St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 2/Trouble in the Doll's House

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St. Nicholas, Volume 32, Number 2 (1904)
edited by Mary Mapes Dodge
Trouble in the Doll’s House by Ellen Manly
4078546St. Nicholas, Volume 32, Number 2 — Trouble in the Doll’s HouseMary Mapes DodgeEllen Manly
"Trouble in the Doll's House"

By Last Year’s Christmas Dolly


On, dear! I ’m in such trouble I don’t know what to say!
I heard somebody talking of a Christmas doll to-day!
I ’m quite upset about it, for if Santa Claus should bring
Another doll to our house, 't would be a dreadful thing!
I ’m certain no one wants her, and I don’t see any need,
For I am just a Christmas doll myself—I am indeed!

Perhaps you don’t believe it, but I know it cannot be
A year since I was hanging on a lovely Christmas tree,
And I ’m sure I ’m still a treasure for any little girl—
Though my nose is somewhat patted and my hair is out of curl;
My broken arm ’s been mended, and the eye that ’s left, you know,
Is just as blue and smiling as it was a year ago!

If another doll should come here, all beautifully dressed,
And my mama should love her a little bit the best,
My heart would just be broken, for little May and I
Have been such happy playmates in the year that ’s just gone by!
And I ’m very sure no stranger, however fine and new.
Could love my little mother as dearly as I do.



No wonder I ’m unhappy! It’s dreadful to be told,
“You look forlorn and shabby, and are getting very old,”
When you feel so brisk and lively you know it can ’t be true!
Oh, dear! I wish that some one would make me something new,
And fix me up a little, so nobody would say
A Christmas doll was needed for dearest little May!

So if you meet with Santa, do tell him, please, for me,
That I and little mother are as happy as can be;
That I ’m just as good to play with as any doll you know,
And not a minute older than I was a year ago;
Tell him not to bring a dolly, whatever he may do,
For whoever says we want one, I say it is n ’t true!