Her figure wuz a little bent with years, but the fire of youth seemed burnin’ still in her black eyes.
She boasted of havin’ lived in the best families in the South, and took great pride in relatin’ instances of the grandeur and wealth of the family she wuz raised in.
The name she went by wuz Aunt Mela.
I spoze her name wuz or should have been Amelia, but there wuzn’t no law violated, as I knows on, by her callin’ herself “Mela.” It wuz some easier to speak anyway.
I used to go down into the kitchen and talk quite a good deal with Aunt Mela.
At first she didn’t seem to relish the idee of my meddlin’ with her, but as days went on and she see that I wuz inclined to mind my own business, and to help her once in a while when she wuz in a bad place, she seemed to get easier in her mind, and would talk considerable free with me.
But she never thought anything of me compared to what she did of Maggie. She jest worshipped her; and Maggie wuz dretful good to her, gin her a sight besides her wages, and took care on her when she wuz sick, jest as faithful and good as she would of her own Ma or of me.
And Aunt Mela had sick spells often with what she called “misery in her back and misery in her head.”
I spoze it wuz backache and headache, that is what I spoze.