“I reckon I understand it a little better now,” Pluto said. “But I still ain’t got it.”
“I don’t reckon you’ll be apt to get it, either, till you train down so you can work some.”
“My size don’t hinder me. It gets in my way sometimes, but I get around that.”
Pluto spat haphazardly to the left. The lizard had not come back, and he could find nothing to aim at.
“My only sorrow is that all my children wouldn’t stay here and help,” Ty Ty said slowly. “Buck and Shaw are still here helping me, and Buck’s wife, and Darling Jill, but the other girl went off up to Augusta and got a job in a cotton mill across the river in Horse Creek Valley and married, and I reckon you know about Jim Leslie just as well as I could tell you. He’s a big man up there in the city now, and he’s as rich as the next one to come along.”
“Yes, yes,” Pluto said.
“Something got into Jim Leslie at an early age. He wouldn’t have much to do with the rest of us, and still won’t. Right now, he takes on like he don’t know who I am. Just before his mother died, I took her up to the city one day to see him. She said she wanted to see him just one more time before she died. So 1 took her up there and went to his big white house on The Hill, and when he saw who it was at the door, he locked it and wouldn’t let us in. I reckon that sort of hastened his mother’s death, his acting that way, because she took sick and died before the week was out. He acted like he was ashamed of us, or something. And he still does. But the other girl is different. She’s just like the rest of us. She’s always pleased to see us when we go over to Horse Creek Valley to pay a call. I’ve always said that Rosamond was a right fine girl. Jim Leslie, though--I can’t say so much for him. He’s always looking the other way when I happen to meet him on the street in the city. He acts like he’s ashamed of me. I can’t see how that ought to be, though, because I’m his father.”
“Yes, yes,” Pluto said.
“I don’t know why my oldest boy should turn out like that. I’ve always been a religious man, all my life I have. I’ve always done the best I could, no matter how much I was provoked, and I’ve tried to get my boys and girls to do the same. You see that piece of ground over yonder, Pluto? Well, that’s God’s little acre. I set aside an acre of my farm for God twenty-seven years ago, when I bought this place, and every year I give the church all that comes off that acre of ground. If it’s cotton, I give the church all the money the Cotton brings at market. The same with hogs, when I raised them, and about corn, too, when I plant it. That’s God’s little acre, Pluto. I’m proud to divide what little I have with God.”
“What’s growing on it this year?”
“Growing on it? Nothing, Pluto. Nothing but maybe beggarlice and cockleburs now. I just couldn’t find the time to plant cotton on it this year. Me and the boys and the darkies have been so busy with other things I just had to let God’s little acre lie fallow for the time being.”
Pluto sat up and looked across the field towards the pine woods. There were such great piles of excavated sand and clay heaped over the ground that it was difficult to see much further than a hundred yards without climbing a tree.
“Where’d you say that acre of land was, Ty Ty?”
“Over there near the woods. You won’t be able to see much of it from here.”
“Why did you put it ‘way over there? Ain’t that a sort of out-of-the-way place for it to be, Ty Ty?”
“Well, I’ll tell you, Pluto. It ain’t always been where it is now. I’ve been compelled to shift it around a heap during the past twenty-seven years. When the boys get to discussing where we’ll start digging anew, it seems like it always falls on God’s little acre. I don’t know why that is, either. l’m set against digging on His ground, so I’ve been compelled to shift it around over the farm to keep from digging it up.”
“You ain’t scared of digging on it and striking a lode are you, Ty Ty?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that, but I’d hate to have to see the lode struck on God’s little acre the first thing, and be compelled to turn it all over to the church. That preacher’s getting all he needs like it is. I’d hate something awful to have to give all the gold to him: I couldn’t stand for that, Pluto.”
Ty Ty raised his head and glanced across the field potted with holes. Atone place he could see nearly a quarter of a mile away, in a straight line between the mounds of earth. Over there in the newground Black Sam and Uncle Felix were plowing the cotton. Ty Ty always managed to keep an eye on them, because he realized that if they did not raise any cotton and corn, there would be no money and little to eat that fall and winter. The Negroes had to be watched all the time, otherwise they would slip off at the first chance and dig in the holes behind their cabins.
“I’ve got something I’d like to ask you, Ty Ty.”
“Is that what brought you out here in the hot sun?”
“I reckon so. I wanted to ask you.”
“What’s on your mind, Pluto? Go ahead and ask it.”
“Your girl,” Pluto said weakly, swallowing a little tobacco juice accidentally.
“Darling Jill?”
“Sure, that’s why I came.”
“What about her, Pluto?”
Pluto took the chew of tobacco out of his mouth and threw it aside. He coughed a little, trying to get the taste of the yellow tobacco out of his throat.
“I’d like to marry her.”
“You would, Pluto? You mean it?”
“I sure to God would, Ty Ty. I’d go and cut off my right hand to marry her.”
“You’ve taken a liking to her, Pluto?”
“I sure to God have,” he said. “And that’s a fact.”
Ty Ty thought a while, pleased to think that his youngest daughter had attracted a man with serious intentions so early in life.
“No sense in cutting off your hand, Pluto. Just go ahead and marry her when she’s ready for you. I reckon maybe you would consent to let her stay here some and help us dig after you are married, and maybe come yourself and help some. The more we have helping to dig, the quicker we’re going to strike that lode, Pluto. I know you wouldn’t object to digging some, being as how you would be one of the family.”
“I never was one to dig much,” Pluto said. “And that’s a fact.”
“Well, we won’t discuss it any more just now. There’ll be plenty of time to talk about it when you get married.”
Pluto felt the blood running over his face just beneath his skin. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his face with it for a long time.
“But there’s one thing about it--”
“What’s that, Pluto?”
“Darling Jill said she didn’t like me with such a fat belly. I can’t help it, Ty Ty.”
“What in the pluperfect hell has your belly got to do with it?” Ty Ty said. “Darling Jill is crazy some, Pluto. Don’t pay no attention to what she says. Just go ahead and marry her and don’t pay it no mind. She’ll be all right after you get her off somewhere for a while. Darling Jill is crazy sometimes, and about nothing.”
“And there was something else,” Pluto said, turning his face away from Ty Ty.
“What is that?”
“I don’t like to bring it up.”
“Just go ahead and say it, Pluto, and after you’ve said it, it’ll be done and can’t be coming back to bother you.”
“I heard that she ain’t so particular about what she does sometimes.”
“Just like what, for example?”
“Well, I heard that she’s been teasing and fooling with a lot of men.”
“Has things been said about my daughter, Pluto?”
“Well, about Darling Jill.”
“What do people say, Pluto?”
“Nothing much, except that she’s been teasing and fooling with a lot of men.”
“I’m tickled to death to hear that. Darling Jill is the baby of the family, and she’s coming along at last. I sure am glad to hear that.”
“She ought to quit it, because I want to marry her.”
“Never mind, Pluto,” Ty Ty said. “Don’t pay no heed to it. Don’t give it no attention. She is careless, to be sure, but she don’t mean no harm. She’s just made that way. It don’t hurt her none, not so that you will notice it, anyway. I reckon a lot of women are like that, a little or more, according to their natures. Darling Jill likes to tease a man some, but she don’t mean no real harm. A pretty girl like Darling Jill has got everything coming her way, anyhow, and she knows it. It’s up to you to satisfy her, Pluto, and make her so pleased she’ll leave off with everybody but you. She’s just been acting that way because she’s come along now and there’s been nobody man enough to hold her down. You’re man enough to keep her satisfied. I can see that in your eyes, Pluto. Don’t let that bother you no more.”
“It’s a pity God can’t make a woman like Darling Jill and then leave off before He goes too far. That’s what He did to her. He didn’t know when He had made enough of a good thing. He just kept on and on--and now look at her! She’s so full of teasing and the rest that I don’t know that I’d ever have a peaceful night’s rest when we get married.”
“Well, it might be God’s fault that He didn’t know when to stop, Pluto, but just the same Darling Jill ain’t the only girl He has made like that. In my time I’ve run across a heap like her. And I wouldn’t have to go a thousand miles from home to cite you one. Now, you take Buck’s wife, there. Pluto, I declare I don’t know what to make of so pretty a girl as Griselda.”
“That’s what you think now, but I don’t see how it can be so, Ty Ty. I’ve seen lots of women a little like her, but I’ve yet to see one that’s as crazy as she is. When I get to be sheriff, I wouldn’t want to have her running loose all the time like she does now. It wouldn’t be good for my political career. I’ve got to keep that in mind.”
“You ain’t elected yet, Pluto.”
“No, not yet, but everything is pointing my way. I’ve got a lot of friends working for me night and day all over the county. If somebody don’t come along and shuffle the deck again, I’ll get the office with no trouble at all.”
“Tell them not to come here to my place, Pluto. I pledge you my vote, and all the votes on the place. Just be sure and don’t let none of your workers come here trying to shake hands with everybody on the farm. I declare, there’s been a hundred candidates here this summer, if there’s been one. I won’t shake with none of them, and i’ve told my boys and Darling Jill and Griselda not to stand for it. Ain’t much use in telling you why I don’t want candidates coming here, Pluto. Some of them are spreading the itch every which way, and it’s going to stick for seven long years. I ain’t saying you got the itch, but a heap of candidates do have. There’s going to be so many cases of it in the county this fall and winter it won’t be safe to go to town till the seven years have passed.”
“There wouldn’t be so many candidates for the few offices open, if it wasn’t for the hard times. Hard times bring out the candidates just like lye does the fleas on a hound’s back.”
Over in the yard beside the house, Buck and Shaw had rolled the car out of the garage and were busy pumping up the tires. Buck’s wife, Griselda, was standing in the shade of the porch talking to them. Darling Jill was not within sight.
“I’ve got to be getting along now,” Pluto said. “I’m way behind this afternoon. I’ve got to make calls on all the voters between here and the crossroads between now and sundown. I’ve got to be going.”
Pluto sat against the trunk of the live-oak tree, waiting until he felt like getting up. It was comfortable there, and shady; out in the field, where there was no shade, the sun beat down as steadily as ever. Even the weeds were beginning to curl a little in the steady heat.
“Where are we going to locate that albino you mentioned a while ago, Pluto?”
“You folks drive down below Clark’s Mill and take the right-hand road at the creek. About a mile beyond that fork is where the fellow saw him. He was out in a thicket, on the edge of the swamp, cutting wood, the fellow said. Just get out and start looking. He’s somewhere around there, because he couldn’t get far away in this short time. If I didn’t have so much to do, I’d go with you folks and help the little I could. The sheriff’s race is getting hotter every day now, though, and I’ve got to count votes all the time I can. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t get elected.”
“I reckon we’ll find him all right,” Ty Ty said. “I’ll take the boys along, and they can do most of the walking while I sit and watch for signs. It’ll be a pretty smart deal to take along some plow-lines to rope him with when we locate him. I reckon he’ll try to put up a stiff scrap when I tell him to come along up here. But we’ll get him through, if he’s in the country. We’ve been needing just what he is for the longest time. The darkies said an all-white man can divine a lode, and I reckon they know what they’re talking about. They dig more of the time than me and the boys, and we’re at it from daybreak to sundown most days. If Shaw hadn’t got that notion to quit and go to town just a while ago, we’d be at it now, down in that big hole yonder.”
Pluto made as if to rise, but the effort discouraged him. He sat back again breathing hard, to rest a little longer.
“I wouldn’t be too rough with that albino, Ty Ty,” he advised. “I don’t know what you’re aiming to catch him with, so I can’t say how to go about it, but I sure don’t advise shooting him with a gun. Hurting him would be against the law, and if I was you folks I’d play safe and not hurt him no more than I could help. You need him here to help you too bad to take any chances on running up against the law needlessly, just when you’ve gone and caught what you need most right now. Just catch him as easy as you can, so he won’t get hurt and have scars to show for the handling.”
“He won’t get hurt none,” Ty Ty promised. “I’ll be as gentle with him as I would a newborn babe. I need that albino too bad to be rough with him.”
“I’ve got to be getting along now,” Pluto said, still not moving.
“Ain’t it hot, though?” Ty Ty said, looking out at the heat on the baked earth.
It made Pluto hot to think about it. He closed his eyes, but that made him feel no cooler.
“It’s too hot to be out counting votes today,” Pluto said. “And that’s a fact.”
They sat a while longer, watching Buck and Shaw working over the big automobile in the yard beside the house. Griselda sat on the porch steps and watched them. Darling Jill was still not within sight.
“We’ll be needing all the help we can find after we rope that albino and get him home,” Ty Ty said. “I reckon I’ll have to put Darling Jill and Griselda to digging, too. I wish Rosamond was here. She could help us out a lot. Do you reckon you could come by here in a day or two and dig a little with us, Pluto? It would be a big help, if you would dig some. I can’t say how much I would be obliged to you, for whatever digging you want to do.”
“I’ve got to be out and electioneering, Ty Ty,” Pluto said, shaking his head. “Those other candidates for sheriff are tearing up the patch night and day. I’ve got to keep after the voters every minute I can spare. These voters are queer people, Ty Ty. One will promise to vote for you, and then the first thing you know, he’s promising the next fellow to come along the very same thing. I can’t afford to lose this election. I declare, I wouldn’t have a thing to do for a living, if I lost it. I can’t afford to lose a good job like that when I haven’t a thing to do for a living.”
“How many men running against you, Pluto?”
“For sheriff?”
“That’s what I meant to say.”
“There was eleven in the race when I last heard about it this morning, and by night there’s liable to be two or three more. But the actual candidates are few besides all the workers they’ve got counting votes for them, expecting to be made deputies. Looks like now every time you go up to a voter and ask a man to vote for you it sort of puts a bug in his ear and th
e first thing you know, he’s out running for some office himself. If these hard times don’t slacken before fall, there’s going to be so many candidates running for county offices that there won’t be a common ordinary voter left.”
Pluto was beginning to wish he had not left the shaded Streets in town to come out into the country and bake in the hot sun. He had hoped that he would see Darling Jill, but now that he could not find her, he was thinking of returning to town without calling on the voters along the road.
“If you can get a little time off, Pluto, I wish you would come out this way in a day or two and give us a hand with a shovel. It’ll help us a lot. And while you’re digging, you ought not to forget about the three or four votes here on the place. Votes are things you are in need of right now.”
“I’ll try to come by some time soon, and if I do I’ll try to dig a little for you, if the hole ain’t too deep. I don’t want to get down in something I can’t get out of again. After you get that albino you won’t have to work so hard, anyway. When you catch him, all your troubles are over, Ty Ty, and all you’ll have to do will be to dig down and strike the lode.”
“I wish it was so,” Ty Ty said. “I’ve been digging fifteen years now, and I need a little encouragement.”
“An albino can locate it,” Pluto said. “And that’s a fact.”
“The boys are ready to start,” Ty Ty said, getting up. “We’ve got to be up and on our way before night sets in. I aim to rope that all-white man before daybreak.”
Ty Ty started down the path towards the house where his sons were waiting. He did not look back to see if Pluto had got up, because he was in a big hurry. Pluto got up slowly and followed Ty Ty down the path between the deep holes and the high mounds of earth toward his car where he had left it in the road in front of the house two hours before. He hoped he would see Darling Jill before he left, but she was not within sight.
Chapter III
When Ty Ty and Pluto reached the house, they found the boys resting after their work. All the tires were tight and hard, and the radiator was filled to overflowing. Everything seemed to be ready for the trip. While waiting for their father to get ready to start, Shaw sat on the runningboard rolling a cigarette, and Buck sat on the steps beside his wife with his arm around her waist. Griselda was playing with his hair, ruffling it with her hands.
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