Three Lives: Stories of The Good Anna, Melanctha and The Gentle LenaStein, Gertrude
General
Three Lives: Stories of The Good Anna, Melanctha and The Gentle Lena
Stein, Gertrude
Working class women -- Fiction
The good cook sometimes made Lena come to see her. Lena would come
with her baby and sit there in the kitchen, and watch the good woman
cooking, and listen to her sometimes a little, the way she used to,
while the good german woman scolded her for going around looking so
careless when now she had no trouble, and sitting there so dull, and
always being just so thankless. Sometimes Lena would wake up a little
and get back into her face her old, gentle, patient, and unsuffering
sweetness, but mostly Lena did not seem to hear much when the good
german woman scolded. Lena always liked it when Mrs. Aldrich her good
mistress spoke to her kindly, and then Lena would seem to go back
and feel herself to be like she was when she had been in service.
But mostly Lena just lived along and was careless in her clothes, and
dull, and lifeless.
By and by Lena had two more little babies. Lena was not so much scared
now when she had the babies. She did not seem to notice very much
when they hurt her, and she never seemed to feel very much now about
anything that happened to her.
They were very nice babies, all these three that Lena had, and Herman
took good care of them always. Herman never really cared much about
his wife, Lena. The only things Herman ever really cared for were his
babies. Herman always was very good to his children. He always had a
gentle, tender way when he held them. He learned to be very handy with
them. He spent all the time he was not working, with them. By and by
he began to work all day in his own home so that he could have his
children always in the same room with him.
Lena always was more and more lifeless and Herman now mostly never
thought about her. He more and more took all the care of their three
children. He saw to their eating right and their washing, and he
dressed them every morning, and he taught them the right way to do
things, and he put them to their sleeping, and he was now always every
minute with them. Then there was to come to them, a fourth baby. Lena
went to the hospital near by to have the baby. Lena seemed to be going
to have much trouble with it. When the baby was come out at last, it
was like its mother lifeless. While it was coming, Lena had grown very
pale and sicker. When it was all over Lena had died, too, and nobody
knew just how it had happened to her.
The good german cook who had always scolded Lena, and had always to
the last day tried to help her, was the only one who ever missed
her. She remembered how nice Lena had looked all the time she was
in service with her, and how her voice had been so gentle and
sweet-sounding, and how she always was a good girl, and how she never
had to have any trouble with her, the way she always had with all the
other girls who had been taken into the house to help her. The good
cook sometimes spoke so of Lena when she had time to have a talk with
Mrs. Aldrich, and this was all the remembering there now ever was of
Lena.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account