XXIIDolly, still small and fragile, celebrated her sixth birthday. Nat and Arent and ’Melie were lofty from long experience with birthdays, but with little Willis held out their plates for second slices of the cake. Nellie looked over her brood.
She said, “Doll, when you were born, we didn’t think we’d ever raise you.”
Nat said, “I remember. She was about as big as a barn rat and sort of blue. Aunt Jess said she had to breathe down her throat.”
Nellie said, “Ase, isn’t it funny? Look how things change in the years. The time jumps like a rabbit. Thinking we’d lose Doll, and now she’s a big girl. You worrying about me, and Willis making no trouble at all. All of it in jumps. I suppose some day it’ll seem as queer to have grown children as having new ones.”
He was troubled by his feeling
