The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-09-16

flung her arms around his neck,
kissing him with all her heart.
ooh, Uncle Tim, how glad 1 am
you've comet" There were tears
in his own middle-aged eyes as
he held her tender1y to him, feel
ing with strange turmoil the
pressure against him of her mis-
shapen body. He let her go, he
wiped his eyes, he said-the first
simple words that came into his
mind-"Well, Susan-well! How
are you? And how is Canby?"
Candy was there, hammer in
one hand, the other one out
stretched. well, here you are!
Susan and were just saying this
very morning that if you didn't
get over this way soon" He for
got what he was saying, shaking
Timothy's hand up and down, up
and down.
"Stay for lunch,'' cried Susan.
"I'll make a chocolate souffle.
Miss Peck showed me just how
you like it."
"Come on in for the love of
Mike and let me show you what
I'm doing to the house." said
Candy.
They went in through the walls
of the house, anywhere, stepping
between the open uprights, and
began to lay a table standing in
litter of sawdust and shavings.
Candy transferred pile of floor
ing boards to make room for the
third chair. There he sat, limo
thy, sharing the food that Susan
had prepared for Candy.
I'VE certainly have missed you
all this winter" Susan told him.
A tapping of hammers began at
the back of the house. Candy let
down the front legs of his chair
to the floor, leaned across the ia
BILE and asked seriously, "Say, I'm
Gle Tim, I wish you'd tell me
whether you honest-to-goodness
think we're on the right track
with this funny business I've
cooked up. It's darned different
from what most folks seem to
want. This is the third house
Susan's kept house in less than a
year. It's kind of a funny way to
live, isn't it-for Susan?"
Il love it! I simply love it,"
cried Susan.
"All the same,'' Candy murmur-
ed, all the same! There are
times when camping out is not
so hot"
To himself Timothy said, LET
your self go! Don't stiffen up!"
TO Candy and Susan he spoke
easily, naturally. See here-I
have an idea. What you young
people need is one permanent
place to 60 back to between camp
ings out. Well, hardly ever use
that old house l bought up on the
Crandall Pitch road. Why don't
you 60 there for your between
times living? It just stands emp
ty. How about it?'
They gazed at him, their faces
blank, their eyes wide, and then
Candy cried, bringing his fist
down on the table, why, Uncle
Tim, that's one swell idea! Susan
can 60 there when she comes out
from the hospital in May, and
have the nurse with her for
awhile. Uncle Tim, you're swell!"
Susan leaned across the table
and for an instant took Timothy's
hand silently in hers with a long
beautiful look of gratitude, the
deep look that came from her
heart.
She was thanking him for pro-
viding home for Canby's child.
SO strange a turmoil shook limo
thy to dizziness that he closed his
eyes as if he were falling, and
clenched his hands hard on the
arms of the chair. He could not
have said for his life what he was
feeling.
Working steadily down through
the pile of letters on his desk,
Timothy came on an envelope
sprawlingly addressed to him in
pencil. It was from Candy, scrib-
bled in the Ashley hospital, to tell
him that the baby was there o. K.
"a boy-that Susan was o. K.
too-that the boy was to be nam
ed Timothy Hume Hunter, if I'm
Gle Tim did not object.
He sat trying to think what it
would be like to have a child
named for him. But he could not
imagine it. He had had no ex-
perience with little children and
could not conceive that a new ba-
by meant new human being.
But when, after Susan's return
from the hospital, he first went
I'm RI tho c4o1oo Lo,,oo +Lo4 LoI