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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
Yol. I.
Written for Burke’s Weekly,
PLAYING “MOTHER.”
BY CLARA LE CLERC.
ROW I’ll have a nice time
all to myself,” murmur
ed little Cora Wheeler,
as she entered the plca
mily sitting room,
mma said if I would be a
good girl
and stay
y at home
while she
went out calling to
day, that I might
play with Dollie all
the time.”
And the little fai
ry-like creature flit
ted about the room,
fixing things, as she
said, but really no
one could see any
improvement.
“Now I’ll get my
things,” and leav
ing the room, she
soon returned, bear-
ing a very small table and a little stool ;
making a second trip, she returned with a
doll cradle and a set of shelves and draw
ers. These she arranged to her entire
satisfaction, placing her table beneath the
window, and her set of shelves against the
wall to the left.
“Now I must put up my hair like a
lady,” and the little creature smoothed
her hair down over her ears, and fasten
ing it in a little knot behind, placed a net
—one of her mother's —over her hair.
“ Now, as I have work to do a dress
to cut out for Dollie —I must roll up my
sleeves; mamma always does. ’ And the
sleeves were turned up over the fair dimp
led arms.
MACON, GrA., MARCH 14, 1868.
Her little crimson cushion, a present
from mamma, was placed upon the table,
holding its supply of pins and needles,
and her work was scattered about in a
most business-like manner.
Lifting the curtain, which hung in front
of her shelves, she placed it over the top,
exposing the many pretty toys which it
had concealed. A tiny little house, a
large rubber ball, a toy cow, two small
glass jars with “lemon drops” in them, a
pair of bellows for her baby-house, and
last, hut not least, a real doll accordeon ;
and she stood Dollie up, in her pretty
white dress and baby-cap, before the
shelves, and put her little china hand up
on the accordeon.
Then she made up Dollie’s cradle,
spreading a nice little quilt ot patch-woi k
over it.
“ I shall put Dollie some playthings up
on the carpet, for perhaps she may get
tired of playing her accordeon, and want
to do something else, and I cannot be
troubled with her while I am at work,’
muttered the little lady as she placed a
little old dump of a rubber doll, with a
sugar-loaf hat upon its head, a shaggy
white dog, with one roller broken off of
the board it was on, so that it tumbled
over on the floor; a skipping rope, and
several plates and a little pitcher —all on
the carpet for her “little girl ” to amuse
herself with.
“Now, Dollie, you must be a good girl
while mother cuts out anew dress for her
little daughter. If you are very quiet I’ll
give you some nice lemon drops after I
have finished my work.”
rested in the rosy palm of the small hand.
“ I think mamma puts four widths in
my dresses, and of course I should put the
same number in my daughter’s dresses,
though they won’t be as wide as mine—
the idea of a child’s dress being as wide
as its mother’s!” And Mrs. Cora Bose
removed her dimpled chin from the rosy
palm, the little elbow from the tabe, and
pioeeeded to cut out two more breadths
for the skirt.
“Did you speak to me, my daughter?
You must be a good child, and not trou
ble mother. Did you say you wanted a
few lemon drops ? Yes, it shall have just
a few. That’s just the way mamma used
to talk to me -when she gave me anything
No. 37
And Mrs. Rose, as
she called herself,
took up a tiny pair
of scissors and pro
ceeded to cut out a
dress for Darthula,
her daughter—call
ed Dollie for short.
“There now, here
are two breadths
for the skirt; I be
lieve that is what
mamma calls ’em,
and I reckon I must
have four. I think,"
and here the little
elbow was propped
upon the table, and
her dimpled chin