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 day. I can hoe a acre clean o grass quick as any 'oman on de whole plantation. I done birthed all my chillen de old way an' I ain' never had a backache in my life."

Nobody answered this, and Mary looked Doll in the eyes.

"I know yunnuh talks about me behind my back, but I don' mind. Talk all you want to. I ain' no member o de church. I been baptized an' I been a member four different times in my life. A member, de same as you. When I git old an' tired seein pleasure, I'm gwine to seek and pray an' be a member again."

She looked around and smiled.

"If I was fat or either old, I might would settle down, but, tank Gawd, I ain' neither one. Not yet."

Maum Hannah got stiffly to her feet.

"Come on, gal," she said, taking Mary by the arm, "le's go home. Gawd's house ain' no place fo sinful talk."

"Befo I go I want to hear how to birth chillen de new lawful way, Auntie."

"Don' let's talk dat talk now, not till we get out o Gawd's house. It ain' decent. No. It ain' fitten to hear. I declare to Gawd, it made me have sin to hear about em."

"You had sin, Auntie? I bet you ain' sinned, not in forty years."