dolls and her teddy bears playing as contentedly as you please.

"Oh!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, much relieved, "that's a joke on me, Mary Jane;
I thought you were talking to some new little girl. I didn't know that you
had named one of your dolls Dorothy."

"I was talking to a little girl," answered Mary Jane solemnly, "and I
haven't changed the name of one of my dolls--not one."

"Well, that's nice," said Mrs. Merrill, but she didn't pay more than half
attention to what Mary Jane said because she just happened to think of
something that she surely must order from the grocery as soon as she could
get downstairs. "I'm glad you are having such a good time." And she kissed
her little daughter lightly and went away.

"You'll have to excuse her, Dorothy," apologized Mary Jane, "grown folks
don't know much sometimes and I'm sure she didn't see you or she'd have
asked you to stay for lunch." She pulled two chairs over to the window
seat, got out paper and colored pencils and then sat down in one chair.
"Now you make snow on your paper and I'll make a picture."

For some minutes there was quiet in the nursery except for the sound of
Mary Jane's pencil rubbing, rubbing on the paper.

"There!" she said at last, "there's a cow and two chickens and a strawberry
like they have at my great-grandmother's that Dr. Smith told me about.
Let's see your snow," she added politely. She picked up the blank piece
of white paper that lay in front of the other chair and looked at it
thoughtfully. "You do make nice snow, Dorothy," she said, "it's so clean
and white. Now let's go down and see if lunch is ready."