So I treasured in my office the shabby copy I had found in the old library, hoping that some day something would happen that would give to all our children the fun of reading the charming story. That something has happened at last.

Miss Seaman, as delighted as I with the London Doll’s “Memoirs,” has persuaded The Macmillan Company to bring out a new edition of the old story; and to make everything as nice as possible the new volume is to be of the same size as the original book and its pages are to be printed in the same type. Only the pictures will be different, and very much prettier than the old pictures. I feel certain that Maria would approve of the new dress in which her story appears.

I expect that when boys glance at the title they will immediately decide that this story cannot possibly be interesting to them. They will miss some good entertainment if they make that mistake. Maria Poppet was no ordinary, coddled baby-girl doll, but a young person who saw more interesting sights in a short time than falls to the lot of one boy in a thousand.

I am quite sure that whoever reads this story to the last page will close the book eager to read at once “Memoirs of a Country Doll” which Maria hoped would sometime be made public. Alas! I fear no search in the bookshops of London or New York would bring to light that story. I suspect that the Country Doll, like many people we know, was better at telling a story to her friends than in setting it down on paper.

Clara Whitehill Hunt

CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction[ v]
Chapter I My Making[ 1]
“ II My First Mamma[ 11]
“ III Twelfth-Night[ 23]
“ IV The Little Milliners[ 35]
“ V My First Frock and Trousers[ 41]
“ VI The Little Lady[ 51]
“ VII The West End of the Town[ 60]
“ VIII A Narrow Escape[ 67]
“ IX Doll’s Letters[ 79]
“ X Playing with Fire[ 88]
“ XI The Portrait Painter[ 97]
“ XII Punch and Judy[ 104]
“ XIII The City[ 111]
“ XIV The Lord Mayor’s Show[ 124]
“ XV The Lost Bracelet[ 134]
“ XVI The New Grand Christmas Pantomime[ 143]
“ XVII Conclusion[ 166]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mr. Punch Tossed the Baby out of the Window[ Frontispiece]
PAGE
I Was so Frightened! I Thought He Would Break Something Off Me[ 7]
The Old Gentleman, Pastry-Cook and Great Cake-Maker Himself[ 31]
And These I Always Had On When We Went Out[ 53]
I Fell Straight into It[ 75]
They Worked as Long as They Could See Opposite page [ 48]
Off We Went to the Tune of “I’d Be a Butterfly”[ 119]
His Walk and Air Were Like All the Pride of Earth Put into One Chemist’s Bottle[ 155]