next a Chinese mandarin, who nods his head at 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 by, 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. O, 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 how