Ethel Turner

“ Besides, his fine feelings were disturbed on Ettie's account. Ettie was holding the blind doll in her arms and looking perfectly distracted because it was no longer blind. Little John had long shared Ettie's tenderness for this afflicted member of the family, this pathetic little Helen Keller of the dolls. He himself used to help to see to it that the best place at the window, the best seat on the see-saw, the best bit of chocolate, fell to the blind doll. And now she was no longer sweetly blind! She stared out at the world with a pair of hard, glassy eyes. ”

“ In his passion of gratitude, Little John did exactly and precisely the right thing at the right moment. He put out his own brown little forefinger, poked firmly twice at the blue, meaningless glass eyes, and in a moment Ettie was rocking tenderly and joyously to her breast again the blind doll. ”

“ Stephen looked sceptical. "Have you kicked it for an afternoon yet?" he asked.
"You do throw cold water, Steve," said Mabel. "Freddie is only nine—it isn't as if he were as old as Norman or Ted. And think what it saves!"
But even when the football was tied up in tissue paper, with a holly spray in its string, she was far from being ready for bed. ”