My grandmother was a small woman from England named Molly Walsh. But we called her "Big Mama" in spite of her size. She worked there as a dairymaid on a large farm near Devon. One day when she was doing her chores, a cow knocked over a pail of milk. The man she worked for accused her of stealing the milk and had my grandmother arrested.

At that time in England, the penalty for stealing was death! Fortunately for my grandmother, there was a provision in English law that if you could read the Bible your sentence could be reduced. Now my grandmother was very religious and read the Bible daily. So she "called for the Book," as they used to say. When they brought it, she read it with enthusiam.

Since labor was needed in the American colonies at that time, her sentence was changed to seven years of indentured servitude in the Maryland colony.