Lulu had accepted a mute invitation to take a seat by Violet"s side.
"Mamma Vi," she whispered with heightened color, "I can"t sew as well as Gracie, and I"m ashamed to have anybody see my poor work."
"Never mind, dear, we won"t show your first attempts, and you will find this coa.r.s.e, soft muslin easy to learn on," Violet answered in the same low tone. "See, this is the way," taking a few st.i.tches. "Your father told me he wanted his dear little girls to learn every womanly accomplishment, and I feel sure you will do your best to please him. Take pains, and you may be able to send him some specimen of your work as a Christmas gift.
Would you not enjoy that?"
"Yes, ma"am, yes indeed!" returned the little girl, setting resolutely to work.
"Mamma," said Gracie, coming to Violet"s other side, "mayn"t I have some work, too? I like sewing better than Lulu does. Aunt Beulah taught me to overseam and to hem."
"Then you may help us, little girlie," Violet said, kissing the little fair cheek, "but must stop the minute you begin to feel fatigued; for I must not let papa"s baby girl wear out her small strength."
Presently, all having been supplied with work, the reading began. Every one seemed able to listen with enjoyment except Lulu, who bent over her task with frowning face, making her needle go in and out with impatient pushes and jerks.
Violet watched the performance furtively for a few minutes, then gently taking the work from her, said in a pleasant undertone, "You are getting your st.i.tches too long and too far apart, dear. We will take them out, and you shall try again."
"I can"t do it right! I"ll never succeed, if I try ever so hard!" muttered Lulu, impatiently.
"Oh, yes, you will," returned Violet with an encouraging smile. "Keep trying, and you will be surprised to find how easy it will grow."
The second attempt was quite an improvement upon the first, and under Violet"s pleased look and warm praise Lulu"s ruffled temper smoothed down, and the ugly frown left her face.
In the mean while Gracie was handling her needle with the quiet ease of one accustomed to its use, making tiny even st.i.tches that quite surprised her new mamma.
With all her faults Lulu was incapable of envy or jealousy, especially toward her dearly loved brother and sister, and when at the close of the sewing hour Gracie"s work was handed about from one to another, receiving hearty commendation, no one was better pleased than Lulu.
"Isn"t it nice, Grandma Elsie?" she said, glancing at her little sister with a flush of pride in her skill, "a great deal better than I can do, though she"s two years younger."
"It"s only because I couldn"t run about and play like Lulu, and so I just sat beside Aunt Beulah and learned to hem and back-st.i.tch and run and overseam," said Gracie. "But Lulu can do everything else better than I can."
"And she will soon equal you in that, I trust," said Violet, with an affectionate glance from one to the other; "I am quite sure she will if she continues to try as she has done to-day. And it makes my heart rejoice to see how you love one another, dear children."
"I think everybody loves Gracie, because she"s hardly ever naughty," said Lulu; "I wish I"d been made so."
CHAPTER VIII.
"Where"er I roam, whatever realms to see, My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee."
--Goldsmith.
"How very pretty, Zoe!" said Violet, examining her young sister-in-law"s work, a piece of black satin upon which she was embroidering leaves and flowers in bright-colored silks.
"Oh, isn"t it!" cried Lulu, in delighted admiration. "Mamma Vi, I"d like to learn that kind of sewing."
"So you shall, dear, some day; but mamma"s theory is that plain sewing should be thoroughly mastered first. That has been her plan with all her children, and Rosie has done scarcely any fancy work yet."
"But mamma has promised to let me learn all I can about it this winter,"
remarked Rosie, with much satisfaction.
"Mamma," Zoe said, with a blush, "I"m afraid I ought to join your plain-sewing cla.s.s. I should be really ashamed to exhibit any of my work in that line."
"Well, dear child, I shall be glad to receive you as a pupil if you desire it," Elsie returned, giving her a motherly glance and smile.
"Hark!" exclaimed Zoe, hastily gathering up her work, her cheeks rosy and eyes sparkling with pleasure. "I hear Edward"s step and voice," and she tripped out of the room.
"How fond she is of him!" Violet remarked, looking after her with a pleased smile.
"Yes," said her mother, "it does my heart good to see how they love each other. And I think we are all growing fond of Zoe."
"Yes, indeed, mamma!" came in chorus from her three daughters.
"I"m sure we are; my husband and I as well as the rest," added Mrs.
Dinsmore.
"And, Vi," said Elsie Leland laughingly, "I really think mamma"s new sons are as highly appreciated in the family as her new daughter, and that all three doat upon their new mother. Mamma, Lester says you are a pattern mother-in-law, and I answer, "Of course; mamma is a pattern in every relation in life.""
"My child, don"t allow yourself to become a flatterer," returned her mother gravely.
"Zoe, Zoe, where are you?" Edward was calling from below.
"Here," she answered, running down to meet him. "I"ve been in the school-room with mamma and the others," she added, as she gained his side, and looking up brightly into his face as she spoke.
"Ah," he said, bending down to kiss the ruby lips. "I thought you were to be my pupil."
"Oh, so I am! except in purely feminine accomplishments. See!" holding up her work. "I"ve been busy with this. It was the sewing hour, and sister Elsie read aloud to us while we worked."
"Ah, yes! I have been reader many a time while mamma and sisters plied the needle."
"How nice! you are such a beautiful reader! But she is almost as good."
"Not only almost, but altogether," he returned gayly as he held open the door of her boudoir for her to enter, then followed her in. "I"ve come now to hear your recitations. I suppose you are quite prepared," he added, drawing up a chair for her, and glancing at a pile of books lying on the table.
"No," she said, coloring and dropping her eyes with a slightly mortified air. "I meant to be, but so many things happened to interfere. I had a letter to write, then some ladies called, and then----"
"Well?" he said interrogatively, as she paused, coloring still more deeply.
"I wanted to finish the book I was reading last night. I really couldn"t fix my thoughts on stupid lessons until I knew what became of the heroine."
Edward, standing by her side and looking down at her, shook his head gravely. "Duties should be attended to first, Zoe, pleasures indulged in afterward."
"You are talking to me as if I were nothing but a child!" she cried indignantly, her cheeks growing hot.
"The dearest, most lovable child in the world," he said, bending down to stroke her hair and look into her face with laughing eyes.
"No, sir, I"m your wife. What did you marry me for if you considered me such a child?" she cried with a half pout on her lip, but love-light in the eyes lifted to his.