Smyrna times., 1859-06-09
NJ | SCELLAN US.
THE VILLAGE DRESS. MAKER,

to that OF the dress maker in & small New Fn,
- land town. - .
= what important interests does she hold !,
I, her hands! How is she beseiged, courted. re
l. lefFed TO! Three months before hand. all he
- uays ana nights are spoken for; and the simpl,
statement, that only on that day you can ha y,
. MISS Clppefs' Is OF itself an apology for omis
II $40 OF attention elsewhere-lt strikes home a
n once to the deepest Consciousness of woman
married or single. How thoughtfuIly is every
thing arranged, weeks before. hand, for the
GOLDEN, important season when Miss Clippers
can come! On that day, there is to be no ex.
ira sweeping, busting, cleaning, cooking, no
FIsltlhg. no receiving, no reading or wrltinO
oul all with one heart and soul are to wait upOn
her' intent 10 forward the great work which
she graclousy atlords a days leisure to direct
Seated IN her chair of state, with her well-worn
cushion brstng with pins and needles at her
side, her ready roll patterns and her scissors.
she hears, Judges, and decides er cathedra on
the possible or not possible, in that important
art on winch depends the right presentation Of
lhe nOfdl part OF Natures great horticultural
snow. ''he alone is competent to saw whether
there is any available remedy for the stained
breadth IN James dress-whether the fatal SPOT
by any magical hecus pocus can be cut out
from the fuiness, or turned up and smothered
from view In the gathers, or concealed by some
new fashion OF trimming falling with generous
appropriateness exactly across the fatal weak
! Dnlht. She can tell you whether that remnant
! "I VeIVel Will make you basque-whether
'nahima's 5 old silk can reappear in juvenile
grace for Miss Lucy. What marvels follow
her, wherever she goes What wonderful re-
suits does she contrive from the most unlikely
materials, as everybody after her departure
wonders to see old things become SO much bet
ter than new
Among the most influential and happy of her
class was Miss Prissy Diamond--a little, dap
per, doI-IIke body, quick in her motions aud
nimOle IN her tongue, whose delicate COM |
plexlon, hdxcn curIS, merry flow Of spirits, and
ready abundance OF gaiely, song, and story,
apart from her professional accomplishments, |
made her u welcome guest in every family in |
the nelghborhood. Miss Prissy aughngly |
ooasted being past forty, sure that the avowal |
would always draw down on her quite storm
OF complaints, on the freshness of ner sWeet-pea |
complexion and the brightness of her merry
blue eyes She was well pleased to hear dawn |
ing girls wondering why, with SO many adyan-
tages, she had never married.
At such remarks, Miss Prissy always laughed |
loudly, and declared that she had always had |
such string of engagements with the women
that she never found half an hour to listen to
sing she could stop TO hear him. Besides, if |
| were TO get married, nobody else could she |
would say. "What would become OF all the
wedding clothes for everybody else Z" But |
sometimes, when Miss Prssy felt extremely |
gracious, she would draw out of her little chest |
just the tllntcst tpend of sigh, and tell some |
young lady, III confidential ndertone, that |
one of these days she would tell her something
and then there would come wink of her |
blue eyes and futterng of the pink ribbons in
her cap quite stimulating tc youthful inquis- |
tlvenesS; though we have never been able to |
lear by any OF our aotiquarian researches that |
the expectations thus excited were ever graft
fed.
In her professional prowess she felt par
donabie pride. What feals could she relate of |
wonderful dresses got out of lmpossibly small |
patterns of silk; what marveIs Of silks turned
that could not be told from new what reclaim
ings of waists that other dress.makers had |
hopeessy spoiled Had not Mrs. General Will
cox once been obliged to call in her aid on
dress sent to her from Paris and did not Miss
Prissy work three days and nights on that
dress, aud make every stitch of that trimming
over with her own hands before it was fit to be
seen! And when Mrs. Governor Dexter's best
silver-gray brocade was spoiled by Mrs. Piml-
CO, and there wasn't another scrap to pattern il
with, didn't she make a new waist out of the
cape, and piece one of the sleeves twenty mine
times, aud yet nobody would have ever known
that there as joining in it!
In fact, though Miss Prissy enjoyed the fair
average plain sailing of her work, she might
be said to reyel in difficulties A full pattern
with trimming, all ample and ready, awoke a
moderate enjoyment; but the resurrection of
anything halfworn or lmperfectly made, the
brilliant success when, after turning, twisting,
piercing, contrving, and by unheard of inyen-
tions of trimming, dress faded and defaced
was restored to more than its pristine splendor
that was triumph worth enjoying.
1t was true, Miss Prissy, like most of her no.
nIadc compeers, was little given to gossip,
but, after all, it was innocent gossp-not bit
of malice in it; it was only all the particulars
about Mrs. Thus-and. Sos wardrobe-all the
statistics of Mrs. That-and- TOther's china
closet--all the minute items of Miss Simpkln's
wedding clothes-and how her mother cried
the morning of the wedding, and said she didn't
know anything how she could spare Louisa
Jane, only that Edward was such good boy
that she felt she could love him like an own
son-and what providence it seemed that the
very ring that was put into the brde-loaf was
the one that he gave her when he first went to
sea. when she wouldn't be engaged TO him be-
cause she though she loved Thomas Strickland
better, but that was only because she hadn't
found him out, you know-and SO forth, and go
! forth.
| Sometimes, too, her variations assumed
solemn cast, aud brought to mind the hush OF
! funerals, and told of words spoken IN faint
| whispers, when hands were clasped for the hrst
! time--and Of utterance crushed out from hearts,
when the hammer of great sorrow strikes out
sparks of the divine, even from common
stone aud there would be real tears in the lit
tic blue eyes, and pink bows would futter
tremulously, like the last three leaves on bare
| rl1.A L. In Inni do