wife came home from a meeting of the sewing society one
afternoon quite discouraged.

"Only nine ladies present!" she said, "and very little accomplished; and
the barrel promised to that poor missionary out West, before cold
weather--I really don't see how it is to be done."

"What work have you on hand?" Miss Ruth inquired.

"We have just made a beginning," Mrs. Elliot answered with a sigh.
"There's half a dozen fine shirts to make, and a pile of sheets and
pillowcases, dresses and aprons for four little girls, table-cloths and
towels to hem, and I know not what else. We always have sent a
bed-quilt, but this barrel must go without it. It's a pity, too, for
they need bedding."

"Why, so it is," said Miss Ruth. "Susie,"--to a little girl sitting
close beside her,--"why can't some of you girls get together one
afternoon in the week and make a patchwork quilt to send in the barrel?"

Susie put her head on one side and considered.

"Where could we meet, Aunt Ruth?"

"Here in my room, Susie, if mamma has no objection."

"Certainly not," Mrs. Elliot said; "but are you well enough to undertake
it, Ruth?"

"Yes, indeed, Mary; I shall really enjoy it."

"And would you cut out the blocks for us, and show us how to keep them
from getting all _skewonical_, like the cradle-quilt I made for Amelia
Adeline?"

Amelia Adeline was Susie's doll.

"Yes; and I could tell you stories while you were working. How would
that do?"

"Why, it would be splendid!" said the little girl. "There comes Mollie,
I guess, by the noise. Won't she be glad? Say, Mollie!--why, what a
looking object!"

This exclamation was called forth by the appearance of the little girl,
who had been heard running at full speed the length of the piazza, and
now presented herself at the door of Miss Ruth's room, her face flushed,
her hair in the wildest confusion, and the skirt of her calico frock
quite detached from the waist, hanging over her arm.

"Wasn't it lucky that the gathers ripped?" she cried, holding up the

William Babington Maxwell (18661938) was a British novelist. He was a son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Though nearly 50 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France until 1917.

Cyrus Townsend Brady (December 20, 1861 January 24, 1920) was a journalist, historian and adventure writer. His most well-known work is Indian Fights and Fighters. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883. He was also a deacon in the Episcopal church. His first wife was Clarissa Guthrie, who died in 1890. His second wife was Mary Barrett.

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-1906), also known as Sophie May, was an American author of childrens fiction. Using her nieces and nephews as inspiration, she wrote realistic stories about children. She wrote 45 books between 1860 and 1903. The most popular being the Little Prudy books. She lived most of her life in her native town of Norridgewock, Maine, where she lived out her life with her sister, who was also a successful author.