Chapter Twenty-Eight

DUNNO IS FORGIVEN

   The next day was the long-awaited day of the ball.
   Gay pavilions surrounded the dance floor. They were as bright and colourful as the houses in a fairy-tale. Wires with coloured flags and lanterns hanging from them were strung across the dance floor. Flags and lanterns were hanging from all the trees as well, making them look like Christmas-trees.
   The orchestra of ten girl-Mites sat on top of a stand all decked with flowers. Each of the girls played a harp. Some of the harps were small enough to be held in the players' hands. Others were a bit bigger, and were held on the knee. Still others stood on the floor. One of the harps was so big that the player had to stand on a step-ladder to reach it.
   It was not yet evening when the girl-Mites gathered round the dance floor and stood waiting for their guests from Kite Town. The first to arrive was Nails. He was washed and brushed and had put on a clean shirt. True, one lock of hair stood straight up on the top of his head, but even so you could see he had taken great pains with his hair.
   "You're a very good little Mite now," said Kitty. "You yourself must find it pleasant to be so neat and clean, don't you?"
   "Yes, indeed," said Nails, giving his shirt a little tug. The next to arrive were Taps and Pretzei, and behind them came all the others. No one had invited them, but each said he had come to thank the girls for the fruit, and he was immediately invited to stay for the ball.
   Dunno really did hide in the dandelions until the ball began. That is, he slept in the dandelions, but as soon as he heard the boy-Mites arriving he crawled out and made for the dance floor.
   "Ah, the fibber has come, too!" they cried on seeing him. "Hullo, fibber! Maybe you'll tell us how you sailed upside-down in the balloon?"
   "Or how you ate clouds instead of strawberry ice-cream!" added Roly-Poly, running up to him. Dunno was cut to the quick. He instantly whirled round and walked away. His friends laughed and called after him, but he did not hear them.
   Too miserable to notice where he was going, he walked on and on until he came to the end of the town and bumped straight into a fence, giving his head a nasty bang. When he looked up he saw written on the fence: "Dunno's a dunce!" They're even writing about me on the fences, he thought in despair.
   He had never felt so sorry for anybody in his life as he felt for himself at that moment. He leaned against the fence and the tears coursed down his cheeks.
   Poor me! he thought. Poor me! Everybody laughs at me. Everybody looks down on me. Nobody loves me — nobody in the whole world!
   For a long time he stood there leaning against the fence, crying as if his heart would break. Suddenly he felt somebody touch him gently on the shoulder, and heard someone say tenderly:
   "Don't cry, Dunno!"
   He looked up and saw Cornflower.
   "Don't cry," she repeated.
   Dunno turned away, clutched the fence, and cried harder than ever. Cornflower stroked him on the shoulder without saying a word. Dunno shrugged his shoulder to get rid of her hand and gave a little kick.
   "Don't be so nasty," she said as gently as ever. "You aren't really like that, you're a good kind Mite. It was just because you wanted to be better that you fibbed and boasted so. But you won't do that any more, will you? Say you won't." Dunno said nothing.
   "Do say you won't. You're such a good little Mite." "No, I'm not. I'm bad." "There are others who are worse." "No, there are not. I'm the very worst." "That's not true. Nails was much worse than you. You never made the trouble Nails did, but even he reformed in the end. If you want to, you can, too. Just say you won't do those wicked things any more and will make a clean start and we'll never even remind you of the past." "Very well: I'll never do them again," muttered Dunno sullenly. "Good for you!" said Cornflower happily. "All you have to do is try to be a good, brave, honest Mite and not to misbehave yourself and you'll never have to think of ways of making yourself seem better than you really are. Isn't that true?"
   "I s'pose so."
   He glanced ruefully at Cornflower and smiled through his tears.
   "Come, let's go and join the others," said Cornflower, taking his hand Soon they reached the dance floor. When Roly-Poly saw Dunno coming back with Cornflower he shouted at the top of his voice:
   "Dunno the fibber! Dunno the dunce!"
   "Tell us how you swallowed the clouds!" cried out Treacly-Sweeter.
   "Shame on you!" cried Cornflower. "Why should you make fun of him?"
   "What did he have to fool us for?" said Roly-Poly.
   "Was it you he fooled?" said Cornflower in surprise. "It was us he fooled and you never said a word. That makes you quite as bad as he is."
   "Just exactly as bad!" cried Snowdrop. "You knew he was boasting and fibbing and you didn't stop him. Not one of you told him he shouldn't. What makes you think you are any better than he is?"
   "We don't," muttered Roly-Poly.
   "Then you have no right to make fun of him," said Kitty. "Anyone else would have tried to help him."
   Roly-Poly and Treacly-Sweeter felt so ashamed of themselves that they stopped making fun of Dunno.
   Birdie went over to him and said:
   "You were crying, weren't you, you poor darling? Everybody made fun of you. didn't they? Boy-Mites are like that. But we won't let them make fun of you any more."
   Walking off a few steps, she whispered to the girl-Mites: "We must be very kind to him. He's been punished for what he did and now he's sorry and will try to be better."
   "Of course!" said Kitty. "It's very wrong to make fun of him. He'll become angry and behave worse than ever. But if you're nice to him he'll feel that he was in the wrong and try to make up for it."
   The girls crowded round Dunno and showed him how sorry they were.
   "I used never to want to play with girls," said Dunno. "I thought boys were better than girls, but now I see I was wrong. The boys made fun of me, but the girls stood up for me. From now on I'm going to play with girls."