Grey Zane by 1926 Under the Tonto Rim by Zane Grey

Author:1926 Under the Tonto Rim, by Zane Grey [1926 Under the Tonto Rim, by Zane Grey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-11-26T06:02:57+00:00

Chapter IX

“Wal, didn’t you all invite yourselves to pick beans?” drawled Edd, coming out at the head of a procession of big and little Denmeades.

“Wal, we shore did aboot that,” drawled Lucy, mimicking him. “Don’t you see I’m rigged out to chase beans, bears, or bees?”

“Which reminds me you haven’t gone wild-bee buntin’ yet,” said he reflectively.

“Humph! I’d have to invite myself again to that, also,” declared Lucy.

“Honest, soon as the beans are picked I’ll take you. An’ I’ve lined a new tree. Must have a lot of honey.”

Mrs. Denmeade called out: “Make him stick to that, Miss Lucy. He’s shore awful stingy about takin’ anyone bee huntin’.”

“Come, Clara,” called Lucy into the tent. “We’re farmers to-day. Fetch my gloves.”

When Clara appeared the children, Liz and Lize, made a rush for her and went romping along, one on each side of her, down the trail ahead of the procession. Lucy fell in beside Edd, and she was thinking, as she watched Clara adapting herself to the light steps of the youngsters, that the improvement in her sister was almost too good to be true. Yet the time since Clara had arrived at the Denmeades’, measured by the sweetness and strength of emotion it had engendered, seemed very much longer than its actual duration of a few weeks.

“Wal, teacher, summer’s about over,” Edd was saying. “An’ soon the fall dances will begin.”

“Indeed? What a pity you can’t go!” exclaimed Lucy tantalisingly.

“Why can’t I?”

“Because you vowed you had enough after taking me that time.”

“Wal, reckon I did. But shore I could change my mind—same as you.”

“Am I changeable?…I was only teasing, Edd. I got a hunch that you’re going to ask me again.”

“Correct. You’re a smart scholar. How do you feel about goin’?”

“Shall I refuse, so you can indulge your—your wild-bee hunter proclivities and pack me down on your horse?” queried Lucy demurely.

“Sometimes I don’t savvy you,” he said dubiously. “Reckon all girls have a little Sadie Perdue in them.”

“Yes, they have, Edd, I’m ashamed to confess,” replied Lucy frankly. “I’d like to go with you. But of course that’ll depend on Clara. To be sure, she’s getting well, wonderful! It makes me happy. Still, she’s far from strong enough for one of your dances.”

“Joe asked her, an’ she said she’d go if you went, too. I reckon she meant with me.”

“Edd, you’re learning from Sam Johnson.”

“Nope, not me. I’d choke before I’d copy that honey bee.”

“So Joe asked her?…Well!” murmured Lucy thoughtfully.

“Reckon she likes him, Lucy.”

“Oh, I hope—I know she does. But, Edd—”

“Wal, I get your hunch,” he interrupted. “You think maybe she oughtn’t go with Joe because it’ll only make him worse.”

“Worse?” queried Lucy, turning to eye Edd.

“Yes, worse. But, Lucy, I reckon it couldn’t be worse. Joe thinks of Clara by day an’ dreams of her by night. He’s been that way since the day she came to us.”

“Edd, you’re pretty sharp. I imagined no one but me had seen that. I’m sure Clara hasn’t…It’s a problem, Edd. But I knew it’d come.

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