When Grandmamma Was New: The Story of a Virginia Childhood

gedy of

lly! Isn't she the swee

tep, elbows on knees and shoulders hunched su

e it except the lilac hedge bounding it on the garden side, and one sickly peach tree growing at the cor

ring like a bit of steel into her small soul. The room behind me was my mother's-the "chamber" of the Southern home. A big four-poster, hung with dimity curtains, stood in the farther corner. The dimity valance, trimmed, like the curtains, with ball fringe, hid the trundle-bed that was pulled out at night for Mary '

up and out early next morning and "found her indeed, but it made my heart bleed," for a field mouse-with six acres of roasting-ears to choose from-had made his supper on the bran that served my poor Musidora for brains, nibbling a hole in the exact region of the medulla oblon

which were laid on with indelible ink instead of water-colors. She hung, head downward, in front of the kitchen fire for twelve hour

putting on Musidora's night-gown, I

e-'nough doll-baby while you are in town. It f'yar breaks my heart to see

what I had heard. Only, of course, Musidora and I talked it all over. I assured her that she was going to have a beautiful siste

nd I were sent to my Aunt Eliza Carter's to stay until they returned, when Cousin Molly Be

. "I was afraid she might be troublesome. She is not as steady as Mary 'L

mpled arms, and fluffy, kittenish ways, while I was as lean as a snake, as brown as a chinquapin, and as wild as a hawk. I was used to hearing myself compared to all three. Mary 'Liza could read in the New Testament without stopping to

ks and liked to stay indoors and piece bedquilts and knit stockings and read aloud to my mother. I never willingly spent an hour in the house when I could get out, and had odd plays of my own which I kept secret from Mary 'L

smiling at our expectant faces. From it she drew the biggest, prettiest doll-baby we had ever seen, in a blue silk frock with a sash to match. She had real hair, curly and black a

ope she did not hear the cry. She lai

mother's dearest friend, sen

very few pictures, and a good deal of

o have to say that my little girl does not know her letters yet," sa

a word, and marched toward the

ay for your pr

still, my eyes

sorrowfully took the p

d stop pouting, you can have it b

, I, with the choice of parts, electing invariably to play the persecuted and finally triumphant biped. The fury of forty wild beasts was in my heart, as I pushed aside the prickly branches and crept into my lair. The den was paved with bricks, loosely laid. With a pointed stick I

she washed and made me decent in clean frock, apron, and pantalettes, she scolded me for my "low-lived, onladylike ways," and warned me of her solemn intention to "tell my mother on me," the next time such a disgrace

or into the dining room, where Uncle Ike, her husband, was in waiting. He, in turn, smuggled me behi

to Uncle Ike's shameless partiality in loading my plate with choice tidbits, such as a gizzard, a merry-thought, or a cheese-cake, while Mary 'Liza had to ask twice for what she wanted. What was not tasteless was bitter to my palate. I wondered, dully, why the sight of the doll-baby and the fuss her owner made over her, turned me sick. As soon as I could get away, I slipped down, a

the chamber behind me, cooing to, and hushing her doll-baby, with tones

ed presently. "I wouldn't mind if you'd promise not to t

lt her standing close by me. Musidora had dropped from my lap, and lay, face downward,

ozillah. Isn't that a love-el-ly? I made it out of my own head

asty name," was my

fine horror which st

a word for a li

the first time, my eyes

s nasty, and Rozillah is

o worse language,

glanced right and left and upward nervously

r," she faltered, her self-possession forsak

lanced over her shoulder to say, in h

t make any noise an

Rozillah from her downy bed and bore her into the air, cuffing her polished red cheeks soundly on the way. Then I stripped off her gay raiment and knotted the ribbon sash about her smooth neck. I had never tied a knot before, but this held, as di

d the whip together, and Cousin Molly Belle's voice, half-lau

mesake! what ha

g piteously, that everybody was on the spot-my father and mother and all the dinner company, and Mam' Chloe with the baby in her arms,

ered stuffing beneath; the crop of black curls was tangled in the topmost limb of the sapling. The blue

olly Belle's neck, and burst in

in the family connection. I am sure that I was put forthwith to bed and left alone for an eternity without even Musidora to bear me c

read and milk which was all the supper I wa

h all in white-gown and neck and arms and face, the masses of fluffy hair making this last more wraith-like. It sank to the floor besi

at the beginning and went straight and

by her silence I raised a timid hand to her

" I stammered. "Are you s

and I are always getting into scrapes-aren't we? Maybe that is wh

ss consoled the outgoing of th