“You look just like a mushroom, Peggy,” said Alice.
“Oh, dear! I didn’t know I’d grown such a lot,” said Peggy ruefully, “but you can let down the tucks, mother,” she added hopefully.
“But there aren’t any tucks. I let those down last summer.”
“I guess I’ll have to have that dress,” said Alice joyously.
She was so fond of her sister that she liked Peggy’s clothes better than her own.
“Oh, dear!” said Peggy. “I like it so much because it’s smocked. But I hope I can wear the dotted muslin. That’s my favorite dress.”
But, alas, the dotted muslin was only half an inch longer than the cotton rep, and there were no tucks in that either.
Peggy skipped about the room again, and she tried to persuade her mother that it would be possible for her to wear the dress.
“I don’t mind if it is rather short, mother,” she said.
“I can’t have you going around with skirts like a ballet dancer.”