Indeed, I am very particular to get all the credit due me.

I always remind my sister Deborah, who was the baby of those humble days, that it was I who pierced her ears.

Earrings were a requisite part of a girl's toilet.

Even a beggar girl must have earrings, were they only loops of thread with glass beads.

I heard my mother bemoan the baby because she had not time to pierce her ears.
Promptly I armed myself with a coarse needle and a spool of thread, and towed Deborah out into the woodshed.