Madame Bonnet had been born and brought up in the town of Green Valley and had never journeyed farther away than fifty miles. People were somewhat surprised, therefore, when, one fine day, the girl they had always known as Mary Bonnet had opened her little shop, and had raised over the front door a sign which boldly read, “Madame Bonnet.”
“There is French blood in me somewhere, I’m sure,” said she. “And I don’t see why I shouldn’t call myself ‘Madame,’ if I like.”
And now that Madame Bonnet was an old lady with white hair and spectacles, most people had forgotten that she had ever borne any other name.
“Phil,” said Susan, standing entranced before a low shelf, “won’t you come and look at this doll?”
In the center of a large square of cardboard was sewed a bisque doll, whose long flaxen braid hung over one shoulder and reached to the tips of her dimpled toes. Surrounding her, also sewed on the card, was her wardrobe, consisting of a pink dress, a pink hat, and a pair of pink kid boots, a similar costume in blue, a Red Riding Hood cape, and a green silk umbrella.
Susan fairly held her breath before this vision of loveliness. But Phil was spellbound at the other end of the shop—and no wonder.
In a long glass tube, full of water, was a little red imp, even to horns and tail, and, instructed by Susan how to press upon the rubber top, Phil soon learned to make the imp execute a gay dance or move slowly up and down in his narrow, watery prison.
“Come along,” urged Susan, tugging at Phil’s arm. “There are lots more things to see. Look at this little piano. It has four keys—tink-a-link-a-link! And here’s a swimming boy—how pretty he is!” And Susan carefully lifted the light little figure, who lay with rosy hands and feet outstretched all ready for a splash.
“I like the animals.”
And Phil paused before a table laden with small trays on each of which reposed a family of tiny bisque animals. There sat demure Mrs. Pussy and her five tortoise-shell kittens. Four timid little lambs huddled close to the Mother Sheep as if asking protection from a herd of big gray elephants, who, in turn, trumpeted silently with upturned trunks, at the disgrace of being placed next a placid family of black-and-white pigs. There were ducks and chickens, camels and donkeys, cows and horses—sitting, standing, and lying side by side in a peaceful and united frame of mind not often to be met with in this world.