|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 29
"Dear Dickey Downy, why are you afraid of me? Your own little Polly
wouldn't hurt you for the world. I wanted to softly stroke your pretty
plumage just out of pure love and, you dear little coward, you won't
let me."
In her affection for me, Polly did not forget the wild birds outside,
which flew about in the big evergreen trees near the garden gate. She
showed her thoughtfulness for the little creatures by strewing bread
crumbs for them on the window sills on snowy days. She often gathered
up the tablecloth after the housemaid had removed the breakfast dishes
and, running out under the trees, would shake it vigorously that her
wild pets might get all the little pieces of food that fell. Not a
bird came down as long as she remained in the yard, but as soon as she
had tripped back to the house and the door closed upon her brown curls,
I could see a drove of hungry snowbirds swoop from the trees, and in a
minute every crumb would be picked up. I am sure they must have loved
dear little Polly, for many a choice bit did they get through her
kindness.
While the majority of the customers at the store were well-dressed
women, there were many who came to buy hats who looked poor and
pinched. A few looked slatternly.
A sudden swing of their dress skirts would disclose a badly frayed
petticoat or a tattered stocking showing above the shabby shoe. Their
gloveless hands were red and cold and coarse, and the milliner told the
clerk that she dreaded to have them handle her filmy laces or
glistening satins, because their rough fingers stuck to the delicate
fabrics and injured them.
These poor women worked hard, early and late. Beyond the barest
necessities they had little to spare, and yet not a woman among them
would have bought an unfashionable or out-of-date hat could she have
had it at one quarter the price. Feathers were fashionable, and
feathers she must have. Might not one "as well be out of the world as
out of the fashion"?
All this dreadful traffic in my murdered comrades, and their display in
the glass cases as well as on the heads of the customers, naturally
made me very sad, and I now looked with aversion at every woman who
entered the store. But that all were not heartless fiends who were
robed in feminine garb I found out another day when a daintily dressed
lady came in to purchase a winter hat. The contents of the glass cases
were looked over critically for some time before she selected one which
she tried on before the long mirror. The milliner, who deftly adjusted
it for her, tipping it first forward a little, then setting it back a
trifle, stood off now to view the effect, at the same time assuring her
how beautiful it was, and how vastly becoming to her.
"I like this hat very much," said the lady; "or at least I shall like
it when the bird is taken off."
"You think the oriole too gay? Orange is quite the vogue," answered
the milliner, who seemed reluctant to make any change, and yet was
anxious to please her customer. "Perhaps you'd prefer some wings; or
stay, here is a sweet little gull that will go all right with the rest
of the trimming. We will take off the oriole if you wish."
"Thank you, but I have decided not to wear birds any more," said the
customer.
"But the effect would be quite spoiled without a wing, or an aigrette,
or something there," exclaimed the milliner. "You wouldn't like it. I
wouldn't think of taking off the bird, if I were you."
"Yes, I shall like it much better with the bird off," returned the lady
quietly. "I have sufficient sins to answer for without any longer
adding the crime of bird slaughter to the list."
The milliner bestowed on her a pitying smile, but evidently was too
politic to get into a discussion of an unpleasant subject. Having
given her final order for the hat, the lady crossed over to the other
side of the room and shook hands with a friend whom she addressed as
Mrs. Brown, who had just come in and was making a purchase at the lace
counter.
"I have been putting my new resolution into effect," she remarked after
the first greetings; "I have just ordered my new hat, and it is not to
have a bird or a wing or a tail on it."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|