Margaret Ogilvy

On the day I was born we bought six hair-bottomed chairs, and in our little house it was an event, the first great victory in a woman's long campaign; how they had been laboured for, the pound-noteand the thirty threepenny-bits they cost, what anxiety there was about the purchase, the show theymade in possession of the west room, my father's unnatural coolness when he brought them in (buthis face was white)-I so often heard the tale afterwards, and shared as boy and man in so manysimilar triumphs, that the coming of the chairs seems to be something I remember, as if I hadjumped out of bed on that first day, and run ben to see how they looked. I am sure my mother'sfeet were ettling to be ben long before they could be trusted, and that the moment after she was leftalone with me she was discovered barefooted in the west room, doctoring a scar (which she hadbeen the first to detect) on one of the chairs, or sitting on them regally, or withdrawing and reopening the door suddenly to take the six by surprise. And then, I think, a shawl was flung over her(it is strange to me to think it was not I who ran after her with the shawl), and she was escortedsternly back to bed and reminded that she had promised not to budge, to which her reply wasprobably that she had been gone but an instant, and the implication that therefore she had not beengone at all. Thus was one little bit of her revealed to me at once: I wonder if I took note ofit. Neighbours came in to see the boy and the chairs. I wonder if she deceived me when sheaffected to think that there were others like us, or whether I saw through her from the first, she wasso easily seen through. When she seemed to agree with them that it would be impossible to give mea college education, was I so easily taken in, or did I know already what ambitions burned behindthat dear face? when they spoke of the chairs as the goal quickly reached, was I such a newcomerthat her timid lips must say 'They are but a beginning' before I heard the words? And when we wereleft together, did I laugh at the great things that were in her mind, or had she to whisper them to mefirst, and then did I put my arm round her and tell her that I would help? Thus it was for such along time: it is strange to me to feel that it was not so from the beginning