he is a steady, pleasant fellow. Now
he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to pay his own board. She has
her sewing-machine, but she doesn't know how to make any kind of garment
decently. When they had money they bought every thing ready-made. She
paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make her two silk dresses. If she
had put one of them in some plain, simple garments, how much more
serviceable it would have proved!"

"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan said sharply.

"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked Sylvie, drawing her
brows into a little, perplexed frown. "Martha worked for two years, and
earned a good deal of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
was just one thing,--fine stitching on shoes,--yet one would think she
would understand a sewing-machine so completely that she could do any
thing with it. But she actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made;
and the dresses she bought,--cheap coarse-trimmed things, I should have
been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants to study for a teacher; and, as
there is so little for girls to do, I think she will. She will make
wiser investments of her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind
of wife her husband will get!"

"The era of prosperity was too much for some people," said Mrs. Darcy,
with her motherly smile. "I used to wonder six or seven years ago, how
it was that so many middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy
they needed one. A little more time spent in household duties would not
have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed the children to take
a part, it would have been much better for them. Then so much sewing was
hired; and, although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
it all up, and no one was any better off. How few had any stock of
underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and durable articles!"

"Industry must come around in the fashion again. Even the despised
patchwork doubtless had its uses. It taught children to sew, and to
manage economically. I remember that I once had three quilts on hand at
one time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on. My last one
was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all the scraps for it. Yet
we often hear people laugh about the folly of cutting calico into bits
to sew together again. Why should it not be considered honorable and
respectable to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss Morgan glanced
up with a confidence no on