Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-10-15
LITTLE EDNA's STORY.


I'm going to tell you a story about
my gran'ma.
You'd think gran'mas would always
be good, but they amt. l mean they
are when you know them, but you
don't know them till they're grown-up
ladies with gray hair and red cheeks
and spectacles It's when they're not
gran'mas yet-when they're little like
me, mean-and then / guess they're
better'n | am.
I'd like to know real gran'ma when
she was little.
Gran'ma's name was Orissa-only
now we call her Gran'ma Foster-and
She had to spin tow. She had to spin
twenty rolls every day, ten rolls in the
morning and ten in the afternoon.
She used to do it up over the kitchen
in the Observation-Disclosures, and her
mother-that's my Great-gran'ma
Hooper-used to bring the rolls up to
her and leave her there all alone to
like to spin very well.
Well-and there was fireplace in
the lxitchen-chamber, and no one ever
built a fire there, and there was fire.
board that covered the fireplace all up
so you couldn't see it. And gran'ma-
Orissa-found that there was a hole in
the fire-board just big enough so she
could put her hand in.
And one day-it's sprising what
gran'mas will do when they're little
one day Orissa just hated spinning, m
she'd spun six rolls, N she looked at
the other four, N she took one of them
m began to chew it.
1t was so big that her mouth was
full at first, but she chewed N chewed
till at last it was only a wad, and then
she took and put it right through that
hole in the fireboard and dropped it in
the dark behind, where she knew that
no one would ever find it. So she
didn't have to spin that roll.
Well-and then she took another roll,
and she chewed that up n dropped it
through the hole. And then she didn't
dare chew any more, so she spun the
other two rolls, but when she came to
the other ten that she had to spin in
the afternoon she chewed one of them
and dropped it through the hole.
And that was the way Orissa kept
doing every day. She didn't dare put
as many through the hole as she wanted
to, only one or two at time.
Her mother kept wondering why
what Orissa spun didn't come to more,
but Orissa never told her why. She
didn't dare.
But her mother thought Orissa was a
good girl. Mothers most always do
think you're good just as long as they
can, you know; and Orissa's mother
would say what good girl she was to
spin, and Orisssa would feel just as
mean when she thought about the
chewed-up rolls back of the fireboard.
Well-after awhile Orissa's mother
thought she'd s'prise her with 3 new
dress. 1t was only calico, but calico
was real precious then.
Why, Gran'ma Foster-Orissa-n
had had a bought dress all her life.
They made all the cloth at home, and
a calico that was bought was real pre-
cious.
So one day her mother said; ''Orissa,
you've been such a good girl spinning,
I've bought you dress, and then she
showed her it. Grandma Fosters got
piece of it now in an old quilt, and it
was two blues-dark blue and light
blue and yellow and white.
1t was pretty, and Orissa laughed and
hoped up and down, she was so glad.
Anu then-all of sudden-she remem-
bered about the che~ed-up rolls. There
were a good many of them by that time
In behind the fire. board. Orissa stopped
hopping But she didn't tell her mother.
And her mother made the dress with
gathers round the neck, and it had
Shoulder-straps and full waist. |
think gran ma must have looked funny.
And she used to wear the calico to
church Sundays because it was so pre-
cious. Gran'ma says she always used to
20 two miles to church, and she used to
carry her shoes in her hand and go
barefoot till she was pretty near, and
then she'd walk through brook and
put her shoes on. That's the way lots
of the children did then to save their
shoes, because shoes were precious as
well as calico.
And all the other little girls thought
Orissa's bought calico was so fine, and
they looked at it and wished they had
one, stead of dresses out of cloth their
mothers had made at home. But Orissd
Just hated that calico dress.
She hated it worse n worse every
time she wore it. know why. Don't
you?
She thought the minister looked at
her every Sunday when she sat in
church with that calico dress on, and it
just seemed as if he must know all
about those chewed-up rolls, someway.
And 0rissa felt worse n worse n
acorse every time she heard her mother
say she gave her the dress because she