THE KNITTING-WORK PARTY.
Flaxie recovered from this accident a great deal sooner than Grandpa
Pressy did. Somehow, the shock of seeing his "little boy" lying so
white and cold made grandpa ill. He was so ill, in fact, that Dr. Gray
sent for grandma.
It was very pleasant having grandma in the house; and her dear old
husband began to feel better the moment he saw her.
"Dear little Mary, how do you do?" said she to Flaxie, who was lying on
the bed. Flaxie made no answer, except to put out her tongue.
"Can't you speak to grandma?" said Ninny.
"No: I'm a doctor's chillen, and doctor's chillen _always_ puts out
their tongues," replied Flaxie, showing it again.
"It doesn't look very sick," said grandma, laughing.
"Then what makes my mamma keep me in bed?" whined Flaxie. "I don't want
to be in my nightie. I want to be in my pretty dress, and sit in your
lap."
"She is very, very cross," said Ninny to grandma, with a patient smile,
as they left the room.
"Perhaps we can amuse her," replied grandma; and next morning she gave
her some bright worsted to make her doll, Miss Peppermint Drop, a scarf.
Flaxie was well pleased, for awhile, tying the worsted into knots and
putting it over the needles; but it soon tired her.
"O gramma, the needles won't knit: they're _crooksey_ needles," said
she.
"Well, come sit in my lap, dear, and I'll tell you a story about a
knitting-work party, that I had a great, great while ago, when I was
about as old as Julia."
"That's a funny party, _I_ should fink," said Flaxie, curling her head
down on her grandma's shoulder.
"A knitting-work party, did you say?" asked Ninny, preparing to listen.
"Well, yes. You know girls in those times didn't have so many parties
as they do now," replied grandma; "and I had been wanting this one for
weeks and weeks before I even dared ask my mother about it. When I did
ask her, she said,--
"'Why, Polly, don't you see how much spring-work I have to do? How can
I stop to cook a supper for a dozen little girls?'
"'O, but I'll cook it myself,' said I. 'I can make gingerbread and
cup-custards.'
"'And what will you do for bread?' said she.
"I didn't think there would be any trouble about that. 'There was
_always_ bread enough,' I said. 'Little girls didn't eat much, and
twelve wouldn't make the _least_ difference!'
"Well, but mother wanted to know what I could give them for sauce. The
dried apples were all gone, and she couldn't let me have any preserves;
she was keeping those for sickness.
"I said I would give them some molasses. I liked molasses, and thought
everybody else did.
"Mother smiled.
"'But if I let you have a party,' said she, 'you can't do your
knitting. You know I'm in a hurry for you to finish father's socks.'
"That was what made me think of turning it into a knitting-work party.
I spoke up in a moment, and said I,--
"'O mother! if you'll only let me have it, I'll ask all the girls to
bring their knitting-work, and then we'll measure yarns! O, won't that
be grand? And, when we get our stints done, we'll go out and play in
the barn. We won't trouble you one speck.'
"'Well, Polly,' said mother, 'I've a great mind to say yes; for that
sounds to me like a very sensible kind of a party; and will be setting
a good example too. Yes, you may have it, if your sisters are willing
to show you how to cook, and you won't make _me_ any trouble.'
"You may depend I was pleased. I skipped off to the kitchen in great
glee, and danced about the kneading-trough, where sister Judith was
mixing brown-bread, crying out,--
"'I'm going to have a _knitting-work party_, Judy, and cook it myself!
Give me a pan and a spoon!'
"My eldest sister, Sally, was pounding spices in a mortar; and I
remember Judith turned to her, and said,--
"'Now, Sally, you _don't_ suppose mother is going to let that child
bother round?'
"'O, _I_ shan't bother,' said I. 'I'm only going to make gingerbread
and cup-custards. 'Twill be very easy!'
"Sally laughed,--she was very good-natured,--and told me to run out
to the barn for some eggs. While I was gone, I suppose she and Judith
talked the matter over, and thought they would keep me out of the
kitchen; for, as soon as I came back, they sent me off to give my
invitations.
"'We'll do the cooking,' said Sally; 'but you may set the table
yourself, and wait upon your little girls. We will not see them at all.'
"I ran off, happy enough; and I have thought a great many times since,
how kind it was in Sally and Judith to leave their work to do that
baking for me. They were good sisters, certainly.
"I had a grand time that morning, going from house to house, asking
my friends to my knitting-work party. Everybody was delighted; and
everybody came, of course, and got there by two o'clock, or earlier.
"Mother left her quilting long enough to put marks with red worsted
into each little girl's knitting-work.
"'There,' said she, 'at four o'clock I will come to see which has
beat. I must be the one to judge; for there is a difference in your
yarn,--some is coarse and some is fine; and we must be fair about it.'
"'O, yes'm,' said the girls; 'we want to be fair.'
"'Well, now I'll leave you,' said mother; 'and I hope you'll have a
nice time.'
"And we did, for awhile. As we sat busy with our knitting, we heard
now and then the tender bleating of a lamb in the barn,--how well I
remember that!
"'That's my cosset,' said I. 'She hasn't any mother, you know. I'll
show her to you, girls, when we get our knitting done.'
"Persis Russell 'didn't see the use of waiting,' she said. 'Why
couldn't we run out and look, and right back again?'
"Just then the lamb began to bleat louder, and in a very beseeching
tone, as if he felt lonesome and wanted company. It seemed to touch the
girls' hearts; and they sprang up, and started for the door--all but me.
"'Well, run along if you want to,' said I, 'I'll come in a minute.'
"'But you mustn't stay here and keep on knitting,' said they; 'that
wouldn't be fair.'
"'I don't mean to keep on knitting. I won't knit another stitch; but I
want to sweep up the hearth,' said I.
"As I spoke, I dared not look anybody in the face, for a dreadfully
wicked thought had come into my head.
"If I could only pick out the mark mother had put in my work, and sew
in another lower down! A black satin bag was hanging on a nail by the
window; and in the bottom of the bag was a needlebook with the very
needle and red worsted mother had used to sew in the marks!
"The girls ran out, and I seized that needle--O, how thick and fast my
heart beat! It was as much as I could do to make the stitch, my fingers
trembled so. But I did it. I put in the mark almost an inch below the
right place, and picked out the first mark with a pair of scissors.
Then I swept up the hearth a little bit, and went out to the girls.
"They were so delighted with the lamb that they scarcely looked at me;
if they had, they must have seen something strange in my face.
"'Come, girls,' said I, speaking very fast, 'let's go right back and
knit; and, when it's four o'clock, we'll come back here and play Ring
Round Rosy, and every thing else.'
"They were willing enough to go back; and for half an hour our fingers
flew fast; but I took good care not to let any one see the mark in my
stocking.
"Just as the clock in the kitchen struck four, mother came in with
a pleasant smile for all the little girls; and they brought their
knitting-work along to her with blushing faces, for children in those
days were more bashful than they are now. Mother took the thirteen
pieces of knitting-work, and laid them down together. Little Polly
Lane had knit the least of any one, which was not strange, for she was
the youngest. Nancy Shaw came next; then Ellen Rice and Phebe Snow.
Persis Russell was the oldest, and known to be a very 'smart' girl.
Her stocking was seamed, and she had knit a longer piece than Mary
Jane Cullen;--another 'smart' girl;--but, strange to say, Flaxie, not
a single one had done as well as your little grandmother! Mother was
surprised: she had not supposed I could knit as fast as Persis Russell,
who was twelve years old; but here was my stocking right before her; it
was finer than Persis's, and the mark was half an inch lower down!
"'Well, I didn't expect this,' said mother; 'but I shall have to give
it up that Polly has beat. You may come here and see for yourselves!'
"The girls looked, and some of them could not help feeling
disappointed. I know Mary Jane Cullen had thought if anybody beat her
it would be Persis Russell; and Persis knew her fingers had moved
faster than mine; yet I had got ahead of them both!
"You may be sure I was very modest, and did not put on any airs. I
felt rather sober in spite of my victory. We played noisy games for an
hour, and then I said I must go in and set the table, for this was _my_
party. I didn't say I had done the cooking, but I was quite willing
they should think I had. When supper was ready I called the girls in,
and asked Persis Russell to sit at one end of the table while I sat at
the other and poured the tea. It was currant-leaf tea, and wouldn't
have kept a baby awake. Then Persis passed the bread, and asked if I
made it, and I had to say, 'no.'
"'And you didn't make the gingerbread, either, I suppose,' said she;
and I had to say 'no' again, 'I only stirred it.'
"Persis felt better when she heard that. I wasn't the smartest girl in
the town of Concord after all.
"'Who made the custards?' asked she.
"'Well, Sally made those,' said I; 'but I hunted up the eggs.'
"Then little Polly Lane said she could hunt eggs, if that was all.
"And Patty Stevens said, 'Yes, so could she; and her mother said _she_
might have a knitting-work party if she'd have it just the way Polly
did; and she was going to tell her how Polly didn't have to cook the
things.'
"'I hope Polly won't begin to knit till the rest of us get started,'
said Mary Jane Cullen; 'for I don't think it's fair.'
"O, I tell you, Flaxie, by that time I had begun to feel ashamed of
myself; and, at seven o'clock, when my party was all over, and the
girls had gone home, I felt more ashamed still. I sat down on the
meal-chest in the back room where Sally was churning, and watched the
dash as it moved up and down, and the cream oozed out around the little
hole in the cover. She asked me if I'd had a good time. She said she
thought the girls had all behaved very well.
"'Why, yes, we'd had a _pretty_ good time,' I said, rather faintly; and
I helped myself to the cream till Sally sent me off for fear I'd be
down sick.
"By that time I was feeling very wretched; I did not really know why.
Perhaps it was all knitting-work; and perhaps it was partly cream;--and
I began to think some of it might be molasses. I went to bed, but could
not go to sleep, and fell to crying all by myself in the dark. Mother
heard me, and came in to ask what was the matter.
"'I want to see my little sister Abby,' said I; 'that's what I'm crying
for.'
"'But you never saw your sister Abby,' said mother; 'she died before
you were born.'
"'I know it, mother,' sobbed I. 'I never saw her, and that's why I want
to see her now!'
"'Is that all you're crying about, Polly?' said mother. 'I'm afraid
something happened wrong at your party.'
"'O mamma, I'm ashamed to tell,' said I, covering my head with the
sheet. 'I guess I ate too much molasses--I--I--'
"'Well, daughter, and what else?' said mother.
"'I ate too much cream,--I--I--'
"Mother waited patiently.
"'I picked out the marking you put into my knitting-work, and I sewed
in another lower down,' cried I, desperately. 'O dear, O, dear, I did.
O mother, I knew you'd feel bad! Say, what shall I do?'
"Mother was so surprised and distressed that she did not speak for
nearly a minute, and then she said,--
"'It was a dreadful thing, Polly. Do you think you are truly sorry?'
"'O, yes, I guess you'd think so,' sobbed I, 'if you knew how I feel
right in here. It's a little speck of it molasses and cream, but most
of it's knitting-work; and I want to get right up and dress myself, and
go and tell the girls how I cheated.'
"'Are you willing to tell them?' asked mother.
"'Yes, I want to: 'twill choke me if I don't,' said I. 'Patty Stevens
is going to have a knitting-work party, and I can tell the girls there;
but seems 'sif I can't wait.'
"'If you feel like that,' said mother, 'I believe you are truly sorry.
And now let us tell our Heavenly Father about it, and I know he will
freely forgive you.'
"There," said Grandma Pressy, smoothing down her cap as she finished,
"that's the whole story; but it is a bitter thought to me that I was
ever such a naughty child."
"It's bitter to me, too," said Flaxie, making a wry face. "Won't you
give me an ollinge, now, to take the taste out?"