e which was
divided into two sections. On one side newspapers, pictures and songs
were sold, and on the other linens, calicos and prints. Perrine had
often looked in this store. How nice it would be to go in and have them
cut off as much material as she wished! Sometimes, when she had been
looking in the window, pretending to look at the newspapers or a song,
she had seen girls from the factory enter and come out shortly after
with parcels carefully wrapped up, which they held clasped tightly to
them. She had thought then that such pleasure was not for her ... at
least not then.

Now she could enter the store if she wished, for she had three silver
coins in her hand. She went in.

"What is it you want, mademoiselle?" asked a little old woman politely,
with a pleasant smile.

"Will you please tell me what is the price of calico the yard ... the
cheapest?" asked Perrine timidly.

"I have it at forty centimes the yard," said the old woman.

Perrine gave a sigh of relief.

"Will you cut me two yards, please?" she said.

"It won't wear very well ... but the sixty centimes...."

"The forty centime one will do, thank you," said little Perrine.

"As you like," said the old woman. "I wouldn't like you to come back
after and say...."

"Oh, I wouldn't do that," interrupted Perrine hastily.

[Illustration: SHE HAD SOME TIME AGO DECIDED ON THE SHAPE.]

The old woman cut off two yards, and Perrine noticed that it was not
white nor shiny like the one she had admired in the window.

"Any more?" asked the shopkeeper when she had torn the calico with a
sharp, dry rip.

"I want some thread also," said Perrine; "a spool of white, number
forty."

Now it was Perrine's turn to leave the store with her little newspaper
parcel hugged tightly to her heart. Out of her three francs (sixty
centimes) she had spent eighteen, so there still remained forty-two
until the following Saturday. She would have to spend twenty sous for
bread, so that left her fourteen sous for extras.

She ran back all the way to her little island. When she reached her
cabin she was out of breath, but that did not prevent her from beginning
her work at once. She had some time ago decided upon the shape she would
give her chemise. She would make it quite straight, first, because that
was the simplest and the easiest way for one who had never cut out
anything before and who had no scissors, and secondly, because she could
use the string that was in her old