CHAPTER XV.

MARY AND ELIZABETH VISIT SADIE SINGMASTER.


Farmer Landis, happening to mention at the breakfast table his
intention of driving over to the "Ax Handle Factory" to obtain wood
ashes to use as a fertilizer, his wife remarked, "Why not take Mary
with you, John? She can stop at Singmaster's with a basket of carpet
rags for Sadie. I've been wanting to send them over for some time."
Turning to Mary, she said: "Poor little, crippled Sadie! On account of
a fall, which injured her spine, when a small child, she has been
unable to walk for years. She cuts and sews carpet rags, given her by
friends and neighbors, and from their sale to a carpet weaver in a
near-by town, helps her widowed mother eke out her small income."

"I'd love to go see her," said Mary. Elizabeth Schmidt also expressed
her willingness to go, when asked, saying: "I am positive mother will
add her contribution to the carpet rags for Sadie, I do pity her so
very much."

"Yes," said Mary's Aunt, "she is poor and proud. She will not accept
charity, so we persuade her to take carpet rags, as we have more than
we can possibly use."

On reaching the Singmaster cottage, the girls alighted with their
well-filled baskets, Mary's Uncle driving on to the "Ax Handle