Annie and myself. Here we may review a whole army of horse and foot in
red-and-blue uniforms, with drums, fifes, trumpets, and all kinds of
noiseless music; they have halted on the shelf of this window after
their weary march from Liliput. But what cares Annie for soldiers? No
conquering queen is she--neither a Semiramis nor a Catharine; her
whole heart is set upon that doll who gazes at us with such a
fashionable stare. This is the little girl's true plaything. Though
made of wood, a doll is a visionary and ethereal personage endowed by
childish fancy with a peculiar life; the mimic lady is a heroine of
romance, an actor and a sufferer in a thousand shadowy scenes, the
chief inhabitant of that wild world with which children ape the real
one. Little Annie does not understand what I am saying, but looks
wishfully at the proud lady in the window. We will invite her home
with us as we return.--Meantime, good-bye, Dame Doll! A toy yourself,
you look forth from your window upon many ladies that are also toys,
though they walk and speak, and upon a crowd in pursuit of toys,
though they wear grave visages. Oh, with your never-closing eyes, had
you but an intellect to moralize on all that flits before them, what a
wise doll would you be!--Come, little Annie, we shall find toys
enough, go where we may.

Now we elbow our way among the throng again. It is curious in the most
crowded part of a town to meet with living creatures that had their
birthplace in some far solitude, but have acquired a second nature in
the wilderness of men. Look up, Annie, at that canary-bird hanging out
of the window in his cage. Poor little fellow! His golden feathers are
all tarnished in this smoky sunshine; he would have glistened twice as
brightly among the summer islands, but still he has become a citizen
in all his tastes and habits, and would not sing half so well without
the uproar that drowns his music. What a pity that he does not know