ite dress, and then did up
her hair in front of the cracked looking-glass. She always put up her
hair very plainly. She first combed it down straight, then parted it
in the center, and rolled it into a great ball at the back of her
neck. She often wished to curl her hair, and, indeed, it would have
curled with the lightest persuasion: but her mother being approached
on the subject, said that curls were common and were seldom worn by
respectable people, excepting very small children or actresses, both
of whose slender mentalities were registered by these tiny
daintinesses. Also, curls took up too much time in arranging, and the
slightest moisture in the air was liable to draw them down into lank
and unsightly plasters, and, therefore, saving for a dance or a
picnic, curls should not be used.

Mary Makebelieve, having arranged her hair, hesitated for some time in
the choice of a necklace. There was the pearl-colored necklace--it was
very pretty, but every one could tell at once that they were not
genuine pearls. Real pearls of the bigness of these would be very
valuable. Also there was something childish about pearls which
latterly she wished to avoid. She had quite grown up now. The letting
down of the last tuck in her dress marked an epoch as distinct as did
the first rolling up of her hair. She wished her dress would go right
down to her heels so that she might have a valid reason for holding up
her skirts with one hand. She felt a trifle of impatience because her
mother had delayed making the false hem; she could have stitched it on
herself if her mother had cut it out, but for this day the dress would
have to do. She wished she owned a string of red coral; not that round
beady sort, but the jagged crisscross coral--a string of these long
enough to go twice round her neck, and yet hang down in front to her
waist. If she owned a string as long as that she might be able to cut
enough off to make a slender wristlet. She would have loved to see
such a wristlet sagging down to her hand.

Red, it seemed, would have to be the color for this day, so she took
the red beads out of a box and put them on. They looked very nice
against her white dress, but still--she did not quite like them: they
seemed too solid, so she put them back into the box again, and instead
tied round her neck a narrow ribbon of black velvet, which satisfied
her better. Next she put on her hat; it was of straw, and had been
washed many times. There was