But Anna Sophia would be dependent on no one. To those who came in
the name of the villagers to notify her that she would receive from
them a monthly allowance, she showed her able hands, her brown,
muscular arms, and, raising her sparkling eyes proudly to the new
school-teacher, she said, "From these alone will I receive help;
they shall give me food and clothing; on them alone will I be
dependent."
She then went to seek work. The rich burgher of the village would
gladly have taken so smart and industrious a girl into his house and
paid her handsomely for her services. But Anna Sophia declared
proudly that, though she was willing to work, she would be no slave;
that she would sell her hands, but not her freedom.
Another house had been built and furnished for the school-teacher,
because there was danger of the old one, in which the Detzloff
family had lived, falling to pieces.
Anna Sophia, by the sale of some of the furniture, had bought the
old, dilapidated hut for herself. And there, in her hours of
leisure, she lived over the happy past. There she felt that she was
still with her parents, and not alone and orphaned. In the morning,
before leaving her home to go at her daily work, she entered the
little garden at the back of the hut, where in the arbor, laden with
dark-red blossoms, were the three chairs her father had woven in his
idle moments, and the roughly-hewn deal table made by his axe.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376