Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/91

 "I says to my Cathay, when we was makin' mention of corsets, 'If you don't take the same measure as Phenie Logan I 'm a Chinaman,' I says. 'But she 's a perfec' thirty-four, ma,' Cathay comes back, she bein' read up from that flock of pattern magazines I bought her last Christmas.

Since when,' says I, 'have they begun to measure figgers like quarter sections? Perfec' thirty-four—huh! Me, I guess I know who 's got a figger an' who ain't without—now young man, if you 've got your stock of corsets laid out, this is what I want." She held up the knotted string taut between stretched hands. "This here farthest knot 's Cathay's measure round the bust; next one 's Sophia an' this shortest one belongs to my Peruggy, this bein' her first pair of stays an' the girl just all boiled up with excitement 'bout 'em."

Woolly Annie, hands on hips and countenance beaming unadulterated joy, awaited the joint conference between Phenie and the clerk over the practical interpretation of the knots. Finally the corresponding articles of web and steel were set aside. Then suddenly from the shepherdess of Poison Spider:

"Young fella, how big are you round the