The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-10-04
SELECT STORY.
HER LAST CARPET.

tTeb III mTS' VlueOu nun y DdCk NdTu,
had for several days Haunted strips of
bright green, orange yellow and dark
crimson cotton, newly dyed.
On Monday there appeared several
yards of pale blue, and on Tuesday a
strip of bright red. When Mrs. Huff
hung the last strip on the line, round,
red, arms akimbo, nodded her pink
suubonneted head to aud fro in an ap-
proving manner, and said:
"Well, I've had good luck with ev'ry
single piece. If I'd made the aniline
dye leetle mite darker, it'd mebbe
looked better along with the green an
yeller in the twisted stripe callate on
having, but it'll look mighty purity as
It's l must git my log wood an cop
pcras ready for the rest of my rags,
an git 'em all ready for the rag.sewin'
Friday, for they've got to go to the
weaver a. Saturday"
Mrs. Hnff's rag carpets had takeu
the first premium at the county fair
every autumn for three years, and she
was laying her plans again this year to
capture the blue ribbon and the five
dollar prize. She had a way of get
ting up twisted stripes" and coloring
and warpiug the chain, that no one
could initiate Her neighbors often
SAID that they would rather have one
of Harriet Huff's striped rag carpets
than a two-ply ingram. She made a
great point of having her rags cut
very fine, aud sometimes lay awake at
night planning something new in the
way of "hit-an' miss film
"She cuts up our duds fer carpet
rags fore we've half worn 'em out
laid Mr.. Gideon Huff, little irritably.
"When woman gifts to maxim rag
carpets, a mans red fanuins amt safe
minute, unless he puts 'em in the
bauk in his own name, an my blue
overalls giurally go into ball of car
pet rags fore I've wore 'em dozen
| times
The carpet Mrs. Huff was now max
ing was to eclipse all of her former eff
forts. She had actually dreamed of
something new in twisted stripes, and
had risen in the middle of the night to
make fast and safe the dream-sent idea
by winding the colors in the right ord
er around a strip of pasteboard Then
she went back to bed saying to her
self:
"Now if l could only dream of
something new in tillinl "
But such dream did not come, al
] Sthough she was great dreamer, and
stoutly maintained that she often
"dreamed out things and that her
dreams came true Being thus firm
believer in dreams, she occasionally
even invited dreams by overlooking
her stomach at night.
sIf | eat an ordinary light supper"
she said, 81 don't dream much; but if
eat pickles and cheese and cake, and
a lot of stuff of that kind, | dream a
sight" which was no doubt true.
She ''made rag-sewin'" that week
to finish up her hit and miss rags, but
the rags for that wonderful stri ipe were
all to be sewed with her own hands.
Eight or ten of her neighbors came to
the "rag sewin'." Each of them
brought her needle and thimble, and
sewed carpet rags and laughed and
gossiped in the most agreeable way
all the afternoon, and in the evening
their husbands cam to supper.
| Not even to these ladies did Mrs
Huff disclose the pattern of her
dreamed out stripe. although she in
formed them that they could conf
IDENTIFY expect to see such rag carpet
as they'd never before seen, when the
| fair opened two weeks later.
Her household duties occupied her
time more than usual at that season Of
the year, so that she could sew only at
night, and each night she sat up until
very late sewing on the green and
crimson and yellow and blue and black
and white rags for the stripe in her
carpet.
1t was after midnight on Friday
when the last ball was sewed and
wound and weighed, and ready to go
to the weaver's on the morrow.
"The stripe can't be improved on 1
| lest know said Mrs. Huff, as she put
the rags away in stout grain bags, and
tied them mp. "But | cant decide
lust how to have the colors in the
chain warped, or whether to have the
light and dark rags all mixed up, or
sep rate in the hlt-an' miss. l do
wonder if | can't dream it out to-
night I'm all tired out, and | dream
best when Pm that way. Mebbe if |
eat big piece of gooseberry pie and a
| piece of cheese fore | go to bed, I'll
dream something uncommon. | read
the other day of a great poet who
wrote half poem, and couldn't finish
| it to suit him, and he went to bed and
dreamed the other half all out plain as
day, and got up in his night gown and
finished up. I'm slre if a person
could dream out fine p1em, I'd ought
TO be able to dream out common rag
carpet pattern"
Thus reasoning to herself, Mrs, Huff
ate her pie and cheese and went to
bed and, being very tired, soon drop
ped asleep.
She was sleeping heavily when her
husband called her in the morning,
Her first words when she arose were /:
"Well, it didn't do any good. l
didu't dream any ching about that car
pet, although | did dream of forty
o her things. l must hurry up my
work, and have Gideon take me and
the rags over to the widow Watts,
and see myself that she understands
just how that carpets got to be wove. y
But when, two hours later, she went
into her little sewing room to get her
rags aud chain, they were not to be
found.
"Gideon,' she called to er husband,
who was putting the horses to the
light wagon in the barn ward, shave
you carried them rags out to the wag,
oni'
"No," called back Mr.. Huff, l amt
seen your old rags. I'll be glad when
| | have seen the last of 'em, and you've
done a.settin' up O. nights a-puddin
over 'em, and undermindin' your con,
stitution and your health"