Vincent Starrett

“ Now I shall have to have a kitten, after all—and I suppose it will eat the bird, and scratch the doll, and tear up the books, and make me angry all day long.”
“No doubt,” said the wooden man, callously.
“But what does he mean by the races?” asked curious Alice.
“The reindeer races,” replied the wooden man. “They race annually on Saturn’s race track, and the winning Santa Claus is the boss Santa Claus of the year, and makes the rounds on Christmas eve. It doesn’t take a minute to get there, and probably by this time the races are over.”
“I hope our Santa Claus won, don’t you?” cried Alice. ”

“ She would give it back, and if the old man were so kind as to let her, she would creep back into the pages, and be happy there again forever....
“Poor child,” smiled the old bookman, when she had related her adventures, and cried over them. “Indeed he did need his thirteenth year. That is the age at which one best appreciates what reality is. Once learned, it is a lesson never to be forgotten. To the child of thirteen, all things are real if they are beautiful, and all things are unreal which are ugly. Anything is real that we want to be real. ”

“ Still watching the old man closely, she reached a hand into the pocket of her print dress and produced a few crumbs of cake, which she immediately ate. Almost instantly she began to grow, and, in a moment, from a tiny little mite of three or four inches, she had shot up into as tall a schoolgirl of thirteen as the proudest parent could wish. The ascent, indeed, was so rapid that before she quite realized what had happened, there was her head on a level with the shelf upon which, only an instant before, she had been standing ”

“ Alice began to cry with shame and humiliation.
“There, there,” cried the wooden man, ashamed of himself again. “I was only plaguing you. You rhyme beautifully—much better than I do. Now, let’s go and see P. D.”
“P. D.?” queried Alice, drying her tears. “Who is P. D.?”
“Why the Plausible Donkey, to be sure,” laughed [20] the wooden man. “You said you wanted to see some more animals.”
“Why don’t you call him D. P.?” asked Alice, after a moment, as they walked toward the menagerie.
“Why?” The wooden man seemed suspicious.
“Democratic Party,” giggled Alice ”

“ When my thirteenth birthday approached, I tore off an entire year of the calendar, and passed right [16] into my fourteenth year. Of course, there was a fearful row about it! But it’s really just like skipping a grade at school. If you’re smart enough you can do it. ”