Wish You Well(29)

Lord'11 give us rain this year. If not, well, I figger something out."

As Cotton rose to leave, he looked back down the hallway. "Louisa, do you mind if I stop

in and pay my respects to Miss Amanda?"

Louisa thought about this. "Another voice might do her good. And you got a nice way

about you, Cotton. How come you ain't never married?"

"I've yet to find the good woman who could put up with the sorry likes of me."

In Amanda's room, Cotton put down his briefcase and hat and quietly approached the

bed. "Miss Cardinal, I'm Cotton Longfellow. It's a real pleasure to meet you. I feel like I

know you already, for Louisa has read me some of the letters you sent." Amanda of

course moved not one muscle, and Cotton looked over at Louisa.

"I been talking to her. Oz too. But she ain't never say nothing back. Don't never even

wiggle a finger."

"And Lou?" asked Cotton.

Louisa shook her head. "That child's gonna bust one day, all she keep inside."

"Louisa, it might be a good idea to have Travis Barnes from Dickens come up and look at

Amanda."

"Doctors cost money, Cotton."

"Travis owes me a favor. He'll come."

Louisa said quietly, "I thank you."

He looked around the room and noted a Bible on the dresser. "Can I come back?" he

asked. Louisa looked at him curiously. "I thought I might, well, that I might read to her.

Mental stimulation. I've heard of such. There are no guarantees. But if I can do nothing

else well, I can read."

Before Louisa could answer, Cotton looked at Amanda. "It'll be my real privilege to read

to you."



CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AS DAWN BROKE, LOUISA, EUGENE, LOU, AND Oz stood in one of the fields. Hit, the mule,

was harnessed on a singletree to a plow with a turnover blade.

Lou and Oz had already had their milk and cornbread in gravy for breakfast. The food

was good, and filling, but eating by lantern light had already grown old. Oz had gathered

chicken eggs while Lou had milked the two healthy cows under Louisa's watchful eye.

Eugene had split wood, and Lou and Oz had hauled it in for the cook-stove and then

carried buckets of water for the animals. Livestock had been turned out and hay dropped

for them. And now, apparently, the real work was about to begin.

"Got to plow unner this whole field," said Louisa.

Lou sniffed the air. "What's that awful smell?"

Louisa bent down, picked up some earth, and crumbled it between her fingers. "Manure.

Muck the stalls ever fall, drop it here. Makes rich soil even better."

"It stinks," said Lou.

Louisa let the bits of dirt in her hand swirl away in the morning breeze as she stared

pointedly at the girl. "You'll come to love that smell."

Eugene handled the plow while Louisa and the children walked beside him.

'This here's a turnover blade," Louisa said, pointing to the oddly shaped disc of metal.

"You run it down one row, turn mule and plow round, kick the blade over, go down the

row again. Throws up same furrows of dirt on both sides. It kicks up big clods of earth

too. So's after we plow, we drag the field to break up the clods. Then we harrow, makes

the dirt real smooth. Then we use what's called a laid-off plow. Gives you fine rows.

Then we plant."

She had Eugene plow one row to show them how, and then Louisa kicked at the plow.

"You look purty strong, Lou. You want'a give it a go?"

"Sure," she said. "It'll be easy."

Eugene set her up properly, put the guide straps around her waist, handed her the whip,

and then stepped back. Hit apparently summed her up as an easy mark, because he took

off unexpectedly fast. Strong Lou very quickly got a taste of the rich earth.

As Louisa pulled her up and wiped her face, she said, "That old mule had the best of you

this time. Bet it won't next go round."

"I don't want to do this anymore," Lou said, hiding her face with her sleeve, spitting up

chunks of things she didn't want to think about. Her cheeks were red, and tears edged

from under her eyelids.

Louisa knelt in front of her. "First time your daddy tried to plow, he your age. Mule took

him on a ride ended in the crick. Took me the better part of a day to get him and that durn

animal out. Your daddy said the same thing you did. And I decided to let him be about

it."

Lou stopped brushing at her face, her eyes drying up. "And what happened?"

"For two days he wouldn't go near the fields. Or that mule. And men I come out here to

work one morning and there he was."

"And he plowed the whole field?" Oz guessed.

Louisa shook her head. "Mule and your daddy ended up in the hog pen with enough slop