Samantha at Saratoga [13]
her and Jim, and the strange mellow light lay on both of 'em, makin' me think in spite of myself of some happy sunrisin' that haply may dawn on some future huntin' ground, where poor Jim Smedley even, may strike the trail of success and happiness, hid now from the sight of Samantha, hid from Josiah. Wall, they died within a week's time of each other, and left nine children, the oldest one of 'em not quite fifteen. She, the oldest one, wuz a good girl, only she had the rickets so that when she walked, she seemed to walk off all over the house backwards, and sideways, and every way, but when she sot down, she wuz a good stiddy girl, and faithful; she took after her mother, and her mother took after her grandmother, so there wuz three takin' after each other, one right after the other. Jane wuz a good, faithful, hard-workin' creeter when she wuz well, brought up her children good as she could, learnt 'em the catechism, and took in all kinds of work to earn a little somethin' towards gettin' a home for 'em; she and her mother both did, her mother lived with 'em, and wuz a smart old woman, too, for one that wuz pretty nigh ninety. And she wuzn't worrysome much, only about one thing -- she wanted a home, wanted a home dretfully. Some wimmen are so; she had moved round so much, from one poor old place to another, that she sort o' hankered after bein' settled down into a stiddy home. Wall, there wuz eight children younger than Marvilla, that wuz the oldest young girl's name. Eight of 'em, countin' each pair of twins as two, as I s'pose they ort. The Town buried the father and mother, which wuz likely and clever in it, but after that it wouldn't give only jest so much a week, which wuz very little, because it said, Town did, that they could go to the poor-house, they could be supported easier there. I don't know as the Town could really be blamed for sayin' it, and yet it seemed kinder mean in it, the Town wuz so big, and the children, most of 'em, wuz so little. But any way, it wuz jest sot on it, and there wuz the end of it, for you might jest as well dispute the wind as to dispute the Town when it gets sot. Wall, the old grandma said she would die in the streets before she would go to the poor-house. She had come from a good family in the first place, They say she run away and left a good home and got married, and did dretful poor in the married state. He waz shiftless and didn't have nothin' and didn't lay up any. And she didn't keep any of her old possessions only jest her pride. She kept that, or enough of it to say that she would die on the road before she would go to the poor-house. And once I see her cry she wanted a home so bad. And lots of folks blamed her for it, blamed the old woman awfully. They said pride wuz so wicked. Wimmen who would run like deers if company came when they wuzn't dressed up slick, they would say the minute they got back into the room, all out of breath with hurryin' into their best clothes, they'd say a pantin' "That old woman ought to be made to go to the poorhouse, to take the pride out of her, pride wuz so awfully, dretfully wicked, and it wuz a shame that she wuz so ongrateful as to want a home of her own." And then they would set down and rest. Wall, the family wuz in a sufferin' state. The Town allowed 'em one dollar a week. But how wuz ten human beings to live on a dollar a week. The children worked every chance they got, but they couldn't earn enough to keep 'em in shoes, let alone other clothin' and vittles. And the old house wuz too cold for 'em to stay in durin' the cold weather, it wuz for Grandma Smedley, anyway, if the children could stand it she couldn't. And what wuz to be done. A cold winter wuz a cumin' on, and it wouldn't delay a minute because Jim Smedley had got shot, and his wife had follered him, into, let us hope, a happier huntin' ground than he had ever found in earthly forests. Wall, I proposed to have a pound party for 'em. I said they might have it to our house if they wanted it, but if they thought they wanted it in a more central place (our house