A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton - Michael R. Phillips [61]
“I’ll go get started on the cows,” I said.
“I’ll be out to help in a few minutes,” said Katie.
Most of the rest of the morning went pretty normal. Katie had made a stew and was roasting sweet potatoes from the root cellar to go with the cake. She wouldn’t let me help with any of it, though she asked me a few questions about what to do now and then.
We ate early in the afternoon and then had the cake. Katie had made sugar icing to spread all over the top of it, and had written the words Mary Ann Jukes in a thin line of brown molasses over the top of it. It was real good too! I ate so much I thought I would pop. Besides the cake, Katie had made candy.
“They’re called molasses chews,” she said as I ate one and got it stuck in my teeth. “It’s heated molasses and butter. Emma and I made them yesterday. That’s why we had to keep you out of the kitchen.”
“You helped make these, Emma?” I asked.
“Dat I did, Miz Mayme,” replied Emma proudly.
“Well, thank you—they’re really good.”
“Now, stay right here,” said Katie. “I’ll go get your present!”
She jumped up from the table and ran upstairs and came back a minute later.
She handed me a little box. I shook it and heard a jingling sound. I opened it, and it was full of coins.
“But … this looks like a lot of money!”
“It’s only a dollar,” said Katie. “You enjoyed buying that handkerchief so much, I wanted you to have enough that you could buy yourself a really special birthday gift, either at Mrs. Hammond’s or that same store where you got your handkerchief.”
“But … a dollar!” I said. “You only had a dollar and thirty-seven cents left over from Mrs. Hammond’s. You can’t give me this much.”
“And the ten dollars from the bank, Mayme. We’ve got lots of that left.”
“I found some more money in the cigar box in the pantry,” she said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think to look there sooner. There was a little over two dollars in it.”
“That’s still not enough to pay back what you owe that man at the bank.”
“I want you to have this,” Katie insisted. “I want you to get something nice with it. You are free now, and so you deserve to have some money of your very own.”
I sat staring down at the little pile of coins in my hand.
“Do you think …” I began, then hesitated.
“Do you know what I’d like more than anything?” I said again. “I’d like to put this money in the bank. Do you think they’d let me open a bank account of my own?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Katie.
“That would make me feel real proud, like a real person, not a slave.”
“I think it’s a good idea, Mayme.—I have something else for you too,” said Katie.
She got up again and went to the bookcase. She pulled a sheet of paper out of a book where she’d hidden it. She came back with a serious look on her face.
“I wrote a poem for you,” said Katie. Her voice was quiet now as she handed me the paper.
This is what I read:
“To My Friend.
May I tell you of something that is better than gold?
It will still be with you long after you’re old.
It’s a treasure that increases the more of it you spend.
I’m speaking, of course, of love for a friend.
When you discover that treasure, what will you find?
If you’re seeking true friendship, look for this kind:
A friend is someone who knows about you what you yourself don’t know.
A friend sees your faults and still likes you, and helps you grow.
A friend is someone you can talk to about things you wouldn’t tell another soul.
A friend is someone you like to be with because they make you feel whole.
A friend is someone you can laugh with, cry with, and is always true.
A friend is someone you know who loves you, and that you love too.
Now let me tell you about my special friend,
Who came and helped my heart’s grief to mend.
She lifted my spirits, though our past lives were dead,
Now we’re trying, like sisters, to look ahead.
When He sent this wonderful person to me,
God gave me a gift that turned I into we.
If I had the riches of the whole world to spend,
It