A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton - Michael R. Phillips [44]
“Mr. Rabbit ain’t sayin’ nuthin.’ Mr. Fox sorter lick his chops, but he went on walkin’ en lef ’ Mr. Rabbit layin’ in de road.
“But dreckly he wuz outer sight, Mr. Rabbit, he jump up, he did, en he run thoo de woods en git ahead er Mr. Fox agin. Mr. Fox, he come up on da road, en dar lay Mr. Rabbit, ’parently all col’ en stiff jes’ like befo’. En Mr. Fox, he look at Mr. Rabbit, en he sorter study da situation a mite more, en he thinks ’bout all deze dead rabbits all roun’ all er sudden.
“After while, he onslung his game bag en say ter hisse’f, sezee, ‘Deze yer rabbits gwine ter was’e. Dat don’ seem right ter me. I’ll jes’ leave my game bag yer, en I’ll go back’n git dat udder rabbit, en I’ll come back yer en git this yer rabbit, en I’ll make folks b’leeve dat I’m ole man Hunter from Huntsville baggin’ all deze yer rabbits,’ sezee.
“En wid dat he drapt his game en loped back up de road atter de udder rabbit. En when he got outer sight, ole Mr. Rabbit, he jump up en snatch up Mr. Fox game bag en head off fer home.
“Nex’ time he see Mr. Fox, he holler out, ‘What you kill de udder day, Mr. Fox?’ sezee.
“Den Mr. Fox, he sorter comb his flank wid his tongue, en holler back, ‘I kotch a han’ful er hard sense, Mr. Rabbit,’ sezee.
“Den old Mr. Rabbit, he laff, he did, en up en answer ’im, sezee, ‘Ef I’da know’d you wuz atter dat, Mr. Fox, I’da loant you some er mine.’ ”
I looked over at Katie. Aleta was asleep and Katie had a smile on her face. It almost felt like having a family again.
After that, we started having stories together almost every night. Either I would tell one myself, or Katie would read us all something out of one of her storybooks.
WASHDAY
24
BECAUSE OF ALETA BEING THERE, KATIE’D BEEN occupied with her all day. I could see that it was tiring Katie out having a little girl dog her steps every minute. Some of our chores were falling behind too.
“I reckon we oughta be doing a wash soon, Miss Katie,” I said one day. It was a hot day early in June. “The aprons and drying cloths are getting a mite greasy.”
“I was thinking just last night,” said Katie, “how nice it would be to have clean sheets on the bed again. Shall we wash today?”
I saw Aleta look back and forth between Katie and me at the idea of Katie asking me what to do. But she didn’t say anything.
“An’ William’s diapers,” put in Emma. “I’m about out ob da ones I washed afore, an’ dey’s getting too ripe even fo his own mama’s nose!”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Then I think we oughta get everything ready today,” I said, “and do the wash tomorrow. It’ll take a good long while to get the water hot enough. We’ll have to start in the morning.”
“Aleta,” said Katie, “you and I will go through the house today and gather up everything, our clothes and the bedcoverings, and the kitchen things.”
“And I’ll bring wood and set the fire outside,” I said. “But I’ll need the rest of you to help lift the tub over the fire pit.”
“I kin help, Miz Mayme,” said Emma eagerly.
“We’ll all lift it together,” I said, though when the time came Aleta didn’t do much. The three of us managed to get it onto the iron stand, though how much weight Emma lifted was doubtful too.
By the end of that day we had everything all ready and a nice big fire set in the pit with the washing tub in place on the rack over it. There was a wooden washing platform to keep the washing area from getting muddy, with the fire pit on one side of it and a metal frame where the tub sat. So the fire burned under part of the tub without setting the platform on fire, and we stood on the other side to do the wash. A second tub—the rinse tub—had its own pump and sat on another wooden platform near the clotheslines.
We filled the main washtub with water that we carried in buckets from the pump. Then all that was needed was to light the fire and wait till the water got hot enough to get the clothes clean.
I was the first one up the next morning, like I usually was. I got up and went downstairs, thinking that I’d get the fire