The town by Richter Conrad 1890-1968

Author:Richter, Conrad, 1890-1968
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction in English
Publisher: London : Corgi Books
Published: 1976-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

own father. She hadn't seen him for thirty-five years and now he was running off without his supper.

"Well, when are you coming back?" she asked. r "Oh, I'll be back some time to see you. I expect to stay around."

"Well, if there's no stopping you, Chancey can run along and show you where Genny lives. I hope you tell her how you put me out by not staying."

Chancey put his coat and cap back on, and Sayward went around to the front window to see them go. She hated her father going off like this, but if he wouldn't do a thing, you couldn't make him. She recollected how when her mother used to try, his eyes would get that sunken look, he'd pick up his rifle and that would be the last they'd see of him for a couple of days.

Seldom did Genny's tongue run faster than next time she came over. Wasn't Sayward struck in a heap when she saw that old man at the door? Who'd a thought their father still among the living! And the contrary old mule was still like always. He ate his supper with her and Will, but do you reckon he'd stay the night? No, he claimed he slept out all his life, and that wasn't true because he used to sleep in the cabin, didn't he? Anyway he asked Will if he didn't have a place in the boat yard he could stay in, and when Will said he had a shanty the men used. Worth had to move right out. He wouldn't even sleep a single night in one of her beds. What would people think, their father coming back like this and living out in an old boat yard shanty? They'd think he wasn't good enough for his own daughters and that she and Sayward had turned him out.

"He run off from us young ones and let us raise ourselves," Genny complained. "He stayed off thirty-five years. Now that we amount to a little something in this world, he comes back to disgrace us."

"I wouldn't say that, Genny," Saj^ward said mildly.

"He came back ragged and dirty, didn't he? He told who

he was in front of the whole town. Why, he never used to

( look that bad in the woods with nobody to see him. I mind

I how he used to get you to shave him just to go over to

Hough's trading post in Shawaneetown."

"We have to recollect he's a mighty old man," Sayward mentioned.

"He's not too old to have a woman," Genny flared. "Barney Grice told Will he knew Pap down in Memphis last fall but he didn't know he was any relation to us. Barney said Pap had a woman they called Old Profanity. They lived together on the water front. Barney doesn't know if she's along

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