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Show 63 the farming district is hard to conjecture. He had an automobile of his own make, and Nettie, although she liked the joy ride in it, didn't like "Frenchy", and when she had better prospects she would hide from him and instruct us to lie for her, which we didn't do too well. She had plenty of warning when he was coming, because we could hear the roar of the engine as he cleared the hills between Joseph and Monroe, some five miles distant. Eventually he got the message, I suppose, and took to other fields. Nettie could care less. She had plenty of beaux. Even Uncle Ase fell in love with her, and she teased him unmercifully. "Ase, let's get married, " she said to him. Uncle Ase, who had never even wildly dreamed about getting married, opened his mouth in astonishment. "Let's get married and have Macel for our little girl. " "All right, " agreed Uncle Ase, completely taken in. He went promptly down town to the Sarah Roberts store and bought her a striped sack of candy. He repeated the conversation to all the young fellows in town. He repeated it to himself in his own room, over and over, and we listened outside the window. This new love was the climax in his life. Up to now his main diversion after the chores were done, was to play the piano of an evening, hour after hour, without moving the position of his hands, without rhythm or tune: "Deedle-deedle-deedle, " until Mama said: "Ase, for heaven's sake! " At which he would sigh and go to his room, the little bedroom off the kitchen, where he would sit on the side of the bed in the dark, with |
