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Show 151 after which all the spirit left him suddenly. He could hardly pick up his feet, and his head hung wearily. The first remark was on the occasion of our meeting, at a chicken wake in some abandoned farmhouse. Tommy must have thought he had stepped into Tobacco Road. Mary and I had found a bottle of cake-coloring, which we generously used while the boys were out stealing chickens. It was the most awful party we ever had; the stove was drafty, we had only kerosene lights, there were no biscuits, and the chickens never did get past the raw stage. I looked so much like a "chippy", a new word for me, that Tommy was horrified, fascinated, compulsively moved to save my soul or my dignity. I recognized it later as the Pyg-malian theme, only Tommy was a much more beautiful character than Rex Harrison as the Professor. I am afraid I appeared as gauche to him as the Fair Lady. Unravelling my character had to be a constant delight to him, starting at bottom as it had. We had to look little less than savage to him. Wild and Woolly Westerners, lunatic asylum Mormons. He went to church with us and was astonished at our lack of reverence, particularly as the Owens trained magpie hopped upon the sacrament table and helped itself to the water while our heads were bowed in prayer, quoting "Hello, Delwin. Hello! Hello! " when it was shooed off. "Hold on, now! " he remonstrated when I flippantly said: "I like my church all except that stupid polygamy, " and went on: "Your church needed a quick population at that time. Polygamy was the answer. You must remember it was not against the law at that time. " |