Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-03

swept and got supper. Her forehead was
pulled into little Jumps, and her mouth was
queer and tight. When father came in from
doing the chores she dished up the potatoes
and cut the johnnycake and set Mary Alice on
the Bible in the chair without saying anything
until father put his arms around her, and then
she cuddled her head beside his chin and cried
again.
oh how could he? How could hep" she said
"He didn't do it," said father, bitterly. Hes
a Northerner, and she wanted him. She got
around him somehow. They say she drugged
him"
Mary Alice sat amazed, holding her knife
straight up in her fist. Dragged" she said to
herself. Dragged. I drug; dragged. She
dragged herself around him. She drugged her
self around him" 1t made song in her mind
and she began to sing it, pounding on the
table with the handle of the knife until
mother startled her with a sharp, stop it,
Mary AliceI"
MARY ALICE went to sleep every night
hearing the piney woods whispering to-
gether and when she woke in her cot they
were still whispering. The piney woods had
no leaves. only long things like red and brown
darning needles. She must not go far from
the house-there were snakes in the piney
woods. She might so with mother to bring
water from the spring. The water came out
in the ground and made a little pool that
away into shadows The air was thick and
moldy with smells, and by the water grew a
fascinating, horrible plant that ate flies
Uncle Charley came every day to help father
dig a well outside the kitchen door. He was
busy and did not feel like playing He dug
himself down to the waist and then down to the
shoulders, and then he went down into the
ground in bucket on a rope. He sent up the
bucket full of red mud, and father dumped it.
Mary Alice played with the mud and made
she cot
they turned to rock. Mother said she was max
ing mud pies, but they were not pies, they were
just shapes she thought Of. At noon Uncle
Charley came out of the ground and washed and
ate dinner. He said it was like old times to eat
honest-to-gosh cooking again, and mother
looked sad. Uncle Charley should not say
honest-to-goSh; it was bad word
win you stay to supper, Charley2" Mother
said.
Uncle Charley made marks with his toe in
the red mud. Hang it ALL yes," he said.
After supper he sat with father on the door
step and mother sat near them in the rocking
chair and sang songs to them; they forgot 1t
was bedtime. Aunt Molly came up the road in
the moonlight, her face and her arms and her
feet were white in the moonlight, and she stood
at the edge of the piney woods and called:
"Charley!"
Mother asked her to come in, but she said.
mo, thanks; reckon we allIl be Citing along
home"
Uncle Charley did not come any more to dig.
and father and mother talked about It, Mother
said they must be nice to Aunt Molly She did
not want to, but she pinned up her hair and
put on her sunbonnet and she and Mary Alice
went up the white road. Sunshine slanted
through the piney woods and struck the white
road. Lizards lay on the Zigzag fence waggling
their sleek Threats, and ants went across the
road in crawling lines, little red lines and big
black lines White dust was on the toes of
Mary Alice'S little shoes and mothers big Shoes
They came to Uncle Charleys house. It was
made Of logs, and skins were spread on the
walls The ground around 1t was bare and hard