CHAPTER III
THE LITTLE GIRL
Into the store came a little girl, her mother, and a little boy. They took their places in the elevator and were lifted up, just like a balloon, only different, of course.
“May we stop in the toy department, Mother?” asked the little girl. “I want to look at some dolls.”
“What for?” asked the boy.
“Because my birthday is next week, Dick,” answered the little girl, whose name was Dorothy. “It’s my birthday, and maybe I’ll get a doll then, or for Christmas.”
“It isn’t my birthday until after Christmas,” said Dick. “But I don’t want a doll either of those times.”
“What do you want?” asked Mother, smiling at her two children as she left the elevator with them. “What would you like, Richard?” she asked; for that was Dick’s real name.
“A rocking horse,” he answered. “I’d like a big rocking horse, and then I could make believe I was a soldier captain going to war.”
“Yes, we’ll look through the toy department,” promised the mother, and then happy looks came over the faces of Dick and Dorothy.
On the shelves and counters where, a little while before in the half-darkness, the Sawdust Doll, the Calico Clown, and the other toys had had such fun, they now sat or stood, as stiff as the ramrod in the gun of the Tin Soldier. Not one of them moved, and the White Rocking Horse just stared straight in front of him, looking at the blackboard.
“Oh, Mother, here are the dolls!” cried Dorothy, and she pointed to a shelf back of the counter on which the Calico Clown stood near the Bold Tin Soldier. “See the dolls on the shelves! Oh, what pretty ones!”
“Would you like to look at the dolls?” asked the girl behind the counter. She worked in the store, and now she lifted down the Sawdust Doll who had, only an hour or so before, been riding on the back of the White Rocking Horse.
“Here is a very pretty doll,” said the girl clerk, who was pretty herself. “Her eyes open and shut.”
“And they’re brown, too, just like Dick’s!” whispered the little girl to her mother, as she took the doll in her arms. “Oh, please may I have her?”
“I’ll see,” answered the mother, and from the way she said this, and because of the smile on her face and the look in her eyes, the little girl clapped her hands. I think she knew her mother was going to get her the doll she wanted.
For a moment the Sawdust Doll thought the little girl was going to buy her and take her home.
“I’d just love to go with her,” thought the Sawdust Doll to herself. “She looks like a kind, good little girl, and I’m sure she wouldn’t leave me out in the rain all night to get soaked through. I wonder if I shall go to her house to live?”
“Dear me!” thought the Tin Captain to himself, “I hope the Sawdust Doll isn’t going to leave. I shall be lonesome if she goes.”
Just then there was a shout and some jolly laughter down on the floor of the toy department.
“Oh, this is what I want! This is what I want!” cried Dorothy’s brother, Dick. “Here’s the White Rocking Horse I want!”
And the next moment he had leaped to the saddle, and then he rocked to and fro on the back of the white horse. The stirrups jingled and the boy shook the reins that were fast in the wooden mouth of the horse.
“Gid-dap, White Rocking Horse!” cried the boy. “I’m a cowboy! Gid-dap!”
“I thought you were going to be a soldier captain,” said the little girl, who had run from the doll counter when she heard her brother’s joyous laughter.
“I’ll be a cowboy part of the time and a soldier the other part,” he said. “And if you get a doll, Dorothy, I’ll let her ride on my horse. Please, Mother, buy me this!” he begged.
“Not now, Dick,” was Mother’s answer. “But, if you like, you may write Santa Claus a letter telling him you’d like this horse for Christmas.”
“Oh, I’ll do that!” cried the boy.
All day long boys and girls and fathers and mothers and uncles, aunts and cousins came to the toy department to look, and some bought different things which they took away with them, or had sent.
And though many dolls and clowns and candy rabbits and monkeys on sticks were taken from the shelves or the counters, the particular friends about whom I have told you were not sold. Once a lady came in, and the Calico Clown was taken up and shown to her.
“No, I believe I will not buy one to-day,” said the lady.
“Oh, I’m so glad!” thought the Calico Clown to himself. “When I’m bought I want to be bought by a boy or a girl. I can have more fun with them.”
And so the day passed. It began to get dark and lights glowed in the store. The stream of shoppers thinned out, and the tired girls who waited behind the counters put away their aprons and left for home. The porters began to sweep, and then the lights were put out one by one and only the watchman was left in the store.
“Well, another day has gone!” said the Sawdust Doll, as she sat up and waved her hand to the Bold Tin Soldier.
“Yes, and it came nearly being your last day with us,” remarked the Calico Clown. “I heard what the little girl said. I believe she is going to take you away.”
“Well, I shall be sorry to leave you, my friends, of course,” said the Sawdust Doll. “But that little girl looked kind and good. I should not mind if she owned me.”
“Her brother was a jolly chap, too,” said the White Rocking Horse. “He jumped on my back and had a ride, but he was very gentle with me. If I go to anybody, I hope I go to him.”
“Yes, you two seem to be going to have nice homes,” said the Candy Rabbit. “I hope I find as good a place.”
“So do I,” said the Calico Clown. “Well, all I want is to make some one jolly! That’s the life for me! Whoop de-doodle-do!” and he banged his cymbals and shouted, as he could do, for there were no boys or girls or grown folks there to watch.
“What was that joke you were going to tell us about an ear of corn?” asked the Sawdust Doll. “May we not hear it now? Let’s be jolly again! Let’s have another party! Soon we may part, perhaps never to meet again,” and she spoke rather sadly.
“Oh, don’t say that!” begged the Tin Soldier, as he polished his sword on his sleeve. “Don’t say that!” and he looked at the Sawdust Doll.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” laughed the Calico Clown. “Here’s a joke! How does the lima bean succotash know when it’s time for dinner?”
“Pooh! I don’t call that a joke,” said the White Rocking Horse. “How can succotash know when it’s time for dinner?”
“Because it hears the bell with the ear of corn!” laughed the clown. “That’s the time I fooled you! Well, now let’s have another party!” he went on, jumping down from his shelf and pulling the tail of the Monkey on a Stick.
“I hope the old rat doesn’t come again,” said the Sawdust Doll.
The toys were having grand fun again, and the Bold Tin Soldier was helping the Candy Rabbit up on the back of the White Rocking Horse for a ride, when, all of a sudden, the door of the toy department opened and a big man came in.
“Oh! Oh!” shrieked the Sawdust Doll, and the Calico Clown jumped behind the Jack-in-the-Box so quickly that his cymbals rattled on the wooden nose of the Lamb on Wheels.