It was the fifteenth of August, the great feast of the Assumption, so generally observed in the Catholic parishes of Louisiana. The Chotard family were on their way to mass, and Odalie had insisted upon stopping to “show 342herself” to her old friend and protegée, Aunt Pinky.
The helpless, shrivelled old negress sat in the depths of a large, rudely-fashioned chair. A loosely hanging unbleached cotton gown enveloped6 her mite7 of a figure. What was visible of her hair beneath the bandana turban, looked like white sheep’s wool. She wore round, silver-rimmed spectacles, which gave her an air of wisdom and respectability, and she held in her hand the branch of a hickory sapling, with which she kept mosquitoes and flies at bay, and even chickens and pigs that sometimes penetrated8 the heart of her domain9.
Odalie walked straight up to the old woman and kissed her on the cheek.
“Well, Aunt Pinky, yere I am,” she announced with evident self-complacency, turning herself slowly and stiffly around like a mechanical dummy10. In one hand she held her prayer-book, fan and handkerchief, in the other the blue parasol, still open; and on her plump hands were blue cotton mitts11. Aunt Pinky beamed and chuckled12; Odalie hardly expected her to be able to do more.
343“Now you saw me,” the child continued. “I reckon you satisfied. I mus’ go; I ain’t got a minute to was’e.” But at the threshold she turned to inquire, bluntly:
“W’ere’s Pug?”
“Pug,” replied Aunt Pinky, in her tremulous old-woman’s voice. “She’s gone to chu’ch; done gone; she done gone,” nodding her head in seeming approval of Pug’s action.
“To church!” echoed Odalie with a look of consternation13 settling in her round eyes.
“She gone to chu’ch,” reiterated14 Aunt Pinky. “Say she kain’t miss chu’ch on de fifteent’; de debble gwine pester15 her twell jedgment, she miss chu’ch on de fifteent’.”
Odalie’s plump cheeks fairly quivered with indignation and she stamped her foot. She looked up and down the long, dusty road that skirted the river. Nothing was to be seen save the blue cart with its dejected looking mule and patient occupants. She walked to the end of the gallery and called out to a negro boy whose black bullet-head showed up in bold relief against the white of the cotton patch:
344“He, Baptiste! w’ere’s yo’ ma? Ask yo’ ma if she can’t come set with Aunt Pinky.”
“Mammy, she gone to chu’ch,” screamed Baptiste in answer.
“Bonté! w’at’s taken you all darkies with yo’ ‘church’ to-day? You come along yere Baptiste an’ set with Aunt Pinky. That Pug! I’m goin’ to make yo’ ma wear her out fo’ that trick of hers—leavin’ Aunt Pinky like that.”
But at the first intimation of what was wanted of him, Baptiste dipped below the cotton like a fish beneath water, leaving no sight nor sound of himself to answer Odalie’s repeated calls. Her mother and sister were beginning to show signs of impatience16.
“But, I can’t go,” she cried out to them. “It’s nobody to stay with Aunt Pinky. I can’t leave Aunt Pinky like that, to fall out of her chair, maybe, like she already fell out once.”
“You goin’ to miss mass on the fifteenth, you, Odalie! W’at you thinkin’ about?” came in shrill17 rebuke18 from her sister. But her mother offering no objection, the boy lost not a moment in starting the mule forward at a brisk trot19. She watched them disappear in 345a cloud of dust; and turning with a dejected, almost tearful countenance20, re-entered the room.
Aunt Pinky seemed to accept her reappearance as a matter of course; and even evinced no surprise at seeing her remove her hat and mitts, which she laid carefully, almost religiously, on the bed, together with her book, fan and handkerchief.
Then Odalie went and seated herself some distance from the old woman in her own small, low rocking-chair. She rocked herself furiously, making a great clatter21 with the rockers over the wide, uneven22 boards of the cabin floor; and she looked out through the open door.
“Puggy, she done gone to chu’ch; done gone. Say de debble gwine pester her twell jedgment—”
“You done tole me that, Aunt Pinky; neva mine; don’t le’s talk about it.”
Aunt Pinky thus rebuked23, settled back into silence and Odalie continued to rock and stare out of the door.
Once she arose, and taking the hickory branch from Aunt Pinky’s nerveless hand, 346made a bold and sudden charge upon a little pig that seemed bent24 upon keeping her company. She pursued him with flying heels and loud cries as far as the road. She came back flushed and breathless and her curls hanging rather limp around her face; she began again to rock herself and gaze silently out of the door.
“You gwine make yo’ fus’ c’mmunion?”
This seemingly sober inquiry25 on the part of Aunt Pinky at once shattered Odalie’s ill-humor and dispelled26 every shadow of it. She leaned back and laughed with wild abandonment.
“Mais w’at you thinkin’ about, Aunt Pinky? How you don’t remember I made my firs’ communion las’ year, with this same dress w’at maman let out the tuck,” holding up the altered skirt for Aunt Pinky’s inspection27. “An’ with this same petticoat w’at maman added this ruffle28 an’ crochet’ edge; excep’ I had a w’ite sash.”
These evidences proved beyond question convincing and seemed to satisfy Aunt Pinky. Odalie rocked as furiously as ever, but she 347sang now, and the swaying chair had worked its way nearer to the old woman.
“You gwine git mar’ied?”
“I declare, Aunt Pinky,” said Odalie, when she had ceased laughing and was wiping her eyes, “I declare, sometime’ I think you gittin’ plumb29 foolish. How you expec’ me to git married w’en I’m on’y thirteen?”
Evidently Aunt Pinky did not know why or how she expected anything so preposterous30; Odalie’s holiday attire31 that filled her with contemplative rapture32, had doubtless incited33 her to these vagaries34.
The child now drew her chair quite close to the old woman’s knee after she had gone out to the rear of the cabin to get herself some water and had brought a drink to Aunt Pinky in the gourd35 dipper.
There was a strong, hot breeze blowing from the river, and it swept fitfully and in gusts36 through the cabin, bringing with it the weedy smell of cacti37 that grew thick on the bank, and occasionally a shower of reddish dust from the road. Odalie for a while was greatly occupied in keeping in place her filmy skirt, which every gust5 of wind swelled38 balloon-like 348about her knees. Aunt Pinky’s little black, scrawny hand had found its way among the droopy curls, and strayed often caressingly39 to the child’s plump neck and shoulders.
“You riclics, honey, dat day yo’ granpappy say it wur pinchin’ times an’ he reckin he bleege to sell Yallah Tom an’ Susan an’ Pinky? Don’ know how come he think ’bout Pinky, ’less caze he sees me playin’ an’ trapsin’ roun’ wid you alls, day in an’ out. I riclics yit how you tu’n w’ite like milk an’ fling yo’ arms roun’ li’le black Pinky; an’ you cries out you don’ wan’ no saddle-mar’; you don’ wan’ no silk dresses and fing’ rings an’ sich; an’ don’ wan’ no idication; des wants Pinky. An’ you cries an’ screams an’ kicks, an’ ’low you gwine kill fus’ pusson w’at dar come an’ buy Pinky an’ kiars her off. You riclics dat, honey?”
Odalie had grown accustomed to these flights of fancy on the part of her old friend; she liked to humor her as she chose to sometimes humor very small children; so she was quite used to impersonating one dearly beloved but impetuous, “Paulette,” who seemed 349to have held her place in old Pinky’s heart and imagination through all the years of her suffering life.
“I rec’lec’ like it was yesterday, Aunt Pinky. How I scream an’ kick an’ maman gave me some med’cine; an’ how you scream an’ kick an’ Susan took you down to the quarters an’ give you ‘twenty.’”
“Das so, honey; des like you says,” chuckled Aunt Pinky. “But you don’ riclic dat time you cotch Pinky cryin’ down in de holler behine de gin; an’ you say you gwine give me ‘twenty’ ef I don’ tell you w’at I cryin’ ’bout?”
“I rec’lec’ like it happen’d to-day, Aunt Pinky. You been cryin’ because you want to marry Hiram, ole Mr. Benitou’s servant.”
“Das true like you says, Miss Paulette; an’ you goes home an’ cries and kiars on an’ won’ eat, an’ breaks dishes, an’ pesters41 yo’ gran’pap ’tell he bleedge to buy Hi’um f’om de Benitous.”
“Don’t talk, Aunt Pink! I can see all that jus’ as plain!” responded Odalie sympathetically, yet in truth she took but a languid interest 350in these reminiscences which she had listened to so often before.
She leaned her flushed cheek against Aunt Pinky’s knee.
The air was rippling42 now, and hot and caressing40. There was the hum of bumble bees outside; and busy mud-daubers kept flying in and out through the door. Some chickens had penetrated to the very threshold in their aimless roamings, and the little pig was approaching more cautiously. Sleep was fast overtaking the child, but she could still hear through her drowsiness43 the familiar tones of Aunt Pinky’s voice.
“But Hi’um, he done gone; he nuva come back; an’ Yallah Tom nuva come back; an’ ole Marster an’ de chillun—all gone—nuva come back. Nobody nuva come back to Pinky ’cep you, my honey. You ain’ gwine ’way f’om Pinky no mo’, is you, Miss Paulette?”
“No pussun nuva come back ’cep’ you.”
Odalie was fast asleep. Aunt Pinky was asleep with her head leaning back on her chair and her fingers thrust into the mass of tangled45 351brown hair that swept across her lap. The chickens and little pig walked fearlessly in and out. The sunlight crept close up to the cabin door and stole away again.
Odalie awoke with a start. Her mother was standing46 over her arousing her from sleep. She sprang up and rubbed her eyes. “Oh, I been asleep!” she exclaimed. The cart was standing in the road waiting. “An’ Aunt Pinky, she’s asleep, too.”
“Yes, chérie, Aunt Pinky is asleep,” replied her mother, leading Odalie away. But she spoke47 low and trod softly as gentle-souled women do, in the presence of the dead.
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1
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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6
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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8
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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9
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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10
dummy
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| n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头 | |
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11
mitts
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| n.露指手套，棒球手套，拳击手套( mitt的名词复数 ) | |
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12
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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14
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
pester
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| v.纠缠，强求 | |
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16
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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17
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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18
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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19
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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20
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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21
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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22
uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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23
rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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25
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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26
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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28
ruffle
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| v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边 | |
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29
plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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30
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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31
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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32
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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33
incited
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| 刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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35
gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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36
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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37
cacti
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| n.（复）仙人掌 | |
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38
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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39
caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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40
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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41
pesters
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的第三人称单数 ) | |
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42
rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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43
drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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44
fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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45
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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46
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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47
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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