"She likes to hear about them, then?"
"What? Sarah? Lord love ye, miss, you should see the woman!" Mr. Salt chuckled heavily, and wound up by sending a squirt of tobacco-juice out into darkness. "Mother of eight children, she is, and makes 'em toe the mark at school and Sunday school. A woman like that don't bother about grey old walls."
"You are proud of her, I see."
"Ought to be, I reckon. Why, to-day she can pick up two three-gallon pitchers o' water and heft 'em along for a mile and more without turning a hair."
"And the children? How old are they?"
"Eldest just turned eleven."
"Why, then he must be able to read?"
"'Tisn't a he, 'tis a her. Ay, I reckon 'Melia Jane should read well before this."
Hester took a fresh sheet of paper and began to write.
"Listen to this, please," she said after a few sentences, "and tell me if it will do—"