When Mr. Merrill and his little girl walked into the
toy department, there, with her arms outstretched
in greeting, was a beautiful big doll. For a
moment Mary Jane said nothing—the doll was
so like her dear, broken-to-pieces Marie Georgianna
that she could hardly believe her eyes! She walked
up close to the counter; looked hard at the doll and
then exclaimed, “It is! It is, Daddah!
It is a twin just as mother said it was!
And is it for me to take home?”
Mr. Merrill assured her that the doll was to go home
with them and then he asked about clothes. “Are
you sure you have enough at home? Were the clothes
spoiled too?”
“While mother was washing me ready to come down
town, she told me she could fix the dress and Marie
Georgianna didn’t wear her hat when she was run
over,” said Mary Jane, “so I guess her
twin doesn’t need anything new.” But
she looked so regretfully at the cases of pretty clothes
that father bought a pink parasol—“just
for fun” he said.
“She doesn’t want to wear just
hand-me-down clothes of her sister’s even if
she is a twin,” he explained, “and
I always like to buy doll clothes for little girls
who don’t tease for new things. But there’s
one thing sure about this parasol,” he added,
“it’s not to go over to Junior’s!”
“It won’t!” laughed Mary Jane happily,
“because I won’t and parasols can’t
go places by themselves!”
All the way back home Mary Jane sat very still and
held the new doll close up to her. Mr. Merrill
thought perhaps she was thinking about the accident
and tried to get her to talking—that shows
how little even good fathers understand! Mary
Jane wasn’t thinking about any accident, dear
me no! She was naming her doll.
Just as they got out of the car at their own front
walk, she announced solemnly, “I’ve named
her Marie Georgiannamore because a twin is more than
one.”
All the rest of the day after Marie Georgiannamore
came into the family, Mary Jane played dolls.
Mother helped her fix a play house out on the front
porch in the warm sunshine and there Mary Jane and
her family had a very happy time. Evidently Marie
Georgiannamore liked her new home for she seemed very
content with the other members of Mary Jane’s
numerous family. There was the sailor doll and
the rag doll, Mary Jane, Jr., and small bears and
dolls and kewpies too many to count. And of course
each doll had its own chair and bed so there was quite
a household out on that sunny front porch.
When father came home in the evening he helped carry
in all the furniture and in the morning he helped
move it back again.
“I tell you, Mary Jane, these moving days keep
us husky and strong, don’t they?” he said
as he picked up three chairs and two beds at one time.
Mary Jane laughed and, just to show that she was strong
too, carried out three doll beds (to be sure
they were for the very littlest, two-for-a-nickel
dolls but then they were three beds just the same)
and a washing machine at one time! Then she thanked
her father for his good help and he went to work and
she settled down for a morning’s house keeping.
