d against the table. Alma's
face was sober, as the great feminine wail rose to her lips:

"I haven't a thing to wear!"

"You must get something, then," said Mrs. Prescott, positively, as if
it were the simplest thing in the world. "I want you to look lovely,
Alma. It's dreadful to think of a girl with your beauty not being able
to appear at your best all the time." Mrs. Prescott had a habit of
speaking to Alma as if she were a petted debutante of nineteen, instead
of just a pretty, care-free youngster of sixteen. She looked at Nancy,
who was the treasurer of the family, much as an impecunious queen might
look at her first Lord of the Exchequer while asking him for funds to
buy a new crown.

"Why can't you wear your blue crepe," was Nancy's unfeeling answer.
"It's very becoming, and you've hardly worn it."

"If you call that an evening dress," Alma cried, on the verge of tears,
"you've a vivid imagination--that's all I've got to say. I just won't
go if I have to look dowdy and home-made. I wouldn't have any kind of
a time--you know that----"

"You could cut out the neck and sleeves, and get a new girdle. I'm
going to do that to my yellow, and with a few flowers--there'll be some
lovely cosmos in the garden--it'll look very nice. And you're sure to
have a good time, no matter what you wear, Alma."

"Oh, she can't go if her clothes aren't just right, Nancy--that's all
there is to it," said Mrs. Prescott.

"Clothes," declared Alma, her voice quavering between tears and
indignation, "are the most important things in the world. It doesn't
matter _how_ pretty a girl is--if her dress is dowdy, no one will
notice her."

"And you must remember, Nancy, that she will be compared with girls who
will be sure to be wearing the freshest, smartest and daintiest
things," added Mrs. Prescott. Nancy began to laugh. They argued with
her as if she were some stingy old master of the house instead of a
slip of a girl of seventeen. But there was some truth in what Alma had
said, and Nancy knew what agonies would torment her if she felt that
she fell a whit below any girl at the dance in point of dress. Nancy
could sympathize with her there--only it was quite out of the question
that _both_ she and Alma should have new dresses. She thought hard a
moment. There was not very much left in the family budget to carry
them through the remainder of the month--but then she might let the
grocer's and butcher's bills run over, or