nearly noon
Git up heah '' -- and she rapped the horse down the back with the lines . `` Hurry up -- I 'm gwine after 'em es soon es I git home . '' Conway could only bow his head and weep . It was nearly noon when a large coal-black woman , her head tied up with an immaculately white handkerchief , with a white apron to match over her new calico gown , walked into the mill door . She passed through Kingsley 's office , without giving him the courtesy of a nod , holding her head high and looking straight before her . A black thunder-cloud of indignation sat upon her brow , and her large black eyes were lit up with a sarcastic light . Before Kingsley could collect his thoughts she had passed into the big door of the main room , amid the whirl and hum of the machinery , and walking straight to one of the spinning frames , she stooped and gathered into her arms the beautiful , fair-skinned little girl who was trying in vain to learn the tiresome lesson of piecing the ever-breaking threads of the bewildering , whirling bobbins .