Christian fiction; Love stories; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Nineteen twenties -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Then she sat down and ran up the two side seams on the right side and
slipped it on to try it. Of course she had no mirror but she managed to
get a vague glimpse of herself in the closed lattice of her window. It
needed a little taking in under the arm, but the rest seemed all right,
and she slipped it off again and sat down to make the changes and
French the seams. Another trial and the fit was found to be better. She
hunted out her pins and turned up the hem. This she found rather a hard
proposition, but after several takings off and readjustings it seemed
to swing evenly.
She was growing tired, and her back began to ache with sitting on the
hard box after her day of scrubbing and curtain making. She wondered if
she could keep at it much longer?
With a weary impulse she flung her paper bed out in the corner and
threw herself down upon it.
For almost ten minutes she forced herself to lie and relax, trying
to think of nothing and really rest. Then the clock on some distant
building struck eight, and she roused up, suddenly aware that she had
but a few more minutes of daylight and that if she lay here she would
soon be asleep. She simply did not dare leave all that sewing till
morning. She must have a neat, washable dress ready by twelve o’clock
in which to work. So she stood up and tried to cut out the neck of her
frock as best she could, wishing all the time for a big mirror. She
finally got out the two-inch bit of glass belonging to her handbag and
inspected her work, deciding it would have to do. Then she caught up a
newspaper and cut and experimented until she had a pattern for a simple
collar to fit the neck of her dress. This she cut from the half-yard of
organdie, also cutting organdie cuffs to fit the short sleeves.
It was quite dusky now in her little room and she had to take the
pieces of chintz that came off the sides of the dress out on her front
step to see what she was doing. Here she cut from the longest piece
a string belt, and several long strips of bias binding about an inch
wide. Then rolling up these with the organdie collar and cuffs, her
scissors, thimble, needle and thread, she put on her serge dress and
hat and hurried down the street. She had thought of a way to work a
little longer that night without burning a light. She would just sit in
the station waiting room a little while and sew.
The soft evening breeze of the out-of-doors revived her weary body and
she felt quite cheered and happy. To think, she was going to earn a
whole ten dollars in one afternoon and evening! Here was her Father
providing her with more money again just when she had discovered so
many things she had to buy, that it overwhelmed her. The “barrel of
meal and the cruse of oil” again! How wonderful it was!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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