Florence and Peggy both laughed. They knew Jo Ann did not like any task that kept her in the house, and especially one of the sitting-still kind, like sewing.
“‘Outdoor action and plenty of it,’ is Jo Ann’s slogan,” Peggy explained a moment later for Miss Prudence’s benefit. “She says sitting still and sewing make all her muscles feel cramped and her head ache and her mind tired.”
“Well, it does,” Jo Ann defended. “I feel as if I’m getting petrified. I’d rather climb mountains any time.”
“I’ll let you run the machine, then,” Miss Prudence spoke up briskly. “That’ll keep your feet moving up and down as if you’re climbing.”
“A poor substitute,” Jo Ann returned, smiling.
“Before you begin sewing, I’ll give you an active job that’ll bring into use more of your muscles—measuring windows. Be sure to get the exact length. Nothing looks worse than draperies that’re too short.”
After Jo Ann had finished measuring windows, she set to work basting and stitching the hems in the draperies. By this time her thoughts had wandered from sewing to the mystery man and the smugglers. Was that smuggler still lurking around the mine and had the other one reached the border without being caught? And was the mystery man still safe and sound? She must get word someway to him when the smugglers were to make their next trip, so he could follow them. If only he could catch those ringleaders and break up that gang!
So engrossed was she in these thoughts that she did not heed Peggy’s sudden outburst of laughter several minutes later till Florence called out a merry, “Jo! Will you look what you’ve done! You’ve hemmed all your draperies upside down, so that the parrots or parrakeets—or whatever kind of birds they are in the design—are all standing on their heads.”
“They’ll look comical with their tails perpetually in the air,” giggled Peggy. “I’m getting dizzy already even at the thought of those poor birds hanging head downward that way.”
“Oh dear!” groaned the discomfited Jo Ann on viewing her mistake. “Now I’ve got to rip out every hem. Oh, woe is me!”