Adventures in Toyland Part 12

"I can't remember such a story," she said. "I think there must be very few."

"I am sorry for that," answered the little girl, disappointed. "I wanted very much to hear one."

"We must take things as they are," said the little lady cheerfully. "If I don't know many stories that are happy all the way through, I know plenty that are so at the beginning, or the middle, or the end; or even more than that."

"Which do you like best?" said the little girl.

"Oh, stories with a happy ending! You can forget that the beginning or middle has been sad, and you can go away smiling."

"Then tell me to-morrow a story that ends happily."

"If you will," said the little Marionette.

CHAPTER VIII

On the morrow, when the two met as usual, the Marionette said to the little girl:

"Good evening. I have thought of a story that will please you."

"Then I suppose it ends most happily, doesn't it?" asked Molly.

"Quite right," she replied. "I am going to tell you one that ends as happily as you could wish it to. You will, I am sure, be quite satisfied with the conclusion of: 'The Grocer and the Farthing Doll.'"

THE GROCER AND THE FARTHING DOLL

Never was there a love affair more perplexing than the love affair of the Grocer and the Farthing Doll. It puzzled the whole toy-shop; it even puzzled the two lovers themselves.

The affair was rather difficult to understand, but I will try to explain it to you as simply as I can.

Everyone knew that the Grocer and the Farthing Doll loved each other; the Grocer knew he loved the Farthing Doll, but he did not know that she loved him; the Farthing Doll knew that she loved the Grocer, but she didn't know if he loved her.

So everything was at a stand-still, and none of the other dolls knew how to bring the matter to a happy end. No one quite liked to interfere. And for these reasons: The Grocer was very proud and would take no advice, whilst the Farthing Doll was so sensitive that a single wrong word might cause her a serious illness. Again, the Grocer wouldn't ask the Farthing Doll to marry him because, being a proud Toy, he feared the humiliation of her saying "No." She, on her part, would not say much to help him, lest it should look as if she were forward.

It was thus that matters stood, when, walking along the counter one day, the Farthing Doll met the Grocer sauntering by with a sad face.

"Well!" she exclaimed, with a start of surprise. "Fancy seeing you here!"

"My shop is close by," he answered. "Don't you remember?"

"To be sure," she said. "How odd of me to forget."

"I'm very pleased to see you," said the Grocer.

"I am glad of that, for I have every wish to please you," said the Farthing Doll.

"Is that satisfactory?" he asked.

"It ought to be," she replied.

"I don't know," the Grocer said. "You may wish to please, without loving. For instance, you may try to please a turkey by giving him the best of grain. But that is not because you love him. It is merely because you wish to fatten him well for your Christmas dinner."

"Good-morning!" said the Farthing Doll coldly.

"Stay!" the Grocer cried. "I have an idea. We appear to have some difficulty in finding out the Truth. Let us go and hunt for it."

"Where is it to be found?" she asked.

"At the bottom of a Well, so I've heard."

"Then I suppose the first thing is to find the Well."

"Exactly so," he said. "Come, let us start." So they walked away hand in hand. They hunted all up and down the counter, and asked directions of many dolls. But never a Well could they find.

"See!" exclaimed the Farthing Doll at last; "here's a square thing that looks something like a Well. Go, open it and look down."

"What may be inside, though?" he said cautiously.

"Truth, Truth, you silly thing!" she said impatiently. "Go!"

So he went and opened the lid.

But it was not a Well at all. It was merely the abode of Jack-in-the-box, and when the Grocer looked in Jack jumped out. He jumped up so suddenly that he knocked the Grocer flat on his back.

The poor fellow got up and rubbed his head.

"One gets very hard blows sometimes in the search for Truth," he said ruefully.

"You shouldn't be in such a hurry," remarked Jack-in-the-box. "Take things more calmly, and ask the Policeman. Kindly shut up the lid of my box. I can't very well manage it myself, I'm so springy. Close it firmly, please, or I shall be jumping out again, and I don't want to do that. I wish to stay indoors to-day as much as possible, for I have a heavy cold in my head and am sneezing every two minutes."

"_That_ didn't do much good," said the Grocer when he had done as he was asked, and closed the lid of Jack's box.

"Let us find the Policeman," she said, holding out her hand.

"An excellent idea," he replied as he took it. "There he is, just outside that dolls' house.

"Constable," he said, "can you direct us to the Well with Truth at the bottom?"

"First to the right, second to the left, and keep on till you come to it," the policeman answered, without removing his eyes from the kitchen window.

"Not that I ever heard tell of any such Well," he added, putting his head inside and speaking to the Little China Doll within.