Not that I can do anything for Emeline,
but I was losing money on my boarders. I wish't you'd come out Sunday,
Julia, I cooked a real good dinner, didn't I, Ma?"
Mrs. Cox did not hear, and Julia turned to her mother.
"Made up your mind really to go, Ju?" Mrs. Page asked.
"Oh, really! We leave on the seventh."
"I've always wanted to go somewheres on a ship," Emeline said. "Didn't
care so much what it was when I got there, but wanted to go!"
"So have I," contributed Mrs. Torney. "I was real like you at your age,
Julia, and I used to think I'd do this and that when the children was
big. Well, some of us are lucky and some of us aren't--ain't that it,
Ma? I was talking to a priest about it once," she pursued, "and he said,
'Well, Mrs. Torney, if there was no sorrow and suffering in the world,
there wouldn't be no saints!' 'Oh, Father,' I says, 'there isn't much of
the saint in me! But,' I says, 'I've been a faithful wife and mother, if
I say it; seven children I've raised and two I've buried; I've worked my
hands to the bone,' I says, 'and the Lord has sent me nothing but
trouble!'"
"Ma, ain't you going to put your clothes on and go to the store?" Regina
said.
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