16.

It too, was large for me, but not so horribly so. After further examination mother said, "Really K--, you dont look badly at all. That dress is still too big, and you lack proper_bosom and hips, but all-in-all you dont look badly at all! Looking at myself in her mirror I thought I looked horrible--exactly like what I was, a boy wearing a dress. But there was one exception, the thing that mother had noticed about me first, my legs were set off by the hem of the dress and the high-heeled pumps were quite presentable indeed.

I walked around the room, glancing at myself from time to time and frankly curious about my strange clothes while mother finished dressing. As she finished, her ever-neat appearance, good figure and grooming, made me more than ever a scarecrow. I became conscious of the ludicrous contrast contrast and I wanted to get the things off. It is always embarassing to look badly.

But just as mother finished my sister came in. When she saw me she howled with laughter--not that I blame her now-but at the time it made me decidedly uncomfortable and there was nothing I could do about it for both of them insisted that I wear the dress until father came home and could see me too. So I waited uncomfortably, help- ing mother with dinner in the meantime until father ar- rived home. When he first saw me his jaw dropped a mile then just as sister had, he burst into laughter too.

Father and sister were just as close as mother and I were, and they really ganged up on me. Though I tried to slip away to change they would have none of it, insist- ing that I eat dinner that way. The whole meal was a sequence of one joke after another, and when the subject of my bosom, or rather the lack of it, came up, father got to laughing so hard he almost choked. All this humor at my expense bothered me at first but it was in good fun and before long I was laughing as hard as the rest.

Mother, however, seemed to feel the laughter was