If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
Samuel Johnson
Drinking Ink
“Why, that’s Cruella de Vil,” said Mrs Dearly. “We were at school together. She was expelled for drinking ink.”
from The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
Threading a Needle with Wool
“But how do you make the wool go through? It’s horrid to lick, too. All the whiskers come off.”
“Don’t you know the special way of threading wool into a needle?” asked Aunt Helen, laughing. “How about when you darn your socks?”
“Mummy does them,” said Mary, going a little pink. “Yes – I know I’m spoilt. Gran says so. But with homework and everything, and going to bed early, there isn’t much time. Besides,” in a small voice, “it’s awfully boring.”
“Well, I’m not really one to talk,” said Aunt Helen, “as my mother always darned mine. Come over here and I’ll show you how to thread a wool needle. Look – fold it round the shaft of the needle, pinch it together so that it makes a little loop, and slip it off. Now push the loop through the eye of the needle and it goes in quite happily.”
from Embroidery Mary by Priscilla M Warner