his."

"Oh!" cried Sarah Jane, and she could say no more.

Serena, who was only a girl herself, dandled the doll impressively
before her bewildered eyes. It was dressed in a charming frock made from
a bit of Serena's best French calico. The frock was of a pale lilac
color with roses sprinkled over it, and was cut with a low neck and
short puffed sleeves.

"Now, Sarah Jane," said Serena, admonishingly, "there's one thing I want
to tell you: you mustn't carry this doll to school. If you do, you'll
lose it; and if you do, you won't get another very soon. It was a good
deal of work to make it. Now you mind what I say."

"Yes, ma'am," said Sarah Jane. It was not her habit to say ma'am to her
sister Serena, if she was twelve years older than she; but she did now,
and reached out impatiently for the doll.

"Well, you remember," said Serena. "If you take it to school and lose
it, it'll be the last doll you'll get."

And Sarah Jane said, "Yes, ma'am," again.

She had to go to bed directly, but she took the new doll with her; that
was not forbidden, much to her relief. And before she went to sleep she
had named her with a most flowery name, nothing less than Lily Rosalie
Violet May. It took her a long time to decide upon it, but she was
finally quite satisfied, and went to sleep hugging Lily Rosalie, and
dreamed about her next day's spelling lesson--that she failed and went
to the foot of the class.

It was singular, but for once a dream of Sarah Jane's came true. She
actually did miss in her spelling lesson the next day; and although she
did not go quite to the foot of the class, she went very near to it. But
if Sarah Jane was not able to spell _scissors_ correctly, she could have
spelled with great success Lily Rosalie Violet May. All the evening she
had been printing it over and over on a fly-leaf of her spelling-book.
She could feel no interest in scissors, which had no connection, except
a past one, with her beloved new doll.

Poor Sarah Jane lived such a long way from school that she had to carry
her dinner with her, so there was a whole day's separation, when she had
only possessed Lily Rosalie for a matter of twelve hours. It was hard.

She told some of her particular cronies about her, and described her
charms with enthusiasm, but it was not quite equal to displaying her in
person.

The little girls promised to come over and see the new doll just as soon
as their mothers would let them, and one, Ruth Gurney,