Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry

Author:Wendell Berry [Berry, Wendell]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Published: 2010-05-24T14:00:00+00:00

After the fire Uncle Burley quit leaving home on the weekends. He could be free with his own troubles but not with Daddy’s. He did his best to be agreeable; and with the loss of the barn to worry about, everybody seemed to have forgotten how he’d misbehaved on the Fourth of July.

One day he carried the red frog to Big Ellis’s house and asked Annie May to accept it as a gift from a friend. There was nothing she could do but take it and thank him.

Several weeks went by before we cleaned up the ruins of the barn. The black pile of ruck and cinders was too dismal. Daddy hated the sight of it; and I knew it was hard for him to think of cleaning it up, as if that would only finish what the fire had begun. After the swiftness of the fire I felt the ashes would stay forever.

But finally one Friday morning all of us went to work and hauled away the leavings. Once we’d got beyond our dread of the job we were anxious to be rid of every trace of the fire.

Brother stayed mad at me for what I’d said to him in town the night the barn burned. I’d been in the wrong, and he never gave me a chance to forget it.

On the Saturday night after we’d cleared away the remainders of the old barn Calvin came over to our house. I hadn’t seen him since he’d slipped away from me in town, and I didn’t care if I never saw him again. But when I went out of the house that night, after we’d finished supper and Brother had left for town, Calvin was coming across the yard.

He grinned at me, sucking on a peppermint stick. “What’re you doing?”

I didn’t go to meet him. “I’m standing here looking at you,” I said.

He came on across the yard and sat down. I walked away toward the barn, and he got up again and followed me.

“Want some candy?” he asked.

“No thanks.”

“Let’s do something.”

He trailed along behind me. I heard him close the sack and put it back in his pocket.

“I’m walking out to the barn,” I said, “and I don’t need your help.”

“Let’s go down to the river and talk to Uncle Burley for a while,” he said, mocking the way I’d said it to Brother.

I turned on him and he dodged. I waited until he looked at me, and then I grinned. “Give me a stick of candy,” I said.

He held the sack out and I helped myself.

“Let’s go and see how Brother’s getting along with his courting,” I said.

He looked away. “We’d better not do that.”

“Come on,” I told him.

I started toward the road. He stood there a minute and then hurried after me. When we got to the road he caught up and walked beside me into town.

Brother and his girl were drinking Cokes at one of the tables in the back of the drugstore. We stood in front and watched them through the window until they got up and started out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.