"You certainly have a lovely place here," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as they got ready to leave, "and you little girls will be quite strong and ready for school again when you go back to the city."
"I don"t go to school," said Nellie rather bashfully.
"Why?" asked Aunt Sarah.
"Oh, I go to night school," said the little girl. "But in the daytime I have to work."
"Why, how old are you?" asked Aunt Sarah.
"Twelve," said Nellie shyly.
"Working at twelve years of age!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey in surprise.
"What do you do?"
"I"m a cash-girl in a big store," said Nellie with some pride, for many little girls are not smart enough to hold such a position.
"I thought all children had to go to school," Aunt Sarah said to Mrs.
Manily.
"So they do," replied the matron, "but in special cases they get permission from the factory inspector. Then they can work during the day and go to school at night."
"I think it"s a shame!" said the mother. "That child is not much larger than Nan, and to think of her working in a big store all day, then having to work at night school too!"
"It does not seem right!" admitted the matron; "but, you see, sometimes there is no choice. Either a child must work or go to an inst.i.tution, and we strain every point to keep them in their homes."
"We will drive back with Sandy," said Aunt Sarah as they got into the wagon.
"Can"t Nellie come too?" asked Nan. "There is plenty of room."
The matron said yes, and so the little party started off for a ride along the pretty road.
"I was never in a carriage before in all my life," said Nellie suddenly. "Isn"t it grand!"
"Never!" exclaimed the other girls in surprise.
"No," said Nellie. "I"ve had lots of rides in trolley cars, and we had a ride in a farm wagon the other day, but this is the first time I have ever been in a carriage."
Aunt Sarah was letting Sandy drive, and he, of course, was delighted.
Freddie enjoyed it almost as well as Sandy did, and kept telling him which rein to pull on and all that. Old Bill, the horse, knew the road so well he really didn"t need any driver, but he went along very nicely with the two little boys talking to him.
"We will stop and have some soda at the postoffice," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
For the postoffice was also a general store.
This was good news to everybody, and when the man came out for the order Aunt Sarah told him to bring cakes too.
Everybody liked the ice cream soda, but it was plain Nellie and Sandy had not had such a treat in a long time.
"This is the best fun I"ve had!" declared the little cash-girl, allowing how grateful she was. "And I hope you"ll come and see us again," she added politely to Mildred and Nan.
"Oh, we intend to," said Mildred. "You know, we are going to have a sewing school to make ap.r.o.ns for the little ones at the camp."
Old Bill had turned back to the fresh-air quarters again, and soon, too soon, Sandy was handed back to Mrs. Manily, while Nellie jumped down and said what a lovely time she had had.
"Now be sure to come, Sandy," called Freddie, ""cause I"ll expect you!"
"I will," said Sandy rather sadly, for he would rather have gone along right then.
"And I"ll let you play with Snoop and my playthings," Freddie called again. "Good-bye."
"Good-bye," answered the little fresh children.
Then old Bill took the others home.
CHAPTER XIX
SEWING SCHOOL
"Let"s get Mabel and all the others," said Nan to Mildred. "We ought to take at least six gingham ap.r.o.ns and three nightgowns over to the camp."
Aunt Sarah had turned a big long attic room into a sewing school where Nan and Mildred had full charge. Flossie was to look after the spools of thread, keeping them from tangling up, and the girls agreed to let Freddie cut paper patterns.
This was not a play sewing school but a real one, for Aunt Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey were to do the operating or machine sewing, while the girls were to sew on tapes, b.u.t.tons, overhand seams, and do all that.
Mildred and Nan invited Mabel, Nettie, Marie Brenn (she was visiting the Herolds), Bessie, and Anna Thomas, a big girl who lived over Lakeside way.
"Be sure to bring your thimbles and needles," Nan told them. "And come at two o"clock this afternoon."
Every girl came--even Nettie, who was always so busy at home.
Mrs. Bobbsey sat at the machine ready to do st.i.tching while Aunt Sarah was busy "cutting out" on a long table in front of the low window.
"Now, young ladies," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "we have ready some blue gingham ap.r.o.ns. You see how they are cut out; two seams, one at each side, then they are to be closed down the back. There will be a pair of strings on each ap.r.o.n, and you may begin by pressing down a narrow hem on these strings. We will not need to baste them, just press them down with the finger this way."
Mrs. Bobbsey then took up a pair of the sashes and turned in the edges.
Immediately the girls followed her instructions, and very soon all of the strings were ready for the machine.
Nan handed them to her mother, and then Aunt Sarah gave out the work.
"Now these are the sleeves," said Aunt Sarah, "and they must each have little gathers brought in at the elbow here between these notches. Next you place the sleeve together notch to notch, and they can be st.i.tched without basting."
"Isn"t it lively to work this way?" said Mildred. "It isn"t a bit of trouble, and see how quickly we get done."
"Many hands make light work," replied Mrs. Bobbsey. "I guess we will get all the ap.r.o.ns finished this afternoon."
Piece by piece the various parts of the garments were given out, until there remained nothing more to do than to put on b.u.t.tons and work b.u.t.tonholes, and overhand the arm holes.