American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
"'No, I ain't,' says she; 'an' what's more, I don't want one. I never
seen one yet that they didn't eat an' waste more than their work came
to, let alone their wages;' an' off she went down-stairs.
"Rhody said nothing for a minute, an' I didn't, either. We just looked
at the baby, an' it begun to pucker its face and cry a little, 'bout
as loud as a young kitten. I thought of Sary's squaller of a boy, but
I didn't say anything, and when it was quiet Rhody says:
"'Aunt Nancy, is my baby like Sary's baby?' and she looked so pitiful
I felt as if I could cry.
"'Well,' I says, 'Sary's is bigger. Why do you ask that?'
"Her lips quivered, an' she says:
"'Everybody 'at sees it says, "What an old-fashioned baby! Poor little
thing! Re'ly it's so odd-looking." Is it odd, Aunt Nancy? An' is there
fashions in babies? I thought babies were all alike;' an' she tried to
smile while tears rolled down her white face.
"I tried to cheer her up. She was a baby herself--only a little over
eighteen, you know; an' I went down and made her some toast and tea,
and then fed the baby and got it to sleep, an' left her feelin' pretty
cheerful.
"After that I went over as often as ever I could, and sometimes
carried a little somethin' I cooked to Rhody, but I saw Mis' Curtis
didn't thank me. Once she's good as said so--said her victuals was
good 'nough for anybody. Says I, 'Sick folks like strange cookin'
sometimes, Mis' Curtis, an' Rhody allus liked my ways.' Which was an
unfortunate thing for me to say, fur Mis' Curtis she flew all to
pieces, and said I put mischief in Rhody's head.
"'Here,' she says, 'is her baby three weeks old, an' her barely
settin' up. Your Sary was at work afore her baby was that old, an' I
know it; an' if Mis' Rhody can't wait on herself now, she can go
'thout waitin' on for all of me,' she says.
"'Mis' Curtis,' says I, 'my Sary's a different woman from Rhody.'
"'I guess she is,' says Mis' Curtis, mad as fire.
"'An,' says I, 'Jim ought to get somebody to help wait on Rhody and
take care of the baby,' says I, 'or else it's my 'pinion he won't have
'em long; fur,' says I, 'Rhody's gettin' weaker instead of stronger,
and she ain't got milk fur that pore baby.'
"Then Mis' Curtis she jes' let loose, an' I ketched it. She said it
was all my doin's that Jim married that pore no-'count, stuck-up
school-mistress, an' brought her there to be waited on, an' she knowed
it all along, and now I needn't come a-tryin' to make out as Rhody
wasn't treated well, fur she had wore herself out trottin' up and
down stairs, an' she didn't mean to do it any longer.
"Just then the kitchen door was opened, and old Mr. Curtis came in.
"'Why, howdy, Aunt Nancy?' says he as cheerful, though I knowed he
must have seen somethin' was up."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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