Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original lovely illustrations. See 14110-h.htm or 14110-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/1/14110/14110-h/14110-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/1/14110/14110-h.zip) KERNEL COB AND LITTLE MISS SWEETCLOVER Written by GEORGE MITCHEL Illustrated by Tony Sarg 1918 _To_ Ursula, Dordie, Hutch and Bob And children the wide world over, I dedicate brave Kernel Cob And dear Little Miss Sweetclover. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER I Jackie was a little boy and he had a little sister named Peggs, and they lived with their Aunt who was very old, maybe thirty-two. And it was so very long since she had been a little girl, that she quite forgot that children need toys to play with and all that. So poor little Jackie and Peggs had no soldiers or dolls but could only play at make-believe all day long. They lived in a little white house nearly all covered with honeysuckle, and a little white fence with a little white gate in it ran all about and at the back of the little white house was a little garden with beautiful flowers growing in it. And once, when they were making pies in the garden, Peggs began to cry and Jackie ran and put his arms about her, for he loved his little Peggs very dearly; and he said to her: "What's the matter, Peggsie? Did a spider bite you?" "No," says Peggs, "it didn't." "Was it a naughty worm?" "No," says Peggs, "it wasn't." "Well, what was it?" says Jackie. "It weren't anything that bit me, only I want a doll," and away she cried again. "Huh!" says Jackie, "that's nothing. You don't want a doll any mor'n I want a soldier," and he sat down beside her and began to cry, too. And after they had cried for a long time, maybe four hours or two, they stopped. "I tell you what!" says Jackie. "What?" says Peggs, drying her eyes on her pinafore. "If no one will give us a soldier"... "But I don't want a soldier," says Peggs. "I want a doll." "Let's make one," says Jackie. "That's a good way," says Peggs. "You bet," says Jackie, and he slapped one of his legs the way sailors do in tales of the sea. "What'll we make it of?" asked Peggs. "Things," says Jackie. "Goodie!" says Peggs. And they went in search of the things they would make the dolls of. And pretty soon, Peggs made the most wonderful doll of flowers that ever a child could see. The head was of Sweetclover, the dress was a purple morning-glory turned upside-down so it looked like a bodice and a skirt, and it was tied to the head so that they wouldn't come apart. And perched on the top of the head was a little bonnet, only it wasn't really a bonnet, you know, but a little four o'clock. And she called it Little Miss Sweetclover and it was the dearest little doll and as fresh as the morning dew.