The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-07-09
Five Little Stitches.

Five little stitches And they were
taken more than twenty-five years
ago. And why should they be remem-
bered more than thousands of other
stitches taken by the same fingers? L
will tell you. ,
little Rose went to the 'infant
scboolu then. It was a very happy
place for little folks. They had no
hard lessons in arithmetic or geogfa-
phy. The nearest approach to lessons
was saying over the multiplication
table" in a sort of rhymlng concert
"twice one are two, twice two are
fourr while the teacher slid along the
little wooden balls on the wire frame to
suit the words. No; but when the
marching was over, there were plenty
of busy fingers learning to sew.
Rose was making blocks OF patch
work-"nine-patch" her mother called
if. Roses mother cut the small
suuares. and basted them neatly for
Rose TO sew "over and Overcome
LIock a day. And it was Roses spe-
ciaI delight to show her mother the
neatly-finished block each night, and
be able to say, II did it all myself"
One warm June day Rose found her
needle rather dull, and the new pink
chintz so hard tn sew. Her hngers
trembled when she came to where the
four corners met, and she tried in vain
with her thimbleless fingers TO push
The needle through so many thick
npsses of cloth. She looked at the lit
tie girl who sat next TO her on the
same bench-an older girl than Rose
by two years, and rich in the posses
session of 4 "real silver' thimble.
Rose passed the block to Pogue IA Gu
rious name, but her very own; IT
rhymed with her surname, too), and
motioned to a little hard corner touch
inp'her thimble, and nodded and wink
significantly. Pogue understood, and
taking the nine-patch, sewed very
neatly over the hard place. Rose
watching carefully lest she do too
mucb. One, two, three, four, five
stitches :. and, O, so neatly done
Rose bowed and smiled her thanks,
and put in a stitch or two as neatly as
nossible next to the five" when she
stopped in dismay at the thought thal
popped into her conscientious little
bead-sI can't tell mother I did it my
self.n 1t would take away half her
pleasure not to be able to say, this.
And vet it was so very little-only just
five stitches. II needn't mind that,
came the temptation. III can say did
it myself, for that's almost nothing"
"But it is help" another voice said,
land you had better say, Il did nearly
all.'" But, Rose couldn't make up
her mind to say this. Her motneT
would be sure to think, if 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 un-
threaded her needle, and very dellber,,
ately picked out those five stitches, and
then went to work and sewed them
over herself. And she is glad to-day
that she did. Not because ii might
not have been foolish for her to he so
anxious about the credit of doing the
work all herself-no; but because it
was her first resistance to the tempta-
ton to tell a falsehood And resist
ance once always makes it easier to re-
sist again. So I did not think that
Rose ever told deliberate falsehood
since that day when she came so near
making a black spot in her memory
instead of bright one.-E1change.