‘Mother,’ said Sally solemnly, as she turned away from the window, ‘I don’t know what I would do if Alice hadn’t come to stay at Miss Neppy’s this summer.’
CHAPTER II
WHAT HAPPENED TO TILLY MAUD
The first thing Sally heard the next morning when she opened her eyes was a splash and a drip, a drip and a splash.
‘It is raining,’ said Sally. ‘My new little dove will be drowned.’
But when Sally ran to the window, her little white dove didn’t seem to be minding the rain in the least. His coat glistened in the wet like silver, his black eyes looked blacker, his yellow bill more yellow, while his wings whirled briskly about in the damp wind as if the gay little fellow were really enjoying the rainy day.
‘I believe he likes the rain, Mother,’ said Sally, ‘and so do I, if I may have Alice over to play with me.’
Sally’s playroom was up in the attic. At one end were trunks and boxes and bundles. These belonged to Mother and were not to be touched. But the other end was Sally’s own, and here were gathered all her toys and treasures, large and small.
So up the steep attic stairs this rainy morning climbed Sally, followed by Alice from over the way, who held under one arm a gay picture book and under the other a plump, if somewhat dingy, rag doll.
‘I thought I would bring my picture book,’ Said Alice, out of breath at the top of the stairs, ‘and my dolly, too. Her name is Tilly Maud. But let me see your toys first.’
Sally was only too glad to walk about her end of the attic, pointing out her toys and telling the name and history of each one.