The little Queen then mounted the steps and gave them a short lecture. She told them how kind they ought always to be to their dolls—just as kind as they wished their mammas to be to them.
She said that when she went from house to house gathering up all the old dollies to have them made like new, she was shocked to see the condition of some of them. One had a hopeless crack in its head, because its mamma got cross and threw it up to the ceiling. Some of them were naked, and most of them were very dirty. Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke of the poor little dead one; and she said she could always tell what kind of heart a little girl had by the way she treated her doll. Those who made the sweetest and tenderest mammas were those who had taken the most loving care of their dollies when they were little girls. She wanted them to begin over, and see who could be the best mother during the few weeks that followed.
Then they all sat on the grass, and Dinah appeared with cunning glasses of lemonade and tiny sandwiches, and they enjoyed this almost more than the lecture. When they had finished the Queen said good-by, telling them to enjoy each other while they could, as this bliss was to last but a month.
Only little girls with live dolls can know of the happiness that followed. It was no uncommon thing to see dolls playing “ring-around-a-rosy” and “hide-and-seek,” or jumping ropes and rolling hoops. Janie never tired of watching them, and she and her precious doll had many romps.
The dolls playing “ring-around-a-rosy”