Mabel's mishap

“THE TWO CHILDREN WITH LITTLE LOUIE WERE PLAYING IN THE LAUNDRY.”
BY Amy E. Blanchard
Author of “Kittyboy’s Christmas,” “Taking a Stand,” “A Dear Little Girl,” etc.
Philadelphia George W. Jacobs & Co. 103-105 So. Fifteenth Street
Copyright, 1900 By GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.
IT was raining dismally. Mabel, leaning her arms on the broad window-sill, watched the drops trickling down the panes. Before her was an array of paper dolls in gay tissue dresses. They sat perched upon pasteboard chairs in front of a circle of queer creatures with flat heads, and no feet; hand in hand these stood, rather flimsy in appearance. Mabel had cut them all in one from a bit of newspaper.
Presently she gave the whole company a sweep off on the floor.
“I’m tired of you,” she said. “And it’s raining, and I don’t know what to do. I wish I were twins, so I could have someone to play with.”
“Why, Mabel,” said her mother, “suppose I had two discontented little Mabels to be fretting around on a rainy day, what should I do?”
“You wouldn’t have to have two Mabels,” returned the little girl, “you could call one something else: Maude, or—oh, mamma, you could call one May and one Belle. I think I’d like to be May, myself. That’s what I’ll do next time I play by myself: I’ll pretend I have a twin sister named Belle.”
“Suppose you pick up that company of people, lying there by the window, now, and play with your twin awhile.”
Mabel looked up mischievously. “I think I’ll let Belle pick them up,” she said.