The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Whitmarsh's old faded calico sack one, nor nothing in her hand neither.
So pretty soon she dropped to sleep again, and I did too. And I slept
later 'n common. The sun was shining right into my eyes when I opened
'em. I thought 't would trouble Jinny, and I was just going to pin her
skirt up to the window, and I see that she looked awful white. I put my
hand on her forehead, and it was just as cold as a stone. So then I knew
she was dead. I never see her look so happy like. She had the
pleasantest smile on her lips ever you see. I didn't know as Mrs. Kemp'd
like to have me stay, but I just brushed her hair,--'t was real pretty
hair, just a little mite curly,--and then I run home and told Mrs. Kemp.
She said she'd just as lives I'd stay over to Mrs. Whitmarsh's as not
that day, 'cause she was going over to Woodstock shopping. So I went
back again, and Mrs. Whitmarsh she sent me to one of the selectmen to
see if she'd got to be to the expense of the funeral, 'cause she said it
didn't seem right, seeing she never got much work out of Jinny, she was
always so weakly. And Mr. Robbins he said the town would pay for the
coffin and digging the grave. That made her real pleasant; and I don't
know what put me up to it, but I was real set on it that Jinny should
have on a white gown in the coffin. And I asked Mrs. Whitmarsh if I
mightn't go over to Miss Bradford's; and she let me, and Miss Bradford
give me an old white gown, if I'd iron it; and Polly Wheelock, she was
Miss Bradford's girl, she helped me put it on to Jinny. And then Polly
got some white lilies, and I got some sweetbrier sprigs, and laid round
her in the coffin. I've seen prettier coffins, but I never see no face
look so pretty as Jinny's. Mrs. Whitmarsh had the funeral next morning.
She said she wanted to that night, so she could put the room airing, but
she supposed folks would talk, and, besides, they didn't get the grave
dug quick enough neither. Mrs. Kemp let me go to the funeral. I thought
they was going to carry her over to the poor-house burying-ground, but
they didn't, 'cause 't would cost so much for a horse and wagon. The
right minister was gone away, and the one that was there was going off
in the cars, so he had to hurry. There wa'n't hardly anybody there, only
some men to let the coffin down, and the sexton, and Mrs. Whitmarsh and
Polly Wheelock and I. The minister prayed a little speck of a prayer and
went right away. I heard Mrs. Whitmarsh telling Mrs. Kemp she thought
she'd got out of it pretty well, seeing she didn't expect nothing but
what she'd got to buy the coffin, and get the grave dug, and be to all
the expense. She said she guessed nobody'd catch her having another girl
bound out to her. Mrs. Kemp said she always knew 't was a great risk,
and that was why she didn't have me bound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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