OCR Text |
Show page 214 Hutch downed three buttered b i s c u i t s , a thick slice of steak and a l l the trimmings, including two of Songster's green onions. Miss L i l l i e peered down the length of the long table and asked, "Did Songster McClain agree to take the bird?" Hutch jumped up to wait on her. "Give me your coffee cup, Miss L i l l i e , I ' l l touch your coffee." He did t h i s and placed a sample of plum j e l l y before her. Miss L i l l i e continued, "You can judge Willie Earl, but not that parrot. They haven't caught Willie. Grandpa should be living now. I speak of the time the rebel Indian killed the schoolteacher down near the creek. Grandpa tracked him seventy miles, brought him back for t r i a l . The Indian got several years, eventually was paroled. Schoolteachers xvere more valuable then than they are today." Miss L i l l i e fingered the brooch that she wore with her white, opencollared s h i r t s . She sat s t i f f l y at her end of the table,waited for Hutch to answer. Her bunned hair, streaky gray, accentuated her c l a s s i c a l face and her authority. "Willie Earl - a l l of us - must t r y to live j u s t l y , " she said. Miss L i l l i e was not convinced that her competent cook did not need daily reminders of the moral structure of l i f e ; she had acquired Hutch from t h e sheriff of adjoining Wilcox ccunty, a county where Hutch had served as j a i l cook while completing a five-year sentence for manslaughter. Willie Earl had been the best all-round farm hand Miss L i l l ie ever had, but she had not been able to t o l e r a t e him at t a b l e . He would bath infrequently and many times while eating would scratch b i s ^ d y in the moSTT^utlandish places, his crotch, under his |