The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1889-07-17
THE LITTLE DREss-MAKER.
ny HELM T. CLARK.

BY HELEN T. CLARK.
Mrs. GilIespie's overskirt wonId not
come right, and Doris Hilbuin was, as
she expressed it, f" 50 worked up" that
she could not eat her dinner. She prided
herself on her draping, bat that day her
right hand likewise her lefil had for
gotten its cunning.
Don't worry, Doris, said Mrs. Giles
pie, putting another slice of boiled NUT
ton on the dress makers plate, Lay it
by till tomorrow, and begin Sarah James
school gingham."
Well, if you don't care" said Doris,
with look Of relief, it would be a great
lift off my mind and she ate three
pieces Of the mutton in her intense salts
fiction
Did YOU know that Eben Doolittle
was sick ?" asked Mrs Gillespie, after
diuner, as she piled her basting- needle.
Doris looked upfrom the sewing machine
80 quickly that keen observer might
I have said she was startled, but Mrs. Gil
lespies glasses covered unsuspecting
I eyes.
They say 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 a
housekeeper long ago, or got married,
] Ill ..-s..I.4 to.-o S..,,, Iaf4ar still Hafs
/ worrying about some payments that he
can't meet, and, take it altogether, |
shouldn't wonder if he was pretty bad
off. Would you have this gingham waist
shirred at the top, or laid in pleats all the
way down. Doris?"
The little dress-maker's heart was
humping 50 that she thought her CON-
panion must hear it. But the placid face
Opposite was absorbed in the '.pleatings"
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 at all
straight
The dress-maker and Eben DoolittIe
had once been much more than friends,
but fate had undertaken to do some shir-
ring, and, as usual, there Was nobody
at hand for to cut the gathering
threads")
Doris answered Mrs. Gillespie TO the
best Of her ability, and started the ma
chine again-
When night came she rolled up her
scissors, thimble and tape-measure, and
donned her wraps, despite the invitation
of Mrs. Gillespie to remain until next
day.
She wanted TO be alone where she
could think, and the society of Sarah
Jane, who would have been her bed
fellow, WAS not conducive to contempla-
ton.
On her way home she passed low
brown house standing back from the
road-a house dark and silent, bat which
quickened her pulses by its mere out
lines.
wonder if the poor soul is there all
alone, thought Doris. Any othsr neigh
Dor could run in and see after him in
friendly way. but that's out of the ques-
ton for NE"
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.
81 / wonder when those payments must
be made" she said to herself Its the
FIRST of March now
Suddenly two-fosd idea buzzed in
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
@IfI only d,rrsa, )" she said, half breath
lessly, then, with gathering boidness,
Why moi? No one will ever find it out
and Eben will not dream Of my doing
such thing. 1t will tide him over, and
then he will pick up and get well in nc
time. 1t may be only the drop in the
bucket, or it may be the full gallon, but
III risk it, whichever il 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 mus
turn to holden gray with the first touch
Of day.
But Doris's cloth Of gold kept the glim.
mer Of it's threads through all The nex'
day. Atnoon she spent 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 group o.
gleefal children on their way TO school
she pressed her hand over little bank.
book in her muh, and wanted to skip and
run as they did.
/ The official who waited on her was ey-
identity little surprised at the nature o.
her errand.
He needn't stare 50. have right
70 do what l please with my own,' she
thought, triiie Indignantly, yet with q
certain shame-faced feeling that she was
doing something wofully unbusiness-liks
and impractical" /"
donteare If starve IwIiL starye
l viii have nv comfort out Of this. any
way." she said.