Amanda: A Daughter of the MennonitesMyers, Anna Balmer
General
Amanda: A Daughter of the Mennonites
Myers, Anna Balmer
Mennonites -- Fiction
"I'm not so easy fooled. I won't get out of this room till I'm carried
out, I know. My goodness, abody thinks back over a lot o' things when
you get right sick once! I made a will, Millie, and a pretty good one,"
the sick woman laughed as if in enjoyment of a pleasant secret. Her
nurse attributed the laughter to delirium. But Aunt Rebecca went on,
astonishing the other woman more and deepening the conviction that the
strange talk was due to flightiness.
"Yes, I made a will! Some people'll say I was crazy, but you tell them
for me I'm as sane as any one. My goodness, can't abody do what abody
wants with your own money? Didn't I slave and scratch and skimp like
everything all my life! And you bet I'm goin' to give that there money
just where I want!"
"Ach, people always fuss about wills. It gives them something to talk
about," said Millie, thinking argument useless.
"Yes, it won't worry me. I won't hear it. I have it all fixed where and
how I want to be buried, and all about the funeral. I want to have a
nice funeral, eat in the meeting-house, and have enough to eat, too. I
was to a funeral once and everything got all before all the people had
eaten. I was close livin', but I ain't goin' to be close dead."
"Now you go to sleep," ordered Millie. "You can tell me the rest some
other time."
That evening as Millie sat on a low rocker by the bedside, the dim
flare of an oil lamp flickering on the faces of the two women, Aunt
Rebecca told more of the things she was so eager to detail while
strength lasted.
"Jonas always thought that if I lived longest half of what I have
should go back to the Miller people, his side of the family. But I tell
you, Millie, none of them ever come to see me except one or two who
come just for the money. They was wishin' long a'ready I'd die and
they'd get it. But Jonas didn't put that in the will. He left me
everything and he did say once I could do with it what I want. So I
made a will and I'm givin' them Millers five thousand dollars in all
and the rest--well, you'll find out what I done with the rest after I'm
gone. I never had much good out my money and I'm havin' a lot of
pleasure lyin' here and thinkin' what some people will do with what I
leave them in my will. I had a lot of good that way a'ready since I'm
sick. People will have something to talk about once when I die."
And so the sick woman rambled on, while Millie thought the fever caused
the strange words and paid little attention to their import. But,
several weeks later, when the querulous old woman closed her eyes in
her long, last sleep, Millie, who had nursed her so faithfully,
remembered each detail of the funeral as Aunt Rebecca had told her and
saw to it that every one was carried out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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