There, now
sit up, can't you? Your back is like a broken stick. Oh, hum, I'm tired
of _you_, Didy."
Leaving the doll leaning in a one-sided way against the door, Nannette
posed her dimpled chin in her hands, and sat quietly looking into the
street. Presently a woman came along with a bundle in her arms, and
seeing Nannette and "Didy" in the doorway, went up the steps and asked
the little girl if she would not like to have a real little _live_ baby.
"One that will _cry_?" eagerly asked Nannette.
"Yes, one that will cry, and laugh, too, after a bit," answered the
woman, all the time looking keenly about her; and then in a hushed voice
she asked the child if her mother was at home.
"No--she's gone to see my auntie, shall I call her?" replied Nannette,
jumping to her feet, and clapping her hands, from a feeling as if in
some way she was to have her long-wished-for _live_ baby.
"No; don't call her; and if you want a baby that will _cry_, you must be
very quiet, and listen to me. Mark me now--have you a quarter of a
dollar, to pay for a baby?"
"I guess so," answered Nannette; "I've a lot of money up stairs." And
running up to her room, she climbed into a chair, took down her money
box from a shelf, and emptying all her pennies and small silver coin
into her apron, ran down again.
"This is as much as a quarter of a dollar, isn't it?"
The woman saw at a glance that there was more than that amount, and
hastily taking poor little Nannette's carefully hoarded pennies, she
whispered:
"Now carry the baby up-stairs and keep it in your own little bed.
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