Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1899-05-27

some oid lrUa stAiIease raiil1g at the
two rrongs and co7crea / With a coat
OF rea hfsFsgt gaiet lt was true that
It's eomp! xtan was rather high, that it
was inclined Il 30 top bsagy and that
in the lon2 ran the other dolls suffered
considerably by ente1ced association
with this uny.eldiHg and i~is2lacable
head and Shoulders. but tnis did not di-
minish May Joy over her restored first
born. Even its utter absence Of features
was 10 defst in a family where fea-
lures were as evauescent as in hers, and
the NEST ordinary student Of evolution
could see that the 'tAmplacb" ninepins
were Ia legitimate succession to the
globular headed Misery. For a time
| think that Mary even preferred her
to the othors. Howbeit, it was a pretty
sight 70 see her on a ummer afternoon
sitting upon a wayside stump, her 9th
err 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 p~laintive lullaby.
Small wonder that the bees took up the
song and droned a 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 il 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 cylin.
drical roll Of oanyas wagon covering
grit so as to define a neck and waist,
with a rudely linked face-altogether a
weak, p~itiable, manlike invention-and
Johnny Dear, alleged to be the rep
resentatiye of John Doremus, a young
s%torekeeper, who occasionally supplied
Mary with gratuitous sweets. Mary
never admitted this, and as we were
all gentlemen along that road we were
blind 10 the suggestion. Johnny Dear
was originally a 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 a boy
and was distinctly the most hum
looking of all her progeny. Indeed, j
spite of the faculties that were legibly
printed M over its smooth, white, hair
less head, it was appallingly lifelike.
Left sometimes by Mary astride Of
the branch of "a wayside tree, horsemen
had been known to dismount hurriedly
and examine it, returning with a mys-
titled smile, and it was of record that
Cuba Bill had once pulled up the pio.
Deer coach at the request of the curious
and imploring passengers and then
grimly installed Johnny Dear beside
him on the box seat, publicly deliver
ing him TO Mary at Big Bend, to her
wide eyed confusion and the first blush
we had ever seen on her round, chubby,
s|unburned cheeks. 1t may seem strange
that with her great popularity and her
we'll 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 e%xtravagant creatures of her far y.
So it came that Johnny Bears strictly
classical profile looked out from under
a girls fashionable straw sailor hat to
the utter obliteration of his prominent
intellectual faculties; the Amblach
twins wore bonnets on their ninepin
heads, and even an attempt was made
to fix a haXen scalp ON the iron headed
Misery. But her dolls were always a
creation Of her own-her affection for