As soon as the doors was open, after wed all got through judgin and puttin on the ribbons, Milly went and hunted Sarah Jane up and told her that her quilt had the blue ribbon. They said the pore thing like to a fainted for joy. She turned right white, and had to lean up against the post for a while before she could git to the Floral Hall. I never shall forgit her face. It was worth a dozen premiums to me, and Milly, too. She jest stood lookin at that quilt and the blue ribbon on it, and her eyes was full o tears and her lips quiverin, and then she started off and brought the children in to look at Mammys quilt. She met Sam on the way out, and says she: Sam, what do you reckon? My quilt took the premium. And I believe in my soul Sam was as much pleased as Sarah Jane. He came saunterin up, tryin to look unconcerned, but anybody could see he was mighty well satisfied. It does a husband and wife a heap o good to be proud of each other, and I reckon that was the first time Sam ever had cause to be proud o pore Sarah Jane. Its my belief that he thought more o Sarah Jane all the rest o her life jest on account o that premium. Me and Sally Ann helped her pick it out. She had her choice betwixt a butter-dish and a cup, and she took the cup. Folks used to laugh and say that that cup was the only thing in Sarah Janes house that was kept clean and bright, and if it hadnt a been solid silver, shed a wore it all out rubbin it up. Sarah Jane died o pneumonia about three or four years after that, and the folks that nursed her said she wouldnt take a drink o water or a dose o medicine out o any cup but that. Theres some folks, child, that dont have to do anything but walk along and hold out their hands, and the premiums jest naturally fall into em; and theres others that work and strive the best they know how, and nothin ever seems to come to em; and I reckon nobody but the Lord and Sarah Jane knows how much happiness she got out o that cup. Im thankful she had that much pleasure before she died.
There was a quilt hanging over the foot of the bed that had about it a certain air of distinction. It was a solid mass of patchwork, composed of squares, parallelograms, and hexagons. The squares were of dark gray and red-brown, the hexagons were white, the parallelograms black and light gray. I felt sure that it had a history that set it apart from its ordinary fellows.
Where did you get the pattern, Aunt Jane? I asked. I never saw anything like it.
The old ladys eyes sparkled, and she laughed with pure pleasure.
Thats what everybody says, she exclaimed, jumping up and spreading the favored quilt over two laden chairs, where its merits became more apparent and striking. There aint another quilt like this in the State o Kentucky, or the world, for that matter. My granddaughter Henrietta, Mary Frances youngest child, brought me this pattern from Europe.
She spoke the words as one might say, from Paradise, or from Olympus[18], or from the Lost Atlantis[19]. Europe was evidently a name to conjure with, a country of mystery and romance unspeakable. I had seen many things from many lands beyond the sea, but a quilt pattern from Europe! Here at last was something new under the sun. In what shop of London or Paris were quilt patterns kept on sale for the American tourist?
You see, said Aunt Jane, Henrietta married a mighty rich man, and jest as good as hes rich, too, and they went to Europe on their bridal trip. When she come home she brought me the prettiest shawl you ever saw. She made me stand up and shut my eyes, and she put it on my shoulders and made me look in the lookin-glass, and then she says, I brought you a new quilt pattern, too, grandma, and I want you to piece one quilt by it and leave it to me when you die. And then she told me about goin to a town over yonder they call Florence[20], and how she went into a big church that was built hundreds o years before I was born. And she said the floor was made o little pieces o colored stone, all laid together in a pattern, and they called it mosaic. And says I, Honey, has it got anything to do with Moses and his law? You know the Commandments[21] was called the Mosaic Law[22], and was all on tables o stone. And Henrietta jest laughed, and says she: No, grandma; I dont believe it has. But, says she, the minute I stepped on that pavement I thought about you, and I drew this pattern off on a piece o paper and brought it all the way to Kentucky for you to make a quilt by. Henrietta bought the worsted for me, for she said it had to be jest the colors o that pavement over yonder, and I made it that very winter.
Aunt Jane was regarding the quilt with worshipful eyes, and it really was an effective combination of color and form.
Many a time while I was piecin that, she said, I thought about the man that laid the pavement in that old church, and wondered what his name was, and how he looked, and what hed think if he knew there was a old woman down here in Kentucky usin his patterns to make a bed quilt.