THE TALKING DOLL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 974, 17 May 1930, Page 33

THE TALKING DOLL

Nelly came into the house after running an errand for her mother and found Grandfather sitting in the corner looking at her doll seriously. “Why, Grandfather,” cried Nelly laughingly. “I didn’t know you would play with a doll?" Grandfather looked up as if surprised: “Why, Nelly, Dolly and I have been telling each other our experiences. Didn’t she ever tell them to "No, Grandfather, Dolly never told me. What are they?” "Come over here and I'll tell you what Dolly told me,” said Grandfather. "Dolly said she was made in England by several different girls in a factory. A little girl, not much older than you. dressed her. Then she was placed with many other dolls in a wooden box and sent to the train. "The train carried Dolly many miles. Then she was taken from it and loaded upon a steamship. Dolly was packed near the outside of the 1 box and could peep through a crack, while she was taken upon the ship. The big box that she and here, sisters were in, was let down into a dark place called the hold. Mere all the boxes were piled up. It was so dark that she couldn't see anything but she knew when the ship began to move by the motion which she could feel.” "But wasn’t she afraid?" "Oh, no, Dolly wasn’t afraid. You see the box which she was in, was just like a boat for her, because it would float if thrown in the water. And she had so much company she wasn’t lonesome. But it wasn’t many days before the ship stopped. A sailor came down into the hold and the boxes were' taken out by a rope. How glad Dolly was when she came up on the deck of the ship and could see around. She knew that she must be looking at India, when she saw the land. llow she wanted to be taken out of the box!

"But her trip wasn’t over yet. She was taken to a great storehouse, where thousands of boxes were piled up and she knew that the toys must be stored here. Here she stayed for several weeks. At last a train carried her to a city. She was placed in a store with some of her sisters. Here she goi very tired of looking at the inside of the store and wished that some one Would buy her. How happy she was when you came along, bought her, and took her home!"

"What an experience!" cried Nelly But Dolly never told me about it!”

“Well, you see," said Grandfather, wisely, "you’ve got to listen very hard and do a lot of thinking before you can hear her. Run along and play now, for I’m going to take my nap,** he added, with a twinkle in his eye. And Nelly ran off with Dolly to tell her girl friend about Dolly’s experience.