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"They give her a name yet?" Tho" The grand out the ard the crystalline trees "An old-ti and waits "Icey"
"Good-bye" "God bless" "Thank you soout at the glitter that covers every twig and branch The holly bush by the Millers’ front door is sheathed in ice Even the power lines that co with icicles Reverend Miller, the grandfather of the infant, stands and stares across the yard "We don’t havehands with "
I cannot help co this joyful scene with the Cabrinis’ isolation in the coal camp or the MacIntoshes’ seclusion in their brick hts of ettes, radicals, and union organizers of both colors, and a shadow passes over me Gone are those days, and they can never coe of the world
When the sun rises over thehas broken," I sing the old song "Like the firstBlackbirds have spokenlike the first bird"
Nove
Arm presentation delivered with Mrs Potts, colored ton Second baby of Cassie and Darwin Washington I had to go inside and push the arm back and out of the hile Mrs Potts held the head down No vaginal tears After the birth, the ar the baby cry I was proud ofout what to do, but then there was heavy bleeding Mrs Potts showed me how to do woave ht 6 pounds, 15 ounces Present, Mrs Potts, Bitsy, as a great help, and all the Miller women and the other ladies, whose full na to Bitsy, just like Mrs Kelly once taught me How you have to watch women who’ve had e Their womb is so stretched that a baby can flop around any old which way in there and it doesn’t clamp doell afterward Bitsy paid attention as if soewhich it soht
Payment, one fine ham and a sunrise
Winter
10
Solitude
"I don’t think I should go!" Bitsy worries as I step out of ht She has just taken a bath in the washtub in the middle of the kitchen, and her body, wrapped up in a sheet, steams when the cold air hits the rooe on you Besides, you’ll have time to spend with your mother I’m sure she misses you Katherine and the baby too" I take my chair and reach for my plate of corn bread and baked beans, salted with the last of the Millers’ ham
"But I worry about you all alone way out here, Miss Patience"
This really irks me "Miss Bitsy," I spit out, "I’ve told you before to drop the ‘Miss Patience’ You’re notlast winter alone and I can do it again for a feeeks this year You’ll go and have a good time while Mr MacIntosh pays you"