How Barbara Came to Escondite ^ 



Once there was a little girl and she lived all alone in a little 

 house up in the woods on a mountain, and the little house 

 wasn't any bigger than this room; but it had in it a kitchen 

 where she did her cooking, and a little dining room where she 

 ate her dinner, and a little bedroom where she slept. The little 

 bedroom had in it a little bed for the little girl and tiny beds 

 for her dolls. And there were tables, dishes, pictures on the 

 walls, and little electric lights to light up her room with when 

 it was night with electricity that came from the Hghtning. 



The little girl had three little dolls, and one Httle doll's name 

 was Marguerite, and she had red hair and lots of it, and it 

 was real hair too. Another little doll's name was Sally, and 

 she had black hair — not real hair, but just painted on — and 

 her head was made of porcelain, like dishes. The other little 

 doll, which was a boy doll, and a Chinaman at that, hadn't 

 any hair at all, and so he was called Old Baldy. 



Lots of fairies lived near this little girl on the mountain, 

 and they used to come and visit her and sit by the table with 

 her. They liked the little girl and so they made her queen of 

 the fairies. And out around the woods in the mountains there 

 were many coyotes. They troubled the fairies very much and 

 chased them in the night when they were dancing on the green, 

 and then all the little fairies would scamper off to their holes, 

 and they were lucky if some of them did not get caught by the 

 old coyote. 



One night the little girl was sleeping in her little bed in the 

 Httle bedroom, with a doll on each side of her, and Old Baldy 

 across the foot of the bed, when she heard a big coyote come 

 up on the front steps. The coyote looked into the window and 

 howled, "Willie wau woo! Willie wau woo! Wito hooh!" 

 Then he howled again and pushed the window right in and 

 came in to where the little girl was. The little girl grabbed her 

 dolls, so that the coyote would not get them. Then she took 

 the little red-haired doll named Marguerite, and when the 



^ This and the following tales are reprinted from "The Book of Knight and 

 Barbara," by courtesy of the publishers, D. Appleton & Co. 



C 701 1 



