Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press., 1927-03-17
Had Nothing to
Wear
Ry CYNTHIA BLAIR

And we certainly can't afford to buy
AS many new clothes as Ed need TO
visit Caroline. l guess I'll just have
to stay home"
Not unless you ought to" an
swered her mother pluckily. "4ou
know as we'll as | do that things turn |
cut the way they ought to, If you
just do your part. 1t seems sometimes
as if, if you give the world all you
can, the world gives you what you
need"
Phyllis gave music lessons, and she
felt that, If she could just go to New
York for month, and hear lot OF
music there, and perhaps talk win
some big teacher about what lay near
est her heart-teaching music i'll set
tlement somewhere-she'd be a new
person,
She gave three lessons that after
noon. 1t was while she was teachin
Mily Stewart the chromatic scale that
Mrs Stewart strOlled into the room
anu dismissed her young daughter.
"Her hours about up, she told Phyi-
lis, "and haven't seen you for so long
that / do want to have talk with
you"
I'm not good person to talk with
today" Phyllis told her. Il want aw-
fully to 60 to New York, and 1t will
take all my money for railroad fare.
haven't any clothes"
"Why-why, wonder-Phyllis, do
YOU remember that blue suit that my
sister sent me from Paris a rev
months ago? Pm toe stout for it now,
and it's too far ahead of the styles for
me, anyway. You come upstairs now
and let's look at it; with just little
altering I'm sure it will suit you"
Phyllis fairly danced as she started
for home She was eager to tell her
mother the news, but stopped on the
way to see Mrs. Galoogaly, their
cleaning woman, who had been laid
up with sciatica for week.
She got the old womans dinner for
her, and sat down to chat for mo-
ment In the course of that chat she
/ told her news.
"Wantin' to go to New York? And
no clothes? Well, now, listen. Last
month when worked for Miss Arnold
she gave me what she called robes-
all embroidered silk, from Japan
she'd spilled coffee down one side OF
it. and she said she hated 1t anyway
because it's the wrong color fer her
now, If you could make 1t over SO
|
Phyllis ran gaily home with her two
parcels. jubilant. A suit and party
dress-what next?
~rhis ia the night for your reading
club" her mother reminded her at
dinner. "Teo bad for you to go. when
it's raining so hard. too"
"Oh, I'll have to go; they'd miss
me so if l didn't" Phyllis answered,
and got up to get her raincOat and
rubbers.
The reading club had been organ
lied by some of the towns young girls
six months before, and met at the
Old Ladies' home once a week to read
to group of the old ladies who
couldn't very well read for them
selves. Phyllis always played the pi'
ano a bit for them, too. The other
girls had all dropped out with the
coming of summer. but Phyllis, real
izing what a disappointment 1t would
be to the club, had kept on going,
though it meant giving up one eve
ming week.
That night, when the reading was
over, she told them Of the good for
tune that had come to her that day.
"Why, Phyllis, 1 should think-wont
you" But the old lady who had
| spoken broke off right then. How
ever, when Phyllis had gone pattering
home through the rain half an hour
later, she got the other women of
the group to come to her room.
The result was a telephone call for
Phyllis the next morning. Would she
come to the Old Ladies' home at once,
please?
She went, wondering what In the
world they wanted of her there. She
found out, when she was shown a pile
of gaily-wrapped packages that lay
on the table in the room where the
Reading club met.
"Phyllis, if you don't mind-you've
been so lovely to us, and we do want
to give you what we can," one of them
told her. "Please accept these with
our love"
'These," were such clothes as Phyl-
lis had never seen before, brought out
from old trunks and chests. Such
silks as are no longer made, embroid
cred muslins, beautiful embroidered
shawl, an old frock trimmed with fur,
and another cloth frOck, which could
be remade and trimmed with that same
fur. Clothes enough, after Phyllis and
her mother had cleverly remade them,
to take her to New York;
"You see, dear, l told you that If
you give the world all you can 1t will
give you what you need" her mother
told her that afternoon, as they sat
on the side porch busily ripping and
planning.
Phyllis laughed happily. Two weeks
later she went to New York. And a
month after that her mother received
q long letter.
"What do you think?" she wrote.
"Caroline's brother. Tom, has asked
me to marry him And | care so
much for him that-well, Pm going
to do It, And what do you think he
told me? That the first thing he no.
ticed about me was my lovely
clothes :"