Mrs. Armstid

Mrs. Armstid is mistreated and abused by her husband, Henry, who bids on a spotted pony using her hard-earned five dollars after she repeatedly pleads with him not to. We hear both her desperation and resolved self-effacement when she implores the Texan to keep Henry from doing it: "Mister, . . . we got chaps in the house and not corn to feed the stock. We got five dollars I earned my chaps a-weaving after dark, and him snoring in the bed" (171). After Henry breaks his leg trying to keep the horse from running away, Mrs. Armstid shuttles back and forth between nursing him at Mrs. Littlejohn’s, and the Armstid farm where she leaves her oldest daughter in charge of the rest of her children.