Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/296

292 told Uncle Spot good-bye forever in that note, because he cried a little. I saw him."

Aunt Pearly Gates stopped tatting for a moment and reached carefully under the covers of her bed, an intent expression on her good old face.

Rebecca paused and looked at the old woman.

"’Scuse me a minute, honey chil', I's a listenin' ter yer an' so interested in my white folks an' they troubles I come moughty nigh fergittin' I wa' a settin'. I got a duck aig in here by mistake an' Gawd in Heaven knows what I'm a gonter do with a baby duck. Duck aigs takes fo' weeks to hatch. I put the settin' in 'thout payin' it much min'. Si brought it ter me goin' on three weeks ago, an' it wa' 'bout come dusk an' I couldn't see any too clear. I never would a knowed it if Si hadn't a got ter huntin' that aig. He wa' a gonter stir up a lil' batter braid an' th'ain't nothin' mo' rich like in the way er eatin' than duck aigs in batter braid. He 'lowed he put it in the chancy bowl an' he looked an' looked till he wa' all tuckered out lookin'. Po' Si has a hard time with me a laid up in the baid all these years an' him sech a han' fer losin' things. I reckon he'd been better off if he had er los' me twenty years ago an' then he wa' still a right spry nigger an' he mought a get