Perhaps you wonder what makes the bird come out at just the right
time. It is done by certain machinery inside the clock. But,
however it is, old people as well as children seem to enjoy the
cuckoo-clocks of Germany.

"Some day, when you are older, you shall go to the fair at Easter
time," Bertha's father has promised her.

"Is that at Leipsic, where our Santa Claus images go?" asked his
little daughter.

"Yes, my dear, and toys from many other parts of our country. There
you will see music-boxes and dolls' pianos and carts and trumpets and
engines and ships. These all come from the mining-towns.

"But I know what my little Bertha would care for most. She would
best like to see the beautiful wax dolls that come from Sonneberg."

"Yes, indeed," cried Bertha. "The dear, lovely dollies with yellow
hair like mine. I would love every one of them. I wish I could go
to Sonneberg just to see the dolls."

"I wonder what makes the wax stick on," said Gretchen, who came into
the room while her father and Bertha were talking.

"After the heads have been moulded into shape, they are dipped into
pans of boiling wax," her father told her. "The cheap dolls are
dipped only once, but the expensive ones have several baths before
they are finished. The more wax that is put on, the handsomer the
dolls are.