Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/117

 break her back in two before he drops her into his bottomless pit! July would have stayed athome and been a good husband if Cinder had never come back to the plantation.

Mary heard a hen's anxious clucking and baby chickens crying, then Maum Hannah's voice asked softly, "Honey—is you sleepin?"

She sat up quickly. She had heard no step, and she felt confused and guilty that Maum Hannah who believed in loving everybody had caught her crying and wishing bitter curses on Cinder.

"No'm, I ain' sleep. I just got de headache. I was a-leanin out de window by it's so awful hot to-day. Seems like I can' hardly catch enough air."

"We must be tanksful we is able to feel de hotness, honey. Be tanksful, gal. Tank Gawd for life, den come look at de present I brought you. My lil blue hen stole a nest in de chimney corner and hatched dese beedies, all blue like dey mammy, an' spry as can be. A blue hen's chickens is lucky, so I fetched em to you for seed. But don' feed em, not yet. Let em sleep in de basket until to-morrow."

Maum Hannah put them down in a dark corner of the room and carefully covered them up; then she sat down, took her pipe out