"Wouldn't they be prettier still worked in white?" asked Marjorie.
"No; I saw one that way once, and the names don't show at all,—you can hardly read them. Red is the best, and it doesn't fade when it's washed."
Marjorie had bought red cotton at the shop, and she showed her purchases to her mother with great delight.
"They're fine," said Mrs. Maynard, approvingly. "Now why don't you ask Ethel to write her name, and then you can always remember that hers was the first one on the cloth."
"Oh, that will be lovely!" cried Marjorie. "Will you, Ethel?"
"Yes, indeed," and getting a pencil, Ethel wrote her name in a large, plain, childish hand.
"You must always ask people to write rather large," she advised, "because it's awfully hard to work the letters if they're too small."
Then Ethel lent Marjorie her needle and thimble so that she might do a few stitches by way of practice.
But it was not so easy for Marjorie as for Ethel, and her stitches did not look nearly so nice and neat. However, Mrs. Maynard said that she felt sure Marjorie's work would improve after she had done more of it, and she thanked Ethel for her assistance in the matter.
Then Ethel's mother appeared, and the two ladies were made acquainted, and then it was luncheon time, and the Maynards all went to the dining-room.