God's Little Acre

by Erskine Caldwell

  “It looks to me like you boys would have better sense than to let Ty Ty egg you on to digging all these big holes in the ground. He gets all this hard work out of you, and it doesn’t cost him a penny. Why don’t you boys go off somewhere and get a real job that pays something when Saturday comes? You don’t want to stay countrymen all your lives, do you? Tell Ty Ty to shovel his own dirt, and walk off.”

  “Go to hell, you lint-head,” Shaw said.

  Will rolled a cigarette while he watched them dig and Sweat. He did not mind being called a lint-head by people in his own world, but he could never stand being called that by Buck and Shaw. They knew it was the quickest and most effective way either to silence him outright or to make him fighting mad.

  Buck looked up at the rim of the crater to see if Ty Ty were near. If there was going to be trouble, he wished to have Ty Ty there to help him. Their father had always sided with them when they had an argument with Will, and he would this time as well.

  But Ty Ty was not within sight. He was over in the newground with the two colored men trying to get the cotton banked. The crop had been planted late that year, as they had been so busy digging that there had been no opportunity to plant it until June, and Ty Ty wished to hurry it along as much as possible, if it was within his power to make it grow and mature, in order to get some money by the first of September. He had already bought to the limit of his credit in the stores at Marion, and he had been unable to get a loan at the bank. If the cotton did not thrive, or if the boll weevils ruined it, he did not know what he was going to do the coming fall and winter. There were two mules to feed, in addition to the two colored families, and his own household.

  “There ain’t no more gold in this ground than there is in the toes of my socks,” Will said derisively. “Why don’t you boys go up to Augusta or Atlanta or somewhere and have a good time? I’ll be damned if I’d stay a clodhopper all my life just because Ty Ty Walden wants you to dig in the ground for him.”

  “Aw, go to hell, you Valley town lint-head.”

  Will looked at Buck, debating momentarily whether to hit him.

  “Got any message to send your folks?” he asked finally. “If you want to play the dozens, you’re at the right homestead,” Shaw said.

  Will threw down his shovel with both hands and picked up a dried clod of clay. He ran several steps toward them, rolling the dead cigarette to the corner of his mouth with his tongue.

  “I didn’t come over here to have trouble with you boys, but if you’re looking for it, you’re barking up the right tree now.”

  “That’s all you’ve ever done,” Shaw said, gripping the shovel handle in both hands. “Barking is all you’ve ever done.”

  Will wished to fight Buck, if there was going to be a fight. He had nothing against Shaw, but Shaw would side with his brother always. Will disliked Buck. He had disliked him from the first. He did not hate him personally, but Griselda was Buck’s wife, and Buck was always standing between them. They had already had several tussles, not over Griselda any more than for any other reason, and they were likely to have others. As long as Griselda was married to Buck, and lived with him, Will would fight him whenever he had the Opportunity.

  “Drop that clod,” Buck ordered.

  “Come and make me,” Will retorted.

  Buck stepped back and whispered something to Shaw. Will stepped forward and threw the clod with all his might just as Buck ran towards him with the raised shovel. The shovel handle struck Will a glancing blow on the shoulder, flying off to the ground. The clod had missed Buck, but it hit Shaw squarely in the pit of the stomach. He bent over with pain, falling to the ground and groaning weakly.

  When Buck turned and saw Shaw doubled into a knot behind him, he thought surely Will had injured him seriously. He ran forward, raising the shovel over his head, and hit Will on the forehead with all his might.

  The blow stunned Will, but it did not knock him out. He was up on his feet, angrier than ever, and running after Buck before the shovel could be raised for another blow.

  “All you damn Waldens think you’re tough, but we’re tougher where I come from,” Will said. “It would take you and six more like you to beat me up. I’m used to it--I have a couple of fights every morning before breakfast where I come from.”

  “You damn lint-head,” Buck said contemptuously.

  Shaw got to his hands and knees, blinking his eyes. He looked around for a weapon of any nature, but there was nothing within his reach. His shovel was on the other side of Will.

  “You damn lint-head,” Buck repeated, sneering.

  “Come on, both of you sons-of-bitches,” Will shouted. “I’ll take you both down at the same time. I wasn’t raised to be scared of countrymen.”

  Buck raised his shovel, but Will reached up and jerked it. out of his hands, tossing it out ot reach behind him. With a well-aimed blow he struck Buck on the jaw, knocking him flat on his back. Shaw ran towards him, crouched low over his knees. Will swung at him with both fists, one after the other. Shaw’s knees gave way, and he fell at Will’s feet.

  Buck was up again. He jumped on Will, hurling him to the ground and pinning his arms under him. Before Will could twist free, Buck had begun pounding him on the head and back. All of them were in an ugly temper by that time.

  From the top of the crater Ty Ty shouted at them. He came running down the side at once, jumping into the midst of the fists and kicks. He pried Buck and Will apart, and flung them sprawling to the ground on each side of him. Ty Ty was as large as any one of the others, and he had always been able to handle a fight between them. He stood panting and blowing, looking down at them.

  “That’s enough of that,” he said, still breathing hard. “What in the pluperfect hell have you boys got to fight about so much, anyhow? That ain’t digging for the lode. Fighting among yourselves won’t find it.”

  Buck sat up and held his swollen jaw. He glared at Will, still undefeated.

  “Send him back where he belongs, then,” Buck said. “The son-of-a-bitch hasn’t any business over here. This ain’t no place for lint-heads to hang out.”

  “I’ll go when I get damn good and ready and not a minute before. Just try and make me go before then. Just try it!”

  “What in the pluperfect hell did you boys go and do that for, anyhow?” Ty Ty asked Shaw, turning to see if he was all right. “There ain’t nothing for you boys to fight about like this. When we strike the lode, it’s all going to be divided up fair and square, and nobody is going to get a larger share than the next one. I aim to see to that. Now, what made you boys start scrapping one another like that?”

  “Nothing started it, Pa,” Shaw said. “And it wasn’t about sharing the gold. It wasn’t about anything like that. It just happened, that’s all. Every time that son-of-a-bitch comes over here he invites a beating. It’s just the way he talks and acts. He acts like he’s better than we are, or something. He acts like he’s better because he works in a cotton mill. He’s always calling Buck and me countrymen.”

  “Now that ain’t nothing to get all heated up about,” Ty Ty said. “Boys, it’s a shame we can’t keep a peaceful family all the time. That’s what I’ve aimed all my life to have.”

  “Make him leave Griselda alone then,” Buck said.

  “Is Griselda in this?” Ty Ty asked in wonder. “Why, I didn’t know she was all mixed up in this fight.”

  “You’re a damn liar,” Will shouted. “I never said a word about her.”

  “Now, boys,” Ty Ty said, “don’t start scrapping all over again. What’s Griselda got to do with all this?”

  “Well, he didn’t say anything about her,” Buck replied, “but it’s just the way he looks and acts. He acts like he’s getting ready to do something to her.”

  “That’s a lie,” Will shouted.

  “Now, Buck, you maybe just imagine all that. I know it ain’t so, because Will is married to Rosamond and they get along first-rate together. He ain’t after Griselda. Just forget that
part.”

  Will looked at Buck but said nothing. He was angry because Ty Ty had separated them before he could strike the last blow.

  “If he would stay where he belongs, and not come over here raising hell, I’d be satisfied,” Buck stated. “The son-of-abitch is a lint-head, anyway. He ought to stay with his own kind. We don’t want to mix with him.”

  Will got to his feet again, looking around for the shovel.

  Ty Ty ran and pushed him to the other side of the crater. He held Will with both hands, pushing him back against the side of the hole.

  “Will,” he said calmly, “don’t pay any attention to Buck. That heat’s got his dander up, and about nothing. Now stay here and leave him alone.”

  He ran back to the other side of the hole and pushed Buck down. Shaw was out of it then. He made no further signs of going in again.

  “You boys all get up on top of the ground and cool off,” Ty Ty ordered. “You got all heated up down here in the hole, and fresh air is the only way to get it out of you. Now go on up there and cool off a while.”

  He waited while Buck and Shaw climbed out and disappeared from sight. After giving them plenty of time to get away, he urged Will to get up and climb to the top for air. Ty Ty followed close behind in case Shaw and Buck were waiting just out of sight to jump on Will and resume the fight. When they got to the surface above, Shaw and Buck had gone from sight.

  “Don’t give them no more thought, Will,” he said. “Just sit down in the shade and cool off.”

  They went to the side of the house and sat down in the shade. Will was still angry, but he was willing to drop the fight where it was, even if Buck had had the last blow. The sooner he got back to Scottsville the better would he be pleased. He would never have come in the first place if Rosamond and Darling Jill had not begged him so much. Now he wished to get back to the Valley and talk to his friends before the meeting of the local Friday night. The sight of bare land, cultivated and fallow, with never a factory or mill to be seen, made him a little sick in the stomach.

  “You ain’t made up your mind to leave so soon, have you, Will?” Ty Ty asked. “I hope you ain’t aiming to do that.”

  “Sure, I’m leaving,” Will said. “I can’t be wasting my time digging holes in the ground. I’m no damn doodlebug.”

  “I aimed to have you help us till we struck the lode, Will. I need all the help I can get right now. The lode is there, sure as God made little green apples, and I ache to get my hands on it. I’ve been waiting fifteen years, night and day, for just that.”

  “You ought to be out making cotton,” Will said shortly. “You can raise more cotton on this land in a year than you can find gold in a lifetime. It’s a waste of everything to dig these holes all over the place.”

  “I wish now I had spent a little more time on the cotton. It looks like now that I’m going to be short of money before the lode is struck. If I had twenty or thirty bales of cotton to tide me over the fall and winter, I could devote all the rest of the time to digging. I sure do need a lot of cotton to sell the first of September.”

  “Well, it’s too late to plant any more cotton this year. You’re out of luck, if you don’t do something else.”

  “There ain’t but one thing I can do, and that’s dig.”

  “This house is going to topple over into the hole if you dig much more in it. The house is leaning a little now. It won’t take much to tip it over.”

  Ty Ty looked at the pine logs that had been dragged from the woods and propped against the building. The logs were large enough and strong enough to hold the house where it was, but if it were undermined too much, it would surely fall in, and then turn over. When it did that, it would either be lying on one side in the big hole, or else it would be upside down on the bottom of it.

  “Will, when the gold-fever strikes a man, he can’t think about nothing else to save his soul. I reckon that’s what’s wrong with me, if anything is. I’ve got the fever so bad I can’t be bothered about planting cotton. I’m bent on getting those little yellow nuggets out of the ground. Come heaven, hell, or high water, I reckon I’ll just have to keep on digging till I strike the lode. I can’t stop to do nothing else now. The gold-fever has water-logged me through and through.”

  Will had cooled off. He was no longer restless to get up, and he did not care whether he ever saw Buck and Shaw again to renew the fight. He was willing to let them alone until the next time.

  “If you’re hard up for money, why don’t you go up to Augusta and borrow some from Jim Leslie?”

  “Do what, Will?” Ty Ty asked.

  “Get Jim Leslie to lend you enough to see you through the fall and winter. You can plant a big crop of cotton next spring.”

  “Aw, shucks, Will,” Ty Ty said, laughing a little, “there wouldn’t be no sense in that.”

  “Why not? He’s got plenty of money, and his wife is as rich as a manure pile.”

  “He wouldn’t help me none, Will.”

  “How do you know he wouldn’t? You’ve never tried to borrow off of him, have you? Well, how do you know he wouldn’t lend you a little?”

  “Jim Leslie won’t speak to me on the street, Will,” he replied sadly, “and if he won’t speak to me on the street, I know durn well he wouldn’t lend me money. Wouldn’t be no sense in trying to ask him. It would be just a big waste of time trying.”

  “Hell, he’s your boy, ain’t he? Well, if he’s your boy, he ought to listen to you when you tell him how much hard luck you’re having trying to strike the lode.”

  “That wouldn’t make much difference to Jim Leslie now. He left home just on that account. He said he wasn’t going to stay here and be made a fool of digging for nuggets all his life. I don’t reckon he’s changed much since then, either.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Nearly fifteen years ago, I reckon.”

  “All that’s worn off of him by this time. He’ll be tickled to death to see you. You’re his daddy, ain’t you?”

  “Yes, I reckon. But that won’t make much difference to him. I’ve tried to speak to him on the street, but he won’t look my way at all.”

  “I’ll bet he’ll listen to you when you tell him about the hard luck, anyway.”

  “Well, this here now lode might turn up, if I could afford to keep digging,” Ty Ty said, rising to his feet.

  “Sure, it might,” Will told him. “That’s just what I’ve been trying to make you see.”

  “If I had a little money, maybe two or three hundred dollars, this here now lode might could be located. It takes time, and a durn heap of patience to locate gold, Will.”

  “Why don’t you go up to Augusta and talk to him about it then? That’s the thing to do.”

  Ty Ty started around the house. He stopped at the corner and waited for Will to catch up with him. They went across the yard and down to the barn where Dave and Uncle Felix were. Shaw and Buck were sitting on the stall partition talking to the albino and Uncle Felix.

  “Boys,” Ty Ty said, “we’ve got to be up and doing. I’ve made up my mind to go up to Augusta right away. Come and wash up some so we can get started.”

  “What for?” Buck asked sourly.

  “What for? Why, to see Jim Leslie, son.”

  “I reckon I’ll stay here then,” Buck stated.

  “Now, boys,” Ty Ty pleaded, “I need you to drive me up there in the car. You know good and well I can’t drive an automobile in the big city. Why, I’d wreck the whole shooting-match up there the first thing off the bat.”

  First Buck and then Shaw climbed down off the stall partition and left the barn. Ty Ty walked behind them, telling them over and over his reason for wishing to see Jim Leslie.

  Will stuck his head through the feed-rack and looked at Dave.

  “How you feeling, fellow?”

  “All right,” the boy said.

  “Would you like to get out and go home now?”

  “I’d rather stay here.”

  Wi
ll pulled his head out, laughing at the albino. He turned away, walking out the barn towards the house.

  “You might just as well cool your heels a while,” he called back. “Darling Jill won’t be here tonight. She’s going up to Augusta with the rest of us.”

  He left Dave and Uncle Felix with no other word. On the way to the house he began to feel sorry for Dave. He hoped Ty Ty would turn him free in a few days and let him go back home if he wished to.

  Buck was on the back porch washing his face and hands in the basin, but Will did not look in that direction. He went around to the front of the house and sat down on the steps to wait for Ty Ty to get ready to leave. Pluto had gone home that morning to change his shirt and socks, and Will missed him. He said something about getting an early start to canvass for votes, and Will hoped he would come by the house before they left. Pluto might be elected sheriff, if his friends who expected to be appointed deputies worked hard enough for him. But Pluto alone could never gather enough support.

  Griselda was the first to come out of the house ready to leave. She smiled at Will, and he winked at her. She was wearing a new floral print afternoon frock with a large hat that had a brim covering her shoulders. Will wondered if he had ever seen a girl so good-looking as Griselda. He hated to think of having to go back to Scottsville without having an opportunity of seeing her alone. He might even have to come back with them that night from Augusta, instead of going to the Valley, just so he could have the chance of being with her.

  Chapter XI

  When they reached Augusta in the early evening, Buck stopped the car at the curb on Broad Street near Sixth. Nothing had been said about stopping downtown, and Ty Ty leaned forward to ask Buck and Shaw why they had stopped. Jim Leslie’s house was on The Hill, several miles away.

  “What did you do this for, Buck?”

  “I’m getting out here to go to the movies,” Buck answered, not looking around. “I’m not going up there to Jim Leslie’s.”

  Shaw got out with him and they stood on the street. They waited to see if anyone else was going with them. After a moment’s hesitation, Darling Jill and Rosamond got out.