very vague idea as to the nature of a play; they had often dressed
up at home and pretended to be different things and people, and, of
course, he knew by heart the whole history of Dick Whittington, but
this knowledge and experience did not in the least force him to
realise that this performance of Mr. Denny's was simply a larger,
more developed "dressing up" and pretending. In some mysterious but
nevertheless direct fashion Dick Whittington was coming to
Polchester. It was just as he had heard for a long time of the
existence of Aunt Emily who lived in Manchester--and then one day
she appeared in a black bonnet and a shawl, and gave them wet kisses
and sixpence apiece.

Dick Whittington was coming, having perhaps heard that Polchester
was a very jolly place. So might come any day Jack of the Beanstalk,
Cinderella, Queen Victoria, and God.

There were questions meanwhile that he would like to ask, but he was
already a victim to that properly English fear of making a fool of
himself, so he asked nothing. He dragged out his toy village and
tried to make it a bridge in his imagination between the nursery and
Whittington's world. As the village opened a door from the nursery,
so might Whittington open a door from the village.

He considered Hamlet and wondered whether he knew anything about it.
Hamlet, in spite of his mongrel appearance, was a very clever dog.
He had his especial corners in the garden, the kitchen and the
nursery. He never misbehaved, was never in the way, and was able to
amuse himself for hours together. Although he attached himself quite
deliberately to Jeremy, he did this in no sentimental fashion, and
in his animosities towards the Jampot, Aunt Amy and the boy who