Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/90

 job I've tackled?" but in a minute I thought, "Why, it's in her bringin' up; Albina Ann wuz always changin' her dress, and ornamentin' herself, and actin'." So I met her with cheerfulness and kissed her on both cheeks, while Josiah, a-groanin', as I could hear, tackled the trunks. I see she wuz naterally a pretty girl, but looked wan and wapeish, and I didn't wonder a mite at it when I took close note of the way she wuz dressed.

I had a warm supper ready, for I thought she would be tired and hungry. But she couldn't eat a mite, she said, not a mou'ful, but I see she had a big empty candy box in her hand, and she owned up that she'd eat it all on her journey. And bime-by she told me she had had some pickled stuff that she had brung for an appetite, and they wuz all eat up.

Well, after she'd took her things off I see she wuz a sight to behold. If her waist wuzn't a cur'os'ty then I never see one. Why, if I do say it, and I'm a Methodist in good standin', it wuzn't much bigger than a quill—a goose quill; of course it wuz some bigger, but it is within bounds to use it for a metafor. The heels of her little pinted shoes wuz more'n two and a half inches high and sot right in the palm of her foot, right on them nerves that cause headache and blindness, and fits and things, and I knew by the looks of them pinted toes that no human toes could possibly git into 'em without bein' all twisted up just like a heathen Chinee's.

Well, I declare I felt to weep almost when I looked at her. She wuz so weak that I had to take her right up to her room and lay her out on the bed. And I hefted her dress and skirts after I'd helped her off with 'em, and of all the heft you ever see, why, it wuz astonishin'. Her dress wuz tailor-made, and embroidered all over