“Now,” said Sewing Bird, “will you please cut a piece of canvas eight inches long and four and one-half inches wide, and make a sampler of all the stitches you know. Will you write down the directions?”
“Yes,” said Mary Frances, getting pencil and paper.
1. Begin six rows down, and five rows from right hand end with a row of Uneven Basting.
2. A row each of even basting; Running Stitch; Stitching; Catch Stitching; Buttonhole Stitching; Hemming,―each two rows apart.
3. A row of Overhanding―five rows below that.
6. Fold canvas back on row of overhanding at bottom of samples.
“Will you bring the pretty sampler, finished, for the next lesson?” asked Sewing Bird.
“But there’s one stitch more, There’s one stitch more! If it hadn’t been so cross, I’d have shown it before,”
1. Cut a canvas piece, five inches long and three inches wide.
2. At the right hand end from under side, two holes from the edge, and eight holes down, point needle upward. Pull through.
3. Point needle downward into hole above the hole to the left of where thread hangs out, and bring it up through the hole directly beneath.
5. Return on same row of stitches in same way, but work from left to right, taking stitches in exactly the same holes as at first. This will form a cross. The stitches must all be taken in the same direction.
[Illustration: “Why, so I do!” exclaimed Mary Frances]
MARY FRANCES worked very hard whenever she could find a minute; and the next lesson day she proudly showed Sewing Bird a sampler like this picture:
[Illustration: “Oh, de-de-dum-dee! de-de-dee!”]
“Oh, de-de-dum-dee! de-de-dee! That sampler certainly pleases me. You did it alone? Well, I declare! What perfect stitches you have there!”
sang the little bird, hopping, fluttering, gurgling, and spreading her wings joyously over Mary Frances’ work, very much the way a spring robin careens over an early worm.
“Now, Sewing Bird, my dear teacher, please tell me what I am to learn next?” asked Mary Frances, finishing the row of cross stitching.
[Illustration: A sampler like this picture]
“Indeed I will! Indeed I will! Just watch a while my little bill; And I to you will quickly tell, And you will quickly do, and well, This lesson coming next.”
With these words, the little bird leaned over the edge of the table and stuck her bill into the drawer beneath. Then she pulled out a long sheet of paper.