While we were at supper he said, “I wonder, now, if any of you women can make aprons and bonnets. I don’t mean them dinky little things like they make now, but rale wearin’ things like they used to make.”
I was afraid of another advertisement romance and didn’t reply, but Mrs. O’Shaughnessy said, “Indade we can, none better.”
Then he answered, “I want a blue chambray bonnet and a bunch of aprons made for my mother. She is on the way here from Pennsylvania. I ain’t seen her for fifteen years. I left home longer ’n that ago, but I remember everything,—just how everything looked,—and I’d like to have things inside the house as nearly like home as I can, anyway.”
I didn’t know how long we could stop there, so I still made no promises, but Mrs. O’Shaughnessy could easily answer every question for a dozen women.
“Have you the cloth?” she asked.
Yes, he said; he had had it for a long time, but he had not had it sewn because he had not been sure mother could come.
“What’s your name?” asked Mrs. O’Shaughnessy.
He hesitated a moment, then said, “Daniel Holt.”
I wondered why he hesitated, but forgot all about it when Clyde said we would stop there for a few days, if we wanted to help Mr. Holt. Mrs. O’Shaughnessy’s mind was already made up. Elizabeth said she would be glad to help, and I was not long in deciding when Daniel said, “I’ll take it as a rale friendly favor if you women could help, because mother ain’t had what could rightly be called a home since I left home. She’s crippled, too, and I want to do all I can. I know she’d just like to have some aprons and a sunbonnet.”