FOR A TRAVELLER'S KIT
ONCE the Club was started on its work it seemed as if the days were far
too short for them to accomplish half of what they wanted to do. Mrs.
Morton insisted that her children should have at least two hours out of
doors every day, and that cut down the afternoons into an absurdly brief
working time. Mrs. Smith had electric lights installed in her attic and
it became the habit of the Mortons and often of the Hancocks to meet
there and cut and sew and jig-saw and paste for an hour or two every
evening. The Watkinses were active in New York evidently, for Della sent
frequent postcards asking for directions on one point or another and Tom
exchanged jig-saw news with Roger almost daily.
Meanwhile the war was in every one's mind. The whole country realized
the desirability of trying to obey President Wilson's request for
neutrality in word, thought, and deed. The subject was forbidden at
school where the teachers never referred to the colossal struggle that
was rending Europe and the children of varied ancestries played together
harmoniously in the school yard. If at the high school Fraulein and
Mademoiselle were looked at with a new interest by their scholars no
word suggestive of a possible lack of harmony was uttered to them, and
their friendship for each other seemed to increase with every day's
prolongation of the war.
In the Morton family war discussion was not forbidden and the events of
the last twenty-four hours as the newspapers reported them were talked
over at dinner every evening. Mrs. Morton thought that the children
should not be ignorant of the most upheaving event that had stirred the
world in centuries, but she did not permit any violent expressions of
partisanship.
"You children are especially bound to be neutral," she insisted,
"because your father and Ethel Blue's father are in the service of our
country, and a neutrality as complete as possible is more desirable from
them and their families than from civilians."
A new idea was blossoming in the young people's minds, however. They had
grown up with the belief that armament was necessary to preserve peace.
Great men and good had said so. "If we are prepared for war," they
declared, "other nations will be afraid to fight us." Captain and
Lieutenant Morton had agreed with them, as was natural for men of their
profession. They did not believe in aggression but in being ready for
defense should they be attacked.
Now it seemed to Roger and Helen as they read of the sufferings of
invaded France and the distress of trampled Belgium that no country had
the right to benefit by results obtained through such cruel means.
"Just suppose a shell should drop down here just as we were walking
along," imagined Roger as he and Helen were on their way to school.
"Suppose Patrick Shea's cornfield there was marched over before the corn
was harvested and all these houses and churches and schools were blown
up or burned down and all the people of this town were lying around in
the streets dead or wounded!"
"When you bring it home to Rosemont it doesn't sound the way it does
when you read in the histories about a 'movement' here and a 'turning of
the right flank' there, and 'the end of the line crumpling up.' When the
line crumples up it means fathers and brothers are killed and women and
children starve--"
"Think what it would be to have nothing to eat and to have to grub
around in the fields and devour roots like the peasants in the famine
time in Louis XIV's reign."
"And think about the destruction of all the little homes that have been
built up with so much care and happiness. Mary told me her sister bought
a chair one month and a table at another time when she and her husband
came across bargains," said practical Ethel Brown who had caught up with
them. "They've furnished their whole house the way we children have
added to our kitchen tins and plates; and then everything would be
broken to smash by just one of those shells."
"The people who've been spreading the gospel of peace for years and
years needn't be discouraged now, it seems to me," observed Roger
thoughtfully, "even if it does look as if all their talk had been for
nothing. These horrors make a bigger appeal than any amount of talk."
"Grandfather Emerson says that perhaps universal peace is going to be
the result of the war. It seems far off enough now."
"It will be dearly bought peace."
"Hush, there goes Mademoiselle. I wonder when she's going to sail."
"Why don't you ask her to-day? The Club must give her some kind of
send-off, you know."
"I wonder if she'd mind if we went to New York to see her start?"
"It won't be hard to find out. We can tell her that we won't be offended
if she says 'No.'"
"If she's willing we might take that opportunity to go over the ship.
I've always wanted to go over an ocean steamer."
"Perhaps they won't let anybody do it now on account of the war. It will
be great if we can, though."
The Service Club learned more geography in the course of its studies of
the war news than its members ever had learned before voluntarily. The
approach of the German army upon Paris was watched every day and its
advance was marked upon a large map that Roger had installed in the
sitting-room. When the Germans withdrew the change of their line and its
daily relation to the battle front of the Allies was noted by the
watchful pencil of one or another of the newspaper readers.
Thanks to the simplicity of the pattern which the Club had adopted for
its own they were enabled to make a large number of gay garments in a
wonderfully short time. From several further donations of material they
made wrappers for children of fourteen, twelve, ten, down to the babies,
adding to each a belt of the same color as the band so that the garments
might serve as dresses at a pinch. They found that with the smaller
sizes they could cut off a narrow band from the width of the cloth at
each side, and that served as trimming for another garment of
contrasting color.
When they had constructed a goodly pile of long wrappers they fell upon
the short sacques, and before many days passed a mound of pink-banded
blue and blue-banded pink, and red-banded white and white-banded red
rose beside their machines. Della wrote that she was using her mother's
machine and was learning how better and better every day. Thanks to
their lessons at Chautauqua Margaret and Helen sewed well on the machine
already. Ethel Brown and Ethel Blue and Dorothy basted on the bands and
the belts and added the fastenings. It was their fingers, too, that
feather-stitched and cat-stitched the petticoats that came into being
with another donation of flannelette. Dorothy was glad when any new
material was cotton as every yard that they used helped the South to rid
itself of its unsold crop.
"Ladies are going to wear cotton dresses all winter, they say," she told
the Club at one of its meetings. "Mother is going to let me have all my
new dresses made of cotton stuff and she's going to have some herself."
"We wear cotton middies all winter," protested the Ethels who felt as if
Dorothy felt that they were not doing their share to help on the cause
she was interested in.
"When Aunt Marion gets your new dancing school dresses couldn't you ask
her to get cotton ones?"
"I suppose we could. Do you think they'd be pretty enough?"
"Some cotton dresses that are going to be worn on the opening night of
the opera at the Metropolitan are to be on exhibition in New York in a
week or two."
"If cotton is good enough for that purpose I guess it's good enough for
your dancing class," laughed Helen.
"Mother says they make perfectly beautiful cottons now of exquisite
colors and lovely designs. Don't you think it would be great if we set
the fashion of the dancing class?"
"Let's do it. Mother says silk isn't appropriate for girls of our age,
anyway."
"If you can be dressed appropriately and beautifully at the same time I
don't see that you have anything to complain of," smiled Helen.
With the short time that the girls had at their command every day it did
not seem as if they would be able to do much with the garments that came
in to be made over. There were not many of these because the boys had
been instructed after the first day to ask that alterations and mending
be done at home, but there were a few dresses like Mrs. Lancaster's that
were on their hands. Mrs. Smith came to their help when this work bade
fair to be too much for them.
"I'll ask Aunt Marion and Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Hancock and Mrs. Watkins
to lunch with me some day," she promised Dorothy, "and after luncheon
we'll have an old-fashioned bee and rip up these dresses and then we can
see what material they give us and we can plan what to do with them."
The scheme worked out to a charm. The elders enjoyed themselves mightily
and the resulting pile of materials, smoothly ironed and carefully
sorted gave Margaret and Helen a chance to exercise their ingenuity.
Mrs. Watkins took back to town with her enough stuff for two, promising
to help Della with them, and the suburban girls, with the assistance of
the grown-ups, made six charming frocks that looked as good as new.
It was early in October that Helen rushed home from school one day with
the news that Mademoiselle was going to sail at the end of the week.
"We must begin to-day to make up a good-bye parcel for her," she cried.
"Red Cross nurses are allowed a very small kit," warned Mrs. Morton.
"We can try to make things so tiny that she won't have to leave them
behind her when she goes on duty, but even if she does she can give them
to somebody who can make them useful."
"I'll make steamer slippers to begin with," said Ethel Brown.
"How?" asked Ethel Blue.
[Illustration: Top of Slipper
Sew a and b together]
"You get a pair of fleecy inner soles--they have them at all the shoe
stores--and then you cut a top piece of bright colored chintz just the
shape of the top part of a slipper and you sew it together at the back
and bind the edges all around."
"How do you put the top and the sole together?"
"The edge of the sole is soft enough to sew through. You turn the top
inside out over the sole and sew the binding of the chintz on to the
edge of the sole over and over and when you turn it right side out there
you are with gay shoes."
"They'll fill up a bag, though," commented Ethel Blue. "I should think
you might make a pair just like that only make the sole of something
that would double up. Then they'd go into a case and be more compact."
"That's a good idea, too," agreed Ethel Brown. "What could you use for a
sole?"
"Soft leather would be best. I imagine you could get a piece from the
cobbler down town. Or you could get the very thin leather that they used
at Chautauqua for cardcases and pocket books--the kind Roger uses--and
stitch two pieces together."
"Why wouldn't a heavy duck sole do?" suggested Mrs. Emerson.
"If you stepped on a pin it wouldn't keep it out as well as leather,"
objected her daughter.
"I believe I'll try a pair with a flowery chintz top and a duck sole
covered with chintz like a lining to the shoe," said Ethel Blue slowly
as she thought it out. "Then I'll make the case of two pieces of chintz
bound together."
"One piece ought to be longer than the other so that it would be a flap
to come over like an envelope."
This was Ethel Brown's contribution to the slipper building.
"You could fasten it with a glove snapper. I got some the other day for
my leather work," said Roger. "I'll put them on for you."
"Why don't you Ethels make both kinds?" suggested Dorothy. "She'll find
a use for them."
"If you girls will make it I'll contribute the silk for a bath wrap that
she can throw over her warm one, just for looks, on the boat," said Mrs.
Emerson. "I have one I use on sleeping cars and it rolls up into the
smallest space you can imagine."
[Illustration: Slipper Case
Place section a on section b and sew edges together, leaving
c d open
e = Snap fastening]
"Good for Grandmother!" cried a chorus of voices.
"Can we use our famous wrapper pattern?" asked Helen.
"I don't see why not. Mine has a hood but that isn't a difficult
addition if you merely shape the neck of your kimono a little and then
cut a square of the material, sew it across one end and round the lower
end a trifle to fit into the neck hole you've made."
"How about longer sleeves, Mother?" asked Mrs. Morton.
"I think I would make them longer. And I'd also make an envelope bag of
the same silk to carry it in on the return trip from the bath. You'll be
surprised to find into how small an envelope it will go."
"Put a cord from one corner of the envelope to the other so that
Mademoiselle may have her hands free for her soap and towel and other
needfuls," advised Mrs. Smith, who had been listening to the
suggestions.
"Wouldn't another envelope arrangement of chintz lined with rubber cloth
make a good washrag bag or sponge bag?" asked Ethel Brown.
"Nothing better unless you put a rubber-lined pocket in a Pullman
apron."
This hint from Grandmother Emerson aroused the curiosity of the young
people.
"What is a Pullman apron? Tell us about it," they cried.
"Mine is made of linen crash," said Mrs. Emerson. "Dorothy will insist
on your making yours of cotton chintz and it will be just as good and
even prettier. Get a yard. Cut off a piece thirty inches long and make
it fourteen wide. Bind the lower edge with tape. Turn up six inches
across the bottom and stitch the one big pocket it makes into smaller
ones of different sizes by rows of up and down stitching. Make a bag of
rubber cloth just the right size to fit one of the larger pockets. Take
the six inches that you cut off from your yard of material and bind it
on both edges with tape. Stitch that across your apron about four inches
above the top of the lower row of pockets. Divide the strip into as
many pockets as you want to for hairpins and pins and neck arrangements,
and so on."
"Your apron has two raw edges now," said Helen.
"Bind it on each side with tape. That will finish it and it will also
fasten the edges of the pockets securely to the apron. Sew across the
top a tape long enough to serve as strings."
[Illustration: Pullman Apron
d b plus the turned up portion, b a, = 30 inches
b a = 6 inches
b b = 14 inches
c c c = pockets
d d = strings]
"The idea is to roll all your toilet belongings up together in your bag,
eh?"
"Yes, and when you go to the ladies' room on the train you tie the apron
around your waist and then you have your brush and comb and hairpins and
tooth brush and washrag all where you can lay your fingers on them in a
second of time."
"I got my best tortoise-shell hairpin mixed up with another woman's
once, and I never recovered it," said Mrs. Morton meditatively.
"It wouldn't have happened if you'd been supplied with a bag like this,"
said her mother.
"Mademoiselle's silk wrap must be grey to match her other Red Cross
equipment," said Mrs. Emerson, "but I don't see why the chintz things
shouldn't be as gay as you like."
"Pink roses would be most becoming to her style of beauty," murmured
Roger who had come in.
"I don't know but pink roses would be becoming enough for slippers,"
agreed Ethel Blue so seriously that every one laughed.
"Let's get pink flowered chintz," said Ethel Brown. "You make the soft
kind and I'll make the stiff kind and Dorothy'll make the apron and
Helen will make the kimono. Who's got any more ideas?"
"I have," contributed Roger. "I'll make a case for her manicure set. I
haven't got time this week unfortunately to tool the leather but I'll
make a plain one that will be useful if it isn't as pretty as I can do."
"What shape will it be?"
"I got part of my idea from Grandfather Emerson's spectacle case that I
was examining the other day. Ethel Blue's case for the soft slippers is
going to be something like it."
"Two pieces of leather rounded at the lower corners and stitched
together at the sides and with a flap to shut in the contents?" guessed
Dorothy.
"Correct. I shall make the case about four inches long when it's
closed."
"That means that you'd have one strip four inches long and the other,
the one with the flap, six inches long."
"Once more correct, most noble child. It will be a liberal two inches
wide, a bit more in this instance because I'm not much of a sewer and I
want to be sure that I'm far enough from the edge to make it secure."
"You don't try to turn it inside out, do you?"
"No, ma'am. Not that mite of an object. You fit a tiny pasteboard slide
into the case. Cover it with velvet or leather or a scrap of Ethel
Blue's chintz--"
"'Rah for cotton," cheered Dorothy.
"--and on one side of this division you slip in the scissors and the
file and the tweezers or the orange stick and on the other a little
buffer with a strap handle that doesn't take up any room."
"How in the world do you happen to be so up in manicure articles?"
queried Helen, amazed at his knowledge.
"Nothing strange about that," returned Roger. "Aunt Louise showed me
hers the other day when I was talking to her about making one for just
this occasion. Aha!"
"You could make the same sort of case without the pasteboard partition,
for a tiny sewing kit," offered Ethel Blue, "and one of the envelope
shape will hold soap leaves."
"I'd like to suggest a couple of shirtwaist cases," said Mrs. Smith.
"They are made of dotted Swiss muslin that takes up next to no room and
washes like a handkerchief. You'd better make Mademoiselle's of colored
muslin or of colored batiste for she won't want to be bothered with
thinking about laundry any oftener than she has to."
"What shape are the bags?"
"Find out whether she will take an American suitcase or a bag. In either
case measure the size of the bottom. Take a piece of muslin twice the
size and lay it flat. Fold over the edges till they meet in the centre.
Then stitch the tops across, on the inside, of course, and hem the slit,
and turn them right side out and that's all there is to it. They keep
waists or neckwear apart from the other clothing in one's bag and
fresher for the separation."
[Illustration: Shirtwaist Case]
"Since I have my hand in with knitting," said Grandmother, "I believe
I'll contribute a pair of bed-shoes. They're so simple that any one who
can knit a plain strip can do them."
"Let's have the receipt."
"Cast on stitches enough to run the length of the person's foot. Fifty
will be plenty for any woman and more than enough for Mademoiselle's
tiny foot. It's well to have the shoe large, though. Knit ahead until
you have a strip six inches high. Then cast off from one end stitches
enough to make four inches and go ahead with the remainder for four
inches more."
"That sounds funny to me," observed Ethel Brown. "Not exactly the shape
of my dainty pedestal."
"You'll have made a square with a square out of one corner like this
piece of paper. Now fold it along the diagonal line from the tip of the
small square to the farthest edge of the big square and sew up all the
edges except those of the small square. That leaves a hole where you put
your foot in. Crochet an edge there to run a ribbon in--and you're
done."
"I'm going to run the risk of Mademoiselle's laughing at me and give her
a folding umbrella," said Mrs. Morton. "It will fit into her bag and at
least she can use it until she goes to the front."
"All this sounds to me like a good outfit for any woman who is going to
travel," observed Helen. "I'm almost moved to sail myself!"