| Old Ike Cummings had the general store then, and for a while we had a feller barbered hair, but he didn't last long, moved on some'er elseAnd then," with a slow evaluating wink, "they was a town whoor used to do business in the county
And of course when Cyrus Cummings (named after the older McCormick) went to New York on those banking trips, he didn't waste his time"I tell you," the people will say, "they had to bring that factory hereCy Cummings didn't give his help to McKinley for nothing back in 'ninety-six; he's a Yankee traderHe might not a had much of a bank in those days but when he called in all the farmer debts the week before election this here became a McKinley countyCy is even smarter than old Ike, an' you remember when Ike had the general store nobody traded him a horse with a canker And the old man on the vanishing cracker barrel fluffs some spittle into his corded stale handkerchief"Course," with a grin, "I ain't chanel handbags shop online sayin' that anyone in town loves Cy more than is proper, but the town (with another grin) "I mean, the city, sure as hell owes him a lot, be it in gratitude or hard dollar bills
The town is set in the middle of the great American plainThere are a few knolls or rills bordering it, one of the insignificant accidents of land in the long flat face of the Midwest, and you can find quite a few trees on the lee side of the railroad tracksThe streets are broad and the elm and oak bloom in summer, soften the harsh crabbed outlines of the Queen Anne houses, throw interesting shadows into the angles of the gable windows and truncated dormer roofsCenter Street has only a few buildings left with false fa?ades, and there are lots of stores now, so many farmers in town on Saturday afternoons that they are beginning to pave it with cobblestones so the horses won't bog in the mud
For the richest man in town, Cy Cummings's house is not too balenciaga replica handbags differentThe Cummingses built it thirty years ago at a time when it stood all alone on the edge of town and you walked to your thighs in mud to reach it in early fall and springBut the town has encompassed it now and there is not much Cy Cummings can do in the way of improvements
The worst of the changes you can blame on his wifeThe folks who know them say it's her fault, a fancy eastern woman with CultureCy's a hard man, but he isn't a fancy one, and that new front door with all the windowpanes on the bias is something FrenchShe's mentioned the name at church meeting, Newvelle somethingAnd Cy Cummings has even turned High Episcopal for her, was instrumental in getting the 'Piscopal church built
Odd family, people will tell you, funny kids
In the parlor with the portraits on the wall, the brown murky landscapes in golden scalloped frames, the dark draperies, the brown furniture, the fireplace -- in the parlor the family is prada bags sales sitting around
That feller Debs is making trouble again, Cy Cummings says(A sharp-featured face with a partially bald head, silver-rimmed glasses
Yes, dear? The wife turns to her sewing, embroiders another golden stitch on the buttocks of the Cupid in the center of the doily(A pretty woman, flutters a little, with the long dress, the impressive bosom of the period Well, why does he make trouble?
Aaahr, Cy snorts, the basic disgust for a woman's remark
Hang 'em, Ike Cummings says, with the old man's quaverIn the war (the Civil War) we use to take 'em up, set 'em on a mare, and spank her rump, and watch them kick their heels a little
Cy rustles his paperDon't need to hang 'emHe looks at his hands, laughs dourlyEdward go to sleep yet?
She looks up, answers quickly, nervously, I think so, that is he said he wasHe and Matthew said they were going to sleep(Matthew Arnold Cummings is the younger one
In the boys' bedroom, Matthew is chanel j10 watch fake asleep, and Edward, age seven, is sitting in a corner, sewing snips of thread into a scrap of cloth
The father steps toward him, throws his shadow across the boy's faceWhat are you doing, boy?
The child looks up petrifiedAnd the scraps, the thread, are hurled into the wastebasket
He hears the argument raging about him, conducted in hoarse passionate whispers as a sop to his sleeping brotherI won't have him actin' like a goddam woman, you're to stop feedin' him all these books, all this womanish(The baseball bat and glove are gathering dust in the atticI didn't tell him a thing
You didn't tell him to sew?
Please, Cyrus, let him aloneThe slap reddens his cheek from the ear to the mouthThe boy sits on the floor, the tears dropping on his lap
And you're to act like a man from now on, do you understand?
Only when they have gone, too many things twist in his comprehensionThe mother had given him the thread, told him to do it cheap replica rolex qui |
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