Pretty Polly Perkins

By ETHEL CALVERT PHILLIPS
Illustrated by EDITH F. BUTLER
Boston and New York HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1925
COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY ETHEL CALVERT PHILLIPS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
TO DR. GORDON KIMBALL DICKINSON MY FATHER’S FRIEND AND MINE
PRETTY POLLY PERKINS
Polly Perkins was a big rag doll, the prettiest, the softest, the most comfortable rag doll that ever belonged to a little girl.
Grandmother King made her for Patty, who was five years old and visiting Grandmother at the time, and this is just how it all happened.
In the first place, Patty fell downstairs. She was on her way to the kitchen where Grandmother was baking a cake, and in her arms she carried Isabel, the doll she loved the very best of all. Indeed, Isabel was the only doll that Patty had brought with her from home. She was a china dolly, with pretty golden curls and blue eyes that opened and shut, and she wore a blue dress with pockets, very much like one of Patty’s own.
Now, as I said, Patty was on her way downstairs with Isabel in her arms when suddenly she tripped and fell. Down the whole flight of stairs she went, bumping on every single step, it seemed, and landed in a little heap at the foot of the stairs.
Grandmother heard the sound of the fall, and came hurrying out of the kitchen with a cup full of sugar in one hand and a big spoon in the other.
‘My precious Patty! Are you hurt?’ cried Grandmother, picking Patty up and rubbing her back and rocking her to and fro all at the same time.