I got some sweetbrier sprigs, and laid round
her in the coffin. I've seen prettier coffins, but I never see no face
look so pretty as Jinny's. Mrs. Whitmarsh had the funeral next morning.
She said she wanted to that night, so she could put the room airing, but
she supposed folks would talk, and, besides, they didn't get the grave
dug quick enough neither. Mrs. Kemp let me go to the funeral. I thought
they was going to carry her over to the poor-house burying-ground, but
they didn't, 'cause 't would cost so much for a horse and wagon. The
right minister was gone away, and the one that was there was going off
in the cars, so he had to hurry. There wa'n't hardly anybody there, only
some men to let the coffin down, and the sexton, and Mrs. Whitmarsh and
Polly Wheelock and I. The minister prayed a little speck of a prayer and
went right away. I heard Mrs. Whitmarsh telling Mrs. Kemp she thought
she'd got out of it pretty well, seeing she didn't expect nothing but
what she'd got to buy the coffin, and get the grave dug, and be to all
the expense. She said she guessed nobody'd catch her having another girl
bound out to her. Mrs. Kemp said she always knew 't was a great risk,
and that was why she didn't have me bound.

"That summer, when berries was ripe, Mrs. Kemp let me go and pick 'em
and carry 'em round to sell; and she said I might have a cent for every
quart I sold. I got over three dollars that summer for myself."

"What did you do with it?"

"I bought some shoes, and some yarn to knit me some stockings. I can
knit real good."

"How came you to leave Mrs. Kemp."

"Partly 't was 'cause she didn't like my not buying her old green shawl
with my share of the money for the berries; and partly 'cause I got
cold, and it settled in my feet so's I couldn't hardly go round. So she
told me she'd concluded to have me go back to the poor-house. If she
kept a girl, she said, she wanted one to wait on her, and not to be
waited on. She waited two or three days to see if I didn't get better,
so as I could walk over there; but I didn't. And one day it had been
raining, but it held up awhile, and she see a neighbor riding by, and
she run out and asked him if he couldn't carry me over to the
poor-house. He said he could if she wanted him to; so I went. I had on
my cape, and it wa'n't very warm. She asked me when I come away, if I
wa'n't sorry I hadn't a shawl. I expect I did catch cold. I couldn't set
up nor do nothing for more 'n thr