“It is too bad,—really it is shameful,” said Gesina. “Now just do look at this, mother,—why the sleeve is literally torn out of it, and there is a huge rent right in the breast. I say, mother, do you think that jacket is worth patching up?”
“To be sure it is, Sijntje,” replied the mother, “now just you set to work with a will.”
“Those good-for-nothing boys!” cried Gesina, “they keep us stitching for them all day long.”
“Come, come,” threw in her sister Matilda, “boys will be boys, and ours are so full of spirits.”
“That is no reason, I suppose,” said Gesina, “why they should be climbing trees all day, and get their clothes in such a frightful state.”
“How do you suppose a boy is to keep out of a tree?” asked Matilda. “If I were a boy I would do just the same.”
The mother smiled at her daughter’s warm defence of her little brothers. “Oh, yes,” said she, “it would be a pretty sight to see Matilda up a tree.”
The two young girls had a laugh at the idea, and then Gesina said, “Don’t you think, mother dear, that you might get us a needlewoman to help us with all this heap of clothes.”
“My dear girl, what are you thinking about?” asked Mrs. Meidema.
“Well,” continued Matilda, coming to her sister’s help, “I must say I think the idea a very good one.”