THE NEW HONE, 36

inaday. To hem around the skirt of a dress
would have seemed to Mary like sailing around
the world, the hemming one side of a pocket
handkerchief in a day having been the greatest
feat she had ever performed with the needle.

“T wish Harriet Freeman were here!” said
Lucy. She paused awhile, expecting to be asked
why she wished it; but as no one thought of this,
she added, ‘‘She is so good—she would help me
directly.”

Mary was too quick of understanding not to
read this hint as it was intended, and she replied,
“Tf I had a thimble I would help you.”

“T can lend you a thimble. Mamma, Cousin
Mary wants to help me; can’t she have my gold
thimble just this afternoon ?’’

“Tf she wishes to help you, certainly. Do you
wish it, my dear?’”? asked Mrs. Lovett, who had
been engaged with the baby, and had not heard
the previous conversation between the cousins.

There was some charm in sewing, for the first
time in her life, with a gold thimble, and Mary
answered ‘‘ Yes, ma’am,”’ more readily than Lucy,
perhaps, expected. The thimble—a birthday pre-

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