This was for practice, before they cut
into the piece of new blue serge that the storekeeper had sent up.
Cousin Ann showed them how to pin the pattern on the goods and they each
cut out one piece. Those flat, queer-shaped pieces of cloth certainly
did look less like a pair of trousers to Betsy than anything she had
ever seen. Then one of the girls read aloud very slowly the mysterious-
sounding directions from the wrapper of the pattern about how to put the
pieces together, Cousin Ann helped here a little, particularly just as
they were about to put the sections together wrong-side-up. Stashie, as
the oldest, did the first basting, putting the notches together
carefully, just as they read the instructions aloud, and there, all of a
sudden, was a rough little sketch of a pair of knee trousers, without
any hem or any waist-band, of course, but just the two-legged,
complicated shape they ought to be! It was like a miracle to Betsy! Then
Cousin Ann helped them sew the seams on the machine, and they all turned
to for the basting of the facings and the finishing. They each made one
buttonhole. It was the first one Betsy had ever made, and when she got
through she was as tired as though she had run all the way to school and
back. Tired, but very proud; although when Cousin Ann inspected that
buttonhole, she covered her face with her handkerchief for a minute, as
though she were going to sneeze, although she didn't sneeze at all.
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