The Friendship Doll Read Online Free

My, my.” She forked up a bit ofscrambled egg and held it to Bunny’s lips. “One little bite for old Nanny?”
    Bunny opened her mouth, took the offered bite, and chewed thoughtfully. Something would come to her. If only it were spring, rather than January. Then she could pull her famous frog-in-the-pinafore trick. That had turned Win’s last birthday party into a free-for-all of screaming girls. Bunny smiled to remember it. One of her finest moments.
    “Come on, dearie.” Nanny nudged her out of her reverie and her bed. “Time to meet the day.” Soon Bunny was wearing her best woolen dress, white stockings with a black garter above each knee, and black dress shoes with straps that buckled at the ankle. Nanny carefully combed each ringlet around her knobby fingers until eight fat brown sausages bounced around Bunny’s head.
    “Hold still, lovey.” Nanny fussed and fumbled and finally fastened an enormous satin bow above Bunny’s left ear. This fashion made Bunny feel like some kind of gift package, but it was the latest fad for girls her age, and heaven forbid if Mother didn’t dress her daughters in the current fashion. Bunny did a little twirl for Nanny, who clapped her hands. “You look like a porcelain doll. Prettier than those Japanese ones, I’m sure.”
    Even Mother approved, in her own way, when she stopped Bunny in the entryway to give her fingernails an inspection. “Remember, Bunny, pretty is as pretty does.”
    “Yes, Mother.” Bunny curtsied.
    “Father will be down in a moment. Wait for him inthe library.” Mother gave her a quick hug, then adjusted the satin hair bow. “There. Now, I must find Winnifred.” She hurried off.
    Bunny waited in Father’s library as directed. Three steps into the room, her eye fell on Father’s boyhood marble collection. The answer to her troubles was virtually under her nose! Quick as a wink, she snatched up one of the biggest aggies in the enormous glass jar. She was confident she would be able to find exactly the right moment to drop it during the ceremony. The clatter would freeze Belle’s stiff words to the roof of her mouth. Then Bunny
would
have to step forward to save the day with her prettily prepared speech. Bunny was stunned by her own cleverness.
    “Ready?” Father stood in the doorway.
    “Yes, Father.” Bunny smoothed her fur-trimmed wrapper. “Quite ready.”
    Soon, they were in the backseat of the new Town Car, purring their way down Fifth Avenue.
    “Best view in the world, right, Bunny?” Father tapped on the rear passenger window as they angled off onto Broadway, just past Madison Square Garden. Bunny nodded agreement, her nose pressed against the glass. It was like having her own silent film rolling in front of her—all the colors and automobiles and pushcarts and people. And so many of those people reading the paper as they went about their business. Just think, tomorrow they’d all be reading about her! Not Belle Roosevelt. She smiled.
    Bunny craned her neck as they rolled past the ScribnerBuilding, where Father had taken her once to meet an editor friend of his. They’d had lunch near there, at that delicatessen, where Father had let her drink an egg cream with her sandwich. When Scribner’s edged out of sight, she turned the other way to look for the spires of First Presbyterian Church, where they attended services on Sundays. Thinking of church and Reverend Speers’ last sermon made Bunny squirm a bit on the seat. His lecture about “pride goeth before a fall” and Mother’s admonition that “pretty is as pretty does” were almost enough to dissuade her from her course of action.
    Then she remembered the worst thing—when Belle had written Bunny’s name in her spite book. That had been the kiss of death. No one at Mrs. Newcomb’s had dared befriend Bunny after that. It was all because of Belle that Bunny’s school days were lonely and long.
    She felt for the aggie in her pocket. Still there. Now all she had to do was