to his situation on account of his excellent
writing.

Time passed on, and I suppose we all grew older, as I noticed from time
to time various changes that seemed to proceed from that cause. The
baby, for instance, though still going by the name of 'Baby,' had become
a strong able-bodied child, running alone, and very difficult to keep
out of mischief. The most effectual way of keeping her quiet was to
place me in her hands, when she would sit on the floor nursing me by the
hour together, while her mother and sister were at work.

Susan was become a tall strong girl, more notable than ever, and, like
Rose before her, she gradually bestowed less attention on me; so that I
was beginning to feel myself neglected, till on a certain birthday of
her little sister's, she declared her intention of making me over
altogether to the baby-sister for a birthday present. Then I once more
rose into importance, and found powers which I thought declining, still
undiminished. The baby gave a scream of delight when I was placed in her
hand as her own. Till then she had only possessed one toy in the world,
an old wooden horse, in comparison with which I seemed in the full bloom
of youth and beauty. This horse, which she called JACK, had lost not
merely the ornaments of mane and tail, but his head, one fore and one
hind leg; so that nothing remained of the once noble quadruped but a
barrel with the paint scratched off, rather insecurely perched upon a
stand with wheels. But he was a faithful animal, and did his work to the
last. The baby used to tie me on to his barrel, and Jack and I were
drawn round and round the kitchen with as much satisfaction to our
mistress, as in the days when I shone forth, in my gilt coach with its
four prancing piebalds.

But the baby's treatment of me, though gratifying from its cordiality,
had a roughness and want of ceremony that affected my enfeebled frame. I
could not conceal from myself that the infirmities I had observed in
other dolls were gradually gaining ground upon me. Nobody ever said a
harsh word to me, or dropped a hint of my being less pretty than ever,
and the baby called me 'Beauty, beauty,' twenty times a day; but still
I knew very well that not only had my rosy color and fine hair
disappeared, but I had lost the whole of one leg and half of the other,
and the lower joints of both my arms. In fact, as my worthy friend the
Pen observed, both he and I were reduced to stumps.

The progress of