Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-03-04
Children's EDening Story

| her eyes. just as your doll would have
done.
That's funny" Neddie said, with a
laugh, and he was so interested that ne
tilted the dollie to and fro up and
down. making her open and shut and
blink her eyes as fast as the clock
ticks.
| 81 wonder what makes those eyes
! open and shut?" said Neddie, and then,
all of sudden, the doll slipped from
f, his paws, and fell to the floor OF the
cave. And then dreadful thing hap
pei ed! The nice blonde hair came
right off the top of the dolls mead,
leaving a big hole, and out of that hole
| fell her two eyes.
ooh, dear!" cried Neddle. Now
have gone and done it. Oh, dear!'
There the dolls eyes were. lying on
the floor, looking sadly up at Neddie.
and her wig was off, too. And then
Neddie saw how it was the dolls eyes
opened and shut They were on hinges
inside her head and they went open
and shut like door. But when Neddie
tried to put the dolls eyes back in her
head they would not stay, but fell out
again, and kept looking at him.
"Oh, dear! This is TERRIBLE cried
Neddie. Il have broken Beckie's doll
and she will feel very badly | know
what I'll do, though, I'll run and get
DR.. Postum to come and fix her. Then
the eyes will be all right again
Neddie put the doll back in her crib,
and laid the staring, wide-open eyes on
a chair beside her. Then he ran for
Dr. Possum. And while Neddie was
gone bad old rat came in the bears
cave house through the door Neddie had
left open. Mr. and Mrs. Stubtail We're
both out, and the rat looked around to
see what he could take away with him.
"Ah hat said the rat shifting so
hard that his whiskers wiggled. Il
think I'll take that nice honey pudding
! see in the kitchen"
Well the rat was going out to take
the honey pudding, which Mrs. Stubtall
had baked for supper, when, all OF a
sudden, as the bad creature went past
the chair near the dolls crib. the rat
saw the dolls eyes looking at him. The
eyes were big and round and staring,
and looked ever so much larger outside
the dolls head than inside. Right at
the bad rat the dolls eyes steadily
looked, never blinking once, and the
rat was afraid, and cried out:
ooh, didn't think any one would see
me take the honey pudding, but here
are eyes looking right at me! l guess
had better be good. I'll run away"
And out of the cave the rat ran, not
taking a single thing, and the dolls
eyes kept on staring straight ahead, to
sec if the rat came back, but he cid
not
Then, pretty soon, Neddie came with
Or. Postum and the animal doctor soon
fixed the eyes back in Beckie's doll,
and glued her hair on her head again,
so she was as good as ever and could
blink forty-leven times minute if she
had to- And when Beckie came in the
cave her doll was sleeping as pace
fully as ever, just as if nothing had
happened.
And only the dolls eyes knew about
the bad rat, that had been scared from
taking tho honey pudding. but the eyes
never told, for they could only open
and shut. And Neddie never again ask
ed what made the eyes blink, for now
he knew, though Beckie did not, that
they were like a swinging door.
So the two bear children lived in the
cave and had lots of fun and the next
story is going to be about Neddie and
his rocking horse; that is, If the baby
doesn't sneeze and scare the goldfish,
so they jump into the bird cage and
eat up all the seeds.