A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton Read Free

me a bit, like I might be familiar to him too but he didn’t know why. I let out a breath of air when the door closed. Whoever he was, I didn’t like him!
    As soon as he was gone, I walked forward and took the two packages off the counter and slowly walked toward the door. As I passed by her I saw that Katie’s eyes had gotten all wide again. She looked at me, and I looked at her, but neither of us said a word. I think we were both thinking, We’d better get out of here before anything worse happens!
    A minute later I walked back in and picked up the last of the three packages wrapped in brown paper. Then we left the shop together. I was conscious of Mrs. Hammond’s scowl staring at our backs the whole way out to the street.
    We were both mighty relieved to get up on that buggy and finally start back toward Katie’s home. We felt like laughing, but we couldn’t yet because we were still in town.
    “Hello, Reverend Hall,” said Katie as we passed the church at the edge of town.
    The minister, who was walking toward the church from town with his back toward us, turned and then when he saw who it was, beckoned toward Katie. At first Katie didn’t slow up, intending to keep on going. But he ran toward us and called out, so that Katie had to rein in the horses.
    “Good morning, Kathleen,” said the minister, walking up to the wagon, puffing a little. “I wanted to ask a favor of you—tell your mama to come see me, would you?”
    “Yes, Reverend Hall.”
    “Your father and brothers aren’t home yet?”
    “Uh … no, sir.”
    “Well, some of the men are having a hard time of it when they come home after so long at war. There’s a man on the other side of town who is drinking so much that his wife and daughter are sometimes terrified of him.”
    “My daddy doesn’t drink like that,” said Katie.
    “I’m sure not, Kathleen, and I am glad. But there are other problems too. Men change from war and I just want your mama to be prepared. Tell her to come see me when she can.”
    “Yes, sir,” said Katie, flicking the reins.
    Relieved again to be on our way, eventually the last of the houses disappeared out of sight behind us. What the minister had said sobered Katie for a minute. But pretty soon we both started thinking about Mrs. Hammond again.
    Finally we couldn’t help it. I started to giggle and Katie burst out laughing so hard I thought she was gonna scare the horses into a gallop.
    “That was the beatenest thing I ever saw!” I said.
    “—with Mrs. Hammond. You were acting like a regular grown-up back there in her store, Miss Katie.”
    Katie was still laughing too hard to say anything.
    “One thing for sure, you knocked poor old Mrs. Hammond into a cocked hat!”
    “What about you?” said Katie as she laughed. “Yes’m, Miz Katie,” she said in a gloomy voice, trying to imitate how I’d sounded. Then she started laughing again. “And with that long face and staring down at the ground. You were doing more playacting than I was!”
    “Except for my mistake of calling you Miss Katie! That just about put her on to us.”
    “It didn’t, though.”
    “But did you notice that look on that fellow Henry’s face? He didn’t seem too altogether pleased with your answer after he asked about your mama.”
    “He’s always been nice to me, nicer than just about anyone. But I didn’t really notice Henry too much with his son standing there. I can’t believe it. And to think that they haven’t seen each other in all those years.”
    I didn’t reply. I didn’t know what to say about Henry’s son. But there’s no use denying that I couldn’t help thinking about him for the rest of the day. But Katie’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
    “Do you think that man in the store was looking for Emma?” she asked.
    “I reckon,” I said. “Leastways, that seems likely.”
    “Should we tell her?”
    “That’s up to you, Miss Katie. But it’d likely set her into an almighty panic—as if she isn’t