The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-01-05
THE NINTH DOLL.

your way no wiser. But II you ever had
watched her while she was playing with
her treasures it would not have taken you
long to discover that Takanira, tho Japa-
nese doll, was beyond doubt tho favorte.
Takanira always got tho best chair, and
when she was put to bed she was tucked
in with tho prettiest blanket, and when
Hilda gave n performance in the dolls
theater Takanira invariably occupied the
best seat directly in front of the miniature
stage.
1t was early in the afternoon and Hilda
was sitting in her own little room packing
Mile Poupcc's trunk. Mile. Poupee was
going on n voyage to the basement to see
the new cook, who had promised to furnish
marmalade for the doll and for Hilda, her
travelling companion, whenever they should
come The little girl was packing the
trunk so that there should be plenty of
room left for Mile. Poupee to put any
thing into it that might lie obtained in
those mysterious regions ruled over by the
cook and commonly called the kitchen.
And so it did not take long to perform this
duty. Then she picked up Takanira and
sat her up on the window sill where she
could look down into the yards and over
them at the backs of the little red bIick
houses that fronted on the next street.
81 think, said Hilda quite out loud,
"that the cook would like to see you, too,
Takanira. ~
POSSIBLY she would" answered Taxa
Mira in the most natural way in the world,
and for some reason Hilda did not notice
anything unusual at the time that her doll
should speak.
"Then you may as well come along"
she said.
"Not at ALL" replied the doll. Take
me down some other day. Then you will
get marmalade twice"
To Hilda this was an entirely new way
of looking at the situation, and when she
realized the full possibilities of the sugges-
ton she got up and counted all her dolls
to see how many expeditions she could
make into the lower regions of the house.
"There are nine" she said, just as If
Takanira ought to have known what she
was thinking about
"NineY' repeated Takanira. "No There
are but eight dolls. "
"And you make nine " said Hilda, point
ing at her Japanese toy.
but am not doll"
"You are not Il dollP Then what are
you, Takanira?'
81 am not n doll. 1 am broken heart. "
Hilda did not quite understand. She
had read in books about broken hearts.
but no one had ever explained to her what
"a broken heart was, and so she had merely
a vague and indefinite impression of II red
figure, like the ace in the pack, all broken
to pieces, or like the pictures of valentines
with arrows thrust through them.
'You don't look like broken heart,
she said presently.
"But | am u broken heart" persisted
Takanra. "a japanese broken heart
But as Hilda still stared as if this ex-
PLANTATION We're not at all sufficient, the doll
added:
1T is different, you know, in Japan.
And Japan is, oh, so far awayv'
Takanira sighed, and the tone of her
voice conveyed an impression of infinite
sadness. Hilda felt lump rising in her
throat, but before she could speak again
the doll said;
81 will tell you, because you have been
good to me and kind, because you have
laid me softly down and have not thrust
long pins into me, as is the custom of our
children at home.
81 was a little girls heart once. She
, was n pretty little girl, with jet black hair
and she wore u dark blue kimono and
wandered by the hillside and picked chrys.
anthemums to sell to the rich people who
visited the temple in Kioto. And one day.
as she sat on the broad stone steps in the
, great blue shadows, away from where the
, sun turned the sand into gold, a fair young
, foreigner came and spoke to her and lifted
the rich red and yellow blossoms from her
lap and let the golden petals shower into
the folds of her skirt. Then he spoke to
her in the language of the great people Of
a .l.I y.
{ did not understand his words she read the
, meaning of his eyes and went with him
into the sunlight and sat while he painted
, "For days and days the fair haired for
eigner returned, and each day the maid
sat by the old stone well that he might
paint, and so let all the world know how
beautiful she was Soon she learned to
} talk his talk, and he in turn spoke kindly
to her in words of her own land, and he
! said, You are pretty little doll, and so
he called her.
"And at length the picture was done, and
the girl hated the picture because he then
had more than she, Tor all she carried was
a memory. And she wept by the hillside
! and said, ooh, that l might be doll, and
that l might be carried to the sunset land
2 where the great tall women will make him
forget
% ~ cdiie ~ pass tiniI tHe BoOu spirlt
of the temple heard the cry, and as the lit
tie girl grew whittier day by day, in the
shadow of the broad stone steps, yearning
ever for him who never came, the little
heart broke, and the spirit took it and
, made a doll of it, which is me-Takanira.
And L knew then that other hearts had
been taken and made into the forms of
dolls.
, "And so, now, / have come to the great
sunset land and the spirit of the temple
whispered to me that l should remain
whole until he, the fair haired one, re-
: turned to her, the little maid. And when
3 her heart mends then shall / break, and
then shall the sun shine again through the
eyes of the little chrysanthemum picker by
the hillside. -
Two big tears were rolling down Hilda 8
checks, and she reached forward to lift
Takanira into her little arms. But as she
did an Cha clippa6 or y,,icsa1 no doll m