“Now quickly shut your eyes―and then The Fairy Lady will come again!”
“Oh,” laughed Mary Frances, “dear Sewing Bird Fairy Lady, please wait a minute,” and running out of the room, she brought back her doll’s rocking chair and put it on the table.
“Thank you very much, dear child!” said Fairy Lady.
“Now, for work! Cut a piece of unbleached muslin, nine inches long and five and one-half inches wide.”
“Good!” she exclaimed, as Mary Frances held up the muslin properly cut.
[Illustration: “Thank you very much, dear child”]
[Illustration: Marked off the muslin like this]
With a bound, a yellow lead pencil which lay on the machine, sprang over to the table and made a funny little stiff bow to Sewing Bird Fairy Lady, who picked up a big bodkin and, using it as a sceptre, touched him, saying―
To Mary Frances’ amazement, Pen Cil marked off the muslin like this:
“You may retire,” said Fairy Lady, “Thank you,―and Mary Frances, child, you may sew the muslin very much as you did the Canvas Sampler, with that finer red D. M. C. cotton, No. 12.”
“Am I to be forgotten?” came a tinkling sound from Mary Frances’ basket, as she started to sew.
“Who is that?” asked Mary Frances peeping over the edge.
“I’m Thimble!” exclaimed a wee little voice, “and the reason I always wear my helmet, is that I want to wield my sword,” as Mary Frances lifted him out.
“I beg your Majesty’s pardon,” said the little fellow turning to Sewing Bird Fairy Lady―“but perhaps Miss Mary Frances doesn’t understand that all needles are my swords!”
“He thinks himself so brave a soldier,” laughed Sewing Bird Fairy Lady―“when all the time he is perfectly useless by himself.”
“But he is a great help,” said Mary Frances. “I don’t see how I could sew without him.”
“Good!” said Fairy Lady. “But he’ll be prouder than ever! That’s all for to-day―next lesson we will make something for your dolly to use.”
“Oh, how lovely!” exclaimed Mary Frances, finishing her last stitches. “What is it?”
“Oh, well! oh, well, O! I best not tell, O! But something she can use real well, O! Now for to-day, farewell, Farewell, O!”
And as Mary Frances looked up from her work, there was the empty rocking chair and her grandmothers’ sewing bird was sitting on its perch on the table.