Fannie Georgia Stroup

“ Collins, "the coroner's jury said yesterday that they wasn't any manner of doubt but that she wasn't crazy. She jes' set there, with her solemn big eyes, and looked straight ahead and never said a word.
"I wonder how a woman'd feel to know that the baby girl she loved better'n her own life would have to grow up in this drudgery and then finally spend the last of her years in a 'sylum?”
"Yes and 'spose Mamie went crazy herself long 'fore the little girl grew up?"
"I wonder if a woman really loved her baby girl if she wouldn't rather—" she stopped once more with a frightened look. ”

“ I remember when we were back in Tennessee, that Mamie was always findin' the first deer's tongues and other kinds of little early flowers. Us big girls always helped fill her little hands. Seemed like she never could get all she wanted. An' then think of livin' out here where there ain't water enough for things that has to have it, let alone flowers. ”

“ Does beat all how hard 'tis to get water in this country. Jes' seems to me sometimes like I'd die for a sight of mountains an' green things an' a tumblin' little stream that'd run an' ripple all summer."
Motherly Mrs. Collins wiped the perspiration from her large, red face and fanned herself with her blue sunbonnet.
"Didn't Mamie Judy come from the mountain country?" she asked.
"Yes: we went to the same school. When she was a girl she had the blackest eyes and the prettiest red cheeks of any girl you ever did see. Didn’t look much like she does now! A farmer's wife soon goes to pieces. ”

“ How d'you ever spose Mamie managed to cook on it?"
"Must have been pretty hard. She didn't have things fixed as handy as some of the rest of us, even. You see, they didn't have much money to spend on things. Farmin' in Kansas ain't been a payin' business the last few years. When 'tain't too wet, it's too dry, or too hot, or too cold, or somethin'."
Yes, it seems like there's always somethin'. There—I've got that sweepin' done. We'll let Selina scrub, while we fix up the front room." ”

“ I wish, oh how I wish, I'd 'a 'come over here oftener! We don't live so far away; but seems like I never get time to get all my work done, and when I do there's not time to walk, or I'm too tired, an' o' course the horses are always busy. ”

“ Collins, then answered:
"No; we jes' been cleanin' up. We ain't been lookin' for no evidence."
"Well, Walters." said the attorney, "you know juries when it comes to women. If there never is found a definite reason for her wanting the baby to die, no jury will ever believe she is guilty." ”

“ Yes: the way farmer's wives have to worry 'long, 'tain't much wonder so many of 'en go crazy. I read in th' paper that was 'round a bundle that come from the store that a bigger part of farmers' wives went crazy than any other kind of women. ”

“ She may live for years, but will never regain her mentality, as cases like hers are incurable. We find upon investigation that the women of her family, for several generations, have become hopelessly insane at her age. ”

“ Bein' up on ton of that rise, an' only half a mile away, would make it seem to me kinda like livin' in a graveyard."
"Selina, take this here bucket an' bring in some water. My land, I don't see how Mamie ever got through with all her work an' took care of the baby. Her bein' so old, an' it her first made it harder, too. Never thought her an' Jed would have any children."
"Things do need reddin' up pretty considerable," spoke Mrs. Collins, picked up some odds and ends of clothing from a corner, where they had lain as long enough to accumulate a coating of acrid dust. ”