The Treasure of Way Down Deep by Ruth White

Author:Ruth White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

3

Ruby had met Grandma for the first time this past summer and had stayed with her on Yonder Mountain. While there, she had told Grandma stories not only about Jethro, her best friend Peter, and her other young friends but also about the folks living at The Roost and elsewhere in Way Down. Grandma had started to daydream, like a young girl, of living in that boardinghouse in that town, among those people. She had long ago given up ever having one of her dreams come true, but now here she was, and it was as good as she had imagined. Grandma had been living at The Roost for almost a month, and it had been the most excellent month of her life. She had never before had so much fun chatting and laughing with others.

Each morning she rose with the singing birds and scuttled down the stairs to help Miss Arbutus and Lucy Elkins fix breakfast. At one time, Ruby had been the only assistant in the kitchen. Now it seemed Miss Arbutus had more helpers than she really needed, but it was a nice break for Ruby. She was able to spend extra time preparing herself and Rita for school.

Grandma loved eating her meals around the big oak table with the other guests. After breakfast she would go out to the roomy wraparound porch, sit in one of the white rocking chairs, and holler out greetings to people as they walked by. Everybody in town was friendly to her. Some even stopped to talk. They all knew who she was, and by this time they knew her life story. They also knew that every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon Grandma walked down to the library where Mrs. Gentry, formerly Miss Worly, was teaching her to read and write, because in Grandma’s day country girls were not properly educated. She had spent her entire life on one mountaintop or another until she had become as mean and ornery as a caged animal. The people in Way Down sympathized with her and admired her metamorphosis into this new and improved personality.

Another permanent guest at The Roost was Mr. A. H. Crawford, who lived on the third floor and was writing a book called A Colorful History of Way Down Deep, West Virginia. He, too, had recently changed into a new creature.

It was well-known that Mr. Crawford used to have the blues and had slept away a good bit of his life, but recently he had been up so early that he had time to go to the kitchen and aggravate the ladies as they prepared breakfast. They were too gracious to tell him to get out of the way, so they pretended he was a walking, talking piece of furniture and went around him.

After breakfast, Mr. Crawford retired to his room to write. When the weather was warm and the windows were open, you could hear his typewriter all up and down Ward Street. The townspeople thought of book writing as a highfalutin occupation that rather tickled their fancy.

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