Free PIECES OF LAUGHTER AND FUN by Unknown Page A

noticed my white stockings right away.
    "How did you get out of the house without your ma seeing you?" she demanded. "Are you wearing your good dress, too?"
    I opened my coat to show her, and she shook her head in disbelief.
    "What will happen when your ma finds out? You'll get it for sure."
    "She already knows," I replied. "This was a decision I made on my own. I can make up my mind about things that aren't important."
    "I wish I could," Sarah Jane said enviously. "You sure are lucky. Are you going to dress up every day?"
    "Probably not every day," I replied. "I'll think of other things to decide. It will be nice that someone won't be telling me what to do all the time."
    Sarah Jane agreed, and we hurried on to school. We were early, and there was a game of hopscotch started on the school ground.
    "Come on, Mabel, let's play," Sarah Jane said. "We have a few minutes before the bell rings."
    "I guess I'd better not," I replied. "I don't want to get my stockings dirty." I went over and leaned up against the building to watch the others. I was sad about not joining them. But I comforted myself by thinking how nice I looked.
    I was sure the other girls would notice, and I wasn't disappointed. They gathered around when I took my coat off and admired my dress.
    "Are you going to a party after school, Mabel?"
    "Is this your birthday?"
    "How did you get your mother to let you wear your good dress?"
    I explained as modestly as I could, and proudly took my seat. Even Miss Gibson remarked about how nice I looked. This would surely be one of the best days I'd ever had.
    During the morning, Miss Gibson announced that we would collect pussy willows from the ditch along the road. She looked at me doubtfully.
    "You'd better not, Mabel," she said. "I wouldn't want you to get grass stains and dirt on that nice dress."
    So I stayed with my books while the others waded happily through the weeds. I could hear them shouting back and forth to each other, and I wished I could be out there with them. But there was a price to pay for looking beautiful, and I was willing to pay it.
    At noontime, I ate carefully, and then stood and watched everyone play ball or tag. This would not do for every day, I decided. It was too lonely, being left out of everything.
    In the afternoon, we had penmanship. When we had made a good copy of the day's lesson on our slate, we were allowed to put it in our copybooks in ink. I always enjoyed this class, and took great pride in keeping my copybook free of blots. So far this year, it was in perfect shape.
    Sarah Jane and I had just opened the bottle of ink we shared, when someone bumped our desk.
    "Oh! It's tipping!" Sarah Jane cried. She reached to grab the bottle, but the ink was streaming down the desk. Quickly I moved my copybook out of the way, allowing the ink to roll into my lap.
    "Don't stand up, Mabel, or it will go all over your stockings," Sarah Jane screeched.
    But she was too late. I was already standing up. The ink rolled down my dress, onto my stockings, and then splattered all over the floor.
    Miss Gibson was sympathetic, but she couldn't do much to get the stain out of my clothes. I finished the afternoon in a state of gloom.
    "At least you didn't ruin your copybook," Sarah Jane comforted me as we left school. "You can display it at the end of the year."
    "That's great," I replied glumly. "Now if there were some way I could wear my copybook to church, everything would be all right. I sure hate to have ma see this."
    "What do you think she'll say?"
    "She's already said it," I told her. "I've made my bed and I have to lie in it."
    Sarah Jane digested this information in silence. "That sounds like something my mother would say, too. Half the time I don't know what she's talking about. I never ask, because I probably don't want to know."
    "I guess I won't go home," I decided.
    "I don't think that's such a good idea," Sarah Jane protested. "You can't stay away until you grow up. Besides, where would you sleep