This is a sad story, as you might well know. But sad things will take
place now and then, and we cannot help it. It is a story about a little
boy, named Peter. That was to be his name when he grew up, but now
nobody called him anything but Pete.
Pete had had a bad fall when a little baby and it left him with a weak
back, so that he could not run and romp like the rest of the small boys.
He had toys to play with, but they were not nice or new, and he soon
tired of them. What he wanted most was a doll. Really? Yes. He was
ashamed to let the boys know it for fear they would call him “Sissy,”
but deep down in his heart there was a strong desire for a doll to hug,
and to hold, and to take to bed with him.
One day a lady came to the house, and somehow she guessed just what kind
of a boy Pete was. Without saying a word, she took a small shawl off a
hook, gave it a fold and a roll, pinned it together and then handed it
over to the small boy.
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You should have seen Pete’s face! There was not room on it for the broad
smile that tried to get there, and finally had to break itself all up
into little bits. Oh, how he hugged and loved that doll! and he soon got
so he did not mind being seen on the street with it in his arms. There
was no danger of breaking it; and it could sit down bea—u—ti—fully.
One day Pete thought he would try to climb a lamp-post. He had seen the
other boys do it, and it looked easy, but he would need two hands. So
the doll—Matilda Jane—had to sit down on a stoop near by, and wait until
Pete came back for her.
Well, it was not long; but when Pete got back to the place where Matilda
Jane was he could not find her.
She was go——o——o——ne! Somebody had stolen her!
Pete was heart-broken. He cried, and cried, and cried. He should never
see his own dear Matilda Jane again! And the worst of it was that he
wouldn’t know her if he saw her. Even his mother laughed, and said “Oh,
it was only an old shawl. No great loss!”
But Pete’s heart was wrapped up in that shawl and that is what makes
this a sad story. He might have other dolls, but none that would take
the place of his Matilda Jane.