South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-05-26
FIVE LITTLE STITCHES.

FIVE little stitchesl And they were
taken more than twenty-five years ago.
And why should they be remembered more
than thousands of other stitches taken by
the same fingers? l will tell you.
| Little Rose went to the Infant school" "
then 1t was very happy place for the
little folks. They had no hard lessons in
arithmetic or geography. The nearest an
proach to lessons was saying over the
multiplication table" in a sort of rhym-
ing Twice one are two, twice
two are four" while the teacher slid along
the little wooden balls on the wire frame,
to suit the words. No, but when the
marching and singing was over, there
were plenty of busy fingers learning to
sew.
Rose was making blocks of patchwork
=" ninepatch," her mother called it. You
all know what that is. Roses mother cut
the small squares and basted them neatly
for Rose to sew lover and over" one
block day. Ant it was Roses special
delight to show her mother the neatly fin
lshed block each night, and be able to say,
DID 1t all myself" One warm June
day Rose found her needle rather dull. and
the new pink chintZ so hard to sew; her
fingers trembled. when she came to where
with her little thimbleless finger, to push
the needle through so many thicknesses of
cloth. She looked at the little girl who
sat next her on the long bench-an older
girl than Rose by two years, and rich in
the possession of 4" real silver" thimble.
Rose passed the block to Pogue Ia curious
name, but her very own, and it rhymed
with her surname, tOo) and motioned to
the little hard corner, touching her thin
Bile and nodding and winking significantly
Pogue understood, and taking the nine
patch sewed very neatly over the hard
place-Rose watching carefully lest she
should do too much. One, two, three,
four, five stitches, and oh, so neatly donel
Rose bowed and smiled her thanks, and
put in stitch or two as neatly as possible
next to the " five" when she stopped in
dismay at thought that popped into her
conscientious little head Il can't tell
mother did it all myself" 1t would have
taken away half her pleasure not to be able
to say this. And yet it was so very little
only Just five stitchesl "I needn't mind
that" came the temptation; az can say
did it myself, for that's almost nothing"
But it is help" another voice said, "and
you'd better say did it nearly ALL" But
Rose couldn't make up her mind to say
this. Her mother would be sure to think
if Pogue sewed any of it, likely she made
half the block, at least one seam across
So you see it was a real struggle
And how do you suppose she settled it?
After looking at it about as long as it has
taken me to tell you this, Rose unthreaded
her needle and very deliberately picked
out those five stitches, and then went to
work and sewed them over herself And
she is glad to-day that she did. Not be-
cause it might not have been foolish for
her to be so anxious about the credit of
doing the work all herself-no; but be-
cause it was her first resistance to the
temptation to tell a falsehoOdl And re-
sisting once always makes it easier to re-
s;st again. So / do not think Rose ever
told deliberate falsehood since that day
when she came so near making a black
spot in her memory instead of a bright
one. Does any little girl think Rose made
too much of such little thing? Oh, no.
1t is just as much stealing to take five pen
nies from anOther's purse as five dollars.
and it would have been as much falsehood
for Rose to have left Pogue's five little
stitches in her work and said she "did it !
all, as if POgue had sewed half the block, |
and she had said the same thing. And |
Rose knew it, and is glad to-day, as she |
was then, that if she must have credit for |
doing all the work she picked out those |
" five little stitches"