So I had to get the car out and take them. But who wouldn't? Won't those pies taste good next winter?
We had just finished dinner one day when up drove a big car, Honk! Honk!
“Hello, Say, did you hear that school starts a week earlier this year?”
“Mercy, no! Well of all things! What shall I do? Here I am with four girls to get ready and the time so short. I guess I'll have to start today. Berries to can, pickles to make, bread baking. . . O, do other people have everything happen at once? I wonder.”
I turned around and went into the house. “If we can get these dishes done in half an hour we'll go to town and get those new school dresses. Yes, really. Every one can pick out her own.”
“All right, Ma, you start to get the little ones ready and we'll do the dishes.”
That sounded good. My! How the dishes flew! The floor was swept and everything done in record time. Let me say right here though, by the time I get little eight ones and myself ready to start some place I feel about ready to stay at home. Nevertheless, to town we went. I parked my car directly in front of the store so I could take my four big girls in with me and at the same time keep my eyes on the four little ones in the car. It is all very nice being the mother of ten children and taking eight at a time away with you but sometimes queer things happen.
The girls had quite a time selecting their new dresses. At last I decided to take two yards of this, two and a fourth of that, two and a half of the pink and as I said two and three-fourths of . . . and started to point at the piece I wanted, I looked out at the car and there was my four-year-old (the one I had left in charge of the other three) [Can you just imagine? LOL] on her knees in the back seat of the car and the little baby was just ready to fall out of the seat. I made a mad dash for the door and caught her mid-air between the seat and the floor. When I got them all straightened around again I went back into the store and there stood the clerk all smiles.
“You see I didn't take you at your word.”
“Why? How so?”
“Well, just before you made that run you said you wanted two and three-fourth yards of that . . . and you pointed at every piece of cloth on these two piles. So I decided to wait to see if you meant it.
“Of course I didn't mean it. I'll take two and three-fourth yards of the blue. Yes, the striped.”
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| Back Row: Mervin (12), Robert (14); In front of Robert: Jessie (9), Gladys (11); Front row, girl looking away, Evelyn (7), Marian (8), Cecil (5), (Cecil is still alive at 90 years old), Frances (2), Laura Nadine (1), "Farmer" John (4) |
“Say, Ma, don't forget the stockings.”
“O, yes, some stockings, please.”
“Black?”
“No, gray.”
“What size?”
“Sizes you mean. Let me see. Size 10 . . . yes, that will do. And one each of size 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 ½.”
“Well, how many more steps have you in that human stair-case?”
It was a good thing I knew the salesman well or who knows but my temper might have flown again.