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Show ffi? Daddy's LS'eixiixg fairy Tale yAARY GRAHAM BONNER THE LACE DOLL Beatrice had never before been to big city. It was a great event when her father and mother told her they were goinj to take her for a visit with them to a very, very big plaee. lScatrloe parked her bug a little si raw bag which Santa Clans had given to her the Christ mm before. It was such a nice Ktraw bag, very light ' and easy to carry and yet It held Quite a Beatrice Packed 0,,(1 dpHl' ,0-I ,0-I Her Bag. particularly so If you pnalied everything every-thing In hard enough. The Imj! was of green and tan straw, and this was the first time It hud been tuken away on a trip. Ileatrlce began pucklng a week before, be-fore, but she kept putting more and more thine In each day, until the bag was very queer looking with Its sides bulging out In all directions. And then she didn't hare all the things In she renlly needed at all. So the day before they started she took everything out and packed all over at;uin. Of course her rag dull had to go along and so did the toy monkey, but she decided to leave the rest of her dolls at home. There was no room for them, and they were a little too young to be taken on such s trip after all. They could go later, she told them, when they were older. They were very good about It, too. They didn't act disappointed or sulky in the least. Then she put In her little rubber bag with a toothbrush and sponge and all the little things she needed every night and every morning, tier brush and comb oh, there were a number of these odds and ends which Beatrice knew must be taken along. There was her best dress and hat but her mother had said she would take those. So Beatrice put handkerchief and stockings and little things In her bag. At last they reached the big city. It was the strangest place In the world. There were Just crowds and crowds of streets and cars and motors and people all the time. At night there was a constant noise a (iieer humming sound quite unlike the sounds of the crickets and the owls find the leaves of the trees swishing and laughing ns they thought of things to say to each other. The next day they went shopping The shops, too, were crowded. And Beatrice began to feel homesick for the country and her own friends and the places she knew. But now her mother said they were going to visit a toy shop. It was a dream shop. Beatrice had, Actually, to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn't asleep. There was everything in this shop. There were all the toys one could ever think of and so many more besides. be-sides. But of all the wonderful toys a little doll, a tiny china doll with a dress made of china lace filled her heart with longing. Oh. if she could own that doll, she would be perfectly, p'-rfectly happy always. al-ways. She stood looking at It, not noticing that she had forgotten to follow her mother who had ne to look at i some bigger dolls. And then, something some-thing more wonderful won-derful than any dream happened to her. A kindly man looked down at her. and said: "Little girl, do you like that doll?" "Oh, I think It's the most beautiful thing I've ever I seen in all my life. . ... I I adore It." Sh Stood Uook- I ! "Maybe you'd in8 st ll- like to own It," the kindly man snld "Oh, I'm sure It's so beautiful li ' must cost dollars and dollars." , "No. It's not so very expensive It li ntther unusiisl but It needn't lie ex pensive at all. I'll give It to you." I "But how can you give It to me. j Are you so very, very rich?" !' "I ov n this shop," the kindly man j said, 'and I Ihink I know children. I ) know il.e little china lace doll will al- wnys he happy with you. so It ll I ! yours .'" |
