She still held the doll against her
heaving breast, saying, between her sobs: " I couldn't let my
Debby burn up! I couldn't, Uncle Bart; she's got nobody but me!
Is my dress scorched so much I can't wear it? You'11 tell father
how it was, Uncle Bart, won't you?"
Debby bore the marks of her adventure longer than her owner, for
she had been longer in the fire, but, stained and defaced as she
was, she was never replaced, and remained the only doll of
Waitstill's childhood. At this very moment she lay softly and
safely in a bureau drawer ready to be lifted out, sometime,
Waitstill fancied, and shown tenderly to Patty's children. Of her
own possible children she never thought. There was but one man in
the world who could ever be the father of them and she was
separated from him by every obstacle that could divide two human
beings.
SUMMER
VIII
THE JOINER'S SHOP
VILLAGE "Aunts" and "Uncles" were elected to that relationship by
the common consent of the community; their fitness being
established by great age, by decided individuality or
eccentricity of character, by uncommon lovableness, or by the
possession of an abundant wit and humor. There was no formality
about the thing; certain women were always called "Aunt Sukie,"
or "Aunt Hitty," or what not, while certain men were
distinguished as "Uncle Rish," or "Uncle Pel," without previous
arrangement, or the consent of the high contracting parties.
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