Aunt Mary had brought presents with her from the Farm, presents that were neatly packed in boxes ready to be placed in Grandmother’s big black trunk.
There was a box of home-made sausages, such as you couldn’t buy in the city no matter how hard you tried. There was a loaf of Father’s favorite cake, ‘raised’ cake it was called, covered over with snowy icing and full of raisins, as Patty well knew. There were two squash pies for Mother, packed so carefully that they couldn’t possibly be broken. Last of all there was a present for Patty that did not have to be packed in a box because it was an apron, a pretty blue pinafore that covered Patty from top to toe, and that had two pockets large enough to hold a handkerchief or a ball or anything else that Patty might choose to put in them. And on each pocket Aunt Mary had embroidered a tiny bunch of orange and yellow and brown flowers.
Patty was delighted with her present.
‘The little flowers look as real as real can be,’ she declared, patting and sniffing the flowers and patting the pockets again. ‘I think they smell sweet, Aunt Mary. I truly think they do.’
Very carefully Patty placed her pinafore in Grandmother’s trunk, and ran to fetch Polly Perkins to show her to Aunt Mary.
‘Uncle Charles painted her. Did he tell you?’ asked Patty, dancing Polly up and down before Aunt Mary until the dolly’s brown curls flew. ‘Isn’t she beautiful, Aunt Mary? Hasn’t she the prettiest eyes, and doesn’t her mouth look smiling? I can brush and brush her hair, too, all I like, and it curls right up again. Isn’t her dress pretty? How I wish she had pockets like my new apron! She would be just perfect if she had pockets on her dress, Aunt Mary.’
‘Run and ask Grandmother for a bit of this pink gingham,’ said good-natured Aunt Mary, ‘and I will make the pockets for you while we all sit here and talk.’
Grandmother shook her head and said that Patty would be spoiled if Aunt Mary were not careful. But she gave Patty the gingham, and a moment later Aunt Mary was measuring and cutting the pockets for Polly Perkins’s dress.
‘Would you like a bunch of flowers or a little rabbit embroidered on each pocket?’ asked Aunt Mary, who was so skillful with her needle that nothing seemed too hard for her to do.
Patty thought for a moment.