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Updated: June 3, 2025
"Nex' day I was gettin' ready for Sum Merriman's funeral, it was to be at one o'clock, when Elspie come in my room, sort o' shyin' up to me gentle. "'Miss Cally, 's'she, 'do you think the mourners'd take it wrong if I's to go to the funeral? "'Why, no, Elspie, I says, su'prised; 'only what do you want to go for? I ask' her. "'Oh, I donno, s'she.
"But inside I ached like the toothache for the poor thing for Elspie. An' I says to her, when she come home: "'Elspie, I says, 'why don't you go out 'round some an' see folks here in the village? The minister's wife'd be rill glad to hev you come, I says. "'Oh, I hate to hev 'em sit thinkin' about me in behind their eyes, s'she, ready. "'What? says I, blank.
An' I know Mis' Toplady says she'd stayed with Mis' Banker Mason so much since then that she felt God had sort o' singled her Mis' Toplady out, to give her a chanst to do His work o' comfortin'. 'I've just let my house go, s'she, 'an' I've got the grace to see it don't matter if I have. Mis' Toplady ain't one o' them turtle women that their houses is shells on 'em, burden to back.
She'd got up early to go alone to the cemetery, an', my house bein' the nearest, she'd come rushin' back to me with her news. "'Cally! s'she, from almost before she laid eyes on me, 'Cally! Somebody's stole every last one o' the flowers off'n Sum's grave. An' the ribbins.
An' when Mis' Toplady, fair beamin', unlocks the door an' tells 'em the sale was through with an' a rill success, they acted some het up. But Mis' Toplady, she bristles back at 'em. 'I'm sure, s'she, 'nobody wants you to die an' be buried in a nice, neat, up-to-date, kep'-up cemet'ry if you don't want to. An' o' course she hed 'em there.
"'The south corridor, she answers, them's the highest payin" Calliope threw in, "'chipped in an' got up a tree, an' there's gifts for all, s'she. 'The west corridor' them's the local city ones 'all has friends to take 'em away for the day. The east corridor' they're from farther away an' middlin' well-to-do 'all has boxes comin' to 'em from off.
Excep' for one thing: When I ask' her what she could do, if any, she says like she had on the street corner: "'I can't do nothin'. I donno no work. "'You think it over, s'I. She had rill capable hands them odd, undressed-lookin' hands I donno if you know what I mean? "'Well, s'she, sort o' sheepish, 'I can comb hair.
"'Elspie, s'I, stern, 'ain't you no feelin', s'I, 'for the loss o' the only home you've got to your back? "'Oh, I donno, s'she, an' I could see her smilin' in that bright light, 'oh, I donno. It'll be some place to come to, afterwards. When I go out walkin', s'she, 'I ain't no place to head for. I sort o' circle 'round an' come back.
"'Oh, no, says Delia, demure, 'I ain't near good enough, Mr. Halsey; you mustn't think that, she says an' right while he was lookin' gentle an' clerical an' ready to help her, she dimples out all over her face. 'Besides, she says, 'I ain't enough dresses to spare away from me for that. I ain't but about two! s'she.
"'Some o' you remember my Sam, Mis' Ailing speaks up then, an' she begun windin' up her yarn an' never noticed she was ravellin' out her mitten, 'he was an alderman, she was goin' on, but old Mis' Winslow cuts in on her: "'It don't matter what he was when he was man-grown, s'she. 'Man-grown can get along themselves. It's when they're little bits o' ones, she says.
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