain in her face and her voice.

When she realized just what her words meant, the finality of them, a feeling of disappointment, even worse than the day before, swept over Meri. The sickness in her stomach, which she had gotten over not long after her parents left, returned briefly, and then went away again. But then a feeling of numbness crept over her whole body, which didn't go away. There was a heavy feeling to her cheeks and a stinging along her eyes, with the definite sensation that she might choke at any moment. Only the choke just wouldn't come! It wanted to come, but it just wouldn't!

The Tackling Dummy looked down at her, reached up and with his shabby torn left hand brushed away a tear from the side of her eye. And then he turned his own away for a moment.

"It's not going to be an easy trip for me," he agreed softly. "But I think I'd prefer it to being tackled every day, like I have been."

Then he stopped, turned toward her, and turned her toward him by putting his hands on her shoulders. His gray fingers looked especially sad against the coral color of the new blouse she was wearing.

He wanted to try to cheer her up. Both of her eyes were loaded with tears.

Looking down into her light turquoise eyes, which he had thought so pretty and which he was now even more aware of, he said to the first person who had ever treated him as a friend, "You know, I don't even know your name."

"It's Meri," she answered, smiling, blinking the tears back as best she could. She had thought it would be fun to talk to a tackling dummy, and it was. Realizing she didn't want to spoil their last-- and first--conversation together, for the moment she tried to put the thought of his departure, and of her not going, out of her mind. To disregard her numbed and battered feelings, she swallowed as hard as she could, looked up, and smiled again.

"But that's not all," she went on as cheerfully as she could. My middle name is dian. You have to put them together. So I have a secret hidden name, too, which is _meridian_. That's really what my father named me for, the meridians of longitude. He teases me that I'm a real meridian, the shortest one of all-- _but the most important one!_ On my birth certificate, Meri and dian are both spelled with small letters. So I am a real meridian after all. But you can call me Meri, just the first two syllables, like everyone else does.

"My name has even been mentioned in newspaper articles, it's so unusual. In fact, when the invitation arrived to the geography conference that my parents are on their way to now, it had a note at the bottom in handwriting that said that they--the people in England--wanted _me_ to come too. They said that, both geographically and personally, they would very much like to meet the little girl who was _a real meridian_. I Iiked the way they put it."

The Tackling Dummy was delighted to find this out about her name, as so many others had been. "Still, you have a beautiful name in Meri--that also turned out very well, by itself. And meri and dian are also pretty together, as well as meaningful," he added thoughtfully. "You have an unforgettable name as well as a very nice one. You're lucky."

"Thank you," she said, listening carefully. She had to admit that she liked her new old friend up close very much, much more so than from a distance.

"And yours is unique, too," she then stated, looking up. "I don't know anyone else named Tackling Dummy."

There was a twinkle in his canvas eyes.

Meri smiled. "It looks like we both have unusual names, then." And they both laughed.

"It was lucky for me that we finally met," the Tackling Dummy continued as they walked along. "Now I have a friend. And by the way, you have the prettiest aqua eyes. I do like that color and always have. And I also really like that coral top you're wearing, too." The Tackling Dummy _always_ noticed both fabrics and colors, because he was so aware of the poor condition of his own. His own problems had given him the ability to notice and the ability to appreciate.

"Thanks," replied the girl, glancing down. "People always tell me that about my eyes. They're just hazel--but a little lighter than usual, I think, which is what makes people notice, so that actually they're a light turquoise, which I really do believe is _a little_ unusual."

They came to a large wheatfield with many lines of small green plants that had just appeared. The sandy dirt road they were on seemed to cut the field in half. Suddenly the Tackling Dummy stopped.

Stretching his arms up into the air as far as he could, into the warm August air, toward the blue Amelia sky with a few small white clouds, he exclaimed, "I don't believe it! I'm finally free! I'm free!"

There was a wonderful look of exaltation on his face. He actually nodded to the sun as he looked up. _He nodded to the sun!_ Meri had never seen anyone else do that!

He was free--he no longer had to be hung on a rope and tackled every day! The hot August sun was bright on his canvas, showing his many tears and other imperfections clearly. But he wasn't looking at or thinking about _them_ at the moment.

For, finally, after existing only to be knocked down time after time after time, he had his freedom!

# Chapter VI:

_HE WASN'T NOT LARGE!_

Meri liked the many rows of tiny green wheat plants they were walking among. So did the Tackling Dummy. _Practically everything was new to him!_ Sometimes the green lines curved, bending along the shape of the ground in their rows, away to the bases of distant trees or to fields on either side.

The dirt road through the middle had been well worn by many farm vehicles. It was enjoyably smooth.

As they continued along, talking in the sunshine, a plowed area began to become visible to their left.

The soft coral color of the top Meri was wearing stood out as a pleasant contrast to the different colors of the soil and the delicate green plants of the wheat. Her Aunt Amelia had given it to her that very morning.

As they walked, the two of them gradually became quiet at about the same time. The Tackling Dummy was beginning to have concerns that were natural, considering his predicament of being a Tackling Dummy and having to cross an ocean.

Meri was thinking about both trips to England--her parents' and her friend's. She wasn't feeling intensely disappointed at that particular moment, even though she had been unable to participate in either. Knowing already how special the Tackling Dummy was, she didn't want to spend any more time with him feeling disappointed. She wanted her time with him, which she knew would be short, to be positive.

Because the Tackling Dummy had said he liked the color of the coral top she was wearing, Meri began to think about her Aunt Amelia--or Aunt Am, as she almost always called her. Aunt Am was her father's older sister, and Meri loved her probably as much as she loved both her parents. Her aunt was an unusual person. She had told Meri, when she had learned about the voyage, how excited she was for her, because she herself went on voyages all the time!

What she meant was that she was always getting books from the library and taking intellectual voyages. Her aunt certainly wasn't ordinary! She seemed to have, and always to have had, so many interests. Her kitchen table was frequently piled high with books--though always in just one stack, which was usually leaning precariously in more than one direction.

Meri often came in unnoticed and found her sitting at that table, reading, because her interest at the moment had become so strong, just by glancing at the books stacked there, that she hadn't been able to resist picking up and looking at a book that had caught her attention. Even though she had other things she definitely needed to do!

In fact, when Meri thought of her Aunt Amelia, she always pictured her sitting there at the kitchen table with a faraway look on her face, her head turned slightly upwards, thinking. She spent as much time _thinking_ about what she was reading as _reading!_ This was probably why she had so many original ideas of her own. Her translucent glasses would be pushed up into her gray and brown hair at these times.

Her Aunt Amelia's favorite topic was the universe, which is just about the biggest one she could have had. She thought about it a lot.

"I've spent a lot of time in the middles of stars!" she had told her niece many times.

Meri had been confused by this statement at first, especially when she had been much younger. Eventually she realized that her aunt meant in her imagination. She was trying to understand stars, the main objects in the sky. Still, putting it her aunt's way always sounded like fun! And going out into the universe, to the middle of a star, was a far voyage! Much farther than to England!

By trying so hard to understand everything, her Aunt Am had developed many unique ideas of her own. One that Meri remembered was that the heat inside the earth is caused by exactly the same process that causes the heat inside of stars. "Stars and planets are surprisingly similar," she had told Meri with a knowing look on her face, as if she had actually been to some stars. "Whenever a volcano erupts, you can see heat and light coming from inside the earth--just like there's heat and light inside a star. But a star is so big, that the heat and light are all the way to the outside! The earth isn't quite big enough for that to happen."

She had a more complicated explanation, of course--far different from accepted ideas. "You just wait," her Aunt Am reassured her. "And above all, always keep your mind open. You _have_ to, but it's not easy." How her favorite niece thought about things was important to her.

In the course of these swift thoughts, Meri remembered her aunt's car, which both she and her aunt loved. It was a Mercury. She had gotten it for the planet closest to the sun. And it was light blue, "for the blue of these Amelia skies," she had explained to her niece. "Amelia is an important part of the universe, you know."

What Meri and everyone else most liked about the car was that on the driver's side her aunt had had painted, first, the sun, with beautiful yellow rays, just forward of the front wheel;

then Mercury itself, right behind the wheel;

then a pretty white representation of Venus;

then the light blue earth, a wonderfully interesting island among stars and planets;

then Mars--in standout red, of course;

followed by Jupiter with its colored bands and exciting spots;

and then by Saturn, with its fantastic rings;

Uranus, so mysterious on its side;

succeeded by beautiful Neptune, eerily and remotely blue;

and finally, near the tail-light, small icy Pluto.

The largest satellites were also shown, including--especially--the wonderful white one of the earth.

The artist had done an excellent job, and Meri liked to see the car--the side with the planets on it--even in her aunt's driveway. It created worlds of additional interest when it was in _their own_ driveway, too, when people came by to look at all the voyages on the grass--some even to get a glimpse of the little girl who was actually named _meridian_!

Out in the back yard of Aunt Amelia's home, just out in the Amelia countryside, Meri had spent many an evening looking up at the stars and the planets with her aunt, and talking about them. She was practically the only one at school, even including the teachers, who knew which of the planets were in the sky at any given time, and where they were.

Because she loved her aunt as much as she did, Meri began to realize how much she would have missed her, if she had been able to go with her parents or the Tackling Dummy. She understood a little better how hard it must have been for her parents to leave _her_ yesterday.

A warm August breeze blew Meri's light brown hair up in a puff as she turned her head.

She could smell the earth scents of the freshly plowed ground on their left. Straight in front of them, beyond the plowed field, was a pasture, bordered by woods all the way around except the side they were approaching. At the end of the pasture the Tackling Dummy would have to leave the open and walk through the trees. Meri knew she wouldn't be able to go along with him much longer!

They stopped for a moment to gaze appreciatively at the country vistas over and beyond the plowed field on their left. And that's when all of Meri's emotions, from so many things happening all at once and pulling against each other, suddenly came together in her chest and on her face, at the same time. When the Tackling Dummy started forward again, she didn't.

He came back.

She was just standing there, on the sand that had collected on the walking and driving areas of the road, staring above the tops of the trees ahead.

"What's the matter?" he asked, worried. He didn't have any idea that so many thoughts could so swiftly go through the mind of a little girl her age. When he saw her face and the emotions there, however, the concern on his own face and in his canvas eyes became evident.

"Almost everything," she said truthfully, looking up at him with beautifully unhappy eyes. She had tried to keep her disappointment behind a dam in the back of her mind, but now that dam was bursting open. "I can't go with you, and I don't know what I'm going to do when you're somewhere between here and England and I don't know what's happening to you! You might be in trouble, and I won't even know about it!"

Her voice was plaintive and honest. She was no longer even trying to control it.

"I'll be all right," he insisted gently, having a hard time with his own emotions, which she didn't realize. "Look at how long I've lasted as a Tackling Dummy!"

His words were comforting, because he was saying them, but she couldn't help but remember that he was worn out. She didn't want to look at him and remind herself, though. How could he survive in his condition? And then she said something out loud that made her know what it was like to be tackled--and reminded him all over again!

"And I'll never see you again!"

There were tears in her eyes as she looked up with the most painful expression he had ever seen.

He held out his arms to her, saying, "I know," and he comforted her next to his shabby canvas. With a canvas hand and canvas fingers he smoothed her hair, which had become bunched up against his comforting arm. It was a good thing that she couldn't see the forlorn look in his own eyes about having to leave his only friend behind. And what a friend!

They were both equally unhappy, but there was nothing to be done, and they both knew it. He had to go. Separating herself, Meri looked up at him, and trying again to control herself, said, "I'll walk with you to the end of the pasture."

"I would love that," he replied, smiling gently at her tear-stained eyes now trying to be strong. For a brief moment he himself looked up over his left shoulder at the sky, at nothing.

"When we get there, you're probably going to have to start bearing to the left," she added, trying to sound normal.

They walked the rest of the way through the new wheatfield, and then, to get into the pasture, climbed over a low split rail fence. The Tackling Dummy helped her over, although she was very agile herself. She was lively, and he was kind, and so she went right over. He landed easily himself on the other side, and Meri realized he still had plenty of strength left. If only he could stay together long enough!

"If--I mean-- _after_ you get to England, and are covered with new canvas," Meri began, continuing to think about his future, "what will you do then?" They were now in the pasture.

"Where will you go?"

They both knew the importance of these questions. For just getting new canvas--although very important--wouldn't be enough for the Tackling Dummy.

He had to be somewhere that was right for him--someplace where he could freely be himself.

The Tackling Dummy's face was serious as she looked up at him after asking her two small questions. The canvas of his face looked more worn than before in the warm sunlight.

"I really don't know yet," he finally replied, not wanting to give that answer. "I've thought about it a lot, and to be painfully honest, I'm not sure that there _is_ a good place _for me_. I'll just have to see. Clearly, there aren't many who would treat me like you do. I'll be in danger from understandable curiosity almost anywhere I go."

It was a difficult problem--one that would have to be solved. It helped her to realize, however, as they were walking along, that even though they didn't know a perfect place for him-- _it still might exist_. Somewhere!!

"Yes," she thought to herself optimistically. "And if it does--exist--it must be truly fascinating! I'd love to go there!"

There was a less worn square on the left side of his chest, just above his heart. She had been wondering about it. So she asked, pointing, "What is that place there on your chest? Was there a patch there once or something? And if there was, what was it?"

"Oh, that?" he answered, feeling a little better about this new question because he could answer it more easily. "That's where a British flag used to be. Because of where I told you I was made. But a football player ripped it off one day."

"Will you have another flag put on, when you get your new canvas?"

"You know, I've thought about that," he answered slowly and carefully, looking ahead as he spoke. They were almost to the middle of the pasture.

She could tell he thought a lot. "Like Aunt Am," she suddenly realized, pleased at the comparison.

Then his eyes narrowed a little in a way that showed he had just reached a decision. "No, I don't think I will--I think I'll put a patch there that has something to do with _me_. It would _have_ to be _specia_ l, of course--to be located just above my heart. I'll enjoy thinking about what."

Looking again at the spot, where several short strands of red thread still lingered, Meri was curious to know what would eventually go there. "What would eventually be _that special_ to him?" she wondered, wishing she could know right now. Then she suddenly realized, with infinite sadness, that she would _never_ know.

In the middle of the pasture, where all sorts of grasses, weeds and flowers were growing mixed up together on the ground, the Tackling Dummy suddenly stopped and looked longingly at the forest of hardwood trees that had been on their left for a little while now. He had already been glancing that way now and then.

"You know," he said to Meri, his eyes wide with wondering, "This may sound funny to you, but one thing I've always wanted to do is walk through trees--especially when they have their leaves, like now. It might seem hard for you to realize, but I've never been in a forest before.

"In the locker room under the bleachers, I used to be able to see the tops of a few trees in the neighborhood, from one of the two narrow windows that I used to climb up to sometimes when everyone had gone. And often, on the rope, often I was looking at the trees in the distance while I was waiting to be tackled. But, as I'm sure you understand, I didn't get a very good look with either try."

"You don't have to explain!" Meri exclaimed, knowing. "I love trees!"

A sudden decision appeared in his eyes, and he smiled. "If you don't mind, I think I'll go to England this way." And he began walking straight toward the forest. He had to bear to his left ahead anyway, as Meri had said, to get to England. So he decided to begin early. Suddenly he couldn't wait to be in a forest for the first time!

All of the trees of course had green leaves, above an unending number of trunks. There was an expectant look in his eyes as he approached them.

"Love those verticals," he said, looking at all the trunks disappearing into the forest. There were so many things that he hadn't been able to see and do yet! Looking around at all the leaves, so uncountable, he marveled.

"It's not no time to not watch not no leaves," he suddenly and surprisingly said out loud, about so many leaves.

Meri, walking right beside him, shared his enthusiasm, even to repeating in her mind his strange expression and wondering about it. It was so much fun to talk to him!

It was getting even _harder_ to tell him goodbye!

"I wish we _never_ had to say goodbye," she told him, "at least not until I know you're okay. No, not even then--but at least not until then."

"That would be my most best wish," he said, giving her a goodbye hug in his big canvas arms. His canvas eyes were sparkling when he said these words. "I'd give a lot to know _how_ it could happen, even if it _can't!_ "

Of course, the sad truth was that he couldn't have _given a lot_. At the moment, he had very little to give--he hardly had himself left.

Before either of them had time to say another word, they noticed a curiously shaped shiny leaf lying on the ground not that far from the edge of the woods. There were many other leaves there, too, but this one was unusual. Its shininess made it look a little different. It was a leaf--but it also looked strangely like a ticket.

It was hard to tell which it was!

Well formed and shiny--and resembling a ticket--it stood out from all the other leaves that were everywhere, on and under the trees, and even in the pasture. In fact, it looked so interesting that neither of them was able to let it just lie there!

Although the Tackling Dummy was a dummy and Meri was a young girl, and they were therefore very different, they _shared_ one very important characteristic: _each_ was _extremely curious._

Noticing the intriguing leaf at the same time, they both leaned over to pick it up.

At exactly the same moment, they took hold of it.

Each had one of the opposite ends.

However, they accidentally bumped heads, since they had reached for it at the same time.

With the bump, of course, they quickly straightened up again.

And when they did, they tore the ticket in two.

At first, they had startled expressions on their faces.

Then they laughed, at bumping heads, and at the look on the other's face.

Bumping heads is always funny, and it's even more fun if it's with a dummy you like. Or if you _are_ the dummy, if the other head is your only friend, a young girl with pretty eyes and nicer than you ever knew anyone could be.

Each was still holding out half of the intriguing leaf--they had separated it right in two--or the ticket, if that's what it was.

Meri looked at her half in her flesh and blood fingers, still with an impromptu smile on her face, and then at his half in his awkward canvas fingers. The Tackling Dummy looked at both halves, too. And then they looked into each other's eyes.

An odd puzzled expression was now on both of their faces.

Something important had just happened!

_Because they weren't in the pasture anymore! Everything around them was completely different!_

In fact, the only thing that wasn't different was them and the two halves of the leaf--or ticket. _And where they were, too, was even more different than they yet realized!_

Because what they didn't yet know was that standing right behind them--in fact, looking over the tops of their heads!--was an immense Buffalo Unicorn!

He wasn't not large!

They were amazed at the changes they saw! Instead of being beside the green forest near Meri's house, they were now in the middle of a _different_ forest of autumn trees spaced pleasantly apart. But imagine how they felt when suddenly, speaking right behind them, they heard a deep whimsical voice courteously ask,

"Where in The Lands did the two of you come from? Abruptly appearing like that, without warning here in The Autumnforest, is enough to startle a Buffalo Unicorn--although you didn't startle _me_ , of course! But suppose I had been someone else!"

# Chapter VII:

_THE AUTUMNFOREST_

When they looked just behind them, Meri almost jumped out of her skin and the Tackling Dummy almost jumped out of his canvas.

Standing _right_ behind them-- _directly_ behind them--was a _huge_ Buffalo Unicorn, with white, yellow, gold and light brown fur, and a little black here and there, too.

He had a large beautifully spiraling white unicorn right in the middle of his forehead! The tip of it seemed to twinkle in the sunlight that came down through the autumn trees extending in every direction.

There were also two smaller shiny black horns on the sides of his head, while in his kind large brown eyes was the most whimsical expression Meri or the Tackling Dummy had ever seen.

He was looking down at them, and in those whimsical eyes was an unquestionable friendliness as well as a touch of amazement--and the curiosity that he had already expressed about where they had come from.

He was the largest creature either of them had ever seen!

They were in the middle of a spacious forest of autumn trees with generous distances between the trunks, so that the light came through from the sky easily, allowing the forest to be cheerful and lively. A ring of wildflowers grew in a kind of uneven circle around the base of each tree, giving the forest unusual colors, since there were so many autumn trees and so many rings of flowers.

The grass was green as far as Meri and the Tackling Dummy could see in any direction. Meri was surprised, because she wasn't used to seeing green grass in a forest!

A few birds were in the limbs of the autumn trees, and some were on the grass. There was the usual hum of forest noises.

The Tackling Dummy was dumbfounded, dazed. There was a numb shocked look in his eyes. He felt like Meri had felt when she had first seen him walking. It was now _his_ turn to be unbelieving!

"What happened?" he asked, glancing back again at the immense Buffalo Unicorn behind them and then around at the forest again. A moment ago he had been standing beside a thick and normally dim summer forest with green leaves, but now he was in the middle of a large open collection of _autumn_ trees, each with a beautiful array of leaves not green for summer at all but of many other lighter colors.

Meri was just as amazed as the Tackling Dummy. But she recovered first. She recovered just enough to speak clearly, that is. For she was shaking, and her heart was beating fast.

"Where are we?" she boldly asked the huge Buffalo Unicorn rising high behind them. They hadn't even turned around yet! Actually the question didn't require that much boldness, because of his obvious friendliness. He was looking at both of them so whimsically and curiously!

"I believe I asked the first question," the Buffalo Unicorn answered in his deep voice. "But since you seem to be so confused, it's all right. I'll go ahead and answer first, although I don't understand how anyone could wonder where this is. It's _The Autumnforest --_as you can see--and one of my favorite places in _The Lands."_

He answered rather matter-of-factly in his deep voice, glancing around at the mild and unusual surroundings of the forest--as he had been doing so peacefully just moments before when he had been the only one there.

Almost immediately he had gotten over _his_ surprise at the way they had arrived: suddenly appearing right in front of his face with no warning at all. He had been startled, but he was used to being surprised in The Lands, as he loved to be. In fact, that was the main reason that he never tired of wandering around The Lands and discovering more about them. There was always something to discover and to be surprised about.

The tip of his white unicorn seemed to emit soft rays into the mild air of the forest. Secretly, he was delighted with his two new friends and the strange way they had joined him. The more he looked at them, though, the more he wondered that he had never seen either of them before. How could he have missed them?

And there was also something very strange about this little girl! But he hadn't figured it out yet. He had a feeling that he was about to, though!

He didn't say anything about that at the moment. He wanted to find out more about _them_ , and he _definitely_ wanted to get to know them better. So he made a practical suggestion that would answer the little girl's question even better than just saying they were in The Autumnforest.

"If you haven't been here before, and if you really want to find out where you are, let's walk around a little and look." To show them how friendly he meant to be, he even gave them a whimsical invitation.

"Want to ride?" he asked and turned sideways, offering them both an opportunity to board conveniently. Although it would really be hard--actually just about impossible--for either of them to climb up that high.

"Is this England?" replied the Tackling Dummy, just beginning, long after Meri, to adjust to being in The Autumnforest. This was a shock that was different from being tackled.

But even if it weren't England, and he didn't think it was, he knew he liked this forest. He was finally in a forest, as he had wished only a few minutes ago. He was surrounded by trees for the first time ever!

"It's not no time to not watch not no leaves," Meri heard him mumble with satisfaction, to himself only, as he appreciatively continued to eye all the leaves overhead. It was the same strange statement she had overheard before.

"England?" repeated the Buffalo Unicorn with doubt in his eyes, wrinkling his face and raising his enormous head thoughtfully to look at the sky overhead, through the openings in the trees, while he thought.

"Never heard of it," he said, after he had considered the strange word long enough. He looked back down at the Tackling Dummy with regret in his large shiny brown eyes. He was sorry to disappoint him. Especially since, he now noticed with dismay, he had had such a terrible accident with his canvas. He wondered what had happened.

"Sorry, that's not one of The Lands," he told him gently. "Or did I miss it?" Suddenly he was more interested! "I hope so!" And he began to think about as many of The Lands as he could--as quickly as he could. He thought about a lot of them, and his thoughts brought back the same whimsical expression that Meri and the Tackling Dummy had both seen in his eyes when they had arrived so unexpectedly.

"The Lands?" Meri was the one who repeated someone's words this time, with mounting curiosity in her voice. She began looking around at The Autumnforest again with eyes that were even more questioning than only a few moments before.

"Where are we?" her inner voice asked with wonder.

Wherever it was, she liked being here.

The tip of the huge Buffalo Unicorn's unicorn was still twinkling in the soft sunlight that easily filtered down through the autumn leaves of the trees and that came down a little more brightly into the _spaces_ _between_ the trees. It wasn't difficult at all to see the colors of the flowers that grew in the uneven rings around the bases.

"Perhaps _he_ can help," suggested the enormous Buffalo Unicorn. At that instant in the conversation, Meri realized _even better_ that he was mostly yellow and gold, but also white, light brown, and black in very small places here and there. There were little squares of these colors on parts of his ears. He looked beautiful in The Autumnforest.

And there was so much of him!

To show whom the Buffalo Unicorn meant by _he_ , he lowered his magnificent head and pointed with his white unicorn. Meri and the Tackling Dummy, not having realized anyone was coming, immediately looked.

"What a pointer!" thought the Tackling Dummy, glancing at the unicorn again as he turned.

A small black figure had appeared among the trees. Once more Meri looked in disbelief at something! How could she believe her eyes anymore?!

For bouncing toward them, in The Autumnforest, was a black question mark almost her size.

Bouncing on his period like a pogo stick, he was unusually fluid and agile in his movements. He had two green eyes that seemed to be out in the air on either side of his face, and a small pink mouth. His arms and hands were a natural part of him.

He was looking down at the grass of The Autumnforest as he bounced--as if he were thinking very carefully about something. He was, and for that reason, he hadn't seen them yet.

An expression of concern was on his face. Meri noticed that he was leaning forward at a slight angle as he bounced and thought.

"So, Wut?" the Buffalo Unicorn asked goodnaturedly in his deep voice, as the small figure at just that moment came into unobstructed view.

The question mark, already inclined forward, was so startled by the unexpected voice that, looking up suddenly, he leaned over a little too far, lost his balance, and went crashing and sliding across the green grass of The Autumnforest. He landed against the trunk of one of the trees.

Meri drew her breath.

But the question mark seemed unhurt.

"Jethro?" he said, still down among the flowers, recognizing the Buffalo Unicorn. Agilely he sprang back up onto his black period again and resumed bouncing in the partial light under the tree.

"I didn't see you. You startled me." As he regained his composure, he looked at Meri and the Tackling Dummy with his green eyes. Immediately he was noticeably surprised again--at something about Meri!

"Yes, it's me," said his ponderous friend Jethro with a look of amusement in his large eyes, which at that moment were especially brown, thoughtful and whimsical.

"I was standing here, thinking peacefully in this part of The Autumnforest, wondering where I was going next and what I was going to do for excitement, when it suddenly got very exciting around here _without my having to do anything at all!_ What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about The Land of the Croapfs," answered the starkly black question mark, bouncing in place on the soft forest grass. It was _so interesting_ to the two newcomers to see him going up and down like that!

He was answering Jethro's question, but he was also looking at Meri and the Tackling Dummy, _and especially at Meri_ , whom he kept searching with his two eyes out in space, as if in disbelief.

"You may have heard something has gone wrong with them."

"I had heard that," said Jethro, a brief shadow passing over his magnificent face. I have some friends here," he continued, referring to Meri and the Tackling Dummy, "although I don't even know their names yet. They're looking for England."

"Hi! My name's Meri," said the strange girl in her friendly voice. _One of the most unusual things she ever did in her life was to shake hands with a question mark!_ Their hands had to go up and down as the question mark was rising and falling at the same time.

"And you can call me Tackling Dummy," added her friend agreeably, who was beginning to be not only comfortable in, but intrigued by, his new surroundings. He was, however, embarrassed about the pitiable condition of his canvas as he spoke, especially when it was his turn to shake hands.

"I hope they don't look too closely at me," he thought rather self-consciously. But of course they couldn't help but notice.

"I'm Wut, and England is _not_ one of The Lands," the question mark stated without a moment's hesitation, marveling again at Meri, who was looking at _him_ _almost_ unbelievingly as he bounced casually on the grass on his period. They were both looking at each other with wonder!

The reason Wut was so amazed at Meri was that he had realized, at his first glance, that she was made of flesh and blood. The Tackling Dummy wasn't that unusual because he was a dummy, although his canvas _was_ in such terrible condition.

But he was especially surprised by the girl.

His face became thoughtful. "There _are_ some other lands besides The Lands," he said, thinking historically, with an odd gleam in his eyes and a look of worry on his face. "Every now and then someone from _here_ goes _there,_ but you can't imagine how seldom. _And they usually come right back._ How did _you_ get _here?"_

He continued looking at Meri, so that she became a little embarrassed. She looked down at her coral top and then on down at her bib overall jeans shorts to see if everything was all right. She didn't have any idea why she seemed to be so unusual.

The Tackling Dummy still had one half of the strange leaf, or ticket, in his left hand, and he suddenly noticed it between his canvas fingers when he reached forward to straighten some of Meri's hair which was still a little fluffed from when they had bumped heads.

"I don't think we know," he answered doubtfully. "The last thing we did was pick up a leaf, but of course it didn't have anything to do with our coming here." He held up the half he still had.

Both Jethro and Wut bent forward to look at it more closely.

"And, oh yeah," the Tackling Dummy remembered, "we accidentally tore it in half when we bumped our heads together reaching down for it."

"Here's the other half," said Meri, holding it up.

The question mark seemed to grow excited. "Ohhh! Ohhh! Ohhh! Ohhh! Let's see!" he said. Evidently he had thought of something remarkable. Taking the halves from his two new friends, he put them back together with his own small agile black fingers.

"Really? I can't believe it!" He seemed suddenly to be talking to himself.

Glancing again around at the surrounding trees and grass, he gazed intensely back at the leaf with his two lively green eyes definitely out in the air on either side of his face. This time he stared at it for a long long time, his expressions changing as he continued to turn it over and around.

Then, finally, staring at the surrounding trees even one more time, he allowed himself to fall forward and kneel on the grass--as much as a question mark can kneel--where he began fanning and examining the individual blades and tufts with his hands. As he did so, he bent his face and his eyes down very close to the surface of the ground so that he could see below the level of the blades of grass.

The three who were watching didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing. Jethro, however, enjoyed being puzzled by his friend's unusual behavior. He felt certain something interesting was about to occur. That was why he liked The Lands so much.

After only a few moments more, the question mark, Wut, suddenly sat up awkwardly with a look of overwhelmed discovery on his face.

"Look at these tiny yellow flowers!" he almost demanded, pointing down to the grass. " _There's no question about it!_ An ancient Ticket Tree once grew right here, at this location! I didn't know it!"

With his left arm stretched out, he swept out a circle in the grass where he had made his important discovery, indicating exactly where the tree must have grown so long ago.

Always curious, both of them, Meri and the Tackling Dummy got on their hands and knees too. Even Jethro bent down on his forelegs. Then they all leaned forward very close to the grass to look for the invisible yellow blooms Wut claimed were there. And sure enough, there, down between the blades and tufts of the healthy forest grass, they all saw them. The hidden blooms, on miniature stalks with incredibly small leaves, each had two pale blue dots in the center.

Wut arose and began bouncing in one place again as the others slowly stood up to join him.

"There's no question about it," he confirmed excitedly. "Wherever The Ticket Tree is, these little flowers grow underneath it in the grass. I would say that probably most dummies don't know this and are unaware that they're there when they see The Ticket Tree where it is now. But they are, and it's very interesting! Because even if a Ticket Tree once grew in the distant past, some of these flowers can still be found in the circle where it was. They don't grow any other place in The Lands."

"I can't believe this!" he said to himself, in awe, looking down again at the spot.

"A Ticket Tree," Meri repeated aloud, the curious and intense expression on her face echoing that of the Tackling Dummy's, who was listening just as carefully. Of course they had never heard of one.

"What is a Ticket Tree?" she asked, ignoring for the moment what he had just said about _dummies_.

Judging from everything that had been happening so far, and remembering Wut's excitement, Meri sensed a kind of tingling anticipation in herself as the five words hung in the air, and she awaited Wut's answer.

Wut was beginning to like his two strange new friends. It wasn't often that he got to make a new friend, since he knew everyone in The Lands. He was the only one who did. And now here were two!

Probably even more important, _he had never before met a dummy who was flesh and blood_. He had seen and gotten to know an incredibly large number of dummies like the Tackling Dummy--either stuffed with cotton or made of yarn, because that's who lives in The Lands. Of course they all have their different designs. But he had never-- _ever_ --seen a dummy that was flesh and blood, and he had realized--incredibly--right away-- _that that's exactly what Meri was! That's why she was so unusual!_

He knew he was looking at _the first flesh and blood dummy ever to visit The Lands!_

By coincidence, Jethro himself knew almost as many dummies in The Lands as Wut. He had known right away there was something different about Meri.

"Its real name is _The Tree of Ticket Leaves_ ," Wut answered with animation, emphasizing its full name. It was becoming clear that he loved to talk about The Lands. He had begun to look into the faces of both Meri and the Tackling Dummy, when he spoke to them, in a way that made Meri feel very comfortable talking to a question mark. She liked moving her head up and down for these conversations.

By then Wut was ready to answer her question. "The one we have now is in The Land of Pink Windmills," he continued. "When you pull a leaf off--or a ticket, if that's what you want to call it--it immediately takes you somewhere. You _never_ know where you're going. Oh, it's usually just to another one of The Lands, although not quite always. And wherever it takes you, you only have to stay as long as you want. When you want to come back, you just tear the ticket in two again, and it brings you right back to the tree. "

A look of understanding was growing in Meri's aqua eyes, and also on the face of the Tackling Dummy. It was beginning to be very clear now _how they had come to The Lands_. Each quickly glanced again around at The Autumnforest.

Wut remained excited as the mystery was being cleared up, because of his intense interest in anything that affected The Lands. Now he knew another place where The Ticket Tree had once grown! When he was excited, he had a tendency to bounce a little higher. Trying to calm down, and to descend to the same level as his new friends again, he stated the explanation which they had already figured out.

"Somehow-- _I wish I knew how_ --a ticket from The Tree of Ticket Leaves that used to grow here got to wherever you just were, and evidently remained unfound there _for quite a long time_. Because The Ticket Tree is now growing _somewhere else_ in The Lands--and has been there for as long as I can remember! You finally found the lost ticket, accidentally tore it in two, and were brought right back to where the tree had been. To where you are now! Welcome to The Lands!"

He smiled meaningfully at both of them, and so did Jethro, looking down quite pleased. After all, he had met them first. As much as he went around The Lands, seeking new things to do, this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him!

"Thank you," said both Meri and her canvas friend, happy that an explanation for their arrival had been found.

But now that they had an explanation, the Tackling Dummy was a little concerned. For it occurred to him that he now might be farther from England than he been _before_. And he was desperate to get new canvas--not just because he _wanted_ it, but because he knew his condition was so bad that he _had_ to have it--if he were to continue being the Tackling Dummy. He knew his time was limited.

"The problem now is," he said to Wut, "how are we going to get back?"

"Get back?" repeated their new friend with disappointment, as he bounced up and down on the grass of The Autumnforest. He was surprised at the question.

" _Why would you want to?"_ he asked.

"I don't just _need_ new canvas," answered the Tackling Dummy with gentle determination, reluctantly drawing attention to the pitiful holes and tears in his shabby thin fabric. He was so worn, and Meri's eyes showed it. "I _have_ to have some."

"There's no question about that," agreed the question mark, looking up and down at his new friend as he bounced. "You do. But we'd be glad to try to help you here in The Lands. Did you know that about just half of the dummies in The Lands are made of canvas stuffed with cotton, just like you? Most of the others are made of yarn."

Wut's words absolutely stunned the Tackling Dummy!

So many cotton stuffed dummies? _Like him?!_ He couldn't even speak for a minute, the idea was so overwhelming. He couldn't wait to see some! He even forgot that everyone had moved closer to inspect his canvas.

"I need to go back home--or to England," Meri added, after all the attention to her friend the Tackling Dummy. "I didn't tell anyone I was coming here--because I didn't know myself--and I don't want everyone to worry about me. I really don't have a choice--I have to go back as soon as possible."

Both Jethro and Wut nodded. They understood. However their disappointment was obvious. After unexpectedly meeting their new friends, and liking them both, they had assumed with pleasure that they were going to be two new dummies in The Lands! Even _one_ new dummy was something that neither had ever heard of before. They both seemed to be perfect--even the Tackling Dummy, with his damaged canvas. But now it was unquestionably clear that Meri couldn't stay. And they were also concerned that the Tackling Dummy might not either.

"What about The Ticket Tree where it is now? In The Land of Pink Windmills," Jethro helpfully suggested. Although he didn't want his new friends to leave, he _was_ secretly hoping that at least they could all cross The Lands together: From where they were now--- _all the way to The Land of Pink Windmills!_ That was about halfway across The Lands! It was _quite_ a long way! He was beginning to be excited.

"Now _that_ would be fun," he thought.

There was nothing he liked better than going around The Lands, seeing many friends, and _with_ friends if possible!

"That's obviously what to do," Wut replied right away, surprised at such a rational idea from Jethro. He quite often disagreed with his enormous friend--although he loved the absurdity of his ideas.

"Yes," he then said to no one in particular, going up and down as he thought about it, while looking up. "If a Ticket Tree brought you here, it makes sense that it can take you back. Of course, what's _normal_ is to use the _same_ ticket both ways. But that's not really required, I guess, now that you mention it."

Then his face became much more serious. He felt that he had to be honest with his two new friends. Continuing to bounce up and down, he informed them,

" _However, it's only fair to tell you_ , _and this is important to know_ : You might have to go to a lot of _other_ places first, before you finally get to where you want to go. _Because when you select a ticket from The Ticket Tree, you never know in advance where it's going to take you._ Is that all right with you?"

Jethro's eyes were becoming more and more satisfied. It looked like he was going to get his wish. He glanced through The Autumnforest, apparently in the direction they would all be going together in a few moments.

Meri's and the Tackling Dummy's minds were absolutely spinning with these ideas! _They would be taking trips on The Ticket Tree?_

But Wut had something _else_ that he also felt it was necessary to say. "There's more, and I'm genuinely sorry to have to tell you this, but I have to, to be perfectly honest with you. _You must realize, now, before we start, that you may never find a ticket--or_ _leaf --on The Ticket Tree that will take you back_.

"This plan, that we now are thinking about, may not work--although again, it may," he added, rising.

"You need to be able to accept either possibility. And if you should be successful, as I indicated before, there's no telling how long it may take. There's no telling how long you may have to be in The Lands."

Jethro, since he liked his new friends, didn't mind what he was hearing at all. But then, looking around, he felt a little guilty about that thought. It turned out, however, that he wasn't the only one who had it!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy looked at each other with concern, frowned, and then, surprising everyone, including themselves, they laughed! Because each, not being able to help it, was beginning, little by little, to secretly want to spend a little more time in The Lands before leaving.

It helped that they had no choice!

So, as they really had no _other_ plan, and a plan that _might_ work was certainly much better than _no plan at all,_ the Tackling Dummy and Meri agreed to give it a try: To cross The Lands with Jethro and Wut to The Land of Pink Windmills where The Tree of Ticket Leaves was now growing.

Already, Meri couldn't wait to see it!

Thinking seriously about what Wut had said, however, she wondered to herself, "Suppose I _can't_ get home right away? _What will Aunt Am do??!!"_ She wanted to stay, and also to leave--both at the same time!

She didn't want her aunt to feel the pain of her being missing, especially since she was perfectly all right.

"And what will my parents do?!!" she added quickly, in her mind. She didn't want them to get that news! And especially in the middle of the ocean!

At the same time, however, she was naturally optimistic about Jethro's plan. It certainly sounded quite reasonable. She preferred to think that it was going to work, if not right away, then eventually at least. That thought comforted her, and she needed comforting.

In fact, quite _unreasonably_ but certainly quite _understandably_ , she was still secretly hoping that The Ticket Tree would allow her to get back home that very day! (Although she had to admit she didn't think so!)

"Ready?" asked Jethro.

"Wait a minute, please," asked Meri suddenly. When they hesitated, puzzled, she walked about 25 steps away from where they had been standing.

Falling down on her hands and knees, she leaned her face very close to the grass again, looking down past the familiar stems to the miniature forest below.

Finding not any-- _not a single one --_of the telltale yellow flowers with the two tiny blue dots, she stood up again, her knees wrinkled and encrusted with grass. She was satisfied. Maybe the yellow flowers, the ones she and Wut and the Tackling Dummy had found before, _did_ indicate the presence of an earlier Ticket Tree! It all seemed to fit together!

She was glad she had looked.

Wut was definitely impressed that Meri had checked the grass for herself. He respected this little flesh and blood dummy! He _too_ was looking forward to the trip with her and the Tackling Dummy.

"Ready now?" Jethro asked again. He was eager to begin.

They were all ready. "Okay," said Wut. And he took the very first bounce of their new trip across The Lands.

# Chapter VIII:

_THE LAND OF LEARNING FEET_

Walking--and of course one was bouncing--through The Autumnforest, the four friends became quiet for a few seconds, each realizing that by agreeing to travel together, especially on this important trip, they would always mean something special to each other.

Wut, leading, traveled easily across the grass and fallen leaves, far ahead of the other three. Jethro, who was right at home in the forest, was looking around casually through the trees as he ambled along. He always liked to look around in The Lands, because so many unexpected things happen in them. Sometimes Wut was almost out of sight. Then, when he had decided where they were and which of The Lands to cross first, he slowed down again to join his friends.

Meri was continuously reminded of her mother by seeing the uneven rings of flowers around the trees. She had also thought of her when they had observed the tiny yellow flowers so far down in the grass, where the ancient Tree of Ticket Leaves had once grown. Her mother loved flowers. Although her father had created the designs for their lawn--the ones showing the continents and the famous voyages--it had been her mother who had chosen which flowers to plant and where. She was the one who had planted them to look beautiful for all the people coming by--and for her own family.

As Meri looked for an opening ahead in The Autumnforest, she continued to think about her mother. "How she would love all these autumn trees!" she thought, looking around at the trunks standing spaciously apart. Each one looked unique.

Meri imagined her mother on the deck of the _USS Steady_ somewhere in the middle of the huge Atlantic. "But she might be a little frustrated, too," she thought smiling, still thinking about her mother. For Meri didn't see a single tree that she could identify. She didn't see a single oak. Her mother had tried to teach her to identify plants, and especially trees, because _they_ were so easy to identify. Her mother and her aunt were similar in that one way, she thought, as she walked along, her aunt always trying to teach her to identify stars and planets and her mother always trying to help her to identify plants.

"That's funny," she thought, liking to think about these two people who were so important to her, especially now that--in a way--they had each been taken away from her. But she didn't laugh.

Enjoying the lightness of the air was a variety of birds, flying here and there and sometimes singing unseen up among the branches of The Autumnforest. Meri was glad to see them--and to hear them even when she couldn't see them. But, like the trees, she didn't see any birds that she thought she had ever seen before. She was so used to seeing mockingbirds, bluejays, cardinals, crows, robins, sparrows, and, far up in the sky, buzzards. They were the birds she was familiar with in Amelia County. But this was The Autumnforest, and she didn't see _any_ of those. But she liked the ones she saw. And they looked _almost_ like the ones she knew.

And then, Meri was suddenly unable to avoid the thought any longer. She immediately felt the piercing feeling that she knew she was going to feel even more, and more sharply.

For the first time, she allowed herself to think about her Aunt Amelia _waiting for her to come home that day._

Her aunt would be all right for a while, she knew. But not for long. What was she going to do when time continued to go right on by--and Meri didn't come home? Meri could hardly bear to think of it.

How was her aunt going to stand it?

With these uncomfortable thoughts, Meri, without realizing it, began to walk a little faster. The others, looking at her wonderingly from the side, made little adjustments in their own speed to keep up.

"How long do you think it will take us to get there?" she asked Wut, trying not to sound anxious.

Wut looked over at her, puzzled. He had tried to explain, perhaps too gently, how much patience would be required for Meri and the Tackling Dummy to finally get where they were going from The Lands--if ever. He wondered if they were _able_ to understand the difficulty of their situation.

Noticing his concerned expression, Meri clarified, "I'm worried about my aunt."

Wut realized Meri's problem right away. It's easier to be worried about someone else than yourself.

"We'll have to cross quite a few lands, there's no question about that," he answered in a way to spare her feelings. He didn't say how many.

He was bouncing along at a fairly casual rate through the sunlit trees. By himself, he could have gone much faster if he had chosen, because his bounce had more spring in it than anyone could imagine by just his appearance. They would be surprised! But he wasn't by himself. He had to bounce at a speed that was appropriate for the two dummies and for Jethro. It was also the comfortable speed that he liked to use anyway, when he was alone.

He had responded sympathetically to Meri, to prepare her for his _real_ answer. And then, after a hesitation for kindness, he gave it.

"Actually," he said, "we need to go about h _alfway across The Lands_."

Meri was dismayed. It sounded like a long way.

"But you never know in The Lands," Wut decided to add, trying to give her any hope that he could.

_And what he was saying was also the truth!_

"We may get there faster than I think. Sometimes the unexpected occurs, surprising even me." For her sake, however, he did bounce a tiny bit faster. The improvement was hardly noticeable, though, because he didn't want to make them run.

At the words _unexpected_ , and _surprising_ , Jethro's large brown eyes seemed to gain an extra light of satisfaction and anticipation, and the tip of his long white unicorn seemed to emit a few extra rays into the already bright sunlight.

"Let's hope so," he suggested in his deep voice.

The Tackling Dummy was continuing to look at all the leaves overhead, and at the trunks and branches of the trees themselves, for he was seeing trees up close for the first time. _Now he was seeing all the trees he_ _wanted!_ Every tree was different from the others, and he was enjoying the differences.

"You're lucky," said Wut mysteriously, glancing at the Tackling Dummy and Meri, as they emerged from The Autumnforest.

An immensely wide space had opened in front of them! And it wasn't empty!

Meri caught her breath at the sight, and the Tackling Dummy's eyes widened.

_They were looking out at an unbelievable number of lands whose colors seemed to melt into each other as they spread into the distance_. Each land, especially those closer, had a shape, and the shapes seemed to melt vaguely into each other too, especially when the travelers looked farther away.

"Each one of those is a land?" thought Meri, astonished at her first real glimpse at the different ones.

There were many trees here and there, but no other forests in sight at the moment.

Wut then explained what he had meant by the mysterious suggestion that they were lucky. In fact, Meri wasn't feeling very lucky at the moment, as she was too worried about her absence from her aunt.

With The Autumnforest now behind him, the bouncing question mark was looking keenly at Meri and the Tackling Dummy to detect their new reactions to The Lands and to what he was about to tell them.

"You're _lucky_ because the first land here is The Land of Learning Feet," he began. "It's also sometimes called, The Land of Upsidedown Learning."

By this time all four were at the edge of it, where not grass, but low clover, was growing very brightly and prettily across the ground. The low clover, starting as light pink, gradually changed to light yellow, light aqua, light gray, and even other colors of clover as it covered the entire land. The surface was mostly level, with a few gentle hills here and there and single or pairs of trees from time to time.

"This particular land will tell you something about the other ones before we cross them. And many other things too. I was thinking and hoping it was here. There are so many lands, sometimes even _I_ get confused about which one is where when I'm in The Autumnforest. You're lucky, because you're about to get a kind of introduction to The Lands unavailable in any of the other lands. _A mixed up one, but an introduction, nevertheless."_

Meri and the Tackling Dummy didn't have the slightest idea what he was talking about. They had no idea what was about to happen to them!

Wut was bouncing up and down casually at the edge of the light pink clover, before entering the land himself. Looking down, he added, to the still puzzled girl beside him, "Do you think you could take off your shoes and carry them for a little while at first, to learn better? In this land you learn through your feet."

_"The Land of Learning Feet?"_ Meri repeated, hardly believing the thoughts in her mind.

She and The Tackling Dummy looked at each other in amazement and then back at Wut. _They were actually going to learn through their feet?!!_

"Yes. Upsidedown learning," Wut replied. "As you can see, it's a pretty land, too."

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were unable to say _anything_ for the moment!

But they were beginning to learn about The Lands!

Meri quickly sat down on the first soft pink clover and took off her white tennis shoes and white socks. She stood up, carrying these items in her hands, and walked into the clover with the Tackling Dummy and Jethro.

Wut was still bouncing on the grass.

The clover felt deliciously warm and soft to Meri's bare feet, but she hardly had time to think about these feelings, because as she walked, thoughts began to come up toward her mind through her toes and the bottoms of her feet. They came on up through her ankles and legs, and her body.

"The Land of Geological Speed," she pronounced slowly, out loud, wondering at the strange words which had formed themselves on their own in her mind. She didn't know where they had come from!

At the same time she unexpectedly saw images of mountains thrusting themselves up in a vast range, violently, out of the ground. Alongside, a large river appeared, suddenly widening hugely, then narrowing, and finally spreading out again as a light-battering thunderstorm erupted above, pouring water down through a purple lightning storm. The thunder of the purple lightning storm gradually became deafening, until a lovely immense plain stretched itself out, pushing the mountains back into the distance. The plain turned lavender, perhaps from flowers of that color, and then began to shake with incredible intensity. At that point the images faded. Meri shuddered at the violence which had been so alarmingly real at first that _she had seemed to be in that land!_

Wut's green eyes, out in space on either side of his face, had a lot of curiosity in them as they kept themselves almost glued on her. He had been intensely interested to see if The Land of Learning Feet would have the same effect on a flesh and blood dummy as on a normal dummy. By her reaction and her words, _he could see that it did!_

He had guessed that it would, too, and he had been right!

"Yes," he told her, bouncing along, as if he hadn't been thinking all those extra thoughts, "The Land of Geological Speed is one of the only two dangerous lands in The Lands. The others are mostly just loveable."

He spoke in especially calm and reassuring tones, because he knew how frightening The Land of Geological Speed can be, especially when one sees it for the first time-- _even if it's just in your mind!_ He hadn't known that The Land of Learning Feet would bring _that_ land up first, or he would have prepared her.

"That's certainly a land we won't be trying to cross, there's no question about that," he reassured her. But it's interesting, and even beautifully violent sometimes, to watch from the edge. _It's_ loveable too," he added loyally. "I don't want to condemn _any_ land.

" _Only on the other side of The Lands_ is there _one_ other land just as violent--actually, _more_ violent," he added, bouncing enjoyably on the clover. "But it's also beautiful to watch, as long as you don't go into it." He didn't explain about the other violent land, or even name it, since it was _all_ the way across The Lands--not just halfway across like The Land of Pink Windmills.

He continued: "On this side of The Lands, you'll find that _all_ of the other lands are quite peaceful--oh, except for The Land of Lost N Lightning-- _I forgot about that one for a moment! --_but that's not a land we usually go in either. Oh, wait a minute--some do, I almost forgot, but only at the edge. We may go _near_ that land, by the way, and if we do, I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at it, especially since it's changing a little."

The Tackling Dummy was concentrating on what he was learning through his feet. At that moment they were in bright gold-colored but soft and beautiful clover. A troubled look came on Wut's face when he heard the damaged dummy pronounce, slowly and uncertainly, the words, "The Land of the Croapfs."

"Oh no!" Wut muttered excitedly, his black figure nervously bouncing a little higher. He turned his attention to the Tackling Dummy, but talked to all of them at once. His green eyes were very bright.

"That's the land that something's _seriously_ gone wrong with! _The Land of the Croapfs_! I've heard that they've been doing some very strange things lately, including at The Land of Pink Windmills, of all places, since we're going there--probably because the croapfs, when normal, have always spent so much time there by choice! It's a coincidence that the land you need to go to is one of The Lands I've been worried about. You may find out what I mean when we get there, but I hope not. But anyway, that's why it was so convenient for me to go along with you when I first met you. I want to help either land if I can!

"Ordinarily I would have gone there much faster," he added, bouncing, "but I wanted to help both of you too," he said to Meri and the Tackling Dummy.

Meri wistfully thought about what he had said about going faster. But she knew they couldn't speed up too much. Since she was also very curious by nature, she tried to ask a question.

" _Something has gone wrong with a land?"_ she repeated dubiously. The conversation was difficult while strange ideas were flowing up into her mind from the land beneath her bare feet. She had never felt so odd or so unusual!

Wut was still bouncing a little higher in his excitement and nervousness. His eyes were excitedly bright, and his normally pink mouth was tensed into a thin line.

"I'm afraid I don't understand either," he said, with frustration on his own face. "I've heard that something similar once went wrong with another land in the past--long ago. But that was too long ago to be helpful now. _No one really understands_ , to be perfectly truthful--as I always am. If anyone did, it would probably be me. And I don't. So I'm going to see if _anything_ can be done. What do you see?" he asked anxiously, turning his attention back to the Tackling Dummy. The concern all over his face was especially convincing.

Meri was curious about what was happening in that land, but so far she knew so little about any of them, except this one, that she gave up for the moment because thoughts were then rising so rapidly through her body from her feet. She already had a high opinion of Wut, and she felt that if he was working on the problem, it would probably turn out all right. She might even learn more later.

The Tackling Dummy peered into his own mind to answer Wut's question. All of this was quite an adventure for him--so different from anything that had ever happened to him in the past. Meri noticed almost a glow in his eyes, he was so interested.

"I see a lot of dummies--not like me, they seem to be made of yarn," he said with tones full of wonder, probably because he was seeing so many dummies all at one time--and _he_ was a dummy too!

"They're mostly light turquoise, with some black and--I think, amber--and some other markings here and there. They're not bad looking at all! But they're not doing anything but looking up, so I can't tell you much. Oh, something just went by in the air! But I couldn't tell what it was. Wait a minute! Yes, I may now see what you mean about something being wrong. If you don't mind my saying so, there _does_ seem to be the same strange look on _all_ of their faces! It's hard to explain. I don't mean to be unkind, and I am new to The Lands, but they look a little _too intent_ , I think. Yes, there's an intensity in their eyes and on their faces that's disturbing."

Meri tried to imagine them as he spoke, but she couldn't--the land below was interfering with her thoughts too much. It was really different and even frustrating trying to deal with two sets of thoughts in her head at the same time! They kept getting mixed up! It was bizarre--and also comical, really!

Wut was high up in the air, concentrating on the Tackling Dummy's words.

" _That sounds like the croapfs_ ," said Jethro about the Tackling Dummy's description of them. He was stepping through light blue low clover with his hooves that were huge! He had a lot of good friends among the croapfs, and he liked them.

But _he_ was concerned too. _He knew that the main thing about them is that they're good at making things._ So if something were really wrong with them, they could make about whatever they wanted to--and then use it to _cause gigantic problems_!

His worry was that he had heard that things had gone _really_ _bad_ in that land! Dangerously wrong.

He felt very sorry about what had happened to them. His friends--they were normally among the nicest dummies in all of The Lands--would be especially unhappy if they knew that their normal behavior had been reversed. If only they _could_ know!

Wut, clearly worried too, wrinkled his brow with concentration. Quickly he sped up, without realizing it, and ascended to a great height. The next moment he was thinking hard in the air high up above the clover again.

"By the way," he added, interrupting his thoughts from up there for his friends. The suddenness of his interruption revealed what an agile mind he had. "In case you were wondering, no, I don't learn much from this land myself. It may be because I spend so little time on it when I'm bouncing, because mostly I stay in the air. Or it may be that there's a space between my period and the rest of me, and the information just doesn't get through that very well.

"But the main reason, I really think, is that I don't have any _feet_! I have a _period_. And this is The Land of Learning _Feet_! That makes sense, doesn't it? Anyway, I do like the clover, but I don't usually learn anything except when I'm asking questions to those who _do_ have feet."

Meri and the Tackling Dummy, looking down, suddenly had a new appreciation of their feet.

At that very moment, the huge Buffalo Unicorn reared straight up into the air, shouting, "No! Not even in my mind!" He startled all of them, and especially Meri, not only by leaping, but by looking so huge as he went up into the air. He was unbelievably large!

When he came down, he ran a short distance at full speed to get away from the clover that had given him the thoughts he was rejecting. Screeching to a halt, he then stood and looked around as the others caught up.

Understandably, they were quite puzzled.

" _The Land of Dark_ ," he explained, as they came up to him. "I was in _The Land of Dark_. I always go around it. I never go in. It's too dark in there! I like to _see_ things." Then he shook his whole body, which was many times bigger than all three of them put together, smiled, and walked on as if nothing had happened. A whimsical look soon appeared on his huge face again as he enjoyed the thoughts the land was now giving him through his four great hooves. He had a special advantage using this land, because he had not two--but _four_ --feet to learn through _. He was the opposite of Wut!_

"You probably won't ever see The Land of Dark," Wut informed the Tackling Dummy and Meri as they continued over light and airy bluegreen clover of an extremely pleasant intensity. "It's too far beyond The Land of Pink Windmills for us to go by there. It's always black there, as you may guess, even when all of the other lands around it are lighted. You should see it in the daylight, rising up dark among all the other lands! Like a black tower up into the sky! It's really dramatic. I usually don't go in there myself, unless there's a problem--but I should," he added a little guiltily. "Actually, there _is_ a problem there, too, but it's getting better, I think, although very slowly."

He kept bouncing along on the clover, while looking over at Meri and the Tackling Dummy. "I didn't know Jethro felt that way about it, but I understand. You must be able to guess how hard it is to get around in a land that's completely black everywhere and all the time."

They were reaching the end of the land, which was a disappointment to both the Tackling Dummy and Meri, because neither had ever had an experience like this land before! Neither, too, had ever seen so many different beautiful colors before--all at one time!

But as much fun as this land had been, and as intriguing, Meri knew that she needed to keep going, because of her Aunt.

_"If only I could get back home again today_ ," she thought wistfully--but no longer too hopefully.

She remembered that Wut had said that something _surprising_ might happen to get them to The Land of Pink Windmills faster.

_She was counting on that_ while wondering what it could possibly be.

She had _another_ feeling, too. It was _anticipation_ , as she looked in the direction of the attractive lands ahead that were waiting for them to cross. In The Land of Learning Feet she had gotten various hints about what some of the other lands were like, from the intriguing glimpses and thoughts about them that had risen up from her feet. In just a short period of time, she already knew a surprising amount about them--by upsidedown learning! From the sight of The Lands ahead, however, she realized, however, that she had only begun.

There were so many!

A number of interesting scenes were still floating around in her mind from the land she had just crossed--but she couldn't remember which lands they were in! _Had she even found out their names_ , she wondered? She couldn't recall, in the confusing swirls of words and landscapes and dummies that had entered her bare feet from the clover and traveled right through her body up to her mind!

But she loved what she did recall!

Another swirl of colors lay ahead of her, as she looked at the numerous small lands graduating and fading into the distance. She glanced at them as, sitting down on the grass, she put her shoes and socks back on again.

"How many of The Lands are there?" she wondered. "And if the first one is so beautiful and so much fun, and so helpful, what are some of the _others going to be like_?!

With that thought, she got up, having been given intriguing hints.

The next land, however, although pleasant and peaceful, looked rather ordinary compared to the first one, which was unforgettable. There weren't even any special colors.

But they hadn't stepped into it yet.

# Chapter IX:

_THE LAND OF HANDWRITING SPEECH_

"Okay!" said Jethro in an eager voice, prompting the others to continue. He was standing just back from the edge of the next land, so that his words weren't spoken inside it.

He also mumbled something just to himself in his deep voice. It was almost unintelligible. But Meri figured it out. He actually had said, "Definitely one of my favorite lands."

She didn't understand. Looking again, she didn't see anything unusual about the land at all.

"Don't usually get to go through it with friends, though," the great gold and yellow and spotted Buffalo Unicorn added, still eagerly.

Looking even one more time, Meri wondered what he meant. It was certainly a pleasant enough land. She could see plenty of green grass and a few trees. In fact, it looked very nice. _But there didn't seem to be anything else there_. It was only when Jethro spoke again that she understood why he loved this land so much.

"Boo!" he exclaimed loudly, as they all stepped in. There was no sound at all. However, a large "Boo!" appeared in the air across the land in letters of light pink. The exclamation point at the end was white.

"What--?" gasped the surprised Tackling Dummy, looking from side to side as the colors faded. Once again there was no sound and the letters of the word he had just spoken appeared in the air in a pleasant light green--with a black question mark afterwards that reminded them all of Wut.

Meri immediately understood the land, and smiled.

Wut, bouncing along, explained--although it wasn't necessary. But he liked to explain. The others hadn't noticed any bouncing sounds made by Wut as he had navigated along previously, but now " _bounce"_ in tiny words of different colors sprang up into the air from the ground beneath his period as he traveled further into this land.

"This is The Land of Handwriting Speech," he said simply in beautiful handwriting to Meri and the Tackling Dummy. That was practically all there was to it.

But Wut wasn't satisfied with that.

Jethro had wandered off to the side for a few moments, going "Hiccup!" and "Hiccup!" and "Achoo!" and saying other funny things to the land, all to watch the results. Meri marveled at a purple "Hiccup!" on the air but reluctantly turned her attention back to Wut as he continued.

"Where when you speak, nothing is heard, but the words appear on the air in letters of different colors. You have to read them. Or maybe I should have said, " _You love to read them_." Of course, his explanation contained no sound, but the air turned into a sign of sparkling colors.

"Polycotyledonously!" then shouted the Tackling Dummy forward, to test the land, and the long word about plants stretched almost magically in front of their vision, to the Tackling Dummy's unending delight. From then on, he said many long words in a light voice to himself as they walked along. Meri wondered where he had gotten so many long words.

As Meri had seen before entering, the land was mostly flat, with only a few trees rising out of luxuriant green grass. She noticed a black crow sitting on a branch of one of these trees, not too far away, to her left. She was excited, because it was the _first_ bird in The Lands that she thought she recognized! But was it really a crow? Then it flew, as they came closer, and as it launched out, she was able to read "Caw! Caw!" in crimson on the air. It was a bird she was able to identify!

"A crow!" also commented the Tackling Dummy, who had looked up from his own words. He too was excited at recognizing a familiar bird.

Jethro had run very fast about a hundred yards to the left, as the crow lifted off, and they all watched to see what he was doing. They understood when suddenly a large black and green " _Burrrp!"_ silently showed on the air in front of him, followed by an exclamation mark in light peach. Immediately afterward, they could just barely read " _Excuse_ _me"_ in light violet, followed by a whimsical light pink and light yellow " _I think?"_

"Hey!" he yelled across the distance in large white letters and a pumpkin colored exclamation point to his three friends, "Let's go!" And he ran back as fast as he could, panting in silver and plum colored gasps as he arrived.

At one point they met a dummy walking across the land from the other direction.

"She's charming," Meri thought. She was about Meri's size, of very light blue yarn, with luminous brown eyes and soft black hair made also of yarn. She was wearing a white cap with yellow stitching on it and an extraordinarily pale yellow dress stopping just above her knees, covered partly in front by a small apron in white enhanced by a border of red and yellow interwoven lines.

Meri spoke and smiled as they walked by each other, perhaps looking a little too much, although in a very friendly way, and the charming dummy spoke too, not only to Meri but also to her friends. After they had gone on by, suddenly Meri and the young girl made of yarn both turned around to look at each other--at exactly the same time--and smiled. Meri was dying with curiosity to meet her and to talk to her, but she couldn't. They had to go on.

The Tackling Dummy had looked at this dummy with amazement. She was the first dummy he had seen in The Lands! Although made of yarn, she was walking, like himself, and she had spoken, although only a cheerful cherry colored "Hi" had appeared on the air. But he kept turning around to watch her until she was out of sight.

As they continued and began to think about the land again, suddenly the Tackling Dummy, walking between Meri and Wut, asked, "Are you surprised I can read?" Jethro had trotted off again.

Meri hadn't even thought about that, whether the Tackling Dummy could read these conversations or not, she had been so intrigued by the land. But now she realized, as she thought about it, why he had brought up the subject. Because he had been so contained all of his days, no one could be expected to think that he _could_. So she was interested in what he had to say about it.

"The players and managers of the football team were always leaving books in the locker room," he explained, "where I was kept at night, most of the day, on weekends, and in the off seasons. I had so much time, and so much curiosity, that I used to look at them very carefully, for long periods of time. I probably have a lot more curiosity than you think."

It occurred to Meri then that--in truth--because so much was happening, she hadn't really had a lot of time to talk to him and learn much more about him personally than she had found out at the very beginning.

"I had so much time with nothing to do, and I looked at those books so long, that finally, little by little, I taught myself to read, and I was able to read them all. I was terribly excited when I could, and you can't imagine how much it helped me to pass the time when I was completely by myself in the evenings and on the weekend days. And it was so much fun finding out about things when I had been allowed to see so little."

All of these words had appeared in light green, light blue, and light pink, but just before beginning to fade, they did something surprising: they suddenly all turned to light gold before they began to separate, float away from each other, and disappear.

Looking over at her friend the Tackling Dummy, Meri noticed an extra light in his eyes.

"What I did also may have had something to do with my name," he confided to both of his friends. "For I had always been referred to by the word _dummy_. Where we come from," he explained to Wut, who was looking puzzled, "that means you don't have any sense. It always bothered me. But then, as I began to learn more and more, I began to like it. For after a while, although I was called a dummy, I knew that actually I knew a lot--so that the meaning of the word didn't apply to me at all. I had risen above it."

Wut and Meri were both fascinated as they read all this on the air in marvelous handwriting.

"Further," the Tackling Dummy continued, "Here's the good part! Someone long ago had left a large unabridged dictionary on a small stool, in a dim corner, where everyone had forgotten about it. It was ignored--but not by me! I dusted it off and began to look all through it. You'd be surprised at some of the words I found--and at _all_ you can learn just by looking in a dictionary. And especially an unabridged one!

"There were so many, in fact--words, I mean--that I thought of something. The coach kept a calendar on the wall, and so on the first day of the month, I studied a page in the A's. I thought of myself as in the A world. On the second day, I entered the B world and studied a page. And so on. I picked a good page each day, the best I could find, one with interesting words. You wouldn't believe all the words I looked at!

"And in that way I got to look at words all over the dictionary.

"So please excuse me if I use a big one in conversation sometimes without thinking--one that you don't know. I'll try to be careful."

So now Meri knew where that big word had come from! "Polycotyledonously!" he had called out eagerly and excitedly and also mysteriously.

Meri admired his spirit and what he had done to lift himself up. She realized that because of his efforts in a hidden-away and discouraging place, he probably already knew more than many people. And so she encouraged and reassured him.

"Don't worry," she said. "You haven't. But I don't care if you do--it's fun to hear different words. I know I like to, even if I don't know what they mean. I wish I knew more, like you, to tell you the truth," she said, remembering with regret now how many times her parents had asked her to look up words in the dictionary, and she hadn't been that eager.

"And you're certainly not a dummy," she added.

At these words, suddenly he didn't seem as worn and shabby as before--and it wasn't just because they were looking so much at his sentences in the air as he spoke, and not so much at him. He had raised himself in their eyes.

All of these words, of course, had been strung beautifully across the air of _The Land of Handwriting Speech_ as the three of them walked, and one bounced, through it. It had been fun, as well, walking right _through_ these words, after they had spoken them.

Meri looked back at the incredible air of fading, hanging, floating, and shifting letters of so many colors, just barely separating, but just as intriguing because they were now backwards! It was charming to see the debris of all their conversations.

Some of the words lingered longer than others and floated away in funny directions, still whole or at least still together. Meri could make out some of them, even in reverse, because of her memory.

At this time they were coming to the end of the land. At least that's what Meri thought, because, unquestionably, there was a different look to the surface of what seemed to be a new land ahead of them. It didn't seem to have any grass or clover!

Jethro rejoined them, and at the last moment, he turned around and released a marvelously large and happy "Good-bye!" in springtime colors to the land that he especially liked. There was no sound. But they all had a positive feeling as they read the agreeable word on the air.

Because of Jethro's deep voice, the letters were large, and because of his personality and spirit, they were made of enchanting colors.

As Meri read it, she realized that it was almost as if the land were telling them good-bye too. The letters lingered beautifully in the air behind them as they walked out, only slowly sagging and fading to a shimmering mirage and then at last disappearing into the inviting clearness that had been there before.

Stopping for a moment to look back with fondness at the land which looked so simple and yet so attractive from a distance, Meri and the Tackling Dummy understood Jethro's feelings about it--because theirs were now the same.

The Tackling Dummy already was wistfully thinking of the important advantage of the land to him. If he were ever in it again, he could think of _any_ of the long words that he liked so much, and _immediately_ be able to see them in front of him. Not in print, but it made him especially happy to see them in such beautiful handwriting. This was very important to him, because he could no longer _see_ _any_ of his many special words _at all_ any more. He had left his unabridged dictionary behind.

_This land would give him that ability!_

Sadly, though, as they turned toward the new land in front of them--and could see the many other lands in the distance--the Tackling Dummy realized that he would probably _never_ get back to this land at all. He had such a long way to go, and he wasn't even close to getting new canvas. He'd probably better not count on being able to ever return.

He was sorry when he thought this.

At the same time, however, he didn't allow himself to be too saddened. He kept his good nature. "Even if I don't get back, I'd still _like_ to," he said simply. He had been so enchanted with seeing the words in the air, however, that he had forgotten--and he now remembered--that there were some special sentences he very much wanted to see, too.

By this time, however, they were standing at the edge of a new land, and he was forced to think new thoughts.

He began to look at the land more closely. There was no grass--not a single blade. But the soil was green--it was actually light turquoise!

"I wonder what it's going to be like," he thought, especially curious about it now because of the loveable land they were just leaving--and the one before _it_. He was certain there was going to be something different about this next one too. Something unique.

But what?

# Chapter X:

_THE LAND OF CLAUSTROPHOBIC AIR_

Meri was beginning to notice that around many of The Lands there were borders of attractive grass that didn't seem to be a part of the land. The travelers were standing on the edge of one of these, looking at the mysterious and strange light turquoise land that awaited them. The grass around it provided an especially vivid contrast to an entire land without grass, even though it was the _color_ of grass!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were of course full of wonder. Wut and Jethro of course _knew_.

This was going to be the _third_ land that they crossed, not counting The Autumnforest. After the first two, Meri and the Tackling Dummy obviously weren't sure what to expect. They were looking very carefully, but there was no way they could understand the clues in the landscape.

It was a very light land that stretched away in mild slopes toward another land not too far away. It extended even further toward their right. Apparently they would cross only a corner.

The surface of the land seemed to be a light turquoise colored clay, just barely gleaming in the beautiful sunlight.

The clay was flat and pretty.

This was what anyone could see by _just looking_. Meri and the Tackling Dummy had already learned, however, from the first two lands, that you can't tell about a land of The Lands by just standing on the outside of it!

You have to go in!

Jethro had a large bright whimsical look on his face, and so the Tackling Dummy and Meri were _expecting_ an unusual land, one that he obviously also liked.

"What could it be?" thought Meri, as she looked across the pretty bare light turquoise clay gleaming faintly in the sunshine.

The Tackling Dummy was also puzzled. There was no grass. There were no trees. But he liked the way it looked.

They knew that Wut was letting them look before he explained.

The question mark was bouncing beside them with a slight smile on his face. Every now and then he looked proudly at the land.

However, he decided that _this_ time they _had_ to know _something_ in advance before crossing _this_ land, it was _so_ different.

So he began. And what he said sounded very odd.

"Meri, you will need to run as fast as you can through this land, and you will also need to hold your breath as long as you can. When you can't hold it any longer, let it out, try not to be startled, and just keep running."

Now the Tackling Dummy and the little girl flesh and blood dummy were _doubly_ puzzled!

The land instantly became even more intriguing! What type of land could it be?

They looked at each other.

Bouncing casually on the attractive grass of the border, before he spoke again Wut looked at Meri with a gleam of amusement in his two green eyes out in space on either side of his face. Undoubtedly he was thinking of what she was just about to experience.

"But don't worry," he said. We're only going through a part of it, so you won't be breathing the air for too long."

And then he added, "And Tackling Dummy, would you please walk as softly as you can?"

That made the land even more mysterious! Meri had to run, and the Tackling Dummy had to walk--but softly!

At last Wut cleared up the mystery.

"This is _The Land of Claustrophobic Air_ ," he explained, speaking mainly to Meri for some reason.

"You see, in this land, just in front of us," he said, reaching out to touch the air gently, "the air has claustrophobia. It doesn't like to be in little places. That's why there's no grass and why there are no trees either, and also why the surface of the land is so smooth, with the light turquoise clay. Because any opportunity for small spaces would give the air claustrophobia."

Here they all, including Jethro, looked out across the attractive innocent land again.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy didn't know what to think.

Meri hadn't really known what claustrophobia was, but by this time she realized that it must be a fear of small places. But wasn't it strange for the air to have this fear?! Or any fear? Still, they _were_ in The Lands, she remembered.

"Hmmm," she continued to think, still perplexed. "The _air_ has claustrophobia. That's about as odd as can be."

But then in _the next_ moment she thought again, this time remembering where she was, "But if the land weren't _strange_ , it _wouldn't_ be normal. So that means it must be--normal." She was beginning to feel more comfortable about being in The Lands. Because she was just beginning to understand them better, she thought.

"They're always unexpected in unexpected ways," she thought.

"We won't hurt the air," urged Jethro, courteously but also a little impatiently. He was eager to go ahead. He breathed, and so he knew what was going to happen. Meri could see the anticipation in his eyes. And the tip of his unicorn was emitting tiny soft rays into the sunshine again.

But Wut liked to explain things, and as usual he had a little more to say on the subject. Looking directly at Meri, he became more specific, since Jethro already knew. "When you breathe the air," he said plainly, "it will get claustrophobia, because of the tiny spaces in your lungs. It will become very unhappy."

"I see," said the Tackling Dummy, ready to go, too, but Meri knew his remark was perhaps a little hasty, since _he_ didn't have lungs. She now understood the problem better. Wrinkling her brow, she realized that this _claustrophobia_ was going to take place _inside_ _her lungs!_ What a thought! She became a little nervous. Looking at the Tackling Dummy, she realized that of the two of them, _she_ was going to be the one to experience this land directly.

"Don't worry," said Jethro, who understood Meri's hesitation. "It'll be fun! You'll see! It won't hurt, I guarantee you!" There was a kind look in his eyes, and she could tell he was genuinely trying to help her. He had even stepped over closer to her to reassure her, putting his face close to hers as he spoke.

"He breathes too, so he must know," Meri concluded. "My, he's huge!" she thought again, because he was so close. "The air must get _a lot_ of claustrophobia when he breathes!"

There suddenly seemed to be nothing else to say. So Meri bravely walked right up to the edge of the new land, the others immediately lining up alongside her. She stopped there, and her heart began to beat a little faster as she was just about to start.

But Jethro said something else first.

To his friend the Tackling Dummy, the huge light brown, gold, yellow, white and somewhat black Buffalo Unicorn quite unexpectedly turned his great head and said, "Tell me one of your long words, from your unabridged dictionary, please." Returning to his friends in The Land of Handwriting Speech, he had seen some of the Tackling Dummy's long words in the air and asked what they were.

It seemed to be a perfectly weird request. And Jethro didn't explain. He simply tilted his huge head whimsically, waiting for the answer.

They were all side by side at the very edge of the pleasant land of light turquoise clay and unusual air, prepared to start. The feet of three of them were just about touching the clay in the warm sunshine. Wut's bouncing period sometimes bent stalks of grass that leaned forward almost into the land.

The Tackling Dummy went back into his mind for a moment, back to his unabridged dictionary.

"A long word?" he repeated. "How about _calcareoargillaceously_ , meaning _referring to lime and clay at the same time?"_ he asked.

Meri could tell he liked to say it. And she herself thought it sounded like a small song. To herself, she secretly wished he would say it again. And he did.

"Calcareoargillaceously."

Jethro's eyes glazed over at first. Then he said simply, "Okay. You can't miss that one!"

The Tackling Dummy and Meri still didn't know what Jethro wanted the word for, but Wut had an idea. He had known his friend Jethro for a long time.

"I advise you to take a deep breath first," he reminded Meri and Jethro as he bounced on the edge. To the Tackling Dummy, he simply said, matter-of-factly, "You and I can just try to keep up with them."

"Okay! Let's go!" yelled Jethro suddenly, sucking in a magnificent breath and surging out across The Land of Claustrophobic Air as fast as he could, which wasn't that fast at first. It was a beautiful sight, though, his enormous self suddenly bolting forward in the sunshine. With her own deep breath, Meri darted out beside him, and even ahead of him, wondering if she could hold her breath the whole way. For if she could, she could avoid giving the air any claustrophobia, and she wouldn't have to be nervous about what might happen. She liked that thought--and so she tried.

As she ran across the light turquoise clay, she held her breath with all of her determination.

But it became harder and harder not to breathe.

She was out in front, although Jethro was galloping hugely up behind. He wasn't quite as well coordinated as Meri, and he always tried to run too fast. The result was that he never ran efficiently at all. His legs sometimes went flying in the wrong directions and his large head seemed to be moving all around needlessly. Just like Meri, the great creature was struggling to travel as far as he could without breathing!

As her chest began to hurt unbearably, Meri could sense that the ponderous Buffalo Unicorn behind her was catching up.

He was so uncoordinated that at times he seemed about to trip.

But he kept going faster, and he came up beside her.

Then, what made holding her breath so much more difficult for Meri was that Jethro looked so ludicrous as he ran! Looking at all of his inefficient efforts, she began trying as hard as she could not to _laugh_ as well as not to breathe!

Finally, she couldn't hold in her breath and not laugh any longer. Both about seemed to happen at the same time. Her cheeks had puffed full of the pent-up air in her chest. Her face began to burn, and her eyes to water. She was hurting everywhere!

At just that very moment--when the air was about to explode from her bursting lungs--suddenly Jethro shouted,

"CALCAREOARGILLACEOUSLY!"

freeing his own long pent-up air and greedily gulping in a deep new breath. Almost as if it were a signal, Meri suddenly released her own breath and gladly drew in another one quickly and very deeply.

Running, relieved to be breathing again after the pain of denying herself for that long, she realized why Jethro had wanted the long word from the Tackling Dummy.

"How does he think of everything it takes to be Jethro?" she thought suddenly, laughing at the things he did.

"What's going on?" Meri then heard a strange voice from inside her chest as she continued to breathe in to make up for the lost air.

"It was so dark in there," said another as she breathed out.

"Help!" she heard as the air issued from Jethro's great mouth and nose. "That was terrible!"

"I almost suffocated!" she also heard, from in front of Jethro, as he breathed out. The words came to Meri in high pitched outraged tones.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha" then laughed Jethro deeply, unable to control himself any longer as he ran along. "That tickles," he added, cutting his eyes over to Meri. With an unmistakeable look of glee on his large face and in his eyes, "Whee!" he added, galloping along in his uncoordinated way.

Meri was also laughing by this time, mostly at Jethro.

"Thank goodness!" she kept hearing behind her as she continued to run, "We're out. Oh, I'm so glad that's over." And once she even heard a sympathetic soft voice explaining, "Yes, that was claustrophobia. Now you know."

She and Jethro then reached the other side, for they were crossing only a triangle of the land. Taking their last steps off of the flat light turquoise clay, they fell over onto the grass of the next border and lay panting for a while. Jethro looked especially mountainous on his side. The memory of recent laughter was still in their eyes as they watched their two friends approaching.

Wut and the Tackling Dummy weren't entirely free from causing claustrophobia themselves. For as Wut bounced, the air was squeezed slightly between his period, on which he bounced, and between the clay and the period as it came down. The result was that the air kept saying things like, "That was close," and "Whew!" and "What was that?" as he looped across. These statements and exclamations, however, were much less serious and urgent than when Jethro and Meri had come over.

The Tackling Dummy heard similar responses to his footsteps, which he put down as gently and as easily as he could. But his experience through the claustrophobic air was relatively mild. Having watched Jethro's and Meri's more tumultuous crossing from a short distance behind them, though, he too had an amused look on his face when he stepped out of the land.

"What could top what we've seen already?" he asked Meri as he sat down on the grass between his young friend and the Buffalo Unicorn, who was lying stretched out like a small mountain, or a large island, resting from the hard run.

"What could top it is what could equal it," commented Jethro especially profoundly as well as unexpectedly, raising his great head from the grass for a moment and looking at them. "You'll find that out as you go through The Lands," he predicted, laying his head down again. His large white unicorn was right on the grass, the point all the way to the dirt. An ant was walking around and around the spiral.

Jethro's words left both Meri and the Tackling Dummy thinking, and also somewhat reassured. They thought they knew what he had meant. Anyway, he made them think. The Tackling Dummy put his head back on the grass and looked up at the light blue sky which at that particular moment was about half filled with large white clouds. He felt relaxed.

Meri leaned her head against Jethro's neck and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

Even Wut sat down briefly, to rest for a few minutes, propping himself temporarily against the middle of his incredibly large friend's back. When he did so, he suddenly looked small, although of course that was true of _all_ of them next to the enormous extent of the colorful Buffalo Unicorn. The whole time of the crossing, there had been a look of concern on Wut's face about the inconvenience and pain they were causing The Land of Claustrophobic Air.

But now that it was over, he seemed to let some of his usual concern go, at least for a little while. He didn't close his eyes. But his face assumed a natural and more peaceful expression as he momentarily looked forward to the lands just ahead.

He even smiled in a special way. He was thinking of his new young flesh and blood friend Meri. She was stretched out on the grass only about two feet away, relaxing almost sleepily against Jethro.

"She has no idea how special this next land is going to be to _her_!" he thought.

# Chapter XI:

_THE LAND OF OTHER PLACES_

After only several more minutes, the four friends started on their way again, immediately entering the land Wut had been thinking about.

Everyone looked around. They knew they were in a new land, because they had crossed a border.

The grass was a little more aqua than usual. There were a few more trees than in the other lands they had crossed--especially the last one--and the leaves were also a little lighter in color.

Perhaps because there were more trees, there also seemed to be more birds in this land. As in The Autumnforest, Meri couldn't recognize any of them, but she liked their markings. Some of the prettier ones simply had dots of lighter colors on darker backgrounds.

Before trying to find out how this land might be different, Meri, seeing the birds, looked around quickly to see if she could see a mockingbird to remind her of Virginia. She finally saw one, without even expecting to--one that was _close_ although it wasn't _exactly_ the same. The flashing markings happened to be a very light aqua instead of white. It flew beautifully across their path, landing on one of the many trees there.

Other than its very light aqua, it seemed a perfect mockingbird, the same slim light gray bird which Meri had seen so many times in Amelia. The sight of it made her think of home.

As she did so, a beautiful picture appeared briefly in the air, _of her home_ , including the intricately curving and exact lines of her father's and mother's flower pictures on the grass. In the scene, an _actual_ mockingbird flew across their yard too, lighting up the air with its spectacular flash of white. From a prominent flowery white design representing the _USS Steady_ , it shot to a nearby redbud tree.

There was no mistaking what bird it was!

Meri's eyes opened wide, and they stayed open quite wide as she turned a questioning look at Wut and then looked quickly back at the image in the air.

_This land definitely now had her attention!_

Wut had been watching her carefully. He was smiling with satisfaction.

"This is The Land of Other Places," he explained, bouncing along on the almost aqua grass and continuing to smile at Meri's startled expression. "I come here often to find out, if I can, about any problem that might be occurring in another land, for this land _does_ work for me, compared to The Land of Learning Feet, which it resembles somewhat, but not as much as you might think."

Meri had the impression that Wut was talking a lot, but he wasn't. What had really happened was that the excitement in her mind had shot skyhigh! _She had just seen her home in the air!_ Here in The Lands! She could hardly bear to hear extra details about the land just then--even the one they were in! She was too astonished!

But she actually needed to understand.

Wut continued, although he couldn't help but notice her impatience as well as her excitement. He thought he understood, and so he explained as quickly as he could, while Meri and the others looked at the picture in the air.

"In this land, if you think about a place, you can see it briefly--just for a few moments--in the air. You can find out exactly what's going on there. It's a little like The Land of Handwriting Speech, although actually very different from that land too. It's much more informative."

The black question mark was rising and descending softly on the light aqua grass, his own green eyes, going up and down too, clearly interested in what he himself was saying.

He was obviously fond of this land.

The Tackling Dummy was listening intently while also looking. And so was Jethro, although the Buffalo Unicorn visited the land regularly _. It allowed him to get so much more out of his travels_! He had known what was going to happen, but had preferred to let Meri or the Tackling Dummy have the first thought.

The image faded, and as it did, Meri instantly thought of her parents. _And there, right in the air, they were, for all of them to see!_

They were aboard the pretty white _USS Steady_ in the middle of the huge spreadout Atlantic, crossing it. Somehow the ship looked larger than Meri had imagined.

She was understandably mesmerized into almost a statue!

In the picture across the air, which Wut, the Tackling Dummy and Jethro were also looking at with a lot of interest, Meri's parents were standing on one of the many decks, looking out over the ocean and talking. Two porpoises broke the water with spreading ripples not far off and disappeared below again. It seemed to be the same time of day there.

"I wonder what Meri's doing now," her mother said, turning to Meri's father for a moment.

_"She looks so pretty standing there on the deck_ ," Meri thought.

"I will _never_ get over having to leave her," her mother continued. "Never. I have never seen a child so upset. And the truth of it is, I was just as upset as she was--on the inside--although I couldn't let her know! Or she may have become even more upset, and perhaps even sicker. I wasn't too far from being sick myself. I hope she's feeling better! No one knows how much I love that child. I just wish she were here!" And without being able to help it, she began to cry softly, thinking about her daughter.

Meri's own eyes moistened.

"I think I do," her father answered meaningfully, a certain forlorn look on his face. _"I miss my meridian_ ," he whispered, using his special name for her, and that was about all he could say for a very long moment as he bit his lip and looked out silently over the unending water to the diffuse clouds lighting up the horizon.

"One little budge--that was how close I was--one little budge, and I wouldn't have come. But that would have made her unbearably unhappy, once she got well, so I had no choice. She'll be over here with us, _one day._ That'll happen. I just wish it was now."

Meri quietly wiped the corner of each of her aqua eyes.

The picture faded out of the air, the colors softening out finally to nothing.

Everyone was quiet, the other three thinking about the little girl with them--whom they felt they knew much better now. The girl herself was completely lost in the memory of the image she had just seen.

The Tackling Dummy reached over and put his arm around Meri's shoulder and held it there briefly, while Jethro lowered his white spiraling unicorn and let it rest softly right on the top of her head.

_"They are unbelievably_ nice," said Wut, expressing what they all were thinking, and Meri blinked her eyes a few more times.

"Thank you," she gulped, but that was all she could say just then.

Kindly, Wut gave her some privacy by thinking at that time of The Land of the Croapfs, which had been very much on his mind all that morning. With concern, he looked searchingly at the images in the air which everyone else now looked at, too.

The croapfs were very attractive dummies. Although the Tackling Dummy had described them in The Land of Learning Feet, this was the first chance that Meri had to _see_ how they looked. They were made of light turquoise yarn, with attractive yellow, pink, and black marks here and there.

Their eyes were of many attractive colors--but there was an intensity in them that was almost bizarre.

"I see what you meant," Wut said seriously to the Tackling Dummy, bouncing and looking at the place in the air where the images had been. "I know them well, and they're truly harmless dummies. They're actually a lot of fun! But they're not themselves anymore. Yes, something is definitely wrong with them."

They hadn't been doing anything especially dangerous or disturbing, however, and he felt better about that. The only unusual thing he noticed was that some of them were starting to walk somewhere together in a small crowd. They were walking energetically, with a noticeable intensity in their walk, as well as in their faces. Wut wondered where they were going, and he was nervous about the answer that came into his mind!

Meri was about to ask a question, when suddenly she realized that she needed to find out about her Aunt Am, as she affectionately called her, and she instantly thought of her. At the same moment she felt a sensation of dread in her stomach, because she already knew she was _missing_ --even if her aunt didn't know it yet. She wasn't in Amelia, and she certainly wasn't even in Virginia--or even in her own country anymore!

That thought made her even more nervous.

An image appeared in the air. Her favorite and only aunt was just leaving the sliding glass doors of the library of Longwood University in Farmville, about 37 miles away from Amelia. Carrying several books in her arms, she was hurrying toward her light blue Mercury. Meri smiled at the sight of her aunt looking so familiar. As Aunt Am reached the car, she was glad to see the solar system depicted so vividly on the driver's side! Trying not to imagine how worried her Aunt was going to be when she got home, Meri realized even more anxiously that she needed to get to The Land of Pink Windmills as soon as possible. She needed to get back home that day!

Aunt Am, having returned some of the books she had read and gotten more, hadn't had time yet to learn of Meri's absence.

But she was on her way home!

At least one of the books she was carrying was about astronomy, the observing friends in The Land of Other Places could tell from the cover's illustration. It was a rather large book which was just about to slip out of her arms. _How many times Meri had seen her aunt about to drop one or more of her books, because she was always carrying so many!_

And often, she was carrying a lot of other things, too, at the same time! Aunt Amelia managed, however. Since she was so used to carrying unstable loads, she never dropped quite as much as everyone feared she might.

Before the picture faded, they could see Aunt Amelia release the load of books temporarily--and very carefully, since she loved her car--onto the hood of the light blue Mercury. It was the color of the sky above Amelia. She began to search inside her purse for her keys.

She would soon be home, wondering about Meri, and beginning to be concerned.

Meri herself, in The Land of Other Places, felt that now familiar dread in her stomach again. _She was so worried about her aunt_ , and she felt guilty--although she hadn't been able to help tearing the ticket, or leaf, with the Tackling Dummy.

She hadn't become missing on purpose!

"That was my aunt," she explained to the others, who had been watching with considerable interest. Meri's voice wasn't that happy. "I'm staying with her while my mother and father are on their trip to England, as you just saw on the ship. She's going to be frantic if I don't come home today."

The others saw Meri's face as she said these words and realized again the seriousness of the problem. From the expression on Meri's face and the tones in her voice, they believed, without knowing Aunt Am, that she was going to have one of her very worst days ever-- _probably her worst_ --when Meri didn't come home.

"Hmmm," said Wut, frustrated. He was used to trying to solve problems, because that is what he does in The Lands. But there just wasn't much he could do, at least right away, about this one. They were still quite distant from The Land of Pink Windmills.

_For the moment_ , _he was already doing all he could do!_

However, Wut also knew that no one can _ever_ predict the zany things that sometimes happen in The Lands.

There was no telling _when_ they would get to The Land of Pink Windmills! He felt a little better by remembering again that it _could_ be sooner than he expected.

But he also knew that it might even be later!

"She looked interesting, I thought--and very very nice. I think she'd be fun to know--with that car," said Jethro in a soft but deep voice, to comfort her, and the others shook their heads in agreement.

But, unfortunately, the effect was just the opposite of the one they intended! For they reminded Meri that Aunt Am _was_ , in fact, _one of the nicest of persons that anyone could ever meet_ --more than her new friends would _ever_ be able to know, she now realized with additional disappointment.

She didn't deserve to believe later, as she was going to, that Meri was missing. When she wasn't!!

Although Meri had experienced a heartbreaking sensation at hearing Jethro's kind words, she put her arm up on the immense shoulder of the mostly gold and yellow and light brown and black and white sympathetic Buffalo Unicorn, and murmured thanks to her gigantic friend.

He did make her feel better! They all did!

"That was a pretty blue vehicle, no question about it," offered Wut, bouncing easily on the light aqua grass.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy's heads had to go up and down to talk to him--and to listen when he was talking. But they were used to this by now.

The question mark continued about the car. "Its color reminded me of the sky over The Lands."

Meri remembered that her Aunt had in fact chosen the car's color for a sky! Wut didn't know how close he was to the truth!

Aunt Am had actually made it a little lighter than the usual blue of the sky over Amelia, though, because she especially liked lighter colors. And that was why it was the color of the sky over The Lands!

Aunt Am was always telling Meri that her favorite color was _any_ light color. And that was at least partially why Meri herself had _so many favorite colors_ --that she actually had _none_. They were _all_ her favorites. She had never been able to choose _one_ above the others.

"I'd like a better look at that astronomy book she was carrying," the Tackling Dummy contributed. "I'm sure you don't know it, but I've almost never seen the sky at night--almost never from the outside, that is, and very little from the inside. Sometimes, when there was an evening practice, I got to see a little of the sky, and I was fascinated by the stars. But I never got a chance to look at them for very long. And the lights kept getting in the way. It was hard to see above them." He went on to tell Jethro and Wut a little about being a Tackling Dummy. They were both shocked. His appearance was, from then on, much more understandable to them.

"But I saw a lot of the sun, because of all the day practices," added the shabby dummy brightly. "And I always wondered about it, too. It's a beautiful ball of light."

He then thought about the practice field, and the tackling apparatus on which he had been hung down, to be tackled, immediately appeared in the air. He smiled, as they walked along, at the site of his former misery. It was all over now! The equipment had been fixed, but a new dummy hadn't been put in his place yet.

Quickly the Tackling Dummy then thought of his storage place under the concrete bleachers, and suddenly the sight of it was in the air! The others could see where he had been kept. It seemed dim, although the light was on, because the narrow windows were high up, and they badly needed washing.

There was a strong smell of old sweat, which made Jethro back up for a moment, and wrinkle up his face. And then everyone saw it! There, right in an angle of a corner, where he had left it sitting on an old round dusty stool that no one seemed to want anymore, was the Tackling Dummy's old unabridged dictionary!

He looked at it longingly.

And then the sight faded.

The Tackling Dummy wasn't finished yet! For he had an energetic mind, even though he had been tackled so many times. His head had never been affected!

He quickly thought about the shop in England where he had been made, permitting the others to see rows of sewing machines and pieces of fabric lying everywhere. Stacked up against the wall, they all noticed, were some rolls of beautiful gray canvas. Regrettably, they offered a comparison of how much their friend's canvas had deteriorated.

If only he could have some of that beautiful new canvas!

And finally, for pure simple fun, the Tackling Dummy creatively thought about the sky on the other side of the earth from the Practice Field, where it was night. For a few moments he was able to gaze intently up, and with much satisfaction, at a night sky full of stars without being tackled.

The ball of night there in the air in The Land of Other Places looked dazzlingly mysterious and beautiful.

"I'd certainly like to find out more about them," Meri's canvas friend mumbled with interest as the unusual astronomical scene faded. The stars in the image softly popped out one by one, dropping silver into the air of the land.

"You need to talk to my Aunt Am, then!" said Meri enthusiastically, her aqua eyes blazing. "She spends a lot of time in the middles of stars, and she also has her own theory about how they work. She'd love to talk to you about them!" Meri couldn't help being enthusiastic about her aunt.

"I'd love to," graciously replied the Tackling Dummy, pleased at Meri's enthusiasm which included him. He also was smiling.

At that point they were nearing the end of the land, and Jethro wandered off again. Always a little restless, he liked to walk over to the lands on either side as they traveled. Meri was disappointed that the land was ending, because it hadn't lasted long enough for them to see any of Jethro's thoughts. She was sure they would have been quite entertaining!

As she walked out of the land, she had an exciting and _very_ comforting thought!

Even if she _never did_ get back home, as Wut had suggested, she could always come back to _this_ land and see her parents and Aunt Am! She could find out what they were doing and even hear some of their conversations! At least she would _always_ have them--in _this_ land!

And just that, which was so very much, made her feel _much better._

Meri had loved every land they had been in so far. _But she still wished they could cross them a little faster!_ Then, when she looked up and saw the _next_ land coming into view ahead, she realized that they wouldn't be able to cross _it_ very fast either, even if they tried! It was so jazzy with colors that she even slowed down for a moment for a better look at it.

"No, that isn't a land," she thought to herself smiling, closing her eyes and opening them again. Her light aqua eyes were still unbelieving.

Her light brown hair blew up carelessly in a warm breeze. There were a few small clouds around the edges of the light blue sky, and underneath the middle of it was this new land that already she couldn't believe!

"Wow!" said the Tackling Dummy, forgetting to use one of his big words. Having been in The Lands briefly, he was already used to unusual sights, but not like this one! No, the whole land was dazzling!

# Chapter XII:

_THE LAND OF FIELDS_

Looking at the new land, Meri and the Tackling Dummy had _never_ had so much color in their eyes at one time!

"This is The Land of Fields," said Wut, bouncing carefully to miss the lines of yellow and light blue chalk of the lovely soccer field they were beginning to cross. "The dummies here love fields--of all kinds."

They could see fields everywhere they looked: the charming one they were crossing, many more beyond, and all around. Because of the colors and unexpected beauty and precision of these fields, the travelers, all of them, walked and bounced silently in wonder for the next few minutes, receiving the sights of the fields from all directions.

When they began to look more closely again at the soccer field they were crossing, they discovered it included charming words, sentences, accents, and sometimes even little pictures in original colors.

"I can't believe it," mumbled the Tackling Dummy to himself, marveling at the beautiful land. He had never been in fields like this before.

Jethro, who had wandered away in the previous land, returned, glad to be back with his friends. As he began walking alongside them, however, his great hooves began kicking up tiny clouds of agreeable colors. He had _four_ feet to keep track of, instead of two like Meri and the Tackling Dummy, who had been careful to avoid the colored chalk lines.

And Jethro had _four_ times the difficulty of Wut, who had only one bouncing period to be careful of.

Jethro was so big that he couldn't even _see_ his hind feet very well: he didn't ever know exactly what they were doing! Also, he was looking around curiously, at everything but his feet, as he always did in The Lands, wherever he was.

There was no way he was going to miss stepping right on top of the colored limes that the others were trying to miss!

So he left a trail of stirred up colors behind him across the fields they crossed, one after another. The fields of blooming flowers, and of trees, that they also crossed weren't a problem, though.

There were baseball fields, more soccer fields, some unforgettable hockey fields, and even some unexpected track events expressed in silvers and other beautiful colors of limes: different jumps and races and throws, all lined with restraint and beauty, with words and sentences here and there and little pictures that were equally pleasing.

The creativity was obvious and sometimes even shocking in its daring and originality! But always fun and unendingly new and different.

Meri wondered where all these limes came from?! There were dummies tending the fields--they could see them!--but unluckily they were always too far away to talk to them or to ask them any questions or even to see them very well. They could tell, even in the distance, however, that they were wearing overalls to protect themselves from the colors which otherwise would easily have smudged whatever it was they were made of.

The Tackling Dummy was especially excited about these glimpses of other dummies--the only other ones they had seen since the attractive little dummy they had passed in The Land of Handwriting Speech. He had wanted desperately to talk to her, but had been too shy. He was hoping he would get a chance to talk to one of the dummies in this land--hopefully to another dummy like himself.

Once, looking back, they noticed some dummies a long way behind them. Jethro with his large hooves had pulled the lemon and melon and plum and silvery colored field into a trail of colors and mixtures, where he had crossed. The travelers waved and the dummies did too as they stopped with containers of lime and short-handled liming tools to patiently begin adjusting the exquisite colors _._

They were used to Jethro going through their land, and, having noticed him from wherever they had been, they came, as they had many times before, to make their fields perfect again.

To the Tackling Dummy's great interest, the four friendly travelers crossed several _football fields_ of amazingly light colored chalks. Their appearance, delicate and graceful, suggested the violence of the game to the thoughtful, because of the creative use of contrast. The fields were actually quite pretty and sensitive!

And then they came to one that was powerfully laid out with plums and dark roses and stormy greens and mauves and lavenders! It looked very much like the shocks and tumults of the sport itself! It stood out like a thunderstorm among the others!

The Tackling Dummy had a special reaction, as he had spent so much time on a football field. He knew all about football! He wasn't comfortable on these fields because they reminded him too much of his previous life as a football victim. It hadn't been easy, and here were all kinds of reminders of it! He had left that life behind, he had thought, and now here it was again!

However, he was just an observer this time, and that fact made a big difference. He was an especially fair and level-headed dummy, and for the sake of the dummies who lived there he was able to appreciate their creativity.

In fact, because of his own background and his good mind, he _knew_ that these fields were spectacular, and he couldn't help but notice the merit of them. But he was more comfortable in the other fields. Personally, without taking anything away from anyone else, he intended to tell football goodbye forever.

He had a full new life to live, he hoped!

There were even some badminton courts. Canvas of various hues and tiny designs went across the air along the edges of the nets, to reinforce them. These borders added color and thought to the air in a land in which the ground was so vibrant, and for this reason they looked especially appropriate and noticeable. They even made the game look especially inviting in a way that was hard to refuse!

Would it be hard to pass by a badminton court with everything laid out and so charming and inviting?!

So all four of them had a rollicking good time playing badminton for a few minutes, and it was memorable! For even enormous Jethro was everywhere on the court, playfully batting the birdie with his unicorn!

"It's _something_ ," Meri thought: "playing badminton on a court with a creature of that hugeness: an immense Buffalo Unicorn! And with a question mark and a Tackling Dummy! Now this is an unforgettable badminton game!"

There were fields of flowers of all colors, truly beautiful; some were even additional playing fields done in flowers and not delicate limes. There were even some fields of trees. Meri would never forget the little sentence in flowers and grass at the entrance to one of them, saying,

A forest is just a field of trees.

That sounded so right! She thought about all the forests in Amelia as fields--of trees. That was a new point of view! What Meri also liked were the charming little games stuck surprisingly here and there in odd little places where the fields came together. In unexpected corners and angles, the travelers suddenly came upon colorful tic-tac-toe squares ready to play upon, some large and some so tiny no one thought of actually trying to play on them except Jethro.

There were hopscotch trails that joyfully wandered along in perfect sets of squares and rectangles.

There were many piles of oddly colored balls and different sizes of jacks on flat little areas of colored soil.

And there were even creatively--even crazily--uneven marble rings with hauntingly interesting marbles gleaming in them. For a moment they reminded Meri of the wandering rings of flowers around the trees in The Autumnforest.

Meri picked up a pale yellow marble that had a pink windmill right in the middle of it! She couldn't put it down at first. She knew they were on their way to _The Land of Pink Windmills_ , but she hadn't really thought about the name of that land yet--what it meant. She hadn't had a chance yet! _The Ticket Tree was what she had mainly thought about in that land!_

But now she began to wonder about The Land of Pink Windmills. "Will there _really_ be pink windmills there?"

Its name was the answer, she realized. She had no doubt about it! After having seen _these_ other lands, she began, understandably, to be quite curious about _what The Land of Pink Windmills was going to be like._

Quite apart from The Tree of Ticket Leaves--which was, of course, undeniably important to her-- suddenly she could hardly wait to get to The Land of Pink Windmills to see the windmills too! Because she _already_ knew--without being told--somehow!--that the dummies who lived there also _lived_ _in the windmills!_

She knew it because it was just too perfect not to be!

And even more important, she guessed that in that land she was going to meet and become good friends with the dummies who lived in windmills!

She couldn't wait!

"What are their names going to be?" she wondered imaginatively, just as she had wondered what the name of the Tackling Dummy might be.

"And who will they be?"

Secretly she smiled to herself. She was willing to wait to meet whoever they were going to be. But then her mind continued,

"And if I don't get back home today? Will I actually sleep in a pink windmill tonight?" Her eyes looked up into the space above The Land of Fields with a kind of wonder, at that special idea.

But she quickly jerked her head back down again so that her light brown hair suddenly jumped.

_She really didn't want to think about spending the night in The Lands!_ Her Aunt Am was certainly almost back to Amelia at that very second!

"She's almost home by now!"

Meri's stomach had a funny feeling again. She was so sorry for her aunt. And she felt responsible.

The fields, of every color imaginable, were calming and playful, however, and they helped without trying to. Some of the limed fields weren't even playing fields, but just fields of beautiful color.

That was because the dummies who lived in the land simply loved fields, not what you can do on them.

Meri especially liked three in a row that were pure yellow, dark purple, and light lavender. And then came one that was light peach. They had almost a magnetic effect on her as they came into her sight one by one in the sunlight. One right after the other, they were stunning, each one more so because of the one beside it!

The Tackling Dummy was especially attracted to a field of various silver and light rose and gold squares. He stopped briefly at the edge, looking at it with a wistful, forlorn expression on his face, and Meri wondered if he were thinking about his canvas. He was. Looking at the color of the beautiful silver squares was almost more than he could bear.

"Yes, that's how he ought to look," Meri thought, making the connection.

The land was so irresistible. There were tiny areas of colored grass on which little games were laid out, often in unexpected places, but sometimes right out in the open in bright yellow lines and other equally happy colors!

"They're actually tiny fields," Wut suggested as he bounced along.

Meri realized that they were.

One was almost like jacks, except that it had a set of little rings to pick up instead of the usual shiny metal jackstones with six points. It was really funny to see Jethro drop the ball from his mouth and then try to pick up the rings with his unicorn, tossing each one away when he lifted it successfully! It was the first time Meri had laughed hard since she had been in The Lands.

She then felt much better, but she didn't forget her aunt.

She also laughed when they tried to play marbles. Jethro spit them out of his mouth from the side of the ring after _completely lying down_ , on his side, to play. _It was a mountain playing marbles!_ Meri could hardly stop laughing when he did this! Surprisingly, he wasn't a bad shot and actually won the game, to his great delight!

He did everything in The Lands that he could, including much that others thought he couldn't!

Having had a lot of experience with hopscotch, Meri couldn't resist hopping through _all_ of the outlines of bright and faint chalks that happened to be in the direction they were going. Sometimes they were right in the grass.

When she did, the others--all good sports--followed right along behind her, imitating her example and listening to her instructions and encouragement. It was rather ludicrous, however, watching Jethro, the great Buffalo Unicorn, hopping from one to the other of the small quaint-colored rectangles meant for children. All of their spirits were especially light as their eyes followed his careful, although clumsy, attempts to land properly on his huge hooves!

It was also a special delight to watch Wut try to play. He had two special disadvantages: he couldn't stop bouncing, because he fell down if he did, and he couldn't bend over too far either, because he fell down then too!

So he fell down almost every time it was his turn. Trying to bend over, sometimes his spring even mis-fired, and he shot away, landing on the grass.

He stayed positive, though. It was surprising how easily he could rise back up again! These activities seemed to help relieve his anxiety about some of the problems in The Lands. He was actually having fun--strange for him.

Usually there was too much on his mind for him to think about having fun!

This loveable and different land made them _all_ feel good.

As much as she loved this land, however, Meri couldn't help but notice that going through it had actually slowed them down.

"Is there any way we could go any faster?" she asked Wut. The look in her eyes told him that she wanted to be patient, but that she was feeling desperate. She was thinking about her aunt.

Wut was quiet for a moment.

"Wait just a few more minutes, my dear," he answered mysteriously, taking her hand as he descended, and squeezing it on his way up again, until he had to let it go.

"Let's see if we're going to be lucky," he said, looking down at her from up in the air. "For your sake, I'm hoping we will be."

And that's all he would tell her about what he meant. He wanted to give her some encouragement, but not too much. Better than anyone else, he knew how unpredictable The Lands can be. _He knew that sometimes they're unpredictable in a way that's helpful!_

He allowed his own optimism to increase.

"It just might be there," he said in his mind.

"It _probably_ will be!" he allowed himself to think.

# Chapter XIII:

_GOOD LUCK_

The fields began to change.

Some began to be _all of one color_ --even the trees were the same color as everything else except the air. It was very interesting and sometimes confusing to walk through these fields--and also fun, because of the unexpected colors. Not knowing where one thing ended and another began made them have to think differently about what they were seeing and passing.

They walked and bounced through _some_ fields that were unique pictures of other lands represented in _clover_ , causing them all to continuously look down. It reminded Meri of _The Land of Learning Feet,_ since information was arriving up from where they were walking _._ It wasn't as pleasantly chaotic and unique as that original land, though!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy learned even more about The Lands from these fields. They were also pleasantly reminded of how much they still _didn't_ know!

A field of clover suddenly appeared: a perfect circle of the most enchanting green color. Jethro immediately ran right into the middle of it, jumped up into the air, and then all around in every imaginable direction, simply because he loved the fields in The Land of Fields.

He wasn't an _ordinary_ Buffalo Unicorn at all!

"Okay," he said of his ridiculous actions, in his deep voice, as he walked slowly back toward them. He saw them all looking at him with amusement. But there was a deep satisfaction in his large whimsical brown eyes.

And then fields of cotton began to appear, attractively set apart in neat little white fences.

A number were delicately playful because the cotton had been planted to bloom in the air in dots of varying colors that sometimes spelled words and sometimes even surprisingly merged into pictures.

These were _unexpected_ and _thoughtful_ fields too!

The Lands are definitely interesting!

Sometimes the words were hard to understand, like some eye tests, but fun to try to figure out. The air of one elegant field made them all feel ecstatic and happy, just for the joy of seeing it, because every ball there was the color of light gold. And it was cotton! _At least one of the dummies who lived in that land unquestionably loved that color!_ It was the only field like that.

It was at this moment that something momentous occurred.

"I could use some of that," commented the Tackling Dummy longingly, looking at the cotton. He had lost so much of his own. His spirit was lifted just by the sight of it.

He had been mesmerized from the very beginning of these fields of cotton!

He was stuffed with cotton! Or supposed to be. Now, after so much loss, he was only partly stuffed.

As he looked, it occurred to him that he didn't really care what color he was on the inside, as long as he had enough!! And at the moment, he didn't!

He couldn't help but like all the colors he was seeing, including the special one of soft gold. He had never even thought before about being stuffed with cotton that wasn't white!

Hearing his comment, Meri sadly estimated that he had probably lost _at least half_ of his stuffing! He looked so bedraggled! Painfully, she remembered the sight of it shooting out of his canvas during every tackle.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy were both startled by Wut's unexpected reply.

"It's interesting you said that, and I'm glad you did," He mentioned from higher up in the air than usual, between bounces.

" _Because most of the cotton in this land is used for exactly that purpose!_ Many dummies come here from all over The Lands--from the ones where the dummies are cotton stuffed, that is--when they've lost some of themselves for some reason. The dummies here in The Land of Fields are cotton-stuffed too, as you might have guessed--probably the best stuffed of all the dummies in The Lands. And these fields are the reason."

The Tackling Dummy tripped and almost fell over at what he had just heard! This was one of _the cotton-stuffed lands!_ And dummies _like him_ came here from all over The Lands to replace their cotton! He hadn't realized! He hadn't had any way to realize!

Everyone looked at the unending number of holes in the Tackling Dummy's canvas, feeling _better_ about seeing them for the first time!

Because that meant there were lots of places to add cotton!

Meri immediately began leaning over the fences and plucking the gold and other colors of cotton as they went by, and then gently inserting it into his canvas when they were between fields.

Wut _bounced_ all the way into the fields to get some, with _both_ hands plucking as he came up and went down the rows! He was really funny plucking with that knowledgeable smile on his face. He was glad to be helping the Tackling Dummy!

The Tackling Dummy, brightening at this totally unexpected improvement, even began to refill himself, too.

Cotton was _one_ of the three _things_ he had needed most. The other two, of course, were: _new canvas_ , and a _place to be._ A place to be totally _himself_ , that is.

Soon, with the help of his friends, he looked remarkably better. The replacement of his lost cotton really helped! It was almost possible to tell what he must have looked like when new!

And he had some creative colors inside him this time! He even felt a little more intelligent. He immediately wondered, doubting if he were. But then he realized he thought he was, and that that did make a difference!

Another thought occurred to him, and he smiled about it, too, because he knew that from then on, wherever he went, _The Lands would always be a part of him._ It was part of his good luck.

His new confidence was obvious. And then something else happened. He was just adjusting happily to his improved appearance when, for the first time, he got a good look at the dummies who lived in The Land of Fields.

_There were three of them, just two fields away!_ They were talking to each other so animatedly that parts of their sentences could even be heard--although not understood.

The four friends had waved to many of the dummies of the land, but unfortunately they had been too far away to see very clearly, and the ones they had seen had all been wearing overalls, to maintain the many different fields.

But t _hese dummies were considerably closer!_ They were even _close_ , involved in such an interesting conversation that they didn't see the four friends passing by.

These three dummies weren't working, either! So they weren't covered with overalls!

It was perfectly obvious to The Tackling Dummy that, unquestionably, they were just like him!

They were cotton stuffed dummies! Like he was!

He also couldn't help but notice how wonderful the colors of their canvas looked. And the canvas itself looked new! _He was extremely excited_! It was a shocking, invigorating moment! It was possible to tell from his eyes that he thought an unbelievable number of uplifting thoughts at great speed, in just several seconds!

Looking down at his own canvas, though, his excitement faded. He didn't want dummies, just like him, with such canvas, to see his which was full of holes and shabby in other ways. When he looked up again, he got his wish. Immediately ahead, The Land of Fields was coming to an end. A new border was already visible.

He wasn't disappointed to be leaving.

But the Tackling Dummy was still overwhelmed by his thoughts! Although he was embarrassed, he had new hope!

It had been an _extraordinary_ land, if that's possible in The Lands. _All_ travelers who pass through it absorb its charm and light-heartedness and variety and love its colors and originality, and feel uplifted. From the beginning to its end, it's both thoughtful as well as satisfying to the eyes! The words and messages here and there, on the fields and in the cotton, are pleasant and keep coming back to the mind unexpectedly afterwards.

In these ways the four friends had responded like everyone else who had ever walked or bounced through that land before. Two of them, Wut and Jethro, of course, had been there previously. But it meant a lot more to them when they saw the incredible land with their two new friends!

As the fields stretched out behind them, Meri and the Tackling Dummy briefly looked back with fondness at _another_ land they wanted to visit again. The Tackling Dummy, of course, wanted to visit it with new canvas, the equal of what he had just seen!

Counting, the two visitors were thinking they had seen _five_ lands so far. But they had actually seen _six_. They didn't know that The Autumnforest is one of The Lands--its real name is The Land of The Autumnforest.

Quite naturally, as they approached the next border, the Tackling Dummy and Meri began to wonder again what the _next_ _land_ would be like. But they already knew that there was no way to know what to expect. The Lands are simply unpredictable. They did begin, however, trying to prepare themselves to be completely surprised again.

And Meri was still wondering what Wut had meant when, earlier, he had said they might be _lucky_.

"I wonder what _being_ _lucky_ means _in The Lands?"_ she thought.

# Chapter XIV:

_A BORDER LIKE AMELIA_

The border they came out onto--through some trees--was an especially long and wide one going from left to right. The land straight ahead of them, on the other side, was therefore actually hard to see from this side.

They began walking and bouncing directly across it.

Since it was such a large border, with hardly a tree on it anywhere, and since nothing at all was happening, Wut drifted back into his many thoughts about The Lands again. Unconsciously, he tilted his head forward, so that he was actually bouncing at a slight angle, reminding Meri of his first appearance in The Autumnforest.

He _seemed_ to be looking at the grass in front of him--but he wasn't. He was thinking many thoughts.

The grass that he _wasn't_ looking at was light green and attractive--like the grass in many of The Lands. The long border was pleasant with it, but there was nothing else in any direction, up or down.

Jethro began to have a certain feeling that he often had on the borders between lands. He began to be _curious_ about what might be happening in _any_ of the nearby lands, and especially, in _the_ land that he happened to be facing! Soon he was expressing that curiosity by running across the border. He was thinking the others were coming along right behind him.

But they weren't. Meri and the Tackling Dummy were well aware of Jethro's unpredictable behavior, and they were amused when he left although a little disappointed. They even understood--as much as anyone can understand Jethro! _They_ were curious and eager about the land over there, too!

But they knew _Wut_ was their guide to The Land of Pink Windmills. _Jethro_ , they had realized by this time, was simply--and loveably--erratic!

They were amazed that this border was so wide.

They weren't too disappointed, though, because they expected to follow Jethro right across the border and to see him again in several minutes.

However, about halfway across, Wut suddenly, even though he was still thinking, still leaning forward at an angle, _abruptly_ turned _left_ and began bouncing straight down the _middle_ of the especially large border!

They weren't even going to the land that Jethro had been unable to resist!

Meri and the Tackling Dummy looked that way. The huge Buffalo Unicorn could not be seen. He was gone again. So they began looking forward to his return and to what he would say about what he had found.

Looking straight down the middle of the border, and casually to either side, Meri suddenly--noticeably--became more attentive. Soon the border they were walking on had her full attention!

The long border had slowly--and then quickly-- become strangely familiar! All at once she understood.

It looked surprisingly like Virginia!

In fact, it looked unbelievably like Amelia County!

The grass--though thick--was short in a way that she had _so frequently_ seen in the many fields at home. The shrubs and small trees over to her left, and a few taller trees there, looked exactly like those dividing fields in Virginia. There was even a tree standing by itself in the border that she thought she had seen once before! Single trees standing by themselves in the middles of fields in Amelia County were very familiar to her.

She had seen so many!

For a few moments, this border looked so oddly like Virginia that Meri began to wonder if she were still there!

"This is weird," she thought.

She began to think hard, seriously questioning if her sudden and intense illness, and then her worldcrashing disappointment, had made her a little off-balance--and she was just _imagining_ she was in The Lands!

"But no, no, that couldn't be," she thought, glancing nervously at the line of trees on her left, "because if I were still ill, Aunt Am wouldn't have left me to go to the library at Longwood University, and I saw her there in The Land of Other Places. _I saw her at the library!_ If I were still ill, she would have stayed home to take care of me. She wouldn't have gone."

She knew this wasn't definite proof. But she also knew she really didn't need any. All of this was just too complicated and fit together too perfectly to be _not real_.

"Yes, I'm definitely in The Lands," she decided, looking around again. "And this just happens to look like Virginia."

That impression, slightly confusing at first, then became pleasing. She was glad to be reminded of Amelia right here in The Lands--so unexpectedly and so accurately!

Meri, Wut, and the Tackling Dummy proceeded thoughtfully straight down the middle of the extensive border like Amelia, not seeing any specific land clearly on either side, when something high up in the in the air, to their right, caught the attention of all three of them at the same time. It was totally unexpected.

Far above the long border, to their right, a beautiful light aquamarine paper airplane, sailing along, had just broken into the upper edge of their vision.

At first they just vaguely perceived a movement up there. When they unconsciously looked, however, automatically turning their heads, they realized what it was. It sailed clearly into view!

An elegantly made, startlingly perfect aquamarine paper airplane, with a white translucence sending light throughout its wings and fuselage with six-letter words delicately inscribed into its paper, was now fully in sight.

It turned to the left, cruising straight toward the center of the meadow ahead of them. Before it got there, however, falling at a beautiful angle, it turned again and came back toward them.

The three of them watched with fascination, slowing themselves as it sped up.

It was aimed directly at Meri!

"Duck!" yelled Wut.

The plane however brushed the top of her head--she could feel it gliding across her light brown hair!

It was a beautiful little paper airplane, they--except Meri--could all tell as it went by!

Then all three of them looked back to follow its flight, and almost fell over with surprise!

For _close_ behind them-- _only about 10 steps_ _behind, in fact! --_was a crowd of yarn dummies _walking and looking directly at them with intense eyes of many colors!_

They had been able to approach so silently because they were all made of yarn--and because each of the three travelers had been thinking important thoughts at the time.

" _The croapfs!!"_ cried Wut. He was upset that they were already so close!

"They're probably the same crowd of croapfs I saw walking off, in my vision in the air in The Land of Other Places!" He was sure of it!

He had unconsciously bounced higher without meaning to--he always did so when he became excited--and he tried hard to hurry down again to his normal bouncing height--with Meri and the Tackling Dummy!

But he was too excited to do it well. He kept going higher again. It was frustrating!

Because something had gone wrong with the croapfs, and because of what he had been hearing about their recent behavior, he knew they might even be dangerous. So he desperately needed to be down there with his friends! There was no telling what the croapfs might do to them!

By a mighty effort of will power, he _forced_ himself to descend.

"Come on!" he cried, glancing back intently at the same time. He was dismayed at how close the normally friendly croapfs already were--close enough to reach out and touch them!

He himself immediately bounced forward at a _much_ faster speed. His face and his green eyes, out in the air on either side of his face, were both tense and worried. He had now seen, in person instead of in a vision in the air, the faces of the croapfs! He had never seen their eyes of many colors, usually so attractive, look that way before!

He was distressed. Because he regularly visited all of the lands in The Lands, he knew the croapfs especially well. They had always been unusually pleasant. It was totally unlike them to follow anyone in a threatening way. This was new! Something was definitely _wrong_ with their land!

He was intensely worried about Meri and the Tackling Dummy. They were _visitors_ to The Lands--an unheard of idea, because The Lands had never had visitors before! And this was happening during _the first day of their visit!_

What were they going to think about The Lands?! Additionally, since he himself had agreed to take them to The Land of Pink Windmills, he felt responsible!

He had another feeling that was entirely new to him. He didn't know a lot about flesh and blood dummies, since Meri was the first one he had ever seen, but he was smart enough to know that Meri could get hurt in _different way_ s than dummies made of yarn or stuffed with cotton. How could he prevent that from happening? How would he help her if it _did_ happen?

Glancing over at her, he became upset at the look of alarm on the girl's face.

He could have gotten away easily himself, with absolutely no trouble at all. Hardly anyone knew how high and how fast he could bounce _when he wanted to!_

Although he bounced faster, he maintained only a moderate speed, which he thought was enough for the moment. The Tackling Dummy and Meri were easily able to match it as all three continued down the middle of the long border.

The croapfs, however, also sped up. They didn't look violent yet, but there was a wild intensity in their eyes fixed on the three they were following.

Their eyes were many different colors!

There was a lot of white showing around their irises. And for some reason, their faces didn't look completely coordinated. It was probably because of their disturbing concentration. They didn't look down at the border or anywhere else. They just looked at them!

What were they thinking?

They were mostly light turquoise dummies, made of yarn, with some additional yellow, black, and pink. Each croapf's hair was a different color from his or her eyes, giving them an even wilder, although in many cases an attractive, appearance.

Their yarn was actually hard to see for an unexpected but interesting reason. Intriguingly designed paper airplanes were attached and hanging down by thin threads all over each one of them--to their chests, arms, legs, and, unseen by the three travelers, even their backs! Oddly, a few were weirdly dangling around their heads!

As the croapfs walked, the beautiful colorful paper planes moved around in the air spontaneously, adding little spots of beauty themselves and revealing yarn designs beneath as the croapfs walked purposefully toward them.

"They love paper airplanes more than anything," Wut explained as Meri and the Tackling Dummy kept looking back in surprise and bewilderment at the sight. "I'll have to tell you more later. As for right now, I really don't think they'll hurt us--but obviously it's not clear _what_ they might do, since something has gone wrong with them. So I think it would be better if we just went on ahead. Come on."

With an energetic bounce, he surged forward again, bouncing even faster.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy, surprised at his easy speed, increased theirs again. However, Meri was already breathing harder by this time. For unlike the others, she was made of flesh and blood.

She smiled at Wut's simple and unusual expression, "I think it would be better if we just went on ahead." Beginning to struggle, she wished it were as easy as he made it sound!

Surprisingly, with this addition to their speed, soon the croapfs were comfortably behind them. They themselves didn't speed up this time. The distance back to them even steadily increased. It wasn't long before they were just an indistinct patch of moving color far behind them.

Meri with relief began to think that everything was going to be all right. After several minutes, the three of them didn't even bother to look back as much anymore.

They even slowed down and began to start noticing the scenery along the right side of the border, where they were hoping Jethro might appear soon. It was time for him to come back, they thought, and they missed him. Slowly, they began forgetting about the croapfs.

Then an exquisite beige and light yellow paper airplane went by on their left, on Meri's side. And another one, dark cranberry and silver, with pretty little paper airplanes of different colors painted in a line along its fuselage, went by the Tackling Dummy's left forehead. He was on the right. Its right wing grazed the canvas of his temple.

"What?" he started to ask, startled, when it touched the side of his head without warning.

"I'm here," said Wut.

The planes ascended, curved around in the air ahead and came back above them again, over their heads, too high to reach this time. They were pleasant to look at. Wut could have bounced up and snatched either out of the sky if he had wanted to, but he didn't. He was too frustrated at this evidence that the croapfs were back behind them again! He had thought that problem solved and over with!

Meri and Wut and the Tackling Dummy each looked back with curiosity. Yes, the croapfs were there again--this time _only 8 feet away!_ The whites of their eyes were especially vivid around the beautiful colors of their eyesight that was focused on them!

What did they want?

Made of yarn and able to walk swiftly and silently, they had come up behind them again, completely unnoticed!

If it had been a race with just Wut, they would never have been able to catch him.

The Tackling Dummy could run surprisingly fast, too, in spite of his battered canvas. So far, it seemed his speed had only been slightly impaired. The cotton he had added in The Land of Fields unquestionably was helping!

_The problem was Meri_. She wasn't stuffed with cotton or made of yarn. She was a flesh and blood dummy. Her limits were far different. She could only run so far before she had to stop.

In addition, not only was she out of breath, only the day before she had been pitifully sick and surprisingly weak--for her!

How could she outlast the croapfs?

The croapfs were made of yarn--and yarn doesn't get tired.

And then it happened. Meri's legs, while trying valiantly to continue obeying her commands, couldn't any longer. They were lucky they already hadn't stumbled, because the border was sometimes uneven.

Wut noticed immediately the change in Meri's speed. Expecting it, he was frantic. He doubted that the croapfs--especially now that something had gone wrong with them--had noticed that Meri was a real flesh and blood dummy. They probably had no idea that she could be harmed much more easily--and much more seriously!--than a normal dummy. He had to act!

Luckily, he was still able to think clearly. His job was to bounce around to all The Lands and help them when they were in trouble.

He didn't want to upset Meri any more than she already was. So, forcing himself to suddenly bounce more slowly and, at the same time, to lean over--two feats that were difficult for him because of his structure--he whispered in Meri's ear in an especially pleasant and encouraging voice, "My dear, I was wondering--is it at all possible for you to run any faster?"

# Chapter XV:

_THE BEAUTIFUL PAPERSTORM_

Meri couldn't help but smile at the lighthearted manner he had chosen in that stressful situation. He was, undoubtedly, a funny and interesting question mark!

"I'm sorry," she sincerely apologized, also whispering. "My legs--they just can't run any farther. I don't understand why they're running now!"

She didn't know if, because of the way he himself moved, he could understand the almost unbearable pain and fatigue now in her legs--and that she was slowly losing control over them.

The croapfs by this time were _immediately_ behind them. The one behind Meri could have reached out and tapped her on the shoulder.

By a sheer act of will only, Meri _forced_ herself to run a little faster--she didn't know how! She was breathing very hard. Both Wut and the Tackling Dummy were troubled by hearing her obvious struggle to breathe.

The Tackling Dummy sped up, too, because he refused to be anywhere but by her side.

"I wish I could move that easily," the good-natured girl said wistfully, watching the smoothness and effortlessness of Wut's motion.

However, noticing the expressions on Wut's face--which Wut failed to recognize were there--as he kept glancing back, Meri became serious again. She had been amazed at first by the sight of the croapfs. But when they had been able to leave them behind so easily, simply by going a little faster, she had been able to forget all about them.

That had, unquestionably, been a mistake!

Now, they were back again, and this time there was a major difference! She could see that Wut himself was stunned by what was happening. She thought she realized what he was thinking. It was surprising, but she thought she did! She thought he had suddenly realized the answer to the question, _"What do the croapfs want?_ "

It was: _They don't know themselves what they want!_

And that was what worried her. Because if the croapfs didn't know themselves what they wanted, who could tell what was going to happen? What they might do! They were out of control!

The shocked stunned look on Wut's face showed that he thought so too.

Bouncing along at that particular moment, he was also thinking the simplest of thoughts--with dismay. It was,

" _I certainly didn't expect this."_

He knew that ordinarily he was held in high esteem by the croapfs. They were good friends of his. So if _he_ were being chased, and if the croapfs looked as wild in their eyes as they did, he had to admit that Meri and the Tackling Dummy could be in serious danger!

This was a hard admission, because danger from other dummies was something that was quite rare in The Lands!

It was the worst possible thing!

The Tackling Dummy had been thinking all this while, too.

"What's going on?" he asked Wut, glancing over at him with his canvas eyes.

Clearly, it was a very basic question, and needed to be, because the Tackling Dummy had only been in The Lands for a couple of hours. He didn't have any knowledge, any background, of his own to call upon.

Bouncing along, Wut was--at the same time--looking back and forth between the croapfs and Meri and the Tackling Dummy. It took a lot of agility to bounce _forward_ , to look _backward, and to talk sideways!_

"I'm bewildered and astounded, as is every other dummy in The Lands that I've talked to about this!" the concerned question mark answered the Tackling Dummy, tilting toward each of his two friends while he bounced forward. "I don't think the croapfs know themselves _what's going on."_ His face continued to darken with his thoughts, and he didn't say anything else for the moment. He did continue to look back, however, while he bounced forward.

Running, the Tackling Dummy had enough presence of mind to like the vocabulary Wut had chosen. "Bewildered and astounded," he repeated to himself. "It has a nice running rhythm," he realized. He then began to let his legs run according to that rhythm:

bewildered and astounded   bewildered and astounded

bewildered and astounded   bewildered and astounded.

He felt sorry for Wut and for The Lands. He even felt sorry for the croapfs!

What he _wasn't_ thinking about _yet_ was that, before all of this was over, _he might have to feel sorry for himself too!_

Wut normally spoke in soft tones. But now there was a frustration in them that hadn't been there before.

He looked back at the croapfs again. They were even closer to Meri and the Tackling Dummy--if that was possible! They were only _inches_ behind now!

As Wut glanced back, however, he had to swerve his head again to miss a light yellow and silver paper airplane sailing straight toward his face.

He dodged. It sped by and landed on the grass ahead.

Glancing toward his two friends again, Wut began to add to what he had just been saying.

"I had thought that we _might_ see some croapfs on the way, but I was hoping we'd be lucky and wouldn't. I was _especially_ hoping that none would notice _us_. You now know why. I'm afraid it--the problem with the croapfs--might even be worse than I had thought." He was slowly preparing Meri and the Tackling Dummy to hear an idea that they unfortunately needed to hear-- _that they might be harmed_! His next words got even closer. But obviously it was very hard for him to say something like that.

"I already told you that the croapfs are some of the _friendliest_ dummies in The Lands," he continued, looking back again while bouncing forward, with an ability that made Meri marvel. "And that's saying a lot, because the dummies in The Lands are _almost_ _all_ wonderfully friendly!

"Well, the croapfs are also among the most-- _perhaps_ _they are the most_ -- _constructive_ dummies in The Lands. They're _creative_! Surprisingly! They'd _astonish_ you! That's one reason that this situation--that we're in now--has begun to concern me. Because of their special creativity--and because something has obviously gone wrong with them--they may cause a lot of _unexpected_ harm! You can see how inventive they are just by looking at their paper airplanes!"

Meri and the Tackling Dummy both nodded their heads as well as they could while running. They had noticed _the inventiveness_ right away! They _both_ liked the paper airplanes they had seen flying around. But they didn't yet understand Wut's roundabout way of trying to prepare them for possible _astonishing_ _violence_.

_They hadn't gotten that message yet!_

This conversation, in the midst of what seemed to be a crisis, had gradually become so interesting that they all unconsciously slowed down a tiny bit because of it. There was, of course, the other _obvious_ reason for the loss of speed: Meri's growing fatigue.

The result was that the croapfs suddenly bumped against Meri's and the Tackling Dummy's backs. These two friends were no longer willing to look backward! _They didn't want to see what was right there!_

Meri shivered as croapf fingers touched her on the back, and she jetted forward, in spite of her failing muscles. She had felt them right through her coral colored top--in the middle of her back and on her right shoulder! The Tackling Dummy winced forward when he also felt a croapf touch and begin to pull at the weak canvas on his back.

"Is he trying to tear me even more?!" he wondered with alarm.

Meri and the Tackling Dummy had already sped up again--somehow. "We've got to go even faster!" Wut pronounced anyway, stressfully looking back. He had seen the croapf hand on Meri's shoulder.

"Suppose these croapfs damage the first and only flesh and blood dummy ever to be in The Lands?" he imagined, the pain of the image showing on his face. He didn't want that for The Lands!

Or for his friend!

"And suppose they damage, _even more_ than he already is, this other wonderful dummy and now my friend, the Tackling Dummy? He obviously needs _the help of the dummies in The Lands!_ He can't stand to be made even worse by them! _"_

He wouldn't let _either_ happen, if he could help it!

But, even though he had a lot of confidence in The Lands, he hadn't yet thought of a way out of the situation!

Wut never got tired himself, and the dummies in The Lands don't get tired. Although he had identified Meri as a flesh and blood dummy, he didn't truly understand what was happening to her. _He wasn't a flesh and blood dummy! There was no way any longer she could help herself!_

Her weak legs were wobbling. They were beginning to fail to obey her. She hadn't known how painful they could be. Instead of going faster, she had begun to worry about simply staying on her feet. At the moment she was agonizing about achieving just that simple goal! She had a vision in her mind of suddenly coasting, in slow motion, head first, toward the grass, where she could rest peacefully! It seemed so slow and beautiful and desirable in her mind. And so terrifying!

Because the croapfs would be right there with her!

The Tackling Dummy was also beginning to be in trouble. He could run faster than Meri, but he had noticed that his continuous motion was causing him to lose an alarming quantity of cotton out of the endless holes in his canvas. It was working out! It especially troubled him to be losing his new cotton from The Land of Fields. When he glanced down, he even noticed, alarmingly, that many of his rips and tears were slowly enlarging as he vigorously dashed his legs and feet forward--and swung his arms in the same rhythm. He was gallantly staying with Meri--to protect her if he needed to--but running that fast, in his splitting canvas, was _steadily damaging him_! He, Meri, and Wut could even _hear_ the little ripping sounds as he sped down the border that looks like Amelia! He was coming apart!

The croapfs were very good at whatever they did, and one of their most obvious skills was their ability to walk in unison. At the moment, it was undeniable! But then, strangely--just when they appeared to reach Meri again after she and the Tackling Dummy had sped up--without explanation they suddenly fell back a safe distance! One more time!

Neither Wut nor Meri nor the Tackling Dummy understood why.

_There was no understanding the croapfs --that was part of the problem!_

They had their own way of doing things. But it was a genuine relief to Meri. She was able to get some of her breath back and to slow down just a little.

And by slowing just that little bit, she was able to substantially decrease the misery in her legs.

Just that little change made a _big_ difference!

The Tackling Dummy and Meri hadn't glanced backward nearly as much as Wut. But now they each took a long one.

They both had been puzzled and mystified all of this time by the fact that there hadn't been a single sound from even one of the croapfs behind them! Their pursuers hadn't said a word or made any other sound--nothing! But now, as Meri and the Tackling Dummy glanced back more intently, the silence that had been following them seemed to come crashing forward toward them! It came crashing forward as part of the weirdness of the entire situation!! The croapfs were following them absolutely silently!

It was bafflingly odd!

And then it got even odder.

For now the three ahead understood exactly why the croapfs had dropped back. At that very moment a paperstorm began, as the croapfs began to throw the rest of their paper airplanes skillfully into the air.

Beginning with a whole cloud of them!

They filled the air of the long border that looked like Amelia with dizzying color and linear motion!

At first the colored paper airplanes flew beside them, on both sides, over their shoulders, between their knees, near their ankles--everywhere!

It was weird!

They boldly flew right through the curves in Wut's question mark body!

It was another unbelievable sight in the air of The Lands!

The beautiful paperstorm made running and bouncing much more difficult for the three of them again. Now Meri had to try to miss _stepping on_ the attractive paper planes that landed and stayed on the grass in front of her. She hated to crush those exquisite planes! She also knew she might slip up completely if she put her foot down the wrong way on one--and it slid on the grass!

She had to be much more careful!

The same was true of the Tackling Dummy. He appreciated the colors and designs of the intriguing flying paper gliders so much that he definitely didn't want to destroy any of their forms! But he also knew that intentionally trying to miss them slowed them both down. He realized too that he also might slip up if he stepped on one the wrong way.

Like Meri, he _too_ had to avoid that disaster!

Wut was having related problems. He couldn't steer as well, or go as high either, when he landed in the middle of all the crazily wonderful paper airplanes!

The zany fliers, shooting by everywhere, accumulated in little hills on the grass in front of them!

The three of them kept losing tiny bits of time, distracted by the excellence of the colorful paperstorm all around--and the now dangerous colored grass!

This extra time was affecting the croapfs too. Even though they weren't completely themselves anymore, they were slowly beginning to realize there was something unusual and very different about the girl dummy! Yes! She wasn't like the other dummies in The Lands--she strangely wasn't either made of yarn or stuffed with cotton!

She wasn't made of anything they had ever seen before!

And that made them _curious_. Even though something was wrong with them! Even though they weren't themselves!

They launched more paper airplanes. The beautiful paperstorm increased! It became _even harder_ for Meri to miss them on the grass! Something even more important was happening, however. Meri's legs were now almost impossible to lift. She was breathing with desperation, trying to get enough air, _and not succeeding._

Her speed began to decrease again.

The Tackling Dummy, right beside Meri, realized with great distress what was happening to his friend. He was a cotton-filled dummy, and he had a lot to learn about flesh and blood dummies getting tired. He really didn't know what it was like to be tired--from the _inside_ , that is. But he had seen a lot of fatigue on the Practice Field, and he recognized it. In all of the practices he had ever seen, _he had never seen anyone look as fatigued_ as Meri did now from all of her running!

Her coordination was gone. As her legs were feeling heavier and more lifeless, her chest was shooting with pain. She was gasping desperately for more air. Her throat was making little noises never heard before in The Lands. Her eyes were stinging. Even if she could still see clearly--and she couldn't--she didn't have the strength any longer to look backward.

"Please run faster!" Meri urged the Tackling Dummy, to save himself. She knew how close the croapfs were again, and she was quite worried about his canvas. A new kind of pain burned in her chest as she forced the words out, because she didn't really have the air to say them.

"Try to go just a little farther, meridian!" he replied supportively, in a voice that showed how much he cared about her. "I'm right here with you. And I'm not running any faster than you!" It never occurred to him to leave her behind to save himself!

His use of her special name gave her a new burst of energy, and they pulled ahead again. But the croapfs also automatically added some speed, and kept right up. They threw even more paper airplanes, which had been hanging all over their colorful yarn by tiny threads.

The air was thick with them, each one a marvelous construction.

But because of Meri's crisis, neither Meri nor the Tackling Dummy tried to look at even one! Thoughts flashed through Meri's mind of her parents on the _USS Steady_. Struggling to stay on her feet, she pictured the white ship moving peacefully and steadily across the magnificence of the ocean with an unforgettable sky off to the side! She imagined her parents in the middle of this beauty. They had no idea how stormy her life was at that moment! They never would have imagined a paperstorm!

Her uncontrolled thoughts went to her Aunt Amelia. She wondered what her aunt was doing when she herself was in such turmoil? Probably arriving home, or just about to.

Scattered images also crossed her mind of her first meeting and conversations with the Tackling Dummy and their remarkable arrival in The Lands.

Wut was looking back worriedly at Meri. He could easily have escaped, had he been by himself, because his unique form and structure permitted surprising mobility. In the present situation, though, he couldn't--and wouldn't.

He had gotten a little ahead. Looking back at Meri's face, which was unquestionably haggard and fatigued, and at that of the Tackling Dummy, full of despair for Meri, he started skidding to try to drop back beside them. Skillfully--it was lucky that he didn't lose his balance, he was going so fast, and the paper airplanes were everywhere!--he succeeded.

Beside them again, he said something unexpected and remarkable in its simplicity. He said simply to both of his friends, "Don't give up. I always have faith in The Lands, and you can too. Don't give up while it's not necessary. There are always many surprises in The Lands. Something might happen. Let's just see, as long as we can. That would be the best thing to do."

He had offered the best encouragement he could think of--but it didn't seem to be appropriate to Meri and the Tackling Dummy. There seemed to be little hope. No surprise was in sight. It looked like Meri definitely was going to be overtaken by the croapfs, and that was that. Apparently, nothing, _nothing_ , could possibly be done to prevent it! But at least she could put it off! That part of Wut's advice was unquestionable! And so she kept right on running, when there was nothing left inside her to run on but determination and spirit!

A feeling of nausea suddenly bolted in Meri's stomach. But she didn't throw up!

The Tackling Dummy continued every second to look over at his young friend with anxiety and sympathy, as she ran less and less efficiently and suffered more and more. Athletes usually don't have to keep _on_ and _on_ and _on_ like this, he knew! She stumbled awkwardly over the paper airplanes on the grass, righting herself at the last moment when it looked like she was falling.

Airplanes battered the backs of all three of them. Some stuck in the holes in the Tackling Dummy's canvas, and stayed there. Others remained under Meri's arms or in her hair until they finally floated away. Some even bunched up on either side of her neck and collected there before she purposely knocked them away. Every now and then one even landed on her head. It looked like the croapfs were intentionally teasing and playing with her.

But what would happen to her when she fell? Because clearly, she was going to!!! What would the croapfs actually do?

Regrettably, it seemed Meri and the Tackling Dummy and Wut were going to have to find out the hard way!

Especially Meri!

Because neither Wut nor the Tackling Dummy had thought yet of anything to do to help her. And Jethro had left!

Finally, the Tackling Dummy realized that _Meri was just about to fall!_

Something had to be done! NOW!

His mind was desperate. He searched all through it. He couldn't think of anything.

He was _too_ desperate!

And then, without believing that he was going to be able to, _he got an idea._

# Chapter XVI:

_THE HELP BUTTON_

There WAS something that he knew how to do!

Although he had never actually done it _himself_ before. But he had seen it done countless times. And, many more times than he could remember, _it had even been done to him!_

A quick smile appeared on his face. It _had_ to be quick, because Meri was beginning to stagger and flounder.

Glancing back, the Tackling Dummy carefully judged his distance.

Suddenly he turned on his heel, dropped back, and threw an absolutely beautiful cross-body block right across the middle of the front line of the surprised croapfs!

He knocked the front line of croapfs completely down, and the back ones tripped over the front ones! They fell down and around in all directions, rolling and landing in an embarrassing scatter. It was hard for that many piled-up croapfs to move, especially as they struggled against each other to get up!

For a few restful moments, there was chaos behind Meri!

Regrettably, the Tackling Dummy was at the bottom of it.

Because of the Tackling Dummy's brave action, Meri and Wut immediately were able to gain a considerable distance again on the croapfs, and Meri was able to slow down temporarily, rest her muscles, and gasp some of her breath back. The relief was wonderful! In just several seconds she felt stronger and capable of running further.

But her heart was torn in two, as, forcing herself fearfully to look back, she observed the croapfs throwing the Tackling Dummy high into the air. They let him come crashing down to the ground on his _head_.

Then they tossed him back up into the air again and threw cross-body blocks on _him_ at just the instant gravity returned him to their level.

Then, letting him remain standing on the grass, they cross-body-blocked him in all directions _again_ , one after another, never stopping, until Meri couldn't stand it any longer!

The croapfs weren't finished. They threw him up even higher into the air than before, letting him come down on his head again.

Time after time, looking back, Meri and Wut saw _huge_ puffs of cotton, not always white, burst forth from the many holes in the Tackling Dummy's worn-out canvas. There were simply too many croapfs for the Tackling Dummy to do anything to protect himself!

Meri was in agony.

_Briefly she paused_ , and yelled, "STOP!" as loudly as she could back down the border. The croapfs did stop, looked at her briefly from a distance, and then continued what they were doing to the Tackling Dummy.

Then, purposefully, they began coming toward _her!_

Some croapfs were left behind, and these quickly formed themselves into a high PRYAMID, passed the Tackling Dummy up, and the one on top then dropped him down to the border on his head again.

They knew how to do things.

Continuing to struggle painfully for breath, and dying with frustration because of what was happening to her friend, Meri _knew_ she had to go on. She knew _she_ couldn't stand to be dropped on her head, even once! No, she was flesh and blood! She wasn't stuffed with cotton!

The croapfs might not understand the importance of the difference!

They might not care!

Running hard again, Meri's legs quickly became as painful as before, and, too soon, she began to have to fight once again for _every_ breath. The gasping noises she was making to breathe sounded quite strange!

She was simply worn out.

And it seemed like the croapfs arrived right behind her again without that much effort! _It wasn't fair!_ Especially after all the Tackling Dummy had sacrificed, to give her some more time!

The paper airplanes began sailing toward her again, striking her all over the back of her body, gliding past on the sides, and turning back around to meet her from the front! It seemed that a storm of the most beautiful colors and shapes was in the air! Battering her all over!

She began to almost trip over them again--even worse than before, because she wasn't picking up her feet as high any more. She just couldn't get them up, no matter how hard her mind willed them to lift her white tennis shoes and white socks above the grass!

And then, _it finally happened_.

Suddenly, having absolutely no energy left anywhere in her body, she tripped on an ordinary tuft of grass. It wasn't even that high at all.

And she went sprawling.

She didn't even trip over a paper airplane!

Wut wasn't made to stop fast--his momentum took him much farther on. It became clear at once that the croapfs would immediately surround the fallen, panting young girl--now lying stretched out and alone on the grass, against which her coral top made such a vivid contrast.

The pretty top, which Aunt Am had given her that very morning, was now marked with a huge grass stain on the right shoulder, where she had just fallen and tumbled over and over. Her right shoulder underneath the stain was throbbing sharply. But at that moment, she didn't feel it!

Meri opened her eyes in a colorful blurred daze. They came partly back into focus. She noticed Wut far to her right, looking small and trying as hard as he could to stop and turn around. Even from that distance, she could see a terrible look on his face as he glanced back. Weakly glancing around at the Tackling Dummy, who was now quite far behind her in the other direction, she could make out, from an even greater distance, that he was lying in a terribly disordered heap on the grass. She moaned aloud for him.

She expected, any moment, to be thrown up into the air herself, and to come down on her head.

But, surprisingly, all that was happening at that moment was that paper airplanes were landing all around her and _on_ her. There were _so_ many! The croapfs had stopped about ten feet away to fly and cover her with the remaining beautiful paper airplanes they had constructed.

When they didn't have any left, and Meri was completely covered by a small mountain of creativity, they began, slowly, to walk toward the fallen and helpless girl.

They had realized there was something different about her.

Under the airplanes, Meri's head was on the grass. In a kind of daze inside the pile, she could see the croapfs coming, through little openings.

She lifted her head slightly to see better. The planes above her rose and slid, and the croapfs stopped in place, watching. They could see part of her face.

When she lifted her head, it was then, and only then, that Meri happened to notice the grass just below her eyes, which were still almost level with the ground. The light was dim, but she could still see something unusual there. It suddenly caught her eye.

She blinked both of them to clear her thoughts.

Because she _certainly_ _couldn't_ have seen what she thought she had seen!

She looked down again. Yes, it was still there. _She had seen it!_ Situated among the blades of grass, almost like a flower, was a small button of periwinkle blue, square, with a white circle of words around it which stated,

"That is the oddest thing," she thought to herself.

Although her brain wasn't working that well, it was working well enough to know that she needed help!

She, and the Tackling Dummy, in fact, obviously _desperately_ needed help!

Meri really didn't expect much help from a simple button in the grass--that seemed to be nowhere important at all! In the middle of a border that looked like Amelia.

But _any help at all_ just then was needed!

Besides, she liked the idea of a button sitting unexpectedly there in the grass offering help. She didn't feel like laughing, but the idea was just funny!

The shadows of the croapfs fell on her, so, without wasting any more time thinking, she reached out, and with the index finger of her left hand, firmly pushed the help button.

It went right in.

At that same instant the croapfs arrived.

Seeing her trip and fall, and thinking they had plenty of time, they had stopped to launch _all_ of their remaining paper airplanes, at one time, toward her. Many were still in the air, still coasting around and down and landing on the pile.

Noticing the arriving shadows, Meri looked up again. Through the tiny openings in the pile of paper airplanes, she could see the croapfs above her, upside down.

But something had happened. Their hands, which obviously had been reaching out for her, had oddly stopped in the middle of the air!

Turning her head up to look through the cracks better, Meri realized that, instead of looking _down_ toward her, as she expected, _they_ _were staring at something behind her._

_Something_ was there that she couldn't see!

Two or three croapfs raised their hands up, as if to shield themselves!

"But from what?" Meri wondered, suddenly shaking the airplanes free so she could see. Her head emerged.

"What are they looking at so fearfully?" she wondered as her head came up into the light _._

It wasn't difficult at all to tell they were immensely afraid of whatever it was!

Before Meri could look around to find out for herself, something else truly strange happened.

Something mind-bogglingly strange!

Suddenly, the hair of each and every one of the croapfs turned a lovely light raspberry!

Meri loved colors. And this one was, _undoubtedly, one_ of the loveliest she had _ever_ seen! The entire border became quite charming.

"Ohhh," she said spontaneously, standing up out of the paper airplanes, when she saw the color their hair had turned.

"What happened?" she wondered.

She turned her head to see what the croapfs had seen.

# Chapter XVII:

_BOOMERANG BOWLING BALLS!_

Four spectacularly colored cotton-stuffed dummies were standing side by side at the edge of the border that looks like Amelia. Apparently they had stepped onto it from the land at the right.

Three were holding interesting round objects in their hands, mostly pink but with some black. Meri couldn't tell right away what they were.

The fourth wasn't holding anything. He looked like he had just let something go. Then Meri suddenly noticed something flying, spinning, through the air toward her _at great speed._

It _wasn 't_ an elegantly colored harmless paper airplane!

With a mild spinning sound, like a lot of lower case s's, it shot toward her _through the air_ , about four feet above the attractive grass of the border. Just like the paper airplanes, it was a beautiful sight.

Only it was completely different.

She could hardly believe her eyes _again_. For she realized it was a _bowling ball_ with light raspberry designs, streaking toward her through the air!

Spinning!

Meri looked back at the croapfs. They were standing quite still, mesmerized and shocked by the approaching ball. It was vivid. There was a blank look on their faces at the dazzling sight of it ploughing through the air at a magnificent speed. Their wild white eyes weren't wild anymore. They were just white.

The raspberry bowling ball, spinning rapidly, then arrived.

It happened quickly! The light raspberry sphere whizzed right beside Meri and into the front of the first croapf standing there.

His hands were still out in the air where they had stopped just after Meri had pushed that small button almost hidden in the grass.

Meri heard a deep sound like "Whoof!"

This was the first sound spoken by a croapf!

Striking him just below his chest, the ball carried him away, lifting him high up into the air. His head banged against the limb of a tree on the left side of the border.

Meri could see that his eyes were still open, looking down at the scene he had just left.

The ball then changed direction, moving away from under the croapf. Spinning, it turned and rose higher into the air.

The croapf dropped gently back down to the grass.

Up into the air in a beautiful arc the bowling ball continued, spinning magnificently, and from there descended in an accurate curve toward the dummy who had first thrown it.

Stopping almost at the last moment, it returned itself to the hands of its bowler, who reached out to take it with great familiarity, as if he had done so many times before.

And he had.

It was a boomerang bowling ball!

A new look came upon the faces of the rest of the croapfs. Their minds were working hard! They had witnessed what had just happened. And _they_ were the ones who were left! They turned again to look at the four cotton-stuffed dummies who arrived exactly when Meri had pressed the button inviting her to "Please push if help is needed."

By this time, two of the other dummies had already bowled, and the third was completing the precise throwing motion necessary to aim the ball correctly.

Three balls were in the air all at the same time, flashing toward the croapfs, who suddenly ran in all directions in complete disarray and chaos.

Meri noticed that the hair of every one of them, and everyone else on the border, was that same unexpected but pleasing color of light raspberry!

She now had a much greater appreciation of the small button in the grass and the help it had sent. A _much_ greater appreciation!

Between the scattering croapfs and her four new friends, she had the best view of anyone on the border. She sat down on the grass again to watch.

The bowling balls flew through the air above the grass---and even sometimes very high---instead of rolling across it as one might have expected!

Every now and then Meri lowered her head all the way to the grass---all the way down to the border that looks like Amelia, for safety. She remembered the sound and sight of that _first_ ball going by her! But she kept looking to make sure not to miss _any_ of the amazing spectacle now occurring _all_ around her.

She followed the spectacular routes of the surprisingly lovely bowling balls shooting everywhere. It was hard to see everything at once, however. They knocked down fleeing croapfs---sometimes many at the same time---all over the field---rising, after doing so, to return in unforgettable light raspberry arcs through the air to their owners.

Croapfs were falling, sprawling, skidding and tripping everywhere in their attempts at haste to get away from the continuing action of the balls!

They all had hair of that same beautiful color!

It was also funny to Meri that, for the first time since she, Wut, and the Tackling Dummy had discovered the croapfs behind them, there was noise! The croapfs were now yelling as loudly as they could, as they practically tried to fly themselves, to escape the streaking balls which were everywhere bowling them down.

Meri smiled, a little, at the justice of what was happening---remembering how these croapfs had so heartbreakingly mangled her good friend the Tackling Dummy.

Time and again the croapfs were dazzled and spun colorfully into space, sometimes upwards and sometimes to the sides, by the wildly spectacular balls. They punctuated the air of the border and decorated the grass! Meri noticed at the same time, however, that the croapfs weren't seriously damaged by the impacts. They got up and ran again, and some even crawled away on all fours as fast as possible---at different angles! They were funny sights when they did that!

The bowlers bowled their light raspberry boomerang bowling balls even longer distances as the croapfs neared the edges of the border in all directions. The raspberry curves in the air became greater and the arcs changed accordingly as the dramatic flights had to be adjusted by the bowlers to the continuing retreat of the croapfs.

The entire happening was a sight to see. Meri, still on the grass, tilted her head in various directions to follow the moving patterns. The raspberry spheres even traveled far behind her, toward where several croapfs were still holding the Tackling Dummy. She noticed that all of them---the croapfs and the Tackling Dummy---were standing motionless with awe as they watched.

These croapfs had more time to run and dodge when they tried to escape. They were able to avoid the spinning calamities aimed at them, but not without almost being hit in two cases. They were scared out of their wits, and all were rocked back just a little closer to reality, _at the mere idea of becoming targets!_

Eventually the only croapf in sight was the one bombarded by the first ball, still lying where he had been dropped. He was shaking his head in disbelief, while looking over at Meri and the group of four bowlers now walking across the field toward her.

Wut, who had bounced past Meri as she had tripped and fallen and sprawled to the location of the small button in the grass---had bounced over to the bowlers, apparently his friends, and was now bouncing back with them toward her, gesturing with his arms and hands as he talked. He seemed to know them very well.

The Tackling Dummy was also slowly walking up from the far end of the field. As he walked, he twisted his body to look at the many new tears in his canvas, from being thrown up into the air, coming down and landing on his head, from being cross-body blocked, and from being dropped on his head from the pyramid of croapfs. His concerned expression dissolved, however, as he approached his friends and the bowlers carrying the beautiful light raspberry bowling balls in their hands and arms.

His concern dissolved completely when he saw _that they were cotton -stuffed dummies, covered with canvas!_ Like him!

"Thank you," the worn and abused canvas dummy hurried to say meaningfully as they all, including himself, reached Meri at the same time. However he looked at Meri quite strangely, as though she were different in some way, and she wondered what was wrong. He seemed to be looking at her hair.

Rising, she was reminded that she had legs, because they were now so stiff and sore from all that running. And she also discovered, noticing the way she breathed, that she wasn't yet completely over her shortage of air from the almost unending run. Her chest did feel somewhat better, however. It was almost free from pain.

"Yes," she added, as she rose, "me too, oh thank you so much!" gratefully shaking the hand of each bowler even before she knew their names. One was actually a pretty dummy, not that much older than Meri, with yarn hair the same light raspberry color as the hair of the other bowlers. It came down in an enviable swirl around her ears and the back of her head.

Her canvas was a smooth and shining very light green, revealing also designs of a few pronounced silver, light maroon, and caramel bowling balls moving through clouds near a yellow sun. She smiled at Meri. They were all made of canvas and stuffed with cotton, as the Tackling Dummy had immediately noticed.

Only, their canvas was perfect.

When Meri had finished appreciatively shaking the hand of the fourth dummy, and released it, she went back to the first. He was a dummy with especially long light raspberry colored hair that was real hair, and kindly but spirited eyes.

She then gave each of them each a warm hug.

"Thank you," she said again, looking into the face of each one, remembering the crashing and battering she had just been saved from. It had not escaped her that if she had been thrown up into the air, to land on her head many times, like the Tackling Dummy, and cross-body blocked back and forth on the way down, as he had been, she could easily have been injured too seriously to think about. _Or worse!_ She doubted if _she_ even would have been able to stand up and walk again, like the Tackling Dummy!

The Tackling Dummy actually was standing straight and tall, holding himself proudly for the first time, even though he was in worse shape than he had ever been before. For he seemed to gain new confidence in the presence of such able dummies who were cotton-filled like himself. They were _just like him_ , except for their wonderful canvas, and he knew it. A mixture of mostly positive feelings was going through him as he admired the canvas of each and waited to get to know them better. Understandably, he also had moments of embarrassment, too, because of his own exterior.

"This is Picups," said Wut, bouncing lightly on the grass, first introducing his friend with the light raspberry hair and kindly spirited eyes. He seemed to be the leader. "And these are Cresco and Nox, and this is Trutina," he concluded, presenting the pretty dummy with the swirling hair last. "They are the dummies who come when The Help Button is pushed."

Meri quickly thought to herself, "So that button I found in the grass actually has a name! _The Help Button_." Once again she could hardly believe what she was finding out in _The Lands_!

You could tell by the look in Wut's eyes, while introducing his friends, that for the moment at least, he was feeling relaxed. The immediate problem with the croapfs was over. Meri was to learn this about Wut: Whenever one of the problems in The Lands gets solved, he temporarily feels better and gets to relax---but only for a little while.

"This is Meri," the bouncing question mark then said of the young girl, introducing her to his friends." "And this is the Tackling Dummy. They accidentally came here from a land not in The Lands. They're going to The Land of Pink Windmills, to try to get back with tickets from The Ticket Tree.

"Yes, she's really a flesh and blood dummy, not yarn or cotton-stuffed," he added, noticing how they were looking at her with wonder. "But she's like us." And he glanced over at her with pride and obvious friendship.

Meri, surprised and pleased by his final comment, felt a surge of warmth go all through her. She smiled at the four bowlers. Because of Wut's comment, she felt a kinship with them that she hadn't expected to feel. She also realized, and she wasn't surprised, that she was beginning to feel _much more comfortable_ in The Lands.

It was the Tackling Dummy's turn to shake all of their hands, and he, from the first, felt a comradeship between himself and the four bowlers, as they were all so similar---to him. It would be hard to say how much it meant to him. The bowlers good-naturedly shifted their light raspberry boomerang bowling balls to their left hands to take his hand, as they had done with Meri.

"Nice canvas," the Tackling Dummy said confidently to each one as he shook his or her hand, and, "nice throwing" he added each time, looking each new friend in the eyes before moving on. Watching, Meri felt happy for the Tackling Dummy, sensing how positively he was reacting to his feeling of kinship with these dummies.

"Glad to help," Picups, Cresco, Nox, and Trutina all said, almost at the same time. Then, looking at each other, they all grinned. "That's what we do."

Picups added, to Meri and the Tackling Dummy, "We Help, whenever The Help Button is pushed. We're from _The Land of The Help Button. "_

"And by the way, thanks for finding it and pushing it," Picups said to Meri. Observing her rising up from the grass when they had first arrived, he assumed that she had found it there and pushed it.

"You see," he continued to explain to Meri and the Tackling Dummy, because they weren't from The Lands, "it---The Help Button---isn't pushed very often. There's just never that much trouble in The Lands. They're usually very peaceful. Whenever it _is_ pushed, though, we come, do the best we can, and The Help Button then reappears somewhere else in The Lands---no one ever knows where. When anyone finds it by accident, without needing help, it just disappears and reappears again, somewhere in another land---oh yeah, unless we find it ourselves," he added, reminded by Trutina who had meaningfully tilted her head. "If _we_ find it---and we always try to find it ourselves---it just stays there, because it's _Help_ ful to us to know where it is. In case there _is_ an emergency.

"In fact," he went on, "we have a lot of fun looking for it, but it's almost impossible to find it again because there are so many lands, and it could be _anywhere_ in _any_ of them. Still, we look, and as I said, we have a lot of fun trying. We've actually found it _two_ times."

Meri didn't think two times was a lot, but Picups seemed proud of it. Then she remembered what he had said about there being so many lands. She wondered exactly how many there were.

"Don't look at me," said a deep voice behind the Tackling Dummy and Meri, who realized, without looking, that Jethro had finally returned. The bowlers and Wut had been watching him coming, behind Meri and the Tackling Dummy, but the conversation had been so lively that they hadn't had a chance to tell them yet.

Turning around, Meri almost jumped out of her skin and the Tackling Dummy almost jumped out of his canvas, for the second time at the sight of Jethro, because of the way he now looked.

_He was completely the color of light raspberry! ---_except for his white neatly spiraling unicorn and the short black horns on either side of his large head. And, of course, his large brown eyes.

When he had said _don 't look at him_, what he had clearly meant, of course, was, "Please have a look." All of his fur was exactly the same color as the hair of Picups, Trutina, Nox, and Cresco. He was a true blaze of color there in the green border where the chase had just occurred.

"What happened?" Meri incredulously asked the great Buffalo Unicorn, with sympathy, walking over quickly and putting her right hand onto his shoulder to console him. "What in the world?" she added, caressing the smooth thick fur on the side of his head. It was still beautiful, as it always was, with the small curl all through it, only now it was the eyeknocking color of light raspberry.

In fact he looked quite ludicrous---but in a very enjoyable way.

"What do you mean?" Jethro asked, unaware that anything was wrong, swinging his huge head with its unicorn and his large eyes to look around. He jumped at the sight of himself, although he had known what he would see. He and Picups were friends.

"Ain't I great?" he grinned, looking back around at everyone. He was a tremendous amount of color rising above his friends in the border that looks like Amelia.

"It's my fault," explained Picups, laughing mysteriously, remembering that Meri was new to The Lands. Clearly she didn't know yet. There was a definite tone of happy responsibility and enjoyed guilt in his voice.

Meri didn't understand. She looked at him wonderingly, and then back at the huge light raspberry Buffalo Unicorn.

How could he have gotten that way?

They all seemed to be grinning, obviously knowing something she didn't. Wut was bouncing softly up and down on the grass.

"You see," said Picups, shifting his bowling ball so that he held it in both arms, his eyes remaining lively, "wherever I am, everyone's hair is the same color as mine. I don't know why. There's just something about me."

Meri continued to look steadily at him, pondering his words and thinking about how strange everything is in The Lands. Yes, she _had_ noticed the hair of the croapfs turn _light raspberry_ at _exactly_ the moment the bowlers had first arrived!

As she thought about Picups' amazing effect on everyone, it helped her to remember that she had already had to remind herself more than once to try not to be surprised in The Lands.

But now she realized that she had been wasting her time--- _you can 't not be surprised by a surprise._ And with that thought, she began to understand The Lands just a little better.

As she continued to look at Picups, however, thinking about all of this---it finally hit her! Her eyes became quite wide!

Reaching up to her own hair with her left hand, which was suddenly trembling, she pulled it slowly down in front of her eyes.

Yes!

Her hair, too, was the color of light raspberry!

She was speechless. Her mouth dropped open. What she most wanted was a mirror! What in The Lands did she look like?

The others were laughing at her, watching.

"Yeah," said Nox, smiling at her. "Mine's supposed to be light yellow." But at the moment, in the sunshine, it was a beautiful light raspberry. His shining canvas was a perfect shade of caramel, with smaller areas of light silver, light green and light yellow. In a very small scene on his right side, just above his waist, a sparkling amethyst-colored boomerang bowling ball was flying above The Help Button in grass mixed with clover.

"Mine's light green," said Trutina.

"And mine's the prettiest," concluded Cresco confidently, looking at Meri and the Tackling Dummy, as Meri wondered what was going to be the real color of his hair. "An unbelievable light violet," he told them, "as I hope you will get to see sometime in the future." His canvas was of equal areas of black and white, with smaller areas here and there of yellow, green and mulberry. A white dove sat on a crisscrossed light cherry and peach boomerang bowling ball in one of the white squares on his back, as he revealed when he turned around slightly.

"He has remarkable canvas," thought Meri, trying to imagine him with his own color of hair, which, to be fair, she didn't think was really going to be prettier than the others. "But so do the others---have remarkable canvas," she admitted in her mind, looking from one to the other with fascination.

Picups' canvas was equal areas of light violet and light silver, with a yellow star just below his left shoulder in front. "How truly brilliant, with his hair that color," Meri accidentally said out loud from her thoughts, not meaning to. But Picups was pleased at hearing her remark. She was imitating her Aunt Amelia, whom she had heard so many times use the phrase, _How truly brilliant._ Usually about something in the sky.

"You all four have brilliant canvas," she then said, to do justice to the others too. There was a special shine to the canvas of each of them. "And I hope I get to see your real hair sometime," she said to Cresco, Nox and Trutina.

"May I?" she then unexpectedly asked of Picups, extending her left hand toward the beautiful light raspberry bowling ball he was holding.

Taking the quickly offered bowling ball, she placed her fingers in the holes on its smooth surface, carefully positioned her feet together, took several steps properly---or so she thought---and released the ball as correctly as she could out into space, as she had seen her four new friends do when they arrived.

She couldn't control it well, but the ball flew colorfully through the air toward one of the trees that lined the border on the left, suddenly scaring a croapf who, still hiding there, thought that the ball had been aimed at him. He ran into the land on the other side of the trees and disappeared into a woods, the whole time calling out wildly some thoughts and excited expressions of fear that couldn't be understood by any of the friends. There was a zaniness about the sudden and crazy character of it, however, and they all laughed.

Meri, Wut, and the Tackling Dummy realized that a laugh was exactly what they had all needed, after the stress and tension of the run. They now felt surprisingly light, ready to travel again. And as for Jethro, he was _always_ ready to cross The Lands.

The boomerang bowling ball rose up into the air again beyond the line of trees and returned in an eye-catching arc, descending delicately, gently, to Meri's outstretched hand. She handed the precious glistening object back to Picups, a little reluctantly, for she wished she could learn to throw it with skill, having witnessed the absolutely amazing accuracy of the four bowlers.

But there wasn't time. Since she had been in The Lands, she had been steadily leaving _wherever she was_ sooner than she wanted to. And she still was. A sharp disappointment stabbed her on the inside.

Remembering her Aunt Am, however, she was reminded that she had an excellent--- _actually an urgent_ ---reason to continue without delay on their trip across The Lands. Her Aunt Amelia was too good a person to be made to worry---any more than was absolutely necessary. Meri needed to get to The Tree of Ticket Leaves as soon as possible. However she was again beginning to doubt she would be able to see it that day---after what Picups had just said about there being _so many lands._

"Got to go!" Picups cried out cheerfully, cutting into Meri's thoughts. Swinging his bowling ball to the crook of his left arm, as he had done so many times before, he moved his arm out a little to carry it more comfortably. The others did the same. Meri noticed that the holes of all four balls were pointing to the front, and it occurred to her that that placement probably wasn't an accident.

"Doesn't it make you curious?" Picups continued, his eyes shining, cutting in on her thoughts again. "Isn't it fun to wonder exactly where The Help Button is now, somewhere out there in The Lands?" He swept his hand across the attractive vista of The Lands in the direction they were facing.

"Actually, it could be behind us as well, too," Meri thought, remembering the lands they had already crossed.

"And it could even be behind us too," said Picups, echoing her mind.

To Meri, The Lands were dumbfoundingly interesting to think about, regardless of where The Help Button was at that moment.

"Got to go look for it!" responded Picups, in an especially good mood, as the four of them started out in an impossible search, over _all_ of The Lands, for The Help Button. "Glad we could Help! Bye. Maybe we'll see you again somewhere else in The Lands," he added hopefully, as he started walking to the right of where the four original travelers needed to go, which was straight down the middle of the border.

"Bye!" said Cresco, Nox, and Trutina, gathering along with him, obviously looking forward also to their search for the small Helpful button that was now somewhere in the grass in one of The many Lands that they could see all around and in the distance. Meri, thinking about these new friends who were going to look for The Help Button, remembered her first sight of it in the grass, when she had fallen down.

"It was definitely _quite Helpful,_ " she thought, giving it the credit it deserved. Wistfully, she wished she knew where it now was. She actually felt a little possessive of it, since she had been the last one to find and push it. _And it had actually been an emergency!_

"Thank you again," she, Wut, the Tackling Dummy, and even Jethro called out to them as they departed.

With disappointment, the four still standing watched the four walking away, with their canvas shining. Then, "Wait here for a few minutes," they heard Picups say quietly to the others, continuing to walk on by himself.

When he was a short distance away, he disappeared by himself over a small hill in a land over there, vanishing from sight. At that moment the hair of Nox, Trutina, and Cresco suddenly came back to light yellow, light green, and light violet. Picups had wanted Meri and the Tackling Dummy to see their hair as it was in reality, without the effect that he always had on everyone.

Truly they were marvelous dummies---with hair their own individual colors, or even the same as Picups', it didn't matter. They walked on, and soon these three too, with a final wave from the top of the small hill, disappeared from sight.

In her mind, Meri pictured the four of them walking on together across the grass. She wondered where they were going next, and she wished, _oh so very much_ , that she knew what they were saying to each other just then. _Her curiosity was almost painful!_

She liked them so very much.

"I wonder if we'll ever get to see them again?" she almost whispered to the Tackling Dummy, who was still trying to catch one last glimpse of his four new friends.

But he couldn't.

"I don't know," he answered thoughtfully---and more than a little sadly. "But it would be a big help to me if we could. I'm so glad you found The Help Button."

Seeing them had meant quite a lot to him. It also made him think. And they had saved Meri!

He and Meri then looked into each other's eyes, and they both saw the same thing. Each realized that the other was beginning to love The Lands!

_And there were so many that they hadn 't seen yet!_

***

This story continues in

_The Land of Walking Through Cake_.

# About the Author

The exterior facts are that he grew up in Nottoway County, Virginia. Blackstone High School awarded him a diploma, the University of Virginia a B.A. in English, and the College of William and Mary a master's degree in Education. He has four incomparable children.

The interior facts are that he played football in high school, both offense and defense. The team won a regional title. The Tackling Dummy stepped forth from these experiences, desperately needing new canvas and a place to be.

Earning only about 8,000 dollars a year as a young English teacher, he was offered the position of Management Trainee by the C & P Telephone Company. The business office was a large room filled with service representatives at their desks. If the woman of the house called, the service representative first jotted "mrs cld" on her paperwork, to begin her notes. When the man of the house called, it was "mr cld." From these last five letters emerged The Mistercald River which flows through the middle of The Lands.

It's hard to get a good book published. So he understands how Jethro the Buffalo Unicorn feels when he is given A Prize for Trying, even though he didn't outrun the monkeybars which has the fastest speed across the surface of The Lands. But he tried as hard as he could. His prize was to be able to ride on top with Meri and the Tackling Dummy. Swinging below, Wut briefly demonstrated its magnificent speed. With this transportation, they reach The Land of The Yellow Trampoline much faster than they would have! The Land of Pink Windmills is just beyond.
