Her mother takes her to the shop to try them on, and
is at much pains to make her waist as slender as possible. "Can't you
pull them a little tighter?" she will say to the shopwoman. The girl
has tight new shoes to make her feet look as small as possible; the
_coiffeur_ dresses her hair; and she is very proud of her appearance
when, squeezed into proper shape and decked out in her new clothes,
she sets off to church.
[Illustration: THE HOTEL DE VILLE, BRUSSELS.]
The children are confirmed on the Monday, the day after their first
Communion, and are then taken to visit the friends of the family to be
shown off, and to receive presents. The windows of the confectioners'
shops are full of little white sugar images of boys and girls saying
their prayers, and even the poorest people manage to have a feast of
some sort on this occasion. They often beg money for the purpose. It
is, of course, difficult for parents who are poor to buy new clothes.
But any little gifts of money which a child may receive are taken and
hoarded up to be spent on its first Communion.
All Belgian children, even those whose parents are not Catholics, go,
with scarcely an exception, to first Communion, and are confirmed, for
there may be relatives with money to leave, and they must not be
displeased.
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