led it, and knew that we
should get an extra taste when it was ready for use. And after she had
put the upper crust on the pies, she would generally permit us to make
the fancy print around the edges with a fork, and then prick a figure
in the centre to let the steam escape while baking.

Sometimes she received a dollar apiece for these pies; and she had so
many customers for them and for such loaves of bread as she could
spare, that she often declared the farm was as good as a gold mine.

We were supposed not to play with dolls, consequently we durst not ask
any one to step around and see how our little house in the back yard
was weathering the storms, nor how the beloved nine in it were getting
along. Though only bottles of different sizes, to us they were dear
children, named after great personages whom the soldiers had taught us
to honor.

The most distinguished had cork stoppers for heads, with faces marked
on the sides, the rest, only wads of paper or cloth fastened on the
ends of sticks that reached down into the bodies. A strip of cloth tied
around each neck, below the bulge, served as make-believe arms,
suitable for all ordinary purposes, and, with a little assistance,
capable of saluting an officer or waving to a comrade.

We worried because they were clothed in fragments of cloth and paper
too thin for the season; and the very first chance we got, we slipped
out and found our darlings in a pitiable plight. Generals Washington
and Jackson, and little Van Buren were mired at the foot of a land
slide from the overhanging bank. Taylor, Webster, Clay, and Benton had
been knocked down and buried almost out of sight. Martha Washington's
white shawl and the chicken plumes in her hat were ruined; and Dandy
Jim from North Carolina lay at her feet with a broken neck!

Such a shock! Not until we realized that everything could be restored
was our grief assuaged--that is, everything but Dandy Jim. He was a
serious loss, for he was our only black bottle and had always been kept
to wait on Martha Washington.

We worked fast, and had accomplished so much before being called into
the house that we might have put everything in order next day, had
Georgia not waked up toward morning with a severe cold, and had grandma
not found out how she caught it. The outcome was that our treasures
were taken to the store-room to become medicine and vinegar bottles,
and we mourned like birds robbed of their young.

New duties were ope