Free Bachelor's Puzzle by Judith Pella

for herself. Mama couldn’t be jealous, then.I t must just be that old rivalry between her and Mrs. Parker.
    For once Maggie was glad when Mrs. Stoddard took charge and steered the meeting to its purpose.
    “Now for the moment we have all been waiting for!” she announced. “Let’s reveal our blocks.”
    She had pushed aside all the desks and placed a large old quilt, made of a faded blue cotton, on the floor. I n an orderly fashion the women filed up and laid their blocks in rows on the quilt. Maggie was surprised at how beautiful the whole was and how uniform. No one block, not even Ellie’s, stuck out like a sore thumb.
    After giving all the blocks a quick scan, Maggie began concentrating on the blocks made by her friends. Sarah’s was a Rose of Sharon, a pattern of laid-on work with four long stems and four shorter stems radiating out from a center flower shape, each stem also having a flower at the end. Her stems and leaves were green, the flowers in different shades of blue. The work was unquestionably fine, but Maggie had seen this pattern done before to better effect using red for the flowers. However, Maggie well knew she was not one to be critical.
    Kendra Wallard, Nessa’s daughter, who was between Ellie and Maggie in age, had also done a block, but since Boyd was seriously courting her, she wasn’t interested in snagging the minister. She had made a L eMoyne Star, with each of the points alternating dark and light blue.I ris Fergus made a Bear’s Paw or, using the Quaker name, the Hand of Friendship. Finally, there was Mabel’s block. Surprisingly, she had not done laid-on work, which was probably the best way to set a block apart and emphasize a quilter’s skill. Her pattern, Sunburst, was probably the most difficult one of all, for it was a small sunburst inside a larger one, and each sunburst had two layers of points radiating from the center circle. There had to be thirty points in the smaller one alone!
    Well, no question. Mabel won the prize and probably the minister, as well. Everyone else realized this, too, and were congratulating her. Maggie told herself that quilts don’t win husbands. But Mabel had more than fine stitching in her favor. Though not exactly beautiful, she had a way about her that made you forget her large nose and somewhat crooked teeth. She had beautiful auburn hair that was always fixed stylishly. And she never wore anything that wasn’t store bought. Which made it even more of an irony that Mrs. Parker had the best sewing machine around—she never sewed clothing. The Parkers were half owners of the sawmill, so they had money. Still, Florence Parker always looked frumpy and threadbare and their house was unkempt. All the family’s riches must have gone directly to Mabel’s closet. Not to mention that she had a brother in a fancy Eastern college.
    On top of that, Mabel was naturally graceful like Ellie. She always knew the right thing to say. Her responses now to the ladies’ praise was perfectly balanced, not too embarrassed, not too prideful. She was the exact opposite of her artless mother. And she was Ellie’s stiffest competition in the “battle” for the minister. Maggie thought it was funny that it should come to that, since their mothers had always been such rivals. No one knew why, and maybe the two women had even forgotten over the years the dispute that had pitted them against each other. But it wasn’t going to help matters for their daughters to now become rivals. Though in truth, Mabel and Ellie had always been nipping at each other’s heels to be best in school, in play, and of course in stitching. This didn’t mean they weren’t friendly, if not best friends.I t just meant one or the other was always first.
    Maggie was glad she wasn’t going to be involved in this newest competition. She could just sit back and enjoy watching the fur fly.
    The ladies spent some time moving the blocks around to find the most pleasing arrangement. This bored Maggie