“That’s better… the less like a boy you look the more tolerable you’ll be,” she said. Billy can’t help but stuck his lip out as he feels the big floppy bow on his head. He sits, gulps, and looks at Alice. She smiles reassuringly at Billy, pitying him more and more with every passing moment.
The next day, Billy wears the same yellow dress and the same yellow ribbon in his hair. Both are humiliating to wear but nothing prepared him for the sense of shame he feels when they’re taken down to the small town and all the folk look and stare with bemused expressions on their faces. Mrs Postlethwaite seems to be well known and well respected by the townsfolk and shamelessly tells all & sundry that the clothes that Billy had brought with him were simply too filthy and lice-ridden and had to be disposed of.