“Oh, you’re a married woman then, and have a family of your own. I was a-thinkin’ just that thing when you picked up little Alec here. You had a knack with him that don’t come to a woman unless she’s used to handling young ones. How many children have you? They’re pretty well grown, I suppose.”
Again Elizabeth caught the merry twinkle of amusement in the woman’s eyes. “Really, you may think it strange,” she replied, “when I declare that I really am not certain how many I have. There are so many that, at times, I almost forget their names. None of them are grown up; for when they are, I lose them. They go off into the world—some do well and some do not. One or two remember me; but the others forget that such a person as I ever lived.” It was not in a complaining tone she spoke, rather in a spirit of light-hearted raillery.
Elizabeth smiled. She understood the speaker, but Mrs. Koons did not. Elizabeth had been accustomed to hear Miss Hale speak thus of her mission boys and girls. Miss Hale looked upon them as a little family of which she was the head.
Mrs. Koons was amazed. She had heard, in a misty way, of a woman who had so many children she did not know what to do, but she had never heard of one who had so many that she did not know how many. Yet she supposed that such a thing might be true, and accepted the statement in good faith.
“Pap was tellin’ me when I was home that Senator Gleason had bought the farm, and it was him that fixed it up so grand. Pap says they’ve only Jersey cows on the place,—no common stock—and chickens that they raise for layin’, and some for hatchin’, and some that’s for eatin’. But the Senator don’t never stay up there much. He farms just for fun. But he must work pretty hard to get any fun out of it. I was raised on a farm and stayed there till I was married, and I never saw no fun anywhere about.”
Again the laugh and again the merry twinkle came to her eyes.
“It’s just the way we’re used to. If you had never been on a farm, perhaps you’d think it lots of fun to stay on one for awhile. I’m sure I thoroughly enjoy every minute I spend on the Creighton farm. The days are far too short for me.”
“But perhaps you don’t have no work to do. Gettin’ up early is what makes it hard.”
“I get up at daybreak, and I am busy every moment. I wash and dress and feed a dozen children. I have no moment to myself.”
Suddenly Mrs. Koons seemed to understand. “It’s too bad,” she said sympathetically. “Life’s pretty hard for a woman when she’s a family and has to look out for herself.”