Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/263

 sourly, but Mary gave Doll a pleasant smile and told her that the bench would not have to hold its load very long. She had just happened to be passing by and when she saw that the church door was wide open, she stopped in to rest herself a minute.

"You sho look like you would need some rest. You better had go home an' hide."

"Dis child is a load fo-true, de heaviest one I ever carried yet." Mary still kept her temper although Doll's talk rasped her.

"You is gwine to have twins, enty," Doll suggested, but even this met with a polite answer.

"If you say so, Sister Doll. You knows a awful lot. Nothing couldn' please me better. I ever did wish my chillen could come in a litter. Havin' em one at a time is awful slow; it takes so long to get a house full. I been at it gwine on mighty nigh twenty years now."

Doll stared at her trying to shame her, but Mary talked on pleasantly.

Birthing children was not so bad. It was as easy for her as to pop her fingers, but she wanted to have some gal sleep once more. Good, sweet, quiet sleep. It had been many a long year since she had had one single night of it.

"When you gwine to stop a-sinnin, Si May-e?" Doll asked with a hiss on the edge of her words.