"Was she a slave?"
"Of course, but we were good to her and took care of her till she died. My father gave her to me when I was married. That was years and years and years before we came to this state. I was fifteen when I was married—"
"Fifteen," Marjorie almost shouted. That was queerer than having so many step-mothers.
"And my husband had four children, and Lucilla was just my age, the oldest, she was in my class at school. But we got on together and kept house together till she married and went away. Yes, I've had things happen to me. People called it our golden wedding when we'd been married fifty years, and then he died, the next year, and I've lived with my children since. I've had my ups and downs as you'll have if you live to be most a hundred."
"You've had some ups as well as downs," said Marjorie.
"Yes, I've had some good times, but not many, not many."
Marjorie answered indignantly: "I think you have good times now, you have a good home and everybody is kind to you."
"Yes, but I can't see and Hepsie don't talk much."
"This afternoon as I was coming along I saw an old hunch-backed woman raking sticks together to make a bonfire in a field, don't you think she had a hard time?"
"Perhaps she liked to; I don't believe anybody made her, and she could see the bonfire."