Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town LifeAnderson, Sherwood
General
Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life
Anderson, Sherwood
City and town life -- Fiction; Ohio -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Pastoral fiction
The old woman came back to Winesburg as soon as she got the chance. One
evening as she was coming home from work she found a pocket-book
containing thirty-seven dollars, and that opened the way. The trip was
a great adventure for the boy. It was past seven o’clock at night when
the grandmother came home with the pocket-book held tightly in her old
hands and she was so excited she could scarcely speak. She insisted on
leaving Cincinnati that night, saying that if they stayed until morning
the owner of the money would be sure to find them out and make trouble.
Tom, who was then sixteen years old, had to go trudging off to the
station with the old woman, bearing all of their earthly belongings
done up in a worn-out blanket and slung across his back. By his side
walked the grandmother urging him forward. Her toothless old mouth
twitched nervously, and when Tom grew weary and wanted to put the pack
down at a street crossing, she snatched it up and if he had not
prevented would have slung it across her own back. When they got into
the train and it had run out of the city she was as delighted as a girl
and talked as the boy had never heard her talk before.
All through the night as the train rattled along, the grandmother told
Tom tales of Winesburg and of how he would enjoy his life working in
the fields and shooting wild things in the woods there. She could not
believe that the tiny village of fifty years before had grown into a
thriving town in her absence, and in the morning when the train came to
Winesburg did not want to get off. “It isn’t what I thought. It may be
hard for you here,” she said, and then the train went on its way and
the two stood confused, not knowing where to turn, in the presence of
Albert Longworth, the Winesburg baggage master.
But Tom Foster did get along all right. He was one to get along
anywhere. Mrs. White, the banker’s wife, employed his grandmother to
work in the kitchen and he got a place as stable boy in the banker’s
new brick barn.
In Winesburg servants were hard to get. The woman who wanted help in
her housework employed a “hired girl” who insisted on sitting at the
table with the family. Mrs. White was sick of hired girls and snatched
at the chance to get hold of the old city woman. She furnished a room
for the boy Tom upstairs in the barn. “He can mow the lawn and run
errands when the horses do not need attention,” she explained to her
husband.
Tom Foster was rather small for his age and had a large head covered
with stiff black hair that stood straight up. The hair emphasized the
bigness of his head. His voice was the softest thing imaginable, and he
was himself so gentle and quiet that he slipped into the life of the
town without attracting the least bit of attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account