once more over the shining little table, and the friendly faces of
Pirlaps and Avrillia, and the glowing little kitchen, and out through
the little window, where the fog-bushes were making long blue shadows,
and the fairy lights danced on the silver snow.

Never before had she stayed so late. But neither had she ever had such
a lovely time.




Chapter VI
The Little Lost Laugh


Sara had always intended to take her dolls with her to the Garden, but
every morning before the sixth morning she forgot it. On the sixth
morning, however, her arms were so full of dolls that she could not
take off her dimples. She had not foreseen that difficulty.

She had not really intended to bring them all. But the Brown
Teddy-Bear looked so fiercely sad that she decided at the very outset
that she could not leave him. He was not really a doll, of course, but
as Sara kept him dressed in a kerchief and full skirt, he had the
effect of a doll--a sort of Wolf-Grandmother-of-Red-Ridinghood doll.
And the Billiken looked so cheerful that Sara decided that she must
surely take him along, to reward him for being so unfailingly
pleasant. And the Japanese doll had to go, because he was the newest,
and because he was the only one who was large enough to wear the pink
tulle lady-doll's hat Sara's aunt had sent her on her birthday. His