JUNIOR'S SHOWER BATH


It's very funny to go around the house with your finger tied up in a
bandage and two strips of wood--that is, it's funny the first day. By the
second day it's queer and after that it's no fun at all; it's a bother.

Long before Mary Jane was allowed to use her hand again she had decided
that never, _never_, NEVER would she poke her finger into anything. It
takes only a second to poke a finger in but it takes a good long time to
get a badly hurt finger well, she had learned that.

For the first three days Aunt Effie played with her all the day long and
that wasn't so bad. They played dress up and school and Aunt Effie showed
her how she had school when she was a little girl. And they made new
dresses for all the dolls; and straightened the drawers of all the doll
dressers and--well, they did every single thing that Mary Jane could
think of or Aunt Effie could plan. And then, without a minute's warning a
telegram came; a telegram which said that Aunt Effie must come home at once
because her sister was sick.

And after that Mary Jane was lonesome, oh, so very lonesome and she
couldn't think of half enough things to do to fill the days. For, you see,
Mrs. Merrill had her duties and father had to go to his work and Alice had
her school and Doris had the chicken pox so no one, much as they might have
wished to, could spend every minute of the day with a little girl who was
perfectly well except for a hurt finger. That little girl had to play by
herself a part of the time.