Monarchs Under the Sassafras Tree by Lawson Lillah

Author:Lawson, Lillah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“When Sivvy was born, she come out all regal, like a queen, with an expression of peace on her little red face. I figgered if I wasn’t havin’ no more young’uns I’d put ever name I never got to use on this lil’ gal. I didn’t know, see, that Nona-Lee would be comin’ after. Savilia Marie Tryphena Hargrove is her Christian name, and even with all those names to go on ever’body still just called her Sivvy. She arrived like royalty and ruled over us all like royalty, so she did. We spoilt the dickens outta her. Ever’body did.

“She was always teeny, skinny as a poor woman’s slip, and short. You’d think a lil’ gal like that would be sickly, but not my Sivvy. She was sturdy as a horse and a lil’ tomboy. Her skirt could be knee-deep in mud and she was still walkin’ around like a princess, carryin’ on with those shoulders back, and that haughty tilt of her head. I figgered if any of my chillun was gon’ get outta this place, it’d be her. Turns out I was right, but not in the way I figgered.

“They’s a school near here, the Rock Creek School, and a right jolly teacher named Ella Shunt. She’s been teachin’ there for over twenty year and taught all my chillun but the oldest two. Anyhow, when Sivvy was six years old she started in to askin’ about goin’ to school. It was a fair walk to the school for a lil’ slip of a gal like her, and me and Nate hesitated ’bout lettin’ her go. We had too much work to do around here, you see, to be walkin’ her there ever’day. And her brothers could do it sometime, but on the days when they was home helpin’ us, she’d have to go it alone. It’s just shy of two mile, and that don’t sound like much for po’ folks who is used to walkin’, but it’s over the mountain, through a grove of thick pine trees, and back up a steep hill. There’s a creek you got to cross over, that leads into the Toccoa River, and for much of the trail the trees is so thick you’d never see a body that got lost. Sivvy knew the way; she were always good with direction and she’d been on that walk a thousand times, but I were nervous about her goin’ it alone. Might be bears, or a fox, or some man out in the woods lookin’ fer trouble. She was my baby, you see, my youngest, and I doted and worrit on her. But in the end she won out and we let her go. We spoilt her rotten. Miss Ella Shunt offered to meet Sivvy at the foot of the trail ever’ mornin’ and she knew if Sivvy were more than five minutes late to go searchin’ for her. That gave me peace of mind. Ain’t none of us could stand the thought of denyin’ lil’ Sivvy the right to go to school.

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