Jane Gladys was amusing herself alone in the big sitting room upstairs. She was working on her first piece of embroidery - a sofa pillow for papa's birthday. The door opened and closed quietly. She raised her eyes and was astonished to find a strange man in the middle of the room.
He was short and fat, and was breathing heavily from climbing the stairs. He held a hat in one hand and underneath his other elbow was a good-sized book. He was dressed in a black suit that looked old and rather shabby.
"Excuse me," he said, while the child glazed at him surprise. "Are you Jane Gladys Brown?"
"Yes, sir," she answered.
"Very good, very good, indeed!" he remarked.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"I'm going to be frank with you. Your father has treated me in a terrible manner."
Jane Gladys got off the windowsill and pointed her small finger at the door.
"Leave this room 'meejitly!" she cried, her voice trembling. "My papa is the best man in the world."
"Allow me to explain. I called on him the other day and asked him to buy the 'Complete Works of Peter Smith,' and what do you suppose he did?"
She said nothing.
"He ordered me from his office, and had me put out of the building by the janitor! I decided to be revenged. So, I'm going to present you with this book," he said, taking it from under his arm. Then he sat down, drew a fountain pen from his pocket and wrote her name in it.
After handing the book to her, he walked to the door, gave her a bow and left the room.
The child sat down in the window and glanced at the book. It had a red and yellow cover and the word 'Thingamajigs' was written across the front cover in big letters.
Then she opened it, curiously, and saw her name written in black letters upon the first white page.
She turned a page, and she had scarcely noted that it contained the picture of a monkey when the animal sprang from the book with a great crumpling of paper and landed upon the window seat beside her.
"He he he he he!" chattered the creature, springing to the girl's shoulder and the to the centre table. "This is great fun! Now I can be a real monkey instead of a picture of one."
"Real monkey can't talk," said Jane Gladys.
"How do you know? Have you ever been one yourself?" inquired the animal, laughing loudly.
The girl was quite bewildered by this time. She thoughtlessly turned another page, and before she had time to look twice, there sprang over her shoulder a spotted leopard, which landed upon the back of a big leather armchair and turned to face her with a fierce movement.
The monkey climbed to the top of the chandelier and chattered with fright. The leopard crouched upon the back of the chair, lashed his tail from side to side and glared at them.
"Which of us are you going to attack first?" asked the monkey.
"I can't attack any of you," snarled the leopard. "The artist made my mouth shut, so I haven't any teeth, and he forgot to make my claws. But I'm a frightful-looking creature, nevertheless, am i not?"
"I suppose you're frightful-looking enough. But if you have no teeth nor claws we don't mind yourr looks at all," said the monkey.
This annoyed the leopard so much that he growled horribly, but the monkey just laughed.
Just then the book slipped from the girl's lap, and as she made a movement to catch it one of the pages near the back opened wide. She caught a glimpse of fierce grizzly bear looking at her from the page, and quickly threw the book to the ground. It fell with a crash in the middle of the room, but beside it stood the great grizzly, who had wrenched himself from the page before the book had closed.
"Now," cried the leopard from his perch, "you'd better look out for yourselves! You can't laugh at him as you did to me. The bear has both claws and teeth."
"Indeed I have," said the bear, in a low, deep, growling voice. "And I know hoe to use them, too. If you read in that book you'll find that I eat little girls - shoes, dresses, ribbons and all!"
Jane Gladys was much frightened on hearing this, and she began to realize what the man meant when he said he gave her the book to be revenged.
"You mustn't eat me. It would be wrong."
"Why?" asked the bear, in surprise.
"Because I own you. The book was given to me, my name's on the front page. So you mustn't dare to eat your owner!"
The grizzly hesitated. "Then, of course, I can't eat you," he decided. "That author is disappointing - as most authors are."
"The fault lies with all of you," said Jane Gladys, severely. "Why didn't you stay in the book, where you were put?"
The animals looked at each other.
"Now, you stupid creatures-----"
But she was interrupted by them all making a rush for the book. There was a swish and a whirr and a rustling of leaves, and an instant later the book lay upon the floor looking just like any other book, while Jane Gladys' strange companions had all disappeared.
This story should teach us to think quickly and clearly upon all occasions, for had Jane Gladys not remembered that she owned the bear he probably would have eaten her before the bell rang.
By L Frank Baum
Copyright Ⓒ Miles Kelly Publishing Ltd 2011
