“As I said before, the Pacewalks were poor, and although they lived well enough, money was scarce with them, and it was seldom that they were able to spend any of it for clothes.  But about this time Judith came to me—­I was visiting them at the time—­and talked a little about herself, which was uncommon.  She said that if she went to Matthias’ fine new house, and sat at the head of his table,—­and of course that would be her place there, as it was at her mother’s table,—­she thought that she ought to dress better than she did.  ‘I do not mean,’ she said, ’that I want any fine clothes for company; but I ought to have something neat and proper for everyday wear, and I want you to help me to think of some way to buy it.’  So we talked the matter over, and came to the conclusion that the best way to do was to try to gather teaberries enough to pay for the material for a chintz gown.

“In those days—­I don’t know how it is now—­Pascalville was the greatest place for teaberries.  They used them as a flavor for candy, ice-cream, puddings, cakes, and I don’t know what else.  They made summer drinks of it, and it was used as a perfume for home-made hair-washes and tooth-powder.  So Judith and I and a girl named Dorcas Stone, who was a friend of ours, went to work gathering teaberries in the woods.  We worked early and late, and got enough to trade off at the store for the ten yards of chintz with which that gown is made.

“As for the making of it, Judith and I did all that ourselves.  Dorcas Stone might be willing enough to go with us to pick berries, but when she found what was to be bought with them, she drew out of the business.  She was not a girl who was particularly sharp about seeing things herself, or keeping people from seeing through her; but she wanted to marry Matthias Butterwood, and when she found Judith was to have a new gown she would have nothing to do with it, which was a pity, for she was a very fine sewer, especially as to gathers.

“We cut the gown from some patterns we got from a magazine; I fitted it, and we both sewed.  When it was done, and Judith tried it on, it was very pretty and becoming, and she looked better in it than in the gown she wore when she went to a party.  When we had seen that everything was all right, Judith took off the dress, folded it up, and put it away in a drawer.  ‘Now,’ said she, ‘I shall not wear that until I go to Cobhurst.’

“Well, as everybody knows, houses are never finished at the time they are expected to be, and that was the way with this house, and as Matthias would not go into it until everything was quite ready, the moving was put off and put off until it began to be cold weather, and then he said he would not go into it until spring, for it would be uncomfortable to live in the new house in the winter.

“I was very sorry for this, for I thought that the sooner Judith got here the better her chance would be for staying here the rest of her life.  Judith did not say much, but I am sure she was sorry too, and Matthias seemed a little out of spirits, as if he were getting a little tired of living with the Pacewalks, and wanted to be in his own house.  I think he began to feel more like seeing people, and I know he visited the Stones a good deal.