Louisa May Alcott's Father's Barn
Krammer Abrahams

A woman went around checking the barn's wooden rivets. She knocked on each one and said, "Excuse me." There was no answer. She marked the wooden rivets with a tiny piece of chalk. I usually heard the last of her chalk run out long after everyone had gone to bed. She didn't go to sleep. You could hear her pacing in the dark, waiting for morning when someone would give her a new piece of chalk.

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