MAGIC AND MYSTERY
[Illustration: “Can I talk?”]
“I’M Cross Patch, Cross Patch!
Nobody dares to lift the latch!
I’m Cross Patch, Cross Patch!
Click―ety―clatch!
Cross Patch!”
Mary Frances heard this outside the sewing room door.
“My,” she thought, “that sounds like the scissors―I really believe
it is!” She peeped in, and this is what she saw:
Scissors Shears was strutting on tip-toe up and down the sewing
table, closing up each time to take a step.
“Why,” said Mary Frances, slipping in, “can you talk, too?”
[Illustration: “Can you talk?”]
[Illustration: “I can even cut myself!”]
“Can I talk?” exclaimed Scissors Shears in a growling voice. “Can
I talk? Yes, and walk, too! As if I weren’t years older than that
Sewing Bird― Rip ’er up the back! Rip ’er up the back! That
conceited thing thinks she knows everything,―why I could tell you
all about how to cut out anything. Why, I know all about cutting
things out! I can even cut myself!”
Click―click, came his legs together.
“Well, well,” laughed Mary Frances. “If that is so, perhaps Sewing
Bird will let you explain some things to me.”
“It cuts me to the quick to be cut like this,” he started
again,―then Sewing Bird began to sing,
“If anything you’d like to do,
To prove yourself so very true―
Immediately to work―don’t brag!
Cut out
PATTERN 1.―DOLL’S LAUNDRY BAG
Cut bag twelve inches long, and five inches wide.
“What goods, what goods?” asked Scissors Shears, excitedly.
“Cut it out of that pretty calico on the table,” said Sewing Bird.
[Illustration: That pretty calico on the table]
“Hurrah!” shouted Scissors Shears, and dived into the calico.
[Illustration: “When you want me otherwise”]
“There!” he exclaimed proudly. “Isn’t that perfect?”
“That’s very even,” said Mary Frances gravely, trying to act as
though she were an excellent judge.
“What next?” she asked Sewing Bird.
“When you want me otherwise
Than as a little bird,
Put your hand over your eyes,
And say this secret word:
Magic and Mystery,
Give my wish to me.”
Mary Frances did so; and there was Fairy Lady once again in the
doll’s rocking chair, who smiled and said,
[Illustration: Dived into the calico]
“Whenever you particularly want ‛this me’ to come, all you have to do
is to put your hands over your eyes, and say to yourself quickly,
Magic and Mystery,
Give my wish to me,
and I’ll come at once.”
[Illustration: Magic and Mystery!” exclaimed Mary Frances]
[Illustration: “I’ll come at once”]
“Oh, how lovely!” said Mary Frances.
“And if you want _me_ to turn into anything, you say as fast as you
can,
Nimble, nimble,
Turn my thimble,”
said Thimble, looking up at Mary Frances with a comical smile.
“And if you want _me_ to turn into some one else, snap your fingers
three times and say, faster yet,
Scissors-and-Shears,
Scissors-and-Shears,
Now change your ears,
Now change your ears.”
“I’ll do it now,” laughed Mary Frances, and when she said,
[Illustration:
“Nimble, nimble,
Turn my thimble”]
“Nimble, nimble,
Turn my thimble,”
there sprang up the cutest little soldier, with needles in his hands
for swords.
[Illustration: “At your service!”]
“Salute!” he shouted in a very thin silvery voice, making a military
bow to Fairy Lady.
“At your service!” he said, turning to Mary Frances, who was looking
on with amazement.
“Are you really my own thimble?” she asked, looking at the second
finger of her right hand.
“It’s me―I, I mean―I’m he―it, I mean―well, anyhow, I’m Thimble,
your Seamstress-ship,” he answered, making another bow.
“Well, well,” said Mary Frances delightedly, “if you are, you can
obey my orders.
“Stand there!” pointing to the left side of Fairy Lady. Then,
“Scissors-and-Shears,
Now change your ears,”
she repeated.
[Illustration:
“Scissors and Shears,
Now change your ears”]
[Illustration: There were two long ears]
Click! came the feet of the shears, and before Mary Frances saw
how it happened, there were two long ears on the handles, looking
comically like a rabbit’s.
“What long ears you have!” laughed the little girl.
“The better to hear your directions, your Seamstress-ship,” replied
Scissors in a rather sharp voice, clicking his way to the other side
of the rocking chair.
Then Fairy Lady said:
“Dear little Lady Seamstress, we are all from Thimble Land―we are
the Thimble People; there are many more of us, oh, many more. It is
our joy to be able to help you learn to sew. Thimble and Scissors
Shears and the other Thimble People will come help us when anything
becomes very puzzling or difficult; but all through these lessons you
may call upon _me_ at any time; and I shall do my best to give you
happy sewing lessons.”
“Oh, thank you, dear Fairy Lady,” exclaimed Mary Frances. “I am
living in Fairyland, and it is real!”
[Illustration: “The way to find Fairyland real.”]
“The way to find Fairyland real,” smiled Fairy Lady, “is to do your
very best from day to day, and to do it happily. The fairies always
help the people who try to do this.”
[Illustration: “What twoddle-doddle!”]
“Oh, pshaw!” exclaimed Scissors Shears in a cutting tone, “what
twoddle-doddle! Even if I don’t make fine speeches, I know all about
cutting.”
“Cut it out!” exclaimed Thimble, raising his sword-needle.
“Slang,” began Scissors Shears, crossly flapping his ears back; but
Fairy Lady leaned forward in her chair, and, reaching out with her
bodkin wand, touched him on the ear, and down he fell flat at her
feet.
Pushing him aside, she said, “I can control him when I have my wand.
If he’s ever rude, and you want me, say the magic verse I taught you.”
“Oh, thank you,” said Mary Frances, smiling to herself.
“I guess if I pulled his ears real hard, he’d be good anyhow,”
she thought, “but I’ll not let Sewing Bird know. All rabbits are
controlled by their ears, and I’m sure he looks more like a rabbit
than any other animal I can think of.”
“Well,” smiled Fairy Lady, “we have the dolly’s laundry bag all cut
out: now, to learn,
[Illustration: “Cut it out!”]
17.―HEMMING ON MUSLIN
1. First learn to turn a hem on paper.
2. Cut the paper seven inches long and three and one-half inches
wide.
3. Draw a line one-quarter of an inch from lower edge of paper
and turn up and crease along this line.
4. One inch above that, draw a line. Turn up and crease along
that line.
5. Follow same directions on muslin. Baste and hem.
[Illustration: “I understand now!”]
“Good!” she nodded, as Mary Frances held up the folded paper. “You
remember the hemming stitch on canvas. This is the same kind of
stitch; only, as you have already observed, no doubt, it is a very
zig-zag stitch, and is taken from the single through the folded part
of the goods.
“Wait a minute, I’ll mark it to show you,” and taking the pencil, she
marked the paper as shown on this page.
“Now try it on muslin.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Mary Frances. “I understand now!”
[Illustration: First learn to turn a hem on paper]
[Illustration: Now, turn the hem on each end as I have already shown
you.”]
“Only one thing more,” said Fairy Lady, “the way to hide the starting
of the thread. You put the needle in between the fold and the cloth,
and tuck it down. Then put it in, or ‘insert’ it, at 1, and push
it out at 2, and pull it through. Can you do it on the ends of the
laundry bag?”
“Yes, I think I can,” said Mary Frances.
“One minute,” said Fairy Lady, as Mary Frances started.
“First, you must turn in the edges. Here is a piece of paper the size
of the laundry bag.
“On the longer edge, turn up and crease a quarter of an inch fold as
you did in preparing the paper hem. Now, turn the hem on each end as
I have already shown you.
“That’s it!―and that’s all for to-day’s lesson. It was a tech-ni-cal
lesson,” she said.
[Illustration: Now, turn the hem on each end as I have already shown
you.”]
[Illustration: CHAPTER X]