She had caught this from Electra. She knew there were wild roses and she had heard of alpaca; so she put the words together as they sounded to her, though they did not convey much meaning.
Elizabeth, in a big chair by the window, giggled. Babs looked up indignantly and stopped her performance. “What you laughing at?” she asked.
“I’m laughing at you,” replied Elizabeth; “you are singing that in such a funny way.”
“I’m not at all,” contradicted Babs. “It is wild rose and Injun girl and alpaca,—’Lectra knows. She’s got a alpaca dress, too; she showed it to me.”
Elizabeth for answer laughed the more, to Babs’s great discomfiture. “What is it, then, if you know so much?” she said.
“It is:
‘Wild roved an Indian girl, bright Alfarata,
Where sweep the waters of the blue Juniata.’”
Babs pondered over this for a moment; it did not seem half as intelligible to her as her own way of singing it. “I’m going to ask ’Lectra,” she said, finally, and flounced out of the room. Babs was a tempestuous little body who flew into rages at small provocation. She was much more practical than Elizabeth and often showed her contempt for her sister’s fancies. Her favorite doll was a very plain, inartistic creature to whom was given the unlovely name of Jim Dumps. Babs was seldom seen without Jim Dumps in her arms, sitting by her side or near enough to be spoken to and consulted upon any subject. Babs always took him to bed with her and he had his own seat in a small chair in the dining-room. He did not wear big boy’s attire but was seen in dresses to which was added a sacque, a shawl, a scarf, or anything which happened to appeal to the mood of his small mother. His face bore the marks and ravages of time; he had been repainted more than once, and was by no means beautiful, yet Babs loved him with a faithfulness which was almost pathetic. Mrs. Hollins had made the mistake upon the Christmas before of substituting another doll of the same size for battered-up Jim Dumps and had put him out of the way in the furthest corner of a closet, telling Babs he had gone away, and hoping she would forget him in time. Babs tried to console herself with the new doll, but one day, when she was playing bear and the dark closet was her den, she rooted out the old familiar body of her favorite and went shrieking with delight to her mother.
“Muvver, muvver,” she cried, “what do you sink I’ve found? My darling old Jim Dumps. He’s comed back! He’s comed back!” And Mrs. Hollins had not the heart ever to hide him again.