“Too bad about my talking and singing doll, that I got for Christmas,” said Susie. “She won’t sing any more. Something inside her is broken.”
“Broken? That’s too bad!” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “Let me see. What’s her name?”
“Sallieann Peachbasket Shortcake,” answered Susie.
“What a funny name,” laughed the bunny uncle.
Uncle Wiggily took Susie’s doll, which had been given her at Christmas, and looked at it. Inside the doll was a sort of phonograph, or talking machine—a very small one, you know—and when you pushed on a little button in back of the doll’s dress she would laugh and talk. But, best of all, when she was in working order, she would sing a verse, which went something like this:
“I hope you’ll like my little song,
I will not sing it very long.
I have two shoes upon my feet,
And when I’m hungry, then I eat.”
Uncle Wiggily wound up the spring in the doll’s side, and then he pressed the button—like a shoe button—in her back. But this time Susie’s doll did not talk, she did not laugh, and, instead of singing, she only made a scratchy noise like a phonograph when it doesn’t want to play, or like Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, when he has a cold in his head.