Indeed, she was both interested, and grieved. Interested to hear all
that her sister, Blanche, and the other children had to say, and grieved
because she could not understand why she could not at once begin to be a
little school girl.
In vain was she told that she was far too small to think of going to
school. She insisted that she was not so VERY little, and that she so
wished to go.
"Blanche did not go to school until she was much larger than you, dear,"
her mother had said, "and I think it would be far better for you to stay
at home this Winter. You can play school at home, and you can be the
teacher, and your two little kittens, and your dolls can be your
pupils."
"But I could play it nicer if I had been to school just a little while,"
said Dollie, "'cause then I'd know just how."
The rustic bridge upon which Polly and Lena had stood spanned the brook
that ran through the grove.
The grove was a wee bit of woodland so near to dwellings that it was
quite safe for children to play there.
Dollie Burton was so very small, however, that she had always played in
the lovely grounds that surrounded her home.
Whenever she had ventured farther, she had been with Blanche, but to-day
she had left the garden, and for the first time in her little life she
had run away!
It was something that Harry Grafton had said that had caused her to do
it.
"Why, Dollie, you'd feel lost if you went to school," he had said,
"'cause you've always played in your yard.
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