The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-12

"Well, then, you shall have part
ncr, said she, and she beckoned to a
little prince, very handsome and beauti-
fully dressed, who came bowling and
hopping over towards NE in the funniest
way yOu ever saw. Directly | looked, !
saw why he hoped 50 funnily. He had
only one leg.
please. ma'am,' said |, Il can't dance
with partner who has only one leg
''Ion must dance with him, said she.
at is your fault that he only has one
leg
My fault said |, very much aston
isded and a good deal scared.
"I orr fault, or the fault Of some other
little girl" said She at is all the same
thing
By this time the prince had hoped up
beside mo and asked me to dance with
him. should have liked to refuse, but
| was afraid, SO said, with great pleas
ure," which wasn't quite true.
"Inu will have to dance on one foot.
and bold the other in your hand" said
he.
''But I can't dance on one foot.
never heard OF sach thing in my life.
Best les. why should dance one foot if
| don't want to?''
''Becahse | have only one,' said he,
very cody.
| was quite angry by this time Every
body in tle room was laughing and |
thonght they were making fun of me.
Il won't dauce with you at ali, said |,
stamping, $50 there
''lon promised you would, said he.
Not on cne foot" said |.
That was understood, said he. Now
be good little girl, aud do as you're
! bid. aud before | knew what | was
about, was holding my right foot in my
hand and hopping round on the left,
while the prince held me iound the waist
II wasn't difficult at all, and was much
nicer than had iancied it woula be.
Beside, saw dozens of rther couples
dancing i'll the same way, SO didnr look
SO odd.
B5 and by we ST pped and the prince
hoped oil and brought ne some ice
cream. II Was very good, AID while
Was eating it, | asked hlm-"EIow did
You luSe your leg ~
a hide gll cut ii OFF, said he, quite
caoily.
'Gracious ~ said I, Mortified, what
ever did she do that for?
Il dom in the least know" said lie,
but they often do. All these people
here whom sou see without legs and
arms have had them broken off by little
girls
And those without eyes aud-and
noses %
"A good deal of that has been done by
little girls, too, but some of them have
been eaten off by mice"
"How dreadful ~
"Oh not at all; it is quite natural.
| Saa!l we take another turn ?'
No. please, had rather stand here
ahd talk. thought you were all fairies"
Not quite that said he with a smile,
''hut we are as near fairies as anything
you will meet now -a-days. We are dolls"
"Do}ls. ! didn't know dolls could
walk and talk and dance ~
"Only at night, after little boys and
girls have gone to bed. Then We all
meet together and have real 90 ID tirnc
as You see
~ ell, mamma. after he had told me
| they were dolls, | began to look at them.
and saw ever 50 many | knew; some OF
them were very old ones, and quite a
number that had seen at Schwarz' $,
when we were down there yesterday.
And when | looked closer AT my partne,
| saw that lle was my own old Prii ce
| Methusalem doll, whose leg cut off last
week to see what he was made Of dc
clare, | never felt so much ashamed in
all my life, and | was afraid to look him
in the face again. But he didu t seem to
know me-
at is a terrible habit that little girls
have of breaking their dolls" said he.
halt to himself aid half to me; "as long
as they only break off one leg it doesn't
SO much matter, but sometimes they pull
off both, and that makes such sad Grip
pies OF us
q don't see any here with both legs
broken off, said |.
"Oi course you don't. How do you
suppose they could get here with no legs
1T all-poor bed ridden creatures
never will break off dolls ler
again rs long as live" said l. so!emnly. |
"iiuIi". why-oh, look here, friends"
shouted the prince, here is little girl |
who pulls off dolls legs. Let Us pail off |
her own AMI see how she will like it,"
And he made a snatch 1T me, but Jump
. d awIy, aud as he had only one leg he I
lost his balance and topped over But
they were all after ne in moment.
fast as they could. | never ran so 4
III all my life before; along through the
passage and out of the mousehole anu
into my bed, all in one jump, and then
covered myself all over and was SO glad
to hear nurse coming up that did not
know what to do.
That was a great adventure, said
mamma, smiling Il must take care that
my little girl does not get supper so late
again as she did last night"
"Why, mamma, what lad supper to
do with it a''
at was ali dream, dear, and natu-
raj enough dream. too. You spent the
whole afternoon at Schwarz'S big toy
store, and saw more dolls than Won ever
saw i'll all your life be fore. That's where
the dolls came from. Then your con-
science has been troubling you tecause
you pulled off Prince Methusalem's leg,
and you remember said to you that y..u
wouldn't do it. if dolls could feel pain
And indeed [ wnul.l,'t MANN a"
81 am sure you would sot, d ar, but it
is naughty and destructive in any case"
But the mousehole, mamma, the
mousehole is there"
'l es and it was only yesterday that
you heard me tell nurse that it ought to
he stn,'ped up. so there is your whole
dream. dear made up of SchwarZ'S