Part 3 (2/2)
All at once she drew herself up, held high her head, breathed hard a few times, then said, slowly:
”I am a maid that is determined to get learning,--and I will!”
At that she lay down again, and slept until the sun was high. Then up she jumped, crept into the kitchen, and began setting the table while Mistress Brace was down at the spring getting fresh water.
All the hot morning Sally was busy at her scrubbing and cleaning, and it must be told that not as happy or as sure did she feel as in the morning, because the hot sun and the wood fire had taken down her spirits.
And so, as she rested for a little in the afternoon, on the steps she had scrubbed in the morning, it in truth much cheered her to see Mammy Leezer come trundling along, and to know she would hear the dulcet voice. Her face lighted up, but not before Mammy had seen the sober, longing look she had worn a moment before.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”IT IN TRUTH MUCH CHEERED HER TO SEE MAMMY LEEZER COME TRUNDLING ALONG.”]
”What a-matter, honey?” The question was in the caressing voice of the old Mammy.
”I was wis.h.i.+ng,” said Sally.
”What for?”
”For things I must wait long before getting.”
”And you want 'em bad, honey?”
”Oh, dreadfully.”
Mammy shook like a jelly-bag. ”You look a-here,” she said, ”you jus'
look a-here; jus' as sh.o.r.e as a lil young one have a clef in de middle ob her chin way down, she a-goin' fo' to get what she want'n. You mind now! I neber seen a lil pick'ninny, white or brack, have a split long de lower story ob her chin, but firs' or last she's gett'n' her own way.
Doan't yo' fret now, but 'member what I tole you, and you's all right.
And yo' lil chin is most split'n' in half. Lorr! it a mercy it hole togedder so long!”
Mammy went rolling along, still shaking with laughter, while away ran Sally for a peep into her fragment of a mirror.
”My chin _is_ split along the middle way down low,” she said, ”and perhaps Mammy knows!”
She felt happy again when it came time to put the leaf up against the wall, get down the plates from the old dresser, mix the ash-cakes for supper, and set the rashers to sizzling.
CHAPTER V.
THE NEW SALLY
When Sally went to the attic, having it in her mind to fix herself up a little, she had a feeling of anxiety she did not understand. But you see, it was the new Sally, beginning, just beginning, to spring into life.
And the first thing she was learning was her own ignorance, her own needs, and her own wants.
”My head is like a scarecrow!” she said; ”where can I find a comb?”
She crept down to Mistress Cory Ann's room and found a coa.r.s.e, half-broken comb. Alas! she could do nothing with it. Her ruddy hair curled around it, across it, along it, but through it the matted ma.s.s would not go.
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