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Page 37
The clock struck loudly. "Well, hear that!" said Cousin Ann. "Nine
o'clock and the children not in bed! Molly's most asleep this minute.
Trot along with you, Betsy! Trot along, Molly. And, Betsy, be sure
Molly's nightgown is buttoned up all the way."
So it happened that, although the grown-ups were evidently going on to
talk about 'Lias Brewster, Betsy heard no more of what they said.
She herself went on thinking about 'Lias while she was undressing and
answering absently little Molly's chatter. She was thinking about him
even after they had gone to bed, had put the light out, and were lying
snuggled up to each other, back to front, their four legs, crooked at
the same angle, fitting in together neatly like two spoons in a drawer.
She was thinking about him when she woke up, and as soon as she could
get hold of Cousin Ann she poured out a new plan. She had never been
afraid of Cousin Ann since the evening Molly had fallen into the Wolf
Pit and Betsy had seen that pleased smile on Cousin Ann's firm lips.
"Cousin Ann, couldn't we girls at school get together and sew--you'd
have to help us some--and make some nice, new clothes for little 'Lias
Brewster, and fix him up so he'll look better, and maybe that Mr. Pond
will like him and adopt him?"
Cousin Ann listened attentively and nodded her head. "Yes, I think that
would be a good idea," she said. "We were thinking last night we ought
to do something for him. If you'll make the clothes, Mother'll knit him
some stockings and Father will get him some shoes. Mr. Pond never makes
his spring trip till late May, so we'll have plenty of time."
Betsy was full of importance that day at school and at recess time got
the girls together on the rocks and told them all about the plan.
"Cousin Ann says she'll help us, and we can meet at our house every
Saturday afternoon till we get them done. It'll be fun! Aunt Abigail
telephoned down to the store right away, and Mr. Wilkins says he'll give
the cloth if we'll make it up."
Betsy spoke very grandly of "making it up," although she had hardly held
a needle in her life, and when the Saturday afternoon meetings began she
was ashamed to see how much better Ellen and even Eliza could sew than
she. To keep her end up, she was driven to practising her stitches
around the lamp in the evenings, with Aunt Abigail keeping an eye on
her.
Cousin Ann supervised the sewing on Saturday afternoons and taught those
of the little girls whose legs were long enough how to use the sewing
machine. First they made a little pair of trousers out of an old gray
woolen skirt of Aunt Abigail's. This was for practice, before they cut
into the piece of new blue serge that the storekeeper had sent up.
Cousin Ann showed them how to pin the pattern on the goods and they each
cut out one piece. Those flat, queer-shaped pieces of cloth certainly
did look less like a pair of trousers to Betsy than anything she had
ever seen. Then one of the girls read aloud very slowly the mysterious-
sounding directions from the wrapper of the pattern about how to put the
pieces together, Cousin Ann helped here a little, particularly just as
they were about to put the sections together wrong-side-up. Stashie, as
the oldest, did the first basting, putting the notches together
carefully, just as they read the instructions aloud, and there, all of a
sudden, was a rough little sketch of a pair of knee trousers, without
any hem or any waist-band, of course, but just the two-legged,
complicated shape they ought to be! It was like a miracle to Betsy! Then
Cousin Ann helped them sew the seams on the machine, and they all turned
to for the basting of the facings and the finishing. They each made one
buttonhole. It was the first one Betsy had ever made, and when she got
through she was as tired as though she had run all the way to school and
back. Tired, but very proud; although when Cousin Ann inspected that
buttonhole, she covered her face with her handkerchief for a minute, as
though she were going to sneeze, although she didn't sneeze at all.
It took them two Saturdays to finish up that trial pair of trousers, and
when they showed the result to Aunt Abigail she was delighted. "Well, to
think of that being my old skirt!" she said, putting on her spectacles
to examine the work. She did not laugh, either, when she saw those
buttonholes, but she got up hastily and went into the next room, where
they soon heard her coughing.
Then they made a little blouse out of some new blue gingham. Cousin Ann
happened to have enough left over from a dress she was making. This thin
material was ever so much easier to manage than the gray flannel, and
they had the little garment done in no time, even to the buttons and
buttonholes. When it came to making the buttonholes, Cousin Ann sat
right down with each one and supervised every stitch. You may not be
surprised to know that they were a great improvement over the first
batch.
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