Number two Joy Street

In Short

This volume is a collection of children's stories and poems featuring enchanted woods, trickster rabbits, impish visitors, and sea-dwelling babies. Characters navigate playful riddles, unexpected calamities, and quiet domestic hardships across varied fantasy and realism-infused worlds. High-profile authors craft a landscape where mythical creatures interact with everyday lives, offering whimsy alongside gentle melancholy. The collection endures as a portrait of early twentieth-century British children's literature, blending traditional folklore motifs, absurd humor, and atmospheric poetry to capture the vivid imaginative boundary between childhood wonder and the modern adult world.

The Story

The volume opens with a poem describing children who encounter strange, silent beings in a small wood, only for the mysterious figures to vanish without a trace when a sudden wind blows through the ferns. Narrative tales follow, beginning with the story of a cunning Rabbit who competes against the young Lord Calomel for a royal favor. Presented with a contest of wits by the King, Rabbit carefully manipulates a guessing game regarding a hidden answer. When asked a mathematical riddle, Rabbit weighs the risk of giving the true mathematical answer versus mimicking Lord Calomel's incorrect response, knowing the King values status over accuracy.

In another village, Gollop the gnome suffers from an uncontrollable "singing fever" that produces a rasping noise like shaking pebbles in a can. When neighboring gnomes attempt to cure him by passing his fiddle around the world, the plan backfires, leaving Gollop unable to stop singing as he wanders out into the dark night toward distant pine-covered hills. Disasters of a grander scale strike other lands, such as the arrival of an immense, iron-plated dragon created by distant magicians. This beast crushes everything into a fine paste with elephantine feet and licks up the remains with a massive sea-serpent tongue, leaving critics of technological advancement silent. Elsewhere, a cook in a royal kitchen faces execution when the required red pepper for a prince's wedding feast vanishes, prompting desperate keening in her rocking chair before time runs out.

Subtler magic appears along ocean shores and quiet homes. Mishy the surf-baby rides on the back of a friendly gull to locate a lost companion, Benny-whisper, who drifted away in a cockle boat covered in protective seaweed. In an urban dwelling, young Tony helps a peculiar Woodcutter who continually falls from branches while chopping wood to construct "magic casements" for nightingales, eventually leading Tony on a moonlit boat ride across faery seas with Queen Mab. In a high-tech Richmond laboratory, the elderly Professor Braintree—an eminent scientist capable of measuring electrons—finds his rigid worldview upended when an elusive green imp invades his study. Believing himself to be experiencing a sensory hallucination, he chases the creature with a butterfly net, only for his young relative Elfrida to later witness a somber procession of dark-clad figures carrying the entity away into Richmond Park.

The mood shifts to domestic hardship in the tale of the three Miss MacKnackeries—Euphemia, Tabitha, and Jean Elspeth—living in the grand estate of Stoneyhouse. Built on their grandfather's burlap fortune, the house is stripped of its fine furniture, portraits, and servants when sudden financial ruin strikes. As her sisters grow cold and rigid in their grief, Jean Elspeth quietly harbors the phantom-like presence of her imaginary friend Lucy, maintaining her gentle spirit despite the quiet decay of her family home. The collection concludes with playful cautionary verses, including the story of Sarah Byng, an unlettered girl who ignores a wooden warning sign on a gate and gets tossed into a prickly hedge by a playful bull, reinforcing her lifelong belief that letters bring nothing but distress.

How It Unfolds

The hidden forest encounter Children discover a group of tiny, silent figures with strange faces hiding among unfamiliar flowers in a little wood. Before any words can be exchanged, a sudden gust of wind shakes the surrounding ferns, and the mysterious beings vanish entirely without leaving a trace.

The battle of wits Rabbit and Lord Calomel face a royal contest where they must answer questions posed by the King and his Chancellor. Rabbit clever manipulate the situation to ensure he matches or outsmarts his opponent's answers, navigating the monarch's unpredictable logic and mathematical traps.

The exile of Gollop Gollop the gnome develops a relentless singing fever that distresses his neighbors, drying up cows and causing farm animals to panic. After the village gnomes accidentally lose his fiddle around the world, they banish Gollop, forcing him to trek across starry moors into the night.

The mechanical terror An enormous, iron-plated monster devastates the countryside, crushing buildings and land to paste. Those who previously praised foreign magical machinery as modern progress quickly fall silent once they witness the creature's destruction.

The search for Benny-whisper Mishy the surf-baby hitches a ride on the back of a sea gull to search the open ocean for his missing friend. He eventually spots Benny-whisper safe on a glistening green rock, having drifted away asleep beneath a blanket of protective seaweed.

The magic casements Tony encounters a clumsy Woodcutter who repeatedly falls from tree branches while crafting window openings in the forest canopy. The adventure culminates in a nocturnal boat journey across gentle waves with Queen Mab, exploring the boundary between waking reality and faery lands.

The scientist and the imp Professor Braintree attempts to maintain his strict rationalist view of the world when an energetic green imp appears in his study. Exhausted by a fruitless pursuit with a butterfly net, he remains unaware when his young relative later observes a solemn funeral-like procession carrying the creature off.

The decline of Stoneyhouse Financial disaster forces the Miss MacKnackeries to turn their grandfather's portrait to the wall and sell off their estate's furnishings. As the grand house empties out, Jean Elspeth finds quiet comfort in the lingering presence of a gentle, phantom-like figure named Lucy.

The People

• Rabbit: A quick-witted competitor who relies on modesty, cunning, and careful observation to navigate the King's arbitrary trials. He wants to outsmart Lord Calomel without offending the monarch, ultimately turning subtle misdirections into victory.
• Gollop: A well-meaning gnome afflicted with an involuntary, harsh-sounding "singing fever." He desires companionship and his beloved fiddle, but the community's frustration forces him into solitary exile across the countryside.
• Professor Braintree: An elderly, meticulous scientist who prides himself on measuring the smallest particles of matter. Driven by a desire for empirical truth and absolute control, he struggles deeply when confronted by a mischievous imp that defies scientific explanation.
• Jean Elspeth MacKnackery: The youngest of three sisters facing sudden poverty following the loss of the family fortune. Unlike her stern, proud sisters who harden themselves against adversity, Jean Elspeth maintains a quiet, empathetic inner world bolstered by her comforting visions of Lucy.
• Sarah Byng: An uncultured twelve-year-old girl who stubbornly refuses to learn how to read or write. Her refusal to read warning signs leads directly to a confrontation with a bull, solidifying her distrust of written language.

In Its Own Voice

"We searched and searched about the place, But they were gone without a trace— How could it be?"

This stanza captures the fleeting, elusive nature of the magical encounters recorded throughout the book's opening verses.

"And what is the wind but your spirit, decked in a lovelier name?"

Queen Mab offers this gentle, philosophical query to young Tony as he rows their small vessel across the nocturnal waters.

"Spectres and ghosts, of course, may be the most forbidding company. But Lucy was nothing but gaiety and grace."

This passage highlights Jean Elspeth's serene solace in her unseen companion while her family home is stripped bare around her.

What It's Really About

The collection explores the tension between rigid human order and the unpredictable, imaginative forces of nature and fantasy. Through characters like Professor Braintree and the King, the text satirizes humanity's excessive faith in strict logic, dry academic instruments, and absolute authority. The stories suggest that reality extends beyond what can be measured under a microscope or dictated by royal decree. At the same time, tales like the decline of Stoneyhouse examine resilience during loss, contrasting cold, defensive pride with a gentle openness to wonder. Ultimately, the work questions whether adulthood's drive for control separates people from the quiet, fleeting magic visible only to children, dreamers, and outcasts.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers who appreciate classic British children's literature characterized by whimsical irony, folklore, and underlying emotional depth. Reading the collection feels like stepping into a cozy, slightly eccentric parlor where lighthearted absurdities—like gnomes causing farm animals to panic or woodcutters falling out of trees—coexist with subtle, melancholy reflections on memory and childhood. The prose flows with cadence and clarity, though modern readers will notice vintage phrasing, traditional period tropes, and occasional dialect choices typical of early twentieth-century publications. What lingers long after reading is the collection's gentle atmosphere: a world where a quiet moment by an open window, a ride on the back of a sea bird, or a small imaginary presence can offer meaningful comfort against the cold realities of change and loss.

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