bought this place, and every year I give the church all that comes off that acre of ground. If it’s cotton, I give the church all the money the cotton brings at market. The same with hogs, when I raised them, and about corn, too, when I plant it. That’s God’s little acre, Pluto. I’m proud to divide what little I have with God.”
“What’s growing on it this year?”
“Growing on it? Nothing, Pluto. Nothing but maybe beggar-lice and cockleburs now. I just couldn’t find the time to plant cotton on it this year. Me and the boys and the darkies have been so busy with other things I just had to let God’s little acre lie fallow for the time being.”
Pluto sat up and looked across the field towards the pine woods. There were such great piles of excavated sand and clay heaped over the ground that it was difficult to see much further than a hundred yards without climbing a tree.
“Where’d you say that acre of land was, Ty Ty?”
“Over there near the woods. You won’t be able to see much of it from here.”
“Why did you put it ‘way over there? Ain’t that a sort of out-of-the-way place for it to be, Ty Ty?”
“Well, I’ll tell you, Pluto. It ain’t always been where it is now. I’ve been compelled to shift it around a heap during the past twenty-seven years. When the boys get to discussing where we’ll start digging anew, it seems like it always falls on God’s little acre. I don’t know why that is, either. I’m set against digging on His ground, so I’ve been compelled to shift it around over the farm to keep from digging it up.”
“You ain’t scared of digging on it and striking a lode are you, Ty Ty?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that, but I’d hate to have to see the lode struck on God’s little acre the first thing, and be compelled to turn it all over to the church. That preacher’s getting all he needs like it is. I’d hate something awful to have to give all the gold to him. I couldn’t stand for that, Pluto.”
Ty Ty raised his head and glanced across the field potted with holes. At one place he could see nearly a quarter of a mile away, in a straight line between the mounds of earth. Over there in the newground Black Sam and Uncle Felix were plowing the cotton. Ty Ty always managed to keep an eye on them, because he realized that if they did not raise any cotton and corn, there would be no money and little to eat that fall and winter. The Negroes had to be watched all the time, otherwise they would slip off at the first chance and dig in the holes behind their cabins.
“I’ve got something I’d like to ask you, Ty Ty.”
“Is that what brought you out here in the hot sun?”
“I reckon so. I wanted to ask you.”
“What’s on your mind, Pluto? Go ahead and ask it.”
“Your girl,” Pluto said weakly, swallowing a little tobacco juice accidentally.
“Darling Jill?”
“Sure, that’s why I came.”
“What about her, Pluto?”
Pluto took the chew of tobacco out of his mouth and threw it aside. He coughed a little, trying to get the taste of the yellow tobacco out of his throat.
“I’d like to marry her.”
“You would, Pluto? You mean it?”
“I sure to God would, Ty Ty. I’d go and cut off my right hand to marry her.”
“You’ve taken a liking to her, Pluto?”
“I sure to God have,” he said. “And that’s a fact.”
Ty Ty thought a while, pleased to think that his youngest daughter had attracted a man with serious intentions so early in life.
“No sense in cutting off your hand, Pluto. Just go ahead and marry her when she’s ready for you. I reckon maybe you would consent to let her stay here some and help us dig after you are married, and maybe come yourself and help some. The more we have helping to dig, the quicker we’re going to strike that lode, Pluto. I know you wouldn’t object to digging some, being as how you would be one of the family.”
“I never was one to dig much,” Pluto said. “And that’s a