"Yes, sir.""Keep your seat, Jenny," said the sister, and that good news got better.
When they asked what work she could do, instead of reeling off the hundreds of tasks she hadperformed, she asked about the slaughterhouse. She was too old for that, they said.
"She's the best cobbler you ever see," said Mr. Garner.
"Cobbler?" Sister Bodwin raised her black thick eyebrows. "Who taught you that?""Was a slave taught me," said Baby Suggs.
"New boots, or just repair?""New, old, anything.""Well," said Brother Bodwin, "that'll be something, but you'll need more.""What about taking in wash?" asked Sister Bodwin.
"Yes, ma'am.""Two cents a pound.""Yes, ma'am. But where's the in?""What?""You said 'take in wash.' Where is the 'in'? Where I'm going to be.""Oh, just listen to this, Jenny," said Mr. Garner. "These two angels got a house for you. Place theyown out a ways." It had belonged to their grandparents before they moved in town. Recently it. hadbeen rented out to a whole parcel of Negroes, who had left the state. It was too big a house for Jenny alone, they said (two rooms upstairs, two down), but it was the best and the only thing theycould do. In return for laundry, some seamstress work, a little canning and so on (oh shoes, too),they would permit her to stay there. Provided she was clean. The past parcel of colored wasn't.