White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1936-09-17

"SheQ, PICK, DeaLs Step tWo
threads right; shed, pick, beat. Vel
low in the harness, blue in the shut
tie. Shed, pick, beat. Ping to the
left, plung to the right. Plant
ing time is good time, even when
a body sits at a loom. You can
look out over the long porch where
the honeysuckle awning will arch
above the steps, and across the
gray palings at the corner Of the
wood-lot and Mothers garden, and
over the roof Of the corn-crib and
the cider mill and tan-bark shed,
above the sea Of peach tree buds,
and the spring-tangled green OF the
willows. Daddy and the boys out
in the bottoms and on the cleared
edges Of the hills with the mules
turning over the rich soil, getting
ready for me to drop the thick wax
beans into the hills Of corn and
watch them lie there, pink and la
vender and purple striped beads by
the side Of the yellow grains OF
corn. Covering them over with
brown blanket Of earth and saying
to them: Shut your eyes and go
to sleep for short spell, but don't
fail to wake up with the sun when
it is morning.
"There'l be sugar-cane growing
up like hearth brooms for thick
brown sorghum, and big potatoes In
Barn Hollow, and long yellow sweet
| potatoes in House Field, and
peaches and apples for drying and
| to make butter Of, and pears for
preserves in Mothers spiced earth
enware Jars"
Outside, the hollow was full of
life and sound as it always was, as
it always had been in the spring:
the chickens in the barnyard, the
scream of the hawks darting across
the hollow, the liquid notes Of nest
ing cardinals, the dolorous cooling
Of doves in the tulip trees.
"There's Mother going into her
garden. How she loves to pull a
hoe through the ground and rake
it alive into beds of parsnips and
radishes and beets and lettuce, and
build up little mounds exactly hoe
handle apart for muskmelons, and
arranging everything according to
it's height in the sun and Its shad-
owls length and decorating all the
edges with flowers. It's like weav
ing patterned blanket"
Passing slowly along row, Julia
framed herself in the window be-
fore Cynthia. She stopped in q
graceful arc, bending to the hoe
CYNTHIA waved to her out OF the
bubble Of joy that was within her.
"She keeps breaking up the clods
and pounding at them until she has
out every one that's bigger than 9
swallows egg. She is pretty, Moth
er is.
"She was whole lot purifier wher
she was eighteen than am. She
was taller and straighter and bel
hair was brown and her teeth whit
er. Will / be standing in the wood
!, lot with a dress full Of pine chip:
when man comes riding up Wolf
pen? I'll know him the minute
set eyes on him, just like Mother
knew Daddy. I just stood there
Cynthia, and gawked right at hin
with my mouth gaping open, / reck
on. He had ridden all the wa!
from Wolfpen down to Scioto t.
, see his sister, your Aunt Rachel
He was tall and straight, and hi
beard was silky and flax-colored.
e lust stared like an owl surprised b.
: light. He pulled up his hors
r right in front of the gate and hi
e blue eyes looked agape at me. The
Z, he said, you're the purtiest sigh
e ever saw in my born days." The
i looked down, reddening to th
roots Of my hair, and saw me hole
ing my dress up full Of chips.