Peggy in Her Blue Frock | Page 7

said.
The man could not conceal his surprise. "We only sell seven yards for a
grown person and four would do for her."
"I know, but I am going to make two dresses for myself and she will
need four. It is so much cheaper and stronger than any of the other
wash materials that I shall make all her dresses out of the same piece.
She won't mind having them all alike, will you, Peggy?"
"I'll like it; it's so pretty."

"Oh, please, mother, do make me one," Alice begged.
"I'm afraid you will have to be contented with the ten dresses you
already have," said her mother. "For, as I will have six dresses to make
for Peggy and two for myself, I think that will be all I can manage."
"Perhaps one of my dolls can have a dress out of it," Alice said
hopefully.
"Yes, I'll cut out a dress for Belle, and I can teach you to make that so
you can be sewing on it while I am making Peggy's frocks."
But it was some time before Peggy began to wear them, for it took her
mother a long time to make them. The very next afternoon, after the
dinner dishes were washed, Mrs. Owen got out the blue material and
she cut out a dress for Peggy, and then a small one for Belle. Alice was
learning to hem and she took as careful stitches as a grown-up person.
Peggy was divided between wanting to do what the others were doing
and hating to be tied down. She made frequent trips to the kitchen for a
drink of water and to see how Lady Jane was getting on.
"You can overcast these sleeves, Peggy," her mother said later in the
afternoon. "That is much easier than hemming."
"It's better than hemming," Peggy said, "because you can take such
long spidery stitches. But I just hate sewing. I'm never going to sew
when I grow up."
"But that is just the time you'll have to sew," said Alice.
"No, I'm going to be a writing lady."
"But they have to wear just as many frocks as other people," said Alice.
"I'll have them made for me. I'll get such a lot of money by my
writings."
"You may be married and have to make clothes for your children," said
her mother.

"I'll just have boys," said Peggy. "That would be much the best. Then I
could climb trees with them and climb over the roofs of houses, and
nobody could say, 'Peggy, you'll break your neck,' because I'd be their
mother, so everything I did would be all right."
"Oh, Peggy, you haven't been putting your mind on your work," said
her mother. "Pull out those last few stitches and do them over again,
and think what you are doing and not how you will climb trees with
your sons."
"I'll have all girls," said Alice. "Some will be dressed in pink and some
in blue."
"And some in red and some in yellow, and some in purple and some in
green," added Peggy, "and you'll be called the rainbow family. There,
mother, is that any better?"
"A little better, but you don't seem to make any two stitches quite the
same length."
Peggy suddenly flung down her work. "There's somebody at the back
door," she said.
"It's the grocer's boy. You can go and get the things, only be sure not to
let the cat out."
Peggy never quite knew how it happened. She did not mean to disobey
her mother, but the afternoon was very pleasant and the kitchen was hot.
It seemed cruel to keep a cat in the house. She held the door open and,
while she was debating whether it would not be possible for her and the
cat to take a walk together, Lady Jane slipped out. Something gray and
fluffy seemed to fly along the grass and disappear under the fence. She
had gone without waiting for their pleasant walk together. Instead they
would have a mad race. Peggy liked the idea of a chase. It was much
more exciting than overcasting seams.
Peggy and the pussy-cat had a wild race, and more than one person
looked back to see why Peggy Owen, with flying yellow hair, was

running at such speed cross-lots, through back yards, and climbing over
fences. Suddenly Peggy was caught, as she was scrambling over a
fence, by a piece of barbed wire. Her one remaining winter school
frock was torn past mending. "Oh, dear, what will mother say?" said
Peggy.
The skirt was almost torn from the waist, and Peggy felt like a
beggar-maid as she crept home. "Only, everybody will know I am not a
beggar-maid," thought Peggy. "They'll all say, 'What mischief has