Reuben went away crestfallen.
But Hannah! poor Hannah! she never anticipated the full amount of misery
and reproach she would have to bear alone!
A few weeks passed and the money she had saved was all spent. No more
work was brought to her to do. A miserable consciousness of lost caste
prevented her from going to seek it. She did not dream of the extent of
her misfortune; she did not know that even if she had sought work from
her old employers, it would have been refused her.
One day when the Professor of Odd Jobs happened to be making a
professional tour in her way, and called at the hut to see if his
services might be required there, she gave him a commission to seek work
for her among the neighboring farmers and planters--a duty that the
professor cheerfully undertook.
But when she saw him again, about ten days after, and inquired about his
success in procuring employment for her, he shook his head, saying: "There's a plenty of weaving waiting to be done everywhere, Miss
Hannah--which it stands to reason there would be at this season of the
year. There's all the cotton cloth for the negroes' summer clothes to be
wove; but, Miss Hannah, to tell you the truth, the ladies as I've
mentioned it to refuses to give the work to you."
"But why?" inquired the poor woman, in alarm.
"Well, Miss Hannah, because of what has happened, you know. The world is
very unjust, Miss Hannah! And women are more unjust than men. If 'man's
inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn,' I'm sure women's
cruelty to women makes angels weep!" And here the professor, having
lighted upon a high-toned subject and a helpless hearer, launched into a
long oration I have not space to report. He ended by saying: "And now, Miss Hannah, if I were you I would not expose myself to
affronts by going to seek work."
"But what can I do, Morris? Must I starve, and let the child starve?"
asked the weaver, in despair.
"Well, no, Miss Hannah; me and my ole 'oman must see what we can do for
you. She aint as young as she used to be, and she mustn't work so hard.
She must part with some of her own spinning and weaving to you. And I
must work a little harder to pay for it. Which I am very willing to do;
for I say, Hannah, when an able-bodied man is not willing to shift the
burden off his wife's shoulders on to his own, he is unworthy to be--"