A Sweet-Grass Basket

A Sweet-Grass Basket is a short story written by Mary Wilkins Freeman.
Plot
Nancy lives with her parents and her wealthy cousin, Flora, who owns pretty things because her father is well off. One day, the two cousins go off to Indian ground and visit an Indian princess’ tent. Inside the tent were baskets and canoes for sell. One particular 50-cent sweet-grass basket catches the attention of the girls, and Flora expresses that she plans on buying the basket next week, after she receives her allowance from her father on Saturday. This stirs up jealousy in Nancy, who is determined to make the 50 cents and buy the basket before Flora. A few days later, Nancy is sent over to Aunt Lucretia’s on and errand. Nancy offers to pick berries for her aunt for a fee. Aunt Lucretia agrees to Nancy’s suggestion, offering her seven cents for each quart of blackberries. All week, Nancy worked hard picking blackberries, eventually earning the amount she needed to buy the basket. However, Aunt Lucretia did not have the change to pay her, and asked her to wait a few more days. The next day, Nancy again asked her aunt for money, but her Aunt still had not gotten change. On Saturday, Flora received her money but did not think of buying the basket. This spurred Nancy to go to Aunt Lucretia’s once again, to ask for her money. This time she went without permission. Although Lucretia was able to get her money, both her aunt and mother scolded her for her disobedience. The next day after church, Nancy told Flora she wanted to pick flowers, entreating Flora to head home first. Instead of picking flowers, Nancy ran to the Indian camp to buy the sweet-grass basket. When she returned home, her mother scolded her and made her take the basket back to the Indian princess. The princess refused to give back her money. Nancy obeyed her mother, leaving the money and the basket with the princess, but she remained sad, sobbing through supper. The next day, the Indian princess appeared at their door and returned the basket, which Nancy gave to Flora. Later on, Nancy was sent on another errand and the princess returned with more baskets. Flora bought an identical sweet-grass basket for Nancy and surprised Nancy with it.
Reception
The book Dissertation Abstracts International criticized some of Freeman's depictions of minorities, such as showing "a gnomish Black man as weak, easily fooled, and child-like".

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