"The very prettiest plaything you ever had in your life," he answered, with a smile.
Mamie clapped her hands. "Can Maggie and Bessie come too?" she asked, turning to Mrs. Bradford.
"Not to-day," said Mrs. Bradford, "but they shall come soon."
Mamie went away with her father, while Maggie and Bessie stood and watched her as she went skipping along by his side, looking very happy and eager.
But when an hour or two later they went down on the beach and found Mamie, she seemed anything but happy. Indeed, she looked as if nothing pleasant had ever happened to her in her life. She was sitting on a stone, the marks of tears all over her cheeks and now and then giving a loud, hard sob. It was more than sulkiness or ill-humor; any one who looked at the child could see that she was really unhappy. Martha, her nurse, was sitting a little way off knitting, and not taking the least notice of her.
Maggie and Bessie ran up to her. "What is the matter, Mamie?" asked Maggie.
"My nose is broken," sobbed Mamie, "and my father and mother don't love me any more."
"Oh," exclaimed Maggie, paying attention only to the first part of Mamie's speech, "how did it get broken?"
"Baby did it."