Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-12-27
UPSIDE DOWN.

| any Thng GOOD Enough for the "LtttIt
andals"-ALesson Well Learned.
you've put the sleeves in upside
down. Henrietta" said Helen Marcy.
What is the difference? They will
never know it; throw it into the box,
the young girl replied. Nobody will
know who made it.
Eyes, Henrietta, but when they oper
the box at the mission, somebody will
have to rip it out and put it in again
before it can be worn,"
''They ought to be glad to get any
thing to put on those little vandals. Dc
you suppose they would know whether
sleeve was upside down, or even wrong
side out, Helen?"
Helen Marcy made no reply, as she
saw her companion throw the gingham
shirt-waist into the box that stood in
the middle of the floor where the fin
ished garments were deposited. She
would have taken the sleeve out and
put it in again herself, but she had
promised to finish off some other work
that evening, as the box was going in
the morning. These two young girls
belonged to the ''busy workers sewing
society" They had been preparing a
box for charitable institution in the
city.
Henrietta Fassett was one of those
persons who always did things, as her
aunt Jerusha expressed it, Gin a whew."
She did not think it worth while to
haste the pieces of her garments to-
gether, for that took too much time;
so when she sewed under her mother
or her aunt's supervision, she was
oftentimes obliged to rip out the stitches
and do the work over again. She had
heard her aunt say hundred times:
''Lazy folks alawys take the most pains,
Henrietta" That afternoon she was
responsible to no one, SO the up
side-down sleeve was allowed to be
sent off, and that was all she thought
about it.
Helen Marcy was entirely different in
that respect from her intimate friend,
Henrietta Fassett. 1t took her longer
to finish her work, but it never had to
be done over again. She was response
BILE to herself and her own honor in
such matters. If she had made the mis-
take that her friend made, she would
have sat up all night, if need be, to
rectify it, She always aimed to do
we'll whatever she did, and even in the
very best manner she was capable of.
The matron at the charitable institu-
ton was very glad to get the box
There were fifteen little boys in ragged
garments waiting to put the fifteen
new bingham shirtwaists on. 1t was
such help, she thought, to have them
all ready to put on-no buttons to be
sewed, and no fitting to be done, and
no running up of seams. Those new,
clean, pretty gingham waists all ready
to be slipped over the boys shoulders
How good and kind the ''busy workers"
had been.
Mrs. Leavenworth, friend of Mrs.
Marcy's, was there to see the box
opened, and she was proud to say that
the box came from the young girls of
the town where she spent her summers.
One boy after another stepped up to the
matron and had a new waist put on,
and marched Off with a smiling face.
Fourteen boys had been equipped and
sent off happy. Then the fifteenth boy
came up. He was a thin, pale boy, with
the saddest of faces. The matron said
he had a very sad history, and some
time she would tell Mrs. Leavenworth
all about it. Martin Beers stood by the
box with a smile lighting up his face
He was going to have a new waist,
probably the first bright, fresh, new
garment he had ever had. His right
arm went into the sleeve, but there was
something wrong with the set of it.
whats the matter with this sleeve?'
queried the matron. "Oh, see; it's
put in upside down; somebody's made
mistake. It will have to go to the
sewing-room and be ripped out. The
sewing-girl is gone, too, this after
noon"
Mrs. Leavenworth saw the disap-
pointed look on the little fellows face.
All the other boys were in the play
room with new waists on, and he would
have to go back again with his old torn
shirt on. The lady laid aside her bonnet
and wrap, and said: "Wait few min
utes, Martin, and / will fix the Sleeves"
and so the boy sat down on stool by
her side, and watched her rip out the
sleeve and put it in again. 1t took a
half hour to do the work, but she told
Martin some pretty stories while she
was at work. Then he marched off
to join the brigade with new bingham
waists.
Henrietta had forgotten all about the
''upside-down sleeve" until the presi-
dent of the society raped on the table a
fortnight afterward, and called the'tbusy
workers and takers to order. Then
she read the letter Mrs. Leavenworth had
written about the box. She wrote how
needy the boys were. and how pleased
they all were with the new garments.
But this lady thought best to tell tho
whole truth as we | as part of it. and SO
she added that one waist had to be fix
ed before the boy could wear it, as
somebody had made a mistake and put
the right sleeve in upside down. She
only mentioned it because she knew that
the waist would not have been sent so
unless it was a mistake. She also
thought it would be a good thing to tell
the young girls, so they would be more
particular in future
who could have made that mis-
takeP'' asked the president, as she
stopped in. the midst of her reading.
No one answered, and Helen Marcy
would not betray her friend. But Hem
,.}a4@a cf<or a fou, vnn,,,o Oou Al aysu.