Baby Doll

A week before Christmas, Grace and her family made a visit to the general store. It was 1897, and they had lived in the area for two years. Grace loved to travel to town and see all the pretty things in the store. There were dresses, dolls, and lots of candy. She admired all the beautiful things in the storefront window as she waited for her ma and pa to buy the goods.

Grace was enthralled with one of the items in the window that day. It was a baby doll in a beautiful blue dress. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. A man standing nearby noticed Grace. He asked her what she was looking at, and she happily pointed it out to the man.

“Looks like you are going to be one lucky girl on Christmas Day.”

“Oh no. I won’t, sir. You see, my ma and pa, we don’t have very much money. We don’t get big Christmas presents, but we sure have fun together.”

Christmas Day soon arrived. That morning, Grace was surprised to see the little doll from the store window sitting in a cradle under her Christmas tree. Her parents were just as surprised.

“Wow. Santa brought you a real treat, didn’t he?” said Pa.

“Oh, this wasn’t from Santa. This is from a special man I met at the store,” explained Grace with a twinkle in her eye. She smiled when she thought about this stranger who made her Christmas.