wanted, while I set
the prices on it. And when we got through the young girl says: 'Would
you let us go up-stairs?'

"So up-stairs we went, and there wasn't a four-poster bed or a rickety
table or a broken-legged chair that she didn't say was 'darling' or
'dear' or 'gorgeous' or 'heavenly'; and they wanted pretty near
everything that was up-stairs. When we got through pricin' these, the
lady says: 'Is this all the old mahogany you have, Miss Mayfield?' and
then I happened to think o' the garret. I hadn't set foot up there for
ten years or more, but I remembered there was a lot o' old truck that
Mother didn't have room for down-stairs, and it'd been stored away there
ever since goodness knows when. So up to the garret we went, they
holdin' up their silk skirts, and me apologizin' for the dirt. They
peered around, and didn't seem to mind a bit when they got their kid
gloves all soiled handlin' the old junk that was settin' around in every
hole and corner. And the young girl, she'd give a little scream every
time she dragged out a table or a chair, and says she: 'Miss Mayfield,
this is the most interesting place I ever was in.' And I says: 'If
you're interested in dirt and rubbish, I reckon this is an interestin'
place.'

"Well, if you'll believe me, Maria Marvin, they wanted everything in
that garret, even down to the old pewter warmin'-pan that used to belong
to Mother's sister Amanda, and that she got from her husband's family,
the Hicks. And the young girl looked out o' the gable window at the
south end, and says she: 'Oh! what a lovely old gyarden!' And the lady
dropped the old candlestick she was lookin' at, and come and looked over
the young girl's shoulder. The gyarden did look mighty pretty with the
roses and honeysuckles and pinks all in bloom, and the lady said: 'Oh!
how beautiful! How beautiful!' and all the rest of the time we were up
in the garret, she stood there at the window and leaned out and looked
at the gyarden, and after that she didn't seem to care much about the
furniture. She jest let the young girl do the buyin' and the talkin',
and once I heard her sigh a long, deep sigh, jest as if she was thinkin'
about somethin' that happened a long time ago. And when we went
down-stairs, she asked me to give her some roses and honeysuckles; and
while I was gatherin' a big bunch of Mother's damask roses for her, she
was walkin' up and down the paths, gatherin' a flower here and a leaf
there, but to look at