Part 23 (1/2)

I changed the subject, anxious to check on Miss Duncan's accuracy I asked the man,

”How far is it to Rotan?”

”Three-and-a-half miles”

”Do you happen to knohere that little o?”

”Yep, she was down in the back of the pasture”

”Which way does your pasture run fro is your pasture; how far is it to the back side?”

”A half-mile”

”Do you remember if the mare was near the railroad fence, or out in the other side of the pasture?”

”Yep, she was agin the railroad But why all these questions?”

Then I told him the whole story-the cattle drive, the lack of a rope to tie the ra it he said,

”That's right, she was three ot the mare back and ere happy about that Now there is still the question as to why s we needed He had a simple answer: He didn't want to No further explanation, no apology, no feeling of guilt, no regrets-just simply didn't want to

CHAPTER 16

AT ROYSTON UNTIL WORLD WAR II

During the 17 years we lived on the farood, and soood

Wes Kennedy and his family lived about a s that had the bad habit of chasing autos chased the fae cars which passed by along the road Wes tried every way he knew to break the dogs from the bad habit, but every effort had failed

Now the story goes that one ested that he tie a burlap bag to the spokes of his front wheels As the dogs snapped at the wheels, they were supposed to get their teeth caught in the burlap, this would hurt their teeth and break the cars

They say Wes was anxious to try it, so he tied a potato sack to one front wheel and drove right on ho and snapping at the turning wheels, and the sche sack never chased another car as long as he lived-which was about five seconds You see, dogs with broken necks seldos and that was enough for the whole fairls, a lot of little ones and at least one big one-a girl I was told that there was a difference of opinion as to just how big the girl really was Wes thought of her as just a little girl, but she thought she was big enough to go with the boys And her reed with the girl Since her dad objected so vigorously, the girl, with the aid of her ned to satisfy the girl and yet not be too painful to her father, especially since he was not to knoas taking place Anyway, the way I heard it, the kids were hoeing cotton one particular afternoon-who kno irl more or less would hardly be noticed by a father as often busy at so cotton

The cotton rows butted up against a county road about a half- the road ditch was a perfect place for the girl to hide a paper bag full of her clean clothes And after sundoas a perfect ti of clothes So, when the other kids put down their hoes for the night, Wes didn't count kids and didn't notice that the big girl wasShe had hoed to the far end of the rows and had not returned with the others on that last round after sundown

Meanwhile, the girl's prince char didn't carry her away on his white steed, but rather in his black Model A Ford She kept her date with her boy and then spent the night with her girl friend Next ain in her work clothes, picked up her hoe at the far end of the cotton rows and joined her brothers and sisters in the field on their first round of hoeing No one ever told her dad about the incident, so he lived happily ever after

In those days, when I wasn't too busy fars I did road work for Fisher County quite a fewcaliche in the county truck to fill in holes in the road by a bridge When I was hauling my last load for the day, I was not in any particular hurry, so I stopped by et a lot of experience at a lot of different things, as I had done when I was a boy I didn't want thenorance There were tirow up at all Well this was one of those occasions I was glad I