Nancy and Plum Read Online Free PDF

hand-me-down coat and moth-eaten muff; Eunice Haggerty’s homemade rag doll with the face all bunched up near the forehead and short, very stiff, very stumpy arms and legs; Todd Weatherby’s new toothbrush and chart to keep track of how many times he brushed his teeth, and little Sally Cedric’s new gray-flannel petticoat.
    The best presents were Allan Murphy’s copy of
Tom Sawyer
and
Gulliver’s Travels
, which he said Plum and Nancy could borrow, and Evangeline Carter’s giant candy cane, which she said she would share with everyone. The other children had been given small, cheaply made windup toys which were already broken, or merely candy and oranges which were already eaten.
    The funny thing is that although Nancy and Plum had had no Christmas at all of any kind, they almost cried when they saw Todd Weatherby’s toothbrush and David Hilton’s long underwear. Nancy said she could fix Eunice Haggerty’s hideous rag doll that looked, Allan said, as though she had just eaten a quince and had been run over by a train. Nancy said that she would rip out the old squinty face and during next sock-darning session when Mrs. Monday and Marybelle went into their sitting room for tea, she would embroider in a new face. She said it wouldn’t make any difference if the doll had awfully short arms and legs, if her face was pretty. She said, “And next summer we’ll put corn silk hair on her and pin wild roses on her dress and she’ll be just beautiful.”
    Eunice wiped her eyes on her sleeve and said, “I’m going to name her Nancy,” and Plum said, “I think Marybelle Whistle would be more appropriate. Go on, Eunice, name her Marybelle and then I’ll punch her in the stomach and hit her in the eye and stamp on her toes.”
    Eunice said, “No, I want her to be named Nancy. She’s the only doll I’ve ever had.”
    Nancy said, “I have a good idea. I’ll make a Marybelle Whistle doll. There are lots of rags and an old comforter inthe attic and I’ll ask Mrs. Monday for a needle and some thread to do some mending.”
    The children wanted to know if she was going to make the doll that very evening and Nancy said that she might get started on her if she could sneak up to the attic. Speaking of the attic reminded Nancy and Plum of the trunk room and the empty box addressed to them and they pulled it out from under their bed and showed it to the other children, who all said that Marybelle had two very large new dolls. One with golden hair and one with black hair. Nancy and Plum asked how they were dressed and the children said that the blond one had on a pale blue velvet coat and bonnet trimmed with white fur and the dark-haired one had on a pale pink velvet coat and bonnet trimmed with brown fur. Eunice said that both dolls had on little white gloves and real little white galoshes. She also said that they were as large as real children and perfectly beautiful. As she told how beautiful Marybelle’s new dolls were, she looked down at her own doll and began to cry again. “You’re ugly, ugly, ugly,” she sobbed, pounding on Quince Face’s stuffed stomach with her fist. “Even with a new face you’ll look like a tree with its branches sawed off. Here, Plum, make her into Marybelle Whistle, I never want to see her again.”
    She threw Quince Face at Plum, who grabbed her and put her in the big box under the bed, then stood up and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen: Tomorrow evening after supper I will present a play called ‘REVENGE!’ Admission is free, everybody is invited.”
    Eunice laughed then, and Nancy put her arm around her and said, “Perhaps I can make you a new doll out of the stuff in the attic. It may not be the prettiest doll in the world but it certainly won’t be as ugly as Marybelle Whistle.”
    Then up the stairway and down the long corridor came the booming gong of the supper bell and the familiar smell of scorched oatmeal, and the children trooped down to supper.
    Mrs. Monday and Marybelle