roe, drive up to the
door.
Afterwards they heard how a wood-cutter had found Jenny crying, over on
the east side of the mountain, at sunset, and had taken her home with
him. He lived five miles from the village, and was an old man, not able
to walk so far that night to tell them of her safety. His wife had been
very good to the child. About eleven o'clock some of the searchers had
met the old man plodding along the mountain-road with the news.
They did not stop for this now. They shouted to Jenny to "come in,
quick!" They pulled her with soft violence into the room where they had
been at work. Then the child stood with her hands clasped, staring at
the Christmas-tree. All too far away had she been searching for it. The
Christmas-tree grew not on the wild mountainside, in the lonely woods,
but at home, close to warm, loving hearts; and that was where she found
it.
WHERE SARAH JANE'S DOLL WENT
In the first place, Sarah Jane had no right to take the doll to school,
but the temptation was too much for her. The doll was new--it was, in
fact, only one day old--and such a doll! Rag, of course--Sarah Jane had
heard only vague rumors of other kinds--but no more like the ordinary
rag doll than a fairy princess is like a dairy-maid. The minute that
Sarah Jane saw it she knew at once that there never had been such a
doll. It was small--not more than seven or eight inches tall--not by any
means the usual big, sprawling, moon-faced rag baby with its arms
standing out at right angles with its body. It was tiny and genteel in
figure, slim-waisted, and straight-backed. It was made of, not common
cotton cloth, but linen--real glossy white linen--which Sarah Jane's
mother, and consequently the doll's grandmother, had spun and wove. Its
face was colored after a fashion which was real high art to Sarah Jane.
The little cheeks and mouth were sparingly flushed with cranberry juice,
and the eyes beamed blue with indigo. The nose was delicately traced
with a quill dipped in its grandfather's ink-stand, and though not quite
as natural as the rest of the features, showed fine effort. Its little
wig was made from the fine ravellings of Serena's brown silk stockings.
Serena was Sarah Jane's married sister, who lived in the next house
across the broad green yard, and she had made this wonderful doll. She
brought it over one evening just before Sarah Jane went to bed. "There,"
said she, "if you'll be a real good girl I'll give you t
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