and
shutting her eyes. When Mortals were about, she could not do it unless
they helped by pulling a wire. But when once the shop was closed, and
the toys, left to themselves, could move at pleasure, _then_ Belinda
pulled her own wires and opened and shut her eyes as she pleased. She
did this in so simple and unaffected a fashion that it delighted
everyone to see her.

"What simplicity! what delightful simplicity!" said the other toys.
"'Tis really charming!"

"Singularly simple," repeated the Butcher, who always stood at the door
of his shop, watching for the customers that so seldom came. "She is
like an innocent lamb," he added, his thoughts turning to his trade; "a
simple, harmless lamb."

"Elle est tres gentille, la petite Belinde," remarked Mademoiselle
Cerise, the French doll just arrived from Paris. "Elle est une jeune
fille fort bien elevee; elle ferme les yeux d'une facon vraiment
ravissante."

"Here we are again, Simplicity and Self!" said the Clown, turning a
somersault and landing by Belinda's side with a broad grin upon his
face.

She made no reply, but instantly closed her eyes. She was not quite sure
but that he was laughing at her, so she thought it more prudent not to
see him.

"There! did you notice?" ... "Wasn't it pretty and simple?" said all the
Toys to one another as they looked at Belinda.

I must, however, make an exception when I say "all" the Toys. There was
one who did not utter a word. This was Jack, the curly-headed
Sailor-Boy, who was deeply in love with Belinda. He was so unhappy about
the matter that he feared to speak of her lest in so doing the thought
of his sorrow should make him shed unmanly tears in public.

I will tell you the cause of his grief. He could not make her see how
much he loved her. Whenever he came near her she immediately closed her
eyes. So that it did not matter what expression he assumed, it was all
wasted on Belinda. He worried himself about it very much.

"Is it," said he to himself, "because she doesn't happen to see, or
because she doesn't wish to see? How can I make her open her eyes? Shall
I speak to her coldly or gently, with mirth or with melancholy, in
poetry or in prose?"

"I will be poetical," he resolved; "I will sing her a song of love. That
may induce her to open her eyes."

Now Jack was only a simple Sailor-Lad; he knew little music and less
poetry. A few sea-songs and one or two little ballads, these were all he
had to trust to, and