Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/245

 dow into the yard. All the grits and meal and bacon, all the rice and sugar and coffee. Every God's thing he had bought to feed her and the children and himself for a whole week. He had taken some corn all the way down to the end of the Neck to get it ground on a water mill because Doll liked water-ground meal more than meal ground by a steam-engine. God knew he ever had tried to please the woman.

When she finished throwing away all the rations, he thought she would cool down some, but she wasn't satisfied yet. She ran out in the yard and before he could hinder her, she chopped down all the potato banks with a hoe. Chopped every single bank right in the top where the cornstalks stuck out to let the air in. Then she flew to the wood-pile and got the ax and gave the big iron wash-pot one awful lick. The poor thing pure bellowed when the ax hit it, for a great hole broke in its side.

Mary was shocked sure enough now. "De best wash-pot on dis whole place, Cousin. I declare to Gawd I too hate it myself. I was aimin to borrow dat pot de next time I kill ahog. How's Doll gwine to boil clothes now? How's e gwine to try out lard?"

Andrew grunted. Doll would never wash any more clothes for him in this world or kill another