03 - Diary of a Birthday Doll by Ethel Dow

In this enchanting tale, a doll gifted to a young girl on her birthday embarks on a heartfelt journey filled with adventures and missteps, all in a quest to earn the love of her new mother. Join her as she navigates the challenges of acceptance and belonging. - Summary by Emma Hatton

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three of the Diary of a Birthday Doll by
Ethel Dow. This is a libriyvox recording. All liberyvox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit liberyvox dot org. Oh, Teddy Bear is stuck up,
and I do hate stuck up people. I don't see
anyhow why he thinks such a lot of himself, But

(00:21):
he really is handsome. I caught a glimpse of him
about an hour ago when Mamma Lu took him out
of the trunk. He has a lovely white coat of fur,
a pink nose, and pink overcoat. Oh, of do I
like pink. His eyes are a lovely color and have
so much expression they remind me of a great deal
of the brown buttons on Mamma Lu's hand slippers. Well,

(00:43):
he's out at last, and I hope he behaves himself
and stays out. Oh, I oughtn't to have said that
in such a snappy way. Of course, he'll behave himself.
I'm sure that it's not his fault that Mamma Lou
is so severe with him. Doesn't she treat me as
if I were a naughty child, though I'm trying so
hard to be good. Didn't she this very morning say

(01:06):
to me, you give me more trouble than modern gladdies
and all my other children put together ever did Now
You've just gotten out of the dangerous cough, and I'm
very much afraid that you'll get some other sickness. You
look feverish. She put her hand on my head, then said, dear, dear,
I do hope it will be nothing serious. Perhaps you'll

(01:26):
be better by the time I come back from school. Yes,
you must be better, Dolly, or I'll think you very naughty.
You really do give me more trouble now. It was
sweet of Mamma Aloud to be so careful about my health,
but I don't want to be fussed over when I
know I'm perfectly well. And she surely needn't have made
that unkind remark about my being more trouble, etc. Mamma

(01:51):
Lou wouldn't like it. I'm sure if Grandma Ellis would
say to her every time she sneezed, you're the biggest bother.
Lucy little girls often do not think what they are saying.
Mamma Lou went to school today after nurse had had
a very hard time dressing her. Glattie said that it
was because she didn't want to go back to school,
but I can hardly believe that. Then I lay back

(02:13):
and thought about the big family. Mamma Lou had had
ten children before me, and only Mad and Glatty's left
of all the big crowd. Dear me, that's sad and
scary too. Maud. I always feel like calling her miss
Maud because she is so dignified. But she told me
at once that it would be very foolish for sisters

(02:33):
to be so stiff that I must call her simply mad.
She's so very sweet mod is well. Ma told me
the other day that she is the oldest of all
of them. When she came, Mamma Lou was only a
year old. Oh, she must have been a pretty baby
and very young indeed to be the mother of a
great little girl like Maud. Mamma Lou is seven years

(02:55):
old now, so really my oldest sister isn't so very
young anymore, though she doesn't look a day older than I,
and I am sure she keeps her age well because
she has been petted and kissed and made happy all
her life, not like well, I don't intend to complain.
Six came before Glotti's, one Rubber, three rag a sad

(03:16):
uncle Harry. Again. I do wish Mamma Lou had them now.
Rag dolls are so nice and friendly, not a bit
stuck up, and always up to fun. Then there were
two bisk like me, and one China. The last one
was very delicate. Maude said she got giddy the very
first day that she came into the family, fell out

(03:36):
of Mamalou's arms and smashed into Maud didn't seem to
count the pieces carefully, but she thinks that the number
she reached was two hundred and thirty one. Glattie's came next.
She was wax like mad, and Maud told me that
Glotti's was the first real friend she had. Such friends
as they are now, Maud is like a mother to
Glotti's and Glotti's is simply devoted to Maud. They are

(04:00):
both very kind to me, but I just feel that
I can never be really in with them. They seemed
to take to each other right away and never quarrel.
Before Glady's came, Mot used to be awfully lonely at
night sometimes when Mamma Lou had forgotten to put her
to sleep. I simply couldn't make friends with those other dolls,
she told me last Monday in our long talk. They

(04:21):
didn't know how to behave, especially the rag dolls. I'll
never forget the awful noise they used to make every
night and dirty. I was certainly glad when Grandma Ellis
took them away from Mamma Lucy. Mad always calls her
Mama lu Mama Lucy. When Maud told me this, I
kept quiet as to my feelings toward rag dolls, because

(04:42):
I was afraid that she would think badly of my taste.
But I had grown a little more independent in the
last two days, and besides, was awfully anxious to know
whether there was any chance of their coming back. So
I said quite suddenly, about two hours after Mamma lou
had gone off to school, Whatever became of those three
rag dolls you were talking about, Mad heard anything about

(05:03):
them lately? What did Mamma lu do with all her
broken down children? Anyway? The six before Gladdie's and the
two before us, do you know, Maud? At first, there
was no answer, Maud, and Gladdy's too seemed mighty uncomfortable
at last, Maud said, very slowly and in a queer voice.
As for those common rag dolls, they were most likely

(05:26):
thrown into the ash barrel. Oh, the poor things, I explained,
and maybe are turned into bits of paper. Now, just
what Mamma Lucy does with the higher classes like you
and Glad's in me? Now? Wasn't it sweet of mad
to include me? I am not sure. Gladdy's and I
sometimes imagine that we know, but we don't want you

(05:48):
to question us because we are not certain we are right.
It is an unpleasant subject anyhow, and makes me feel chilly.
Maybe when you are a little older, Dolly dear, And
then she stopped. I hope that I'm mannerly enough to
not insist upon a disagreeable subject. So I just murmured, oh, certainly,
as politely as I could, and pretended to doze off.

(06:11):
Of course, I was just burning with curiosity. Heaps of
things for me to learn. Yet I thought, Oh, if
only Teddy would speak, I'm sure he could teach me lots.
But I had made up my mind not to call
him again, and I simply wouldn't. Very soon, Mamma Luke
came home from school, and then I had no more

(06:32):
time for thinking. Hello, Gladdie's Hello Matty. Well, Dolly, how
are you feeling a little better? I think your cough
is gone and you have no more fever. She said,
You've been a good child and deserve a dress, a
nice new dress all your own. I believe i'll make
it for you this afternoon, dear me. But I was
glad pink, Make it pink, I prayed. She measured the

(06:56):
breadth of my chest and the length of my arms
with a piece of string thirty eight inches and twenty
one yes, ma'am, she said, goodness, I didn't know I
was as big as all that. I could hardly believe it.
I'm sure Mammalu made a mistake. I'll make it in
my mama's room, because her work basket is in there,
she went on. And I believe I'll take Gladdie's pink

(07:18):
dress with me for a pattern. She hurried out of
the room, and I lay back on my bed, perfectly delighted.
Glatdye seemed a little out of the humor, though, and
Maud was rather quiet. Never mind, I thought, I'll on
my dress to them. Sometimes I wonder how many more
i'll get in less than five minutes, Mammalu came back
with a pink mother hubbered exactly like Gladdie's, excepting that

(07:42):
there was no frills at the neck and sleeves. Oh
it's sweet, I thought, though maybe I was just the
least bit disappointed about the frills. A touch of white
at the throat. You know, here you are, she cried,
here's your dress, your nice new dress. Do you like it, Dolly?
And then she laughed out loud and kissed Glotties a

(08:04):
whole new dress with sleeves and tucks and hem and
skirt and buttonholes and such neat little buttonholes in less
than five minutes. My Mama Lou is certainly a wonder,
but I don't see why she had to kiss Glotties
so all of the sudden, and such mean things that
dolls say sometimes. All the while Mama Lou was talking

(08:26):
off the sweet little blue that I wore yesterday to
the tea party and dressing me in pink, that jealous
Glatties was grumbling, it's my dress, and I don't think
I've been treated fairly. I don't mind lending it for
a while, but I do not want to give it
away altogether. It just makes me feel bad to see

(08:46):
all that pretty lace torn off, and I don't see
why she couldn't have kept it on. She needn't think
that she can fool me. I guess I can recognize
my own dress, lace or no lace. At first, I
wasn't going to pay attention to her remarks. I thought
that Maud would settle her. But Maud was looking rather
queer too, and didn't say a word, So then I

(09:07):
just fired up, how can you talk so Gladdis? Didn't
my mama and she is my mama, remember it's just
as yours and is going to like me too, just
as well as someday. And didn't she say that it
was a new dress, a new dress? Anyhow? I'd like
to know why I can't get a new dress once
in a while as well as you, because the third

(09:29):
girl in a family hardly ever gets new dresses snapped Gladdie's,
and at present, you're the third in the family. Besides,
just look at that spot on the hem. You've seen
that spot before, you know you have. And Mama lu
said your new dress, you're a nice new dress, not
a new dress. It's new to you, though it's old

(09:51):
to me. Oh, I don't care. The lace was all
worn out, and I was sick of the old thing anyway.
And then she began to w wispur to Maud, I
just won't believe it. So there my dress is a
new one, a brand new one, and it was very
clever of my mama to sew it so quickly. I

(10:11):
don't quite understand, though, why she didn't bring back with
her Gladdy's pink mother Hubbard that she took out for
a pattern. Some things are so very queer. Now you're
only a baby yet, and I don't think you keep
your dresses very clean, Mamma Luth said to me as
soon as I was dressed. So I believe I'll make
you wear an apron. She rummaged in the box in

(10:33):
which she had kept the girl's clothes, of which there
were heaps, until she picked out a simple little pinafore
without a bit of trimming. Now this will do very nicely,
she said, as she slipped the pinafore on me and
trimmed it to fasten it. Oh my, the lower button
is off. I couldn't put an apron with a button
off on my child, or I'd teach it to be untidy.

(10:57):
And that would never do. She ran off again and
came back with Grandma's work basket, settled herself comfortably in
a chair with her feet on a footstool, just as
she must have seen her mama do, placed me flat
on my stomach on her lap till I expected my
eyes to drop out on the floor any second, and
began to sew on my new apron. After the fourth stitch,

(11:19):
it must have been the fourth, because my skin had
been pricked four times, she rested for a minute and
said out loud, Now, maybe I should have waited until
Mamma had come back home, because then I could have
gotten a button. But I guess this will do just
as well. And after eighteen stitches, or at least eighteen pricks,
she gave me a little tap on the back and said,

(11:41):
now you've all right, Dolly. I've sewed your apron up
nice and tight, and you can't possibly get out of
it unless I take the thread out of you. It's
much safer than a button. Clottie's burst out laughing. Oh,
but I was angry, and I said, as haughtily as
could be, I am perfectly satisfied with any style of apron.

(12:03):
My mother I said my mother instead of my mama,
to sort of scare her chooses for me. And I
don't see what on earth you are laughing at. Miss
Gladdie's mad, said ssh, and look surprised. But I didn't
feel sore on account of the needle pricks, I guess.
And oh, it's so babyish to be sewn up in
an apron, just like h like a sausage and wouldn't

(12:29):
stop for anybody. Mama Lu put us to bed, though,
right away, and that settled the argument. Let's see, did
anything else of importance happen? What a joke I'm pretending
to forget when all the while I'm so delighted that
all the sausage aprons in the world couldn't put me
in a bad temper. Tonight, just after supper, Mama Lu

(12:51):
came into the nursery again, and without saying a word
to us about it, she would have done so, I'm
sure if she had known how much we care sort
of a relation anyway, she unlocked the trunk in which
Teddy was in prison and took him out, dusted him off,
and looked at him, dusted again, and then put him
under the bed. Now, just you take care of the girls,

(13:13):
she said, see that nothing happens to them, And maybe,
if you're very brave, I'll make you a sarrogant maud
and glad. He's have been sound asleep since at least
four o'clock, so they don't know anything about it. Oh
don't I wish it were morning so that I could
tell them the good news. We are all interested in
Teddy and so sorry for him. Poor Teddy bear. How

(13:37):
glad he must be to get his freedom again. I
wonder how it felt in that narrow trunk. If I
weren't afraid he wouldn't answer me, I'd ask him what
he did to make Mamma Luke cross with him. Then
i'd be careful not to do it. If he'd be
only a little more sociable, we could have such nice
long talks together in the night. He's not a sleeper,

(13:57):
and I'm sure he's clever. Maybe he what becomes of
mamma loose broken dolls. Wouldn't that be grand? Oh, Teddy Teddy. No,
I won't call him, I said I wouldn't, and I won't,
But oh, I do wish it were morning so that
I could tell the girls the good news. End of
chapter three,