d and thoughtful to all.

So the other Toys would often remark one to the other with surprise and
pleasure:

"Lo! how poor Claribelle hath been chastened by sorrow!"

"Poor, _poor_ Claribelle! I _am_ sorry for her!" said the little girl.

"She had, indeed, a severe lesson," answered the little Marionette.

"And did the Wagoner ever come back?"

"Never, never. He loved, but drove away."

"How sad!" sighed the little girl.

"Sad, indeed," said the Marionette. "Well, as I always say, let all
young ladies take warning by the story of Proud Claribelle, and then it
will not have been told in vain."

There was a pause.

Then the little girl said:

"Next time you tell me a story I should like it to be happy all through.
Happy, you know, from beginning to end."

The little Marionette thought a few moments, then shook her head.

"I can't remember such a story," she said. "I think there must be very
few."

"I am sorry for that," answered the little girl, disappointed. "I wanted
very much to hear one."

"We must take things as they are," said the little lady cheerfully. "If
I don't know many stories that are happy all the way through, I know
plenty that are so at the beginning, or the middle, or the end; or even
more than that."

"Which do you like best?" said the little girl.

"Oh, stories with a happy ending! You can forget that the beginning or
middle has been sad, and you can go away smiling."

"Then tell me to-morrow a story that ends happily."

"If you will," said the little Marionette.

CHAPTER VIII

On the morrow, when the two met as usual, the Marionette said to the
little girl:

"Good evening. I have thought of a story that will please you."

"Then I suppose it ends most happily, doesn't it?" asked Molly.

"Quite right," she replied. "I am going to tell you one that ends as
happily as you could wish it to. You will, I am sure, be quite satisfied
with the conclusion of: 'The Grocer and the Farthing Doll.'"

THE GROCER AND THE FARTHING DOLL

Never was there a love affair more perplexing than the love affair of
the Grocer and the Farthing Doll. It puzzled the whole toy-shop; it even
puzzled the two lovers themselves.

The affair was rather difficult to understand, but I will try to explain
it to you as simply as I can.

Everyone knew that the Grocer and the Farthing Doll loved each other;
the Grocer knew he loved the Farthing Doll, but he did not know that she
loved him; t