"2 A bracelet. Bras will do if you can't git gold. Minnie is the
meekest and don't look for much but she wants a bracelet awful bad.

"3 A box of paper and envellopes for Maizzie--Maizzie's got a bow.
He lives in the next county. I don't let the chillern say nothin'.
I'm 'fraid they'll scare the ducks.

"4 A wax doll in pink tarlton for Rosy. She won't be here next
krismus. The doctor done tole me, and my hart it have been hurtin'
so ever since that I have to hide every now and then so as to git my
breath good. Sometimes I can't help chokin', I can't. She seen a
doll in pink tarlton onct and the other night I heard her talkin' up
the chimney and she was askin' Santa Claus to bring her one if he
could spare it. Ifen you can't git all the things with the pig
money, please'm git the doll, and in pink, please'm, and let the
others go."


Laine took up his cup of tea and drank it slowly. "Part of this is
hard to make out," he said, after a moment. "I can't see it very
well."

"All of it is hard." Claudia put a piece of cracker in her mouth.
"But it's a wonder she can write at all. The boys are as trifling as
their father, and she does the work of five people. Is that all?"

Laine began again. "Becky say she don't want nothin' but a pare of
silk stockings. She's crazy, but she seen the summer girls with 'em
and I don't reckon it will do no harm if we ain't pracktical at