e had so little time to bestow upon me, that at first I began to fear
that I should be of no use to her. The suspicion was terrible; for the
wish to be useful has been the great idea of my life. It was my earliest
hope, and it will be my latest pleasure. I could be happy under almost
any change of circumstances; but as long as a splinter of me remains, I
should never be able to reconcile myself to the degradation of thinking
that I had been _of no use_.

But I soon found I was in no danger of what I so much dreaded. In fact,
I seemed likely to be even more useful to Susan than to Rose. Before I
had been long in the house, she said one evening that she had an hour to
spare, and that she would make me some clothes.

'Well and good,' answered her mother; 'only be sure to put your best
work in them. If you mind your work, the doll will be of great use to
you, and you can play without wasting your time.'

This was good hearing for Susan and me, and she spent most of her
leisure in working for me. While she was thus employed, I came down from
my shelf, and was treated with as much consideration as when Rose and
her companions waited at my table.

A great change took place in my wardrobe. Rose had always dressed me in
gay silks and satins, without much regard to under clothing; for, she
said, as my gowns must be sewn on, what did any petticoats signify? So
she sewed me up, and I looked very smart; and if there happened to be
any unseemly cobbling, she hid it with beads or spangles. Once I
remember a very long stitch baffled all her contrivances, and she said I
must pretend it was a new-fashioned sort of embroidery.

But Susan scorned all _make-shifts_. Nothing could have been more
unfounded than my fears of becoming ragged or dirty. My attire was plain
and suited to my station, but most scrupulously finished. She saw no
reason why my clothes should not be made to take off and on, as well as
if I had been a doll three feet high. So I had my plain gingham gowns
with strings and buttons; and my shifts and petticoats run and felled,
gathered and whipped, hemmed and stitched, like any lady's; and every
thing was neatly marked with my initial S. But what Susan and I were
most particularly proud of, was a pair of stays. They were a long time
in hand, for the fitting them was a most difficult job; but when
finished, they were such curiosities of needlework, that Susan's neat
mother herself used to show off the stitching and the ey