Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/24

 4  would all have been boys, but Bettie saved the day. She was a slender twelve-year-old-little Bettie, with big brown eyes, a mop of short brown curls and such odd clothes. Busy Mrs. Tucker was so in the habit of making boys' garments that she could not help giving a boyish cut to even Bettie's dresses. There were always sailor collars to the waists, and the skirts were invariably kilted. Besides this, the little girl wore boys' shoes.

"You see," explained Bettie, who was a cheerful little body, "Tommy has to take them next and of course it wouldn't pay to buy shoes for just one girl."

The little Tuckers were not the only children in the neighbourhood. Bettie found a bosom friend in Dr. Bennett's Mabel, who lived next door to the rectory, another in Jeanie Mapes, who lived across the street, and still another in Marjory Vale, whose home was next door to Dandelion Cottage.

Jean, as her little friends best liked to call