Miss Josephine Bayley, late of New York, had to confess that she had seen steeples a mite higher. She wondered what the stage-driver would think if his route led by the Woolworth building, but how glad, glad she was that it didn’t!
Ten minutes later the stage-driver drew rein. “Here we are now. That there’s the dry-goods emporium, teacher. I’ll pick you up agin, right on this very spot, prompt at five o’clock. So long!” Then the stage rumbled away, and Dixie, clinging to the teacher’s hand, entered the store, her heart beating like a trip-hammer.
There was silk, silk everywhere about her, and how glad she was that two dollars and thirty cents would buy enough for a birthday dress for Carol.
CHAPTER TWENTY
DIXIE BUYS A SILK DRESS
Josephine Bayley smiled down at the little girl as she felt the clinging fingers tighten. “Oh, teacher,” the child whispered rapturously, “I didn’t suppose there was so much silk anywhere in all the world. It’s like rainbows, isn’t it?” They were standing at the counter, waiting for a pleasant-faced little woman to come to them.
“May we see the different shades of blue silk?” Josephine Bayley asked, when at last the clerk turned toward them.
“Oh-ee, how Carol would love that one,” Dixie said as she pointed to a blue, the color of a June-morning sky. The small girl did not think to ask the price. Teacher had said that two dollars and thirty cents would be enough, and Dixie doubted this not at all.
A pattern was selected, one with ruffles, for nothing was to be omitted that the heart of the little sister had been set upon, and then sufficient silk was measured off. Miss Bayley, having had a moment’s opportunity to speak alone with the clerk, had asked her not to mention the price. Turning back, she saw little Dixie smoothing the silk as reverently as though it were almost too beautiful to be touched, and yet there was no thought of envy in her heart. Two dollars and thirty cents could buy but one silk dress, and that one should be for Carol.
While the parcel was being wrapped, Dixie looked about. Suddenly she caught the teacher’s hand and drew her down the aisle. “Look there,” she whispered as she lifted glowing eyes. “That’s the silvery green I was telling you about, Miss Bayley. Isn’t it like the very first leaves on the willow trees down in the creek-bottom?”
The young woman nodded. “It is just lovely, dear,” was all that she said, but she thought much more. Then, when the saleswoman returned, Dixie drew forth the old-fashioned purse that had been her mother’s and counted out the money, which was in dimes and nickels. There were so many of them that it looked like quite a fortune heaped upon the counter in front of her. The little girl did not dream that the silk for Carol’s dress had cost five dollars.