Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/299

Rh if there is no proof of my being what I always thought I was. Since this business has come up about the hub factory and I have heard so much talk about the importance of proof, I feel worse and worse that there is no proof about me."

Rebecca wiped away her tears and tried to smile. Her old friend looked sadly at her and with gentle words tried to comfort her.

"You is you, no matter who you mought be," she asserted, "an' Marse Bob loves you 'cause you is you; an' Mr. Spot air took wif you 'cause you is you. Becky baby mustn't go worry too much 'bout them letters an' things. Maybe you needs mo' fun in life than you air gittin'."

"Oh, I have a splendid time! I like my school in spite of being behind in arithmetic. You see my Daddy used to say that the adding machine had done away with all necessity for amateur mathematics, and I hardly know a bit of arithmetic. I am ahead of the others in history and geography and spelling, and I must say most of them read like they were spelling while they are reading.

"I am astonished to see how many things happen in the country. I used to think that the country would be a place where nothing happened but just crops and weather, but some-