Can anybody ever have too many toys? Mary Louise had a whole toy closet full. There were certain “very best toys” put by nurse on the top shelf for special occasions and there were countless “every day toys,” some of them a bit broken, but a great many of them quite whole and splendid, ever so much nicer than the toys that Mary Louise’s little friends had to play with. Still, Mary Louise wanted more toys. The list that she was now writing in her round, wiggly handwriting had already covered several sheets of large pad paper that nurse had given her.
Mary Louise sat at the big flat desk in the library. Her velvet dress was almost lost in the big arm-chair that was daddy’s favorite. Behind her was a cheerful fire on the hearth and it snapped and crackled joyously. Mary Louise’s blue eyes travelled about the room as if seeking fresh inspiration in the objects that they rested upon. She already had everything, but she wanted more, and so she put the pencil on the paper and continued the letter to Santa Claus.
“I want two new Teddy bears, the biggest you have, Santa Claus,” the pencil said. “I want one that is pure white like snow and another that is furry and brown. Both should have a squeak and if you have any that will growl, I’d like that kind, too.
“I want a white doll carriage lined with pink satin. They have them at Bunty’s Department Store, for I saw them once and they cost twenty-five dollars. I want a big doll to go in it. I want a whole wardrobe of clothes for it, a new doll cradle, and it must have a pink silk dress, too. I want a doll that will open and shut its eyes--one with real hair. It must talk, too.
“You can bring me, beside this, a boy doll with a sled and all the different kinds of clothes that a little boy ought to wear. I want a real toy automobile with a horn and a lamp--not the kind that is like a tricycle, because I already have one like that--I mean the real kind that runs with gasoline. They cost a hundred and twenty-five dollars, maybe a little more, but I don’t think you mind what they cost.
“I want a doll house that is nicer than the one you gave me before. It ought to be big enough for me to go into myself and I would like to have it built up in the garden like a real house. You can put it down by the greenhouses because it will be too big to bring into our house or carry down the chimney, I know. And then too I want--”