Thankful found the cares upon her shoulders less and less heavy, and she was more free to do what she was so capable of doing, that is, superintend the cooking and the housekeeping.
But Thankful herself was puzzled.
"I don't understand it," she said.

"I've always had to look out for myself, and others, too.

There ain't been a minute since I can remember that I ain't had somebody dependent upon me.

I cal'lated I could run a boardin'-house if I couldn't do anything else.

But I'm just as sure as I am that I'm alive that if you hadn't come when you did I'd have run this one into the ground and myself into the poorhouse.