Oldfield: A Kentucky Tale of the Last CenturyBanks, Nancy Huston
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Oldfield: A Kentucky Tale of the Last Century
Banks, Nancy Huston
Kentucky -- Fiction
"You can always tell a body in trouble what to do," she appealed to Miss
Judy. "Maybe you can even tell me what to do with that child. I know how
rough I am, but I don't know how to help it. I'm bound to bounce around
and make a noise. I don't know any other way of getting along. And then
there are Billy and Kate. They won't do a thing they're told unless
they're stormed at. Yet if I shout at them, there's Doris turning white,
and shaking, and looking as if she'd surely die. I tell you, Miss Judy,
I feel as if I'd been given a fine china cup to tote and might break it
any minute."
Miss Judy, the comforter of all the afflicted and the adviser of all the
troubled, said what she could to help Sidney. Doris _was_ different from
other children. There was no doubt about that and about its being
difficult to know how to deal with such a sensitive nature. Miss Judy
said that she did not believe, however, that any other mother would have
done any better than Sidney had--which comforted Sidney inexpressibly.
The little body could not think of anything to advise. She did not know
much about children, and she had not much confidence in her own judgment
in matters concerning them. So that, at last, after a long talk and for
lack of a clearer plan, Miss Judy proposed that Sidney should bring
Doris the next morning when setting out on her professional round, and
should leave the little one with Miss Sophia and herself. Miss Sophia
might think of the very thing to do; without living in the house with
Miss Sophia it was impossible to know how sound and practical her
judgment was--so Miss Judy told Sidney. The kind proposal lightened
Sidney's heart and she accepted it at once. She had her own opinion as
to the value of Miss Sophia's ideas, but she responded as she knew would
please Miss Judy; and she was sure at all events that Miss Judy, who was
just such another sensitive plant, would know what to do with Doris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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