Christian Science -- Fiction; People with disabilities -- Fiction
Carolina took her writing materials out on the back porch. There was
not a small table in the house whose legs did not wabble, so she propped
the best of them with chips from Aunt Calla’s wood-pile and wrote until
Aunt Calla could stand it no longer.
"Miss Calline, honey," she said, "you writes so fas’ wid yo’ fingahs,
would you min’ ef I brung de aigplant out here to peel it en watch you?
I won’t make no fuss."
"Certainly not, Aunt Calla. I’d be glad to have you."
"Hum! hum! You sho have got pretty mannahs, Miss Calline. Youse got de
mannahs ob de ole ladies of de South. You don’t see ’em now’days wid de
young ladies. De young people got de po’est mannahs I ebber did
see,--screechin’ and hollerin’ to each odder ’cross de street, or from
one eend ob de house to de other. Ole mahster would ’a’ lammed his
chillen ef dey’d cut up sech capers en his time! But Miss
Peachie,--she’s got de La Grange mannahs. She’s Mist’ Moultrie’s
sistah. Dey calls her ’Peachie’ caze she’s got such pretty red in huh
cheeks,--lake yores. Most ladies down in dese pahts is too white to
suit me. I lakes ’em pinky and pretty."
"Thank you, Aunt Calla!" cried Carolina. "I wonder if I couldn’t get
Cousin Lois to give you that black grenadine you thought was so pretty
yesterday."
Aunt Calla laid down her knife.
"Miss Calline, is you foolin’ me?"
"No, Calla, I am not."
"Dish yere grenadier dress I mean is lined wid black silk!"
"I know it."
"En you gwine gib dat to me?"
"I am thinking of it."
"Well, glory be! Ef you does dat, Ise gwine jine de chutch all over
ag’in, en I reckon I’ll jine de Babtis’ dish yere time. Dey’s mo’ style
to de Babtis’ den to de Meth’diss. Ise ’bleeged to live up to dat silk
linin’!"
The old woman’s face took on a worried look.
"I don’ keer!" she said aloud. "I don’ keer! Nemmine, Miss Calline!
You wouldn’ laff so ef you knew what Ise studyin’ ’bout doin’. Ise been
savin’ my money foh two years now to get a gravestone foh my fou’th
husban’ what done died three yeahs ago. He baiged me wid his las’
breath to bury him stylish, en I promus him I would. He was all for
style. Do you know, Miss Calline, dat man would ’a’ gone hongry rathah
dan turn his meat ovah awn de fiah. He was de mos’ dudish man I ebber
see. But I can’t he’p it. Ise gwine take dat grave-stone money and hab
dat dress made to fit me good en stylish. En I bet Miss Peachie will
charge me eve’y cent I got to do it!"
"Who?" demanded Carolina.
"Miss Peachie La Grange. She does all my sewin’ foh me, an’ foh Lily,
too. Dat’s de way she mek huh money. Yas, _ma’am_. Sewin’ foh
niggahs!"
Aunt Calla paused with her mouth open, for Carolina, regardless of what
anybody thought, sprang up, overturning her table, spilling her ink over
Aunt Calla’s clean porch floor, and scattering her papers to the four
winds of heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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