und that her
measurements and calculations were resulting in patterns of unmistakable
correctness and style. It was like solving the fifth proposition of
Euclid. She laid aside her work that night with a reluctant sigh, but a
happy anticipation of the sewing yet to come. The anticipation was
fulfilled next day by the completion of a shirt waist so striking in
design and fit that even John noticed its beauty and becomingness and
acknowledged that the chart was "no humbug."

"You must wear that waist Monday when we go to town," he declared. "I
never saw anything fit you as pretty as that does," and Sally McElrath
echoed John's opinion when she and Mary met at the linen counter of
Brown and Company's dry goods store; and Mary told her of the wonderful
chart as they both examined patterns and qualities of table linen and
compared experiences as to wearing qualities of bleached and unbleached
damask.

There is a system of communication in every country neighborhood that is
hardly less marvelous than the telegraph and telephone; and before Mary
could put her chart to a second test, all Goshen knew that Mary Crawford
had a chart that would cut anything from a baby sacque to a bolero, and
that she was willing to lend it to any one who was inclined to borrow.

Sally McElrath was the first applicant for the loan of the chart.
Whatever the enterprise, if it had the feature of novelty, Sally was its
first patron and promoter. But her promptness ended here, and her
friends declared that Sally McElrath was always the first to begin a
thing, and the last to finish it.

Accompanying the chart was a set of explicit rules for its use, and Mary
read these to Sally, explaining all the difficult points just as the
agent had explained them to her.

"Now if I were you, Sally," she said warningly, "I would try some simple
thing first, a child's apron, or something like that, so that you won't
run the risk of ruining any expensive goods. Everything takes practice,
you know."

"Oh," said Sally confidently, "I'm goin' to make a tea jacket out of a
piece of China silk I got off the bargain counter the last time I was in
town."

"What's a tea jacket?" asked Sally's husband, who had been listening
intently, with a faint hope that some new shirts for himself might be
the outcome of Sally's interest in the chart.

"It's a thing like this, Dan," said Sally, producing a picture of the
elegant garment in question.

"Why do they call it a tea