boy’s here again.”
Genny slowly unwound her legs. You couldn’t believe Achsa half the time, but when she peeked out of the door, Jake Tench and the bound boy were coming along the path. Jake had dressed up in a roram hat, and the bound boy’s reddish hair was tied behind with a ribbon snipped off a bolt of blue strouding.
“Don’t you dare tell where I’m at or I’ll maul you!” Genny warned Achsa, and her white legs flew up the ladder to the loft. She threw herself out of sight on Sulie’s bed, for that was the fartherest back from the hole so the littlest body of them all might not tumble down in the cabin should sheroll in her sleep. The roof slanted down close above. You had to be careful how you raised up or you got a good smack on your head.
She could hear Jake Tench’s moccasins scraping over the dirt floor. He came in their cabin of late like he owned it. Genny couldn’t go him. He put her in mind of the black he-bear she and Sayward had once watched out in the woods trying to please a she-bear. He moved about playful and frolicsome on his legs. But his paws were powerful as all get out, and his little black eyes danced with the devilment he’d do once he got you in them.
She lay there hating to be penned up with him down there. Once she dragged herself to the loft hole to see if her oldest sister was all right. Sayward bent by the fire scraping back ashes to bake cornbread on the hearth. Jake was bragging how he fixed a copper snake. It had caught him on the shank so he held it down with a forked stick and spat tobacco spittle in its mouth. By night, Jake said, he had overed the spittle of the snake, but the copper snake was stiff as a poker. Yes, he could stand the poison of a copper snake, but the copper snake couldn’t stand his.
Oh, he was feeling high today. When Sayward put the hot ashes back over her bread, he squirted tobacco juice half way across the cabin to that fire! Genny saw Sayward’s face flush up, but she didn’t say anything. If it had been Worth now,Genny thought, Sayward would have stopped him short enough.
She heard the bound boy coming to the door.
“Where’s Ginny at, Saird?”
“Ain’t she outside a matchin’ terrypins?”
“I kain’t see her.”
“Well, you look on around a piece and see if you kain’t find her.”
Genny felt a glow of affection for Sayward. She stood by you. Wyitt would get streaks like his father. Achsa would turn on you like an Indian. Sulie was too little to be of much account. And Jary was half rotted away in her bury hole. But you could count on Sayward. She never went back on you.
She was far too good for Jake Tench. Oh, Genny knew well enough what he was coming around here for. First thing Sayward knew she’d have to live with him, whether she wanted to or no. Worth said already it had half-blood young ones in Shawaneetown they were blaming on Jake Tench. Genny wouldn’t want to be around if Sayward ever had a young one by that old rip. To rock or tote such would go against her grain. Like as not it would have some deilish birthmark of its pappy, as the wolf Jake skinned alive or the wagoner’s nose he claimed he bit off once in a fisticuff.
After while the bound boy came back to the door.
“I kain’t find her nowheres, Saird,” he complained.
Genny didn’t like the sound of Jake Tench’s laugh.
“Maybe she’s up in the loft a waitin’ for you,” he said.
Oh, she knew now she should have lain still as a log in Sulie’s bed and never dragged herself over to the loft hole. She heard the bound boy crossing the cabin. She raised up, and down that ladder she went, holding her dress low and tight between her white knees as she was able. Jake Tench and Will Beagle would get no look at her if she could help it. She had a glimpse of the bound boy stopping short and staring at her with brown, astonished eyes. Then out the door she went.
“Gin! Will Beagle’s here!” Wyitt yelled from the chopping log.
“Ginny!”
Genny slowly unwound her legs. You couldn’t believe Achsa half the time, but when she peeked out of the door, Jake Tench and the bound boy were coming along the path. Jake had dressed up in a roram hat, and the bound boy’s reddish hair was tied behind with a ribbon snipped off a bolt of blue strouding.
“Don’t you dare tell where I’m at or I’ll maul you!” Genny warned Achsa, and her white legs flew up the ladder to the loft. She threw herself out of sight on Sulie’s bed, for that was the fartherest back from the hole so the littlest body of them all might not tumble down in the cabin should sheroll in her sleep. The roof slanted down close above. You had to be careful how you raised up or you got a good smack on your head.
She could hear Jake Tench’s moccasins scraping over the dirt floor. He came in their cabin of late like he owned it. Genny couldn’t go him. He put her in mind of the black he-bear she and Sayward had once watched out in the woods trying to please a she-bear. He moved about playful and frolicsome on his legs. But his paws were powerful as all get out, and his little black eyes danced with the devilment he’d do once he got you in them.
She lay there hating to be penned up with him down there. Once she dragged herself to the loft hole to see if her oldest sister was all right. Sayward bent by the fire scraping back ashes to bake cornbread on the hearth. Jake was bragging how he fixed a copper snake. It had caught him on the shank so he held it down with a forked stick and spat tobacco spittle in its mouth. By night, Jake said, he had overed the spittle of the snake, but the copper snake was stiff as a poker. Yes, he could stand the poison of a copper snake, but the copper snake couldn’t stand his.
Oh, he was feeling high today. When Sayward put the hot ashes back over her bread, he squirted tobacco juice half way across the cabin to that fire! Genny saw Sayward’s face flush up, but she didn’t say anything. If it had been Worth now,Genny thought, Sayward would have stopped him short enough.
She heard the bound boy coming to the door.
“Where’s Ginny at, Saird?”
“Ain’t she outside a matchin’ terrypins?”
“I kain’t see her.”
“Well, you look on around a piece and see if you kain’t find her.”
Genny felt a glow of affection for Sayward. She stood by you. Wyitt would get streaks like his father. Achsa would turn on you like an Indian. Sulie was too little to be of much account. And Jary was half rotted away in her bury hole. But you could count on Sayward. She never went back on you.
She was far too good for Jake Tench. Oh, Genny knew well enough what he was coming around here for. First thing Sayward knew she’d have to live with him, whether she wanted to or no. Worth said already it had half-blood young ones in Shawaneetown they were blaming on Jake Tench. Genny wouldn’t want to be around if Sayward ever had a young one by that old rip. To rock or tote such would go against her grain. Like as not it would have some deilish birthmark of its pappy, as the wolf Jake skinned alive or the wagoner’s nose he claimed he bit off once in a fisticuff.
After while the bound boy came back to the door.
“I kain’t find her nowheres, Saird,” he complained.
Genny didn’t like the sound of Jake Tench’s laugh.
“Maybe she’s up in the loft a waitin’ for you,” he said.
Oh, she knew now she should have lain still as a log in Sulie’s bed and never dragged herself over to the loft hole. She heard the bound boy crossing the cabin. She raised up, and down that ladder she went, holding her dress low and tight between her white knees as she was able. Jake Tench and Will Beagle would get no look at her if she could help it. She had a glimpse of the bound boy stopping short and staring at her with brown, astonished eyes. Then out the door she went.
“Gin! Will Beagle’s here!” Wyitt yelled from the chopping log.
“Ginny!”
Similar Books
