Is this a toyshop , or is it fairy-land ? For here are gilded chariots in which the king and queen of the fairies might ride side by side , while their courtiers on these small horses should gallop in triumphal procession before and behind the royal pair . Here , too , are dishes of chinaware fit to be the dining-set of those same princely personages when they make a regal banquet in the stateliest hall of their palace -- full five feet high -- and behold their nobles feasting adown the long perspective of the table . Betwixt the king and queen should sit my little Annie , the prettiest fairy of them all . Here stands a turbaned Turk threatening us with his sabre , like an ugly heathen as he is , and next a Chinese mandarin who nods his head at Annie and myself . Here we may review a whole army of horse and foot in red-and-blue uniforms , with drums , fifes , trumpets , and all kinds of noiseless music ; they have halted on the shelf of this window after their weary march from Liliput . But what cares Annie for soldiers ? No conquering queen is she -- neither a Semiramis nor a Catharine ; her whole heart is set upon that doll who gazes at us with such a fashionable stare . This is the little girl 's true plaything . Though made of wood , a doll is a visionary and ethereal personage endowed by childish fancy with a peculiar life ; the mimic lady is a heroine of romance , an actor and a sufferer in a thousand shadowy scenes , the chief inhabitant of that wild world with which children ape the real one . Little Annie does not understand what I am saying , but looks wishfully at the proud lady in the window . We will invite her home with us as we return . -- Meantime , good-bye , Dame Doll ! A toy yourself , you look forth from your window upon many ladies that are also toys , though they walk and speak , and upon a crowd in pursuit of toys , though they wear grave visages . Oh , with your never-closing eyes , had you but an intellect to moralize on all that flits before them , what a wise doll would you be ! -- Come , little Annie , we shall find toys enough , go where we may . Now we elbow our way among the throng again . It is curious in the most crowded part of a town to meet with living creatures that had their birthplace in some far solitude , but have acquired a second nature in the wilderness of men . Look up , Annie , at that canary-bird hanging out of the window in his cage . Poor little fellow !
His golden feathers are all tarnished XXXXX this smoky sunshine ; he would have glistened twice as brightly among the summer islands , but still he has become a citizen in all his tastes and habits , and would not sing half so well without the uproar that drowns his music .
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