CHAPTER XXI A TEDDY BEAR SUIT
“I DO wonder what the Crochet People have planned for the next lesson,” thought Mary Frances as she went upstairs after breakfast the next morning.
When she went into the playroom she was surprised to find Mary Marie sitting on the side of her bed, trying to put on her little slippers.
“What!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “Awake so early—and trying to dress yourself?”
“’Es, Mamma,” answered Mary Marie. “I’se detting weady to doe to tool.”
“Bless your little heart!” cried Mary Frances. “Here, let me help you!” and she soon put on Mary Marie’s little shoes and stockings, and dressed her.
“What shall I wear wound me, Mamma?” asked the dolly. “It’s too warm for a toat, and too told to doe wifout somet’ing wound me.”
“Let me see,” said Mary Frances, thinking hard.
“If Mary M’rie only had a twetter!” sighed the wise young lady.
Mary Frances caught her up in her arms. “The very thing!” she cried. “Let us go see the Crochet People.”
Just as she sat Mary Marie on the table, Crow Shay began:
“For young or old,
When it is cold,
Nothing is better
Than a sweater.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “Oh, Crow Shay, how did you ever guess what we want so much?”
“Every doll in the world ought to have a sweater,” he declared. “And the sooner Fairly Flew comes, the sooner Mary Marie will get one.”
So Mary Frances said the magic rhyme:
“Fairy Fairly Flew,
Please come, for I need you;”
and the fairy helper came.
“What do you wish for?” she asked, seating herself in the doll’s rocking-chair.
“A sweater for Mary Marie, dear Fairly Flew,” Mary Frances answered.
“A twetter! A twetter!” laughed the little doll, looking up. “Doe to tool.”
“Bless her heart—and yours, too, little girl,” said Fairly Flew; “she shall have not only a sweater, but a whole outfit to keep her warm when she goes to school, for I myself will give you directions for making a—