Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [34]
“I wouldn’t hurt you none, Dude,” she said, putting her arm around his neck and drawing his arms tighter around her waist. “There ain’t nothing to be scared of. I’m just like your sister, Ellie May, and your Ma. Women don’t scare their menfolks none. You’ll like being married to me, because I know how to treat men fine.”
Ada elbowed her way past Jeeter and Dude. She had not waited to plait her hair when she heard what Bessie wanted. She stood beside Dude and Bessie, with her hair divided over the front of her shoulders, plaiting one side and tying a string around the end, and then beginning on the other braid. She was as excited as Bessie was.
“Bessie,” she said, “you’ll have to make Dude wash his feet every once in a while, because if you don’t he’ll dirty-up your quilts. Sometimes he don’t wash himself all winter long, and the quilts get that dirty you don’t know how to go about the cleaning of them. Dude is just careless like his Pa. I had the hardest time learning him to wear his socks in the bed, because it was the only way I could keep the quilts clean. He would never wash himself. I reckon Dude is just going on the same way his Pa done, so maybe you had better make Dude wear his socks, too.”
Ellie May had come out of the house and was standing behind a chinaberry tree in order to hear and see what was taking place beside the well-stand. The grandmother was in the yard too; she was peering from behind the corner of the house lest any one should see her and make her go away.
“Maybe you and Dude will help get me a stylish dress,” Ada suggested shyly. “You and him know how bad I want a dress of the right length to die in. I’ve long ago give up waiting for Jeeter to get me one. He ain’t going to do it in time.”
All of them stood by the well looking at each other. When Jeeter caught Dude’s eye, Dude hung his head and looked at the ground. He did not know what to think about it. He wanted to get married, but he was afraid of Bessie. She was nearly twenty-five years older than he was.
“Do you know what I’m going to do, Jeeter?” Bessie asked.
“What?” Jeeter said.
“I’m going to buy me a new automobile!”
“A new automobile?”
“A brand-new one. I’m going to Fuller right now and get it.”
“A brand-new one?” Jeeter said unbelievingly. “A sure-enough brand-new automobile?”
Dude’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes glistened.
“What you going to buy it with, Bessie?” Jeeter asked. “Is you got money?”
“I’ve got eight hundred dollars to pay for it with. My former husband left me that money when he died. He had it in insurance, and when he died I got it and put it in the bank in Augusta. I aimed to use it in carrying on the prayer and preaching my former husband used to like so much. I always did want a brand-new automobile.”
“When you going to buy a new automobile?” Jeeter asked.
“Right now—to-day. I’m going over to Fuller and get it right now. Me and Dude’s going to use it to travel all over the country preaching and praying.”
“Can I drive it?” Dude asked.
“That’s what I’m buying it for, Dude. I’m getting it for you to drive us around in when we take a notion to go somewheres.”
“When is you and Dude going to do all this riding around and praying and preaching?” Jeeter said. “Is you going to get married before or after?”
“Right away,” she said. “We’ll walk over to Fuller right now and buy the new automobile, and then ride up to the courthouse and get married.”
“Is you going to get leave of the county to get married?” he asked doubtfully. “Or is you just going to live along without it?”
“I’m going to get the license for marrying,” she said.
“That costs about two dollars,” Jeeter reminded. “Is you got two dollars? Dude ain’t. Dude, he ain’t got nothing.”
“I ain’t asking Dude for one penny of money. I’ll attend to that part myself. I’ve got eight hundred dollars in the bank, and some more besides. I saved my money for something just like this