“Bow-wow-wow!” was the first thing Winny heard that morning. She opened her eyes and there stood Finnette. Aunt Bertha had brought her as a birthday gift for Winny from Paris.

Finnette was full of pretty tricks. She could stand on her hind legs and dance. She could sing.

“Now, Finnette,” Winny’s mamma would say, “I will play and you shall sing.”

So Finnette would stand on her hind legs and sing such a droll little tune. It sounded like “I love—I love—I love—do you?” Finnette always helped Winny to put her dolls to bed. It was wonderful to see her.

“Bring me Grandma Snowhair’s cap, Finnette,” Winny would say. And Finnette would trot off and fetch it. She knew the doll’s clothes just as well as Winny did.

“Now, Finnette, I will have Glorianna’s nightgown,” said Winny again, and Finnette would bring it.

When Winny got her dolls in bed, she always sang them to sleep, and then Finnette would sing too. “I love—I love—I love—do you?”

Mamma used to like to peep in and see them. Winny always put her dolls to bed at five o’clock. Finnette always knew when the clock struck five, and off she would run to find Winny.

But one day she couldn’t find her. She searched through the house and garden, but Winny was not to be found. So Finnette lay down in the library, and waited. Once she got up and trotted in and looked at the dolls. She barked softly, as though she would say, “Be patient; your mamma will be here soon.”

But the little mamma did not come; so Finnette concluded to put the dolls to bed herself. She laid Grandma Snowhair on the floor and then with her teeth and paws she gently drew off her cap and gray silk dress. She put on her nightgown, but she could not button it.

She undressed Glorianna, but she got her nightgown on upside down. She put her legs into the sleeves. She did not try to put on aunt Sukey’s nightgown. She just wrapped her up in a blanket.

She tumbled the four small dolls into their beds anyhow. How surprised and pleased and amused Winny was when she came home! There were the dolls fast asleep, and their clothes all piled on a chair; and there sat Finnette watching them. She gave the happiest little “bow-wow,” when she saw Winny. She had not been able to eat or to sleep with the care of all those dolls on her mind. Winny hugged and kissed her.