The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1899-02-15


ty-five dollars When / recovered from
the shock Of the price took good
look at IT, anu bless youl it was the
pIsinest thing ever saw in my life. A
child could have made it. Aud there
wasn't the ghost Of tuck. Yes, j re-
member very distinctly there wasn't
the ghost Of a tuck
The machine hummed again, 50 also
did the woman. She hummed very
bravely, trying not to think. That was
the trouble with sewing. II left your
brain idle. She always fell to thinking
when she sewed. Ghosts rose up be-
fore her aud stalked. She knew what
was the matter. She was getting tired,
and invariably when she got very, very
tired, these ghosts walked. She looked
up at the clock. Eleven. She had
now been sewing for two solid hours.
She changed her tune. She now hum
med ''Show pity, LordF' She stopped
once more to break her thread. The
scissors still refused to be found. They
would bob up serenely enough when
she no longer needed them. That al
ways happened, but now they hid them
selves away and laughed up their
sleeves. The thread also was stubborn.
She could not break it with her fingers.
She stopped and bit it off.
"How do you think it would look,
she asked casually, ito tuck the front
Of the waist and not the back ?"
at would look lovely answered her
friend, who was growing almost cheer
full now. "IThat's what | would do.
Just put in plain French back What
is the use any way in tucking both
sides? People never see the back aud
front Of you at the same time; never"
"But suppose you happen to be stand
ing in the middle of the room, object
ed the woman, "and they walk around
you?"
"What do you care for the OPT ion Of
people who are so curious as that? Be
sides, by the time they got to your back
may be they might forget that your
waist was tucked in front"
The woman continued TO sew and also
to think. She was getting almost too
tired to live, and when she got too tiFed
to live the ghost of the boy rose up be-
fore her 1t did, invariably. The boy
was not dead. No, no! She hoped he
was not dead. Still, he was 50 far away
he might be and she not know it. At
the very thought she gave a shrill little
scream.
"what's the matter?' asked her
friend, startled.
The woman laughed. AZ came pretty
near running the machine needle
through my thumb nail" she said
'sDid you ever do that?"
NO" replied her friend with shud-
der.
The woman Iaborionsly began anoth-
er tuck. or course he was alive and
well. or course he was She never
would forget, though, that day she sent
him out with invitations to her card
party. He went on his pony and
blizzard caught him and he nearly frOze
to death before he could get home.
Well, how could she tell that a blizzard
was to come up? All sorts Of sudden
and unaecountable things happened in
the West-cyclones and billiards and
sockless statesmen. Clearly il wasn't
her fault, but whenever she thought Of
that party of hers the boys poor little
crimson face and his frosted ears and
his cold hands that she had to rub and
rub and rub before the blood would
come back to them rose up before her
and wiped out all the pleasure she had
had in it-she dearly loved a little party,
too-and made her heart ache 50 that
merciful heavens, would that piece Of
silk ever get any sborterl She stopped
stitching, leaned her elbows on the ma
chine and sighed.
whats the matter now ~ asked her
friend.
'HO~ do you think it would look, "
she asked, her voice quavering a very
little, ''to have the yoke tucked and not
the front? ?'
.The rule works both ways answer
ed her friend. People walking behind
you will never know that the front of
your waist is plain"
The woman brsced up and went-On
with her work. She started to hum
another tune, but it fell through. She
couldn't. She hadn't the strength.
II was now II. No, she wouldn't go
down to lunch even, she told her friend
She must keep straight on, working
like s,dog, if she wanted to finish the
old thing, and then, she believed, she
would never get it finished. She would
probably be sitting there sewing when
Gabriel blew his trumpet for all the
dead to rise. Go on down without her.
Her friend went on doWn without
her. She left the iridescent slumber
robe on the chair. 1t looked lonesome
ly empty there. The woman cOntinu-
ed, nevertheless, working steadily on,
occasionally throwing a haunted glance
back of her at the silk, which seemed
to stretch and stretch instead Of dimin-
ishing, until it covered the floor. She
was growing tired, very tired. In all
her life she believed she had never be-
fore been so tired. 1t was awfully sad
anyhow to live long way from people
whose heartstrings were all tangled up
with yours. Even if she hadn't had
letter from the boy fer several weeks,
that was no sign that anything was the
matter with him; no sign at all. He
was possibly as well and strong as she
was, may be better and stronger Then,
if he had been taken i'll, surely they
would let her know-they would tele-
graph her.
Finding it difficult to see, she showed
the machine nearer to the light Tie
tucks ran crooked. The thread broke,
An-awful suspicion clutehed her brain,
The bobbip was outl She heinvestigated.
Yes. that was the case. 1t was the ea-
tastrophe which invariably came when
she was 50 tired that she wished she
was dead and bGried and done with it
all. With a groan she began to wind
It. The thread stubbornly refused to