LONG AGO STORIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 April 1934, Page 9

LONG AGO STORIES

SALLY THE STONE PICKER Sally's work was to put stones into baskets called panniers. These particTilar stones were going clown to the South, and Sally lived in the North. When she stood upright, she saw a long line of pack horses with panniers slung across their backs waiting to start on their long journey. Her father was one of the drivers. He walked the rough roads with the horses that carried coal, lime, and stones from one part of the country to another. The roads were so bad that heavy goods could'not travel in carts for the wheels stuck in the ruts or mud. Sally had started picking stones when she was three years old, and had gone to the lime pit when she was ten. “Haven’t they got lime in the middle of England?” she asked a boy who was throwing lime into the pannier. “Everybody wants what he hasn’t got,” he replied. “My father’s bringing up flint and clay from Cornwall ’cos they’re wanted for making pottery, and my brother’s loading coal at Newcastle for London.” “Why don’t the people who want lime come and live by the pit?” asked Sally. Nobody answered her. After loading the lime till her arms felt broken, she said:— “Three horses died last time my father carried chalk, and their food was all wet with rain. Why doesn’t somebody dig rivers from place to place? "The boats slide nicely along the water and it saves a lot of trouble.” The boy who was working near her let his spade fall, and looked stupidly at the ragged little girl till the fore-

_y ly dig . from place to place?” asked Sally.

man gave him a clout on the head and told him to get on. Next day, the boy did not come to the pit. Sally went on picking lime, and stones, and coal for ten more years, and she thought she would have to do it till she was an old woman. But one day a band of workmen arrived at the place where she was filling panniers with coal. “What have they come fori” she asked. “To cut a canal,” was the reply. “There’s a man called James Brindley who’s cutting canals all over England, and soon there’ll be no more pack horses. Waterways are easy. Now the clay’s coming up to the potteries before you can look round, and the coal’s going to London in barges.” “That was my idea when I was a little girl!” cried Sally. Then a big rough man, with a pencil over his ear and a measure in his hand, came up to her. “I’ve looked for you everywhere,” he said. “You gave me the idea, and England’s prosperous to-day—and so am I—because of the canals. No more stone picking for you, Sally—unless you prefer it to me.” > Sally didn’t, so she married him. Even to-day we use James Bindley’s canals, though we forget that they were one of the wonders of the 18th century. “SPECIAL REQUEST” CUSHION AND HANDKERCHIEF CASE This week we are dealing with two “request items,” so we hope the Wendy girl who wrote for the instructions will be pleased. A CUSHION FOR THE KITCHEN The first sketch shows a kitchen cushion, made from one yard of 18in wide crash, trimmed with gay appliqued “flowers” cut from scraps of printed cotton. Fold the crash so that you have a square, and rule a smaller square in the middle, making the sides 15in long. Now cut simple flower-shapes from remnants of coloured cretonne or cotton, making some of them three inches across, some only one and a half inches across. The picture shows the shapes which-are quite easy to cut out, but look most effective when buttonhole stitched to three corners of the pencilled square. Diagram A shows tne buttonhole stitching. Tack the flowers to the crash, then stitch them with thick red and blue embroidery cotton. Work the pencilled frame in red stem-stitch. Now cut some leaves from green material, making them from two to three inches long, and applique them like the flowers Press the trimming under a damp cloth with a hot iron, and sew up two sides of the cushion cover. Turn right side out, pop in the cushion, and sew up the third side. A HANDKERCHIEF CASE The second sketch shows a pretty little handkerchief case made from a piece of yellow linen eight inches wide and sixteen inches long, trimmed jvith flowers and leaves embroidered in coloured stranded cottons. Fold the material into a square, lay a saucer measuring four inches across in the middle of the top fold and pencil round this to get the outline of the garland.

Now draw three groups of three circles on the pencil work—a threepenny bit will give you the patterns — and work these circles in lazy-daisy loops with pink, blue, and lavender threads. Give each flower a Frenchkliot centre, work green daisy-loop leaves between the flowers, ana outline the wreath with green stem-stitch

as shown in diagram B. A single daisy and leaf in each corner will complete the top of the case. Sew the sides together. Cut a piece of yellow sateen the same size, join the sides, slip it inside the linen case, and sew the two together.—Wendy’s Dressmaker. THE BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP HANGING SHELVES FOR BOOKS Shelves which will hold china ornaments or small books can easily be made with odd pieces of quarter-inch wood. Two pieces, each sixteen inches I long and five inches wide, will be re- ; quired for the sides. Plane these to | the required thickness and, after with glass paper, mark out one piece into one-inch as shown in the top right hand diagram. Carefully outline the curved shape with a pencil, then cut it' out with a fretsaw. After smoothing the edge with a rasp and glass paper, lay this part on the second piece of. wood, clamp them together with a couple of fretworkers’ clamps, and mark the curved outline for the other side. Before separating the two aides, make aaw cuts irt both pieces at once to form the slots A and B, which are one and a half inches long and a quarter of a3n inch deep. Cut these out with a chjsel, separate the pieces of wood, and cut out the second side with a fretsaw.

Now cut the two cross-pieces, C, fit the ends in the slots A and B, and fix

them to the sides by two small'brass] screws in each end, as indicated in dia- ( gram C. ;' Cut the two shelves to the sizes given in the diagram T), and carefully plane the ends square with the back and front edge. To support the shelves at the ends, cut four pieces of wood to the sizes (riven at E, and screw 1 these to the sides'in the positions in- j dicated by dotted lines in the top j right-hand dia "ram, The shelves should ’ fit nicely between the sides and against j the cross-pieces to which they are screwed.

Screw a small brass eye-plate to

each end of tin* top cross-piece, at shown, and iim«h the shelves with varnish-stain or art enamel.—The Hut Carpenter.