“Yes, sir, you surely can drive. But that ain’ scarcely fit work for a
gen’leman like you is, Mas’ Wayne.”
“I reckon what you do doesn’t matter much, June,” replied Wayne. “I
reckon you can be a gentleman and drive a carriage, too. Anyway, I’d
rather be earning some money. Just being a gentleman doesn’t get you
anything as far as I can see.”
June shook his head at that but didn’t dispute it. He had something
on his mind, and as soon as they were seated at the lunch-counter he
broached it. “We got to fin’ a place to live, ain’ we, Mas’ Wayne?”
he began. Wayne agreed, and June went on. “Yes, sir. Then let me tell
you.” What he told amounted to this. His search for the illusive
two-bit piece had taken him farther afield than usual and he had
plodded to the outskirts of the town where there was a stamping works
and a dyehouse and a few other small factories. His journey had brought
him no recompense in money but he had discovered their future domicile.
It was, he explained, an old street car which had at some time been
pulled out into a meadow beyond the factories. “I reckon it was a horse
car, like they used to have in Sleepersville, Mas’ Wayne, before the
trolleys done come. Mos’ of the windows is knocked out, but we could
easy board ’em up. An’ one of the doors don’ shut tight. But it’s got
a long seat on both its sides an’ we could sleep fine on them seats.
An’ there’s a little old stove at one end that someone done left there,
an’ a stovepipe astickin’ out through the roof. I ask a man at the tin
factory an’ he say no one ain’ live in it for a long time. An’ there’s
a branch close by it, too; mighty nice tastin’ water, Mas’ Wayne; an’
some trees an’ no one to ask you no questions, an’ everythin’!”
“That sounds great, June,” said Wayne eagerly. “How far is it?”
“Must be a good two miles, I reckon. You go down this away and you bear
over yonder-like an’ you follow the railroad right straight till you
come to it.”
“It must be near where we got put off the train the other night,” said
Wayne.
“No, sir, ’tain’, it’s in the other direction; other side of town.”
“Oh, that’s right. Well, now look here, June. We’ve got thirty cents
left and that’s enough to keep us going until tomorrow, and I’m pretty
sure to get that job in the morning. Why don’t we go out there now and
have a look at the place?”
“Yes, sir, that’s what I was thinkin’. We could find some boards,
maybe, an’ fix up them windows, an’ get some wood for a fire----”
“We’d better take that blanket out, though, in case we decided to stay
there, June. There wouldn’t be any use coming back to town, would
there?”
June looked dubious. “How about some supper?” he asked.
“I forgot that. But, look here, if there’s a stove there----”
“Yes, sir! Get us some coffee an’ bread----”
“And cook our own supper!” concluded Wayne triumphantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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