The dolls were to be given at Christmas to poor children who might learn some lessons of neatness and propriety from the well-made, well-adjusted clothes, and, as Mrs. Abbott said, “What is worth doing at all is worth doing well;” so there was no slighting, or what Marion expressively called “cobbling.”
The day scholars came afternoons to help, and really the task of dressing the fifty dolls was lighter than it sounds, and Mrs. Abbott admitted that the girls knew better than she did when they carried the point of speaking for fifty instead of twenty-five.
There was a strange lack of ribbons among the scraps and gleanings that came in the box of materials, and as it is a well-known fact that some costumes are barren and incomplete without sashes, shoulder-knots, and such adornments, it seemed to the busy girls that even the plainest of the dolls needed some finishing touches that only ribbons could give.
Delia Howland proposed taking up a penny collection, as they sometimes did to buy popping corn; but some mental calculation showed that even if the appeal met a favorable response in every case thirty cents would be the sum total of the collection, and that would go only a lamentably small way in ribbons.
After some discussion an improvement was made on the plan, and scholars and teachers were visited by a committee of two, who presented a neatly written sheet stating the case thus:
“Know all ladies and girls by these presents, that in this comfortable and well-arranged house fifty small but beauteous creatures are suffering for the want of ribbon. Many of the sufferers have not been seen to smile since their destitution became apparent. Others are cold and rigid in their stony despair.
“Sisters, shall such things be?
“Give, sisters, give of your abundance.
“Donations of money in sums not less than five and not more than twenty-five cents are respectfully solicited by the committee, who pledge themselves to see that the offerings are not squandered for any purpose but the one mentioned.
“N. B.—A small tin bank will be placed upon the hall table, and people who wish to give more than the largest sum mentioned above are at liberty to drop coin in.