Read Online Losing Battles by Eudora Welty - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Eudora Welty
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boys.’ ”
“And they let him go?” cried Aunt Cleo.
“Look out, don’t start to saying something good about the courts, Foxtown or anywhere else!” yelled Miss Beulah. “Not when Homer had the further crust to tell Jack if he didn’t show his face in Ludlow Courthouse on the very stroke of the clock when they called his name, he could look forward to being arrested the same way all over again. Don’t thank Homer! And don’t let me hear anybody start thanking Curly Stovall for putting up that bail!” She went.
“Now that was right outstanding of a Stovall,” said Aunt Cleo. “Say as much.”
“How else did he think Renfros was going to live? How else did he figure he stood a chance of getting a penny out of ’em?” laughed Uncle Noah Webster. “Oh, Jack he did sweat, early and late. And just when we didn’t need it, rain. And court creeping closer and closer. So the time come when we couldn’t stand sight of his face any longer and we had to tell him, ‘Jack! Before you get drug off to be tried in Ludlow, what would you most rather have out of all the world? Quick!’ And quick he says, ‘To get married!’ Didn’t surprise nobody but his mother.”
“You couldn’t say Jack hadn’t been showing signs. Now the year before, our guess would have been the little Broadwee girl,” said Aunt Birdie.
“Imogene? The one that’s timid?” grinned Aunt Nanny.
“Yes and she’s sitting there still.”
“He’s chased ’em all some. But when he singles out who he wants to carry home , he singles out the schoolteacher!”
“Was that a pretty good shock?” asked Aunt Cleo.
“Being as she’s already living here in the house and eating at the table, no’m,” said Aunt Nanny.
“Gloria had a choice too, even if you leave Aycock out. Curly Stovall was right across the road from that schoolhouse, with nobody but Miss Ora to look out for, enjoying a job on the public. And inhis store carried all she wanted. But she turned up her little nose at him.”
“He didn’t make a good impression on me, from the first time I saw him,” Gloria called in.
“But that year it’s our turn to board the teacher, no hope of rescue,” said Miss Beulah, coming to the head of the passage. “We’d spent the summer highly curious to see what they’d send, after the last old maid give up the battle. Well, here she came. The old fella that got it for superintendent of schools carried her up here in a car that’s never been seen in my yard before or since—purse in both hands, book satchel over her shoulder, valise between her feet, and her lap cradling a basket of baby chicks for her present to whoever was to board her. I had a feeling the minute she pulled off her hat—’Here’s another teacher Banner won’t so easily get rid of.’ ”
All at once Lady May Renfro, aged fourteen months, came bolting out into their midst naked, her voice one steady holler, her little new-calloused feet pounding up through it like a drumbeat. She had sat up right out of her sleep and rolled off the bed and come. Her locomotion, the newest-learned and by no means the gentlest, shook the mirror on the wall and made its frame knock against the house front like more company coming.
“Who you hunting?” Aunt Nanny screeched at the baby.
Lady May ran through their catching hands, climbed down the steps in a good imitation of Mr. Renfro, and ran wild in the yard, with Gloria up and running after her.
“Where’s your daddy, little pomegranate?” they hollered after her flying heels. “Call him! Call him!”
Elvie came third, following solemnly with the diaper.
Lady May ran around the quilt on the line and Gloria got her hands on her. There behind the quilt she knelt to her, curtained off from the house; the quilt hung motionless, just clear of the ground. It was a bed-sized square that looked rubbed over every inch with soft-colored chalks that repeated themselves, more softly than the voices sounding off on the
“And they let him go?” cried Aunt Cleo.
“Look out, don’t start to saying something good about the courts, Foxtown or anywhere else!” yelled Miss Beulah. “Not when Homer had the further crust to tell Jack if he didn’t show his face in Ludlow Courthouse on the very stroke of the clock when they called his name, he could look forward to being arrested the same way all over again. Don’t thank Homer! And don’t let me hear anybody start thanking Curly Stovall for putting up that bail!” She went.
“Now that was right outstanding of a Stovall,” said Aunt Cleo. “Say as much.”
“How else did he think Renfros was going to live? How else did he figure he stood a chance of getting a penny out of ’em?” laughed Uncle Noah Webster. “Oh, Jack he did sweat, early and late. And just when we didn’t need it, rain. And court creeping closer and closer. So the time come when we couldn’t stand sight of his face any longer and we had to tell him, ‘Jack! Before you get drug off to be tried in Ludlow, what would you most rather have out of all the world? Quick!’ And quick he says, ‘To get married!’ Didn’t surprise nobody but his mother.”
“You couldn’t say Jack hadn’t been showing signs. Now the year before, our guess would have been the little Broadwee girl,” said Aunt Birdie.
“Imogene? The one that’s timid?” grinned Aunt Nanny.
“Yes and she’s sitting there still.”
“He’s chased ’em all some. But when he singles out who he wants to carry home , he singles out the schoolteacher!”
“Was that a pretty good shock?” asked Aunt Cleo.
“Being as she’s already living here in the house and eating at the table, no’m,” said Aunt Nanny.
“Gloria had a choice too, even if you leave Aycock out. Curly Stovall was right across the road from that schoolhouse, with nobody but Miss Ora to look out for, enjoying a job on the public. And inhis store carried all she wanted. But she turned up her little nose at him.”
“He didn’t make a good impression on me, from the first time I saw him,” Gloria called in.
“But that year it’s our turn to board the teacher, no hope of rescue,” said Miss Beulah, coming to the head of the passage. “We’d spent the summer highly curious to see what they’d send, after the last old maid give up the battle. Well, here she came. The old fella that got it for superintendent of schools carried her up here in a car that’s never been seen in my yard before or since—purse in both hands, book satchel over her shoulder, valise between her feet, and her lap cradling a basket of baby chicks for her present to whoever was to board her. I had a feeling the minute she pulled off her hat—’Here’s another teacher Banner won’t so easily get rid of.’ ”
All at once Lady May Renfro, aged fourteen months, came bolting out into their midst naked, her voice one steady holler, her little new-calloused feet pounding up through it like a drumbeat. She had sat up right out of her sleep and rolled off the bed and come. Her locomotion, the newest-learned and by no means the gentlest, shook the mirror on the wall and made its frame knock against the house front like more company coming.
“Who you hunting?” Aunt Nanny screeched at the baby.
Lady May ran through their catching hands, climbed down the steps in a good imitation of Mr. Renfro, and ran wild in the yard, with Gloria up and running after her.
“Where’s your daddy, little pomegranate?” they hollered after her flying heels. “Call him! Call him!”
Elvie came third, following solemnly with the diaper.
Lady May ran around the quilt on the line and Gloria got her hands on her. There behind the quilt she knelt to her, curtained off from the house; the quilt hung motionless, just clear of the ground. It was a bed-sized square that looked rubbed over every inch with soft-colored chalks that repeated themselves, more softly than the voices sounding off on the
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