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 box, I could look at em same as if e was & stranger. Not a drop o water wouldn' drean out my eyes."

Maum Hannah jumped.

"Jedus, gal, you pure scare me when you talk such a talk. Gawd'll make you eat dem same words yet. No matter whe you is, or whe July is, yunnuh two is man an' wife. You can' change dat. When Gawd joins people togedder nothin can' put em apart. Nothin. Not even sin."

"How long is July been gone, Si May-e?" one of the midwives asked.

Mary reflected. She could not remember exactly. Seraphine was in her sixteenth yearnow, so July must have been gone over sixteen years.

"How much chillen you had since July went?" asked another one.

"Plenty, sister, an' all of em is a-livin an' a-growin fine. Most of em big enough to work evy day. We has plenty to eat, plenty to wear, plenty to pleasure wid too."

"Mind how you brag, Si May-e," Maum Hannah warned.

"I ain' braggin, Auntie. All dis I'm tellin is de Gawd's truth. Me an' my chillen don' need no man. We can git on better widout em. I can easy pick three hundred pound o cotton in a