Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-06-01
FIVE LITTLE STITC-s

FIVE little stitches! And they
taken more than twenty-five years gre
And why should they be remembered my'
than thousands of other stitches taken BY
the same fingers 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 ap-
proach to lessons was saying over the
multiplication table" in a sort of rhym-
ing concert 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 "over and over" one
block day AnS it was Roses special
delight to show her mother the neatly fin
ished block EACH night, andsbe able to say,
81 did it 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
| girl than Rose by two years. and rich In
the possession OF :" real silver" thimble.
Rose passed the block to Pogue "a 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, 30 neatly done
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 al can't tell
mother did it all myself" II would have
taken away half her pleasure not to be able
to say this. And yet il was so very little
only Just five stitches ~ needn't mind
that" came the temptation 81 can say
did it myself, for that's almost nothing"
" But it is help" another voice said, land
y}AAd better say did it neaaty ALL ," But
Rose couldn't make up her mind to by
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 1t was real struggle.
And how do you suppose she settled lit
After looking at it about as long rs it has
taken me to tell you this, Rose unthreaded
her needle and very deliberately picked
out those five stitches, and then went 10
1 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 1t was her first resistance to the
temptation TO tell falsehood! And re-
sisting once always makes II easier to re-
sist again. So do not think Rose ever
told deliberate falsehood since that day
when she came so near making black
spot in her memory instead of bright
one. Does any little girl think Rose made
too much of such lille things Oh, no.
1t is just as much stealing to take five pen
MES from another's purse as five dollars,
and II 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 ii, and is glad to-day, as she
was then, that If she must have credit for
| doing all the'work she picked out those
| I" five little stifcheao