The Puppets of Spelhorst

Early the next morning, little Martha comes into the room and examines the puppets. As she reaches for the wolf, she “knock[s] the owl over and jostle[s] the king’s crown so that it [is] crooked” (53). The wolf is excited at the prospect of being chosen; she feels her story is about to begin.

Martha takes the wolf away from the other puppets and looks at her sharp teeth. The wolf is enjoying what she thinks is admiration when Martha suddenly says that she is going to remove the teeth. Martha takes a pair of pliers and plucks out two, but she soon grows bored with the task and leaves the wolf on the ground, feeling hopeless and incomplete without her missing teeth.

Martha returns to the mantel where the puppets are, this time reaching for the boy. He thinks, “[P]erhaps the purpose the master puppet maker had spoken of had at last arrived and […] he was now going to do something that truly mattered” (56). He is excited as the little girl carries him away from the room.

Outside, Martha tries to shoot the boy’s arrows from his bow.