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
"That summer, when berries was ripe, Mrs. Kemp let me go and pick 'em
and carry 'em round to sell; and she said I might have a cent for every
quart I sold. I got over three dollars that summer for myself."
"What did you do with it?"
"I bought some shoes, and some yarn to knit me some stockings. I can
knit real good."
"How came you to leave Mrs. Kemp."
"Partly 't was 'cause she didn't like my not buying her old green shawl
with my share of the money for the berries; and partly 'cause I got
cold, and it settled in my feet so's I couldn't hardly go round. So she
told me she'd concluded to have me go back to the poor-house. If she
kept a girl, she said, she wanted one to wait on her, and not to be
waited on. She waited two or three days to see if I didn't get better,
so as I could walk over there; but I didn't. And one day it had been
raining, but it held up awhile, and she see a neighbor riding by, and
she run out and asked him if he couldn't carry me over to the
poor-house. He said he could if she wanted him to; so I went. I had on
my cape, and it wa'n't very warm. She asked me when I come away, if I
wa'n't sorry I hadn't a shawl. I expect I did catch cold. I couldn't set
up nor do nothing for more 'n three weeks. When I got so I could knit,
my yarn was gone. I never knew what become of it; and one of the women
used to borrow my shoes for her little girl, and she wore 'em out So,
come spring, I was just where I was the year before, only lonesomer,
cause Jinny was gone."
"And did you stay there?"
"To the poor-house? No; Betty Crosfield wanted a girl to come and help
her. She took in washing for Mr. Furniss's hands. She said I wa'n't
strong enough to earn much, but she would pay me in clothes. She give me
a Shaker bonnet and an old gown that the soap had took the color out of,
and she made a tack in it, so's it did. And I had my cape. When
strawberries come, the hands was most all gone, and she let me sleep
there, and go day-times after berries, and she to have half the pay.
That's how I got my red calico and my shawl."
"Who made your dress, Rhoda?"
"Miss Reeny, I carried it over to see if she'd cut it out, and she said
she'd make it if they'd let her, and they did. And I got her some green
tea. She used to say sometimes, she'd give anything for a cup of green
tea, such as her mother used to have."
"Who is Miss Reeny?"
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