"Yes," answered her sister Alice, "Wasn't it nice in Uncle Frank to give us each two dollars to spend. It's much nicer to buy your own present, I think."
They were looking in the window of the toy shop as they spoke and both little girls at once spied our two friends in the comer of the window.
"I am going to buy that dear little Japanese doll," said Bessie.
"And I want that cute little Messenger Boy," said Alice.
The Japanese Lady and the Messenger Boy looked very happy at this, for they thought it would be very nice to go to live with two such dear little sisters. So they smiled and nodded at Bessie and Alice, but the little girls never saw it. This was not strange, for they had never heard that all the dolls come to life on Christmas Eve.
Now all the time the two small sisters had been admiring the dolls, there were two other children who were looking at them just as eagerly, but who were very different in appearance from Bessie and Alice. For these children were very poor indeed and did not expect to have any doll at all on Christmas morning. They lived away down in East Fourteenth Street with their big sister. Their mother and father were dead and the only one they had to take care of them was this good big sister who loved her two little sisters very dearly and did all she could for them. They all lived together in two little rooms, and Maggie, who was ten, did all the housekeeping, while Annie, who was eight, helped her as much as she could. They had just been to the great department store where the big sister worked and had left some supper for her, because this night she would have to work until half-past eleven.
They were now on their way home, but although they were very cold and shivered through the thin garments they wore, they had to stop to see the beautiful dolls.
"Oh, jest look at this little doll in the purple dress, ain't she grand! See the little yeller butterflies all over her! I wisht I could have her for Chrissmus," said Maggie.
"I'd ruther have the little boy in the blue suit," answered Annie. "He looks jest like a fair messenger boy. Ain't he cute?"
And the two children pressed their faces against the window in profound admiration of the wonderful dolls. After a while they moved away.