God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell Read Free Book Online

position she was in, she could get a better view of the road, and she watched for the first sign of Darling Jill’s returning home.
    Pluto sat alone on the steps mumbling something to himself. He no longer raised his voice high enough for her to hear what he was saying. He was thinking of what Ty Ty Walden would say and do if he could not find the albino. He was beginning to feel sorry that he had ever mentioned the albino in the first place. He knew then that he should have kept his mouth shut about something he was not certain of.
    Griselda stood up and looked down the road.
    “Is that your car, Pluto?” she asked, pointing over his head towards the cloud of red dust rising from the road. “It looks like Darling Jill driving it, anyway.”
    Pluto got to his feet with effort. He stood up and took several steps in that direction. He waited beside the sycamore stump while the automobile came closer. It was making a lot of noise, but it did look like his car. He wondered why it was making so much noise. He had never noticed it when he drove.
    “Yes,” Griselda said. “That’s Darling Jill, Pluto. Can’t you recognize your own automobile?”
    Darling Jill turned into the yard without slackening speed. The heavy sedan skidded a distance of ten or twelve feet, coming to an abrupt stop turned half-way around in the yard. One of the rear tires was as flat as a board, and the innertube, which was hanging from the rim, had been chewed all to pieces. Pluto looked at the tire with a feeling of great fatigue coming over him.
    Pluto heard Griselda coming down the steps behind him and he moved out of her way a little.
    “You had a puncture, Pluto,” Darling Jill said. “See it?”
    Pluto tried to say something, and he found that it was difficult to pull his tongue loose from the roof of his mouth. When it finally came loose, it fell between his lips and hung on the outside.
    “What’s the matter with you?” she asked, jumping out to the ground. “Can’t you see it? You’re not blind, are you?”
    “Who had a puncture?” Pluto managed to ask. He realized how weak his voice was only after he had spoken. “Who?”
    “You did, you big horse’s ass,” Darling Jill said. “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you see anything?”
    Griselda came running up.
    “Hush, Darling Jill,” she said. “Don’t talk like that.”
    As soon as Pluto could recover, he began jacking up the wheel to change the spare on to it. He went about replacing the punctured tire, puffing and blowing, but he did not have a word to say to Darling Jill for rim-cutting a brand new tire and chewing up a new two-dollar innertube. Darling Jill watched him at work a moment, laughed at him, and started to the porch with Griselda.
    “Who’s been eating melons, and didn’t save me some?”
    “There’s plenty left,” Griselda said. “I saved you two large pieces in the kitchen.”
    “What is Pluto Swint doing around here?”
    “Pa wants you to go over to Rosamond and Will’s and bring them back,” Griselda said, quickly remembering Ty Ty’s messages. “Pa and Buck and Shaw have gone to the swamp to catch an albino to divine the lode for them, and he said he needs Rosamond and Will to help dig. Pluto will take you over there right away, and Pa said you and Rosamond and Will can come back tomorrow morning on the first bus. I wish I could go, too.”
    “Come on and go. Why can’t you?”
    “Buck said he might be back by midnight, and I want to be here when he comes home. I’ll go over there some other time. You’d better hurry and dress.”
    “I’ll be ready in a minute,” Darling Jill said. “I’ve got to take a bath first, though. Don’t let Pluto go off and leave me. I’ll be ready in no time. It won’t take me long.”
    “Oh, he’ll wait for you,” Griselda said, following her into the house. “He’ll be here, all right. You couldn’t pry him loose until you’re ready to go with him.”
    She and Darling Jill went into the