my eyes to the light in the Pantheon Bazaar. How I came
there I know not; my conscious existence dates only from the moment in
which a silver-paper covering was removed from my face, and the world
burst upon my view. A feeling of importance was the first that arose in
my mind. As the hand that held me turned me from side to side, I looked
about. Dolls were before me, dolls behind, and dolls on each side. For a
considerable time I could see nothing else. The world seemed made for
dolls. But by degrees, as my powers of vision strengthened, my horizon
extended, and I perceived that portions of space were allotted to many
other objects. I descried, at various distances, aids to amusements in
endless succession,--balls, bats, battledores, boxes, bags, and baskets;
carts, cradles, and cups and saucers. I did not then know any thing of
the alphabet, and I cannot say that I have quite mastered it even now;
but if I were learned enough, I am sure I could go from A to Z, as
initial letters of the wonders with which I soon made acquaintance.

Not that I at once became aware of the uses, or even the names, of all I
saw. No one took the trouble to teach me; and it was only by dint of my
own intense observation that I gained any knowledge at all. I did not at
first even know that I was a doll. But I made the most of opportunities,
and my mind gradually expanded.

I first learned to distinguish human beings. Their powers of motion made
a decided difference between them and the other surrounding objects, and
naturally my attention was early turned towards the actions of the
shopwoman on whose stall I lived. She covered me and my companions with
a large cloth every night, and restored the daylight to us in the
morning. We were all perfectly helpless without her, and absolutely
under her control. At her will the largest top hummed, or was silent;
the whip cracked, or lay harmlessly by the side of the horse. She moved
us from place to place, and exhibited or hid us at her pleasure; but she
was always so extremely careful of our health and looks, and her life
seemed so entirely devoted to us and to our advantage, that I often
doubted whether she was our property or we hers. Her habits varied so
little from day to day, that after watching her for a reasonable time, I
felt myself perfectly acquainted with _her_, and in a condition to make
observations upon others of her race.

One day a lady and a little girl stopped at our stall.

'Oh, w