Los Angeles herald., 1891-04-19
ANA'S DOLL.

ANA'S DOLL
IF this story, dear reader, were the
work of my imagination, should hesi-
tate to write it. 1t would seem too i'm
probable with it's mixture Of tragic and
ludicrous, but Lean assure you that, as
far~as the facts relating to Ana's doll go,
it is entirely true.
Ana was once in the service Of friend
Of mine, and her present position, her
house and husband, are as 1 represent
them. If have failed to do justice to
any one, it is to the doll, whose beauty
great judges declare to have been inde-
scribable. But Ana had no doll when
this story begins. She was rosy checked
girl with faxen braids wound about her
head, and big blue eyes that still seemed
staring at the world with infantile aston
ishment. She was but seventeen, but
even then betrothed to a certain young
Hans who had placed himself with a
grocer-a youth as red checked, round
eyed and baby faced as Ana herself.
They were very fond of each other and
very true to each other, but they had
prudent souls, and had set before them
selves the fact that certain sum must
be saved before they married. 1t was a
comfortable sum, too, not to be made by
a maid servant and grocer's clerk in a
hurry; but, as Ana confided to her mis-
tress, even some peoples gets married
togeder, right away comes dose children,
and cos dem much money. 1t is better
dot dose peoples wait until dey got dot
money once already"
No one ever contradicted Ana or strove
to dissuade her from her purpose. If
Hans ever said anything to anybody
which seemed unlikely, for he would sit
long hours without speaking, even to
Ana on Sunday evenings, when he al
ways went to see her-he was probably
encouraged in his economical intentions.
At all events this honest pair of German
lovers never swerved from their object.
Every month they made deposit in a
savings bank, and slowly the dimes
turned to dollars, and the dollars to
eagles, and the eagles became the sum
total of the marriage portion-very
slowly, some sweethearts would have
fancied, but Hans and Ana possessed
their souls with patience.
For years each Sunday afternoon saw
him arrive at the kitchen door of Ana's
service place dressed in his best clothes
and wearing a red geranium blossom in
his buttonhole. Sometimes they went to
church together hand in hand-were
they not betrothed?-an if any one
grinned neither Hans nor Ana was Of
Tended. He bought her papers of pep
permint drops and sticky slabs of taffy.
She knitted him red worsted comforters,
and blue mittens, and yellow wristlets,
and sometimes they read their hymn
books and sometimes their bankbooks,
rejoicing when the money gathered in
terest, until at last there came day
when Ana revealed to her mistress that
the money had been accumulated and
that the wedding was at hand.
Meanwhile Ana's cheeks had faded
and Ana's eyes were not SO blue, and
little Fuckers were to be seen at the cor
ners of her mouth, and certain pencil
lines crossed her forehead, which had
been as smooth as ivory on her betrothal
day.
Hans, too, had changed from round,
curly headed boy to stocky man, with
bald spot on the top of his head, and
both of them had lost sundry teeth,
which they were far too economical to
seek to have replaced by dentist.
Still they were as fond Of each other
as ever, and very happy in the little
frame house, with a small garden about
it, which they bought and furnished
from their savings. Hans was also prom
ised partnership in the grocery, and it
seemed as though their good angels had
looked favorably upon these humble and
honest lovers. Their house shone with
cleanliness. In their little parlor were
the brightest carpet, the whitest cur
tains and the most highly colored re-
ligious pictures to be bought. A clock
set in Swiss cottage of carved wood
ticked away between German china
shepherd and shepherdess. There was an
escritoire in which the bankbooks were
locked up, and the usual number of
chairs and table, also an enlarged photo
graph of Hans and Ana, hand in hand,
taken in their early courting days. Sa-
cred indeed was this apartment, but the
other rooms were just as tidy, and for
a while Ana seemed perfectly happy.
There came time, however, when she
seemed to her late mistress to have
grown graver-to be anxious about some
thing. She sighed, and when questioned
answered:
eyes, have some droubles.
Pressed to say what they were, she
shortly added:
81 vait now good vile for Ge good
Lord to send dose leetle childrens, and
dose leetle childrens did not come. And
Hans, he waits too.
But children did not come to them.
One day Hans, having been, as in duty
bound, to the church fair with his wife
on his arm and his money in his pocket,
had bought several pretty and useful
things, and taken chances in something
on the toy table-he hardly knew what
because that worthy lady, the pastors
sister, had requested him to do so. Hans
was economical, but to spend money at
church fair was religious duty in his
eyes and Ana's. It was the last day Of
the fair, and just as he was about to
leave the building the pastors sister
touched him on the arm and said: