Besides her numerous other duties she prepared an elaborate costume for Tommy. This had caused her some trouble, for Miss Hazy, who was sent to buy the goods for the trousers, exercised unwise economy in buying two remnants which did not match in color or pattern.
"Why didn't you put your mind on it, Miss Hazy?" asked Lovey Mary, making a heroic effort to keep her temper. "You might have known I couldn't take Tommy to the show with one blue leg and one brown one. What must I do?"
Miss Hazy sat dejectedly in the corner, wiping her eyes on her apron.
"You might go ast Mis' Wiggs," she suggested as a forlorn hope.
When Mrs. Wiggs was told the trouble she smiled reassuringly. Emergencies were to her the spice of life; they furnished opportunities for the expression of her genius.
"Hush cryin', Miss Hazy; there ain't a speck of harm did. Mary kin make the front outen one piece an' the back outen the other. Nobody won't never know the difference, 'cause Tommy can't be goin' an' comin' at the same time."
The result was highly satisfactory, that is, to everybody but Tommy.
He complained that there "wasn't no room to set down."
On Christmas night the aristocracy of the Cabbage Patch assembled in the school-house to enjoy the double attraction of a Christmas tree and an entertainment. Mr. Rothchild, who had arranged the tree for the last ten years, refused to have it moved from its accustomed place, which was almost in the center of the platform. He had been earnestly remonstrated with, but he and the tree remained firm. Mrs. Rothchild and all the little Rothchildren had climbed in by the window before the doors were open in order to secure the front seats. Immediately behind them sat the Hazys and the Wiggses.
"That there is the seminary student gittin' up now," whispered Mrs.
Wiggs. "He's goin' to call out the pieces. My land! ain't he washed
out? Looks like he'd go into a trance fer fifty cents. Hush,
Australia! don't you see he is goin' to pray?"
After the opening prayer, the young preacher suggested that, as long as the speakers were not quite ready, the audience should "raise a hymn."
"He's got a fine voice," whispered Miss Hazy; "I heared 'em say he was the gentleman soprano at a down-town church."