Read Online Halley by Faye Gibbons - Free Book Online

my grandchildren along with mine,” Pa Franklin told Mr. Huff.
    They couldn’t even be trusted to have the money in their pockets until they got home, Halley thought.
    On the way back to the Calvin place Robbie again stood, leaning over the cab. His fingers were dancing over the metal, playing imaginary music.
    Mr. Calvin took pity on them and drove on to the Franklin house.
    “Git the mail, girl!” Pa Franklin called out the window when Mr. Calvin slowed to take the turn-off to the Franklin house.
    Halley slid off the truck in back and Mr. Calvin went on. In the mailbox she found the very first letter from Dimple. She tore it open and read it eagerly.
    Dear Halley,
    I miss you. I couldn’t rite til now. We didn’t have no riting tablit or envelops. I boried these from Garnetta.
    Molly set with a boy at church Sunday. It was Cletus Hill, but the airs she put on youd think it was the guvner.
    Miz Gravitt is havin more trouble with her secret condition. You know what Im talking about. Turns out Lollie Marchman has the same secret condition. Rekon now we know why Rabbit Burnette married her.
    Next week Garnetta wants me to help her like last yr. You know what I’m talking about. Wish you could be here,
    Love
    Dimple
    Halley wished she could be there, too.

6. Tufting Spreads
    They were only able to pick cotton a few days. When Luke Calvin’s crop came in, his family stayed home to pick their own cotton. Pa Franklin could find no other ride to the Samson place, and no one within walking distance was hiring pickers.
    “Now you’ve got a chance to go talk to Bernice Mitman about a weaving job at the mill,” Pa Franklin said to Kate at supper after the last day of picking.
    “Yes, sir,” said Kate.
    “Bernice worked at the mill for twenty years or more, ’til her health went bad,” Pa Franklin continued.
    “Probably went bad from working at the mill,” Halley said.
    “Had nothing to do with it,” Pa Franklin said to Halley before turning back to Kate. “The more you know going in, the more apt you are to get a regular job.”
    “I’ll go tomorrow,” said Kate.
    Halley had her own plans. Tuesday was Mr. Bonner’s regular day to drop off stamped spreads at the Calvins. Because of cotton picking, probably only Mrs. Calvin would be at home, but that did not matter to Halley. She was eager to meet Mr. Bonner and get her first spreads.
    During the night the rain started, and it was still falling the next morning. “It’s messy out there,” said Ma Franklin at breakfast.
    “Ah, a little rain never hurt nobody,” said Pa Franklin.
    “Except maybe for a little pneumoney fever now and then,” said Gid.
    After breakfast Halley and Kate put on the raincoats from Mrs. Calvin’s sister’s hand-me-down box and waited on the front porch for a break in the rain. It didn’t look promising. Water poured off the roof in sheets, and the rain barrel overflowed into a yard that was like a lake.
    Golly must have smelled them from the barn. He came running from that direction, jumped up on the porch, and shook himself. Kate and Halley ducked away from the water and the doggy smell. Not Robbie. He came from the kitchen and slipped Golly a biscuit—the one with Gid’s meat in it.
    “Can I go with you to the Calvins’?” he begged.
    Before Halley could answer, Gid came down the dogtrot. He winked at Halley and said, “Robbie, I’m gonna need your help reweaving the rockers. I don’t think I can spare you.”
    Finally, the rain let up a bit, and Kate and Halley headed out, Kate to the Mitmans’ and Halley to the Calvins’. Both wore their worst shoes and carried better ones wrapped in oilcloth. They wore rain bonnets made out of oilcloth to keep their hair dry.
    As they walked, Halley tried to talk her mother out of mill work.
    “We have to pay our way,” Kate said.
    “We already do ,” answered Halley, “with all the money Pa Franklin took from us.
    “Pa says different.”
    Halley grunted with impatience.