“ ‘Hard-hearted wretch!’ growled the Dowager Doll.
“ ‘Dip her in water and leave her to soak on a white soup plate,’ said the paint-box; ‘if that doesn’t soften her feelings, deprive me of my medal from the School of Art.’
“ ‘Give her a stiff neck!’ muttered the mandarin. ‘Ching Fo! give her a stiff neck.’
“ ‘Knock her teeth out,’ growled the rake in a scratchy voice; and then the tools joined in chorus.
“ ‘Take her out when its fine and leave her out when it’s wet, and lose her in——’
“ ‘The coal hole,’ said the spade.
“ ‘The hay field,’ said the rake.
“ ‘The shrubbery,’ said the hoe.
“This difference of opinion produced a quarrel, which in turn seemed to affect the general behavior of toys, for a disturbance arose which the Jack-in-a-box vainly endeavored to quell. A dozen voices shouted for a dozen different punishments and (happily for me) each toy insisted upon its own wrongs being the first to be avenged, and no one would hear of the claims of any one else being attended to for an instant. Terrible sentences were passed, which I either failed to hear through the clamor then, or have forgotten now. I have a vague idea that several voices cried that I was to be sent to wash in somebody’s pocket; that the work-basket wished to cram my mouth with unfinished needlework; and that through all the din the thick voice of my old leather ball monotonously repeated:
“ ‘Throw her into the dust-hole.’