[00:01.28]Miss Aurelie lived alone on the farm all her life.
[00:06.82]She never thought of marring, and she had never been in love.
[00:11.55]At the age of twenty she was shed to marry somebody, but she did not accept,
[00:17.01]and at the age of fifty she had not yet lived to regret it.
[00:21.45]So she was quite alone in the world, except for her dog,
[00:25.70]the negroes who lived with her and worked her crops,
[00:29.18]the chickens, a few cow, her gun and her religion.
[00:34.04]One morning Miss Aurelie’s young neighbor came to her,
[00:38.03]accompanied by her four small children.
[00:40.96]She carried the little baby in her arms and dragged the youngest son by an unwilling hand,
[00:47.83]while two little girls followed behind.
[00:50.96]Her face was red from tears.
[00:53.50]She had been called to a neighboring village to take care of her sick mother while her husband was away in Texas.
[01:01.23]She came to ask Miss Aurelie to take care of the children while she was away.
[01:06.59]After she had left,
[01:07.92]Miss Aurelie stood looking at the children,
[01:10.95]and thought of a plan of how to take care of them.
[01:14.06]She began by feeding them.
[01:16.62]If Miss Aurelie’s responsibilities had begun and ended there,
[01:20.67]it would have been easy, because there was enough food in the house.
[01:24.90]But little children are not little pigs:
[01:27.93]they require and demand attention and care for, which Miss Aurelie was not prepared.
[01:33.86]She was, indeed, very bad in her management of the children during the first few days.
[01:40.18]How could she know that the oldest girl always wept when spoken to in a loud and commanding tone of voice?
[01:48.04]She became used to little boy’s love of flowers only after he had picked all the most beautiful ones from the garden to study their botanical construction.
[01:58.60]At night, when she ordered them one and all to bed,
[02:02.72]they kept standing before her, as if they didn’t understand.
[02:07.06]Only after Miss Aurlie had given them a bath,
[02:10.30]told the little boy a bed-time story and sang sweet songs to the little baby,did they al fall asleep.
[02:17.93]Taking care of a small band of such young children is not easy for a woman of little experience.
[02:25.35]Miss aurelie learnt something every day,
[02:28.38]and by the end of two weeks she had grown quite sued to these things,
[02:33.23]and she no longer complained.
[02:35.06]It was also at the end of two weeks that Miss Aurelie, one evening saw the children’s young mother coming from the railway station.
[02:43.89]As she drew near, the young woman’s face showed that her home-coming was a happy one.
[02:50.03]But her coming, neither announced nor expected,
[02:54.18]made Miss Aurelie very upset.
[02:56.54]The children had to be found.
[02:58.57]Where was the naughty boy?
[03:00.61]Where were the two girls?
[03:03.04]As for the baby, she was safe enough in Miss Aurelie’s arms;
[03:07.38]and she had screamed with delight at sight of the familiar blue wagon which was bringing her mother back to her.
[03:14.82]The excitement was all over, and they were gone.
[03:18.97]How quiet it was when they were gone!
[03:21.53]Miss Aurelie stood in front of her farm house, looking and listening.
[03:26.29]She could no longer see the cart. She could no longer hear the noise of its wheels,
[03:32.24]but she could still hear the glad voices of the children in the distance.
[03:37.00]She went into the house.
[03:39.45]There was much work to be done, for the children and made a mess,
[03:44.08]but she did not immediately start cleaning up.
[03:46.13]Miss Aurelie seated herself beside the table.
[03:49.68]She looked around, and then she let her head fall down upon her bended arm, and began to cry.
[03:57.02]Oh how she cried!
[03:59.27]Not softly, as women often do.
[04:02.40]She cried very loudly.
[04:05.04]She did not notice her dog licking her hand |