Jane Thorpe was eight years old; so good had she been that Mrs. Thorpe told her she would take her to a toy shop, where she might choose the toy she would like best.

The toy shop was three or four miles from Mrs. Thorpe’s house, so she rang the bell, and sent to tell the groom to bring round the coach.

The coach came round to the door, and great was the joy of Jane.

Yet, though Jane was so glad, she would have been more glad if Charles might have gone too. But Charles could not go; he had not been a good boy, and Mrs. Thorpe said he must stay at home.

Jane gave one look at him as she left the room to put on her things, and as she got in the coach, a tear fell down her cheek.

But on went the coach, and soon Jane thought but of the toy shop, and of what toy she would like best to have. Round and round went the wheels, and soon they were put down at the door of the toy shop.

How hard it was to choose! Yet no choice could fail to please. But choose what she would, some things must be left that she would like to have!

There was a large coach, and each horse would put on and take off. There was a man to drive, who sat on the box, and who had a long whip in his hand; and, more than all, the doors of the coach would turn back, and they would shut! There was a hay cart, and in it were three men with smock frocks; and there were some dolls in gay clothes a great deal too smart to make hay, but they were so nice and so neat! and then all their things would take off and on, and they had large round hats on their heads.

Near this cart Jane stood a long time. At length she said, “I will choose this.” But just when she said it she saw a doll a large doll, with blue eyes and light hair. Jane thought the doll’s eyes were sweet and soft, and she said, “No, no; I will not have the cart, I will have that sweet doll: do, do let me have that.”

The doll, which was made of wood, was a nice strong doll, and Jane saw it put up for her to take home. She took hold of it with great care, in fear to spoil the clean white frock it had got on.

When Jane was at home, she ran up stairs to show it to Charles and to her Aunt: and her Aunt gave her some silk to make a cloak for it. Jane did her best to try to make it well, nor did it take her a long time to do this, as her Aunt cut out the parts and put them for her in the right way.

Jane then ran for her hat, and, in great joy, took her doll, and went in the lime walk.

There was a seat in this walk; and here Jane would oft spend two or three hours in the cool shade of the trees.

On this seat she sat down now, and, when she had been some time, she thought she would fix her doll on a branch of a tree. She did so; and she thought she must run and ask her Aunt just to come and look at it. The doll was left, and off she went, full of glee and song.

Where her Aunt was gone Jane did not know; she was not in the rooms down stairs, nor was she in her own room up stairs; so Jane went in all parts of the house. “Aunt! Aunt!” she said, but no Aunt could she find. This took up a great deal of time, and at length she went back to the lime walk.

Poor Jane! what a sight for you to see was there! “My doll! my doll! O my doll!” were the first words she said, and then she sank down on the seat near the tree. And where was this doll of poor Jane’s? There it was not the doll such as she had left it, but the doll with its head cut off!

The head was hung by a string to a branch of the tree, and the rest of the doll was on the ground.

“O my doll, my dear, dear doll! who can have done so bad a thing as this? my doll! my doll!”

Just at this time her Aunt came near the lime walk. She heard the sobs of Jane, and ran fast to see what was the cause. All she said when she saw the doll was, “My dear Jane,” and she gave her such a kiss as an Aunt who loves her Niece can give. And then they went back to the house.

And who had done this bad thing? That must now be told.

There was a boy whose name was John Snap; he did not live far from
Broom Hill, the house of Mr. Thorpe.

John Snap was not a good boy: he was so far from it that there was no one who had a child that did not try to keep him out of the way of John Snap. Mr. Thorpe had told Charles that he would not let him play with a boy he thought so ill of.

John Snap would take birds’ nests, a thing which no boy with a kind heart could do; and he would tease dogs and cats, and do things that he knew would hurt them. Now it is quite sure that no good boy could do this; for he must know that all things that have life can feel pain as much as he feels it.

All things that have life can feel pain in all parts of their frame; but there is one kind of pain which dogs, and cats, and such things as they, do not feel as man feels it and that is pain of mind. Such pain as this is hurts much more than some pains that are felt to be hard to bear in the frame of man.

It was just such pain as this that Jane felt when she saw the head of her doll cut off. It was such pain as this that John Snap likes to give.

Though John Snap was so bad, yet he could do and say things which made boys like to be with him. There was now and then a great deal of fun in what he said, and he could make boys laugh. All boys like to laugh, and few could fail to laugh at what John Snap said.

Thus, in time, they might have been led to like him, and then they would not have thought some of the things he did so bad as they were. It was the fear of this which made Mr. Thorpe tell Charles he did not wish him to play with John Snap.

Mr. Thorpe told Charles that when John Snap spoke to him he must say what he had to say to him in a kind way, but that he must leave him as soon as he could.

Now it was not right of Charles Thorpe to go to John Snap’s house, nor ought he to have gone out with him to play at trap and ball, for he knew that it was wrong to do so. This was the cause why he could not go with Jane to the toy shop. He was kept at home for a week, and told not to go past the sunk fence.

John Snap had not seen him for six days, so he thought he would go and call at Broom Hill. When he got there, he did not go to the house, but took a walk down the lime walk. This was just at the time when Jane was gone; and when he came to the seat near the tree he saw the doll. What he did may now be told.

Yes! it was John Snap who had done this deed. At noon, as soon as it was done, he went close to a tree, so that he could not be seen. He did this that he might see what Jane would do when she came back, and hear what she would say.

He heard and saw all; but when he found how great was Jane’s grief, he kept quite close to the tree, and did not dare to move till she was gone. He then went home as fast as he could, and great was his hope that no one would know that it was he who had cut off the poor doll’s head.

Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe, and Jane’s Aunt too, thought that this was like some of John Snap’s tricks, but they did not wish to say so to Jane or to Charles. Jane’s Aunt had a plan which she thought would be the means to find out if he had done this or not.

One day Charles was sent to ask John Snap to dine at Broom Hill.

John was glad to go; but he felt he should not like to see Jane, for she might talk of her doll; and if she should talk of it, he thought that he might say or do that which might tell what he had done. Yet John Snap went to dine at Broom Hill.

Now there was one thing of which John Snap was most fond, and this thing was fruit tart. The fruit tarts at Broom Hill were so sweet, and the crust was so light!

The day on which John Snap went to dine at Broom Hill the fruit tart was put near where he sat. How nice and large it was! and how good it smelt too! He thought the time was long till the time came for the tart to be cut.

“It will soon be cut now,” thought he. But this dish came, and that dish went, yet still the fruit tart was not cut. He said, “No thank you,” to all, for he thought but of the tart.

At length all the things were gone but the tart. “That won’t go, I hope,” thought John; and great was his joy when he heard Mr. Thorpe say in a loud clear tone, “John Snap, will you please to cut that tart?”

John, in great haste to do what he was told, took up the spoon but the crust would not break: there was some hard thing, and the spoon would not go through the crust. One, twice, three times did he try. “Put a knife round the edge of the dish and clear off the crust,” said Mr. Thorpe; “we must come to the fruit.”

John Snap did so. He put a knife round the edge of the dish, and all the crust came off at once. And what was there in that dish?

A dolls head!

Jane gave a loud scream, and John Snap made a rush to the door.

He was out of the room, but he heard Jane say, “It was he who did it! it was he who did it! My poor doll!”

The tone of Jane’s voice, as she said this, made John go back. He could not bear to hear her. “Jane! Jane!” he said, “that doll’s head will be the means to make me a good boy. I feel I could be good. I feel some thing that tells me so. I grieve for what I have done I feel grief of such a kind as I have not felt till now.”

Jane saw his face. When she saw his face, it told her so much that she said, “I will think of this no more.”