Chapter II.
A clamor of young voices greeted Mildred's entrance into the tiny hall of the cottage. Three small boys and a girl of nine caught hold of the elder sister.
"Oh, Milly, do hurry tea!" and, "Oh, Milly, who came up to the gate?" and, "Oh, mamma said Milly was to go at once to her. She is in the parlor."
Mildred kissed each little face, and then, disengaging herself from them, pushed open the parlor door, while the children scampered off to assist the one old servant in her preparations for the evening meal.
Mrs. Lee was lying on the parlor sofa when her daughter entered, while near her stood a tall, hard-featured woman, who was displaying an open bundle of silks and laces, shawls and ribbons. The glittering array was spread all about the poor widow, who glanced at her eldest daughter with a mixture of hope and perplexity. Mrs. Lee was one of those women who take everything in life from a despondent point of view. She had begun her married life a fresh, pretty girl who had known very little real care or sorrow, but with no mental or spiritual force to meet even the trifling ups and downs of existence. She loved her children dearly, but in them she saw only so many additional causes for worry. When her husband died she had turned almost instinctively to Mildred as a sort of guide and counsellor, and the young girl had grown accustomed to be the controlling influence at home.
"My darling," Mrs. Lee exclaimed, as Mildred came up to her side, "do explain to this—lady that I don't want any of her things. Indeed, madam, we can't buy any of them;" and Mrs. Lee turned her face rather fretfully from her troublesome visitor.
Mildred gave the peddler a grave look of rebuke, but she said, civilly enough: "Please bring your things into the next room; I will talk to you there. My mother is not well enough to be disturbed."
The woman had very quickly measured Mildred's power. Moreover, she fancied she detected in the slim, pretty young girl a more promising customer than the wearied, faded lady on the sofa; so she was by no means unwilling to gather up her things and follow Mildred into the little room which served as dining and school room, where her mother's piano, the children's books, and her own sewing-machine were kept.
"Now, miss," began the woman at once, shaking out some of her most brilliant wares, "do just have a look—not to buy unless it suits ye, but just to see what's pretty. Now here's just the thing would do you for your life—a gray silk you couldn't match in all Milltown; and cheap—as cheap—"
"No, thank you," said Mildred, coldly, turning away from the dazzling offer. "I shall be so glad if you'll put up your things. I'm tired, and the children want their tea."
"Well, well," said the woman, with a coarse affectation of good-humor, "it'll take me a minute or two; but first just cast your eye over that bit of silk—gray's your color; you're just pink and white and soft enough for it, and it's only thirty dollars for twenty yards—enough to make a dress now, and a jacket next spring. And I'll tell you how I manage with young ladies like you: I take easy pay—weekly installments, don't you see? But law! it's so little at a time—only fifty cents a week—keeps me waiting more'n a year; and you may say you get a year's wear out of your dress for nothing."
"I am very sorry," said Milly, still persistent; "I do not want the dress. I must take off my things. I am just up from the store."
"The store!" echoed the woman, eying her sharply. "Mr. Hardman's, I suppose? Yes, you're just the kind of pretty, genteel young figure they like to get. Now I dare say you are in the mantle department."
MILDRED'S TEMPTATION—Drawn by Jessie Curtis Shepherd.
"Some part of the day," said Milly, shortly. The woman was busy tying up her parcel, folding the gray silk so that its sheen caught Milly's eye perpetually. It was a pretty silk, the young girl thought. Oh, why couldn't she have just such a dress to wear at Miss Jenner's party, instead of her old, often-washed white muslin! But Milly resolutely shut such a wild ambition out of her mind, and tried to look uninterested while the woman continued:
"Why, you must be earning at least five or six dollars a week down to Hardman's. He's good pay, I know. Fifty cents wouldn't be much. Well, well," she added, turning the pretty silk back and forth in shining ripples, "I'll find an easy sale for this anywheres: only I must say, as a friend, you're making a mistake."
A half-pang of regret shot through Milly's mind as the woman tied up the last article in her parcel, and the gray silk disappeared from view. During the busy occupations of the evening her mind kept recurring to the peddler's visit and her tempting offer. Before she went to bed she had made a rapid calculation of how long it would take her to save the required sum out of her earnings. It took nearly all she and her mother could earn to feed the four hungry little mouths as well as their own, and to keep a respectable roof over their heads.
"Still," argued Milly, "I work so hard, why shouldn't I have at least fifty cents a week for my clothes, and such a good silk, too! And to look well at Miss Jenner's!"
Visions of an impossible future, in which Miss Jenner would adopt all her little brothers and sisters, filled Mildred's mind, completely shutting out the fact that girlish vanity was at the root of her desire to possess the gray silk. Unfortunately Mildred had never been accustomed to go with her little perplexities to her mother, and so it did not now occur to her to seek any advice. Mrs. Lee was always "too tired" or too "blue" to be "bothered," and while Mildred had learned a habit of self-restraint and reserve, the younger children looked to her for every suggestion, so that Milly felt quite capable of governing her own actions when she was allowed to govern theirs. By the time the young girl awoke, she had, as she thought, reasoned herself into a belief that the most foolish mistake of her life was in letting that gray silk slip out of her possession. The sight of her limp old muslin in the wardrobe did not lessen this regret, nor did her mother's bemoaning at breakfast that "Milly would look a fright at Miss Jenner's party" help matters in the least.
"If you could only at least look like your father's daughter," sighed Mrs. Lee, "no knowing what might come of it."
Milly echoed these words over and again as she walked down to the store, varying them with her own unwise reflections. She was a little late, and received a half-sneering reprimand from "Mr. Tom" as she passed him at the desk. It was her duty to go to the mantle department, which was in a sort of L off the main part of the store. Milly, after hurriedly laying aside her things, turned toward the cloak-room. No other sales-woman was in it, but there, seated at the side, an expression of vulgar audacity on her face, was the peddler of last night!
[to be continued.]
[EMBROIDERY FOR GIRLS.]
BY SUSAN HAYES WARD.
No. III.
Fig. 10.
The Pilgrim women who sailed in the Mayflower brought with them the very old stitch, a magnified view of which is given in Fig. 11. I have seen a picture wrought by one of these same Pilgrim Mothers—rows of houses and trees something like this (you could any of you draw better), with a meeting-house in the middle; but the houses and trees were a marvel of crewel-work, the background of silk, all in this ancient stitch, which is also found in old Persian and Turkish embroidery. I know an old lady who has used it from her childhood, who calls it "pocket-book" stitch; it is really a kind of "fagotting," and there are remnants of old petticoats and curtains still to be found in out-of-the-way country towns of New England, exquisitely worked in this most economical of stitches, which, for convenience, I shall call the New England stitch. Turn the work over and you will see how economical the stitch is: all the wool, except just enough at the outline to catch in the stuff, shows on the upper side. By pushing your needle first toward you and then from you, as seen in Fig. 10, you get that pretty twisted look which you see very much enlarged in Fig. 11. The Janina stitch, as given in Harper's Bazar, November 6, seems to be an imitation of this, though much inferior in effect and ease of working.
Fig. 11.
Fig. 13.
The design here given (Fig. 12) is suitable for a tidy, bureau-cover, curtain, or mantel lambrequin. For a bureau-cover take nice Russia crash, allow twelve inches to hang over each side, besides enough for fringe. Three flowers like the two in Fig. 12 are enough for crash of ordinary width. Trace off the pattern on a piece of paper, repeat the left-hand flower at X, stopping at R, and omitting the spray marked S. You can finish off the stem at R with Fig. 13 if you prefer. When your pattern is all ready on the paper, trace it on the crash, in the middle of the twelve inches, according to directions in No. II. This figure, designed expressly for the girls who read these articles, can be worked according to the directions for color given below, in New England stitch, or in three shades of one color, in either New England or stem stitch, following the same gradations of color.
A genuinely old design used one hundred and fifty years ago will be sent to the girl under sixteen who first reports having finished the embroidery of Fig. 12, according to directions, in New England stitch.