“I like to do lady things,” said Mary
Jane the next morning. “Isn’t there
something we can do to-day?”
“Something that’s a ‘lady’
thing?” asked Mrs. Merrill.
“Yes, a really truly lady thing,” explained
Mary Jane; “something that I don’t know
how to do ’cause I like to learn things.”
“Yes, there are lots of things we might do,
but I haven’t much time I fear,” replied
her mother, “because I promised Alice I would
finish her dress.”
“Then you’ll have to sew,” said
Mary Jane and though she tried not to mind, she couldn’t
help being disappointed.
“Yes,” agreed Mrs. Merrill, “I’ll
have to sew. But I’ll tell you, Mary Jane,
what you might do” (and Mary Jane’s disappointment
vanished as soon as she saw her mother had a plan)
“you might sew too.”
“Oh, goody, goody, goody!” exclaimed Mary
Jane and she clapped her hands gayly, “and that’s
a grown-up lady thing for true!”
“I should say it was,” said Mrs. Merrill.
“Shall I make me a dress?” asked Mary
Jane.
“Well, not just the first thing,” laughed
Mrs. Merrill; “folks don’t learn to sew
on dresses—not even big ladies do that.
Now what had you better begin on?” And she thought
a minute while Mary Jane watched her anxiously.
“Oh, I know! You can make a picture card.”
“Sew a card?” asked Mary Jane doubtfully.
“Yes, it’s lots of fun,” said her
mother.
“But Alice don’t do that,” objected
Mary Jane, “she sews goods.”
“I know she does now,” replied Mrs. Merrill,
“but she used to sew cards and she loved doing
it too. Only that was so long ago you know nothing
about it. I remember that just the other day
I saw some pretty picture sewing cards at the store;
I’ll go right to the phone and order some for
you.” And she hurried off to get the order
in before the first delivery started.
As she came back into the room Mary Jane asked, “Do
I have to wait all the time till the picture card
comes before I begin my lady work?”
“It won’t be long till that gets here,”
said Mrs. Merrill; “maybe it will be here before
we are ready because we haven’t done our breakfast
dishes yet—that’s a joke on us, isn’t
it?”
Mary Jane agreed that it was and in gay spirits they
set to work.
Some folks might have said that a little girl Mary
Jane’s age was far too young to dry dishes—that
she might break them. But Mary Jane’s mother
was not one of those “some folks.”
She believed that little girls not only could help
well, but that they liked helping. So Mary Jane
had learned to dry dishes some time ago and could
polish the silver and shine the glasses just as well
as any one. Of course it might take a little longer
than when mother or ’Manda or Alice did it,
but who cares about time when a job is well done?
And there was one thing about working with her mother
that Mary Jane especially liked; while they worked,
they always talked—such fine talks, Mary
Jane thought, about everything that Mary Jane liked
to talk about.
