Part 3 (1/2)

Peggy's mother went to the back of the store, where there was a man behind the counter who seemed more alive than the girls. Peggy followed her mother, but Alice's attention had been caught by some doll carriages.

”I want you to show me something strong and serviceable for frocks for my little girl, who is very hard on her clothes,” said Mrs. Owen.

Peggy hung her head. She wished her mother had not said that. The man did not look as if he ever could have been hard on his clothes, even when he was a small boy.

”This plaid is a great favorite,” he said.

Mrs. Owen asked the price, and it was too high. ”Why, it is double what it was before the war,” she said.

Everything was either too expensive or too frail. Mrs. Owen bought some white materials for best dresses for Peggy, but there seemed to be nothing in the shop that would do for common.

”I am afraid I shall have to wait until later in the season,” said Mrs.

Owen. ”I suppose you'll have new things in?”

”The new goods will be more expensive still.”

Mrs. Owen sighed. There were drawbacks about having so little money. She had turned to leave the store when the man called after her:

”Mrs. Owen, I have something on the top shelf I think may suit you. It's strong as nails, and it's cheap. It's almost as strong as the stuff butcher's frocks are made of.”

Peggy gave a little cry of pleasure when she saw it, for it was such a delicious color. It made her think of the sky when it was a deep blue.

Mrs. Owen was attracted to it because it was dark enough not to soil easily. But Peggy did not think of this; she just thought what a pleasure it would be to be dressed in something so pretty. It was so cheap that Mrs. Owen could hardly believe her ears when the man told her the price.

”We got in a lot of the material before the prices went up,” said he.

”It is entirely out of fas.h.i.+on now. n.o.body wants it.”

Peggy and her mother cared nothing about the fas.h.i.+on; and indeed they seemed to set the fas.h.i.+on, whatever they wore.

”How many yards are there in the piece?” Mrs. Owen asked. He told her and she made a rapid calculation. ”I'll take it all,” she 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 st.i.tches 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.