[thathamiltonwoman]

Well, if these people are gypsies then it all makes sense. They are said to be very hard on their children. I'm afraid that Martha is gone. She's probably with relatives in another state.

[RipSawyer]

My first guess is that she was treating her child in a way that was considered "normal" by a very large part of the population two generations back. Many people today either have forgotten or are too young to know that it was not considered anything unusual to beat a child with a stick until the last half of the twentieth century. In fact it was quite common to make the child go and cut a green stick, known as a "switch" and bring it to the parent for the beating. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was not idle chatter in those days. I don't necessarily condone such treatment but many of those so treated turned out a great deal better than most of today's spoiled children.