Across the Fruited Plain

o get clear of this," cried their vis

pa said bluntly. "It took near all we'

pickers in Texas," Daddy said, cradling Sally in one arm whil

ngs, to fly there,

er posts; a few tin dishes were piled in a box cupboard. The children were clean as chi

o peas," she observed. "Forty years

feather beds that I had to let go at fi

hand like a real neighbor. There's this, though--my mister took in a big old auto on a

e will?" Gran

r!" said

leave us scarcely enough t

a place where there's w

d it a big, strong old Reo, with f

a nanny goat. On the ever useful dump the men found a wrecked trailer and they mended it so that it would h

cottonfields. Mrs. King stuck a big box of lunch into t

workers--before," she said soberly. "From now on I aim to. Though I

-dollar automobile was luxury, with its roomy s

, "I never looked to be tourin

the back seat. "Peekan

hile they played tick-tack-toe or guessing games. For meals they stopped where they could milk Carrie and

as always something new to see, especially when they were passing through Louisiana. Daddy said Louisiana was the one state in the country that had parishes instead of counties, and that that was because it had been French in the early days. Almost everything else about it seemed as s

, "was a cow lying in the bayou, with purple water hy

Daddy and Grandpa grew more and more anxious about an angry spat-spat-spat from the

orkers ahead of them and too little left to do. Tractors, it seemed, were

or there was no Center, and it did not seem worth while for them to start to school

mmie and the baby, and Dick and Rose-Ellen picked. Rose-Ellen felt superior, because there were children her age picking into sm

elicately pink. Sometimes a group of Negro pickers would chant in rich voices as they picked. "Da cotton want a-pickin' so ba-ad!" Bu

ight, though, they were glad to

," Grandma

," Grandpa added. "It may be English, bu

ish of Shakespeare's time, likely, that they've used for generations. They

hat the children became acquaint

to. Nobody brushes their teeth down here," when suddenly the girl appeared, a too

toe tapped the time, two brushes popped into two mouths and scru

er little hair-brushes; but them teachers! Them teachers could make 'em fly fast as a sewing machine. We reckoned if th

dma's old cameo done in color, with heavy, loose curls of gold-brown hair. Long evening, visits she and Rose-Ellen had, when they were not too tired from co

Cissy, with a fireplace where Maw had her kettles and where the whole lot of them co

"But Paw could tell purty tales and Maw could sing song-ballads that would make you weep. But they wasn't no good huntin' no

bogs and planted in onions. Whole families coul

to ask the grocer for a nickel's worth of dry onion

t the end of the row she was working, with Tom to watch her. Cissy worked along with

ow." She patted her faded dress, pretty clean,

t care if there wasn't any play or fun at night; she was glad enough to drop down on the floor and go to sleep as soon as she'd had corn

laylocks had quit blooming, there came two young ladies. They came of an evening, and talked to Paw a

But the ladies patted Georgie, the baby then, and held him; and Cissy crept closer and closer, because they smelled so nice. And then they asked Maw if they couldn't take Cis

olhouse to use; and church folks came to paint the walls; and P.W.A. workers made chairs and tables; a

hem in at home, or keeping them at the end of the onion row. That first morning, the teachers gathered up only nine childr

th kits sent by children from the different churches. The kits held tooth brushes, washcloths

hair. But it wasn't colored," she added, re

ve pictures?"

en, but I couldn't re

and didn't tell Cissy that he was go

th a silk scarf across and a picture of Jesus above and a Bible and two candles. They all sang hymns and heard Bible stories and prayed. Oh, yes, Cissy said, back in the mountains they went to meetin'--when there was meetin'--but G

of milk from shiny bottles. The older ones sat down to the table and prayed, and drank milk through stems, and ate carrots and greens

ldren of that church. The tables were trimmed with flowers and frilled paper and the

learned a heap and made pretties they could keep, besides. From the bottom of their clothes-box, Cissy brought a paper-wrapp

didn't have no time to give us young-uns nothing but maybe some Koolade to drink, and a slice of store b

back there?" Ro

tay all winter, and me and Tommie go to school. Because Paw and Maw

pened to

ng, and went all stiff and purple, and we couldn't make out what ailed him. Only that his throat hurt too bad to swallow; so M

rd without her head combed, Georgie in her lap. Maw said she never had ridden so fast. She thought her last-day was come, with the fences streaking past her lickety-split. And when they come to the

er and the doctor cured Georgie up till now he can eat purty good. So that's