Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-10-28
Giving Up the Dolls.

MAY was getting so tall that it looked
perfectly silly" for her to be playing
with dolls. So, at least, jess, Mays sis
ter, said-and Jess was fifteen years old
and ought to have known what was prop
er and what wasn't
May was such little mother and loved
her dolls so much that don't believe Jess
alone could ever have made her give them
up; but even mamma began to hint
strongly about patchwork quilts and
usefulness" and when at last she came
out with a brilliant offer of set of gray
squirrel furs for next winter, if May would
give up the doll-b babies and ''be woman, !"
May couldn't stand out against so much
and she went up stairs that night with her
mind made up.
She took all the dolls she could find
handily into bed with her, and l believe
she cried little as she Rugged them up
close and thought it was the last time.
The next morning was bright and sunny
and May went around the house gathering
up her children.
Her mother had suggested to her that
she might keep one or two of the best
ones and throw aside the others; but
May didn't intend to show any partiality
She gathered up every baby, from Pet
Rosa, with her sweet blue eyes, to the
small, no-headed darby, with his cum
ming little coat and vest.
She piled them all together in large
paper box and putting on her sun bonnet
went out at the back-door when nobody
was looking on-for the poor little mother
felt so miserable that she didn't want any
body to ask her where she was going.
May went through the lots and crawled
under fences till she came to the big sheep
pasture.
She went behind a large stone, and
scOoping out hole in the sandy earth
with her hands and stick she put in the
box OF dolls; then covering 1t up, she sat
down by the little mound and had good,
hard cry, while her dirty fingers rubbed
streaks all over her face.
She wandered around the pasture while
talking to herself and feeling very misera-
BILE.
Then she went home, and locking her
self up in the spare chamber waited until
all traces Of tears were gone from her face
before she let herself be seen.
So the dolls were buried, but that wasn't
the last of them.
I can't tell you exactly how many times
in the next two or three weeks May took
them up.
She didn't play with them-she was toe
honest for that-but she just wanted to sec
how they looked.
She made cunning little bouquets an6
put into their hands and into the darky's
button holes, and once or twice she carried
fresh changes of clothes for Rosa, bu
always she would kiss all around anC
bury them up carefully again,
But as the summer wore away Mays
visits became less frequent Her mother
had got together such quantity of bits o
bright silk that May could hardly lose {
moment from her gay patchwork.
The year rolled over, and brought sum
mer around again, and one Saturday after
noon May went down to the big rock, and
"just for fun" dug up the dolls once
more.
They had been soaked through and
through by the rains, and were now g
mess of dirty, streaked, pitiful-looking
objects.
May did not cry this time-she only sat
down and laughed. She was so much
older than she was last summer.
She had an intimate friend now, and
took music-lessons, and wrote notes.
what did she care for dolls?
She felt sort of pity for the May of last
summer, who had buried and cried over
these silly things, and for her sake she
covered them up again out of sight, and
then the May of this summer went home
and thought no more about the dolls.
Next summer, probably, good many
of this summers little interests will drop
out of her mind, and bigger ones come in
and so May will grow to be woman.-
Youths Companion.