Perhaps some on 'em may
know of somebody that'll take me for what help I can give about house,
or some clever folks that have been lookin' for a smart cat, any ways;
no, I don't know's I could let her go to strangers.
"There was two or three o' the folks round home that acted real
warm-hearted towards me, an' urged me to come an' winter with 'em,"
continued the exile; "an' this mornin' I wished I'd agreed to, 'twas
so hard to break away. But now it's done I feel more'n ever it's best.
I couldn't bear to live right in sight o' the old place, and come
spring I shouldn't 'prove of nothing Is'iah ondertakes to do with the
land. Oh, dear sakes! now it comes hard with me not to have had no
child'n. When I was young an' workin' hard and into everything, I felt
kind of free an' superior to them that was so blessed, an' their
houses cluttered up from mornin' till night, but I tell ye it comes
home to me now. I'd be most willin' to own to even Is'iah, mean's he
is; but I tell ye I'd took it out of him 'fore he was a grown man, if
there'd be'n any virtue in cow-hidin' of him. Folks don't look like
wild creatur's for nothin'. Is'iah's got fox blood in him, an'
p'r'haps 't is his misfortune. His own mother always favored the looks
of an old fox, true's the world; she was a poor tool,--a poor tool! I
d'know's we ought to blame him same's we do.
"I've always been a master proud woman, if I was riz among the
pastures," Mrs. Peet added, half to herself.
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