"Hurry, Mother!" exclaimed Mary Wheatley.  The two women walked quickly through their large house at the corner of King Street and Market Lane in Boston. "You must see what Phyllis has done!"

     Mary Wheatley and her twin brother Nathaniel were eighteen when Phyllis became part of their household and was given the family name as her own.  Although twins, they did not look alike.  Mary had the light coloring and delicate features of her mother.  Nathaniel was tall and rugged.  He was not, however, a stern man, as John Wheatley so often proved to be.  Both Mary and Nathaniel had been as kind to the little girl as their mother.  They had also seen immediately, as Susanna had, that there was something special about the child.  As Mary and Susanna entered the parlor at the front of the house, they saw Phyllis holding a piece of chard wood from the fire that had burned the night before.  She was using it to mark on the wall of the room.  She was so occupied with her marking that she did not notice that Susanna and Mary had entered the room.  Nor had she noticed the look first of surprise and then gentle laughter which Susanna could not suppress.

     "Phyllis," Susanna Wheatley said quietly.

     The little girl responded immediately.  She looked down and tried to hide the charcoal she held in her hand.  Phyllis, however, had never been able to pretend with Susanna Wheatley.  When she realized that she could not hide the piece of charred wood, she moved as if about to flee the room before realizing that running would serve no purpose.  She was caught. That was all there was to it.