"Only seven, lady," said Mrs. Callahan. "Peggy and John Edward and
Elmore and Susie and Lois and Bud and the baby."
"Ah! Only seven! And their ages?"
"Peggy she's near on 'leven and the baby's a year old this last gone
November and the others are scattered 'long between," explained Mrs.
Callahan.
"And what--" Miss Drayton smiled back at Lois and Bud and the
baby--"must I tell Santa Claus to bring you for Christmas, if I happen
to see him?"
"A doll, lady, please," answered Mrs. Callahan, eagerly, "a gre't big
doll--big as that baby--pretty as a picture--open-and-shut eyes--real
hair and curly. Lady, they'd rather have a real elegant doll than
anything in the world."
"Oh, but not the boys," protested Miss Drayton.
"Yessum--boys and girls and pa and me--all of us," insisted Mrs.
Callahan. "Lump us so as to make it splendiferous. Oh, bless you,
'tain't for us. It's for the little girl that lent us the loan of her
doll to get Lois to take her medicine. And the doll got ruint. Miss
Margery--that's the Charity lady--she's awful cross sometimes--said we
shouldn't buy a doll with the wages. But she couldn't fault a present. I
never see a child love a doll like she did that Honey-Sweet.
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