place
for her longside o' you an' Dinah.' She was de old cook.

"'Come long,' I says, 'Miss Nannie,' an' I dropped a curtsey same's if
she was a princess. An' so she was, an' Marse Henry's own eyes in her
head, an' 'nough like him to be his own chile. 'I'll hab ev'ything
ready for ye,' I says. 'You wait here an' take de air,' an' I got a
chair an' sot her down on de po'ch, an' ole Sam brung her some cake,
an' I went to git de room ready--de room offn de kitchen pantry, where
dey puts de overseer's chillen when dey come to see him.

"Purty soon Miss Rachel come down an' went up an' kissed her--dat is,
Sam said so, though I ain't never seen her kiss her dat time nor no
other time. Miss Rachel an' de mist'ess was bofe split out o' de same
piece o' kindlin', an' what one was agin t' other was agin--a blind man
could see dat Miss Rachel never liked Miss Nannie from de fust, she was
dat cross-grained and pernicketty. No matter what Miss Nannie done to
please her it warn't good 'nough for her. Why, do you know, when de
other chillen come over from de nex' plantation Miss Rachel wouldn't
send for Miss Nannie to come in de parlor. No, suh, dat she wouldn't!
An' dey'd run off an' leave her, too, when dey was gwine picknickin',
an' treat dat chile owdacious, sayin' she was po' white trash, an'
charity chile, an' things like dat, till I would go an' tell Marse
Henry 'bout it. Den dere would be a 'ruction, an' Marse Henry'd blaze
out, an' jes 's soon's he was off agin to Frankfort--an' he was dere
mos' of de time, for he was one o' dese yere ole-timers dat dey
couldn't git long widout at de Legislator--dey'd treat her wus'n ever.
Soon's Dinah an' me see dat, we kep' Miss Nannie long wid us much as we
could. She'd eat wid 'em when dere warn't no company 'round, but dat
was 'bout all."

"Did they send her to school?" I asked, fearing she would again lose
the thread. My picture had a new meaning for me now that it looked
like her heroine.

"No, suh, dat dey didn't, 'cept to de schoolhouse at de cross-roads
whar everybody's chillen went. But dey sent Miss Rachel to a real
highty-tighty school, dat dey did, down to Louisville. Two winters she
was dere, an' eve'y time when she come home for holiday times she had
mo' airs dan when she went away. Marse Henry wanted bofe chillen to
go, but dat woman outdid him, an' she faced him up an' down dat dere
warn't money 'nough for two, an' dat her daughter was de fittenest, an'
al