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Page 32
This shocking disrespect caused two old ladies who were pricing hat
pins to turn quickly and view the offender.
"Goodness gracious!" ejaculated one of them, drawing a deep breath.
"If that youngster belonged to me for about twenty minutes, wouldn't I
give her something wholesome that she'd remember? I'd take the
tantrums out of her in short order."
"She deserves it, sure," said her companion. "But the mother is more
to blame than the child for letting it grow up with such abominable
manners. I dare say the woman at first thought it was cute and smart
in the little thing, and now she can't help herself. La, sakes! just
listen to that." She re-adjusted her spectacles and gazed with added
interest at the pair in altercation.
With the hat poised on her finger the milliner was bending smilingly
toward the little girl who was giving her order in a very peremptory
tone.
"I want those wings put on my hat. I won't wear it if you trim it only
in ribbon."
The mother seemed a little embarrassed as she told the milliner that
she supposed the hat would have to be trimmed in the way Elsie wanted
it.
"Humph! I knew the child would get what she wanted," observed the old
lady who had first spoken. "I felt all the time that the mother would
have to give in. What on earth did she let her take those big black
wings for? Two of those little yellow sugar birds would have been
better for a child's hat. The idea of letting a youngster rule you
that way! My!" and then she took another deep breath. "She needs a
trouncing, if ever a child did," and with that she and her friend
resumed their shopping.
The cloud had vanished from Elsie's face, and all was serene again.
Her mother seemed somewhat ashamed of her little girl's bad manners, as
was shown by her apologetic air when she observed to the trimmer that
Elsie was as queer a child as ever lived. When she set her mind on a
thing, it was so hard for her to give it up.
They waited for the new hat to be trimmed, and on its completion Elsie
seized it and put it on her head, much against her mother's wishes, who
preferred not to have it displayed until the next day at Sunday-school;
but the insistence of the child was so vehement that again the mother
thought it wise to yield, and Elsie tripped off in triumph to the other
end of the store with the black wings showing out stiffly on each side
of her head. The mother remarked, with forced playfulness, as she
watched her, "Elsie's a g-r-e-a-t girl, I tell you. You can't fool
her."
[Illustration: The Baltimore Oriole.]
As the trimmer returned the boxes to the shelves, I overheard her
mutter, "Oh, yes, Elsie is a g-r-e-a-t girl, a perfect little jewel, so
well-behaved. Her polite manners show her careful home training; quite
a reflection on her dear mamma." But from the peculiar laugh she gave
I didn't believe she really meant it as praise.
When the nights grew longer and the store was closed for the evening,
the milliner and her husband usually spent an hour or two in the back
room looking over the newspaper which came every day from the city.
The man always turned at once to the wheat reports, and the price of
wool, which he read aloud to his wife, though I could see she did not
care very much to hear about them; but she hunted first for the fashion
notes and the bargains in millinery before she read the other news.
One night while thus engaged she suddenly exclaimed:
"Here's something that is bound to hurt trade."
By trade she meant the millinery business.
"What is it?" her husband inquired, looking over the top of the page he
held.
"Why, here's a lot of women who have been meeting in a convention in
Chicago and getting excited and losing their heads, and passing some
ridiculous resolutions."
"What kind of resolutions?" he inquired.
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