Polly was for the moment nonplussed. Hanny _did_ seem to know almost everything. Then curiosity overcame her.
"Why, yes. When you come down, I'll ask Joe to take us over to see it."
"Well--I don't know. Long straight seams, and hems and stitching."
"Well, I'm going to have one when I'm married. I wonder if they cost very much!"
"There'll be lots of things for you to do before you are married. And some girls don't have any chance. You'll want to know how to keep house--"
"I like housekeeping. You just go from one thing to another. I'll have some one to cook and peel potatoes and all that. And we'll keep a horse and waggon, and I shall go to ride every day."
Janey laughed. "Just now, you had better sew carpet-rags."
"And I'll never have any rag carpets. I will give away all the old clothes."
"I'm afraid you'll never have much of anything, nor a husband either, Polly Odell," said her mother. "You talk, and leave the rags for Hanny to sew."
Polly turned scarlet, and sewed very industriously.
"I'd like to see a sewing-machine," began Janey, presently. "How does it go?"
"There is a strap around a wheel that is fast to a frame. You put your feet on, so, and just make them go up and down after you have started the wheel with your hand. The needle goes through, and something catches the thread, then it goes through again, and that makes the stitch. It is very curious."
"You know a good many things, don't you, Hanny?" said Janey, admiringly.
"I can beat her all out running, I know; and I'll bet a penny she can't jump over the creek."
"And don't you dare her to, Polly. Remember how you fell in. Oh, Hanny, she was a sight to behold!"
"Well--it had been raining, and the ground was soft, so I slipped a little on the start. But I've done it time and again."
"And you're a regular tomboy. Girls don't train around that way in the city."
Janey had begun to rip out the old seam. She sighed a little, and wished she was sewing carpet-rags. That was such easy work.
"Hanny sews a great deal faster than you," she said to Polly. "See what a pile she has. I will wind them up."
It made quite a ball, and was a little rest from the ripping, that sounded so easy and yet was tedious. But Janey persevered, and finally, after turning about a time or two, came to the middle with a sigh of relief. Polly had been working like a steam-engine for ten minutes, and picked out a good many long pieces, so she had a ball as large as Hanny's.