Mabel's mishap

by Amy Ella Blanchard

Mrs. Ford caught up her baby girl, and hers were not the only tears that fell on Don’s head.

So, from that time forth, the good dog’s place was sure, and he was allowed access to any room in the house, many a time finding his way into the library, where Mr. Ford permitted him to remain, without so much as a word of protest.

All this, of course, made Harold very happy and he soon felt so much at home that he really dreaded the time when he should have to go to his aunt. Meanwhile, he and Mabel became the best of friends, for, as Mabel said, she liked boy’s play better than girl’s, and a bag of marbles, a top, or a ball, took her fancy much more than a doll, and the games the two children had in the garden were something beyond imagination, so exciting were they.

“Oh, it’s such fun to have a boy to play with,” Mabel would say. And the highest compliment she could receive from Harold, was: “You did that as well as any boy, Mabel.”

To be sure, it was hard, on rainy days, that Harold should be allowed the freedom of the library from which she was still barred; but Harold was very good about this, and delicately refrained from spending much time among the fascinating books, even though he liked nothing better than to curl up in one of the big chairs, and pore over some old chronicles of war or history.

Mabel was very grateful to him for his consideration, although, once in a while, she did desert him for her school friends, Marie Lewis and Ethel Morris, for there was quite enough girl about Mabel for her to enjoy certain plays which Harold didn’t endorse because they were too tame. But for all this new element which furnished her with a playmate at home there was some trouble ahead for Mabel, all on account of that unfortunate book.

CHAPTER III.

THERE were still some weeks before the summer holidays, and Mabel, in consequence, was at school during the morning, and the day after Harold was happily established at her home she started merrily off to school, looking forward to a happy afternoon.

At recess, Marie Lewis and Ethel Morris called her. “Oh, Mabel, we’ve the loveliest idea, and you will just love it. Come over here and let’s talk about it.” So, with lunch-baskets in hand, they settled themselves in a quiet corner.

“We want to give a lawn party for the benefit of the Cuban orphans,” began Marie, “and we’ll have some little things to sell, and oh, Mabel, you told me the other day, that you had two dollars; you’ll give that towards it, won’t you?”