Little Lisbeth

Excerpt

YOU must know that I am a clergyman's daughter from Baden, the sixth of fourteen children, boys and girls, in varied succession. Although I could have found a goodly number of living playthings at home, I nevertheless chose for my favorite doll a stranger child--the daughter of our sexton--a puny little thing who was neither very pretty nor very clever; but the small creature somehow bewitched me as soon as I knew her; and for days at a time, when I had nothing else to do, I would devote myself to her, would take her walking, play with her, and save for her all the choice morsels from my own plate. They were not many, to be sure, for in a parsonage so rich in children, Jack Pinchpenny is steward; but there came holidays and birthdays, and of what wee good things fell to my share, the little Lisbeth--for so my treasure was called--had to have the larger half.