tottie never liked to take a bath until one day mother said: "let's make believe you are in the big ocean wading and there are lots of little silver fishes swimming all around."

after this tottie wanted to take a bath all the time, for mother bought some toy fishes and tottie didn't have to make believe very hard.

it was lots of fun in the big round tin tub. it was painted green on the outside and yellow on the inside, which looked just like the sand on the seashore. and then, too, it had a nice wide, flat edge all around, so that it seemed almost like a beach to tottie.

sometimes mother would put a little red bathing cap on tottie's head and let her wade for a while before her bath. tottie then kept her little shirt on, making believe it was a lovely silk bathing suit. perhaps the little fishes thought she was a big fat giantess. at any rate they slipped through her soapy little fingers as if they were swimming away for their very lives. this made tottie laugh very much, and she would soap them well so that they would even slip through the water for quite a distance when she squeezed them real hard.

tottie's sister tessie often wanted to play like her little sister, but mother said, "you are too big a girl, tessie, not to take your bath without making a play of it." brother teddy, too, wanted to get the fishes to play with when he took his bath, but mother said to him, "these are tottie's fish. you and sister tessie are big enough to be good while in the tub without toys," so tottie was the only one in the house who made believe that the bathtub was the big ocean and her little toy silver fishes real live ones!