Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/334

330 didn't have no time ter git shocked over Pete a cussin' ter us. An' you know what I done, Beck baby? I sot up straight in the baid an' I praised the Lord. I sot up so easy lak it didn't come ter my min' that I ain't sot up ter say straight, 'thout pillers a proppin' me, fur twenty years."

"Gawd in Heaven! What yo' doin', Pearly Gates?" said Brer Johnson. "Air you sick?"

"Sick! No; I reckon I'm well."

"An' then you know, Beck baby, it comed over me all of a heap that Aunt Peachy wa' daid, an' the conjer on me wa' lifted."

"You mean you won't have to stay in bed any more? How splendid! But surely, Aunt Pearly Gates, you don't really believe that old Aunt Peachy had any power over you. She couldn't have had."

"I don't know what to believe, chil'. All I know is that she air dead an' I kin scratch my big toe, which I ain't been able ter do fer twenty years. I mought a been gittin' better anyhow, jes' from the nachul co'se er events, but it do seem kinder strange that I took ter eatchin' an' scratchin' jes' 'bout the time ol' Mam' Peachy fell down the steps. I reckon I air gonter have ter learn ter walk all over, but I'm a gonter be