hat's the way the lace shawl goes. Um--it's long"--she
looked down as she fastened the last little button. "Oh, I know! I'll
tuck it up in the front and leave the long back for a trail! How's that,
I wonder."

She unearthed an old mirror, hung it on a nail in the wall and surveyed
herself in the glass.

"Um, I don't look so bad--but my hair ain't right. I don't know how
primer donners wear their hair, but I know they don't wear it in two
plaits like mine."

She pulled the narrow brown ribbons from her braids, opened the braids
and shook her head vigorously until her curls tumbled about her head and
over her shoulders. Then she knotted the two ribbons together and bound
them across her hair in a fillet, tying them in a bow under her flowing
curls.

"Now, I guess it's as good as I can fix it. I wish Miss Lee could see me
now. I wish most of all my mom--mother could see me. Mebbe she'd say,
'Precious child,' like they say in stories, and then I'd say back,
'Mother dear, mother dear'"--she lingered over the words--"'Mother
dear.' But mebbe she is saying that to me right now, seeing it's my
birthday. I'll make believe so, anyhow."

She was silent for a moment, a puzzled expression on her face.

"I just don't see," she spoke aloud suddenly, "I don't see why I
shouldn't make believe I have a mother, just adopt one like people do
children sometimes. Aunt Maria says it's a risk to adopt some one's
child, but I don't see that it would be a risk to adopt a mother. Let me
see now--of all the women I know, who do I want to adopt? Not Mary
Warner's mom--she's stylish and wears nice dresses, but I don't think
I'd like her to keep. Not Granny Hogendobler, though she's nice and I
like her a lot, a whole lot, and I wish her Nason would come back, but I
don't see how I could take her for my mother; she's too old and she
don't wear a white cap and my mother did, so I must take one that does.
I don't want Phares's mom, either. Now, David's mom I like--yes, I like
her. Most everybody calls her Aunty Bab and I'm just goin' to ask her
if I dare call her Mother Bab! Mother Bab--I like that vonderful much!
And I like her. When we go over to her house she's so nice and talks to
me kind and the last time I was there she kissed me and said what pretty
hair I got. Yes, I want David's mom for mine. I guess he won't care. He
always gives me apples and chestnuts and things and he shows me birds'
nests and I think he'll leave me have his mom, so