Betsy Ross by Ann Weil

Author:Ann Weil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

THE SOVEREIGN

HALF AN hour later a carriage stopped in front of the inn. Joe got out first, then he helped Betsy and Susannah. When Mary started to step out, the horses lurched. There was a loud ripping sound. Mary’s full skirt had caught in one of the wheels. Her lovely dress, which had been so new and fresh, was muddied and torn.

“Oh, dear!” Mary tried to brush her torn, mud-splattered skirt. “ ’Twas the last clean dress I had. We were on the ocean for two months. Water was very scarce and we couldn’t wash our clothes. I saved this dress so I’d look nice when I met my uncle. Now look at it!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Miss Mary!” The maid leaned back against the carriage seat and closed her eyes. “Here I am ill and not able to do a thing to help you.”

Betsy thought the maid looked even paler than when they had left the ship.

“Don’t worry about that.” Mary looked down at her dress. “You wouldn’t be able to fix this anyway. It’s too badly torn. I’ll simply have to throw it away. It’s ruined.”

The dress did seem to be completely ruined, but Betsy looked at it carefully. “It can be fixed,” she said finally. “I’ll fix it for thee. Does thee have a needle, thread, and pins?”

“I don’t see how you can mend it,” Mary said. “Look, the whole side is torn.”

Susannah patted Mary’s arm. “If Betsy says she can fix it, she can. Don’t you worry. She may be only twelve years old, but she can sew as well as her mother.”

“Hush!” Betsy put her hand over Susannah’s mouth and laughed. “Don’t listen to her,” she said. “But I can fix thy dress for thee. I’m sure I can make it look very good.”

An hour later Mary was standing on top of a stool. Betsy walked slowly around her. She pinned tucks and straightened the hem until the front of Mary’s dress looked like a pincushion.

“Now.” Betsy picked up the needle and thread and thimble Mary had taken from her trunk. She began to take big stitches where the pins were. “Turn slowly, Mary. We’ll soon have the dress as good as new.”

Mary looked down at her gratefully. “This is almost like making a new dress,” she said. “Really harder, because the material was torn. You’re a wonderful seamstress, Betsy.”

Betsy laughed. “ ’Tis fun,” she said. “Thy dress is beautiful, Mary. The material is lovely. It feels good in my hands.”

Betsy worked on the dress all afternoon. She replaced the big stitches with tiny, even ones. Finally every ruffle and flounce was back in place. The tucks and the hem were straight again. The dried mud had been brushed off. It did, indeed, look like a new dress.

By late afternoon the storm had cleared and the sun was shining brightly. “Thy uncle will surely come soon,” Betsy said as she told Mary good-bye. “It won’t take long for the roads to dry this time of the year. He’ll be here soon.

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