U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [160]
Labor Day old man Vogel took Jim and his daughter
and Aunt Hartmann out driving in the surrey behind a fine pair of bays that had been left with him to sel and Charley was left to take care of the garage in case some-body came along who wanted gas or oil. Buck and Slim came round and they al talked about how it was Labor Day and wasn't it hel to pay that they weren't going out anywhere. There was a doubleheader out at the Fair
Grounds and lots of other bal games around. The trouble started by Charley showing Buck how to drive the truck, then to show him better he had to crank her up, then before he knew it he was tel ing them held take them for a ride round the block. After they'd ridden round the block he went back and closed up the garage and they went joyriding out towards Minnehaha. Charley said to himself he'd drive very careful y and be home hours before the folks got back, but somehow he found himself speeding down an asphalt boulevard and almost ran into a ponycart ful of little girls that turned in suddenly
-375-from a side road. Then on the way home they were drink-ing sarsaparil a out of the bottles and having a fine time when Buck suddenly said there was a cop on a motorcycle fol owing them. Charley speeded up to get away from the cop, made a turn too sharp and stopped with a crash against a telegraph pole. Buck and Slim beat it as fast as they could run and there was Charley left to face the cop. The cop was a Swede and cursed and swore and bawled him out and said he'd take him to the hoosegow for driv-ing without a license, but Charley found his brother Jim's license under the seat and said his brother had told him to take the car back to the garage after they'd delivered a load of apples out at Minnehaha and the cop let him off and said to drive more careful y another time. The car ran al right except one fender was crumpled up and the steering wheel was a little funny. Charley drove home so slow that the radiator was boiling over when he got back and there was the surrey standing in front of the house and Gus holding the bays by the head and al the family just getting out.
There was nothing he could say. The first thing they saw was the crumpled fender. They al lit into him and Aunt Hartmann yel ed the loudest and old Vogel was purple in the face and they al talked German at him and Hedwig yanked at his coat and slapped his face and they al said Jim 'd have to give him a licking. Charley got sore and said nobody was going to give him a licking and then Jim said he reckoned he'd better go back to Fargo anyway, and Charley went up and packed his suitcase and went off without saying goodby to any of them that eve-ning with his suitcase in one hand and five back numbers of The Argosy under his arm. He had just enough jack saved up to get a ticket to Barnesvil e. After that he had to play hide and seek with the conductor until he dropped off the train at Moorhead. His mother was glad to see him and said he was a good boy to get back in time to
-376-visit with her a little before highschool opened and talked about his being confirmed. Charley didn't say anything about the Ford truck and decided in his mind he wouldn't be confirmed in any damned church. He ate a big break-fast that Lizzie fixed for him and went into his room and lay down on the bed. He wondered if not wanting to be confirmed was the sin against the holy ghost but the thought didn't scare him as much as it used to. He was sleepy from sitting up on the train al night and fel asleep right away. Charley dragged through a couple of years of high-school, making a little money helping round the Moor-head Garage evenings, but he didn't like it home any more after he got back from his trip to the Twin Cities. His mother wouldn't let him work Sundays and nagged him about being confirmed and his sister Esther