Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Rogie who had a wonderful room filled with amazing toys. But out of all those toys, the one he loved the most was a teddy bear named Teddy. Teddy was no ordinary bear; he was special. His fur was as soft as down, his eyes shone like black beads, and his ears were perfectly made for listening to all the tiny sounds around him.
One midnight, when everyone was fast asleep, something mysterious happened. Teddy had just gotten into a cozy position on Rogie’s pillow when suddenly he felt a peculiar sensation. As if pulled by a hidden string, he found himself out of the window and floating into the starry sky. Below him lay his beloved house, imperceptibly small.
“I wonder where I’m off to,” he thought to himself.
He traveled swiftly through the night air, seeing incredible sights that no one else could. Shooting stars darted all over the sky, but Teddy, floating like a balloon, felt perfectly secure. At first, he thought he might be drifting towards the North Pole to meet Santa Claus, but instead, he soon found himself in the warm, tropical night air of afar.
“Dear me!” he exclaimed softly, “I’m going to be in a faraway land!”
He floated lower and lower, still being carried, until he found himself resting on the ground in a garden that looked very different from Rogue’s. Here were flowers of strange shapes and colors, and gigantic trees with trunks almost two grown-up people could circle with their arms.
“I wonder whose garden this is,” Teddy said to himself. “I wish someone would come and tell me, or just give me a little shake to let me know that I’m not in a dream.”
His wish was half granted, for all of a sudden a little girl with topless shoes came running out of a cute little brown house. Her dress was bright yellow with pink stripes, and her big red sunshade matched her big red shoes. Her hair was a tangled mass of little curls, made brighter by a dozen shining bows stuck in it.
“Well, that’s being ready for company!” Teddy thought as he looked at her. “If only Rogie were here with all his nice toys to play with her!”
In another moment, the little girl had rushed past Teddy, waving her red sunshade, and had plunged into a tangle of flowers on the other side of the garden. Teddy was so busy wondering why she had hurried off that he didn’t notice another little figure. This was also a little girl, but she was very different. She wore a beautiful silk dress made of the brightest colors and her brown hair was shiny and smooth, lying like a cap on her head. But what caught Teddy’s attention were the curious wings sprouting from her shoulders.
“Where’s Tinky?” asked the little girl anxiously, looking round and not catching sight of Teddy.
“That’s the name of the other little girl; Tinky and Tilly would make it Tinkle-Till,” Teddy thought. But before he could put his thoughts into words, Tilly rushed past him, her golden wings flapping. In another moment she too had disappeared among the flowers, but only for a minute, for as soon as Tinky saw that no harm had come to her, she came running out again.
“Have you seen Tilly?” she called in such a loud voice that it almost cracked Teddy’s ear, “and have you seen anything of Dewdrop?”
“Dewdrop! Who’s Dewdrop?” asked Tilly, who had now returned.
“Dewdrop’s my dog, who ran after you into the flowers,” said Tinky. “I thought he might have bitten your wings!”
“Dewdrop knows better than that,” said Tilly. “He knows he might hurt you. I never see from morning till night in this strange garden.”
“Dewdrop!” called Tinky. “Dewdrop! Here, Dewdrop!”
“Woof!” answered a deep voice from somewhere under-world.
“Woof!” Tilly answered pretty loudly. “If you were a nice little enough dog, we’d have a game. But I suppose you’ve got some dreadful flea on your body, haven’t you? So you don’t want to come out.”
But Tinky and Tilly flagged themselves in vines, with green leaves, and put them over their shoulders and legs. In another moment they were lost among tree trunks, with only a narrow strip of sky visible above them.
“Are you sure we have enough of our vines,” Tinky called just as loud as she could. “Yesterday I went out just a tiny little bit ten miles away, and they told me it couldn’t be longer now than three miles from here.”
“It feels to me as if we were growing larger instead of smaller,” Tilly answered. “But how dare you set out without telling me?”
“I dare to do a good many things without telling you,” Tinky answered scornfully, “and if you weren’t a fairy I never should tell you.”