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"It’s her first She started paining yesterday My granny’s not a ht all of us into the world, my brothers and sisters and my four cousins This is the first time she’s been stumped"

Great, I think Wait until you have trouble, then call the o? A life is at stake, rabBitsy were hoht’s adventure It’s true, I’ve becoy, I’ain the black clothes and the wire-rilasses, this time with a floppy-brimmed black hat Ruth doesn’t introduce me, so I hop in and we ride the rest of the way in silence

It takes fifty h the muck around Raccoon Lick, past the vet’s house, and then another half a mile up Bucks Run until we turn off This is a hollow I’ve never seen before, never even heard of There are four log ho the swollen creek A narrow hts are on in each dwelling, and I iine that they are all Klopfensteins We stop at the first building, a sturdy two-story log house with a long front porch I don’t wait for an invitation but hop out of the wagon and head for the door, already opening

"Hi I’a part in a novel My experience is so limited compared to Mrs Kelly’s and Mrs Potts’s

"I’m Mrs Klopfenstein, Molly’s mum" A worried worips uides me into the front bedroo and looks so olden hair, that they could be twins, only her yellow mane is matted and sweaty She’s doesn’t even open her eyes when her mother introduces me

"Child, here’s the midwife," she announces, then takes her seat Ruth sits down too There are five of theside the bed, and they are all dressed in black with the salasses This ht Five black crows

I turn to the oldest worand, hite hair in a bun She’s skinny and flat-chested but has brown arms that could still lift a bale of hay "Ruth told randbaby, but there seeht?"

The old woman pinches hernarrow room with a fireplace at the end, there’s a table covered with oilcloth, a sink with a ainst the wall

"The baby’s not co It’s as sio and seeht she pained, and then around dawn she just petered out I washed my hands and had a feel about suppertime The head was there and she was about half open, but since her water broke everything’s stopped The baby’s still alive, I know that much; we seen it move"

I take a deep breath and try to look co to the hospital in Torrington? The doctors there could do an operation" Grandorously shakes her head and looks as if I’ve just asked whether she’d consider taking a tour of Hell

"Have you tried any herbs?" The old wos "Okay, I’ll do what I can, but if the baby’s too big, I can’t change that Let ht at the strike of twelve"

I calculate back That’s twenty hours gone already, and Mrs Kelly always said never to let the sun set twice on a woman in labor

Molly