hook by the
sink, she poured some warm water from the tea-kettle into it, carried
it carefully to the sink, loosened her dress and set about giving her
face and neck and hands a thorough scrubbing. This done, she drew a
long breath. "Guess that fixes that!" she said. Then she took off the
bit of soiled ribbon confining her braids, and taking down a comb from
the comb-case near, dipped it into water and drew it carefully through
her hair, after which she divided it into six strands and, giving each
a little twirl, stood for a moment by the radiating stove. Presto! Six
ropy curls danced up and down as their owner moved to and fro across
the room, and as the sunshine fell over them their beauty lifted the
little girl from out her plain surroundings.

She laughed as, brushing the short hair up around her face, and
dampening it before the glass, little ringlets nodded around the
forehead, modifying its squareness.

"It's 'most too fixed-up to wear that way every day. But Lutty
Williams fusses with a hot iron to get hers so."

Then, a new idea striking her, she opened the bureau drawer and took
out a white apron with sleeves and long strings. It was a trifle
difficult to get on, and still more so to button, but at last this was
done, and the strings made into a very respectable bow at the back.
Smoothing it carefully down in front, Martha was disappointed to see
that it did not reach nearly so far over the brown delaine dress as
she had expected. She took no thought of Jerusha's having let out a
tuck in her dress since the apron was last worn.

Martha's gaze now reached to her shoes. She turned to the clock, and,
taking out a pair of shoe-strings, sat down by the stove and, removing
her shoes, threw the bits of broken strings into the fire and threaded
in the new lacings, tying them snugly. Lutty Williams' shoes were
black as well as her lacings!--again there was a feeling of
disappointment.

But the dinner needed her attention, so she turned to finish setting
the table, which Jerusha had arranged in part, before going home. A
second time a thought seemed to strike her, and now she reached to the
top drawer of the bureau and drew forth a white table-cloth. Carefully
she placed the vase on the window-sill, and, taking off the dishes and
putting them back in the cupboard, removed the red table-cloth, folded
it and placed that, too, in the cupboard. Jerusha did not think much
of white tablecloths, but it was Easter, and Ea