THREADING NEEDLES.

Mrs. Sargent’s sunny sitting room was a very busy place that Wednesday afternoon.

Four long sticks with their corners fastened together by wooden pegs, and placed on the backs of chairs, made a large frame in the center of the apartment.  On this frame there were basted, first, some strips of pale blue cheesecloth sewed together, then cotton wadding was arranged evenly over this, and over all another large square of cheesecloth of dainty pink, was placed.

Now, I dare say that all you little readers know what this meant.  It was a quilting-frame, of course, and the half-dozen ladies gathered around it were busily engaged in tying a comfortable; and, more-over, that same comfortable was to be sent to a good missionary out on our Western frontier.

There was a big box of other things to be sent, too—­but never mind about them now; it is the pink and blue comfortable in which we are most interested.

Little Ruth Sargent was also interested in it.  She wished that she were tall enough and nimble enough with her fingers to help fasten the pretty little tufts of white Saxony yarn that tied the comfortable.  The work must be very pleasant to do, for the ladies seemed so happy.

How nice it was to think of making a sensible gift like that, to keep the dear missionary lady warm during the long, cold winter nights in far North Dakota!

Presently, a round, fluffy, white something tumbled off the quilting-frame and rolled along on the carpet beneath.

“Oh, there goes my ball of Saxony!” exclaimed Mrs. Dalton.  “I was trying to thread my needle—­my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be—­and the yarn slipped out of my hand.”

Now, Mrs. Sargent didn’t have to tell her daughter to pick up the worsted ball, for Ruth was a polite little thing, and the ball had hardly ceased rolling, before she had scrambled under the quilting-frame and picked it up.  Then she thought of another polite thing to do.

“Please let me thread your needle, Mrs. Dalton,” she said sweetly.

“Oh, thank you, deary, that will be such a help!” the lady replied.

“My! my!” laughed the other ladies.  “Now, Mrs. Dalton, you will beat us all in tying, for you’ve got a fine assistant!”

“Why, I can thread all the needles,” Ruth said, her eyes shining.  And so she did.  Needle after needle was threaded with the white yarn, and it really was surprising to see how much faster the ladies could work.  It wasn’t long before all the surface of the comfortable was filled with rows of neat, white tufts and was ready to be ripped from the frame and have its edges finished with herringbone stitches.

And Ruth felt very happy, for though she was only seven years old, she had helped in the making of the pretty comfortable for the dear missionary lady away out in Dakota.

—­Written for Dew Drops by Mary E.Q.  Brush.