Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-08
The Town
of Doubles

court and had been displeased In
stead of being received with the honors
that she expected she was treated first
one way and then another.
First she was received by the King
with great apparent joy and pride. But
shortly after the courtiers had finished
singing the ninety-ninth hymn in her
honor she had been passing along
dark passage and she heard voice
say: Anyhow, I'm sorry that the
old thing has come"
Putting two and two together, the
fairy godmother decided that she was
the old thing. That was the first of it.
After awhile there was more.
The queen offered her rich cream
for dinner and then secretly put skim
milk in her breakfast porridge. The
prime minister made her honorary
grand vice president and then set the
court lawyer to work to prove there
wasn't any such office.
The princes and the princesses Of |
fered her their cheeks to kiss, and she
found out they were entirely incrusted
with court plaster.
So you see that is the way it was all
Of the time. Is it any wonder that
the fairy godmother got very angry?
Whether 1t is a wonder or not she
certainly did feel disconnected with
the king and queen and the kingdom
and she refused positively to stay out
her visit. Instead she called them all
together and said:
"This town shall no longer be called
'Amiability' that was the name of
the town-'Gt shall be called 'Dou-
bles'"
So that is how Doubles got its name.
But that wasn't the worst of it. The
worst of it was living up to the name.
For everything was changed in Dou-
bles since the fairy godmother had
changed its name.
There were great many peculiar
changes, but the most peculiar of all
was this: Every person in the town,
instead of being himself as he former
ly was, was himself and another. He
was two persons, who usually wanted
to go different ways, eat different
fact, do everything that was contrary.
You may fancy the confusion. Moth
ing could be done in Doubles with
out first fighting it out. If one part
of a little boy wanted to go to school
the other part of him wanted to go
fishing. If one part of a man wanted
to go to the store another part of him
t1J To 70 NI,A ,,I-e CHI
If one part of a mother wanted to
make apple dumplings for luncheon the
other part wanted to get the sewing
done, and if one part of a little girl
wanted to play doll another part of
her wanted to run away from home.
The confusion was worse than any
thing that has ever been seen before
or since. One morning it was worse
than ever, and that was why Dolly
Dimple, who was the only child of the
principal man in the town, revolted.
Dolly got up in the morning and was
about to start for the bathroom to take
her morning bath, but the other half
of her didn't want to go. She had a
quarrel with the other half there and
then and finally the other half gave in.
Then she combed her hair, although
the other half did not want her to do
that, either. Then she dressed herself,
the otter ali complaining bitterly all the
time, and then she went down to
breakfast.
She wanted some coffee for breakfast
that is, one-half of her wanted it. The
i 1, - +-
have it. Then Dolly Dimples nurse
said no, she ought not to have it. That
IS, one half of the nurse said that. The
other half of the nurse said she could
not see any harm in it. Fortunately
Dolly's mamma appeared then and she
said Dolly ought not to have coffee.
But the other half said it was rather a
shame she couldn't have coffee after all
So there it all was. Should Dolly have
coffee or shouldn't she have coffee?
There were so many other halves to be
considered that Dolly gave it up and
went off to school without any.
But it was just as bad at the school,
When recess time came one half of the
teacher said that Dolly ought to stay
in because she did not know her les
sons very we'll. The other half of the
teacher thought that Dolly ought to get
out and play because she needed the
fresh air. The half of the teacher who
thought Dolly ought not to go out had
a very bad effect on the half of Dolly
who wanted to go out whether she
knew her lessons or not.
This half of Dolly aro11ed with +l,a
other half, which had always hitherto
liked the teacher, and the two halves
of the teacher argued with each other.
The one half of the teacher also dis
cussed the matter with the one half of
Dolly, and the other half of the teacher
also discussed the matter with the other
half of Dolly. So there were three dis
cussions going on at one time between
two persons about the same subject
YOu NAV e1IaSs how terribly