50
PARTISAN REVIEW
We exchanged the usual compliments and spoke favorably
of the sun before we drifted off into philosophy. This arrived by
way of Harlem. I hadn't thought of her as feeder to that popula–
tion but she had children in it. She was not satisfied by what par–
ticulars they furnished. She used my help in making New York
real, and I said the more indulgent things about it. Having lived
also in Chicago I knew some pleasanter details toward freedom
after hours.
She smoked and nodded and enjoyed the sun and asked and
reconstructed Harlem. I too had got quite beyond a mere collec·
tor's interest.
"The Lord," was her conclusion, "has been mighty good
to me."
We were by now in full philosophy and so I asked her to
define her terms; to tell me, as I put it, what she meant.
"Mighty good to me," she said, using the argument by
repetition.
She paused to blow out incense.
"My children," she explained, "were always even, always
came in pairs."
As soon as I got any meaning from this, I thought of twins.
Such a constancy seemed strange, but I still hadn't understood pure
essential orderliness in her conception of it. However she treated
me with patience and went on.
"No, only one pair of twins. He works in Richmond and the
girl was married, in Louisville I remember. But always
if
I had,
say, a girl, then the next one was a boy. Mighty good to me. Or
when I lost a baby, then that time the next would be the same kind
to keep it even."
;
The scheme penetrated. It was impressive; we lost ourselves
some moments in its contemplation.
"Finally I had ten, all living, five one way, five the other."
She smoked again in the descended peace around us.
"You might think I had enough by then," and clearly she
meant enough of bounty. "But He been
mighty
good to me. Now
they old enough to die it keeps the same. First a woman die
and
then a man. I got six now, still divided pretty."
I didn't inquire about grandchildren. From her silence they
fell outside the patte111. One mustn't ask too much of life. And
