Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/66

 self-command. I don't know what she meant," added April, reflectively. "I'm sure years never taught me any thing of the sort. However, that is neither here nor there! If she hadn't had a fine constitution, Maria never could have endured all this cruelty. Her body didn't. It soon sank under its sufferings and, after spitting sawdust for some months, wasted away so much that May's mother said it must go into the ragbag. People make a great fuss about having their heads cut off, but Maria said it was quite easy if the scissors were sharp. Snip, snip, rip, rip, and there you are. The head was put carefully away in a wardrobe because it was so handsome, and May's mamma promised to buy a new body for it; but somehow she forgot, and by and by May grew so big that she didn't care to play with dolls any more. So Maria's head went on living in the wardrobe. Having no longer any cares of the body to disturb it, it gave itself up to the cultivation of the intellect. A wardrobe is a capital place for study, it appears. People keep