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She thought about what the yellow jackets had done to Charley She thought it served Charley right, too It served hihty And the bees had a right to sting him, when he jumped on their home

But she didn’t understand why Pa had called him a little liar She didn’t understand how Charley could be a liar, when he had not said a word

Chapter 12

The Wonderful Machine

Next day Pa cut the heads froht, yellow straws to Ma She put them in a tub of water, to soften them and keep them soft Then she sat in the chair by the side of the tub, and braided the straws

She took up several of thean to braid The straere different lengths, and when she ca one fro

She let the end of the braid fall back into the water and kept on braiding till she had many yards of braid All her spare ti straws

Sheseven of the ser straws for a wider braid, and est straws she made the widest braid of all

When all the straere braided, she threaded a needle with strong white thread, and beginning at the end of a braid she sewed it round and round, holding the braid so it would lie flat after it was sewed This made a little mat, and Ma said it was the top of the crown of a hat

Then she held the braid tighter on one edge, and kept on sewing it around and around The braid drew in and h, Ma held the braid loosely again as she kept on sewing around, and the braid lay flat and was the hat brim

When the brih, Ma cut the braid and sewed the end fast so that it could not unbraid itself

Ma sewed hats for Mary and Laura of the finest, narrowest braid For Pa and for herself she made hats of the wider, notched braid That was Pa’s Sunday hat Then she made him two everyday hats of the coarser, widest braid

When she finished a hat, Ma set it on a board to dry, shaping it nicely as she did so, and when it dried it stayed in the shape she gave it

Ma could make beautiful hats Laura liked to watch her, and she learned how to braid the straw and made a little hat for Charlotte

The days were growing shorter and the nights were cooler One night Jack Frost passed by, and in the reen leaves of the Big Woods Then all the leaves stopped being green They were yellow and scarlet and criolden and brown