The Painted Chamber
becoming to her as it is to all nice girls. She was thoroughly awake, was Nancy, and there could not have been a greater contrast than that between her and the comatose Lallie Joy, who sat on a wooden chair with her feet on the side rounds. She had taken off her Turkey red sunbonnet and hung it on the chair-back, where its color violently assaulted her flaming locks. She sat wrong; she held the potato pan wrong, and the potatoes and the knife wrong. There seemed to be no sort of connection between her mind and her body. As she peeled potatoes and Nancy seeded raisins, the conversation was something like this.
"How did you chance to bring the butter to-day instead of to-morrow, Lallie Joy?"
"Had to dress me up to go to the store and get a new hat."
"What colored trimming did you get?"
"Same as old."
"Don't they keep anything but magenta?"
"Yes, blue."
"Why did n't you try blue for a change?"
"Dunno; did n't want any change, I guess."
"Do you like magenta against your hair?"
"Never thought o' my hair; jest thought o' my hat."
"Well, you see, Lallie Joy, you can't change
185
