The problem of her garb, too, began to seem far less insoluble than it
had seemed the night before. She felt certain, as she travelled with her
springing step, that she would find it possible to meet creditably the
great emergency with what she had at home and could discover at the
little general-store which she was bound for.

When she reached the tiny, mud-chinked structure at the cross-roads,
though, and caught her first glimpse of its lightly burdened shelves,
her heart sank for an instant. Could it be possible that from its stock
she would be able to select material with which she could compete with
folk from the far bluegrass in elegance of garb?

But after she had made investigation and had interested in her project
the lank mountain-woman who presided at the counter, she lost fear of
the result. Together they made careful study of the fashion-papers which
the woman had preserved and which the girl had, the night before,
remembered with such vividness. Through discussion and reiterated
reassurance from her friend, she finally arrived at the decision that
with what she had at hand at home and what she could buy here, she could
prepare herself to meet the elegant lowlanders with a fairly ample
rivalry.

There were few bolts of cloth, of whatever quality or character in the
pitiful little general-store's stock which both women did not finger
speculatively that morning; there was not a piece of pinchbeck jewelry
in the small showcase which they did not study carefully. Especially
Madge dwelt on combs, for Layson, once, had mentioned combs as parts of
the adornment of the women whom he knew. There in the mountains young
girls did not wear them, save of the "circular" variety, designed to
hold back "shingled" tresses. But from underneath a box of faded