GAY DROVE THE NEEDLE INTO HIS THUMB
But his exultation was premature!
"May," said Miss Linn, "here are squares already sewed. I want you to put the other pieces together in the same way. Yes, you can do it," she added, for she saw signs of rebellion in Gay's face. "Here are needles, thread and a thimble that Aunt Celia used when she was a little girl. You must do it somehow," and Miss Linn left the room.
"Sew!" muttered Gay, distracted at this fresh calamity. "I won't do it; I'll tell her that I'm a boy and be sent home!" And disturb the mother whose recovery to health depended upon freedom from agitation? No; that would not do. There was nothing to do but submit to this indignity, and Gay picked up a square, pondered a moment as if trying to recall some knowledge of the art of sewing, grasped the threaded needle and drove it through the cloth into his thumb!
"Christopher Columbus!" cried Gay. "I'd rather take a flogging than try to manage this old needle!"
Then he began again; by pushing the needle half way through one side of the square, then turning the square over and pulling the needle and thread through on that side, several uneven stitches were taken, but a knot put an end to this. Gay pulled and jerked the thread until it broke, then a new dilemma presented itself; the end of the thread slipped through the cloth in spite of his efforts to keep it where it belonged.
Suddenly a bright idea struck him. "I hope there's some here," he said, to himself. There was "some" in a crystal jar, on Miss Celia's davenport, and Gay went manfully to work to join the squares together with mucilage. This was his bright idea! In order to facilitate matters he used his lap for a table.
In a little while he dashed out on the porch where his aunts were entertaining their caller. "Here it is, all done!" he cried.
Miss Linn's astonished gaze traveled from the silk frock where the mucilage was trickling down the front breadths in little streams, to the patchwork with the wet rim round each square. "I told you to sew it," she said, reproachfully.