cornstalks. In their hurry they had to stop to breathe now and then,
all but one Doll whose mouth was always open. They reached a little
stream and ran along its border, and never stopped till they came to
a shady place among some trees, by mossy rocks. Here they might be
safe, and here they stopped to think.

Hunger was their first sensation. One of the dolls drew from her
pocket a pewter gridiron, which she had snatched from the kitchen fire
when they fled, the night before. There were three fish on it, one
red, one yellow, one blue. These they shared, and were satisfied for a
little while. How lovely was the spot, they began to say. How charming
it would be to set up housekeeping among the rushes. It was even
suggested that, from time to time, one of them might return to the
deserted baby-house, and bring from it comfortable furniture--a dish
here, a flat-iron there. But in the midst of their cheerful talk, a
terrible accident!

The Spanish Doll was thirsty, and leaning over the edge of a brook,
she lost her balance, and fell into the water! The exhausted dolls all
rushed to the rescue. All their efforts were vain; but a large
Bull-frog kindly came to help, and lifted the Spanish Doll's head from
the stream, and propped it up against the reeds. But what a state she
was in! The bright color washed from her cheeks, her raven hair all
dimmed, the lustre of her eyes all gone. A fashionable Doll in vain
attempted consolation, suggesting the greater charms of light hair and
rats; in vain did the Large Doll speak of the romance of the
adventure, and call the Bullfrog their Don Quixote; a heavy gloom hung
over all. It was the Spanish Doll that had led them on, that had kept
up their spirits; now hers had failed, and with her feet still in the
water, she leaned her head wearily against the reeds.