Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-02
TIE LITTLE DRaSSMAKBR.

Mrs. Gillespie's overskirt would moi
come right, and Doris Hilburn was, as she
expressed it, $50 worked up" that she
could not eat her dinner She prided her.
self on her draping, but that day her right
hand likewise her left had forgotten its
cunning.
Don't worry, Doris" said Mrs. GILES
pie, putting another slice of boiled mutton
on the dressmaker's plate. " Lay it by till
tomorrow, and begin Sarah James school
gingham.'
Well, if you don't care" said Doris,
with look of relief, ii would be great
lift off my mind" and she ate three pieces
of the mutton in her satisfaction
Did you know that Eben Doolittle was
sick?" asked Mrs. Gillespie, after dinner,
asshe piled her basting-needle. Doris looked
up from the sewing-machine so quickly
that a keen observer might have said she
was startled, but Mrs. Gillespie's glasses
covered unsuspecting eyes.
They says he's threatened with fever.
No wonder. Living alone, and doing his
own cooking and farming, when any man
in his senses would have hired house
keeper long ago or got married, which
would have been better still. He's worry
ing about some payments that he can't
meet, and, take it altogether, l shouldn't
wonder if he was pretty bad off. Would
you have this Bingham waist shirred at the
top, or laid in pleats all the way down,
Doris ?"
The little dressmaker's heart was
humping so that she thought her COM
panion must hear it. But the placid face
opposite was absorbed in the "pleatings y
and shirrings."
It's all shirrings," thought poor Doris.
"All puckered up close and tight, and
somebody's got TO cut the gathering
threads before things will come out
straight" The dressmaker and Eben
Doolittle had once been much more than
friends, but fate had undertaken to do
some shirring," and, as usual, there was
nobody at hand to cut the gathering
threads")
Doris answered Mrs Gillespie to the
best Of her ability, and started the machine
again.
When night came she rolled up her
scissors, thimble and tape-measure, and
put on her things, despite Mrs. Gillespie's
invitation to stay all night
She wanted to be alone where she could
think, and the society Of Sarah Jane, who
who would have been her bed-fellow, was
not conducive to contemplation.
On her way home she passed a low,
brown house standing back from the road
"a house dark and silent, but which
quiclened her pulses by its mere outlines.
q wonder if the poor soul is there all
alone" thought Doris. ANY other
neighbor could run in and see after him in
a friendly way, but that's all out of the
question for me-"
When she reached home she reused her
fire out Of its all-day sluggishness, and sat
down before it without lighting a lamp.
She could think better in the dark.
Il wonder when those payments must be
made" she said to herself, its the first OF
March now"
Suddenly two-fold idea buzzed through
Doris Hilburn's brain like a Fourth-of-
July ''pin-wheel," and her plaintive little
face grew hot and rosy in the dim fire.
lighted room.
IF | only dared" she said, half-breath-
leSsly, then with gathering boldness, "why
not? No one viii ever find it out, and
Eben will not dream of my doing such a
thing. 1t will tide him over, and then he
will pick up and set well in no time. 1t
may be only the drop in the bucket, or it
may be the full gallon, but FL risk it,
whichever it is" Pleasant dreams turned
her humble pillows into cushions of down
that night, and draped her bare walls with
the cloth of gold which too often, alas
must turn to holden gray with the first
touch of day.
But Doris cloth of gold kept the glim-
mer of its threads through all the next
day. At noon, she spent 4 shorter time
than usual over her dinner, and said she
must do an errand. She hurried along
the quiet village streets to the business
quarter. and when she met a group of
gleeful children on their way to school she
pressed her hand over a little handbook in
her muff, and wanted to skip and run as
they did
The official who waited on her was evil
IDENTIFY surprised at the nature of her
CIId4tNi. lAt l SluIS 50. nave 4
right to do what l please with my own,'
thought Doris, a trife Indignantly, yet
with a certain shamefaeed feeling that she
was doing something wofully unbusiness-
like and impractical"
L" 1 don't care. If starve l will starye.
| will have my comfort out of this any
way" she said.
Her ewes were so bright and her cheeks
so rosy that Mrs. Gillespie viewed her
through her spectacles with surprise
Il declare, Doris if you weren't so sensi-
BE and so settled in your ways, should
think you had been having an ofer-and
accepting it, too. You look as young
and handsome as the best of them"
Doris laughed slipped off her hat and
sack, and collapsed into the little sewing
chair, and in three minutes was apparently
absorbed in Sarah James bias bands" and
skirt rufiies-
Don't make it too seant, Doris said
her companion. Skimpiness don't pay
when you're making up Bingham"
''Nor when you're giving present. said
Doris to herself, with 4 sudden thrill OF
joy.
The short March day came to an end
Sarah James gingham was finished and
hung over the back of a chair, ready for
its owner to carry upstairs at bedtime.
The troublesome oversSirt had. come right
at last, and WIS a triumph of Alloon-like,
billowy folds.
you'll save a day for me in April