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The Child & the Dream
THE CHILD
The Child and
the Dream
A CHRISTMAS
STORY
BY
MCMVIII
PORTLAND, OREGON
TO MY SEVEREST CRITIC,
AGED SEVEN
COPYRIGHT 1908
BY MARION COOK
This, little Dear-My-Love,is the story of aChild whom I am sureyou would have loved.For people did love hervery much, she was soquaint and dear.
She was a remarkablybright Child and thebeauty of her beingbright was that she didnot know it. She did bright things and saidbright things and it never entered her mind tomarvel at her own cleverness. However, Idoubt if she would have thought of what I amgoing to tell you, had it not been for theStoryist.
It was somewhat absurd, the whole thing;yet it was an experience one would not soonforget.
It began, little Dear-My-Love, on a certainmorning when the Child stood looking out ofthe window of her own pretty room. She waswatching two little birds which sat huddledclose together on the branch of a big firtree; but she really wasn’t thinking about thebirds. She had heard Lady-Mother say atbreakfast that it lacked but two weeks ofChristmas, and she had not yet selected herGift for Lady-Mother. She was so extremelyparticular about what it should be that it wasdifficult to decide upon anything.
Presently the Child had an idea; and themore she thought of it, the more splendid its