THE LOOK-ALIKE GIRL

A basically sentimental but not overplayed story about little Gracie who comes to live with Aunt Lillian when she is eight. Teenaged cousin Charlene at first resents this extra nuisance, but then the two girls run into Mrs. Mayfield, a very old and rich lady whose daughter, also named Gracie, died at twelve. Mrs. Mayfield comments on the resemblance, and Charlene and her friend Fern exploit it, fixing Gracie's hair to match a photo of the other Gracie and encouraging visits so that Mrs. Mayfield might leave her riches to the child. A real friendship does develop between Gracie and the old woman. ""I love her just like she was my own little girl,"" says Mrs. Mayfield to her son and his disdainful wife--who nevertheless insist that she leave her now-shabby neighborhood and move in with them. All Gracie gets, on a last good-bye visit, is a ring, once the other Gracie's, of ""only sentimental value""; but by that time Charlene has become fond of Gracie and sympathetic toward the friendship for its own sake. This has a sweeter cast than York's other stories about the consequences of kids' mischief. It is touching enough on its level, but there is no development of plot or character behond what the hypothetical situation requires.