Part 1 (2/2)

Mrs. Martin was a comparative newcomer to the town; she had married into the newspaper and sandwich shop from a neighboring farm, and had stayed on after her husband's death. She served bottled soft drinks, and fried egg and onion sandwiches on thick bread, which she made on her own stove at the back of the store. Occasionally when Mrs. Martin served a sandwich it would carry with it the rich fragrance of the stew or the pork chops cooking alongside for Mrs. Martin's dinner.

”I don't guess anyone's ever stayed out there so long before,” Mrs. Martin said. ”Not after Labor Day, anyway.”

”I guess Labor Day is when they usually leave,” Mr. Hall, the Allisons' nearest neighbor, told them later, in front of Mr. Babc.o.c.k's store, where the Allisons were getting into their car to go home. ”Surprised you're staying on.”

”It seemed a shame to go so soon,” Mrs. Allison said. Mr. Hall lived three miles away; he supplied the Allisons with b.u.t.ter and eggs, and occasionally, from the top of their hill, the Allisons could see the lights in his house in the early evening before the Halls went to bed.

”They usually leave Labor Day,” Mr. Hall said.

The ride home was long and rough; it was beginning to get dark, and Mr. Allison had to drive very carefully over the dirt road by the lake. Mrs. Allison lay back against the seat, pleasantly relaxed after a day of what seemed whirlwind shopping compared with their day-to-day existence; the new gla.s.s baking dishes lurked agreeably in her mind, and the half bushel of red eating apples, and the package of colored thumbtacks with which she was going to put up new shelf edging in the kitchen. ”Good to get home,” she said softly as they came in sight of their cottage, silhouetted above them against the sky.

”Glad we decided to stay on,” Mr. Allison agreed.

Mrs. Allison spent the next morning lovingly was.h.i.+ng her baking dishes, although in his innocence Charley Walpole had neglected to notice the chip in the edge of one; she decided, wastefully, to use some of the red eating apples in a pie for dinner, and, while the pie was in the oven and Mr. Allison was down getting the mail, she sat out on the little lawn the Allisons had made at the top of the hill, and watched the changing lights on the lake, alternating gray and blue as clouds moved quickly across the sun.

Mr. Allison came back a little out of sorts; it always irritated him to walk the mile to the mail box on the state road and come back with nothing, even though he a.s.sumed that the walk was good for his health. This morning there was nothing but a circular from a New York department store, and their New York paper, which arrived erratically by mail from one to four days later than it should, so that some days the Allisons might have three papers and frequently none. Mrs. Allison, although she shared with her husband the annoyance of not having mail when they so antic.i.p.ated it, pored affectionately over the department store circular, and made a mental note to drop in at the store when she finally went back to New York, and check on the sale of wool blankets; it was hard to find good ones in pretty colors nowadays. She debated saving the circular to remind herself, but after thinking about getting up and getting into the cottage to put it away safely somewhere, she dropped it into the gra.s.s beside her chair and lay back, her eyes half closed.

”Looks like we might have some rain,” Mr. Allison said, squinting at the sky.

”Good for the crops,” Mrs. Allison said laconically, and they both laughed.

The kerosene man came the next morning while Mr. Allison was down getting the mail; they were getting low on kerosene and Mrs. Allison greeted the man warmly; he sold kerosene and ice, and, during the summer, hauled garbage away for the summer people. A garbage man was only necessary for improvident city folk; country people had no garbage.

”I'm glad to see you,” Mrs. Allison told him. ”We were getting pretty low.”

The kerosene man, whose name Mrs. Allison had never learned, used a hose attachment to fill the twenty-gallon tan which supplied light and heat and cooking facilities for the Allisons; but today, instead of swinging down from his true and unhooking the hose from where it coiled affectionately around the cab of the truck, the man stared uncomfortably i Mrs. Allison, his truck motor still going.

”Thought you folks'd be leaving,” he said.

”We're staying on another month,” Mrs. Allison said brightly. ”The weather was so nice, and it seemed like -”

”That's what they told me,” the man said. ”Can't give you no oil, though.”

”What do you mean?” Mrs. Allison raised her eyebrows. ”We're just going to keep on with our regular -”

”After Labor Day,” the man said. ”I don't get so much oil myself after Labor Day.”

Mrs. Allison reminded herself, as she had frequently to d when in disagreement with her neighbors, that city manners were no good with country people; you could not expect to overrule a country employee as you could a city worker, an Mrs. Allison smiled engagingly as she said, ”But can't you get extra oil, at least while we stay?”

”You see,” the man said. He tapped his finger exasperatingly against the car wheel as he spoke. ”You see,” he said slowly, ”I order this oil. I order it down from maybe fifty, fifty-five mile away. I order back in June, how much I'll need for the summer. Then I order again . . . oh, about November. Round about now it's starting to get pretty short.” As though the subject were closed, he stopped tapping his finger and tightened his hands on the wheel in preparation for departure.

”But can't you give us _some_?” Mrs. Allison said. ”Isn't there anyone else?”

”Don't know as you could get oil anywheres else right now, the man said consideringly. ”_I_ can't give you none.” Before Mrs. Allison could speak, the truck began to move; then it stopped for a minute and he looked at her through the back window of the cab. ”Ice?” he called. ”I could let you have some ice.”

Mrs. Allison shook her head; they were not terribly low on ice, and she was angry. She ran a few steps to catch up with the truck, calling, ”Will you try to get us some? Next week?”

”Don't see's I can,” the man said. ”After Labor Day, it's harder.” The truck drove away, and Mrs. Allison, only comforted by the thought that she could probably get kerosene from Mr. Babc.o.c.k or, at worst, the Halls, watched it go with anger. ”Next summer,” she told herself. ”Just let _him_ try coming around next summer!”

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