"No, Wink, you are not that. You are just not an adept at--pumping coal oil."
"Why are you always different with me? You don"t treat other fellows the way you do me."
"You don"t treat other girls the way you do me," I retorted.
"Of course not! I don"t feel towards them as I do towards you."
"Well, it is a good thing your feelings don"t make you grouchy with everybody. You just exude gloom as soon as you get with me. But this isn"t keeping shop for Annie," and I grabbed the oil can from him and ran back into the store.
I was very glad to see Wink make his way to Dee. He usually went to her after a bout with me. They were great friends and seemed to have a million things of interest to discuss and nothing to disagree about. I could have been just as good a friend to him if he had only dropped the eternal subject and treated me as he did Dee: like an ordinary girl who was ready for a good time but had no idea of a serious attachment. We were nothing but chits of girls, after all, and only out of school because Gresham happened to burn down before we had time to graduate.
"Umm! How you do smell of coal oil!" cried Dee. "Don"t dare to touch anything in my line of groceries until you have washed your hands.
There"s a basin back there."
Wink laughed and washed his hands as commanded. Now if I had said to him what Dee had he would have been furious, and gloom impenetrable would have ensued.
That afternoon I cut off and planned four different dresses for four farmers" wives, selling tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and ribbons and fancy b.u.t.tons. I made many trades with persons bringing in eggs and chickens and carrying off various commodities in exchange. I was never so busy in my life. Dee was equally so, even after we had persuaded the noisy crowd from Maxton to depart.
"Goodness! I feel as though I had been serving at a church fair," cried Dee, sinking down exhausted on a soap box.
She had just wheedled a shy young farmer into thinking that existence could not continue without a box of scented soap and a new cravat, although he had made a trip to the store for nothing more ornate than salt for the cattle.
"How do you reckon Annie ever gets through the day if this one is a sample? I haven"t stopped a minute and here come some more traders."
The fact was that Dee and I had done about three times as much selling as the Pores usually accomplished. Word had gone forth that we were keeping shop, and everybody hastened to the country store. Dee found this out by accident over the telephone. There was such a violent ringing of the bell that she hastened to answer it, not being on to the country "phone where everybody"s bell rings at every call. This is what she overheard:
"Say, Milly! Pore"s have got some gals from Richmond clerking there.
They can put you on to the styles."
"So I hear! I"m gettin" the mule hitched up fast as I can to go over."
And then a masculine voice took it up evidently from another section:
"They say they are peaches, too!"
"That you, d.i.c.k Lee? Where"d you hear about them?"
"Saw Lem Baker on the way, goin" for salt. He got it from Jim Cullen."
"I bet you"ll be there soon yourself," broke in the voice of Milly.
"Sure! My car is already cranked up gettin" up speed for the run.
S"long!"
"Wait! What you goin" to buy, d.i.c.k? Your sister told me you went to the store yesterday and laid in enough for a week."
"Well, I may get a coffin," laughed the gay voice of d.i.c.k as he hung up the receiver.
CHAPTER IV
DEE TUCKER MAKES A SALE
"PAGE! I"ve been eavesdropping! I declare I never meant to do it. I got into the swim of the conversation and somehow couldn"t get out of it,"
cried Dee, blushing furiously. "I don"t know what Zebedee would say if he knew it."
"Why, honey, that isn"t eavesdropping!" I laughed. "Country people always listen to everything they can over the "phone. That is the only way we have of spreading the news. I can a.s.sure you that perfectly good church members in our county make a practice of running to the telephone every time a neighbor"s bell rings. How many were on the line when you cut in?"
"Three or four, I should say, I couldn"t quite tell."
Then Dee told me the conversation she had overheard, making me a party to the crime of eavesdropping.
"Here comes d.i.c.k now, I do believe. He was the one who was all cranked up ready to come."
There was a great buzzing and hissing on the road as a disreputable looking Ford came speeding down the hill. I have never seen such a dilapidated car, and still it ran and made good time, too. There was not a square inch of paint left on its faithful sides, and the top was hanging down on one side, giving it the appearance of a broken-winged crow. The doors flapped in the breezes, and the mud-guards were bent and twisted as though they had had many a collision.
d.i.c.k, however, was spruce enough to make up for the appearance of his car. He had on a bright blue suit, the very brightest blue one can imagine coming in any material but gla.s.s or china; a necktie made of a silk U. S. flag, with a scarf pin which looked very like an owl with two great imitation ruby eyes; but I found on inspection it was the American Eagle. His shoes were very gay yellow and his socks striped red and white, carrying out the color scheme of his cravat.
I ducked behind my side of the counter leaving the field clear for Dee.
She stood to her guns and gave the newcomer a radiant smile. She was there to sell goods for Annie Pore and sell them she would.
"Evenin"!"
"How do you do? What can I do for you?"
"Pretty day!"
"Yes, fine! Is there something I can show you?"
"Not so warm as yesterday and a little bit cooler than the day before!"
"Yes, that is so. We"ve got in a fresh cheese,--maybe you would like a few pounds of it."
"Looks like rain but the moon hangs dry."
"Oh, I hope it won"t rain,--but maybe it will--let me sell you an umbrella,--they are great when it rains."
"We don"t to say need rain for most of the crops, but it wouldn"t hurt the late potatoes."
"Oh, I"m glad of that!"
"But the watermelons don"t need a drop more. They are ripening fine,--rain would make them too mushy like. I"m going to ship a load of them next week. I "low I"ll get about three hundred off of that sandy creek bottom."
"Fine! Watermelons are my favorite berry."