



Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beginners Projects, Emmy and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)











A ROUND DOZEN.

[Illustration: TOINETTE AND THE ELVES.

Down on the ground beside her, a tiny figure became visible, so small
that Toinette had to kneel and stoop her head to see it.--PAGE 234.]




A ROUND DOZEN.

BY

SUSAN COOLIDGE,

          AUTHOR OF "THE NEW YEAR'S BARGAIN," "WHAT KATY DID," "WHAT KATY
          DID AT SCHOOL," "MISCHIEF'S THANKSGIVING," "NINE LITTLE
          GOSLINGS," "EYEBRIGHT," "CROSS-PATCH,"
          "A GUERNSEY LILY."

[Illustration: QUI LEGIT REQIT]

          BOSTON:
          ROBERTS BROTHERS.
          1892.




          _Copyright, 1883_,

          BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.

          UNIVERSITY PRESS:
          JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.




                             TO

                    V    V    V    V    V

          _Five little buds grouped round the parent stem,
           Growing in sweet airs, beneath gracious skies,
           Watched tenderly from sunrise to sunrise,
           Lest blight, or chill, or evil menace them._

          _Five small and folded buds, just here and there
           Giving a hint of what the bloom may be,
           When to reward the long close ministry
           The buds shall blossom into roses fair._

          _Soft dews fall on you, dears, soft breezes blow,
           The noons be tempered and the snows be kind,
           And gentle angels watch each stormy wind,
           And turn it from the garden where you grow._




CONTENTS.


                                                      PAGE
          THE LITTLE WHITE DOOR                9
          LITTLE KAREN AND HER BABY           34
          HELEN'S THANKSGIVING                47
          AT FIESOLE                          67
          QUEEN BLOSSOM                       93
          A SMALL BEGINNING                  115
          THE SECRET DOOR                    135
          THE TWO WISHES                     156
          BLUE AND PINK                      183
          A FORTUNATE MISFORTUNE             198
          TOINETTE AND THE ELVES             232
          JEAN'S MONEY, AND WHAT IT BOUGHT   259
          HOW THE STORKS CAME AND WENT       277




THE LITTLE WHITE DOOR.


I SUPPOSE that most boys and girls who go to school and study geography
know, by sight at least, the little patch of pale pink which is marked
on the map as "Switzerland." I suppose, too, that if I asked, "What can
you tell me about Switzerland?" a great many of them would cry out, "It
is a mountainous country, the Alps are there, Mont Blanc is there, the
highest land in Europe." All this is true; but I wonder if all of those
who know even so much have any idea what a beautiful country