‘Captain Ball’s? What for?’ asked Sally.
Alice, winking away a tear, listened to what Mother had to say.
‘To buy a new doll for Alice,’ was Mother’s answer.
‘A Nancy Lee?’ cried Sally, spinning round on one toe. ‘Mother, will you buy Alice a Nancy Lee?’
‘If that is the doll Alice wants,’ said Mother, with a smile at Alice’s April face.
‘Do you?’ asked Sally, catching her friend by the arm. ‘Do you want a Nancy Lee like mine?’
And Alice, with shining eyes, answered, ‘I would rather have a Nancy Lee than any other doll in all the world.’
CHAPTER III
JOLLY JACK TAR
Captain Ball kept a toy shop, and all he had for sale were dolls and ships.
He fashioned the toys himself, carved out of wood by his keen jack-knife and painted to suit his own fancy, while his sister, Miss Betsy Ball, made the clothes for the dolls and the sails for the ships quite as well as any dressmaker or sailmaker in town.