Just a Shabby Doll

The little girl tripped into the library one evening "to kiss papa good night." She found him with a doll in his hands, a shabby disreputable toy, which had never been of any great intrinsic value. It puzzled the little girl and she asked questions. The father was in a reminiscent mood that evening, so he took his little daughter on his knee, and told her the wonderful history of the shabby doll. It seems that years before a friendless little newsboy met a little girl who was beautiful and kind and rich. The boy was able to do some favors for the little girl, and she was so kindly in her appreciation of them that the boy decided nothing was too good for her. Therefore at Christmastime he wasted an extraordinary amount of money, he thinks now it was twenty cents, in the purchase of a doll, which seemed to him to be a thing of beauty. Well, the years passed, and the ragged newsboy grew up to be a fine, manly youth, while the little girl developed into a beautiful woman. They loved each o