The Press., 1890-06-12


 of the whole village. f-s x
 The vicar came to relate to her hesnfafni stories of heaven, where there lived dameMa< ma marvelously beantiful and adQEabag good.
 The good sister who had chaFgeof the vil lage school brought her little images Rtsaints and angels. # Ff5
 One of Minis greatest pleasures was to-see all little friends comeswith their dolls--tolls of wood, of cardboard, of Irags:6 bus she. thought them all charming. and talked to them in the most delightful manner and as if they could understand her. and repliedsto her.
 The 18th of August was the dolls birthday,s and all the little girls came with thair dolls and brought the doll Mini 8 bouquet, end one for the real Mini. What g merry day it was for them alli sl@ sj
 The bed was covered with flowers, and the doll was so happy that she said again and again, ssMammai'
 Alasi the care of Mother Gerard. the love and caresses of all, the healthful air of the country had been able only to pro3opg the days of the little sufferer, but altogether were not able to cure her. | They began to count the weeks, then the days that she could be with them.
 ssShe is very ill. mammals Mini, ," she said, caressing the doll ssShe suffers greatly there,n she said, touching the dolls chest s
 
 doll in both arms, looked at it with yearntng, shining eyes, and tried to press the spring. The sound came feebly and weakly articu- ulated, Mammal"
 The child repeated $ Mammal with voice still moro feeble, and fell back on her pillow, but still clasping her doll
 She was dead.
 And singular as it may seem, the spring in the doll was broken; the doll, too, was dead
 During all the next day the two Minis, the two little dead bodies, were left with un- covered faces surrounded with the last flowers of autumn, white and yellow, mingled with branches of red leaves.
 When they dressed little Mini for the last time they found that they would have to use much force to take the doll from her grasp. Mother Gerard would not permit it. She kissed the child once more. and, without try ing to account for the strange impulse, she kissed the doll also Both were put into the coffin, with all that belonged to them-dresses and bonnets little shoes and stockings, and playthings of all sorts.
 Then upon the bier, carried by the strongest little girls of the village-alasl it was not very heavy-they put all the flowers they | could find; and it was the strangest funeral that one could imagine All the little girls | of the school marched behind, two by two, | holding their dolls; and on the way they | were joined by others, and each new arrival | had her doll Those who had two dolls gave | one to those who had none All the dolls | were dressed in their finest clothes. r When they arrived at the cemetery the | children formed a circle around the grave | with their dolls in their arms, and listened tc the last prayer for poor Mini. Among the | children who had come to bid a last farewell | Ans~ AI,n %n1 11rSs Il l for they regretted the wonderful doll quite | as much as they did Nini-there was one who l had been particular favorite of the little in- valid.
 It was sickly little cripple, nearly her owr age, with sorrowful, pale face. She almost adored the doll, and when Mini permitted hel to rock it she was perfectly happy. She, liks the others, had doll which sue loved devot edly.
 No one can know what thought passed through that little brain, but at the moment that the sexton threw the first spadeful o1 earth upon the coffin she kissed her doll con l vulsively and threw. it into the grave, saying "Go with Nini!'
 This impulsive act so impressed the othel l children that one after another followed hel | example.
 It was touching spectacle
 tGo with Ninii' each little one repeated ir letting her doll fall into the grave. | One only drew back unable to make tn l sacrifice. She was 5 years old, perhaps, tn. l child of poor woman. Her doll ~as'of card board, old, dirty and worn, and had lost on, arm. She clasped it in her arms and sob bingly said: "Noi not in the hole! not in thu hole, my Ninii She would be cold!" The return to the village was, perhaps, sad der than the walk to the grave
 The next day the vicar went to Neville ant brought back with him fifteen new dolls ane gave them to the children in the name of tn two Ninis
 In this village for many years after a dol was called a Mini in remembrance of the on which was buried Translated from tn French for Chicago Inter-ocsan.