“Oh!” cried Dot, in awe, while Tess marched straight into the sitting room to see if the Creamers’ youngest was all right.
“You don’t deserve to have a baby brother, Mabel Creamer,” Tess said severely.
“Oh, I wish we could have one!” Dot said longingly.
“Say! you can have this one for all I care,” declared Mabel. “You don’t know what a nuisance babies are. Everybody else can go out but me. I’ve got to stay and mind the baby. Nasty thing!”
“Oh, Mabel!” said Tess, sorrowfully—for Tess had no objection to boys as small as Bubby Creamer. The baby laughed, and crowed, and stretched out his arms to her. “Isn’t he the cunning little thing, Dot?” cooed Tess.
“He’s the nicest baby I ever saw,” agreed the smallest Corner House girl.
“Oh, yes,” growled Mabel, who had been the baby in the family herself for a long time before Bubby came. “Oh, yes, he’s so cunning! Look at him now—trying to get his foot in his mouth. If I bite my fingernails mother raps me good; but that kid can swallow his whole foot and they think he’s cute!”
“Oh, Mabel! does he really swallow his foot?” gasped Dot. “I should think it would choke him.”
“Wish it would!” declared the savage sister of the cooing Bubby Creamer. “Then I could get out and play once in a while. Lydia and Peg put it on me, anyway. They get the best of everything.”
“Oh, let’s play right here,” suggested Tess, interrupting this ill-natured tirade. “You get your new doll, Mabel.”