University of Virginia Library

20. XX
SISTER SALLIE'S DOLL

I SUPPOSE some of you think I made a mistake about that verse Sister Sallie recited last night. Well, maybe I did, but you see it's very hard to get something to rhyme with Sallie and I think the baby squirrel did pretty well to remember lolly-pop-lally. You just try it yourself and see how hard it is. Except, maybe, alley, but you see there aren't any alleys in the woods, so that wouldn't do.

That verse bothered Johnnie Bushytail a little bit, too, for he knew Sallie hadn't said the verse right, but then the little baby squirrel was such a darling that he didn't want to find fault with her.

You can imagine how proud Johnnie and Billie were to have a little sister. Oh, how they loved her! and they used to steal in to look at her when she was asleep, and they made up their minds that they would never let anything hurt her, just as you boys do to your own real sister. Isn't it nice to have one? Nicer than anything else in the world, I think, except, maybe, to have a little brother, or maybe a big brother, for that matter, or a papa and a mamma and a grandpa and a grandma, and some uncles, aunts and cousins.

“Now, boys,” said Mamma Bushytail to Johnnie and Billie one day, “I want you to take Sister Sallie out for a walk. Show her all around the woods, take her over to grandma's house and teach her how to jump and leap about.”

“Come on, Sister Sallie!” cried Johnnie,

and he and Billie each took hold of one of her cute little paws, and led her along.

They had lots of fun in the woods, playing under the leaves, and, pretty soon, they came to grandma's house, where Jennie Chipmunk had just finished doing the dishes, and was singing away as hard as she could sing.

“Well, well, whom have we here?” cried grandma, for she had heard about Sister Sallie, but had not seen her.

So Johnnie told how they had found their little sister, and grandma gave them some slices of hot acorn bread with wild cherry jam on it, and oh! I just wish I had a piece now, it was so good.

“Haven't you got a doll to play with?” asked Jennie Chipmunk, after a while.

“No, said Sister Sallie, "I never had a doll.”

“What!” cried Grandma Lightfoot.

“Never had a doll? Oh, my goodness me and a bag of marbles! That's too bad. I wish I had a doll for you.”

“Maybe Billie or Johnnie could make her one,” suggested Jennie Chipmunk.

“To be sure!” exclaimed grandma. “Couldn't you, boys?”

“Boys never make dolls,” said Johnnie.

“Maybe they do for their little sisters,” whispered Billie, who always thought twice before he spoke once.

“I'd like a doll very much,” sighed Sister Sallie. “I never had one, never. What is it like? Do you eat it?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” cried Jennie Chipmunk with a laugh. “Eat a doll! Whoever heard of such a thing! No, my darling, you play with a doll, just as boys play with marbles and kites, and — — ”

“Bows and arrows!” finished Billie quickly.

“Do you remember how we played soldier, Jennie?”

“Indeed I do,” she answered. “But now you must make Sister Sallie a doll.”

“Oh, I should just love to have a doll,” said the little baby squirrel, and then Billie and Johnnie made up their minds they would get her one, no matter what it cost. But grandma, who knew boys were not very wise when it came to dolls, whispered to them how to make one.

So, frisking their big tails, Johnnie and Billie ran down the tree, leaving Sister Sallie with grandma. The two boy squirrels went to a cornfield they knew of, and searching around, found a corncob, with all the kernels off.

“This will do,” said Johnnie, but just as he was carrying it away what should happen but that a big rat ran out from a hole and cried:

“Here! Where are going with my corncob?” Yes, sir, that's just the way he called, as cross as cross could be. Oh, yes, indeed.

“If you please,” said Billie, “we want to make a doll for our little Sister Sallie.”

“Oh, that's all right then,” spoke the rat, not so cross this time, and he combed his whiskers with his left forepaw. “Run along with it, then, and come and see me sometime.”

So Johnnie and Billie ran off with the corncob. Then they got some pieces of wood, gnawing them with their sharp teeth, and made arms and legs. They made eyes from some dried huckleberries, and drew a nose, mouth and ears with a burned stick. Then they dressed the doll in leaves, tying them on with bits of grass, and pretty soon they had the nicest corncob doll you can imagine.

“Oh, how perfectly scrumptious lovely!”

exclaimed Sister Sallie, when she saw it, and she hugged it close in her arms. Then she kissed Billie and Johnnie for being so kind to her, but they said it was nothing. And they told about the rat, and Sister Sallie thought they were very brave indeed, as, of course, they were. Then the boy squirrels and their new little sister ran home, and the next day little Sallie had quite an adventure, as you shall hear to-morrow night, if the stars are out.