![\"Betty](\"http:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Betty-Bonnet-November-366.jpg\")
Betty Bonnet is an ongoing serial story, released on the Sheep Among Wolves blog once a month. It follows the adventures of the Bonnet family, first created by Sheila Young as a paper doll series released in the Ladies\u2019 Home Journal beginning 1915. To go to the first episode,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nI.<\/h6>\n
It was always possible that Betty Bonnet might come down with the measles.<\/p>\n
Betty reminded me of this fact, several times, towards the beginning of November.<\/p>\n
I conceded the possibility, but always countered with the reflection that it was, of course, equally possible that she might not.<\/p>\n
Measles seemed to have run their course for the year, and gone into discrete retirement. Even the headmistress at Betty\u2019s school had got over them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I might, Miss Burton. I really might<\/em> you know. And then it would be too late.\u201d<\/p>\n The thing which it would be too late for\u2014the thing of which Betty had been reminding anybody and everybody she could get hold of for the last fortnight\u2014this all-important preoccupation which might be so devastatingly prevented by the dreaded attack of illness to which Betty alluded\u2014was Betty\u2019s own, personal (and astonishingly extended) Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n \u201cI might come down with measles, tomorrow, Miss Burton,\u201d Betty reminded me, as I was putting on my rubbers in the hall. \u201cAnd if I did, I shouldn\u2019t be able to buy a Christmas present for Mamma. Or Papa,\u201d she added, after a moment\u2019s reflection.<\/p>\n I got one recalcitrant overshoe wrestled into position, and pretended not to hear.<\/p>\n \u201cOr Barbara. Or Birdie. Or Belle.\u201d Betty hopped across the sun-dappled rug, to peer up into my face. \u201cOr Bill. Or Bobby. Or Bonnie.\u201d<\/p>\n I mastered the second shoe, with a grunt.<\/p>\n Betty brought her lips very close to my ear, and added, in a shrill whisper, \u201cOr YOU!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Here I thought I saw an opening.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t expect me<\/em> to take you shopping for my own Christmas present, Betty-girl.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a fatal mistake. The instant the words were out of my mouth, I perceived the logical rejoinder. So, in a moment, did Betty.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you can take me to get all the others!\u201d she exclaimed triumphantly.<\/p>\n A quarter of an hour later, we set off.<\/p>\n Taking Betty Christmas shopping has a tendency to swell into an all-day affair. Betty takes her Christmas purchases very seriously.<\/p>\n She always knows precisely what she wants to buy.<\/p>\n And, with boundless faith that exactly the article she is in search of is waiting, just around the corner, to reward the patient perseverance of her method, she can never be beguiled into settling for a compromise.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see, Miss Burton, I don\u2019t want just exactly this blue for Mamma\u2019s tea cozy. It wouldn\u2019t look like it went with the forget-me-nots on the china, now would it? Forget-me-nots are a blue<\/em> sort of blue. But this\u2014\u201d picking disapprovingly at the jade floss that decorated the tea cozy under inspection, \u201c\u2014this is really more of a sea-ish colour, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSea green. It\u2019s very much the rage, just at present, Miss,\u201d said the shop attendant, helpfully.<\/p>\n He had tried the wrong line.<\/p>\n Betty cared nothing for rages.<\/p>\n She cared everything for accuracy.<\/p>\n \u201cI \u2018spect the shop around the corner has got different colors,\u201d said Betty, with gracious but immovable dignity. \u201cThank you very much, just the same.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI dare say Mamma would be ever so happy with the sea-green cozy, if it was a present from you,\u201d I suggested, after a fruitless search at the fifth shop. \u201cMammas always like whatever comes from their little girls.\u201d<\/p>\n Betty\u2019s solemnly reproachful eyes were lifted to my own. \u201cWhen little girls are very fond of their mammas,\u201d she informed me sternly, \u201cthey don\u2019t want<\/em> to buy any sort of tea cozy except the very best one in all of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust so,\u201d I conceded, apologetically.<\/p>\n \u201cThe very best one,\u201d Betty informed me, as I had known she would, \u201cis blue.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n We went into a sixth shop\u2014and into a seventh\u2014and found a tea cozy, cross-stitched in forget-me-not blue.<\/p>\n Betty was too polite to look triumphant.<\/p>\n I was too limp to care.<\/p>\n At least, thus far, Betty seemed to have forgotten about the dolls. There was a time, as my readers will remember, when Betty had a very strong notion that she was going to buy everyone on her list a doll this Christmas.<\/p>\n Even a forget-me-not tea cozy in a seventh shop was preferable to staggering down the street laden with some dozen dolls, done up in brown paper.<\/p>\n Or not<\/em> done up in brown paper.<\/p>\n Betty was very sensitive to the feelings of dolls.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now you\u2019ve got the pocketbook for Papa. And the handkerchiefs for Birdie,\u201d I tried to get a look at the crumpled list in Betty\u2019s small glove. \u201cWhat\u2019s that, at the very bottom? The only thing left, isn\u2019t it? We shall be home before tea.\u201d<\/p>\n Betty held the smudgy scrawl close to her face, to decipher her own handwriting in the waning light.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, yes,\u201d she recollected, comfortably. \u201cIt\u2019s only the dolls, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOnly\u201d the dolls!<\/p>\n Twelve of them. One for each of us\u2014father, mother, brothers, sisters, even Barbara\u2019s husband was not to be forgotten.<\/p>\n \u201cHe<\/em> mightn\u2019t like a doll,\u201d I protested weakly.<\/p>\n \u201cFrank Everett is a very nice man,\u201d said Betty reprovingly.<\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t said he wasn\u2019t, but I was past arguing with Betty. You never won an argument with her about dolls, anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cVery well,\u201d I told her, hailing a taxi for Macy\u2019s and trying to summon to my voice an authority which I did not feel. \u201cBut we are finished with tramping about in the wet. Any dolls you want to buy, have got to be bought in the toy department. After<\/em> we find something to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n Betty looked up at me solemnly. \u201cYou don\u2019t like buying dolls, Miss Burton.\u201d<\/p>\n It sounded a trifle heartless, put like that.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I don\u2019t mind buying dolls, in moderation, Betty. It\u2019s only that\u2014only that\u2014it seems a trifle\u2014I mean, Papa, and Mamma, and Frank, and all\u2014\u201d I trailed off, not quite willing to quench the light in Betty\u2019s eyes by telling her bluntly what I really meant.<\/p>\n How do you explain to a doll-crazy little girl that buying toys for twelve people who don\u2019t actually want them, while generous, is not necessarily the most expedient way of testifying to one\u2019s sincere and heartfelt affection?<\/p>\n We got into the taxi, and the arm of Betty\u2019s woollen coat stole caressingly around my neck.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Miss Burton,\u201d she whispered coaxingly in my ear. \u201cI\u2019m e\u2019sposed <\/em>to buy the dolls.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSupposed <\/em>to buy them?\u201d I repeated rather flatly.<\/p>\n Betty nodded with absolute conviction.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know?\u201d I ventured, doubtfully.<\/p>\n Betty sat down on the leather seat, with a comfortable wiggle.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked God,\u201d she explained confidently. \u201cAnd He said, \u2018Yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n (To be continued.)<\/em><\/p>\n Don’t miss last month’s episode of Betty Bonnet:<\/p>\nII.<\/h6>\n
![\"Betty](\"http:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Betty-Bonnet-November-Pinterest-e1700080639609.jpg\")
III.<\/h6>\nIV.<\/h6>\n
V.<\/h6>\n
VI.<\/h6>\n
VII.<\/h6>\n
![\"It](\"http:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Betty-Bonnet-October-366.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Self](\"http:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Library-Autopilot-Harnessing-the-Power-of-Self-Education-366.jpg\")
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