FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   >>  
ls! girls!" cried Aunt Theresa; and we went to sleep. Soon after we returned from our visit to the Bullers, Eleanor and I resolved to prove the benefit we had reaped from Aunt Theresa's instructions by making ourselves some dresses of an inexpensive stuff that we bought for the purpose. How well I remember the pattern! A flowering creeper, which followed a light stem upwards through yard after yard of the material. We had picked to pieces certain old bodies which fitted us fairly, and our first work was to lay these patterns upon the new stuff, with weights on them, and so to cut out our new bodies as easily as Matilda (whose directions we were following) had prophesied that we should. When these and the sleeves were accomplished (and they looked most business-like), we began upon the skirts. We cut the back and the front breadths, and duly "sloped" the latter. Then came the gores. We folded the breadths into three parts; we took a third at one end, and two-thirds at the other, and folded the slope accordingly. It became quite exciting. "Who would have thought it was so easy?" said I. Eleanor was almost prone upon the table, cutting the gores with large scissors which made a thoroughly sempstress-like squeak. "The higher education fades from my view with every snip," she said, laughing. "Upon my word, Margery, I begin to believe this sort of thing _is_ our vocation. It is great fun, and there is absolutely no brain wear and tear." The gores were parted as she spoke, and (to do us justice) were exactly the shape of the tarlatan ones Aunt Theresa had cut. But when we came to put them together, they wouldn't fit without turning one of them the wrong side out. Eleanor had boasted too soon. We got headaches and backaches with stooping and puzzling. We cut up all our stuff, but the gores remained obstinate. By no ingenuity could we combine them so as to be at once in proper order, the right side out, and the right side (of the pattern) up. I really think we cried over them with weariness and disappointment. "Algebra's a trifle to it," was poor Eleanor's conclusion. I went out to clear my brain by a walk, and happening, as I returned, to meet Jack, I confided our woes to him. One could tell Jack anything. "You've got it wrong somehow," said Jack, "linking" me. "Come to Miss Lining's." Miss Lining was our village dressmaker. A very bad one certainly, but still she could gore a skirt. She was not a native of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   >>  



Top keywords:
Eleanor
 

Theresa

 

folded

 

bodies

 

returned

 
Lining
 
breadths
 

pattern

 
Margery
 

wouldn


boasted

 

turning

 
parted
 

absolutely

 
justice
 

vocation

 
tarlatan
 
proper
 

linking

 

confided


native

 

village

 

dressmaker

 

happening

 

ingenuity

 

combine

 

obstinate

 

remained

 

backaches

 

stooping


puzzling

 
laughing
 

trifle

 

Algebra

 

conclusion

 
disappointment
 

weariness

 
headaches
 

pieces

 
picked

fitted
 

material

 
upwards
 
fairly
 

Matilda

 

directions

 
easily
 

patterns

 
weights
 

creeper