The Pascagoula democrat-star., 1879-05-30
Five Little Stitches

rive lllllt stllSuCo' ~hh' thN y
were taken more than twenty five
years ago. Aud why should they
be remembered more than thou
sands of other stitches taken by the
same fiugers' | will tell you.
Little Rose went to the "infant
school" then. 1t was a very happy
place for the little folks. They had
no hard lessons in arithmetic or
geography. The nearest approach
to lessons was saying over the "mul-
tiplication table, in sort of rhym.
ing COL cert-"Twice one are two,
twice two are tour;" while the
teacher slid along the little wooden
balls on the wire frame, to suit the
words. No, but when the marching
aud singing were over, there were
plenty OF busy fingers learning to
sew.
Rose was making blocks ofpatch.
work-"nine patch," her mother
called it. You all know what that
is. Roses mother cut the small
squares and basted them neatly
tor Rose TO sew "over and over
one block a day. And it was
Roses special delight to show her
mother the neatly finished block
each night, and be able to say, "I
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 the four corners met, and
she tried in vain, with her little
thimbleless finger, to push the nee
die through so many thicknesses of
cloth. She looked at the little girl
who sat next to her on the same
bench-an older girl than Rose
by two years, and rich in the pos
session 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 little hard
corner, touching her thimble and
nOdding and wiLking significant
ly. Pogue understood, and taking
the nine-patch, sewed very neatly
over the hard place-RoSe watch
ing carefully lest she should do too
much. One, two, three, four, five
stitches, and on SO neatly done!
Rose bowed and smiled her
thanks and put in a stitch or two
as nearly as possible next to the
Give" when she stopped in dislAay
ia a thought that popped into her
conscientious little head. 81 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 !ittle-onlv
just Give stitchesm 81 needn't
mind that" Came tie temptation,
Il car say l did it myself, for that's
almost Lothing." "But it is help"
.snother voice said, Sand you'd bet
ter say Il did it nearly all.'n But
Rose couldn't make up her mind to
say this. Her mother would be
sure to think of Pogue sewed any
of it, likely she made half the block.
at least one seam across. So YOU
see it was 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 untnreaded her needle and
very deliberately picked out those
five stitches, and than went to
work and sewed them over herself.
Aud she is glad to-day that she
did. Not because it not might not
have been foolish tor 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 talsehood
And resistance once always makes
it easier to resist again. So | do
not think Rose ever told deliber-
ate talsehood 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 it just as much stealing
to take five pennies 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 today, as she was
then, that if she must have the
credit for doing all the work she
picked out those "five little |
stitches o-Hrs .TuI;1 D PoUo,J