"You're big enough to read the Bible, 'Reely. When I was twelve I had read it all through, except the chapters with the names which mother said didn't count. But we didn't have Sunday school books then, and that was all there was to read on Sunday."
Helen thought everything that happened to Aunt Jane happened before she was twelve. She had made her father some shirts, she had pieced several quilts, made bread and cake and spun on the little wheel and could do a week's washing.
"Well, about Hope?" They seldom said North Hope, or tacked Hope on to the Center.
"Oh, I couldn't go."
"Well, I can't get all those things. See here, let Helen go."
Aunt Jane looked at her. Helen knew by experience that to want a thing very much was a sure way of being denied, so she merely went to the machine drawer and brought the list Jenny had written out, in which were several mispelled words.
"O Lordy!" ejaculated Uncle Jason.
"Before all these children too! No one would think you were a church member, Jason," said his wife severely.
"Well, if you want all them things you'll have to send Helen along to remember. An' I dunno's I have time."
Uncle Jason rose from the table. So did the hired man and Sam. Helen picked up the list and put it back in the drawer, brought the cloth to wash Tom's hands and began to pile up the dishes, her heart in a tumult of desire.