THE BLUE-SPRIGGED DIMITY DRESS
Copyright © 2011 Tommie Lyn
All rights reserved.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.
The Blue-Sprigged Dimity Dress
Lisbeth Collins stopped at the door and watched her older sister glide toward the wagon. When Ada Belle passed the group of young men who always congregated near the wagons after church, she appeared not to notice that their conversation ceased, their attention captured by the tall, willowy girl.
She’s puttin’ on. She don’t never walk like that at home.
When she neared the wagons, Ada Belle lifted her skirt with hands that drooped gracefully from the long sleeves that reached her wrists, and with a graceful flourish, she kept the hem from touching the bare red earth she crossed.
Lisbeth’s eyes dropped to her own cream-colored dress with the faded remains of printed pink flowers scattered across the fabric. A worn line above the hem attested to the latest lengthening of the skirt. The dress was ugly. Had always been ugly. Hadn’t been pretty even when Ada Belle had worn it. But now, after countless washings…well…
She raised her eyes and stared at her sister again. At seventeen, Ada Belle was tall and beautiful, with a grace uncommon in one so young.
Why couldn’t I have been the oldest? Why couldn’t I have been tall and pretty like her instead of being so short?
“Lisbeth! Janie! Go get your brothers, and you young’uns get in the wagon,” Ma called. “Time we was on our way home.”
All the members of the Collins family climbed onto the wagon unassisted. Except for three-year-old John. George swung him onto the back of the wagon and took a seat beside him. And Ada Belle accepted an offer of help from two young men who seemed anxious to lend a hand.
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“She don’t need a new dress.” Ada Belle lifted a dripping plate from the dishpan and dipped it into the rinse water. “That one has lots of wear left in it.”
“Ada Belle’s right. You don’t need a new dress,” Ma said. “I’ll hear no more about it. Now eat, and let your vittles stop your mouth.”
Lisbeth said nothing more. She lowered her eyes to stare at her half-eaten supper of cornbread and warmed-over beans. She wasn’t hungry now, but she knew better than to leave uneaten food on her plate. She dutifully resumed eating, one bean at a time.
“Ma, look at her!” Ada Belle huffed. “She’ll have me up ‘til all hours washing dishes. She’s just doing that ‘cause she’s mad at me. Make her hurry up and get done.”
“Lisbeth, don’t dawdle. Finish your supper,” Ma said.
Lisbeth cast a sideways glance at her older sister. Ada Belle always won. She knew how to get her way with Ma, knew how to thwart Lisbeth’s desires, whatever they might be. And her desire at this moment was to have a new Sunday-go-to-meeting dress to replace the cream-colored hand-me-down Ada Belle had outgrown five years ago. Lisbeth had worn it for the last two years. She’d been given the dress when it was too big for her, and now it was too small. But it had a lot of good wear in it yet. Ada Belle and Ma said so. A new dress was out of the question.
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“You still plannin’ on goin’ to the store this mornin’? Ma asked Pa at breakfast the next morning.
“Yep. I aim to give Llewellyn a payment out of what I got for that heifer.”
“Get some flour while you’re there. I’m just about out. And it wouldn’t hurt to get some coffee and sugar, too.”
“I swan. Pay the bill down a little, and you want to add more to it.”
“Can I go?” Lisbeth asked.
A trip to the general store was a pleasant diversion from her daily routine. And Mr. Llewellyn sometimes gave each of the children a piece of hard candy when Pa bought a considerable amount of goods.
Ma glanced at Lisbeth. “I guess you can go if you get your work done first.”
“Me, too?” Lisbeth’s younger sister, Janie, asked.
“I reckon.”