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Show Daddy's j :KEveiiig I fairy Tale j jyTAPSH GRAHAM BQNNER J T cornet v viwiu' mwm union - a ti, THE LACE DOLL $ Beatrice had never before been to a libig city. It was a great event when l f Beatrice Packed 1 Her Bag. her father ana mother told her they were going to take her for a visit with them to a very, very big place. Beatrice packed her bag a little straw bag which Santa Claus had given to her the Christmas before. It was such a nice straw bag, very light and easy to carry and yet It held quite a good deal, too particularly so If you pushed every thing In hnrd enough. The bag was of green and tan straw, J.and this was the first time It had been f' taken away on a trip. Beatrice began packing a week be- ., fore, but she kept putting more and p more things in each day, until the bag was very queer looking with Its sides bulging out in all directions. .. And then she didn't have all the r things In she really needed at all. 3 So the day before they started she 'took everything out and packed all over again. Of course her rag doll 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 a 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 nlghi and every morning. Her brush and comb oh, there were a number of ( these odds and ends which Beatrice , knew must be taken along. I There was her best dress and hat but her mother had said she would take those. r So Beatrice put handkerchiefs and , tockings and little things in her bag At last they reached the big city. Ii was the strangest place in the world. !' There were just crowds and crowcb t)f streets and cars and motors anc l .people all the time. At night there was a constant noisi - a queer humming sound quite unlik. the sounds of the crickets and the owb ' and the leaves of the trees swlshln). : and laughing as they thought of thing-to thing-to sny to each other. The next day they went shopping The shops, too, were crowded. An- :' Beatrice began to feel homesick fo the country and her own friends an ': the places she knew. But now her mother said they wer 1 going to visit a toy shop. It was a dream shop. Beatrice ha actually, to pinch herself to make sur that she wasn't asleep. There wa everything in this shop. , There were all the toys one coul ; ever think -of and so many more b , sides. i But Of all the wonderful toys a Httl , Joll, a tiny china doll with a dres made of china lace filled her hear . with longing. Oh, If she could own that doll, sh ' would be perfectly, perfectly happy ai ! ways. 1 She stood looking at it, not notlcln; ' that she had forgotten to follow he mother who had ;one to look at 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 seen In all my life. I adore it." "Maybe y o u'd Sh Stood Look-ing Look-ing at It. like to own It," the kindly man snld "Oh, I'm sure It's so beautiful 1 must cost dollars and dollars." "No, It's not so very expensive It I. ruther unusual but it needn't be ex pensive nt all. I'll give It to you." "But how can you give It to me Are you so very, very rich?" "I ovn this shop," the kindly mat. said, ''and I think I know children. 1 know the little china lace doll will al ways he happy with you, so it h yours !" |