“But we haven’t any dolls to live in the
houses!” exclaimed Frances suddenly.
“That’s easy,” said Alice; “I’ve
made dolls before. Grandmother showed me how
years ago. Come on and we’ll get some.”
She led the girls back to the orchard, where by now
tiny green apples were lying on the ground, scattered
there by the summer winds.
“You girls get all the apples you can while
I get the toothpicks.” And she ran to
the house.
“What does she mean?” asked Frances, who
wasn’t used to this sort of play.
“I don’t know, but let’s do what
she says and then we’ll find out,” answered
Mary Jane, who had great confidence in this big sister
of hers. They filled their skirts with apples
of all sizes and hurried back to the front yard where
Alice, carrying a box of toothpicks, met them.
“Now we’ll all make dolls,” said
Alice as she spread out the picks. “Use
the biggest apples for the body; stick in two toothpicks
for arms and two for legs. And a middle-sized
apple makes the head. Then take another toothpick
and mark out eyes and nose and mouth—so!”
And she set up the finished doll for the girls to
see.
Frances and Mary Jane picked up apples and went to
work too, and first thing they knew there was a doll
standing in front of each house. They were just
starting on animals, pigs and horses and cows which
Alice showed them how to make, when Grandmother came
out with a pitcher of lemonade and a basket of cookies.
So the burr making turned into a party which lasted
till Mr. Westland came tooting along the road and
Frances had to go home.
“Now if I only had a camera,” said Alice
as she and Mary Jane and her grandmother were sitting
out on the back porch one morning, shelling peas for
dinner, “I’d take a picture of you both.
Wouldn’t it make a good one?”
Grandmother looked at Mary Jane. The sunshine
splattered through the cracks between the vine-covered
lattice and shone on her bobbed brown hair, on her
pink play dress and on the bright green pea pods in
her lap. Mary Jane looked at her grandmother
and saw the snow white hair, the kindly face that
smiled above the big work apron and the busy hands.
“Wouldn’t it, though!” they both
exclaimed at exactly the same minute. And then
they all three had a good laugh.
“All the same I wish I had a camera,”
insisted Alice.
“Does your mother think you’re old enough
to know how to use one?” asked Grandmother.
“Old enough, Grandmother!” exclaimed Mary
Jane. “Alice’s twelve!” And
the way she said twelve showed that she thought twelve
was very, very old indeed.
Grandmother smiled and Alice added, “She’s
willing I should have one, Grandmother, only I must
buy it myself. And saving money out of my allowance
is slow work. I’ve a dollar now but I need
seventy-five cents more.”
