Part 23 (1/2)
”No, I don't! It's a disgrace to be a old maid! And you better not get a baby 'fore you get married, neither!”
”Well, well, you don't say. In that case, it looks to me like a girl's got little choice. 'Bout all she can do is avoid the extremes and keep her eye on the altar!”
”What does that mean?”
”Means we'd better have another tune. Or, maybe you'll dance some for us. How 'bout that?”
”I can't dance.”
”How come?”
”I don't know how. 'Sides, it's a bad sin!”
”Who told you that, Bandershanks?”
”I just been knowing it.”
”Why, Jim-Bo,” Hi said, ”it ain't been six months since Brother Milligan preached a whole sermon on dancing!”
”Oh, yeah. I remember that sermon, now.”
”I bet you remember it! You probably weren't listening to one word he said!”
”I was, too! I can tell you his very words!”
Jim-Bo let me slide from his knee so he could stand up. He began talking, and he tilted his head to one side and reared back, waving his arms and shaking his fists-just like Brother Milligan when he was up on the pulpit stand.
”My good people of Drake Eye Springs,” he shouted out, his voice cracking and trembling, ”I warn you, dancing is a sin! Some would seek to justify it on the grounds that it is a graceful movement of the body. But I say to you: graceful movements can lead you down the road to d.a.m.nation! My good people, both brethren and sistern, as surely as I stand here in this pulpit today, and as surely as my name is Josiah B. Milligan, dancing is a sin of the first water! It is nothing in G.o.d's world but artificial arm and leg crossing, invented by Old Split-Foot himself!”
”Boys, boys! Y'all oughtn't say things to confuse your little cousin. Hon, don't you worry. Sins change. Maybe when you get big enough to really dance, it will be a fine thing to do. Back when I was a young girl, it was a sin to read a novel. I don't know, though, whether I ought to mention that, 'specially since your mama and I read one once!”
”What about some more music?” Jim-Bo asked.
”No, it's late. Bandershanks, we've got to get you off to bed. Thank the musicians and this self-appointed 'hat man' for a wonderful concert!”
”Y'all, much obliged for the concert.”
Jim-Bo just grinned at me. Then he put one hand behind his back and bowed low. ”The pleasure was all ours, Lady Bandershanks!”
Sat.u.r.day when I got home, Shoogie was waiting for me. So was Mama. The first thing Mama said was, ”My, my, we've been missing you!”
The first thing Shoogie said was, ”Bandershanks, let's go pick us some goobers!”
”Yeah! Mama, can we?”
”I suppose so. I'd rather for y'all to be eating peanuts in the hayloft than playing outdoors in this wind. It turned cold this evening.”
We ate some peanuts and stuffed more in our pockets. Shoogie said they'd taste a sight better if we made a fire and roasted them in the ashes.
”Come on, Bandershanks. I's got plenty o' matches.”
”Where we gonna cook them?”