Ruby at School

by Mrs. George A. Paull

  CHAPTER VII.

  MORE PREPARATIONS.

  Thee was nothing that vain little Ruby enjoyed more than a sense ofimportance, and so she was quite happy for the next few days. All herlittle friends looked upon her with wonder when they heard that she wasgoing away to boarding-school, and Ruby's announcement to them that shewas going to take a trunk added to the importance of the occasion quiteas much as she had hoped it would.

  There was only a week in which to make all preparations for her going,so you can imagine that they were very busy days. Miss Abigail Hart,the dressmaker who made every one's clothes, when they were not made bypeople themselves, came to the house every day, and sewed all day long,and Aunt Emma helped her most of the time. If it had not been for thethoughts of the trunk, Ruby would have found some of these days verytiresome. She had to be always ready in case Miss Hart should want totry on any of her dresses, so she could not go very far away from thehouse, and she found Miss Hart's dressmaking very different from hermother's dressmaking.

  Miss Abigail Hart was tall and thin, and as Ruby and many other littlegirls said, had quite forgotten all about the time when she was alittle girl; so when she went to houses to sew, the children usuallytried to keep out of her way as much as possible. Her hands were verycold, whether it was summer or winter, and she never liked it if anyone whom she was fitting jumped about when her cold fingers touchedone's neck. She wore long scissors, tied by a ribbon to her waist, andthese scissors were always cold; and it was not at all a pleasantoperation to have the waist of a dress fitted, and have Miss Abigail'scold fingers, and her still colder scissors creeping about one's neck.

  "If you don't keep still it will not be my fault if you get a cut,"Miss Abigail would say, and I am not sure but that some of the littlegirls were afraid that their very heads might be snipped off by a slipof those shining blades, if they wriggled about when the necks of theirdresses were being trimmed down.

  Miss Abigail was very slow, so it took a long time to go through thisoperation, and the worst part of it was that one fitting never wassufficient. At least twice, and sometimes three times she would repeatit, and there were plenty of Ruby's friends who had said that not forall the new dresses in the world would they want to have Miss Abigailfit them. They would rather have but one dress and have that dressmade by their mothers, if they had to choose between that and thosecold fingers and sharp scissors.

  It was very pleasant to go to the store with Aunt Emma, and help choosethe pretty calicoes and delaines which were to be made into dresses andhelp fill the little trunk. Ruby never felt more important than whenshe was perched upon the high stool before the counter and had four newdresses at once. She fancied that the store-keeper was more respectfulin his tone than he usually was when he addressed little girls, andthat he was much impressed by the fact that Aunt Emma let her selectthe pattern herself instead of choosing for her.

  The calicoes were very pretty. One was covered with little rosebudsupon a cream-tinted ground, and the other had little dark-blue moonsupon a light-blue ground. The delaines were brown and blue; and thenbesides these dresses, Ruby's best cashmere was to be let down, andhave the sleeves lengthened, so that it would still be nice for a bestdress.

  Ruby had never had so many new dresses all at once in her life before,and she felt very important when her papa brought them home in thebuggy, and they were all spread out before Miss Abigail.

  Miss Abigail looked at them very wisely, with her head a little uponone side. She rubbed them between her fingers, wondered whether theywould wash well, and finally looked at Ruby, and said,--

  "I trust you are a very thankful little girl for all the mercies youhave. So you know that there are some poor little children who havebut rags to wear?"

  "Yes 'm," said Ruby, meekly.

  "Then don't you think you ought to appreciate all the blessings thathave been bestowed upon you?"

  "Yes 'm," Ruby replied again.

  "Then you must try to be an obedient, gentle child, and do as you arebid in everything."

  "Yes 'm," said Ruby, wishing in the bottom of her heart that thedresses were all made.

  She had never had very much to do with Miss Abigail herself, althoughshe had often seen her, and two or three times she had spent a day atthe house, helping Mrs. Harper make one of her own dresses. Upon thoseoccasions, however, Ruby had spent the day with Ruthy, and so she hadonly been with Miss Abigail a little while in the morning, and had nothad much to say to her.

  "If Miss Abigail was my mamma, I would not stay in the same house withher," Ruby said to herself. "I guess that is why she has n't anylittle girls,--because she don't know how to make them happy. I don'twant to be told all the time about being good, I guess."

  But Ruby had to listen to a great many lectures, whether she liked themor not, in the next few days. Miss Abigail came and stayed with themfor all the rest of the week, and as she believed in little girls beingmade useful, Ruby had to spend a good deal of time in picking outbastings, and doing other little things for Miss Abigail.

  "Oh, dear, I have n't done one single thing since I can remember," Rubysaid, impatiently, to Ruthy one day when her little friend came over tosee her; "I have n't done one single thing but pick out bastings andhave Miss Abigail telling me how good I ought to be 'cause I have somany new dresses. I do wish she was all done and had gone away."

  "But then you will go away, too, you know," Ruthy suggested.

  "I wish I would n't; I wish I was going to stay here for a week aftershe went," Ruby answered. "I think Aunt Emma might stop her, I do so."

  "How do you mean?" asked Ruthy.

  "Well, I know what I would do," said Ruby. "I would say to her thisway--" and Ruby held her head very high, and tried to look exceedinglydignified--"I should say, 'Miss Abigail, if you will please tend tomaking Ruby's dresses, I will tend to her behavior.'"

  Ruthy looked rather shocked.

  "I am afraid that would make Miss Abigail feel dreadfully bad, to haveyour auntie say such a thing," she said. "I think Miss Abigail is realnice, I truly do. She saves pretty pieces of calico for my patch-work,and once she gave me a sash for my doll; don't you remember it?--thatblue one, with a little rose bud in the middle."

  "Well, I don't like her," and Ruby shook her shoulders. "And I don'tthink it's nice in you to like her, when she makes me perfectlymiserable. How would you like it if every time you wanted to doanything you heard her calling you, and had to go in and be fitted andfitted. She holds pins in her mouth, too, a whole row of them, andmamma never lets me do that, so Miss Abigail ought not to, and I justthink I will tell her so. She has a whole row of them, just as long asher mouth is wide, and they bristle straight out when she talks. Justsuppose she should drop some down my neck when she is talking. Theywould stick in to me, and hurt me like everything before I could getthem out. I guess I would n't like that, would I? And if you had tostand just hours and hours, and have her cold fingers poking aroundyour neck, and those great sharp scissors going snip, snip all aroundyour neck, just where they would cut great pieces out if you daredmove, I don't believe you would like that yourself, Ruthy Warren, evenif she did give you things for your doll."

  "No, I don't s'pose I would like it any better than you do," assentedRuthy, who was determined not to quarrel with her little friend, whenthey were so soon to be separated.

  "Ruby, Miss Abigail wants you," called Aunt Emma.

  Ruby made a wry face.

  "There she is again," she exclaimed. "It's just the way the wholelivelong time. I think if she knew how to make dresses, she ought notto have to fit so much. If I fitted my doll so often when I made her adress, I guess her head would fall off. It would get shaky anyway,with so much fussing. Wait till I come back, Ruthy, and then we willplay."

  Miss Abigail was waiting to fit Ruby's blue delaine, and it looked sopretty that Ruby forgot how unwilling she had been to come in and haveit fitted.

  She showed her pleasure in it so plainly that goo
d Miss Abigail wasafraid that the little girl was in danger of becoming vain, and thoughtit best to warn her against this state of mind.

  "I am afraid it is n't the best thing for you, Ruby Warren, to have somany new clothes all at once," she said, with the row of pins waving upand down, as she spoke through her teeth, which she did not open whenshe spoke, lest the pins should fall out. "If any one thinks more ofclothes than they should, then dress is a snare and a temptation tothem, and I am much afraid that that is what it is going to be to you.Better for you to have only one dress to your back than to put clothesin the wrong place in your mind, and let them make you vain andconceited. What are clothes, anyway? There is n't any thing to be soproud of in them. Now this nice wool delaine was once growing on asheep's back. Do you suppose that sheep was vain because it wascovered with wool? No, it never thought anything about it. And so yousee that you ought n't to be proud of it either."

  "I think new dresses are very nice," said Ruby, speaking cautiously,lest she should inadvertently turn her head, and the sharp points ofthe scissors should run into her neck.

  Miss Abigail felt that she must say still more, for it was evident thatRuby was putting too much value upon her dress.

  "But it is n't new," she said.

  "Oh, Miss Abigail, it truly is," exclaimed Ruby, forgetting herself andturning her head so suddenly that if the scissors had been in the rightplace, the points would surely have run into her. Fortunately, MissAbigail had stopped to see how the neck looked, and her scissors werehanging by her side for a moment. "Why, of course, it is new. I wentwith Aunt Emma to the store, and helped buy it my very own self, so Iknow it is brand-new. Why, I should think you could tell it is new, itis so pretty and bright, and there is n't one single teenty tontywrinkle in it."

  "Yes, it is new to you," Miss Abigail answered solemnly. "But when youthink about the matter, Ruby Harper, you know that the sheep wore itfirst, and you only have it second-hand, as you might say. Now, Ishould think a little girl was very silly that thought herself betterthan any one else, and let her thoughts rest on her clothes because shewore a sheep's old suit of wool made up in a little different way.Shall I tell you some verses that my mother made me learn when I was alittle girl, because I was proud of a new pelisse?"

  "Yes 'm," said Ruby, meekly, taking a great deal of pleasure in thethought that when Miss Abigail was a little girl she had been naughtysometimes, and had had to learn verses as a punishment.

  "'How proud we are, how fond to show Our clothes, and call them rich and new, When the poor sheep and silk-worm wore That very clothing long before.

  "'The tulip and the butterfly Appear in gayer coats than I; Let me be dressed fine as I will, Flies, worms, and flowers exceed me still.'"

  "I don't think worms look nicer than I do," said Ruby, not verypolitely, when Miss Abigail had finished. "And I am very sorry foryou, Miss Abigail, if you had to learn such ugly verses. If you hadhad a mamma like mine you would have had a better time, I think."

  Miss Abigail looked severely over her brass-bowed spectacles at Ruby,almost too shocked to speak for a moment.

  "I am sure, I don't know what your mother would say, Ruby Harper, ifshe heard you talking that way. I am sure she would think that youwere no credit to her bringing-up. You have a good mother, one of thebest mothers that ever lived, and your father is such a good man, too,that I am sure I don't see where you get your pert ways from. I was ahappy child, because I was, in the main, a good child, and no one everhad a better mother than mine; and I have tried to follow the way inwhich I was brought up, if I do say it myself. Those were counted tobe very pretty verses when I was a child, and I don't know but theywere better than to-day. At any rate, in my day, children were taughtto have a little respect for their elders, and there are very few thatdo that now. There were some other verses that I was going to tell agood deal of the nonsense that children learn you, but if that is youropinion of those I did tell you, there is no use in my taking so muchtrouble."

  Miss Abigail looked sorrowful as well as vexed, and Ruby wished thatshe had not told her what she thought of the verses.

  "I suppose she thinks they are nice," she said to herself; "and mammawould be sorry if she thought I had been rude to Miss Abigail."

  Ruby was going away from her mother so soon that her conscience wasmore tender than usual, and she did not want to do what she knew hermother would not like.

  "Please tell me the other verses, Miss Abigail," she said. "I did notknow you liked those other verses, or I would not have called themugly."

  "I am glad you did not mean to be a rude child," said Miss Abigail,pleased by Ruby's apology. "Your mother takes so much pains with youthat it would be a pity for you not to be a good child. Yes, I willtell you the others, and while I am repeating them you can sit downupon this little ottoman, and pick out the bastings in this sleeve."

  While Ruby pulled the basting-thread out, and wound it on a spool asMiss Abigail had taught her, half wishing that she had not saidanything about the other verses, since she might now have been out atplay with Ruthy, Miss Abigail repeated some more of the verses she hadlearned when she, too, was a little girl like Ruby:--

  "'Come, come, Mister Peacock, you must not be proud, Although you can boast such a train; For many a bird, far more highly endowed, Is not half so conceited nor vain.

  Let me tell you, gay bird, that a suit of fine clothes Is a sorry distinction at most, And seldom much valued, excepting by those Who only such graces can boast.

  The nightingale certainly wears a plain coat, But she cheers and delights with her song; While you, though so vain, cannot utter a note, To please by the use of your tongue.

  The hawk cannot boast of a plumage so gay, But piercing and clear is her eye; And while you are strutting about all the day, She gallantly soars in the sky.

  The dove may be clad in a plainer attire, But she is not selfish and cold; And her love and affection more pleasure impart Than all your fine purple and gold.

  So you see, Mister Peacock, you must not be proud, Although you can boast such a train; For many a bird is more highly endowed, And not half so conceited and vain.'"

  "I think I like that ever so much better," said Ruby, jumping up asMiss Abigail finished, and handing back the sleeve, from which she hadpulled all the basting-threads.

  "Now can I go over to Ruthy's, Miss Abigail? Aunt Emma told me that Imust ask you before I went away anywhere, for fear you would want me."

  "No, I shall not want you any more until nearly tea-time," Miss Abigailanswered, as she scrutinized the sleeve to see whether Ruby had leftany bastings in it. "Now remember what I have told you, Ruby, child,about setting your heart upon your fine clothes. Clothes do not makepeople, and if you are not a well-behaved child, polite and respectfulto your betters, it will not make any difference to any one how wellyou may be dressed."

  "Yes 'm," Ruby answered, as she ran away to find Ruthy, thinking thatlittle girls in Miss Abigail's time must have been very different fromthe little girls she knew, and wondering whether Miss Abigail looked astall and thin when she was a little girl as she did now, and whethershe used to be just as proper and precise.

  It was so funny to think of Miss Abigail as a little girl that Rubylaughed aloud at the thought, as she looked for her little friend. Shewas quite sure of one thing: if she had been a little girl when MissAbigail was a little girl, she would not have chosen her for a friend.Ruthy was the only little girl in all the world that she could wish tohave always for a friend, for who else would be always willing to giveup her own way, and yield so patiently to impetuous little Ruby ineverything.