Page:Cather--One of ours.djvu/260

246 Lorraine. Dem boys is passed de word to come und put tar on me some night, und I am skeered to go in my bet. I chust wrap in a quilt und sit in my old chair.”

“Don’t pay any attention to them. You don’t have trouble with the business people here, do you?”

“No-o, not troubles, exactly.” She hesitated, then leaned impulsively across the counter and spoke in his ear. “But it ain’t all so bad in de Old Country like what dey say. De poor people ain’t slaves, und dey ain’t ground down like what dey say here. Always de forester let de poor folks come into de wood und carry off de limbs dat fall, und de dead trees. Und if de rich farmer have maybe a liddle more manure dan he need, he let de poor man come und take some for his land. De poor folks don’t git such wages like here, but dey lives chust as comfortable. Und dem wooden shoes, what dey makes such fun of, is cleaner dan what leather is, to go round in de mud und manure. Dey don’t git so wet und dey don’t stink so.”

Claude could see that her heart was bursting with homesickness, full of tender memories of the far-away time and land of her youth. She had never talked to him of these things before, but now she poured out a flood of confidences about the big dairy farm on which she had worked as a girl; how she took care of nine cows, and how the cows, though small, were very strong,—drew a plough all day and yet gave as much milk at night as if they had been browsing in a pasture! The country people never had to spend money for doctors, but cured all diseases with roots and herbs, and when the old folks had the rheumatism they took “one of dem liddle jenny-pigs” to bed with them, and the guinea-pig drew out all the pain.