"A person can never get true greatness," she wrote, "by trying for
it. You get it when you're not looking for it. It's nice to have good
clothes--it makes it a lot easier to act decent--but it is a sign of
true greatness to act when you haven't got them just as good as if
you had. One time when Ma was a little girl they had a bird at their
house, called Bill, that broke his leg. They thought they would have
to kill him, but next morning they found him propped up sort of
sideways on his good leg, singing! That was true greatness. One time
there was a woman that had done a big washing and hung it on the
line. The line broke and let it all down in the mud, but she didn't
say a word, only did it over again; and this time she spread it on
the grass, where it couldn't fall. But that night a dog with dirty
feet ran over it. When she saw what was done, she sat down and didn't
cry a bit. All she said was: 'Ain't it queer that he didn't miss
nothing!' That was true greatness, but it's only people who have
done washings that know it! Once there was a woman that lived near a
pig-pen, and when the wind blew that way it was very smelly, indeed;
and at first when she went there to live she couldn't smell anything
but straight pig, but when she lived there a while she learned to
smell the clover blossoms through it. That was true greatness."
* * *
Camilla's wedding had been a great event in Pearl's life. It had
taken place early one Wednesday morning in the church at Millford. It
was a pretty wedding, the paper said. The altar of the church was
banked high with wild roses, whose sweet perfume made Pearl think of
school-books--she always kept her books full of rose petals, and to
her it was a real geography smell.
Mr. Burrell and Mr. Grantley both took part in the ceremony, to show
there was no hard feelings, Pearl thought, for Camilla was a
Presbyterian and Jim was a Methodist.
Mr. Francis brought Camilla in, and Pearl followed. Jim and the
doctor stood at the altar, while down from the choir-gallery, which
seemed to be overflowing with roses, came the strains of the
wedding-march. Pearl had never heard it before, but it seemed to her
now as if she had always known it, for in it throbbed the very same
joy that was beating in her own heart. It was all over in a minute
and they were coming down the aisle, her hand on the doctor's arm.
The carriage was waiting for them at the door, and they drove back to
the house, everybody talking and laughing and throwing rice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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