Ship of Dolls Read Online Free PDF Page A

expect difficulty with the money. You are skipping about, Electra. You have missed the one item I wished to hear you read.”
    Lexie glanced swiftly over the paper. This time, her gaze stopped at a paragraph in the middle of the page. Aloud, she read, “They should be . . . simply . . . and care . . . carefully dressed. Extra dresses are desire . . . desirable.”
    Heart sinking, she raised her eyes to the teacher. “Emily Grace has a pretty satin dress with ruffles, not a simple one.”
    “Nor does she have an extra dress,” Miss Tompkins said. She clasped her hands together on her desk and gazed at Lexie.
    The expectant look in the teacher’s eyes made Lexie’s thoughts race. “I could make a second dress for her!” And hold her and measure her and fit the dress to her. She held her breath, hardly daring to hope that Miss Tompkins would agree.
    Punishment
, she reminded herself.
It has to sound like punishment!
Aloud she added, “I wouldn’t have time to play. I’d have to stay in after school every day to work on the dress.”
    It looked like a smile teased the corners of Miss Tompkins’s lips, but Lexie couldn’t imagine why. “And I hope you will remember that your own reckless behavior brought the punishment upon you.”
    “I will!” Lexie said with all the promise she could load into her voice.
    “Your assignment, then,” the teacher said in a firm voice, “is to design and sew a simple second dress to place in the trunk to travel with Emily Grace to Japan.”
    Lexie suddenly remembered that she had never so much as hemmed a handkerchief! She didn’t like to admit that she couldn’t do something. But to sew a dress nice enough to travel with the doll to Japan might not be possible.
    Heat rose to her cheeks. Everyone would laugh at whatever she managed to stitch together. Where would she even find material?
    “You may ask your grandmother to help you.” Miss Tompkins placed the leaflet in her desk drawer. “You have three weeks, Electra. Perhaps the next time you are tempted to go into a place where you do not belong, you will remember that actions have consequences.”
    “Yes, I will,” Lexie said, but wondered if she’d made another mistake when she offered to do something important without knowing how. To ask for Grandma’s help, she would have to admit that she had gone into the teacher’s room to see the doll! Her thoughts spun so fast, she felt dizzy.
    “You are dismissed,” Miss Tompkins told her. “Please wait outside with the others for the class bell.”
    Feeling dazed, Lexie turned away and forced her steps toward the door.
    “Electra.”
    She stopped at the teacher’s call, then turned slowly, wondering if a second punishment was to be added to the first.
    “You will need to take measurements and fit the dress to the doll. You may visit her in the boardinghouse when necessary, at any time when I am there.”
    She was to have all the time she needed to hold the doll, to get to know her. She would understand Emily Grace better than anyone in the class. She would learn exactly what to say in Emily Grace’s letter.
    “I will,” she said. “I will, Miss Tompkins!” She felt as if she could do anything, even sew a dress worth traveling with Emily Grace to Japan. Even tell Grandma. Even ask for her help. She would find a way. Somehow. Feeling a smile light her up inside, she ran onto the school porch.
    She ran right into Jack. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, talking fast. “It isn’t right. What happened was my fault, and I’m going to own up to it.”
    “No.” She saw her chance with the doll slipping away. Making the dress was something she needed and wanted to do. What a time for Jack to decide to be a hero. She wished she hadn’t said she was afraid of being sent away from school. He must have been thinking about that. “It was my idea. I made you take me to that room. I wanted to hold the doll.”
    Eyes bright, Jack reached for the doorknob. “I