"
"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected."
"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson,
Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column,
and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column.
"Ah reckon Ah'm his first wife," the woman replied, "he was jes'
twenty-one when Ah married him."
"And you've been married six years," the boy went on, entering Stephen
Lawson's age as 27, the number of years married as "6," and "M. 1," to
show that he was married, and married only once. "But you look like a
girl still," he added, "you must have been married very young."
"Ah was jes' sixteen," she answered; "we was married on mah birthday."
"And your name is--?"
"Lily, sah."
"Any other name?"
"Mariamne, sah."
For a moment or two Hamilton wrote busily, filling in "Lily M.," "Wife,"
"F" for female, "Mu" for mulatto, "22" for present age, "M. 1" for first
marriage, and "6" for the number of years in wedlock.
"You have children?"
"One li'l boy, sah, but he's deaf an' dumb. An' so quick an' clever,
sah, in other ways, yo' wouldn' believe!"
"That's hard luck," said Hamilton kindly, "but they do such wonderful
things to help them now, you know.
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