“I remember my grandmother telling about once when she was cooking in the kitchen, her back was turned and an old hound dog got in and started to take the chicken which was on the table. He had even got part of it in his mouth. But she turned and saw him—she choked the dog—and choked him until she choked the chicken out of him. You can see she must have been pretty scared to be afraid to let them know the chicken had been tampered with. Then we always thought my mother’s death was caused by her being beat by an overseer—she caused that overseer’s death, she got him while he was beating her. They had to hide her out to save her life—but a long time afterwards she died—we always laid it to that hard beating.
“We lived in Helena after the war. My father was the marrying kind. He was a wild marrying man. He had lots of wives. But Mother and grandmother wouldn’t let us call them Mother—she made us call them Aunt. It really was my grandmother who reared me. She was a good cook, had good jobs all the time.
“When I grew up I married. Mr. Huggins was a bar tender in a saloon. He made good money. We had a good home and I took care of the home. I had it mighty easy. Then one day he fell in the floor paralyzed. I brought him to Hot Springs. That was back in 1905. We stayed on and he lived for 18 years.
“I got a house there and I kept roomers. That was where Fanny stayed with me. It was at 311 Pleasant. You remember the place, tho. When I was young, I had it easy. But now I’m old and I don’t have it so well. A few years ago I was out in California on a visit. There was a man shining up to me and I wrote my niece ‘What would you think if your aunty married?’ ‘Law,’ she wrote back to me, ‘you’ve lived by yourself so long now, you couldn’t stand a man.’ Maybe she was right.”
(At this point the girl passed into the room.) “Look Maggie! three pretty handkerchiefs. Miss Hudgins brought them. And I was just writing to my sister—my half sister today, I didn’t even expect to much as a handkerchief for Christmas. And my initials embroidered on them two. One with A on it and two with H. I’m really proud of them.
“I’m going to write to Fanny to tell her about your coming to see me. She’ll be so glad to know about you. I’ll tell her about the handkerchiefs. You know, for a while Fanny had it pretty hard while she was here. She stayed at my house and I kept her for a long time without pay. I knew Fanny was a good girl and that when she got work she would pay me back. Do you know what Fanny has done? When she heard I was hard up she wrote me and told me to come up to Michigan to her and she would take care of me just as I had taken care of her. But I didn’t want to go. Wasn’t it nice of her, though?
“Yes, when I was young I had it easy. I had my home and took care of it. If I needed more money, I mortgaged my home and paid it back. Then I’d mortgage it and pay it back. But I mortgaged it once too often. That time I couldn’t pay it back. I lost it.
“Well, I’m so glad you came to see me. I remember the pretty little girl who used to come to my house with Fanny. Be sure to write to her, she’ll appreciate it, and thank you for the handkerchiefs.”