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Show ended. Ellis had a younger brother who, in pitifully thin and inadequate clothing, contracted to milk some cows in the winter in exchange for a pint of milk. She, romping around in the hay with several of her friends, saw him at this activity and felt a great welling up of pity for this uncomplaining boy. The girls decided to draw lots to see who would take the others home to lunch. The lot fell to one of the others and Ellis went, feeling guilty that she should indulge herself in this manner when her hungry brother could not partake, and at the same time wondering what she would have done if the lot fell to her, considering the empty larder at home. It was not all grim at the Reynolds household. Anna, though she bore Ellis at a tender age, was a skilled homemaker to whom cleanliness, order, and beauty were important and who managed to achieve these desirable ends without robbing her humanity. Ellis had the pleasant duty each week during the summer, of making her way across the fields to cut wild roses which she then placed in a vase on the white fireplace. She remembers her mother's skill at transforming whatever they had to eat into something very tasty. One neighbor said, "Anna Reynolds can cook the best meal out of nothing of anybody in the world." Her mother's industrious hands were always occupied. She looked forward to the evening hours when, relieved of the day's more strenuous demands, she could sit and make "pretty laces" while her husband read to or conversed with her. A friend is said to have come to call, unannounced, very late one evening with this |