CHAPTER TWENTY

DIXIE BUYS A SILK DRESS

Josephine Bayley smiled down at the little girl as she felt the clinging fingers tighten. “Oh, teacher,” the child whispered rapturously, “I didn’t suppose there was so much silk anywhere in all the world. It’s like rainbows, isn’t it?” They were standing at the counter, waiting for a pleasant-faced little woman to come to them.

“May we see the different shades of blue silk?” Josephine Bayley asked, when at last the clerk turned toward them.

“Oh-ee, how Carol would love that one,” Dixie said as she pointed to a blue, the color of a June-morning sky. The small girl did not think to ask the price. Teacher had said that two dollars and thirty cents would be enough, and Dixie doubted this not at all.

A pattern was selected, one with ruffles, for nothing was to be omitted that the heart of the little sister had been set upon, and then sufficient silk was measured off. Miss Bayley, having had a moment’s opportunity to speak alone with the clerk, had asked her not to mention the price. Turning back, she saw little Dixie smoothing the silk as reverently as though it were almost too beautiful to be touched, and yet there was no thought of envy in her heart. Two dollars and thirty cents could buy but one silk dress, and that one should be for Carol.

While the parcel was being wrapped, Dixie looked about. Suddenly she caught the teacher’s hand and drew her down the aisle. “Look there,” she whispered as she lifted glowing eyes. “That’s the silvery green I was telling you about, Miss Bayley. Isn’t it like the very first leaves on the willow trees down in the creek-bottom?”

The young woman nodded. “It is just lovely, dear,” was all that she said, but she thought much more. Then, when the saleswoman returned, Dixie drew forth the old-fashioned purse that had been her mother’s and counted out the money, which was in dimes and nickels. There were so many of them that it looked like quite a fortune heaped upon the counter in front of her. The little girl did not dream that the silk for Carol’s dress had cost five dollars.

“Now, dear,” Miss Bayley smiled down at her, “let’s go over to the book department. I want to get a more modern arithmetic than the one that I found in the school.” While the young teacher was examining mathematical books, Dixie, with a little half-suppressed cry of joy, skipped toward a table spread with attractively-covered juveniles, and so absorbed was she a moment later that Miss Bayley found the opportunity she desired to slip back to the silk counter and order a pattern of the pale-green that in one light shimmered like silver.

Had Dixie noticed the shape of the package that the teacher carried when they left the store, she might have thought it rather soft and bulky for a book about mathematics, but there were so many things to see and admire that she noticed it not at all.

It was noon, and to the little girl from the mountains the main street of the village seemed thronged. Again she clung to her teacher’s hand as they made their way toward the café, over which hung the most alluring sign.

“Oh, teacher, Miss Bayley, are we going in here?” It was hard for the child to believe that she was actually going to have lunch in a place so sparkling with mirrors and lights.

But it was really true, for Miss Bayley was leading her to a little table in one corner that was just for two.

Then when the orders had been given, the small girl, wide-eyed, looked all about her. “There’s going to be music,” she whispered. “It’s over behind those plants.” She had seen two violinists in a palm-sheltered corner, and even as she spoke the first sweet strain was heard. Miss Bayley watched the sensitive, expressive face of the little girl and wondered how any one could call her homely.

It was the first time Dixie had ever heard the music of a violin, and when the last note had died away she lifted eyes that looked as though they had seen a vision. “Miss Bayley,” she said, “some time I want to play like that.”

And just then the teacher, looking ahead through the years, seemed to see a beautiful, willowy young girl dressed in soft, shimmering green, with red-gold hair glowing beneath the lights, playing a violin, while a vast multitude of people listened breathlessly. Was it a prophecy?