Halley by Faye Gibbons

Author:Faye Gibbons [Gibbons, Faye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Great Depression, Young Adult fiction, Georgia, Georgia mountains, fundamentalist Christianity, YA fiction, Southern Fiction, Depression-era
ISBN: 9781603063289
Publisher: NewSouth Inc.
Published: 2014-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

11. Gid’s Big News

When Halley returned to the kitchen near dark, Pa Franklin ordered her to continue tufting spreads. She ignored him. Later, in the far room Kate said, “Give in, Halley. We have to get along with Pa—and I’ve got to have some peace. Besides, the Bible says . . .”

“The Bible never said you had to let people walk all over you,” Halley replied. “If you say I have to tuft, I’ll do it, but nobody can make me do it right. And if I don’t do it right, I don’t get paid. If I keep doing it wrong, Mr. Bonner won’t give me any more work, no matter what Pa Franklin says.”

“Pa will punish you,” Kate warned.

“What else can he do to me? I already work all the time. I wash, I iron, I cook, I clean, and I’m not allowed to go to school. He can’t stand to see me read, and if he allowed it, I wouldn’t have time. Now, on top of all else, he stole my money. What else can he do—kill me?”

Kate said no more. For the next few days the problem was delayed by hog killing. Even though several neighbors helped, there was still daylight-to-dark work for Halley. Kate helped each night when she got home from the mill. With instructions from Ma Franklin, who frequently sat in the rocker now, Halley fried the pork trimmings and strained the fat into lard cans. The cracklins left in the straining cloth, she put into jars to save for baking into cornbread and making soap.

Finally, on Friday, the last of the sausage was mixed and fried and packed in a crock and covered with grease. With Ma Franklin giving directions, the hog’s head had been boiled and deboned, mixed with pepper, sage, and savory, and thickened with cornmeal and flour to make souse meat. It was packed into loaf pans and stored in the smokehouse along with the crock of sausage. The shoulders, middlings, and hams were out in the smokehouse too, packed in salt.

“We’re fixed for meat,” Ma Franklin said with satisfaction when it was all finished. “I appreciate all the hard work you done, Halley.”

Halley was astonished, as much for the use of her name as the thanks.

Pa Franklin heard the comment but said nothing. That was fine with Halley. She neither expected or wanted thanks from him. All week while working with the meat Halley had thought of ways to escape. There was none except the solution suggested by Dimple—finding someone willing, and getting married. But even if there was a good match for her out there, how could she go off and leave Robbie? And, although she stayed angry with her mother a good bit of the time, she would feel guilty leaving Kate, too. To get married, she would need someone like Tom Belcher, Bootsie’s new brother-in-law, someone willing to take on an entire family. Only an old man like Tom would be willing to do that.

Late in

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