Read Online Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace - Free Book Online

die.”
    “I hope you won’t,” said Tib, looking worried.
    “You might yourself,” answered Betsy. “You might get sick just the same as Tacy did, and you might die. We certainly ought to have something to remember each other by.”
    “I think I’d remember you, Betsy,” said Tib. “I’m sure I would. Wouldn’t you remember me?”
    “Well,” said Betsy, “it wouldn’t hurt to havesome special thing to help me. Like my Grandma’s got something to remember my Grandpa by.”
    “What’s she got?” asked Tacy.
    “It’s a piece of his hair,” said Betsy. “It was cut off his head, and she wears it in a locket.”
    Tacy and Tib looked impressed.
    “We’ll get us some lockets,” said Betsy. “And we’ll put in our lockets a piece of all our hairs. We could sort of braid them together. They’d look nice because Tacy’s is red, and yours, Tib, is yellow, and mine is brown.”
    “They’d certainly look nice,” said Tacy.
    “But we haven’t got any lockets,” said Tib.
    “No,” said Betsy. “But we could cut off the hair. We could get that much done right away. I’ll run down and ask my mamma for some scissors.”
    “And we’ll try to think what we can use for lockets,” Tacy said.
    Betsy jumped up and ran down the hill to her house. Her mother was in the kitchen making a cake, and she was pretty busy. She was beating eggs as fast as she could.
    “How’s Tacy?” she called out over the noise of the egg beater. “Is she glad to be out?”
    “Yes,” said Betsy. “And we need some scissors for something we’re doing. May I take the scissors, please?”
    “Yes,” said her mother. “You may take the blunt pair I let you cut paper dolls with. Hold the points down, and don’t run.”
    And she finished beating her eggs and began sifting flour. Betsy took the scissors and went out the kitchen door.
    Tacy and Tib called out as she came near.
    “We’ve been thinking,” Tacy said, “what we could use for lockets. We won’t be able to afford lockets for a while. But do you know what we could use?”
    “Pill boxes,” said Tib without waiting for Betsy to answer. “They’re just the right shape.”
    “While I was sick,” said Tacy, “our house was full of pill boxes, but my mother burned them all up yesterday.”
    “We have a few pill boxes at our house,” Betsy said. “Maybe some of them are empty.”
    “And Mrs. Benson would have some pill boxes, I imagine,” Tacy said. “Tib and I will go and ask her while you ask your mother.”
    Tacy and Tib ran down the street to Mrs. Benson’s and Betsy ran into the house to her mother again. Her mother had finished sifting flour now. She was beating the cake hard.
    “Mamma,” said Betsy. “Have you any old empty pill boxes Tacy and Tib and I could have?”
    “What do you want pill boxes for?” her motherasked, sounding surprised.
    “To make lockets of,” said Betsy. “We’re going to punch holes and run strings through and hang them around our necks.”
    “Oh,” said Mrs. Ray. “Well, I think I’ve got a pill box somewhere. Just wait a minute, and I’ll see.” And she scraped the cake into the pan and popped the pan into the oven and went into the bedroom. Before Betsy had finished cleaning out the bowl and Margaret had finished licking the spoon, she was back with one pill box.
    “That’s all I could find,” she said. “There’s some string on the clock shelf.”
    Betsy took the pill box and the ball of string and ran back to the ridge. Tacy and Tib had just come back from Mrs. Benson’s, and they had two pill boxes, beautiful ones.
    “We told her we were going to make lockets,” Tacy said. “She thought it was a fine idea.”
    So they took the scissors and punched holes in the pill boxes, and they ran string through them and tied them around each other’s necks. They made lovely lockets.
    “Now,” said Betsy, “it’s time to cut off the hair.”
    And she picked up the scissors.
    “Who’ll cut it?” asked