Splatter-Face Jane
A Doll's Adventures in Old Kansas
by Verna M. Bumstead
Verna Bumstead, whom we called Grandbee, grew up like Susan on a farm in Kansas.  She really had a rag doll named Splatter-Face Jane.  (You have to read several chapters before finding out how the doll gets her name.)  Grandbee had Huntington's Disease and showed sypmptoms, but they were mlild and she  lived a good long life...  .
Chapter One
The Doll House

Elizabeth Ann, the rag doll, lying flat and helpless in a shabby brown envelope, had spent nearly the whole year of 1908 alone on the high, hard shelf in the cold, creaky doll shop called The Doll House.  The wild shrieking winds that blew in the cracks and the wet snow that sifted through the leaky roof filled her with despair.  She wondered if she would ever find a home of her own.
The small rickety shop stood close to the Chicago railroad.  When coal and lumber cars huffed and puffed by, the doll shop shook like an earthquake, shaking some of the dolls off their pedestals.  Elizabeth Ann liked the fast mail trains that streaked by best.  She was sure that all the dolls who went out to find new homes had left on a fast mail train.
The crybaby dolls had found new homes long ago.  The beautiful, walking, talking Mama-doll had also found a new home.  Everyday the Doll Lady had paraded the talking doll around the room, commanding, "Say Mama.  Say Mama."  The doll obeyed in such a high silly voice that the rag doll nearly tumbled off her shelf.  That Mama-doll had been the object of Elizabeth Ann's hottest envy.
The Doll Lady had called the Mama-doll the Gorgeous One.  "That name suits you exactly," the Doll Lady said to the Mama-Doll, "but you have a pretty name engraved on a tiny locket on a gold chain around your sweet little neck, 'Elizabeth Ann.'  That is a lovely name, too."
The rag doll's heart seethed with jealousy.  Why should one doll be so gorgeous and be able to walk and talk as well, while she lay helpless in a flat brown envelope without any stuffing in her to let her sit up properly and see what was going on?  She got itchy prickles all over when she thought about the Gorgeous One who had the same name as the name printed around her own flat cloth neck, "Elizabeth Ann."
She was glad, glad, glad when the proud Gorgeous One found a new home.  She hoped she would never see her again.
Elizabeth Ann's thin body shook as she thought about being left alone another year in the Doll House.  Her heart ached for a little girl's arms to hold her tight.  It had been a long time since even the Doll Lady had taken her off the dusty shelf to speak loving words to her.  Elizabeth Ann felt altogether forgotten, forlorn, and forsaken by the Doll Lady and the whole wide world.
But one day a wonderful change occurred.  Elizabeth Ann was awakened by the Doll Lady's stomping on the tiny front porch.  The door swung open and an icy blast of wind swept through the room.  The Doll Lady came in, pushed the door shut and flung a packet of mail on the wooden work table.  She gathered kindling, cartons, and papers and stuffed them into the small iron stove and lit a match.  The warm air floated up to Elizabeth Ann's cold shelf.
Elizabeth Ann listened for the Doll Lady's usual cheerful chatter, but there was only silence.  Then she heard a gasp and a shout of excitement.  Elizabeth Ann was snatched off the horrid old shelf so fast she nearly lost her breath.
"At last, at last!  My precious one, you have an exciting invitation to sit under a little girl's Christmas tree."  The Doll Lady took Elizabeth out of the envelope and unfolded her full length on the work table.  "You're a very patient baby to wait so long on that miserable shelf.  You deserve this special invitation that came in this morning's mail.  We'll have to rush you onto the fast mail train or you'll be too late to sit under the Christmas tree."
Elizabeth Ann was thrilled.  She couldn't believe that all these words were for her.  She gazed up at the pretty blue-eyed rosy-cheeked woman who looked merry, just like her voice sounded.
"The letter is from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kendall, who live near Macedonia, Kansas.  That is almost in the middle of these United States.  Isn't that exciting, Elizabeth Ann?  They're asking for a rag doll for their daughter, Susan, who is six years old."
The Doll Lady stared long and hard at the letter before she read part of it aloud.  "'Susan has asked and asked for a china doll this Christmas, but our wheat crop burned up this summer and we can't afford even a china doll this year.  We're writing to see if you have a rag doll for our Susan?'"
Elizabeth Ann's heart grew panicky with the fear that Susan would not accept her if she wanted a lovely fragile china doll.  Then she heard the Doll Lady's cheerful voice.
"Of course we have a rag doll.  A very charming one with eyes like flowers and hair that curls around shell-like ears and smiling lips and an absolutely indestructible body capable of all sorts of exciting adventures."
Elizabeth Ann, lying flat, stared up at the ceiling and listened to the Doll Lady's tinkling voice as the Lady peeked into the brown envelope next to her.  "I want to make sure that the directions for sewing you up and stuffing you are all there."  She wrote the address on the front of the envelope.
"You mistress's name is Susan Kendall.  You must remember that, Elizabeth Ann.  You can be the softest, the cuddliest best friend for Susan.  She's bound to adore you."  The Doll Lady looked long and lovingly into Elizabeth Ann's eyes.  "I just want you to know, Precious, that Susan may be unhappy with a rag doll.  If she mistreats you and still wants a china doll, you come right back to the Doll House and I'll give you a lovely, fragile china head like Minerva's."  Minerva was a stuffed cloth doll with a china head.  At the Doll Lady's words Elizabeth Ann felt sad.  Her heart rebelled at having to come back and have a china head and sit on a shelf again.
"Try not to worry," the Doll Lady went on.  She tenderly folded Elizabeth Ann up again into the envelope.  "Be proud of your indestructible body.  When you are stuffed with soft cotton so you can sit up properly and see and hear and feel and think just like other dolls, you will be happy.  Susan is bound to love you,"  the Doll Lady repeated.
Later that day the fast mail train swooshed Elizabeth Ann through the dark night to Macedonia, Kansas.  The rhythm of the train wheels sounded to her exactly as if they were singing, "Susan Kendall, Susan Kendall, I'll be a pal to Susan Kendall, she's bound to love me, Susan Kendall..."
Contents of the complete book:
Chapter One - The Doll House
Chapter Two - A New Home
Chapter Three - Christmas Day
Chapter Four - The Hymn Singing
Chapter Five - The Christening
Chapter Six - The Easter Egg Hunt
Chapter Seven - Camp Meeting
Chapter Eight - A Big Surprise
and a short story:
Jimmie: The Tale of a Pet Prairie Dog