Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1898-08-13

10 walk 60 Big Bend and a rival shop. /
But the next morning when the trust
full and anxious mother appeared at the /
forge she uttered a scream Of delight. |
Jack had neatly joined the hollow iron |
globe taken from the newell post Of !
some old iron staircase railing at the !
two prongs and covered it with coat
of red fireproof paint. 1t was true that
its complexion was rather high, that il
was inclined to be top heavy and that
in the long run the other dolls suffered
by enforced association
with this unyielding and implacable
head and shoulders, but this did not di-
minish Mary's JOY over her restored first
born. Even its utter absence of features
was no defect in family where fea-
lures were as evanescent as in hers, and
the most ordinary student of evolution
could see that the "Amplach" ninepins
were in legitimate succession to the
globul1r headed Misery. Tor a time
1 think that Mary even preferred her
to the others. Howbeit, it was a pretty
sight TO see her on summer afternoon
sitting upon a wayside stump. her 9TH
er children dutifully ranged around her,
with the hard, unfeeling head of Mis-.
cry pressed deep down into her loving
little heart, as she swayed from side TO
side, grooming her plaintive lullaby.
Small wonder that the bees took up the
song and droned slumbrous accompa-
niment, or that high above her head
the enormous pines stirred through their
depths by the soft Sierra air-or heaven
knows what-let slip Pickering lights
and shadows to play over that cast iron
face, until the child, looking down up
on it with the quick, transforming pow
er of love, thought that it smiled.
The two remaining members of the
family were less distinctive. Gloriana
pronounced as two words, Glory
Anna--being the work of her father,
who also named it, was simply a oylin-
drical roll of canvas wagon covering
grit so as to define neck and waist,
with rudely linked face-altogether a
weak, pitiable, manlike invention-and
Johnny Dear, alleged to be the rep
resentative of John Doremus, a young
storekeeper, who occasionally supplied
Mary with gratuitous sweets Mary
al gentlemen along that road we were
blind to the suggestion. Johnny Dear
was originally n small, plaster phreno-
logical cast of a head and bust, begged
from some shop window in the county
town, with a body clearly constructed
by Mary herself. 1t was an ominous
fact that it was always dressed as boy
and was distinctly the most human
looking of all her progeny. Indeed, in
spite of the faculties that were legibly
printed all over it's smooth white, hair
less head, it was appallingly lifelike.
Left sometimes by Mary astride of
the branch of wayside tree, horsemen
. had been known to dismount hurriedly
! and examine it, returning with mys-
titled smile, and it was of record that
Cuba Bill bad once pulled up the pic.
neer coach at the request of the curious
and imploring passengers and then
grimlv installed Johnny Dear beside
hin on the box seat, publicly deliver
ing him to Mary at Big Bend, Co her
wide eyed confusion and the first blush
| we had ever seen on her round, chubby,
| sunburned cheeks. 1t may seem strange
that with her great popularity and her
well known maternal instincts she had
not been kept fully supplied with proper
| and more conventional dolls, but it was
soon recognized that she did not care
/ for them-left their waxen faces, roll.
ing eyes and abundant hair in bitches
or stripped them to help clothe the
more extravaganza creatures Of her fancy.
So it came that Johnny Dear's strictly
classical profile looked out from under
a girls fashionable straw sailor hat tc
the utter obliteration of his prominent
intellectual faculties; the Amblach
| twins wore bonnets on their uinepin
heads, and even an attempt was made
to fix fiaxen scalp ON the iron headed
Misery. But her dolls were always q
creation of her own-her affection fol