day dis week by de coach.'

"I see right away dat dat woman was up to one of her tricks; she didn't
'tend to let dat chile come no other way 'cept like a servant; she was
dat dirt mean.

"Oh, you needn't look, suh! I ain't meanin' no onrespect, but I knowed
dat woman when Marse Henry fust married her, an' she ain't never fooled
me once. Fust time she come into de house she walked plumb in de
kitchen, where me an' old Sam an' ole Dinah was a-eaten our dinner, we
setten at de table like we useter did, and she flung her head up in de
air and she says: 'After dis when I come in I want you niggers to git
up on yo' feet.' Think o' dat, will ye? Marse Henry never called nary
one of us nigger since we was pickaninnies. I knowed den she warn't
'customed to nuthin'. But I tell ye she never put on dem kind o' airs
when Marse Henry was about. No, suh. She was always mighty sugar-like
to him when he was home, but dere ain't no conniption she warn't up to
when he couldn't hear of it. She had purty nigh riz de roof when he
done tell her dat Miss Nannie was a-comin' to live wid 'em, but she
couldn't stand agin him, for warn't her only daughter, Miss Rachel,
livin' on him, an' not only Miss Rachel, but lots mo' of her people
where she come from?

"Well, suh, as soon as ole Sam said what chile it was dat was a-comin'
down de road I dropped my dishcloth an' I run out to meet 'er.

"'Is you Miss Nannie?' I says. 'Gimme dat bag,' I says, 'an' dat box.'

"'Yes,' she says, 'dat's me, an' ain't you Aunt Chloe what I heared so
much about?'

"Honey, you ain't never gwine to git de kind o' look on dat picter
you's workin' on dere, suh, as sweet as dat chile's face when she said
dat to me. I loved her from dat fust minute I see her, an' I loved her
ever since, jes' as I loved her mother befo' her.

"When she got to de house, me a-totin' de things on behind, de mist'ess
come out on de po'ch.

"'Oh, dat's you, is it, Nannie?' she says. 'Well, Chloe'll tell ye
where to go,' an' she went straight in de house agin. Never kissed
her, nor touched her, nor nuffin!

"Ole Sam was bilin'. He heard her say it, an' if he was alive he'd
tell ye same as me.

"'Where's she gwine to sleep?' I says, callin' after her; 'upstairs
long wid Miss Rachel?' I was gittin' hot myse'f, though I didn't say
nuffin.

"'No,' she says, flingin' up her head like a goat; 'my daughter needs
all de room she's got. You kin take her downstairs an' fix up a