When breakfast was finished, Grandfather told Arthur to get his boots and raincoat. All little boys like to wear boots and raincoats so Arthur hurried upstairs to get them. It was the first chance he had to wear them since at Beverly Farm.

"Ardath, I suppose you will be wanting to help Miss Mary sew those blue silk pajamas, this morning." Grandfather said as a sort of question while at the same time he told her what her chores would be for the morning.

"Oh, yes.' Ardath answered eagerly. "We are going to finish them, today, so you can tell us, tonight, when we are going to wear them."

"So, we know already, that we will talk about blue silk pajamas, tonight," grandfather laughed, then added "-if we don't talk about anything else."

While Arthur, Adam and Grandfather were doing the barn chores, Ardath helped Mary. First, they cleared away the breakfast dishes, then they went to the sewing room. Ardath "ready up" Mary's sewing basket. That was what Miss Mary called putting something in order. She wound the loose thread on spools and fastened the ends in the slit at the top of the spool.

Mary said there were no more bastings to take out, but there were still a few pins in the garments. Ardath took out the pins and put them in a little, hand-painted china chest, on the window sill. She picked all the pins from the floor and those that were scattered about on the sewing machine and put them in the little china chest.

While Mary did hand work on the two pairs of pajamas, Ardath threaded needles with threads a yard long for her to use. She measured the thread with a yard stick. Mary explained to her about the importance of the thread being the right length.

"If the threads are too long, they will tangle as they are pulled through the material." Mary said, so Ardath was very careful in measuring.

In the middle of the forenoon, the pajamas were finished.

"Here you are, little lady," Mary said as she folded the pajamas after pressing them. "This pair is for you." She handed Ardath the biggest pair. "You see, it has a collar and places on the front of the blouse for buttons. The button holes are all made. You may sew on the buttons."

Mary held up the other pair of pajamas. "This pair is for Arthur. It has no collar and no buttons. A boy like to pull clothing over his head better than button them."

Arthur's pajama pants were open in the front and had a big snap at the waist. Ardath's pants had elastic the whole way around the waist. Mary pointed out all the differences so they could tell the pairs apart before she gave Ardath the buttons to sew on her pajamas.

Mother had taught Ardath how to sew on buttons. Mary had a pin where every button was to be sewed. She knotted the thread in the needles, Ardath had threaded which had not been used and gave her three glistening, blue pearl buttons.

As the last button was in place and well fastened in the back, Grandfather and Arthur came back into the house. Both of them put their wet raincoats on hooks in a breezeway outside the kitchen door and set their boots in racks on the floor, below the raincoats.

"We can't work in the garden, today because it is raining." Arthur announced, importantly. Grandfather says we may play until lunch time.

Ardath looked perplexed. "We didn't bring our toys along, except some books and colors. We looked at all the books on the train and colored all our coloring books. It is raining, so we can't play in the garden." She concluded her audible thinking.

"I'm glad you didn't bring any toys along. It is good to learn to play without toys, sometimes." Grandfather did not wonder what the children were going to do on a rainy day. "I'll show you how to play ‘Turtle', he offered a solution to what seemed like a problem.

"I never heard of playing ‘Turtle'," Arthur was interested in the idea.

"I never did, either." Ardath added.

"No, I don't suppose you ever did hear of it." Grandfather mused. "When I was a little boy and lived far out in the country on a farm, there were no radios and no coloring books. There were very few of any kind of books for children. There were adult books but they had no pictures in them that children could understand."

Ardath was sympathetic. "That was sad, wasn't it, Grandfather?"

"In many ways it was a blessing and not sad at all. On a rainy day when we didn't know what else to do, my brothers and I used to make up little activities to entertain ourselves." Grandfather smiled remembering his childhood. "It helped develop our imaginations. It is good to develop the imagination as a child so one can imagine the success and ideals of growing up into useful and happy adults."
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