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Show page 174 at table u n t i l a l l had finished eating. When Annie did finish she sat s t r a i g h t e r in her chair, pulled at the collar of her dress, with one greasy hand stroked Holder's arm. "You sleepy, Ben?" "Yes, Mrs. Griffin." "Then you go on, Ben, and get your r e s t . I'm so peaceful I ' l l s i t here axvhile longer." She smiled blearily, toed an empty gin bottle nearer the center leg of the table. In his room Holder went to bed immediately. Through the wall he could hear Annie moving about. Once she came to his door, "Sleep t i g h t , Ben, sleep t i g h t ." Holder, in the strange house, with the t i g h t , inscrutable, nervous woman, f e l l asleep trying to reason something for her s t a b i l i t y . His correspondence courses in psychology seemed very thin indeed. His youth seemed a greater disadvantage. Annie, at the dining table, after putting away the food, stretched the night into i n f i n i t e pain. "God, he's a fine boy. Ben's a Holder a l l r i g h t , and h e ' l l help me watch our melons. He'll help me keep the scamps away." Mrs. Shelton was watching the melons herself, a habit of checking them before r e t i r i n g . They lay three or four feet apart, t h e i r roots covered by smooth-patted mounds of earth weedless and well-manured. Mrs. Shelton looked toward Annie's house. "I must give her one, poor t h i n g , " she said, and returned to her daughters, unaware that Johnny Hawkins and Zack Shumack were on the move. Hawk*m*-*m»l Ghuuaik^were at the end of the alley. |