Belles on their Toes by Frank B. Gilbreth Read Free Book Online

and a bathing suit, but Martha was determined not to waste the money.
    "I just need some things to bum around in," she said. "I'm not a boy-crazy flapper, trying to impress an Amherst man. I'll find something."
    Anne and Ernestine agreed they'd hand her down some clothes, and Frank said he'd hand up a sweatshirt, some jerseys, and a pair of dungarees.
    "Swell," Martha said. "I don't have to worry about a bathing suit because I can wear Mother's until she gets here. And I'll write her to be sure to pick up my suit when she stops by Montclair."
    "I can see you in Mother's suit," Ernestine scoffed. "Why it's practically a Gay Nineties model."
    "Who cares about that?" Martha said. "All I want is something to cover me. You two make me sick."
    Mother wasn't a swimmer and didn't like the water. She did occasionally wade in up to her knees, splash some water on her shoulders, duck down almost to her elbows, and then hurry home. If she met any of us en route to the beach, she'd inform us, through blue lips and chattering teeth, the surf that day seemed particularly refreshing. The waves on the bathing beach never got more than a foot high during a full gale, but even in a flat calm it was surf to Mother.
    Mother's suit left nothing exposed. Even Dad, who insisted that the girls wear black, old-fashioned models, had to admit that Mother carried modesty a little to the extreme, and that she seemed to put on more than she took off when she prepared to go in the water.
    Her suit had numerous appurtenances, including a sash and a bandanna. But its two principal components were a black undergarment, that started with a hug-me-tight neck and ended several inches below the knees, and a huge, long, black, billowing outergarment, that Dad said might be useful to Barnum and Bailey if it were dyed khaki. The outergarment had long sleeves and hung down to Mother's ankles, which themselves were encased in black cotton stockings and high bathing shoes.
    "Mother's suit is out of the question," Anne told Martha. "You'd look completely ridiculous in it."
    "If it's good enough for Mother," said Martha, "it's good enough for me. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, talking about her clothes like that."
    "It's not her clothes that are ridiculous," Anne said. "A few years ago, everybody wore suits like that, and a good many people Mother's age still do. But it would look ridiculous on you."
    "It's not much more ridiculous than the suits Dad made us wear," Martha protested. "We have to wear a black thing underneath, and sort of dresses, too."
    "I know it," Anne admitted. "But at least ours end at the knees and have short sleeves."
    It had taken Anne years to get Dad to allow her and the other girls to bob their hair and wear short skirts, silk stockings, and teddies. Dad hadn't approved of the style trends that had set in since the war. He said they were purely temporary, that girls eventually would come to their senses, and the fact that everyone else dressed that way made no difference. He had refused to yield any more than the sleeves and a couple of inches around the hems of the girls' swimming outfits. It was a sore point with the two oldest girls.
    Martha kept insisting to Anne that she would look all right in Mother's suit, and Anne finally gave in.
    "All right," Anne said. "If you don't care how you look, I suppose I don't. And since none of us should go out with boys until Mother gets here, I guess you can't do Ernestine and me any permanent damage."
    Frank, Bill, and the younger children already had on their suits, and the two boys took the younger ones down to the beach, which was only a couple of hundred yards from the cottage. Martha said she'd slip on Mother's suit and join them. Anne and Ernestine had to finish sorting sheets and blankets, and told Martha they'd be down in about half an hour.
    It was late afternoon when the two oldest girls finally reached the beach. Both of them were tired from the journey to Nantucket and the housework. They