Lovey Mary | Page 8

'way.
She gits 'em from Mrs. Reddin'; her husband is Mr. Bob, Billy's boss.
He's a newspaper editress an' rich as cream. Mrs. Reddin' is a fallen
angel, if there ever was one on this earth. She sends all sorts of clothes
to Asia, an' I warm 'em over an' boil 'em down till they're her size.
"Asia Minor!" she called to a girl who was coming in the door, "this
here is Mary--Lovey Mary she calls herself, Miss Hazy's boarder. Have
you got a dress you could give her?"
"I'm going to buy it," said Mary, immediately on the defensive. She did
not want them to think for a moment that she was begging. She would
show them that she had money, that she was just as good as they were.
"Well, maw," the other girl was saying in a drawling voice as she
looked earnestly at Lovey Mary, "seems to me she'd look purtiest in my
red dress. Her hair's so nice an' black an' her teeth so white, I 'low the
red would look best."
Mrs. Wiggs gazed at her daughter with adoring eyes. "Ain't that the
artis' stickin' out through her? Couldn't you tell she handles paints? Up
at the fact'ry she's got a fine job, paints flowers an' wreaths on to

bath-tubs. Yes, indeed, this here red one is what you must have. Keep
your dollar, child; the dress never cost us a cent. Here's a nubia, too,
you kin have; it'll look better than that little hat you had on last night.
That little hat worried me; it looked like the stopper was too little fer
the bottle. There now, take the things right home with you, an'
tomorrow you an' Asia kin start off in style."
Lovey Mary, flushed with the intoxication of her first compliment,
went back and tried on the dress. Miss Hazy got so interested that she
forgot to get supper.
"You look so nice I never would 'a' knowed you in the world!" she
declared. "You don't look picked, like you did in that other dress."
"That Wiggs girl said I looked nice in red," said Lovey Mary
tentatively.
"You do, too," said Miss Hazy; "it keeps you from lookin' so corpsey. I
wisht you'd do somethin' with yer hair, though; it puts me in mind of
snakes in them long black plaits."
All Lovey Mary needed was encouragement. She puffed her hair at the
top and sides and tucked it up in the latest fashion. Tommy, coming in
at the door, did not recognize her. She laughed delightedly.
"Do I look so different?"
"I should say you do," said Miss Hazy, admiringly, as she spread a
newspaper for a table-cloth. "I never seen no one answer to primpin'
like you do."
[Illustration: "She puffed her hair at the top and sides."]
When it was quite dark Lovey Mary rolled something in a bundle and
crept out of the house. After glancing cautiously up and down the
tracks she made her way to the pond on the commons and dropped her
bundle into the shallow water.

Next day, when Mrs. Schultz's goat died of convulsions, nobody knew
it was due to the china buttons on Lovey Mary's gingham dress.
CHAPTER IV
AN ACCIDENT AND AN INCIDENT
"Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been
makes us what we are."
Through the assistance of Asia Wiggs, Lovey Mary secured pleasant
and profitable work at the factory; but her mind was not at peace. Of
course it was a joy to wear the red dress and arrange her hair a different
way each morning, but there was a queer, restless little feeling in her
heart that spoiled even the satisfaction of looking like other girls and
earning three dollars a week. The very fact that nobody took her to task,
that nobody scolded or blamed her, caused her to ask herself disturbing
questions. Secret perplexity had the same effect upon her that it has
upon many who are older and wiser: it made her cross.
Two days after she started to work, Asia, coming down from the
decorating-room for lunch, found her in fiery dispute with a red- haired
girl. There had been an accident in front of the factory, and the details
were under discussion.
"Well, I know all about it," declared the red-haired girl, excitedly,
"'cause my sister was the first one that got to her."
"Is your sister a nigger named Jim Brown?" asked Lovey Mary,
derisively. "Ever'body says he was the first one got there."
"Was there blood on her head?" asked Asia, trying to stem the tide of
argument.
"Yes, indeed," said the first speaker; "on her head an' on her hands, too.
I hanged on the steps when they was puttin' her