Then the next was quickly opened. Another little china leg, this time with a foot encased in a black gaiter boot, with a straw-colored sole to it—all painted on, of course.
The third parcel contained a china head and neck, very pretty, and quite perfect.
"Oh," cried Alice, "what a pretty doll's head! only she has no seam to her hair. It must be because she is a secession doll."
"We laughed, and wondered what it meant, till we noticed that one of the papers had something written on it. They were printed pages, and seemed to be a report of something; but one of them had a blank side, and on this was written in faint pencil marks—
"Camp near Harrison's Landing,}
August 12, 1862. }"My Dear Father:
"This, with its accompanying parcel, will be handed to you by a comrade, who has gone home ill. The parcel contains the head and legs of a porcelain doll. I picked them up last week, when out scouting with the regiment, on the right bank of the James river. They had been taken, I suppose, from one of the houses of an F. F. V., and dropped again. I found them on the estate of the Ruffin family, one of whom fired the first gun at Sumter.
"Give it to Alice, with my love, and let her place it in disgrace among her numerous family as 'Miss Secesh.' I will write you by mail to-day or to-morrow.
"Your affectionate son,
"John."
"Oh!" said Alice, "I am sorry for the little girl that lost her doll; but I'm glad I've got it. What a good uncle John, to send it to me!"—and she immediately whirled round and made two cheeses, in honor of the event.
"How many dolls will that make?" inquired Grandpa.
"Let me see," she answered, thinking, with her finger on her lip. "Forty-one paper dolls. Then there is Willie, my small china doll; Anna, my large china doll; Baby, my wax doll, that cries, and opens and shuts its eyes; Genevieve Virginie, my new porcelain doll; and Miss Secesh.
"Bless me!" said Grandpa, "what a family to look after! You ought to write down the day you got Miss Secesh—twenty-fourth of August."