oen.
I never gits tired--I likes it."]

Presently Mam' Sarah took her foot off the treadle, went to the
fire-place, lit her pipe, returned to her seat and puffed away in peaceful
silence. Roberta waited for her to get through, for she knew how dearly
she loved her pipe. After a little Mam' Sarah laid her pipe aside and
looked at the child.

"What's de matter, honey?" she asked. "Your putty eyes full of tears.
Ennybody hurt your feelens?"

The touch of sympathy coming at that tender moment, like a rose-leaf upon
a full vessel of water, caused the pent-up emotion to overflow.

Roberta climbed in Mam' Sarah's lap, put her head down on her shoulder and
sobbed like her heart would burst. The old woman caressed the golden head,
and droned out a quaint lullaby, accompanying it with a kind of swaying
motion of her body as though soothing an infant to slumber:

"Who's dis, who's dis, er coddlen down here?
I spec dis iz black mammy's gyurl;
Her skin so white iz mammy's delite.
And her long golden ha'r in kyurl.
Shoo-oo-oo, shoo-oo-oo--
Rest, white chile, rest, on black mammy's breast.

"Who's dis, who 's dis, er coddlen down here,
Wid her eyes full of greeven' tears?
Fru de chink of the do', let de lite po',
De shadders, my little gyurl skeers.
Shoo-oo-oo, shoo-oo-oo--
Rest, white chile, rest, on black mammy's breast.

"This iz the way I useter nuss you when you wuz er baby. You wuz warken'
about fo' you know'd who your mammy wuz. You see, your mar wuz so troubled
after your par went erway, she diden' take no entres' in enny thing much;
po' thing! po' thing! You'd axel cum enter this wurl' with out a rag ter
your back, if I haden' hunted up sum baby cloze your mar wo', en git em
ready."

"What made my papa go away, Mam' Sarah?" asked the child, quickly.

"I dunno fur sarten, honey, wot did make him go erway. You see, he wuzen'
lak our fo'ks. Cum frum the Norf. Pear-lak he cuden' take ter our ways,
sumhow. Mars Robert was razed in town, en he diden' lak it out here in the
country. I heered him say he wuz so tired of the country, hee'd be glad
never ter see another blade of grass grow. Mis Betsy tho't that was orful.
He wuz allers arfter your mar ter sell all of us, en sell the place en go
Norf with him ter live. Sumhow he diden' lak culured peepel ter wate on
him. Jes lak hees sister, who cum down here to visit Mis July, en bro't
her little gal w