Summary

Beryl then recounts, from her own point of view, the story of her mother threatening to hang herself. Beryl recounts the story with mirth and humor, which surprises Euphemia. Beryl viewed the threatened hanging as a prank being played by their mother on their father. Their father apparently saw her in the barn with a rope around her neck and said something dismissive before going off to work. Marietta then found her in the barn and ran to get their father at their mother’s request. Mrs. Sutcliffe tried to talk their mother to take off the rope, and Beryl then noticed that the rope was not tied to the beam. Marietta responded to Beryl’s humorous retelling of the story by saying of their mother, “She meant it. She meant it more than you give her credit for” (234). Both versions of the story...